When Wall Street analysts look for data points to reinforce and justify their views on a stock, much of it can found in the profit and loss or balance sheet statements. Orders and forward-looking estimates for the future are good tools to use. Branding and name recognition are huge when judging consumer awareness. One large measure of a company’s forward potential is often tracked by who is trying to hire the most new employees.

A new research report from RBC points out that aggregate job posting data for their software universe is up 12.1% for the June quarter, the largest sequential increase they have recorded over the past five years. They point to six top tech names that have increased their quarter-over-quarter job postings by an incredible 30%. Plain and simple, companies don’t hire people if business isn’t good and getting better.

The team at RBC believes that when sales prospects are increasing, a company is more optimistic about its outlook, which should translate into more job postings and in turn more employees and increased capacity. Higher capacity generally translates to higher sales, assuming productivity of new hires ramp in six to nine months.

The bottom line for our readers is a ramp-up in hiring now could make for blockbuster earnings in the first two quarters of next year for some of these top software stocks.

Here are the six software names that are ramping up their hiring, according to RBC.

Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) forecast current-quarter and fiscal 2015 revenue above analyst consensus estimates, sending shares up to an all-time high on views its transition to a new software licensing model and cloud-based products are gaining traction and acceptance. The Thomson/First Call consensus price target for the stock is $59.13. Autodesk closed Monday at $56.17 a share.

Brightcove Inc. (NASDAQ: BCOV) is a leading global provider of cloud services for video and recently launched support for the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV standard, enabling broadcasters to combine over-the-air broadcast and IP delivery to publish personalized video and interactive TV experiences to users on connected TVs and set-top boxes. The consensus price target for the stock is $16. Brightcove closed Monday at $10.58.

CommVault Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CVLT) announced last year the industry’s first virtual machine (VM) intelligent archiving capability to help enterprises and service providers eliminate VM sprawl and regain control of virtual infrastructure resources. VM sprawl results from pervasive deployment and growth of virtual machines, some of which then sit unused long after their useful lives.

The stock was knocked down after missing earnings last quarter and may be offering investors a good entry point. The consensus price target for this intriguing mid-cap is $62.64. The stock closed Monday at $48.90.

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Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a top cybersecurity name that was hammered despite posting very good first-quarter results both on the top and bottom line. A nice rally off the low has lifted the stock back near 52-week highs. Wall Street analysts cite not only a pending product refresh cycle, but they point out that the information technology security market is a robust and growing sector. The consensus price target is $26.20. Fortinet closed Monday at $24.18.

Qlik Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: QLIK) is another fast-rising tech name catching a buzz on Wall Street. The company’s QlikView Business Discovery platform lets people quickly bring data sources together to create dynamic visual applications that can be navigated and searched intuitively. QlikView uses Natural Analytics to reflect the way human curiosity searches and processes information, while delivering the enterprise manageability, governance and service offerings organizations require. The consensus price objective is at $3o.79. The stock closed Monday at $23.04.

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) has backed up nicely from recent highs and could be offering a solid entry level. The company is a leader in cloud storage software and their cloud computing service is a new offering for their customers, and a new challenge to competitors. The company’s vCloud Hybrid Service has not been designed or marketed as a standalone public cloud as of yet. With a huge customer base, and a low 5% penetration of the huge $50 billion Technology Acceptance Model market, many Wall Street analysts feel that growth can reaccelerate this year and beyond. The consensus target is at $110.72. The stock closed Monday at $94.41.

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