I wouldn't mind being in a list with companies like Google and Salesforce.com, which is precisely the company Red Hat is keeping in its continued growth trajectory. Forbes just named Red Hat the 11th fastest-growing company in the United States. Red Hat's sales have grown 41 percent over the past five years.
Not too shabby.
It's particularly impressive when you consider the hurdles a company has to overcome just to be considered for the list:
Our focus is on sales growth--we require at least 10% annualized sales gains over the past five years--but candidates for our list must be profitable over the past 12 months and have Thomson IBES consensus earnings forecasts of at least 10% annualized earnings growth over the next three to five years.
To which Red Hat adds further detail:
From an investor's perspective (where future results are key), the list also seems to include those companies that the equity analyst community believes are positioned to deliver double-digit earnings growth well into the future. Given our fast, top-line growth, strong EBITDA margins and high cash flow yield, Red Hat is a standout company on Forbes' survey of over 2,000 public companies.
All while contributing millions of lines of code to the software community...for free. Hmm. Maybe there's something in this open-source phenomenon, after all.
Discuss: Forbes names Red Hat America's 11th fastest-growing company
Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.