Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN), the company that powers the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) virtual assistant Siri, released its numbers for the three months through March this afternoon after the market closed on Wall Street. The company showed earnings of $0.28 per share for the three month period, alongside revenue of $475.7 million. On today’s market stock in the company declined and finished up at $15.53.
In the run up to the release of this afternoon’s results, analysts following the Carl Icahn favorite were looking for earnings of 23 cents per share on revenue of $483 million. Those numbers are a consensus estimate take from a Businessweek survey of 13 analysts. In the same three months of 2013 Nuance managed to earn 51 cents on revenue of $490 million.
Nuance fails to show growth prospects
Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) appears to be a business built on a great and in-demand technology, but the company has not managed to live up to the expectations of the market just yet. The company’s stock has lost more than 18% of its value in the last twelve months, and investors seem to be tired of the firm’s lack of tech-company style revenue growth.
Sales at Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) are about as solid as they come, and the company is expected to bring in $2.1 billion this year, up from $2 billion in 2013. In 2015 the company’s sales are expected to reach $2.2 billion. A tech company with no revenue growth is something unusual in the eyes of the average growth investor and it’s clear some are going to take convincing before the jump in with Nuance.
Nuance attracts attention despite problems
Despite its lack of obvious prospects, Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) has attracted the attention of Carl Icahn, one of the most widely followed investors around. The hedge fund manager has bought bout a fifth of the company and he’s clearly expecting a profit out of that investment.
Management of nuance will host an earnings conference call at 5 PM EST in order to discuss this afternoon’s earnings report. Investors and analysts will be probing the company’s thoughts about future applications of the voice recognition software and the company’s guidance for the rest of fiscal 2014.
