CommVault reports solid second quarter

November 2, 2010 – With virtually all storage vendors racking up impressive revenue numbers over the last couple quarters, it’s no surprise that CommVault turned in solid performance figures for its fiscal second quarter today. In fact, the company achieved record revenue of $75.2 million, an increase of 13% over the same period a year ago, and also up 13% over the previous quarter.
Breaking those numbers down a bit, software revenue was $35.8 million, up 7% year-over-year and 26% sequentially. Services revenue was $39.5 million, up 19% year-over-year and 13% over the prior quarter. Income from operations was $9.2 million. That compares to $6.5 million in the same quarter last year.

CommVault executives highlighted a number of recent parternships that could fuel growth, including a distribution agreement with Hitachi Ltd. subsidiary Hitachi Computer Peripherals, as well as a partnership with Mezeo Software that will integrate CommVault’s Simpana software with the Mezeo Cloud Storage Platform.

But the big highlight in the quarter was CommVault’s launch of the long-anticipated Simpana 9 software, which included significant enhancements for data protection in virtual server environments, as well as source-based (in addition to target-based) deduplication and integrated array-based snapshots (see “CommVault unveils Simpana 9”).

Even though it was only introduced on October 5, Simpana 9 accounted for 13% of CommVault’s software license revenue in its second quarter, according to Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron C. Rakers.

Rakers also reported that the number of >$100,000 deals in CommVault’s Q2 were up 17% year-over-year and 45% sequentially, indicating that CommVault is well-positioned at the high end of the market vs. chief rival Symantec.

(Rakers maintained his hold rating on CommVault’s shares [NSDQ: CVLT], which were trading around $29 today.)

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