Three months ago, data management specialist Teradata (NYSE: TDC) edged out analyst targets on both the top and bottom lines. The stock spiked overnight, but investors lost interest quickly. Since that first-quarter report, Teradata shares have fallen nearly 13% even as the broader market treaded water.

The company is gearing up for a second-quarter update ahead of Thursday's opening bell. Does the company have another analyst-stomping performance on tap? I think so, and here's why.

Your average analyst expects $0.65 of non-GAAP earnings per share, up from $0.60 a year ago. Revenue should jump 14% to $660 million. Management doesn't offer guidance on a quarterly basis, but raised its full-year earnings and sales outlook when the first quarter came in stronger than expected. The year-over-year comparisons will be tough in the second and third quarters because the 2011 periods turned out to be crushingly good.

CEO Michael Koehler rejects the notion that Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) or IBM (NYSE: IBM) would pose any credible threat to his data warehousing and analysis products, try as they might. Those data-handling traditionalists make you pick one information management product for large-scale big data environments and a different one for high-speed analysis. Teradata has done away with that distinction, Koehler says, making it easy to store commonly used data on faster but more expensive storage technologies (think in-memory or solid-state drives) while less frequently accessed bulk data can live on cheaper, slower devices (like magnetic hard drives or even tape storage).

That flexibility is a large part of how Teradata beats the big boys of general technology in head-to-head contract bids. That opens up the doors for sales of consulting services and specialized plug-in analysis tools. Consulting service sales should catch up to Teradata's overall revenue growth as the classic razor-and-blades model gains traction. In the last quarter, consulting lagged somewhat at 15% annual sales growth versus 22% higher total sales.

Teradata is a huge name in big data management, and only growing larger every quarter. In a special report, we even call it "The Only Stock You Need To Profit From the NEW Technology Revolution." Read all about it by clicking here, but hurry up -- the report is totally free right now but won't stay that way forever.