Guidewire: Clearly Taking Share in an Improving Environment

Guidewire hosted a workman-like analyst day like a well-deserved victory lap after the company has slowly built momentum over the last two to three years since the launch of the Guidewire cloud platform. The company spent much effort defining and projecting the financial and marketing arcs it was embarking on, and seeing it all in its full glory is remarkable. That journey is certainly not complete. While the target operating model was consistent with the prior vision, management discussed priorities and growth levers during the event. This is not unexpected after Guidewire reported strong results for its fiscal fourth quarter and provided stout guidance in early September. Accordingly, our investment thesis is unchanged, and we maintain our wide moat rating and fair value estimate of $125 per share.