ExlService shares hit 21-month high as 4Q results, year sales guidance top expectations

ExlService 4Q results, 2010 guidance top estimates

NEW YORK — Shares of ExlService Holdings Inc. hit their highest point since June 2008 Wednesday after the company’s fourth-quarter results and 2010 sales guidance topped analyst expectations.

“The company’s business is solidly picking up,” JPMorgan analyst Tien-tsin Huang wrote in a research note, boosting his rating on the outsourcer to “Neutral” from “Underweight.”

ExlService shares recently traded down 43 cents, or 25 percent, at $17.05, but earlier traded as high as $19.51. That was their highest price in nearly 2 years.

Late Tuesday, the New York company on Tuesday reported quarterly income of $7.5 million, or 25 cents per share, compared with $3.4 million, or 12 cents per share, in the same quarter of the previous year.

According to Huang, ExlService earned 14 cents per share excluding items, more than the 12 cents per share predicted by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

For 2010, the company forecast revenue of $225 million to $230 million. Analysts had forecast sales of $219.4 million.

Huang said this guidance was “reasonably conservative” given the company’s momentum.