How Much is Enough for Workday's Duffield?

Both Workday (WDAY-$50.00) co-CEOs Duffield and Bhusri have had success building and selling software companies during the past twenty years, culminating in the January 2005 sale of PeopleSoft, the world’s second-largest application software company, to Oracle (ORCL) for $10.3 billion. As of September 2012, the 72-year old Duffield had an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion, ranking him 221 on The Forbes 400. At current values, his 44% stake (of the 160.3 million shares outstanding) in Workday has boosted his wealth by an additional $3.9 billion.

Wealth enough to bypass smaller sums? Not entirely, it seems....

Continue reading: Workday Founder Duffield: $3.9 Billion Richer on the Stock, So Why the Small-Time Items?

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

Workday Stock Price Soars to Stratosphere, For How Long?

With Workday (WDAY-$54.00) management admitting in regulatory filings that profitability is not yet within reach, investors seem fixated only on sales visibility. In the first six months of 2012, revenue grew 118% to $119.5 million. The amount of subscription contract backlog – a sign of future growth – increased $85 million to $325 million on July 31, 2012. The reported operating loss for the period, however, was $46.3 million, which management attributed to “growing pains” (higher headcount and infrastructure build-out costs).

To date, Workday has derived most of its subscription revenue from its proprietary suite of on-demand human resource applications. However, the company is looking beyond its own R&D to ensure its survival in a land of enterprise software behemoths like Oracle (ORCL) and SAP AG (SAP).

Continue Reading at YCharts: Workday IPO Shares Quickly Double: Overheating of Cloud-Computing Stocks?

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

How Reasonable Rackspace Hosting's Sky-High PE?

San-Antonio-based Rackspace Hosting (RAX-$64.75) is hoping to differentiate itself from its cloud-computing competitors by developing product offerings built around OpenStack, an open-source cloud platform. The differentiating benefit, according to chief executive Lanham Napier, is that customers wouldn’t be locked into a “static product” like Amazon’s Web Service.

Attracted to the growth-demand story for cloud hosting services, the competitive landscape is getting more crowded. Notwithstanding the plethora of VC-seeded providers flooding the market, better-capitalized companies are planting their roots in Rackspace’s yard too. Competitors include rival cloud solutions providers Equinix (EQIX) and VMWare (VMW); diversified technology companies like Amazon, Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), and IBM (IBM); and software companies like salesforce.com (CRM).

Read more at YCharts: Rackspace Hosting, an Expensive Stock, Looks Cheap if it’s a Takeover Candidate

David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

Research in Backward's Motion?

Research in Motion (RIMM-$7.80) is counting on the new BB10 to revive sales growth and stop market share losses to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Now comes word that a previously anticipated January launch date could be delayed until March 2013. Too little - too late for the Canadian handset maker?

Read more at YCharts: That Little Run-Up in RIMM Stock: Could be an Ugly Head Fake

How Tasty is Buffalo Wild Wings' Stock Price?

If one embraces the concept that trending same-store sales is a healthy barometer of both consumer acceptance and future growth – which management does – then a closer look suggests that top-line growth is more fragile than Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD-$87.23) and investors will admit: Eliminate menu price hikes (which contributed about 1.8%) and pre-sold gift cards (already booked into sales, another 60 basis points) – and same-store sales grew by a less-impressive 2.9 percent!

 

Continue reading at YCharts: Use a Napkin: Why the Rebound in Buffalo Wild Wings Stock is a Bit Messy