What to Expect From Rackspace Earnings

Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX) is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter financial results after the markets close on Tuesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.23 in earnings per share (EPS) on revenue of $521.39 million. In the same period of the previous year, the company posted EPS of $0.26 and $472.42 million in revenue.

This stock has been cut by over half from highs posted last year, and investors may have an awesome entry point at current levels. Rackspace is the self-described number one managed cloud company, helping businesses tap the power of the cloud without the challenge and expense of managing complex IT infrastructure and application platforms on their own. Its engineers deliver specialized expertise on top of leading technologies developed by AWS, Microsoft, OpenStack, VMware and others, through a results-obsessed service known as Fanatical Support.

Rackspace reported very solid third-quarter results, including revenue and EBITDA that beat Wall Street expectations. The solid numbers were largely driven by some previously announced enterprise business that was pushed into the third quarter and slightly higher seasonal growth within its public cloud business. The company also reaffirmed 2015 EBITDA margin guidance, but it did narrow fourth-quarter revenue growth guidance due to the better-than-expected numbers in the third quarter.

Only a couple of analysts weighed in on Rackspace prior to the release of its latest earnings report:

• Goldman Sachs has a Hold rating with a $24 price target.
• RBC Capital reiterated a Buy rating.

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So far in 2016, Rackspace has underperformed the market, with the stock down 30% year to date. However, over the past 52 weeks the stock is down nearly 65%.

Shares of Rackspace closed most recently at $17.63, with a consensus analyst price target of $37.28 and a 52-week trading range of $16.38 to $56.20.