Shares of Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) rose Thursday evening after the data analytics company reported better than expected earnings and revenue for the most recent quarter.
Q3 Earnings Summary
- Earnings: $0.58 per share
- Revenue: $626 million
Splunk’s earnings report exceeded analysts’ expectations on both the top and bottom lines. For the quarter ending Oct. 31, the company reported non-GAAP income per share of $0.58 on revenue of $626 million. Analysts in a median estimate had called for an EPS of $0.54 on revenue of $626.24 million.
The revenue number was 30% higher than a year earlier. Software revenues jumped 40% year-over-year to reach $454 million.
Jason Child, Splunk’s chief financial officer, said term licenses and cloud offerings drove 53% of the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth. The ARR component was worth $1.44 billion by the end of the quarter.
The impressive results were driven by 440 new enterprise clients from the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia. New clients included Airbus Defence and Space, Anaplan and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Splunk’s management also issued positive guidance for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ends Jan. 31, 2020. Over that period, the company expects total revenues to reach $780 million. For fiscal 2020, total revenues are forecast to hit $2.35 billion.
Moving forward, Splunk expects its newly unveiled Data-to-Everything platform to be a major driver of growth. The technology enables companies to enhance their data-driven decision-making through a single platform.
Data analytics is one of the fastest-growing segments of the emerging technology landscape. Depending on who you ask, the ‘big data’ market is said to be worth around $49 billion annually – a figure that will more than double within the next decade.
SPLK Stock Surges After Hours
Splunk’s share price flat-lined in regular trading Thursday before exploding higher after hours. SPLK was up more than 6% after the close before paring gains. The stock was last seen trading around $132.00, up 4%.
At current values, the stock is on track to exceed the $20 billion market capitalization when regular trading resumes Friday.
SPLK has gained almost 23% year-to-date compared with 28% for the Nasdaq Composite Index. Despite the solid performance, Splunk is trading 12% below its 52-week high of $143.70.
Wall Street has given Splunk a “buy” rating, based on 31 analyst reviews in the past year. As of Thursday, the stock is said to have 12.8% upside, according to MarketBeat.
Disclaimer: Author holds no investment position in Splunk at the time of writing.
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