Ariba, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARBA) will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, January 26, 2012. Ariba is a provider of collaborative business commerce solutions for buying and selling goods and services.

Ariba, Inc. Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet.

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for net income of 5 cents per share, a decline of 44.4% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from 6 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at 5 cents during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 60% versus last year to 32 cents.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company fell short of estimates by one cent, coming in at profit of 7 cents per share against a mean estimate of net income of 8 cents. The company topped expectations in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

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Wall St. Revenue Expectations: On average, analysts predict $124.6 million in revenue this quarter, a rise of 37.8% from the year ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $526.6 million for the year, a rise of 18.6% from last year’s revenue of $443.8 million.

Analyst Ratings: eight out of 13 analysts surveyed (61.5%) have a buy rating on Ariba.. This is below the mean analyst rating of 10 competitors, which average 63.2% buy ratings.

A Look Back: In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, profit fell 25.3% to $3.1 million (4 cents a share) from $4.1 million (4 cents a share) the year earlier, missing analyst expectations. Revenue rose 29.1% to $122.7 million from $95.1 million.

Key Stats:

Revenue has risen the past four quarters. Revenue rose 30.7% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year from the year earlier, climbed 24.8% in the second quarter of the last fiscal year from the year-ago quarter and 5.5% in the first quarter of the last fiscal year.

Competitors to Watch: SciQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SQI), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), Intl. Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ:EPAY), Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH), Vocus, Inc. (NASDAQ:VOCS), American Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSWA), Deltek Inc. (NASDAQ:PROJ), Selectica, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLTC), and MER Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. (NASDAQ:MTSL).

Stock Price Performance: During October 24, 2011 to January 20, 2012, the stock price had fallen $4.38 (-13.2%) from $33.21 to $28.83. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between June 22, 2011 and July 8, 2011 when shares rose for 12-straight days, rising 13.6% (+$4.40) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between November 14, 2011 and November 25, 2011 when shares fell for nine-straight days, falling 17.8% (-$5.84) over that span.

(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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