Tag Archives: splk

Two Techs In Hyper-Growth Mode Positioned For Solid Earnings

Splunk ( SPLK ) and Pure Storage ( PSTG ) are positioned to deliver solid earnings this week, despite a challenging environment for spending on information technology, analysts say. Pacific Crest Securities analyst Brent Bracelin said in a research note Monday that Splunk remains the firm’s “highest-conviction growth idea that continues to deliver solid results.” And he said Pure Storage has emerged as the largest and fastest-growing provider of flash-based storage technology “that we believe remains well positioned to grow 60%-plus this year, driven by share gains in a shrinking storage market.” IBD Take: Splunk ranks No. 4 in its group. Learn why at IBD Stock Checkup . Splunk provides software for machine-to-machine data analytics that companies use to attain real-time intelligence. The consensus on Splunk is for revenue of $174.1 million for its fiscal Q1 ended on or near April 30, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. That would be an increase of 38.5% year over year, maintaining its double-digit growth rate going back more than four years. Analysts expect a 2-cent loss per share minus items, vs. a 1-cent loss in the year-earlier quarter and an 11-cent profit in the previous quarter. Splunk is set to report after the market close Thursday. “We remain bullish on the prospects for Splunk to grow into a $1 billion-plus revenue franchise based on a differentiated software,” Bracelin wrote of the company that posted revenue of $668 million for fiscal 2016 ended Jan. 31. RBC Capital Markets analyst Matthew Hedberg has an outperform rating on Splunk stock and a price target of 60. Splunk shares were near 54, up 2%, in afternoon trading in the stock market today . The stock is 81% higher since hitting a low of 29.85 on Feb. 12. Pure Storage, meanwhile, is set to report earnings after the market close Wednesday for its fiscal Q1 ended April 30. The Wall Street consensus estimate on revenue is $138 million, up 86% year over year, following 12 quarters in a row of triple-digit gains. The bottom-line consensus is for a per-share loss minus items of 23 cents, vs. a 26-cent loss in the year-earlier quarter. Pure Storage received an upbeat review ahead of its Q1 report, with an analyst saying the flash storage market appears to be growing faster than expected. Pure Storage stock was trading near 14.75, up 1.5%, Monday afternoon. It came public in October 2015 with shares priced at 17. Other tech companies reporting this week include  Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ) and HP Inc. ( HPQ ) Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which provides business enterprise services and cloud-enabled technologies, is projected to report revenue of $12.3 billion and EPS minus items of 42 cents. It reports after the close Tuesday. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise was trading near 16, up 1.5%. HP, which sells personal computers and printers, reports its fiscal second quarter after the close Wednesday. The consensus on revenue is $11.7 billion, with views for EPS minus items of 38 cents. HP stock was near 11.70, up a fraction.

Tableau, Qlik With Better Tools Should Survive Microsoft Power BI

Brave enough to venture into Gartner’s Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit, William Blair analyst Bhavan Suri is convinced Tableau Software ( DATA ) and Qlik Technologies ( QLIK ) will survive the price pressure wrought by Microsoft’s Power BI, and that both remain acquisition candidates. Sound like a Powerball lottery gamble? Microsoft ( MSFT ) offers Power BI business intelligence software for free to 1 gigabyte users and for $9.99 a month for 10-gigabyte users subscribing to Power BI Pro. Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) spent five years analyzing business intelligence products before settling on Qlik, consolidating its data from Oracle ( ORCL ), open-source Hadoop and Teradata ( TDC ) into QlikView and creating a dashboard that made it easy to see actionable intelligence, Qlik says. “Although Power BI appears to be gaining traction faster than we expected, we believe that Tableau and Qlik remain the clear leaders from a technology standpoint and continue to witness healthy deal activity,” William Blair’s Suri said in a research note Monday. “While we intend to watch the competitive situation closely, we maintain our outperform ratings on Tableau and Qlik, based on our view that both can still deliver growth in a world where Power BI sees success, continue to be attractive acquisition candidates, and currently trade at a comfortable discount to intrinsic value.” Qlik stock was up 2% in afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 27.50, after shares last month touched a five-year low below 16. Tableau stock was down a fraction Monday afternoon, near 43.50 and more than 65% off the record high of 131.34 it touched last July. But its shares are 19% higher since touching an all-time low of 36.86 on Feb. 8, following their infamous 49.5% dive after the company missed Wall Street estimates with its earnings and outlook, sending other enterprise software stocks tumbling. Microsoft was up a fraction Monday afternoon. “Despite increasing competition in the space, we view both companies (Qlik and Tableau) as well positioned to deliver double-digit growth for the next few years and significant margin expansion longer-term,” said Suri. “At 2.8 times and 2.6 times our calendar 2017 revenue estimates, respectively, we view Qlik and Tableau as being attractively valued.” He put the average price of business analytics stocks at 2.7 times estimated 2017 revenue and the median at 2.6 times. The group includes Qlik, Tableau, Hortonworks ( HDP ), Datawatch ( DWCH ), Micro Strategy ( MSTR ), New Relic ( NEWR ), PROS Holdings ( PRO ), Splunk ( SPLK ) and Teradata.

Splunk Pops On Sales Growth, Bigger Big Data Deals And More Of Them

Spunky Big Data stock Splunk ( SPLK ) popped as much as 16% Friday, after the company late Thursday posted better-than-expected earnings and sales, comforting investors in software stocks that had been battered in recent weeks. Earnings minus items for Splunk’s fiscal Q4 ended Jan. 31 rose 22% to 11 cents per share, where Wall Street analysts had expected 8 cents. Revenue rose 49% to $220 million, $17 million more than analysts expected. The company also forecast Q1 revenue higher than Wall Street estimates. Splunk stock eased off its session high but was still up nearly 10% in early afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 42, and still 45% off a 16-month high set July 23 at 76.29. The IBD Computer Software-Database group, which includes Splunk, rose as much as 3% Friday and was up more than 1% in early afternoon trading. Enterprise stocks got a boost not just from Splunk, but also from No. 1 customer relationship management software maker  Salesforce.com ( CRM ), which offered upbeat guidance after the close Wednesday. Salesforce rose 11% Thursday and was down a fraction Friday afternoon. Splunk stock had fallen 23% on Feb. 5, the day after high-flyer Tableau Software ( DATA ) stunned Wall Street with decelerating sales growth and weak guidance for 2016. Following Tableau’s lead, software issues fell by such a sizeable margin that analysts started calling it a software sector correction. “The Splunk (Q4) results were better than anticipated, given the recent disappointing quarters in fast-growth software, particularly SPLK’s Big Data cousin, Tableau,” wrote Needham analyst Scott Zeller in a Friday research note. “Splunk has faced growth deceleration over the past year, yet the company finished fiscal 2016 with a respectable 45% (year to year) billings growth and 48% revenue growth. “It is our belief (Q4) was driven by big deals (not disclosed), suggested by the ASPs  (average sale prices) of $80,000 in the quarter vs. typical $40,000-$50,000 range. The challenge will be to convince investors that SPLK can reaccelerate billings and revenue growth, rather than maintain consistent growth.” Zeller reiterated a hold rating on Splunk stock. More positive, with a buy rating and a 67 price target, Evercore ISI analyst Kirk Materne put Splunk’s historical average sale price at $50,000 per software license and $70,000 in Q3, compared with $80,000 in Q4. “Big-deal metrics highlight growing momentum across Splunk’s product suite,” Materne said in a research note. For the year, he says Splunk customers signed 1,447  six-figure deals, up from 1,112 in fiscal 2015, and 102 seven-figure transactions, up from 68 such biggies in 2015. It also penned three eight-figure deals last year vs. two in the company’s entire previous history. “Splunk continued its strong customer-count trajectory as well, adding 621 net new customers in the quarter and bringing its total customer count to over 11,000,” Materne noted. “Combined, we believe the fact that Splunk continues to accelerate customer additions while also growing its average contract size is a clear indication of the high level of demand for the company’s solutions and its growing strategic value in the enterprise.” Splunk guided the current Q1 ending April 30 to a non-GAAP operating margin loss of 1% to 2%, on sales of $172 million to $174 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect a 1-cent loss minus items on revenue of $171 million, which would compare to a similar 1-cent loss on $125.7 million in the year-earlier quarter. For Q4, Splunk posted a fully reported loss of 61 cents per share, up from a 47-cent loss in the year-earlier quarter.