So How Was Q2? MagicJack Parties, Acme Packet Staggers

Two early data points for Q2 financials are now in, with quite opposing viewpoints. Upstart VoIP provider magicJack VocalTec (NASDAQ:CALL, news, filings) pre-announced even better results than it had promised, while Acme Packet (news, filings) took another punch in the gut.

magicJack says that Q2 revenues are estimated to be in the $37.5-38.5M range, while earnings per share will tip the scales at $0.48-0.52. That bests their earlier guidance of $36M+ and $0.43, and hence easily wipes the floor with analyst expectations – which were lower despite the company’s recent publicly aggressive guidance stance. Additionally, they raised full year 2012 guidance to 25-40% revenue growth and $1.50-1.80 in earnings per share. magicJack now have 19.4M shares outstanding, down from 24M in 2011 as they continue to buy back stock. Needless to say, the stock is up strongly in the premarket.  magicjack is riding the launch of a new consumer VoIP product that doesn’t require a computer, and sales have apparently been brisk.

Meanwhile, just before the weekend the vendor Acme Packet put out another preannouncement that was quite disappointing. And that’s not my judgement, it’s theirs:

CEO Andy Ory: “We are disappointed with our preliminary results for the second quarter. Our top line results were principally impacted by continued weakness in the North American service provider market. We are completing a full review of our operations and will provide a further update on July 26th.”

To put that quantitatively, Acme Packet expects Q2 revenues to be $66-68M, down from $70.8M in the prior quarter and about 16% from the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.12-0.13 was similarly weak.  Acme Packet started off the year with a weak pre-announcement, and this is just more bad news.  Last Spring the stock touched the $80s, but yesterday dipped down to $15.

But in both cases, this quarter’s performance appears to be company-specific. magicJack is clearly having a very strong year, while Acme Packet is looking for traction of any sort. Neither seems to be much of a guide toward what we’ll see from the market overall in two weeks.

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Categories: Financials · Telecom Equipment · VoIP