When your information technology needs to extend beyond off-the-shelf software, it's usually best to go with an experienced consultant. There is an Austin, Texas outfit that's well thought of that way. It works for some of the biggest corporations in America.
Perficient (NASDAQ: PRFT) is an information technology consulting firm, with clients throughout the United States. Company services include software development, systems integration, consulting and support. It specializes in solutions involving portals and collaboration, eCommerce, online customer relationship management, enterprise content management, business integration, mobile technology solutions and service-oriented architectures. Customers include Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD), EMC (NYSE: EMC), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Luxottica Group (NYSE: LUX), Wachovia (NYSE: WB) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). Electronic Data Systems (NYSE: EDS) is a major competitor.
The firm pleased investors earlier in the week, when it raised its Q2 revenue guidance from $48.5-$51.2 million to $51.8-$53.0
million. Analysts had been expecting $51.0 million. The CEO said, "The second quarter was another record for Perficient. We are beginning to see the benefits of operating leverage and scale on our bottom line." The share price popped on the news and has since been consolidating the gain in a bullish "pennant" pattern. Prices frequently exit pennants moving in the same direction they were traveling when they entered them. In this case, that would be to the upside.
Brokers recommend the issue with two "strong buys," one "buy" and two "holds." Analysts see a 25% average annual growth rate, through the next five years. The PRFT Sales Growth rate (68.92%), EPS Growth rate (128.57%) and Return on Assets (9.94%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions own about 63% of the outstanding shares. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $12.50 and $23.29. A stop-loss of $19 looks good here. Note that the firm is next expected to report quarterly results in early August.
Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-11-2007 @ 7:40PM
Computer Consulting Kit said...
Many small business don’t think that they can afford a professional IT consulting firm, and still more (because they don’t always have a technical mindset) don’t necessarily see IT as an important part of their business. They often won’t have any sort of an IT staff (maybe just an internal guru or something similar) either. Still, investing in professional firms is important even to this size of business; they can lose revenue at thousands of dollars per day
Larger businesses typically invest in professional IT services beyond their in-house IT person (because at that point, the revenue loss when something shuts down can be millions!) because it’s an investment in stability, insurance and a long future. I advise a lot of small businesses and spend time explaining them how IT investments are just plain smart.
I also offer a set of resources for IT consultants to help them at all stages of their business within the industry, along with tips for small businesses looking to work with technology firms on a regular basis. Thanks for the blog post!