Workiva (WK): What's In Store For The Stock In Q1 Earnings?

Workiva Inc. (NYSE:WK) is scheduled to report first-quarter 2016 results on May 4. Last quarter, the company posted a loss of 26 cents per share, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 32 cents.

Let us see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors to Consider

Workiva offers a cloud-based mobile-enabled platform for enterprises to collect, manage, report and analyze critical business data in real time. The exponential increase in the amount of data, complexity of data formats and the need to scale resources at regular intervals have compelled several companies to turn to cloud computing vendors.

Cloud computing includes the entire gamut of computing intelligence required to carry out day-to-day operations by companies and professionals. Thus, other than the hardware, all the supporting technology involved in creating, storing, retrieving, transporting, protecting, sorting, processing, analyzing and presenting information from multiple sources and formats, which when available from a shared (private) or public pool, could be referred to as cloud computing.

Cloud service providers, therefore, help organizations to store data and applications remotely in this pool, which can be accessed from anywhere, anytime via the Internet. Given its scope and advantages (cost, scaling, convenience, etc.), demand for cloud computing software and applications will continue to increase. This will aid Workiva’s results in the first quarter and beyond.

According to Centaur Partners, Software-as-a-Service and cloud-based business applications are likely to grow from $13.5 billion in 2013 to $32.8 billion in 2016, reflecting a compounded annual growth rate of 19.5%. Workiva is poised well to cash in on this opportunity.

We believe that increasing mainstream adoption of cloud-based solutions will boost Workiva’s first-quarter results.

However, an uncertain economic environment, currency headwinds and competition remain major concerns.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Workiva will beat estimates this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here, as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: Both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at a loss of 36 cents. Hence, the difference is 0.00%.

Zacks Rank: Workiva currently has a Zacks Rank #3, which when combined with a 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing a negative estimate revisions momentum.

Stocks to Consider

Here are a few stocks which you may consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Synopsys Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) , with an Earnings ESP of +6.38% and a Zacks Rank #1.

Fitbit Inc. (NYSE:FIT) , with an Earnings ESP of +175.00% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Benefitfocus Inc. (NASDAQ:BNFT) , with an Earnings ESP of +4.00% and a Zacks Rank #2.