Why Unisys Popped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Unisys (NYS: UIS) popped today by upward of 20% after the company clobbered analyst expectations for its second-quarter earnings.

So what: Revenue in the second quarter totaled $921.3 million, resulting in non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.41. The street was expected just $912.4 million in sales and would have been satisfied with just $0.48 per share in profit. The actual bottom line put the consensus to shame.

Now what: The quarter was boosted by strength in ClearPath sales, the company's enterprise software and services offering, which grew 23% on a constant currency basis. Unisys continues to reduce debt to bolster its balance sheet and is targeting further reductions of $84.5 million. After that's completed, Unisys will have achieved its debt reduction target and have reduced total debt by nearly $1 billion since 2008. Now that's something for investors to be happy about.

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The article Why Unisys Popped originally appeared on Fool.com.

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