SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Sun Microsystems Inc. is on track to meet its financial targets for fiscal 2008 and 2009, fueled by strong sales growth in emerging markets and a shift toward more expensive server and storage setups, the company’s chief financial officer said Tuesday.
Sun’s long-stated goal is a 10 percent operating profit margin in 2009, a target reiterated by CFO Mike Lehman at Sun’s Analyst Summit 2008 in San Francisco. That figure excludes charges related to Sun’s recently announced $1 billion acquisition of Swedish database-software supplier MySQL AB.
Sun, which has operations in Broomfield, acquired Storage Technology Corp. for $4.1 billion in 2005.
The company’s stock, however, slipped Tuesday amid overall market malaise and lingering fear among Sun investors that sales aren’t growing quickly enough. Sun shares fell 73 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $16.53.
The stock has fallen steadily since Sun executed a 1-for-4 reverse stock split in November, which investors viewed as a sign of trouble, though Sun made the move to boost the image of its slumping shares.
Operating margin is an important gauge of a company’s performance and profitability. It measures how much money a company makes on each dollar of revenue before interest and taxes are deducted.
The 10 percent milestone will be important for a company that only recently turned the corner on sustained profitability. Sun has posted five straight quarters of profits after enduring five unprofitable years and incurring more than $5 billion in losses after the dot-com meltdown.
