Nutanix Inc. (NASDAQ:NTNX) is set to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2017 results on Aug 31. With this, the company will also report its first full fiscal year since it went public on Sep 30, 2016.
We expect the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter results to fare better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Notably, Nutanix has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing three quarters.
Why a Likely Positive Surprise?
Our proven model shows that Nutanix is likely to beat on earnings this quarter. A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or at least 3 (Hold) for this to happen. Nutanix has the right combination of two key components.
Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is pegged at 2.35%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate of a loss of 37 cents comes in lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 38 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Zacks Rank: Nutanix has a Zacks Rank #3, which when combined with an ESP of +2.35% make us reasonably confident of a positive surprise.
Conversely, we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.
What’s Driving the Better-than-Expected Earnings?
Nutanix provides an enterprise cloud platform which converges silos of server, virtualization, and storage into integrated solution and connects to public cloud services.
The company has been benefiting from bright prospects of the hyperconverged integrated systems (HCIS) market. Per market research firm Gartner, HCIS will be the fastest-growing segment of the overall market for integrated systems, reaching almost $5 billion, by 2019.
In fiscal 2016, revenues soared a whopping 84% year over year to $445 million, slightly lower than the nearly 90% surge it posted in fiscal 2015. We anticipate this significant growth momentum will continue and will be well reflected in the to-be-reported quarter results.
Nutanix had 6,170 end customers at the end of third-quarter fiscal 2017, which includes the likes of Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) and AT&T Inc (NYSE:T).
However, intensifying competition is a key concern. Dell’s majority control over VMware (NYSE:VMW) , post the EMC (NYSE:EMC) acquisition, is a major headwind for Nutanix. If Dell chooses to use VMware products instead of Nutanix, the company’s top-line growth will suffer, consequently impacting stock price.
Other Stock to Consider
Here is another stock, which you may want to consider as our model shows that this too has the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE:PANW) , scheduled to release earnings on Aug 31, currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.07% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
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Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW): Free Stock Analysis Report
Nutanix Inc. (NTNX): Free Stock Analysis Report
Vmware, Inc. (VMW): Free Stock Analysis Report
Jabil Circuit, Inc. (JBL): Free Stock Analysis Report
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