Tag Archives: qlik

Salesforce, Palo Alto, Red Hat In Race To $100 Billion Market Cap

A bullish Morgan Stanley reports calls Salesforce.com ( CRM ) the most likely software company to next hit the milestone of a $100 billion market valuation, though it says security firm Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) is also in the hunt. Salesforce.com, a top provider of cloud-based software-as-a-service, has a market cap of $56 billion, while Palo Alto’s valuation is nearly $13 billion. “With the most customer data in the cloud and multiple solutions targeting over 62 million users, we see Salesforce.com as the clear leader in SaaS-based applications and well on their way to a $100 billion market cap,” Keith Weiss, a Morgan Stanley analyst, said in a research report. Salesforce.com stock has rallied since early February, after plunging at the start of 2016. Salesforce stock was up nearly 2% in midday trading in the stock market today , near 83. Salesforce.com has an IBD Composite Rating of 99, the highest possible. IBD Take: How does Salesforce.com rate a 99 CR? Find out with IBD Stock Checkup. As for Palo Alto Networks, Weiss wrote that “to achieve the revenue scale necessary to become a $100 billion market cap company, Palo Alto must successfully expand their focus from the network security segment to the broader pool of overall security spending.” Weiss says Red Hat ( RHT ) is also well positioned in the cloud market but might not reach the $100 billion valuation mark. It’s now less than $14 billion. As for a couple of other fast-growing SaaS providers, Weiss points to stiff competition. “In our view, the problem with Qlik Technologies ( QLIK ) or Tableau Software ( DATA ) becoming the next $100 billion company is the competitive environment,” he wrote. Salesforce.com will remain strong in SaaS, Weiss says, despite cloud competition from the likes of  Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Google parent  Alphabet ( GOOGL ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ). San Francisco-based Salesforce.com garners mainly subscription revenue from on-demand software delivered via the Internet cloud. It’s the No. 1 provider of customer relationship software. “With SaaS-based applications’ faster innovation cycles and easier integration of new functionality, it becomes harder for vendors to sustain differentiation and enables (broad product) vendors to garner broader ecosystems and higher market share — as seen by Salesforce.com’s 40%+ share of the sales force automation market,” Weiss wrote.

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.

Salesforce.com Leads Software Stocks’ Harmony Up; Even Tableau Hums

The morning bell became music to the ears of software stock investors Thursday as Wall Street used Salesforce.com’s Q4 strength and outlook to harmonize. Salesforce.com ( CRM ), an enterprise cloud pioneer and the No. 1 maker of customer relationship management software, sang soprano, its stock gapping up 11% as soon as the conductor raised the baton on the morning after its upbeat earnings report late Wednesday. Rival SAP ( SAP ) was up 1.6% in early trade in the stock market today . Fellow enterprise software stocks Ultimate Software ( ULTI ) rose 2%, ServiceNow ( NOW ) 2.8% and Manhattan Associates ( MANH ) nearly 1%. The harmony extended to database choir: Legacy leader Oracle ( ORCL ) rose a fraction, Qlik ( QLIK ) 2.7%, Splunk ( SPLK ) 3.9% and Hortonworks ( HDP ) 1.8%. Workday ( WDAY ) leapt 5% despite a lowered price target from Wedbush. Even Tableau Software ( DATA ) was up as much as 3.5% early Thursday. Tableau stock collapsed 49.5% on Feb. 5 after the company issued soft Q4 results and an outlook of slower growth, sending the entire enterprise software sector into a tailspin. “Slowdown? What Slowdown?” asked FBN analyst Shebly Seyrafi in a Thursday research note, citing “600 seven-figure deals” signed by Salesforce.com during Q4. Salesforce set off a sectorwide rebound, but will it last? By midday, Salesforce had eased to an 8% gain, near 67.50. Most of the other stock also had eased, but remained up. Hortonworks, though, was down more than 1% and Manhattan and Splunk were down a fraction. Canaccord Genuity maintained its buy rating, but without explanation lowered its price target on Salesforce stock to 88 from 95 while praising the company. FBR, too, reportedly lowered its price target, to 82 from 88, but maintained its outperform rating. “We have pushed back against the pessimism that has permeated investors’ imaginations for the past 50 days,” wrote Canaccord analyst Richard Davis in a research note issued Thursday morning. “Salesforce decisively demonstrated that the world is far from ending, and for well-run, well-positioned companies with talented salespeople, growth is still coming in large chunks. “There was literally nothing wrong with this quarter’s print or longer-term outlook. We believe the stock’s 9% after-hours (Wednesday) pop is just the beginning of a year in which the stock delivers price appreciation that is materially better than the overall stock market.” For its fiscal Q4 ended Jan. 31, Salesforce said adjusted EPS rose 36% to 19, matching analyst consensus, on revenue up 25% to $1.81 billion vs. Wall Street’s $1.79 billion model. For fiscal Q1 2017, Salesforce expects adjusted EPS of 23-24 cents, up 47% at the midpoint and ahead of analysts’ 21-cent estimates, on sales up 25% to $1.89 billion, whereas analysts expected $1.86 billion. Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research, noted that deferred revenue growth was up 29% in Q4, foreshadowing sales to come. “By segment, Marketing Cloud was up by 31%,” he wrote in a Thursday research note. “App Cloud and other (formerly the Platform segment) was up by 43%, Services Cloud was up by 35% and the flagship Sales Cloud was up by +12%. “Commentary about activity in the most recent quarter included reference to the company’s signing of a new nine-figure transaction as well as a renewal of another large customer, also with a nine-figure sum.” Image provided by Shutterstock .