As earnings season continues, three interesting companies for tech investors to watch in the second half of August are financial software company Intuit (INTU 0.76%); enterprise software specialist VMware (VMW); and Salesforce (CRM 1.27%), which provides platforms for customer relationship management.
With all three companies increasing their full-year outlook and serving investors double-digit revenue growth in their most recently reported quarters, investors will be watching these tech stocks closely. Adding to the pressure, all three stocks are up 50% or more over the past 12 months.
Image source: Intuit.
Intuit
Not only has Intuit seen impressive momentum recently, but management also recently gave its full-year revenue outlook a significant boost. When the company reported its fiscal third-quarter results, management said it expected revenue for the year to increase 14% to 15% year over year, up from previous guidance for 9% to 11% growth.
Management's bullishness in the third-quarter earnings release was unmistakable, with CFO Michelle Clatterbuck saying: "We're raising our guidance for fiscal year 2018 on the strength of our performance across the businesses this quarter. These results demonstrate that our One Intuit strategy is also gaining traction, and we expect it to continue to gain momentum through the rest of this fiscal year and beyond."
On average, analysts expect Intuit's fiscal fourth-quarter revenue to come in at $952 million, up 13% year over year. The consensus forecast for Intuit's non-GAAP earnings per share is $0.23, up from $0.20 in the year-ago quarter.
VMware
Enterprise and cloud-computing company VMware will have to live up to a very strong first quarter of fiscal 2019, which boasted 14% year-over-year revenue growth and an 18.9% increase in non-GAAP EPS. The strong quarter was fueled by 20.7% year-over-year growth in license revenue and 9.8% growth in services revenue.
Making a case for the sustainability of VMware's strong growth rates, management said in its fiscal first-quarter earnings release that its growth was driven by "broad-based strength across our diverse product and services portfolio and in all three geographies."
The consensus analyst estimate for VMware's fiscal second-quarter revenue is $2.15 billion, representing a 13% year-over-year increase. For VMware's non-GAAP EPS, the consensus estimate is for $1.49, up 25% from the year-ago quarter.
Salesforce
Salesforce's first-quarter results for its fiscal 2019 extended the software-as-a-service company's impressive streak of "beat and raise" periods, in which the company beats its own guidance and raises its outlook for the full year. First-quarter revenue of $3.01 billion crushed management's guidance range for a top line between $2.925 billion and $2.935 billion. With revenue for the quarter above $3 billion, Salesforce's top-line year-over-year growth rate was 25% -- an acceleration from 24% growth in the prior quarter.
As management was quick to point out during the company's first-quarter earnings call, Salesforce's momentum has been fueled not only by strong growth across all of its clouds, but also by growth across each of its key geographic regions. Kicking off the year with a strong quarter and broad-based strength, management said it expected full-year revenue growth of 24% to 25%.
On average, analysts expect Salesforce to report fiscal second-quarter non-GAAP EPS of $0.47 on revenue of $3.23 billion -- up 42% and 26%, respectively, from the year-ago period.
Mark your calendar: Intuit and VMware both report their quarterly results after market close on Aug. 23, and Salesforce will share its latest quarterly update after market close on Aug. 29.
