4 Tech Stocks That Look Great After Earnings

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Although there are still a good five weeks left to go this earnings season, a whole swath of tech stocks have already reported last quarter’s numbers.

Tech Stocks

Source: Zoom by Jean Sander

Among the biggest names are Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), just to name a few.

As is usually the case with earnings, some of these names did well, and some did poorly. As is also usually the case with tech stocks though, a handful of these companies really proved their mettle with their most recent reports.

Here’s a closer look at four of the top tech stocks to buy after posting first-quarter numbers.

Tech Stocks: Google (GOOGL, GOOG)

 earnings, tech stocks, googl, googAs was explained in the earnings preview posted Wednesday morning, Google may be one of the market’s most successful-yet-habitually-disappointing companies, having logged six straight quarters of rising year-over-year per-share profits despite falling short of expectations in the past five quarters.

True to its recent form, Google missed analyst estimates again last quarter. The company earned $6.57 per share, which was three cents shy of the $6.60 profit per share of GOOGL the pros were expecting.

What’s so buy-worthy about another earnings miss, especially when there are plenty of other tech stocks out there that constantly top expectations? Because once again, Google grew the bottom line. The company only earned $6.27 per share in the same quarter a year earlier.

With earnings projected to grow at a steady pace in the low teens this year and next year, it’s time to start worrying less about overzealous analyst outlooks for GOOGL and appreciate the fact that Google is a cash cow. The fact that shares have been stagnant for a year now only adds to the upside.

Tech Stocks: Citrix Systems (CTXS)

Citrix, ctxs, earnings , tech stocksThe name Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) rarely comes up on investors’ list of favorite tech stocks, most likely because the average consumer rarely if ever uses its product, and the few who know it also know the company has been facing a long-term headwind.

But, CTXS at least deserves an occasional look… especially right now.

In simplest terms, Citrix Systems provides a variety of technology services for business of all types and sizes. Its portfolio offers everything from mobile access to network security to online meetings.

CTXS has been dead money since 2011, and the company missed its first-quarter estimates when it reported earnings on Wednesday. There’s a largely overlooked detail beyond the raw numbers though — Citrix Systems went through a significant restructuring last quarter. The move crimped profits this time around, but these same moves will save up to $100 million per year in the long run.

Simultaneously, many observers believe we’ve only scratched the surface of desktop-virtualization and enterprise-level cloud computing, which plays right into Citrix’s wheelhouse.

It’s admittedly not a well-liked stock at this time, based on tepid revenue and shrinking margins. That’s what makes it a great contrarian idea, though. Even just the slightest upside surprise could start a chain reaction of buying, short-covering and upgrades.

Tech Stocks: eBay (EBAY)

eBay , earnings, tech stocksGiven the tone and timbre of its Q4 earnings conference call back in January, it would have been easy to assume the worst regarding the Q1 numbers for eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY).

Specifically, CEO John Donahoe stated then, “2015 will be another challenging year, and we expect eBay’s performance to soften further before we see stabilization and improvement. We still have work to do.” CFO Robert Swan followed up by making a point of broadly saying “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Yikes.

In retrospect, though, one can’t help but wonder if eBay was simply trying to sandbag expectations. The online-auction site’s first quarter earnings numbers announced on Wednesday were far better than expected. Sales-wise, eBay drove $4.45 billion revenue versus expectations of $4.42 billion. On the profit front, the company backed net earnings of 77 cents per share versus expectations of only 70 cents per share of EBAY stock.

Bolstering the sandbagging theory is the fact that eBay hasn’t missed estimates in seven straight quarters. Very few tech stocks can claim the same.

Tech Stocks: Microsoft (MSFT)

microsoft , msft, earnings, tech stocksA little more than a year ago, when Satya Nadella took the helm as CEO of Microsoft Corporation, some were convinced it was the beginning of the end for one of the market’s most prolific tech stocks. Nadella has since proved all the doubters wrong, putting the finishing touches on his results-based rebuttal with the company’s fiscal third quarter numbers posted Thursday afternoon.

In Q3, Microsoft grew the top line by more than 6% (largely thanks to cloud services and hardware sales), topping revenue estimates in the process. And, earnings trounced outlooks. The company earned 61 cents per share, versus expectations of only 51 cents per share of MSFT.

It’s true that Microsoft Windows is increasingly irrelevant as consumers move from computers to tablets. Ditto for Microsoft Office.

It’s also true, however, that Nadella has been reshaping the company into something that is increasingly relevant now. Namely, MSFT is making a name for itself in cloud computing, and it did surprisingly well with its newly-acquired Nokia smartphone business last quarter. The company sold $1.4 billion worth of phone hardware in its fiscal Q3 (6.5% of total revenue), while cloud-driven service revenue grew more than 100% in the previous quarter.

In other words, contrary to widespread belief and despite a lackluster performance from MSFT this year so far, Microsoft has reinvented itself. Last quarter’s numbers are finally forcing the market to recognize it.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/04/4-tech-stocks-look-great-earnings/.

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