Shares of identity management solutions provider, AuthenTec, Inc. (Nasdaq: AUTH) were up as much as 45 percent on Thursday after the company announced it had regained a key customer, and reported better-than-expected first quarter revenue.

Shares traded as high as $3.49, up from $2.40 at Wednesday’s close.
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The company reported a “significant design win with a leading PC OEM for 2011” and hopes to return to profitability early next year, according to Reuters.

“We believe the key customer is likely Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ),” Capstone Investments analyst Jeff Schreiner said in a note this morning. The recapture of HP-based revenue significantly alters future prospects for AuthenTec, Schreiner said upgrading the stock to “buy” from “hold.”

For the three months ended April 2, the company posted a net loss of $4.7 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with a loss of $4.5 million, or 16 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding items, AuthenTec posted a loss of 8 cents per share in the latest quarter.

Revenue rose 30 percent to $9.2 million from $7 million.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a loss of 8 cents per share on revenue of $8.6 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Shares of AUTH have been up as much as 45 percent over the past three months.