Red Hat Jumps To Highest Price Levels Since Dot-com Boom

Red Hat Inc. shares jumped more than 9% in after-hours trading Tuesday following a quarterly earnings report that beat expectations and raised projections for the year, sending prices to levels unseen since the dot-com boom went bust. The open-source tech-infrastructure company reported net income of $73.2 million, or 40 cents a share, on sales of $676.8 million for the first quarter of its 2018 fiscal year. After adjustments for stock-based compensation and other effects, Red Hat claimed profit of 56 cents a share. Analysts on average expected Red Hat to report adjusted earnings of 53 cents a share on sales of $648 million, according to FactSet, and the company had guided for adjusted profit of 52 cents to 53 cents a share. Red Hat also increased its guidance for profit and revenue for the full fiscal year; adjusted earnings are now expected to fall in a range of $2.66 to $2.70 a share, up from a previous range of $2.60 to $2.64 a share, and sales are expected to finish the fiscal year at $2.785 billion to $2.825 billion, increased from a previous range of $2.72 billion to $2.76 billion. Red Hat stock rocketed to more than $98.50 after closing with a 0.4% decline at $89.96; shares have not topped $92.49 in regular trading since early 2000.