One of the biggest public debuts this year is going under the microscope.
Slack raced higher Wednesday ahead of its first earnings report as a public company after the bell. The stock gained 7% on the session, though was still down 20% from its June listing.
Mark Moerdler, managing partner and senior analyst of global software at Bernstein, says there are a few key items investors will be watching most closely.
"Obviously investors are first going to be looking at revenue, they're going to be looking at the guidance to assure that the revenue growth will continue at a similar rate, that there's not a massive deceleration coming," said Moerdler on CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Wednesday.
Slack has guided for revenue to increase 51% to 53% in its second quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet anticipate sales on the high end of that range.
"Then they're going to be looking at key indicators. They're going to be looking at information such as net dollar retention, how much of the customers when they renew how much more are they paying. They're going to be looking at daily active users, how is that increasing, they're going to be looking at paid subscription count," said Moerdler.
One main focal point will also be whether Slack can go head-to-head, if not surpass, its major competitor Microsoft, says Moerdler.
"Microsoft, very recently, for the first time gave information on their daily active users," he said. "Microsoft is really focused on the area of team collaboration in ways they haven't with other launches of other new technologies. This is a very important one for them… People are going to want to see Slack come out with a similar or better yet a larger number than that 13 million."
Bernstein holds a market perform rating and a $31 price target on Slack. Analysts have an average overweight rating and $39 price target on the stock.
