Earnings: 3 Hot Tech Stocks to Watch
With earnings season in full swing, there will be plenty of companies delivering numbers that investors will want to weigh in the coming weeks. But three April earnings reports will be particularly worth keeping an eye on: Twitter's (NYSE: TWTR), Zendesk's, and Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL). The pressure is on for these companies, as each stock has already risen 19% or more so far in 2019.
Here's a preview of some key points to watch for in each of their reports.
Twitter will be the first of the three to report earnings; it's scheduled to release its first-quarter results before market open on April 23.
Investors should focus on Twitter's user metrics, particularly its monetizable daily active users (mDAU). The metric, which the company disclosed in absolute numbers for the first time ever in its fourth-quarter update, represents "users who log in and access Twitter on any given day through twitter.com or our Twitter applications that are able to show ads," management said in its Q4 shareholder letter.
The social network's mDAUs increased 9% year over year in Q4, driven by 5% year-over-year growth in U.S.-based mDAUs and 11% growth internationally. The key question: Did Twitter keep up this meaningful mDAU growth in Q1?
Zendesk
Customer-service software supplier Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN) impressed investors earlier this year when it reported Q1 results that beat analysts' consensus estimates for both revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share. Investors will be looking for another strong performance in Q1. Given the size of the company's revenue surge in Q4 -- it rose 41% year over year to $172.2 million -- investors will be especially interested in seeing if it kept up its top-line momentum.
Management forecast that Q1 revenue will be between $178 million and $180 million. Analysts agree, though their views skew a bit toward the more optimistic end of the range. The consensus forecast is that Zendesk Q1 revenue will land at $179.5 million, a result that would amount to 38.3% year-over-year growth.
Zendesk is scheduled to reports its Q1 results after market close on April 30.
Apple
When Apple reports on its fiscal second quarter, investors will want to look first at the tech giant's revenue.
The company's usual revenue growth reversed to a decline in its fiscal Q1, falling 5% year over year. Making matters worse, revenue came in a whopping $6.7 billion shy of management's initial guidance for the period. The stumble was primarily due to softer-than-expected iPhone sales in the Greater China market.
Top-line challenges are expected to persist. Management guided for its fiscal Q2 revenue to be between $55 billion and $59 billion. The the midpoint of that range would represent a 7% year-over-year decline.
Like Zendesk, Apple is scheduled to report its fiscal Q2 results after market close on April 30.
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Daniel Sparks has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple, Twitter, and Zendesk. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.