Citrix SaaS revenue rises 12% while overall revenue grows 7% YoY

Citrix has reported a 7% year-on-year revenue increase in its second quarter of fiscal year 2014, which ended 30 June. But it reported double-digit revenue growth in its software as a service (SaaS) and professional services divisions.

The company's revenues for the quarter were up to $782m from $730m at the same period last year, beating analyst expectations. But the company’s profits were down 18% for the quarter on account of a restructure and rise in operating costs.

Citrix’s Professional services revenue for the second quarter of 2014 – which comprises consulting, product training and certification – increased 15% to $41.95m.

Its SaaS revenue was up 12% to $160m compared to the same quarter last year. This revenue growth is marginally lower compared with the 15% SaaS growth it reported in June 2013 as compared to the previous year.

Citrix’s SaaS offering includes services such as GoToMeeting, GoToWebcast, GoToTraining and GoToAssist. The company also delivers application management services and desktop as a service.

SaaS continues to be the top cloud service that the UK enterprises plan to use in 2014. In the SaaS segment the most popular is communications, followed by CRM, online workspace, finance/ERP, HRM and collaboration. But Gartner analyst Robert Desisto said that “the shininess or glow of SaaS is fading as becomes more ubiquitous as an application delivery model.”

Meanwhile, Citrix’s product and license revenue were up 2% and license updates and maintenance revenue rose 7%.

“I’m pleased with our performance and results for Q2,” said Mark Templeton, president and chief executive at Citrix.  According to him, the team has delivered “greater operating efficiencies while driving its very significant pivot to mobility”.

As we move into the second half, we’ll continue to refine operations to further increase shareholder value and to stay aggressive with valuable solutions for our customers’ mobility needs,” Templeton said.

As for the regional breakdown, Citrix’s revenue from EMEA and Pacific regions increased by 8% while revenue from Americas rose only by 4%.

The company’s deferred revenue totaled $1.4bn as of June 2014, compared to $1.3bn in 2013, an increase of 12%.

For the third quarter of fiscal year 2014, Citrix is estimating its net revenue to be in the range of $765m to $775m and expecting a growth of between 8% and 10% for the whole year.