EPAM Systems (EPAM) Q4’24 Post-Mortem
Guidance disappoints- but unsustainable benefits continue
We last mentioned EPAM on Susbtack back in November and warned that third-quarter results were weaker than they appeared owing to several accounting-related benefits. While the company reported 4Q’24 EPS that surpassed estimates by 9 cps, it guided to lower-than-expected results for Q1 and full-year 2025. The market was not graceful, punishing the stock by 25% since the earnings announcement.
Unfortunately, a close look at the fourth-quarter numbers reveals 23 cps of benefit from non-operational sources that may not repeat, without which the company would have recorded a significant miss to go along with its disappointing guidance.
To quantify these benefits, let’s get behind the numbers…