It can be challenging to make sense of the stock market at times. Red Hat saw it’s stock price slide more than 4 percent Tuesday after reporting earnings that topped analyst estimates of earnings and revenue and raising its outlook. Raleigh-based Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHT) reported third fiscal quarter earnings of $103.3 million or 54 cents a share.
But, after closing at $128.8, down 58 cents, it lost further ground after hours, sinking to $123.46, down 4.19 percent.
Adjusted for one-time revenue and costs, it earned 73 cents a share. Zack’s Investment Research consensus estimates were for earnings of 70 cents a share.
Red Hat’s revenue of $748 million in the quarter topped analyst estimates of $734.5 million.
The company increased its outlook for both the fourth quarter and full year. It expects to earn 81 cents a share in the fourth quarter and expects revenue of from $758 million to $763 million. Analysts had predicted $754.7 million.
Red Hat forecast full-year earnings to be $2.88 per share, and revenue of $2.91 billion.
Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst told Jim Cramer’s The Street that investors may have expected higher growth in its cloud infrastrucuture billings, a recurring payments metric. Billings grew 14 percent over the last quarter, but it had 18 percent growth in the same period last year and landed some larger deals in the 2016 fourth quarter, kicking billings up 29 percent.
But, Whitehurst said in an interview with The Street, “We literally beat every line, revenue, billings, earnings per share.”
Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst told Jim Cramer’s TheStreet that investors may have had higher expectations for growth in the cloud infrastructure company’s billings segment, which is a metric that measures recurring payments from customers.
Red Hat has actually had an excellent year on the stock market. Its shares rose 85 percent since January 2017. It started its 52-week range at $68 and climbed as high as $130.
