Volume Spike Investor

Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) is trading up over $2 to $32.05 in pre-market after the Linux operating system and office software suite maker beat earnings despite lower net profits.   Anything above $30.00 would mark new 52-week highs on strong sales to financial services and to government agencies were strong.  What is off here is that the beat was not a mammoth outperforming of expectations and the guidance is not so much higher that you would think a high-beta name would keep running on.  Red Hat’s profit was $0.17 EPS versus $0.16 from Thomson Reuters and revenue rose to $194 million versus $188 million expected.  The software company sees next quarter earnings of $0.15 to $0.16 EPS and $191 to $193 million in revenues; while estimates are $0.16 EPS on revenue of $190 million.

JON C. OGG