SOUTHFIELD – Computer Associates International said it earned $41 million in its second fiscal quarter after posting a $98 million loss in the same three months a year ago. The news so buoyed CA?s board that it announced it would step up its marketing spending.

CA employs 90 people in Michigan and nearly 500 in 10 Midwestern states. The company serves more than 98 percent of all Fortune 1000 companies.

While analysts said the company was taking the right steps to bolster its growth, they remained largely cautious on its stock ahead of a clear catalyst that would drive its valuation higher.

“Overall, we believe the results were solid, though not spectacular,” W.R. Hambrecht & Co. analyst Robert Stimson said. He pointed to an improvement in the company’s billings and cash flow.

“While it appears that fundamentals for the company may have improved somewhat, we believe we are just in the early innings of this turnaround story and more work needs to be done,” Stimson said in a research bulletin. Stimson rated CA shares hold with a 12-month target price of $30.

CA said revenue for the three-month period ended Sept. 30 increased to $942 million from $865 million. Billings for the latest quarter increased 14 percent to $975 million, while bookings fell 11 percent to $665 million due to an expected decrease in early contract renewals, the company said.

Wall Street analysts, on average, had expected the management software company to post a profit of 24 cents a share on revenue of $945 million, according to a Thomson First Call survey.

“We entered the quarter with a strong pipeline, executed on our business plan, improved working capital management and held our costs in line,” Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said.

Chief Executive John Swainson said the company was pleased with its latest results.

“We clearly sharpened our execution as we implemented the changes necessary for growth,” Swainson said.

Looking ahead, CA predicted net earnings for the current fiscal third quarter of 10 cents a share on revenue of $950 million to $980 million, up from 5 cents and $917 million a year earlier. The company pegged its quarterly operating earnings at 24 cents a share, up from 18 cents in the same period of last year.

For the year, the company forecast net earnings of 41 cents to 43 cents a share on revenue ranging from $3.8 billion to $3.85 billion. It put operating earnings at 94 cents to 96 cents a share for the year.

CA’s prior forecast, issued in July, had predicted net earnings for the year of 46 cents to 51 cents a share on revenue of $3.8 billion to $3.9 billion. The company’s prior forecast called for operating earnings of between 93 cents and 98 cents a share for the year.

The company lost 1 cent a share on revenue of $3.56 billion in the prior year. Its operating earnings last year were 80 cents a share.

CA, which has worked to put behind it a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal that cost former CEO Sanjay Kumar and other executives their jobs, recently filed audited financial statements with regulators that boosted past revenue for fiscal 2003 through 2005 but are expected to dampen revenue from 2006 through 2011.