Acxiom Turns Profit After Three Quarterly Losses

Acxiom saw its third quarter revenue slide and its profits plummet from a year ago as the Little Rock-based data marketer continues to transform its traditional business model into new territory.

Despite the year-over-year drop-off, the good news was that Acxiom turned its first quarterly profit after three straight quarterly losses.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2014, Acxiom posted revenue of $260.44 million, down from $268.76 million one year ago. Net income was $4.47 million for the quarter, down roughly 72% from $15.07 million one year ago.

By segment, Acxiom’s marketing and data services segment revenue was steady but its IT infrastructure management division saw a 16% drop. AOS and LiveRamp revenue – two new and evolving efforts – reported a 40% increase in sales.

“While we continue to strengthen our Marketing and Data Services business, we are experiencing great momentum with AOS and LiveRamp,” said Acxiom CEO Scott Howe. “We added 25 new AOS and LiveRamp customers during the quarter, more than doubled our subscription revenue year-over-year and expect to exit FY15 with a revenue run-rate of roughly $80 million. Data-driven marketing is still in the early innings, and we are pleased to be at the forefront of powering this trend.”

Last month, Acxiom’s chief revenue officer Nada Stirratt resigned from her post after joining the firm in 2012.

Acxiom said it expected earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $0.73 to $0.78.

“We continue to expect revenue from continuing operations for the fiscal year to be down roughly 4% compared to fiscal year 2014. The decline in revenue is primarily due to the impact of lost IT Infrastructure Management customers and the exit of our analog paper survey business in Europe,” the company said in its earnings release.

Acxiom shares (NASDAQ: ACXM) closed trading on Wednesday at $19.28. The company’s stock has traded between $16.04 and $39.30 during the last year.