Web content delivery and security company Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) will be reporting earnings tomorrow after the bell. Here's what to expect.
Last quarter Akamai reported revenues of $860.3 million, up 8.51% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was an ok quarter for the company, with a slower revenue growth and year-on-year decline in gross margin.
Is Akamai buy or sell heading into the earnings? Read our full analysis here, it's free.
This quarter analysts are expecting Akamai's revenue to grow 5.8% year on year to $895.3 million, slowing down from the 9.6% year-over-year increase in revenue the company had recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $1.43 per share.
Majority of analysts covering the company have reconfirmed their estimates over the last thirty days, suggesting they are expecting the business to stay the course heading into the earnings. The company has a history of exceeding Wall St's expectations, beating revenue estimates every single time over the past two years on average by 2.02%.
Looking at Akamai's peers in the software development segment, some of them have already reported Q4 earnings results, giving us a hint of what we can expect. Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) delivered top-line growth of 53.7% year on year, beating analyst estimates by 4.72% and F5 Networks (NASDAQ:FFIV) reported revenues up 10% year on year, exceeding estimates by 1.31%. Cloudflare traded down 9.49% on results, F5 Networks was down 8.53%. Read our full analysis of Cloudflare's results here and F5 Networks's results here.
Investors in the software segment have had steady hands going into the earnings, with the stocks up on average 1.62% over the last month. Akamai is down 0.67% during the same time, and is heading into the earnings with analyst price target of $129.3, compared to share price of $111.32.
One way to find opportunities in the market is to watch for generational shifts in the economy. Almost every company is slowly finding itself becoming a technology company and facing cybersecurity risks and as a result, the demand for cloud-native cybersecurity is skyrocketing. This company is leading a massive technological shift in the industry and with revenue growth of 70% year on year and best-in-class SaaS metrics it should definitely be on your radar.
The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.