Workday (WDAY, $75.84) reports fiscal Q1 (April) revenue rose 38% to $345.4 million, above the consensus estimate of $338.7 million and the high end of the guidance range of $337 million to $339 million. 

EPS of five cents topped the consensus estimate by seven cents. Deferred revenue advanced 42% to $926.1 million.

For FQ2, the company sees revenue of $371 million to $373 million, vs. the consensus of $370.9 million.

Marketo (MKTO, $35.22) will be acquired by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners for $35.25 a share in cash.

The deal, valued at $1.79 billion, is expected to close in Q3.

For more on Marketo, see TechStock Radar—May 27, 2016.

Marketo (MKTO, $32.06) shares today are up more than 10% after Dealreporter said the provider of cloud-based marketing automation software was in buyout talks with private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. For now, that’s just speculation on the part of Dealreporter sources, as there is no confirmation.

Marketo has been a rumored acquisition target for several weeks. On May 10, the shares jumped more than 24% following a Bloomberg report that the company had engaged Morgan Stanley to evaluate strategic alternatives. In early April, the stock popped 12%+ in one session after JMP Securities said Microsoft (MSFT) or SAP (SAP) could be potential buyers.

In the April 2016 issue of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP #170), we wrote that the stock’s valuation (trading around $21.35 at the time) was low enough to potentially attract buyout interest.

Needham starts PayPal (PYPL, $38.07) at ‘Hold,’ saying investors should wait for a more attractive entry point. The stock has rebounded from the January low of $30.52, but is down from the March high of $41.75.

The firm sees the current valuation as fair given mid-teens earnings growth balanced against competitive pressures that could dampen growth & profitability over the longer term.

Splunk (SPLK, $54.93) reports fiscal Q1 (April) revenue grew 48% to $186 million, above the consensus estimate of $174.1 million. License revenue advanced 41% to $101 million. Ratable mix: 51% of license bookings.

For FQ2, the company expects revenue of $198 million to $200 million, vs. the consensus of $199.4 million.

Splunk raises FY’17 revenue guidance:

NEW: $892 million to $896 million (midpoint growth of 33.7%)

Previous: $880 million

Consensus: $882.1 million (growth of 32%)

Shares of Pure Storage (PSTG, $12.11) today are down more than 17% even though the company last night delivered fiscal Q1 (April) top-line growth of 89%. 

Revenue of $139.9 million topped the consensus estimate of $138.1 million, but the beat wasn’t as big as expected. Product revenue growth advanced 75%, deceleration from growth of 120% in the previous quarter.

For FQ2, Pure sees revenue of $153 million to $157 million, vs. the consensus of $153.8 million. 

The stock has rebounded from this morning’s opening low of $11.05, the post-IPO low. Pure went public last October at $17.

Two security stocks were standouts in today’s session: 

*CyberArk Software (CYBR, $44.41) gained 3.5% and closed above its 200-day moving average of $44.04

*Qualys (QLYS, $30.54) was up 1.9% following yesterday’s close above its 200-day moving average of $29.81

CyberArk hasn’t been above its 200-day moving average since last September/October, while Qualys was last above in early December.

Nimble Storage (NMBL, $9.07) shares today are up more than 23% on heavy volume after the company last night delivered above-consensus results for fiscal Q1 (April). 

Revenue rose 21% to $86.4 million, beating the consensus estimate of $84.5 million. Deferred revenue of $120.2 million was up 39%.

There were a number of positive metrics:

1-The new All Flash Array (AFA) represented 12% of total array bookings

2-Added 55 AFA customers (including 25 new to Nimble)

3-Added 580 total customers

4-The channel initiated 48% of the quarter’s deals

5-Deals over $100K rose 19% and accounted for 44% of total bookings

6-Deals over $250K rose 51% and accounted for a record 20% of bookings

7-Enterprise bookings advanced 43% (20% of bookings)

8-Cloud SP bookings advanced 56% (19% of bookings)

For FQ2, Nimble expects revenue of $93 million to $96 million, above the consensus of $92.55 million.

Cowen upgrades Western Digital (WDC, $40.46) to ‘Outperform’ with a price target of $50, saying investors should now focus on the company’s broadened addressable market enabled by the recently completed $16-billion acquisition of SanDisk. 

The firm believes the risks associated with the deal are now largely reflected in reduced EPS estimates. For FY’17 (June), the consensus is down to $4.81 from $6.45 in late March.

Pacific Crest is bullish on Splunk (SPLK, $53.71) headed into fiscal Q1 (April) earnings on Thursday, saying the company is the firm’s “highest-conviction growth idea that continues to deliver solid results.” 

Splunk remains on track to eventually reach $1 billion on the top line thanks to its differentiated machine data analytics software, says the firm. The consensus revenue estimate for fiscal 2017 (January) is $882.1 million (growth of 32%).

BMO Capital is optimistic about the next Apple (AAPL, $96.88) iPhone upgrade cycle, saying the installed base for the handset expanded 80% over the past two years. 

The firm argues Apple is entering the iPhone 7 cycle with about 26% of the installed base of phones being at least two years old (representing ~120 million handsets), up from 23% going into the iPhone 6 cycle. BMO Capital maintains its price target of $117.

Nomura maintains its Apple (AAPL, $95.22) price target of $120, saying strong demand for the iPhone SE should provide a boost to results for the June quarter. 

Apple has increased its production forecast for the new handset, which is aimed at first-time buyers in developing markets, according to the firm.

From the March 31 high of $165.29, Palo Alto Networks (PANW, $140.07) shares last week dipped to a low of $128.51, a decline of 22%. A rebound this week took the stock back near short-term resistance at $143.07. 

The 50-day moving average has turned downward from $147.74, while the 200-day moving average is on the decline from $159.93.

A move above $151.50 would break the downtrend line from the March high.

Today’s upside move in Cisco Systems (CSCO, $27.57) initially pushed the shares back above the 50-day moving average of $27.61. But a weak overall market took the stock down from its intraday high of $28.29 to close with a gain of 3.1%. 

There’s strong resistance at $28.70 from April. The 200-day moving average is trading sideways from $26.45.

Following the release of strong fiscal Q1 numbers, BTIG Research lifts its Salesforce (CRM, $77.89) price target to $100 from $88, saying the April quarter was highlighted by acceleration in the core Sales Cloud (+15% y/y), another 9-figure deal (the third in the company’s history) and margin expansion (the eighth consecutive quarter of growth).

In pre-market trading, Salesforce shares are up 5.6% at $82.26.

Cisco Systems (CSCO, $28.12 after hours, +5.2%) shares are up more than 5% after hours following the release of better-than-expected results for fiscal Q3 (April): EPS of 57 cents tops the consensus estimate by two cents and revenue of $12 billion came in above the consensus of $11.97 billion. 

The top 3 product revenue growth segments:

*SP Video +18%

*Security +17%

*Collaboration +10%

Deferred revenue of $15.3 billion advanced 8%.

For fiscal Q4, the company expects EPS of 59 cents to 61 cents (above the consensus of 58 cents) on revenue growth of 0% to 3% (excludes the SP Video CPE business).

Nice Systems (NICE, $63.81) will acquire InContact (SAAS, $13.90 pre market, +54.2%), a provider of cloud-based contact center software, for $14 a share in cash in a deal worth $940 million (including repayment of outstanding convertible debt & excluding cash on hand).

The buyout valuation on InContact is roughly 3.5x forward sales based on the enterprise value.

In Q1, Fidelity significantly increased its Tableau Software (DATA, $47.26) holdings to 2.285 million shares by adding 1.79 million shares. The mutual fund firm, the #2 buyer in the quarter, is now the #3 holder (after Matrix Capital and Vanguard).

Matrix Capital was the biggest Q1 buyer, upping its Tableau position by 80% with the purchase of 2.4 million shares. The Waltham, MA-based firm ($2 billion in long equity assets/34% tech weighting) now owns 5.4 million shares.

Coatue Management was the #3 buyer, opening a new position of 1.045 million shares.

Needham assumes coverage of Five9 (FIVN, $9.01) at ‘Buy’ with a price target of $11, saying the provider of cloud software for customer contact centers has the characteristics that growth investors are looking for: 

1-A large TAM in the early stages of a secular SaaS transition

2-An operating model beginning to drive significant leverage

3-A highly visible subscription-based operating model with high renewal rates

We profiled Five9 in the July 2014 issue of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP #149), soon after the April 2014 IPO (at $7 a share), saying the company was on a promising path because the enterprise migration to the cloud was driving a refresh cycle in call centers. At the time, Five9 stock was trading around $7.

Shares of VMware (VMW, $57.92) today showed relative strength, gaining 2.3% on heavy volume. 

The stock is rebounding from its May 6 low of $54.44, which held the upwardly trending 50-day moving average of $53.14. 

The upside level to watch is the April high of $59.61. The 200-day moving average is trending downward from $61.63.

VMware stock is up 34% from the 52-week low of $43.25 reached in February.

RBC Capital reiterates its Imperva (IMPV, $33.27) price target of $55, saying the longer-term fundamentals have not changed even though Q2 guidance was light. 

The firm believes Imperva can fix the short-term issues (EMEA execution and the WAF product sales stumble) within a few quarters. Management is being conservative given the EMEA leadership shift, but the pipeline remains robust and the number of productive sales reps in the field in Q3 should be up 50% y/y, says the firm.

RBC thinks the current valuation is too low for a company experiencing ~30% revenue growth.

Tableau Software (DATA, $49.26) shares today showed relative strength, gaining 2.9% on active volume. 

Last week’s pullback to $44.04 held the April 12 low of $43.83. The stock has once again retaken its 50-day moving average of $46.25. There is short-term resistance at $51.08 and $53.76.

For more on Tableau’s quest to recover from its stumble earlier this year, see the May 2016 issue of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP #171). Download the new issue to your Kindle or Kindle reading app for iOS (iPad & iPhone) and Android.

UBS lowers its Apple (AAPL, $93.42) price target to $115 from $120 based on a lengthening of the iPhone upgrade cycle (caused by changing carrier plans and less feature differentiation). 

The firm expects Apple shares to be range bound for now, with the low multiple acting as downside support and a lack of catalysts providing a ceiling.

Shares of Marketo (MKTO, $25.60) this afternoon are up more than 19% following a Bloomberg report that the company—a provider of cloud-based marketing automation solutions—has engaged Morgan Stanley to evaluate strategic alternatives (including a possible sale).

Marketo has been a rumored acquisition target for several weeks. In the April 2016 issue of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP #170), we wrote that the stock’s valuation at the time (trading around $21.35) was low enough to potentially attract buyout interest.

In early April, Marketo shares jumped 12%+ in one session after JMP Securities said Microsoft or SAP could be possible suitors.

OpCo remains bullish on TubeMogul (TUBE, $12.35), maintaining its price target of $18 after the ad-tech software company beat the Q1 revenue estimate and raised its outlook for the year. Revenue in the March quarter rose 39%.

For 2016, TubeMogul now expects revenue of $226 million to $232 million, up from $220 million to $228 million previously. 

Needham ups its Yelp (YELP, $21.42) price target to $28 from $25 after the company last night raised 2016 guidance. 

Increased ad efforts and ramping sales productivity are bolstering Yelp’s prominent local ad market position, says the firm. Looking ahead, Needham believes an uptick in sales headcount could drive local ad revenue upside.

Q1 revenue rose 34% to $158.6 million, above the consensus estimate of $155.5 million. 

For Q2, the company sees revenue of $167 million to $171 million, vs. the consensus of $167.5 million.

The 2016 revenue guidance range was lifted: $690 million to $702 million, vs. $685 million to $700 million previously. The consensus was $690.9 million.

In Q1, Tableau Software (DATA, $50.99) saw revenue growth of 32%. The company broke even, vs. the consensus estimate of a loss of nine cents a share. 

Revenue of $171.7 million topped the consensus of $164 million (guidance was $160 million to $165 million).

For Q2, the company expects revenue of $190 million to $195 million, vs. the consensus of $192.7 million.

JP Morgan believes Q2 guidance from Priceline (PCLN, $1,246.96) was conservative. While reducing its price target to $1,495 from $1,510, the firm sees yesterday’s 7.4% sell-off as a buying opportunity.

For Q2, Priceline sees EPS of $11.60 to $12.50 (the consensus was $14.96) on revenue growth of 7% to 14%.

Paycom (PAYC, $40.50 after hours, +5.8%) shares are up more than 5% after hours following the release of excellent Q1 results. 

The provider of cloud-based payroll and human capital management software delivered top-line growth of 63%. Revenue of $90.1 million easily beat the consensus estimate of $83.4 million. EPS of 33 cents topped the consensus by 13 cents.

For Q2, the company sees revenue of $69 million to $71 million, above the consensus of $68.7 million.