Volatility rocked the markets this week as the U.S.-China trade war continued. Market indices were hit particularly hard on Friday, when the S&P 500 fell 2.6% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3%.
With all of this noise in the market, it may have been easy to miss some notable earnings reports during the week. Tech companies VMware (VMW +0.00%), salesforce.com (CRM 3.10%), and Intuit (INTU 2.48%), for instance, all reported strong quarterly results.
Here's a closer look at key figures from these companies' reports.
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VMware
Enterprise software company VMware reported strong top- and bottom-line results for its second quarter of fiscal 2020 this week. Revenue during the period rose 12% year over year to $2.44 billion, beating analysts' average forecast for $2.43 billion.
Non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share for the quarter was $1.60, ahead of analysts' consensus estimate for $1.55. The strong results were driven by broad-based growth in all three of the company's geographic segments.
But stealing the show in VMware's quarterly update was the announcement of two acquisitions. The company entered into definitive agreements to acquire Pivotal Software (PVTL +0.00%) and Carbon Black (CBLK +0.00%), in deals with enterprise values of $2.7 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively.
"Our cloud strategy and strong Hybrid Cloud and SaaS [software-as-a-service] growth will substantially accelerate, as we bring Pivotal and Carbon Black into the portfolio," said VMWare CFO Zane Rowe in the company's second-quarter earnings release.
Salesforce
Salesforce, a company that offers cloud-based customer relationship management, sales, and marketing platforms and services for businesses, reported record results for its fiscal second quarter this week. Revenue rose 22% year over year to $4 billion, coming in above the high end of management's guidance range and beating analysts' average estimate for revenue of $3.95 billion.
Non-GAAP earnings per share decreased from $0.71 in the year-ago quarter to $0.66. But non-GAAP earnings per share were negatively affected by $0.16 from a settlement of the salesforce.org reseller agreement. In addition, it's worth noting that Salesforce's non-GAAP EPS easily beat analysts' consensus forecast for $0.47.
Intuit
Financial software company Intuit also beat analyst estimates. The company reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $944 million, up 15% year over year. That was above analysts' average forecast for revenue of $962 million. The company's adjusted loss per share was $0.09, narrower than the $0.15 loss analysts had expected.
"These results were fueled by 15% growth in the Small Business and Self-Employed Group, and 11% growth in the Consumer Group," said Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi in the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings release.
Management noted that a focus on addressing customer pain points in its online small business and self-employed offerings and improvements to the customer experience for its do-it-yourself and assisted tax preparation products helped drive growth.
