It’s been an adventurous quarter in the technology markets – to say the least. Just two weeks ago, tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite was down 10% from its summer “AI high,” with fears about rising interest rates, the economy, and global conflicts weighing on the economy. It has since rallied.
“Look, if you look back three years ago, we started seriously investing in the enterprise,” said CEO Jayshree Ullal on the earnings conference call. “e have made an investment and seen a significant uptake in enterprise customers wanting to do business with Arista.” There was other strength in the networking market, despite ho-hum earnings in most of the tech sector.
Another recent strong networking performer, Extreme Networks, posted strong results but suffered a bit of a setback as revenue guidance came in light. The company met earnings and revenue expectations, but the company lowered its 2024 revenue estimates, even though it still expects to increase earnings per share. Company officials cited inventory constraints and more cautious customers as reasons for the dialed-back outlook. Shares fell about 10% this week.
Alphabet, Google's parent company, reported numbers that beat estimates — but shares sold off on slower cloud growth and a disappointing outlook for advertising. Google reported revenue of $76.69 billion, up 11% from a year ago, beating a forecast of $76 billion. The company reported EPS of $1.55, nine cents better than estimates. Google Cloud revenue in the quarter was $8.4 billion, up 22%, but that fell short of analyst consensus estimates of $8.6 billion.