Clearwater's Tech Data Corp. topped Wall Street earnings expectations Thursday after a strong performance by its European operations during its first quarter.
"It was a very good quarter for our company," CEO Bob Dutkowsky said in an interview.
Tech Data, a technology distributor and the largest public company by revenue in the Tampa Bay area, reported net income of $51.3 million. On a per-share basis, the company said it had net income of $1.38. Earnings, adjusted for nonrecurring gains, were 80 cents per share.
The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 69 cents per share. Net sales declined about 12 percent for the quarter, which the company attributed to the ''impact of the weakening of certain foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar."
Dutkowsky said the company grew by 5 percent in Europe, where it does 60 percent of its business. Those numbers took a hit when translated to dollars.
"It makes it look like we didn't sell as much," Dutkowsky said.
Tech Data posted revenue of $5.89 billion in the period, also topping forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.71 billion.
Dutkowsky said that while sales were robust in Europe, "we wish we had done a little bit better in the Americas."
The earnings were reported a day after the company announced it had acquired Signature Technology Group of Phoenix, which specializes in providing data center and professional services. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
Signature, founded in 1990, was named by Inc. magazine in 2014 as one of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies, with annual revenues at that time of $17.5 million.
Dutkowsky said the acquisition is the first Tech Data has done in the United States in almost 10 years.
Tech Data is a Fortune 500 company that reported $27.7 billion in net sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31. The company has 9,000 employees, including 1,700 in Clearwater.