The payroll & human resources company generated adjusted earnings of  65 cents per share, surpassing analysts’ expectation of 63 cents per share (as polled by Refinitiv).For fiscal 2019, the company projects its adjusted earnings per share to increase in the range of 11-12% - an upward revision from its initial guidance of a 7- 8% increase. Paychex’s revenue climbed +7% year-over-year to touch $858.9 million in the second quarter.

Activision Blizzard shares were falling on Wednesday, following a rating downgrade from Bernstein. Analysts at Bernstein downgraded the video game company to underperform from market perform.According to these analysts, investors are "paying too much for hope" surrounding recently released mobile versions of Activision’s shooting games. Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger indicated that he/his team cannot match the current stock price with the company's risk-adjusted fundamentals. Jeunger pointed towards sales forecasts on recently released mobile versions of Activision Blizzard's "Call of Duty" and "World of Warcraft Classic" games, and said that the company is too reliant on shooting games that in his opinion do not carry enough "franchise sustainability" over the longer term. The analyst is more optimistic on sports games. However, Juenger did increase his one-year price target on the stock to $43 from $41 (which is still the lowest among Wall Stree

Software giant Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) reported earnings on September 17 and the company beat on the top and bottom line.Personally I think that was because expectations were pretty high for Adobe heading in to the report. Now that the earnings report is out of the way, is the stock ready to resume its upward trend?

Adobe reported quarterly earnings and revenue that exceeded analysts’ estimates. The software company’s  adjusted earnings per share for the third quarter came in at $2.25, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.97.The earnings-per share was +18% higher compared to the prior year quarter. Revenue increased +23% year-over-year to $2.83 billion, higher than analysts’ expectation of $2.815 billion.

On Monday, e-commerce company Shopify announced that it is acquiring warehouse automation startup 6 River Systems for $450 million. Through the 60% cash and 40% stock deal, Shopify expects to expand its warehouse & deliveries capabilities – thanks to 6 River Systems’ expertise in fulfilment/cloud-based software and robotics solutions.6 River Systems is well-known for its “Chuck” autonomous vehicles that can move around packages in the warehouse. Shopify indicated that the acquisition will improve delivery times and lower costs.

Cybersecurity company Symantec could be acquired in a deal valued at more than $16 billion. Citing people familiar with the offer, the Wall Street Journal reported that private equity firms Permira and Advent International have offered $26 to $27 a share to buy Symantec. The proposed deal involving the PE firms would happen along with the sale of Symantec’s enterprise business to Broadcom for $10.7 billion, according to the Journal. Under one possibility, Symantec would sell its consumer business to the PE firms after the deal with Broadcom closes; an alternative possibility has Permira and Advent acquiring the whole company and then selling off the enterprise unit to Broadcom, ( as indicated by the Journal).

Application software firm Splunk Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLK) has seen incredible growth over the last few years.Unfortunately the company lowered its forecast as part of the earnings announcement. Despite these impressive results for the most recent quarter and over the last few years, the stock is down over 20% since July 26.

Coupa Software, Inc. reported an unexpected profit and surpassed analyst revenue estimates. The technology/software company’s earnings for the latest quarter came in at 7 cents a share, compared to a loss of -10 cents that analysts had expected.The figure is also higher than the year-ago quarter’s  $61.7 million. Looking ahead, Coupa boosted its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $369 million to $372 million, compared with its prior projection of $342 million to $344 million.

Workday’s second quarter earnings edged past analysts’  expectations, while the company boosted  its FY 2020 subscription revenue outlook. The  cloud-based financial management and human capital management software vendor reported a non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share of 44 cents, which is higher than the Street estimates of 35 cents.For the third quarter, the company’s forecast for subscription revenue is between $783 million and $785 million.   

Shares of Zuora, Inc. climbed during after-hours trading Wednesday,  after the company reported its second quarter earnings and revenue - both of which topped analysts’ estimates.The company also raised its fiscal full-year revenue estimate.  The enterprise software company’s non-GAAP loss (attributable to common stock shareholders) came in at  -$9.5 million, or -9 cents a share.

The cloud software company also boosted its full-year outlook. The company’s fiscal second quarter adjusted earnings came in at 66 cents per share, compared to 47 cents per share expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue increased +22% from the year ago quarter to reach $4 billion, which is higher than analysts’ estimate of $3.95 billion (according to Refinitiv).Revenue from Sales Cloud, the company’s biggest product, grew +13%, and that from Service Cloud, the second-largest division, surged +22%. In addition to strong organic growth, Salesforce also seems to be potentially on a  path of further expansion as it acquired, earlier this month, data visualization software company Tableau in a  $15.3 billion deal. Looking ahead, Salesforce raised its revenue projection for the year to between $16.75 billion and $16.9 billion, up from its previous guidance of up to $16.25 billion. For the fiscal third quarter, the company expects revenue of $4.44 billion to $4.45 bill

Avaya after said that it was in advanced talks with several parties on potential deals to boost value for shareholders. The technology/communications company’s president and CEO Jim Chirico indicated that it is in the process of assessing, with J.P. Morgan, strategic-alternatives and that it is in advanced discussions with multiple parties on various transactions intended to optimize shareholder value. In March, Reuters reported that Avaya was considering a $5 billion buyout offer from a private-equity firm, which wasn't identified. In its latest quarterly results, Avaya’s revenue of $720 million surpassed the $716 million estimated by analysts polled by FactSet.

Uber’s second quarter earnings and revenue both fell short of analysts’ expectations, sending its shares lower during pre-market Friday. The ride service hailing technology company reported loss of -$4.72 per share, compared to a loss of- $3.12 per share that the Street expected. Revenue of $3.17 billion for the quarter also came in lower than the $3.36 billion expected by analysts. Uber’s core ride-hailing business had $12.19 billion in gross bookings during the second-quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimate of $12.11 billion.But its relatively new business, food delivery service Uber Eats, generated $3.39 billion in gross bookings – lower than analysts’ expectations of $3.51 billion in gross bookings. In recent weeks, Uber slashed around 400 jobs from its marketing team. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a conversation with CNBC mentioned that the company expects losses to narrow in 2020 and 2021, and that 2019 will be its peak investment year

Cloudera shares were climbing on Friday on reports that activist investor Carl Icahn has taken a 12.6% stake in the company. According to regulatory filings, Icahn along with his associated businesses have built up the stake in the data analytics software company on their perception that Cloudera shares were undervalued. Cloudera shares are down more than -36% on the year, following a disappointing revenue forecast in early June and rating downgrades from analysts. 

The company also experienced a solid growth in second-quarter revenue. The e-commerce company’s adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at 14 cents a share, crushing analysts’ expectations of 3 cents a share. The quarterly revenue surged +48% to $362 million, also higher than analysts’ estimates of $350 million.  Looking ahead, Shopify has projected revenue between $1.51 billion and $1.53 billion for the full year.For the third-quarter, it expects revenue to range between $377 million and $382 million. 

Shopify shares traded higher, as KeyBanc Capital analysts raised their price target on the stock. KeyBanc Capital increased its target price on the e-commerce company’s shares to $350 from $300. In a previous report, KeyBanc analyst Josh Beck indicated that concerns about Shopify’s competition from rival e-commerce platform Magento are "overhyped".According to Beck, Shopify can continue to grow, predicting a gain of 2%, even as Magento grows by 9%. Shopify shares climbed more than +3% Monday.

According to Bellini, market expectations on Zoom “have gotten ahead of themselves” vis-a-vis its valuation. However, the analyst increased her 12-month price target on the stock to $66 from $53.That’s because she maintains her “blue sky” scenario outlook on Zoom, expecting the company to surpass Wall Street consensus revenue estimates  for 2020.

Avalara (NYSE: AVLR) is a cloud-based software firm that specializes in tax compliance worldwide.The stock just hit the trend line on June 14 before bouncing sharply higher. The stock could see some resistance in the $75 range as it has attempted to move above that level on three different occasions without success. The Tickeron Trend Prediction Engine generated a bullish signal for Avalara on June 14 and the signal shows a confidence level of 90%.

Cloud-based software company Salesforce.com has decided to acquire big data/visualization software firm Tableau Software for around $15.3 billion, as announced on Monday. As part of the all-stock deal, Tableau shareholders would receive 1.103 shares of Salesforce, which represents an offer of around $177.88 per share - a 42% premium on Tableau’s Friday closing price.In 2018, it bought software maker MuleSoft  for $5.9 billion. The news sent Tableau shares soaring more than +30% Monday.

On Wednesday, Pivotal Software’s latest quarterly results turned several analysts’ cautious on the stock. Generating an adjusted loss of -3 cents a share for the fiscal first quarter, the cloud-oriented software company  fared better compared to analysts’ estimates of -5 cents a share.It is also an improvement  over the -10 cents a share loss of the year-ago quarter.  Pivotal’s first quarter revenue of $185.7 million also beat analysts’ expectation of $184.1 million. However, the company lowered its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $756 million to $767 million, well below analysts’ consensus estimate of $803 million (based on Refinitiv poll). For the fiscal second quarter in particular, Pivotal expects revenue to range between $185 million to $189 million, lagging the average analyst estimate of $198 million, (based on Refinitiv poll). Following the report, analysts Daniel Ives and Strecker Backe of Wedbush Securities called Pivotal’s first quarter results a