Despite expectations that the company will miss key targets, Tableau Software Inc DATA's fourth-quarter results might inspire some investor confidence coming into the new fiscal year. Tableau will report results Thursday after market close.
The Street is looking for revenue of $200.8 million and $0.16 EPS for the quarter, and broadly speaking, analysts were bullish on the company's 2016 outlook.
Stifel, Drexel Hamilton Weigh In
Stifel and Drexel Hamilton, to name two, were optimistic on Tableau. Analysts from each bank agreed with the Street that Tableau would likely miss expectations, but both saw investment opportunity in its enterprise sales operations.
Stifel is looking for revenues of $200 million, just short of the Street. Drexel Hamilton doesn't think Tableau will break the $200 million mark, with revenue expectations of $199.9 million for the quarter.
Stifel analysts Tom Roderick and Matthew Van Vliet acknowledged that Tableau had "an ongoing wall of worry" to climb in the form of competition from Microsoft's data visualization suite PowerBI. However, they felt that the increasingly vital role of data visualization and Tableu's success in enterprise standardization were encouraging and that investors should see "great near-term opportunity" in Tableau.
The analysts gave Tableau a Buy rating and a target price of $145.
Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White agreed, writing that Tableau could become the "'must have tool'" for data employees. White expects the company to raise its 2016 guidance from $845 million to $865 million.
He reiterated Drexel Hamilton's Buy rating and set a price target of $132.
Company-Issued Guidance
The company issued a $195 to $200 million fourth-quarter guidance in a November third-quarter earnings call. The company raised fiscal year 2015 guidance from $617 to $627 million to $645 to $650 million and initiated a $845 million fiscal year 2016 guidance.
Tableau shares were recently seen trading down 1.47 percent at $77.67.
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