As the craze of earnings season draws to a close, here's a look back at some of the most exciting (and some less so) results from Q4. Today, we are looking at data infrastructure stocks, starting with Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT).
Generating insights from system level data is an increasing priority for most businesses, but to do so requires connecting and analyzing piles of data stored and siloed in separate databases. This is the demand driver for cloud based data infrastructure software providers, who can more readily integrate, distribute and process information vs. legacy on-premise software providers.
The 4 data infrastructure stocks we track reported a decent Q4; on average, revenues beat analyst consensus estimates by 2.3%, while next quarter's revenue guidance was in line with consensus. Valuation multiples for many growth stocks have not yet reverted to their early 2021 highs, though the market was optimistic at the end of 2023 due to cooling inflation. The start of 2024 has been a different story as mixed signals have led to market volatility, and data infrastructure stocks have had a rough stretch, with share prices down 16.5% on average since the previous earnings results.
Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT)
Started in 2014 by the team of engineers at LinkedIn who originally built it as an internal tool, Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) provides infrastructure software for organizations that makes it easy and fast to collect and move large amounts of data between different systems.
Confluent reported revenues of $213.2 million, up 26.4% year on year, topping analyst expectations by 3.7%. It was a good quarter for the company, with a decent beat of analysts' revenue estimates but management forecasting growth to slow.
“Confluent closed fiscal year 2023 on a high note, delivering our first $100 million quarter in Confluent Cloud revenue, representing growth of 46% year over year, and growing subscription revenue by 31% year over year,” said Jay Kreps, co-founder and CEO, Confluent.
Confluent achieved the biggest analyst estimates beat, fastest revenue growth, and highest full-year guidance raise of the whole group. The company added 44 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,229. The stock is up 15.1% since the results and currently trades at $27.99.
Is now the time to buy Confluent? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free.
Best Q4: Teradata (NYSE:TDC)
Part of point-of-sale and ATM company NCR from 1991 to 2007, Teradata (NYSE:TDC) offers a software-as-service platform that helps organizations manage their data across multiple storages and analyze it.
Teradata reported revenues of $457 million, up 1.1% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts' billings estimates and a meaningful improvement in its gross margin. Guidance was weak as ARR, revenue, and non-GAAP EPS projections for 2024 were all below expectations.
Teradata had the weakest performance against analyst estimates and slowest revenue growth among its peers. The stock is down 25.4% since the results and currently trades at $36.42.
Is now the time to buy Teradata? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free.
Slowest Q4: C3.ai (NYSE:AI)
Founded in 2009 by enterprise software veteran Tom Seibel, C3.ai (NYSE:AI) provides software that makes it easy for organizations to add artificial intelligence technology to their applications.
C3.ai reported revenues of $78.4 million, up 17.6% year on year, exceeding analyst expectations by 3%. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with revenue outperforming Wall Street's estimates. On the other hand, cash burn remained high.
The stock is down 29.2% since the results and currently trades at $21.02.
Read our full analysis of C3.ai's results here.
Elastic (NYSE:ESTC)
Started by Shay Banon as a search engine for his wife's growing list of recipes at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) helps companies integrate search into their products and monitor their cloud infrastructure.
Elastic reported revenues of $328 million, up 19.4% year on year, surpassing analyst expectations by 2.2%. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts' billings estimates but decelerating customer growth.
Elastic had the weakest full-year guidance update among its peers. The company added 50 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,270. The stock is down 26.7% since the results and currently trades at $97.95.
Read our full, actionable report on Elastic here, it's free.
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