Wow: Analysts Forecast Nuance ($NUAN) Fiscal Q1 EPS Growth Of 28.5%

My history in the speech communications market was a combination of:

• Cool technologies looking for a market, and
• Too many companies chasing a relatively small market.

Well original investors may or may have not done well, but the modern day Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a combination of many companies and technologies in the speech market. It appears that a real market has emerged as Wall Street estimates for revenue growth have been climbing for Nuance Communications (NUAN), which reports fiscal first quarter earnings after the market close today.

From Investors.com:

"Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the provider of speech recognition software to report revenue of $391.5 million, up 29% from the year-earlier quarter. A week ago, analysts estimated sales at $386.2 million.

Analysts' earnings estimates have stayed the same. They expect Nuance, whose technology is used in Apple's (AAPL) "Siri" voice command system for mobile devices, to earn 36 cents per share, up 28.5% from 28 cents in the year-earlier period.

Nuance has beat revenue guidance the past three quarter, says UBS analyst Brent Hill in a research report.

Nuance's shares have jumped more than 50% since Apple rolled out Siri technology and the iPhone 4S in October. Still, Apple-related revenue is not expected to grow much from the previous quarter.

That's because Nuance is believed to get revenue on a fixed-fee basis, not based on how many iPhones are sold. Nuance, however, is expected to generate more revenue from mobile phones that use Google's (GOOG) Android operating system.

While Nuance's mobile unit is forecast to grow revenue around 25%, analysts say growth in its health-care and enterprise units, which also sell speech software, will be key. Nuance garners about 40% of revenue from health care. Doctors use Nuance's speech products to transcribe patient data into computer files.

"We expect total organic growth of 16%, driven largely by the mobile & consumer and health care segments, for which we are modeling 24.5% and 14% growth, respectively," Avondale Partners analyst John Bright said in a report. "At Nuance's (2011) analyst day, management cited a 'large Android pipeline,' and while details of Nuance's relationship with Apple remain unknown, we are beginning to see signs of fast-following by competitors such as Samsung."

"The enterprise segment has recorded several quarters of negative growth, but we believe the segment could turn positive in fiscal 2012," Bright added.

Nuance Communications is part of the IBD 50 list of superior companies based on fundamental and technical factors. It's one of eight IBD 50 stocks reporting earnings this week."