Acxiom Reports $7M 2Q Profit

(Editor’s Note: A correction has been made to this article. See the end of this article for details.)

Acxiom Corp. of Little Rock on Monday reported second-quarter earnings of $7.1 million, down 33 percent from $10.7 million in the same quarter last year, while revenue rose 5 percent to $217 million.

On an operating income basis, the data services company (Nasdaq: ACXM) swung from a loss of $2.0 million, or 2 cents per share, last year to an operating profit of $7.1 million, or 9 cents per share. 

Income in each of Acxiom’s business segments grew.

Revenue from Acxiom’s connectivity segment was $33 million, up 49 percent year over year, and income for the segment was $2 million, compared to a loss of $1 million in 2015. LiveRamp, part of the connectivity segment, launched IdentityLink and the segment added 40 new customers during the quarter.

“Solid second-quarter performance was driven by continued strong global execution across each of our businesses,” CEO Scott Howe said in a news release. “In addition, we are very excited by the launch of LiveRamp IdentityLink to power people-based marketing for the open ecosystem. Identity resolution is key to understanding the customer journey and delivering superior customer experiences. LiveRamp is creating the foundation which will enable true omni-channel marketing.”

The company’s marketing services segment reported revenue of $106 million, down 6 percent from the same quarter last year. That figure was affected by the sale of its Impact email business to Zeta Interactive of New York City for $22 million. Marketing services income was $20 million, up 11 percent compared to the prior year.

Acxiom’s audience solutions segment reported revenue of $79 million, an increase of 9 percent compared to the first quarter of 2015, and income in the segment improved even more: up 19 percent to $30 million. 

The segment partnered with Adobe during the quarter, enabling Acxiom and Adobe Marketing Cloud clients to more easily access Acxiom data via Adobe’s Audience Marketplace.

Acxiom also repurchased 390,000 shares for approximately $10 million during the quarter.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects fiscal 2017 revenue of between $860 million and $870 million, with earnings per share from continuing operations of about 12 cents.

(Correction: A previous version of this story reported Acxiom’s operating income figure as net earnings. We have corrected the error.)