Looking back on data infrastructure stocks’ Q4 earnings, we examine this quarter’s best and worst performers, including Confluent (NASDAQ: CFLT) and its peers.
Generating insights from system level data is an increasing priority for most businesses, but to do so requires connecting and analyzing piles of data stored and siloed in separate databases. This is the demand driver for cloud based data infrastructure software providers, who can more readily integrate, distribute and process information vs. legacy on-premise software providers.
The 4 data infrastructure stocks we track reported a mixed Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 1% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 0.9% below.
Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 8.9% since the latest earnings results.
Confluent (NASDAQ: CFLT)
Started in 2014 by the team of engineers at LinkedIn who originally built it as an internal tool, Confluent (NASDAQ: CFLT) provides infrastructure software for organizations that makes it easy and fast to collect and move large amounts of data between different systems.
Confluent reported revenues of $261.2 million, up 22.5% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 1.7%. Overall, it was a satisfactory quarter for the company with a solid beat of analysts’ billings estimates but revenue guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations.
“Confluent closed the year with a strong Q4, highlighted by beating all guided metrics and achieving 38% year-over-year Confluent Cloud revenue growth,” said Jay Kreps, co-founder and CEO, Confluent.
Confluent delivered the weakest full-year guidance update of the whole group. The company added 35 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,381. Unsurprisingly, the stock is down 1.1% since reporting and currently trades at $29.77.
Is now the time to buy Confluent? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Best Q4: Elastic (NYSE: ESTC)
Started by Shay Banon as a search engine for his wife's growing list of recipes at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, Elastic (NYSE: ESTC) helps companies integrate search into their products and monitor their cloud infrastructure.
Elastic reported revenues of $382.1 million, up 16.5% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 3.5%. The business had a strong quarter with an impressive beat of analysts’ billings estimates and EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations.
Elastic delivered the biggest analyst estimates beat and highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The company added 40 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,460. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 6% since reporting. It currently trades at $107.50.
Is now the time to buy Elastic? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Weakest Q4: Teradata (NYSE: TDC)
Part of point-of-sale and ATM company NCR from 1991 to 2007, Teradata (NYSE: TDC) offers a software-as-service platform that helps organizations manage their data across multiple storages and analyze it.
Teradata reported revenues of $409 million, down 10.5% year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 1.5%. It was a disappointing quarter as it posted full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations.
Teradata delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates and slowest revenue growth in the group. As expected, the stock is down 24.3% since the results and currently trades at $23.38.
Read our full analysis of Teradata’s results here.
C3.ai (NYSE: AI)
Founded in 2009 by enterprise software veteran Tom Seibel, C3.ai (NYSE: AI) provides software that makes it easy for organizations to add artificial intelligence technology to their applications.
C3.ai reported revenues of $98.78 million, up 26% year on year. This result beat analysts’ expectations by 0.5%. Zooming out, it was a mixed quarter as it also produced an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates but a significant miss of analysts’ billings estimates.
C3.ai achieved the fastest revenue growth among its peers. The stock is down 16.4% since reporting and currently trades at $22.14.
Read our full, actionable report on C3.ai here, it’s free.
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