Polycom's Q4 leads analysts to up targets for earnings, share price

A strong fourth quarter by Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM) has resulted in Citygroup increasing its earnings forecast for the company, and several other companies bumping the stock's target price. Citygroup upped its target to $24. FBN Securities earlier this week moved to $25, and analysts at Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target from $25 to $29.

The company this week reported a 50 percent increase in its fourth quarter profit to $49.6 million, or 28 cents a share, up from $33.1 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of 29 cents a share. Revenue was $407 million, up 20 percent from $340 million a year ago.

The company saw sales in the Americas, its biggest market, grow by a modest 7 percent; in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, sales were up 28 percent year-over-year; and the company saw a big bump, 42 percent, in APAC.

CEO Andrew Miller cited the company's software-based RealPresence Platform and "broad geographic growth" as drivers for the quarter.

"We experienced unprecedented demand for our secure, interoperable, unified collaboration solutions by both enterprise and service provider customers," he said. "Polycom's cloud, mobility, and software-driven infrastructure strategy is beginning to yield and we look forward to another year of solid growth in 2012."

Polycom has been gearing up for battle with its top competitor, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), expanding its push into the mobile video conferencing space, campaigning for better interoperability, and hiring Cisco executives. It also bought Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ)'s videoconferencing business last year, adding more depth to its pricier telepresence offerings.

For more:
- see this release
- see this article

Special Report: Enterprise Communications earnings in the fourth quarter 2011

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