Wedbush: Table Set For 'Strong Year' At Tableau

In a report published Friday, Wedbush analysts maintained an Outperform rating on Tableau Software Inc DATA, while raising the price target from $108 to $125, after the company reported strong 1Q15 results.

The company generated 74 percent y/y license growth to beat the consensus revenue estimate by $15M and the Wedbush revenue estimate by $6M. International revenue, which grew 89 percent y/y, continues to outpace North America, with Tableau expanding "its relatively small presence" in Europe.

"The company reported its first 7-figure deal in Asia-Pacific. New account additions were in line with recent trends, and account expansion activity was excellent, as evidenced by the count of deals over $100,000, which was up 108% Y/Y," the analysts wrote.

"DATA continues to grow its revenue faster than its employee count, investments in marketing and infrastructure pressured margin by 160 bps Y/Y," the analysts added.

The company raised its FY15 revenue guidance by $30M-$35M, marking the largest ever increase. This raises the high-end of the growth outlook from 41 percent to 48 percent. "Still, this guidance looks quite light to us considering DATA’s market momentum; we expect $20M+ raises in each of the next two quarters, as the company continues to add customers and expand across departments at its 29,000 existing accounts," the Wedbush report stated.

The EPS estimates for 2015 and 2016 have been raised from $635 to $652 and from $857 to $915, respectively.

The analysts enumerated factors that should drive the company's momentum as well as "upside relative to investor expectations" over the coming quarters and years:

• DATA’s continuing superiority in self-serve, visual analytics
• The company’s marketing and sales execution capability, which is driving adoption of its visualization technology
• Continuing build-out of DATA’s international operations
• Continuing product innovation, such as the release of Tableau 9 in April with new self-service features and improvements in performance and scalability to make Tableau more enterprise-ready