Solera Holdings Inc

Solera Holdings, Inc. (SLH) just announced its fourth consecutive earnings surprise and completed an acquisition that will expand its service in Brazil.

Company Description

Solera Holdings is an integrated group of leading automotive claims solutions companies with the vision to continuously improve the automobile insurance claims processing industry worldwide. The Solera companies help customers automate and simplify their automobile claims process and improve their ability to monitor and manage their businesses through data reporting and analytics.

The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, with roughly 2,000 employees, and a market cap of $1.7 billion.

Brazilian Expansion

On Nov 19 Solera completed the acquisition of Inpart Servicos, an electronic exchange for replacement vehicle parts in Brazil. Inpart has a wide network of suppliers and customers,

Fourth Consecutive Surprise

Solera reported its fourth consecutive earnings surprise on Nov 5 with EPS coming in at 41 cents. Headed into the first-quarter announcement, analysts were expecting earnings of 33 cents, good enough for a 24% surprise.

First-quarter revenue was $143 million, up 15% on a year-over-year basis. The increase in revenue was driven by strong organic growth which saw revenues rise 9.2%..

2009 Outlook

Solera also issued forward looking guidance for fiscal-year 2009, which ends in June 2009, including net income per share between $1.56 and $1.60. The low end of the forecast, $1.56, represents a 57% increase over 2008, which came in at 99 cents.

Full-year estimates have climbed across the board within the past 90 days. The consensus estimate for the current year is $1.56 cents per share, up 26% from $1.35 3 months ago.

The Chart

Despite the strong sell off over the past few months, shares of SLH have been out performing the market almost all year. Take a look at the comparative chart below, which shows the movement of SLH relative to the S&P 500

Read the full analyst report on SLH