Volume Spike Investor

STEC, Inc. (NASDAQ: STEC) posted solid revenues, earnings, and margins.  Its revenue for Q1-2009 was $63.5 million, an increase of 25.2% year over year.  It also posted on-GAAP $0.17 EPS, up from $0.07 year over year and up from $0.05 sequentially.  This compares to Thomson Reuters estimates of $58.95 million in revenues and $0.11 EPS.

Shipments of its ZeusIOPS solid-state drives grew some 126% year over year and grew 29.8% sequentially to $25.7 million.  Non-GAAP gross profit margin increased to its all-time high of 39.8%. up from 34.6% a year ago and up from 32.3% sequentially.

The company was originally shooting for $53 million in the ZeusIOPS sales for the first half of 2009, but it is now targeting some $65 million.

It sees next quarter revenues at $68 to $70 million and non-GAAP earnings at $0.20 to $0.22 EPS.  That compares to Thomson Reuters estimates of $58.9 million in revenues and $0.10 EPS.

STEC is screamed higher in the after-hours session.  At 6:20 PM EST, we have seen shares rise by 27% to $13.24 on about 460,000 shares in the after-hours session alone.  This one trades about 690,000 share sper day.

JON C. OGG