RBC Capital analyst Matthew Hedberg lowered his price target on Red Hat to $177 from $180 after its "mixed" earnings report that followed 5 strong beat and raise quarters, citing the issues of "fewer renewals, less FX benefit, lower duration, and short-term middleware headwinds". The analyst keeps his Outperform rating however, stating that the challenges are likely to be short-term in nature while pointing to Red Hat management commentary that "no change in overall IT spending pattern has been seen". Hedberg further believes that the soft Q2 revenue guidance reflects a "short term middleware headwind" seen as a 2-3 quarter "air pocket".