8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) will release its quarterly report on Wednesday, but the stock has already given investors a head start on an anticipated celebration after the results. Yet with high expectations for 8×8 earnings to grow in the future, the company will need to keep working hard to find growth opportunities in the burgeoning Internet telecom market.
Stats on 8×8
| Analyst EPS Estimate | $0.06 |
| Change From Year-Ago EPS | 20% |
| Revenue Estimate | $29.57 million |
| Change From Year-Ago Revenue | 17.1% |
| Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters | 1 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
How can 8×8 earnings grow this quarter?
Analysts have reined in their 8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) earnings expectations somewhat in recent months, keeping their estimates for the June quarter unchanged but cutting $0.02 per share from their calls for the full fiscal year. The stock, though, has soared, rising more than 20% since mid-April.
8×8 started off the quarter well, with its previous quarter’s earnings report delivering results that made shareholders happy. Even though the company missed EPS estimates by $0.01, its revenue growth rebounded sharply, reassuring investors who’d been spooked by sluggish results from early this year.
So far, 8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) has been able to stay ahead of consumer-oriented magicJack VocalTec Ltd (NASDAQ:CALL) and Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE:VG) by taking advantage of more lucrative opportunities in the business sector. For instance, in June, 8×8 demonstrated its Virtual Contract Center, giving small- and mid-sized business customers the chance to create their own call centers and encouraging new clients for its voice-over-Internet service. By contrast, competition between magicJack and Vonage has led to price cuts to rock-bottom levels at which profits are harder to come by.
8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT) isn’t the only business-oriented company in the industry, though, as Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBEY) also has a business focus. But for the much-larger Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBEY), VoIP communication is just one aspect of a broader IT-services business, and by specializing, 8×8 has thus far been able to keep its niche intact.
In the 8×8 earnings report, watch for the company to discuss the implications of its newest contact-center patent award. With plans for an upgraded call center product later this year, the next leg up for 8×8 might come from technological innovations that help it look more favorable not just for cost-conscious customers but also for current clients of much larger telecom companies looking for higher quality. Those are the sorts of wins 8×8 will need to achieve in order to meet the 30% earnings growth targets that analysts have set for it.
The article Can 8×8 Earnings Sustain 30% Growth? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Dan Caplinger.
Fool contributor Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter @DanCaplinger. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.
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