Baird Incrementally Positive On Tableau Software's Surprise CEO Announcement

Baird is "incrementally positive" on Tableau Software Inc DATA's appointment of Adam Selipsky as CEO and President, a move seen as a push to boost Enterprise G2M.

Selipsky, who was formerly VP of Marketing, Sales, Support at Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN Web Services, will take over his new role on September 16 and succeeds Christian Chabot. Chabot, who has been CEO for the past 10 years, will remain Chairman of the BoD developing the longer-term strategy.

"We are incrementally positive on the news, as Mr. Selipsky brings much needed Enterprise G2M experience," analyst Steven Ashley wrote in a note.

Meanwhile, Ashley views this as a natural transition as the company enters its next phase of growth and as the product matures, it needs a different skill set is needed to scale. The analyst cited Adobe Systems Incorporated ADBE and Intuit Inc. INTU making similar management transitions.

Tableau believes Selipsky will be able to strengthen its Enterprise G2M where he can put forth his expertise at AWS selling at the Enterprise level within the IT Department.

Selipsky also brings extensive experience in selling Cloud workloads which Chabot believes is where B.I. workloads will increasingly transition to in the future.

Ashley, who has an Outperform rating on the stock, raised his price target by $5 to $65.

At time of writing, shares of Tableau rose 11.92 percent to $61.41.