How Red Hat Is Reaching Highs Not Seen Since the Dot-Com Era

After Red Hat reported its fiscal second-quarter financial late Monday its shares hit multiyear highs — not seen since 2000 — early on Tuesday.

Published September 26, 2017, 10:15am ET · 2 min read

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After Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) reported its fiscal second-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Monday, the cybersecurity firm saw its shares hit multiyear highs — not seen since 2000 — early on Tuesday.

The company said that it had $0.77 in earnings per share (EPS) and $723.4 million in revenue, which compares with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $0.67 in EPS and revenue of $699.45 million. In the same period of last year, Red Hat posted EPS of $0.55 and $599.8 million in revenue.

Subscription revenue for the quarter totaled $638 million, up 20% year over year and 20% measured in constant currency. Subscription revenue makes up 88% of total revenue.

At the end of the quarter, total deferred revenue was $2.05 billion, up 22% from last year.

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In terms of the outlook for the fiscal third-quarter, the company expects to see EPS of $0.70 and revenues in the range of $730 million to $737 million. Consensus estimates call for $0.70 in EPS and $710.92 million in revenue for the coming quarter.

Red Hat’s cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.21 billion at the end of the quarter, compared with $1.09 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year.

Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of Red Hat, commented:

Strong demand for our technologies that enable hybrid cloud computing has contributed to accelerated revenue growth in the first half of the fiscal year. In the second quarter, we delivered total revenue growth of 21%, fueled by over 40% growth in our Application Development-related and other emerging technology revenue. IT organizations continued to turn to Red Hat as a strategic technology partner to help them transform and modernize their applications and infrastructure for the hybrid cloud.

Shares of Red Hat traded up 4% early Monday at $110.06. The consensus analyst price target is $111.32, and the 52-week trading range is $68.54 to $108.39.

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Chris Lange

Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.

His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.

When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.

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