UPDATE 2-ScanSource Q4 profit up; sees Q1 below Street
(Recasts; adds earnings outlook, conference call details)
Aug 21 (Reuters) - ScanSource Inc (SCSC.O) posted a 28 percent rise in quarterly profit and forecast current-quarter results below market expectations due to continued revenue shortfall at a key vendor.
Shares of the Greenville, South Carolina-based company fell as much as 5 percent to $29 in trading after the bell. They closed at $3.53 Thursday on Nasdaq.
However, the seller of bar code readers and other products said that it expects the vendor's issues to be resolved by the end of September.
"We expect the Avaya business to return to normal in the September quarter and we expect to recapture some of the business delayed," Chief Executive Mike Baur said on a conference call with analysts.
The supply chain and channel issues at Avaya Inc, which was first announced in April, has hurt ScanSource's telecom sales at its Catalyst Telecom unit.
The wholesale distributor of specialty technology products said it now expects first-quarter earnings of 45 cents to 48 cents a share, on revenue of $530 million to $550 million.
If the Avaya issue was resolved, current-quarter earnings would have been hiked by 6 cents a share, while the revenue view would have gone up by $35 million, Baur said.
This increase would put the company's forecast in line with the consensus analysts expectations of earnings of 51 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $576.5 million.
Q4 BEATS
In its fourth-quarter ended June 30, the company earned $14.5 million, or 54 cents a share, up from $11.3 million, or 43 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
Revenue rose 6 percent to $554.0 million, led by a 19 percent growth in its international segment after resolving a key vendor issue from last quarter.
However, the company said that revenue growth in Europe was "disappointing" and that it started to see its larger customers delay projects during the quarter.
Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 47 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $551.0 million, according to Reuters Estimates. (Reporting by Savio D'Souza in Bangalore; Editing by Amitha Rajan)
