Phase Forward shares jump on strong 1st-qtr results

NEW YORK—Shares of Phase Forward Inc., a provider of data management software for drug safety and clinical trials, jumped Friday after the company reported first-quarter profit above analyst estimates.

In afternoon trading, the stock rose $1.94, or 11.7 percent, to $18.54. Shares have traded in a 52-week range of $14.25 to $25.32 over the past year.

On Thursday, the company said it earned $4 million, or 9 cents per share, compared with profit of $3.5 million, or 10 cents per share, during the same period a year prior. Excluding charges, the company said it earned 12 cents per share. Per-share profit fell because the company had more outstanding shares in the latest quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 11 cents per share.

Revenue rose to $38 million from $30.1 million.

Phase Forward also guided for second-quarter adjusted profit between 11 cents and 12 cents per share on revenue between $40.4 million and $41 million. For the full year, the company expects profit between 46 cents and 49 cents per share on revenue between $165 million and $169 million.

Analysts expect second-quarter profit of 12 cents per share on revenue of $40 million and full-year profit of 50 cents per share on revenue of $167.7 million.

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst James Krumpel upgraded the stock to "Outperform" from "Market Perform" and raised his price target to $20 from $19.

"The company clearly is riding a wave of adoption of its electronic data capture offerings, while leading competitors seem disadvantaged in both function and scalability," he said in a note to investors.