Product design software company PTC (NASDAQ: PTC) will be reporting earnings this Wednesday after market hours. Here’s what investors should know.

PTC beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 10.4% last quarter, reporting revenues of $643.9 million, up 24.2% year on year. It was an exceptional quarter for the company, with EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations and a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.

Is PTC a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, analysts are expecting PTC’s revenue to grow 20.2% year on year to $752.9 million, improving from the 14.6% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $2.27 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. PTC has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates twice over the last two years.

Looking at PTC’s peers in the vertical software segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Cadence Design Systems delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 10.1%, beating analysts’ expectations by 0.9%, and Agilysys reported revenues up 16.1%, topping estimates by 3.1%. Cadence Design Systems traded down 3% following the results while Agilysys was up 22.7%.

Read our full analysis of Cadence Design Systems’s results here and Agilysys’s results here.

Investors in the vertical software segment have had fairly steady hands going into earnings, with share prices down 1.2% on average over the last month. PTC is down 4.9% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $225.84 (compared to the current share price of $195).

P.S. In tech investing, "Gorillas" are the rare companies that dominate their markets—like Microsoft and Apple did decades ago. Today, the next Gorilla is emerging in AI-powered enterprise software. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.

StockStory is growing and hiring equity analyst and marketing roles. Are you a 0 to 1 builder passionate about the markets and AI? See the open roles here.