Red Hat stock falls as Q2 revenue disappoints; earnings top estimates

Shares of Red Hat (RHT) fell sharply in the extended trading session Wednesday after the company posted below-consensus revenues for its second quarter. Apparently, investors were not impressed by the strong earnings growth.

Earnings, adjusted for one-off items, moved up to $0.85 per share from $0.77 per share a year earlier and came in above expectations. The company’s earnings surpassed estimates in all of the four trailing quarters. Reported net profit was $87 million or $0.46 per share, compared to $97 million or $0.53 per share in the same period last year.

At $823 million, revenues were up 14% compared to the second quarter of 2018, but below expectations. Red Hat had deferred revenue balance of $2.4 billion at the end of the quarter, higher by 17%.

“The expansion of our technology portfolio has increased our strategic importance with customers, which is evidenced by the number of deals over five million dollars in the second quarter more than doubling year-over-year,” said CEO Jim Whitehurst.

Red Hat had deferred revenue balance of $2.4 billion at the end of the quarter, higher by 17%

The management continues to expect revenue to grow 16-17% to the range of $3.360 billion to $3.395 billion in fiscal 2019. Full-year earnings are forecast to be in the range of $2.29 per share to $2.33 per share, and adjusted earnings between $3.45 per share and $3.49 per share.

For the third quarter, the company predicts earnings of $0.56 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.87 per share. The revenue forecast for the current quarter is $848- $856 million.

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In the first quarter, Red Hat’s profit and revenues rose 20% and 24%, respectively, and topped the Wall Street forecast. The top-line growth was broad-based, with all segments registering an uptick.

Of late, the North Carolina-based company has been shifting to hybrid cloud architecture and adopting cloud-enabling technologies to tackle the mounting competition. As part of the strategy, it forged partnerships with Juniper Networks (JNPR) and Microsoft (MSFT) earlier this year.

Shares of Red Hat gained 18% so far this year. The stock traded higher throughout Wednesday’s regular session but declined sharply following the earnings report.

Red Hat stock plunge on weak guidance; Q1 earnings tops estimates