Palo Alto Networks (PANW, $118.59) reports fiscal Q3 (April) EPS of 61 cents, six cents above the consensus estimate, on revenue of $431.8 million (+25% y/y), beating the consensus of $411.9 million as well as the high end of the guidance range of $406 million to $416 million.

Recurring services revenue rose 45% to $267.6 million, driven by growth of 55% in subscription revenue (33% of total revenue).

For FQ4, Palo Alto sees EPS of 78 cents to 80 cents (the consensus is 74 cents) on revenue of $481 million to $491 million (the consensus is $484.3 million).

In after hours trading, PANW shares are up 12%.

Monness Crespi & Hardt starts Rapid7 (RPD, $17.99) at ‘Buy’ with a price target of $23, saying the company’s platform addresses multiple touch points across the security analytics stack. 

The firm sees ample growth opportunities in the core vulnerability assessment business as well as in new market adjacencies. 

Rapid7’s Q1 revenue rose 30%. Revenue guidance for 2017 indicates growth of 23% to 26%.

Amazon (AMZN, $997.54) shares this morning traded to a new all-time high of $1001.20.

The stock ended 2016 at $749.87.

Pacific Crest believes the outlook on Apptio (APTI, $16.42) has improved, saying it’s more confident that deployments at existing customers are expanding. The firm doesn’t see much risk of Apptio, a provider of cloud-based business management software, missing estimates this year. 

Pacific Crest likes the risk/reward set-up for the shares at current levels.

Apptio went public last September at $16 a share and opened for trading at $23.40. The post-IPO high of $24.60 was reached on the first trading day, while the post-IPO low of $10.77 was hit on April 6.

Morgan Stanley lifts its ServiceNow (NOW, $104.70) price target to $124 from $114, saying it has gained “further confidence that margin expansion into the outer years will yield significant free cash flow generation as the company successfully executes on its sizable market opportunity outside of its core ITSM market.”

Morgan Stanley believes operating margins can nearly double to 25% in 2022 from 13% last year, powered by ServiceNow’s growing (highly profitable) renewal base in the enterprise segment.

OpCo upgrades Marvell Technology (MRVL, $17.25) to ‘Outperform’ with a price target of $23, saying management remains ahead of schedule on the chipmaker’s turnaround story. 

The firm turns bullish following Marvell’s fourth consecutive earnings beat. Last night, the company reported fiscal Q1 (April) EPS of 24 cents, three cents above the consensus estimate, on revenue of $579.1 million (+11% y/y), above the consensus of $570.7 million.

For FQ2, Marvell expects EPS of 26 cents to 30 cents (the consensus is 25 cents) on revenue of $585 million to $615 million, vs. the consensus of $592 million.

Tableau Software (DATA, $63.32) shares this morning hit a new 52-week high at $63.50. 

The 50-day moving average is rising from $54.09. On the price chart, Tableau shares are in the middle of the large gap from February 2016 that extends up to $77.73.

For more on Tableau, see TechStock Radar—May 4, 2017.

Stifel initiates coverage of Cloudera (CLDR, $21.16) at ‘Buy’ with a price target of $24, saying the company’s platform is leveraged to benefit from positive secular trends tied to Big Data growth and the shift to the cloud.

The firm believes Cloudera has significant runway left to further increase its penetration of the enterprise market, as the company only has about 500 Global 8000 customers at the moment. 

In addition, Cloudera has the ability to meaningfully increase its wallet share among its installed base because it currently only manages roughly 5% of its customers’ total workloads, says Stifel.

With Cloudera’s impressive net expansion rate averaging ~140% over the past several years, Stifel believes future up- and cross-sell opportunities should enable Cloudera to sustain 30%+ recurring revenue growth over the coming years.

Cloudera went public at the end of April at $15 a share and opened for trading at $17.86.

RBC Capital raises its Splunk (SPLK, $66.04) price target to $75 from $70 based on survey results showing consistent demand, record highs for security sales and reduced pricing pressure. 

The firm continues to see upside potential for revenue and billings as well as 200 basis points of operating margin improvement in FY’18 (Jan.).

Shares of ServiceNow (NOW, $102.14) this morning are up more than 2% and have reached a new all-time high at $102.23.

ServiceNow is a core cloud-software holding in the Tech-Stock Prospector Vulture Portfolio, added in August 2014, when the stock was trading at $55.

Goldman Sachs upgrades Nutanix (NTNX, $16) to ‘Buy’ with a price target of $31. Calling Nutanix the leader in hyperconverged infrastructure, the firm says the 40% pullback in the shares YTD provides a “very attractive opportunity.”  

On May 1, Nutanix shares hit a new all-time low of $14.38.

Jefferies upgrades Palo Alto Networks (PANW, $115.17) to ‘Buy’ and lifts its price target to $150 from $130, saying recent operational weakness is tied more to a major product cycle than sales execution issues or increased competition.

The firm is bullish on Palo Alto’s positioning in the cybersecurity market and expects the company’s business to reaccelerate over the next two quarters.

Jefferies maintains its Cisco Systems (CSCO, $31.27) price target of $37, saying the company’s transition to more of a software-based model is impacting near-term revenue growth. 

While the firm looks for more y/y declines over the next few quarters, it remains optimistic about Cisco’s broad transition to more recurring revenue.

About 31% of Cisco’s total revenue today (+200 basis points y/y) is recurring, with about 75% of that coming from services revenue. Roughly 10% of product revenue is now recurring.

Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO, $31.06) this morning are down 8% after the company last night issued weak fiscal Q4 (July) revenue guidance of $11.88 billion to $12.13 billion, below the consensus estimate of $12.5 billion.

Management called out weak orders in the Americas region, listing three causes: U.S. federal (uncertainty around budgets), Mexico (-49% y/y) and a slowdown in the service provider vertical.

On the positive front, deferred product revenue rose 26%, with the portion related to the recurring software and subscription business advancing 57% (+51% ex-AppDynamics).

Morgan Stanley raises its Apple (AAPL, $152.96) price target to $177 from $161 after the firm’s recent survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers showed a rising iPhone retention rate. 

Fully 92% of iPhone owners who expect to upgrade their handset over the next 12 months plan to stay with Apple, up from an 86% retention rate in last year’s survey.

Morgan Stanley says Apple is positioned to gain more share in the U.S. smartphone market, citing the high loyalty rate among iPhone users and Samsung’s lower retention rate of 77%.

In Q1, Fidelity was a big buyer of ServiceNow (NOW, $98.53), boosting its stake by 91%. The money manager added 1.56 million shares, taking its position up to 3.28 million shares. 

Fidelity is now among the top 15 holders of ServiceNow.

Last week, ServiceNow shares hit a new all-time high of $99.09.

Security stocks were strong today following the massive “WannaCry” ransomware attack. 

Here are the big winners in the today’s session:

1-Mimecast (MIME, $26.87)  +10.6%

2-FireEye (FEYE, $15.90) +7.5%

3-Proofpoint (PFPT, $86.05) +7.3%

4-Secureworks (SCWX, $10.14) +6.9%

5-Barracuda Networks (CUDA, $23.04) +5.7%

Benchmark lifts its Salesforce (CRM, $89.04) price target to $110 from $100 ahead of the release of FQ1 earnings this week, saying its checks indicate the company is starting to replace key rivals SAP (SAP) and Oracle (ORCL) as the de facto standard in enterprise business applications. Large global systems integrators (SIs) are now aggressively building out their Salesforce practices.

By leveraging this increasing traction with SIs, Salesforce is well positioned for incremental growth, driven by an increasing number of large enterprise standardization deals going forward, says Benchmark. 

Also positive for Salesforce, the firm’s checks show more favorable spending trends toward front-office, customer-facing and revenue-generating initiatives.

CyberArk Software (CYBR, $49.25) shares this morning are down more than 10% after Q2 guidance fell short of expectations.

Last night, CyberArk reported Q1 EPS of 28 cents, five cents above the consensus estimate, on revenue of $59 million (+26% y/y), above the consensus of $57.8 million.

But the company’s Q2 top-line guide of $61 million to $62 million (growth of 21% to 23%) came in below the consensus of $62.4 million. 

BofA/Merrill downgrades CyberArk to ‘Underperform’ and lowers its price target to $42.50 from $61 based on decelerating license revenue growth. In Q1, license revenue was up 20%, vs. 38% growth in the year-ago quarter.

Shares of Yelp (YELP, $28.03) this morning are down 19% following soft Q2 revenue guidance of $202 million to $206 million, below the consensus estimate of $215.2 million. 

For 2017, Yelp reduces its revenue guidance range:

New: $850 million to $865 million

Old: $880 million to $900 million

RBC Capital downgrades Yelp to ‘Sector Perform’ and cuts its price target to $27 from $49, citing rising churn among advertisers. 

Drexel Hamilton lifts its Apple (AAPL, $150.70) price target to $202 from $185, citing the next iPhone product cycle, potential new innovations and valuation.

The firm believes improving sentiment around the stock remains in the early stages of unfolding, as investors are focused on the upcoming iPhone 8. 

Shares of Gigamon (GIMO, $40.05) this morning are up more than 14% after activist investor Elliott Associates files a 13D disclosing economic exposure of 15.3%.

For more on Gigamon, see TechStock Radar—April 28, 2017.

Tableau Software (DATA, $59.95) shares yesterday spiked to a new 52-week high of $63.34 before sellers stepped in. 

The 200-day moving average stands at $50.59. The 50-day moving average has started to turn up from $51.32.

The stock is now in the middle of the large gap on the price chart (from February 2016) that extends all the way up to $77.73.

Jefferies takes its Facebook (FB, $150.19) price target up to $192 from $175 following last night’s strong Q1 earnings report. 

Revenue in the March quarter rose 49% to $8.03 billion, topping the consensus estimate of $7.83 billion, while EPS of $1.04 beat the consensus by 18 cents. 

With 1.94 billion monthly active users and 5 million advertisers on the platform, Facebook is a social media powerhouse. 

BMO Capital lifts its Tableau Software (DATA, $58.65) price target to $64 from $55, calling last night’s Q1 report a solid all-around performance. The firm calls out adjusted license bookings growth of 20%. 

Tableau’s Q1 revenue rose 16% to $199.9 million, falling short of the consensus estimate of $200.8 million. But deferred revenue rose 52% to $317.4 million thanks to a continued ramp in the subscription business. Ratable license bookings accounted for 26% of total license bookings (above guidance of 15% to 20%), up from 12% in the year-ago period.

For 2017, Tableau maintained its revenue guidance range of $850 million to $890 million.

Shares of Paycom (PAYC, $61.71) today hit a new all-time high at $63.13. 

Last night, the provider of cloud-based HCM solutions reported Q1 EPS of 47 cents, six cents above the consensus estimate, on revenue of $119.5 million (+33% y/y), vs. the consensus of $115.8 million.

For Q2, Paycom sees revenue of $94.5 million to $96.5 million, vs. the consensus of $94.7 million.

The company raised its 2017 top-line guidance range:

New: $426 million to $428 million

Old: $422 million to $424 million

Consensus: $423.2 million

Goldman Sachs raises its Apple (AAPL, $145.86) price target to $164 from $150 to reflect upside to fiscal 2018 (Sept.) estimates. 

The firm says last night’s FQ2 (March) results were largely in line with expectations. Revenue matched the consensus and EPS beat by eight cents, but iPhone unit sales of 50.8 million missed the consensus estimate of 52.5 million. 

Goldman expects the market to look through the near-term iPhone pause ahead of the upcoming new product cycle.

William Blair likes the risk/reward set-up on Nutanix (NTNX, $15.62) shares, which so far this year have fallen 41%. 

The company went public in September at $16 a share. Yesterday, the stock hit a new post-IPO low of $14.38.

The firm says its partner checks indicate continued growth within the channel for Nutanix, a provider of hyperconverged infrastructure solutions. Also, William Blair believes Nutanix’s partnership with Dell will remain stable over the near term.

For fiscal 2017 (July), the consensus revenue estimate of $740.5 million represents growth of 66.5%. The FY’18 consensus of $1.02 billion indicates growth of 37.4%.

Shopify (SHOP, $80.29) reports Q1 revenue rose 75% to $127.4 million, above the consensus estimate of $121.6 million. 

Subscription Solutions revenue was up 60%, while Merchants Solutions revenue advanced 92%. Monthly recurring revenue rose 62% to $20.7 million.

GMV on the platform jumped 81% to $4.8 billion. Gross payments volume of $1.8 billion represented 38% of GMV.

For Q2, Shopify sees revenue of $142 million to $144 million, vs. the consensus of $137 million.

The upwardly revised 2017 revenue guidance range of $615 million to $630 million (previously $580 million to $600 million) easily beat the consensus estimate of $600.6 million.

Shopify shares this morning traded to a new all-time high of $84.58. 

For more on Shopify, see the April 2017 issue of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP #182).