EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) may be under activist pressure, but the storage king reported that its third-quarter consolidated revenue was up 9% year-over-year to a record for the quarter of $6 billion. While its net income was $587 million, its net income from operations attributable to shareholders was $903 million, or $0.44 per share, for 10% growth. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.46 in earnings per share and $6 billion in revenue.

While this report may be marginally light, there does not seem enough to be on the downside, nor on the upside, to make any massive waves on Wednesday. The unspoken, yet unified message throughout the release was that its stake and dominance inside of VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) is going to stay a part of the company.

EMC generated $1.7 billion in operating cash flow and $1.3 billion in free cash flow during its third quarter, and it also ended the quarter with a sum of $15.4 billion in cash and investments.

The company showed that it repurchased approximately $375 million worth of its common stock in the third quarter, while also returning an additional $240 million to its holders via a quarterly dividend. EMC’s gross operating margin was 63.7%, down from 63.9% a year ago.

Consolidated revenue from North America rose 8% year-over-year, and this accounted for a total 55% of consolidated third-quarter revenue. Revenue from Europe, Middle East and Africa region rose by 15%, while EMC’s Asia Pacific and Japan revenue grew by 4%. Latin America grew by 1%, and revenue from the BRIC+13 markets grew 9% year over year.

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EMC did offer guidance for all of 2014. For the year it sees consolidated adjusted earnings per share of $1.90 and sees consolidated revenues of about $24.5 billion for the year. Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates of $1.91 in earnings per share and $24.54 billion for revenues. EMC also expects to buy back $3 billion worth of stock in 2014 (including what has been bought already), versus a $55.2 billion market cap.

Segment highlights were as follows:

• EMC Information Infrastructure business revenue was up 6% year-over-year.
• Information Storage revenue growth accelerated to 6%.
• The new VMAX high-end storage system became generally available toward the end of the third quarter; shipments of the new systems in the third quarter were in line with expectations.
• Unified and Backup and Recovery portfolios continued solid revenue growth of 6%.
• Emerging Storage revenue grew 47%, with notably strong growth for EMC XtremIO, EMC ViPR and EMC ScaleIO.
• EMC Isilon revenue growth accelerated in the third quarter, benefiting from newer growth vectors where Hadoop capabilities allow efficient analysis of big data.
• RSA grew revenue 4% as security remains a priority for organizations building hybrid clouds.
• VMware revenue within EMC was up 17% as customers continue investing in software-defined data center, hybrid cloud solutions and end-user computing.
• Pivotal revenue rose by 24% and is considered the fastest growing of EMC’s federated businesses.

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EMC’s leadership may not have rebuffed activists formally in the report. That being said, CEO and Chairman Joe Tucci talked specifically about a unified strategy rather than a break-up strategy. He said:

EMC’s continued momentum is evidence that our strategy and execution are working. Our strategically aligned businesses — EMC Information Infrastructure, VMware, Pivotal and RSA — are well positioned to capitalize on the massive IT market opportunity in front of us. From my conversations with customers, it’s clear that we have the right best-of-breed technologies in cloud, mobile, Big Data and security, and offer a level of choice and flexibility second-to-none. We are extremely well positioned to help customers maximize their existing IT platforms and build a 3rd IT platform to redefine their businesses with a whole generation of new applications.

EMC shares closed Tuesday at $27.20, and its 52-week range is $23.15 to $30.18. The Thomson Reuters consensus price target is up at roughly $32.50, although EMC has poked its head at or barely above $30 in only three of the months in the past decade.

Commentary from two other key EMC executives also hinted at keeping EMC together rather than parsing off VMware just to please activist investors:

• “EMC is growing faster than many of our peers because we continue to make the right strategic investments – assembling a leading portfolio of technology assets over several years — that enable customers to use cloud, mobile, Big Data and security technologies to create competitive advantage.”
• “These results demonstrate the soundness of EMC’s strategy, a formula combining industry-leading assets, talent, and a uniquely flexible business model that puts customer choice first.”

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