Last week we hosted investor meetings with Citrix’s Vice President of Investor Relations Eduardo Fleites and came away with a better understanding of the company’s near- and long-term challenges and strategies. Investors continue to focus on the company’s CEO search, margin profile, and ability to reaccelerate growth within the XenDesktop business, as well as drive increased interest and adoption of new products, such as XenMobile and ShareFile. While there have been several execution factors and a somewhat challenging macro environment in the first half of last year, we believe the primary reasons for the muted top-line growth in the desktop…
Author: Mike Underwood
Cbeyond’s fourth quarter 2013 revenue and EBITDA were in line with the consensus expectations. With the company’s emphasis on high-bandwidth facilities-based offerings, the carrier continues to experience competitive pressure at the low end of the market from multi-system operators (MSOs) and telecom service providers. This pressure resulted in continued elevated churn and a 6% annual decline in EBITDA. Customer retention has remained especially challenging for mobile services. While cloud services growth remains positive at 28%, it was offset by an 8.2% decline in the carrier’s traditional network services. Although Cbeyond was able to produce an annual increase in average revenue…
After the markets closed on Thursday, KaloBios reported fourth-quarter financial results and an update of clinical programs. While the financial results were a non-event, the company provided an updated clinical development timeline highlighted by the possibility of two potential data readouts by year end. We highlight the ongoing Phase I/II trial with KB004 in hematologic malignancies, which was recently expanded to include patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes. We are encouraged by the progress with KB004, especially with the positive Phase I dose-response study conducted last year, which demonstrated a tolerable safety profile and showed early signs of…
Progressive February results were a little uneven given severe non-catastrophe winter weather and adverse development on the 2013 accident year. Operating EPS of $0.07 were $0.05 below our estimate, driven mainly by a significant jump in losses, which is likely because of an active non-catastrophe weather month. Accident-year loss ratios, excluding catastrophes, came in at 73% for the month versus our estimate of 72%. On the growth side, PIF grew 0.5% sequentially driven by strength in both direct and agency personal auto. Overall, the company continues to operate within the ranges it set for growth (currently expecting 5% to 6%…