Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[baletwine]

BCSI **creamed** AH -- now 20.5

Got a gap to fill at 20 or so

Blue Coat profit jumps, but shares fall sharply on outlook

(4:27 PM ET) LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Blue Coat Systems Inc. (BCSI) late Tuesday said its fiscal third-quarter profit surged to top its recently lowered outlook as revenue increased 44%. However, the company's stock fell after it offered an outlook for the current quarter that was below analysts' average estimate. Blue Coat said its third-quarter profit rose to $3 million, or 20 cents a share, from $267,000, or 2 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue for the three-month period to Jan. 31 jumped to $35.5 million from $24.7 million. Excluding items like amortization of intangible assets related to acquisitions, the company would have earned 21 cents a share, up from 12 cents a share on the same basis a year earlier. Wall Street analysts, on average, expected the Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of network security products to post a profit of 24 cents a share on revenue of $36.3 million, according to a Thomson First Call survey. Last week, the company slashed its outlook for the just-reported period to a level sharply below estimates at the time.