What happened
Shares of HubSpot Inc. (HUBS 0.45%) were up 10.6% as of 12:26 p.m. EDT Wednesday after the marketing and sales software specialist raised its financial guidance on the heels of its analyst day on Tuesday.
Specifically, for its third quarter, which ends Sept. 30, HubSpot now expects revenue in the range of $95.9 million to $96.9 million (up from a guidance range of $92.8 million to $93.8 million previously), which should translate to an adjusted net loss per share of between $0.04 and $0.02 (compared to guidance for a per-share loss of $0.10 to $0.08 previously).
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES
So what
Multiple analyst upgrades helped spur the stock's move this morning, including a reiterated outperform rating and a share price target hike from $80 to $82 from Oppenheimer's Koji Ikeda. Ikeda noted there was a "confident" overall tone in HubSpot's presentations Tuesday.
KeyBanc analyst Brent Bracelin also reiterated his overweight rating, and increased his share price target from $80 to $86. Bracelin further predicted that, thanks to healthy small business demand and new product potential, HubSpot could grow its annualized revenue to $1 billion within the next five years -- that's nearly three times this year's consensus estimate for revenue of $364 million.
Now what
As it stands, HubSpot is expected to formally release its final Q3 results in early November. But you can be sure investors appreciate today's color with only a few days left in the quarter. With HubSpot long-term growth story coming into focus, and with shares up nearly 70% so far in 2017, I won't be the least bit surprised if the stock sustains its upward momentum in the months ahead.
