Over the past few years, the on-demand software company,
Concur (NASDAQ: CNQR), has been making some big changes in its business – especially its business model (to focus on recurring revenue streams). And, as seen with the latest quarterly report, things are starting to pay off. Revenues increased 69% to $49.4 million and net income came to $3.4 million, or $0.07 per share. There were 400 new customers in the quarter (the total is roughly 6,000).

Basically, Concur provides software to help manage corporate travel spending. It's a tough problem, but the company has a broad offering of solutions, helping with vendor payments, direct reimbursements, audits and so on.

In fact, Concur recently completed the acquisition of Information Network. This will add some value payment systems (as well as customers).

What's more, Concur upped its full-year guidance. The company expects to earn $0.22 per share and post revenues of $204 million. This compares to the prior guidance of $0.15 per share and revenues of $194.5 million.

Interestingly enough, Concur's solutions tend to do well in tough economic environments as companies try to cut costs. Keep in mind that the company's solutions are highly automated.

In today's trading, Concur's stock is up 20.83% to $34.16 per share.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Concur Technologies (NASDAQ: CNQR) provides software applications that automate corporate travel and expense management. Its flagship program provides the process and information for management to reduce manual checking, improve internal controls, increase business policy compliance, speed up reimbursement, and increase expense report accuracy. The software features Web-based modules for tracking, submitting, and processing reports. Other offerings manage employee requests for vendor payments, manage the planning of corporate meetings and group travel, and search for fraud. Customers include Chubb (NYSE: CB), J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN). Compuware (NASDAQ: CPWR) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) are competitors.

The company pleased investors last week, when it reported fiscal Q4 EPS of 15 cents (ex-items) and revenues of $35.75 million. Analysts had been expecting 9 cents and $34.29 million. Management also guided Q1 EPS to 13 cents (8 cent consensus), Q1 revenues to $46.0 million ($43.3M consensus), FY08 EPS to 70 cents (62 cent consensus) and FY08 revenues to $200.0 million ($194.5M consensus). Canaccord Adams and Broadpoint Capital subsequently declared the stock a "buy" and established $40 price targets.

If you have ever been in charge of reviewing expense accounts, you known that uniformity and good organization are factors that can make the job go a lot easier. There is an outfit in Redmond, Washington that has help for the weary executive along that line. It has the whole business reduced to a science ... a computer science.

Concur Technologies (NASDAQ: CNQR) provides software applications that automate corporate travel and expense management. Its flagship program provides the process and information for management to reduce manual processing, improve internal controls, increase business policy compliance, speed up reimbursement, and increase expense report accuracy. The software features Web-based modules for tracking, submitting, and processing reports. Other offerings manage employee requests for vendor payments, manage the planning of group travel, and search for fraud. Customers include Chubb (NYSE: CB), J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN). Compuware (NASDAQ: CPWR) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) are competitors.

The company pleased investors last week when it reported fiscal Q3 EPS of 15 cents and revenues of $33.3 million. Analysts had been expecting 8 cents and $31.9 million. Management also guided Q4 EPS to 13 cents (8 cent consensus) and Q4 revenues to $33.6 million ($33.46M consensus). Cantor Fitzgerald, RBC Capital Markets and McAdams, Wright, Ragen subsequently reiterated "buy" ratings on the issue. The share price popped on the news and has since been consolidating the gain in a bullish "flag" pattern. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling when they entered them. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Brokers recommend the shares with three "strong buys," four "buys" and four "holds." Analysts see a 30% growth rate through the next year. The CNQR Sales Growth rate (23.93%), EPS Growth rate (87.50%), Net Profit Margin (30.50%), Return on Assets (21.59%), Return on Investment (27.59%) and Return on Equity (34.28%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutional investors hold about 95% of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 600 SmallCap Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $14.20 and $28.18. A stop-loss of $22.35 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.