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Zoom stock gained 9.7% in regular trading, and a further 9% afterward.
Dreamstime
Zoom Video Communications
posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter, ended Jan. 31, and stronger-than-expected guidance, driving the stock sharply higher in after-hours trading.
The videoconferencing company, a prime beneficiary of the Covid-19 pandemic as many workers and students stayed at home for the last year, reported revenue for the quarter of $882.5 million, up 369% from a year earlier, with adjusted profits of $365.4 million, or $1.22 a share. Under generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, the company earned $256.1 million, or 87 cents a share.
Zoom shares, which had rallied 9.7% to $409.66 in Monday’s regular session, gained another 9% in late trading to $446.63.
For the full year, Zoom had revenue of $2.65 billion, up 326%, with non-GAAP profits of $995.7 million, or $3.34 a share. The company finished the year with $4.2 billion in cash and short-term investments.
Zoom had projected revenue for the quarter of $806 million to $811 million, with non-GAAP profits of 77 to 79 cents a share. Management has predicted full-year revenue of between $2.575 billion and $2.58 billion, with non-GAAP profits of $2.85 to $2.87 a share.
The consensus call on Wall Street was for January quarter revenue of $811.8 million, with non-GAAP profits of 79 cents a share.
The company said it had 467,000 customers with more than 10 employees, up 33,400 from a year ago. Enterprise customers, those with annual revenue above $100,000, rose 355 to 1,644. Zoom Phone customers increased 269% year-over-year to 10,700.
The company’s financial guidance was higher than Wall Street expected, but still underlines the fact that growth will slow considerably from here as the world begins to get past the pandemic.
For the April quarter, Zoom is projecting revenue of $900 million to $905 million, with non-GAAP profits of 95 to 97 cents a share. The Street had been projecting revenue of $804.8 billion and profits of 72 cents a share.
For the full year ending in January 2022, the company expects revenue of $3.76 billion to $3.78 billion, up 42% from the previous year at the midpoint of the range, with non-GAAP profits of $3.59 to $3.65 a share.
The Street previously had been projecting fiscal year January 2022 revenue of $3.52 billion with non-GAAP profits of $2.96 a share.
In an interview with Barron’s late Monday, Zoom CFO
Kelly Steckelberg
said the huge growth in the company’s user base during the pandemic–and the accompanying dramatic increase in brand recognition–will provide lasting benefits. “It allows us to get into new markets more quickly,” she says.
Steckelberg notes that the company plans to spend more aggressively to market new services like Zoom Phone, which provides cloud-based telephony, and OnZoom, a new platform for marketing events. She points out that the current year guidance does not assume any contribution from OnZoom.
Asked about the company’s own strategy for returning workers to the company’s headquarters in San Jose and other offices, she says Zoom has not decided yet on a return to work strategy. Steckelberg says Zoom will always have some office space, in particular to showcase services like Zoom Rooms conferencing software and related hardware from third parties. But she also notes that the company had not added any new office space during the pandemic.
Asked about whether the company might lever its increasingly strong cash position for acquisitions, she notes that Zoom’s business development team is always evaluating potential targets. She says Zoom intends to expand from “killer app to killer platform,” with one goal being to have people spend more of their day on the platform.
“The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to an unprecedented year for Zoom,” CEO and founder
Eric Yuan
said in a statement. “As we enter [fiscal year] 2022, we believe we are well positioned for strong growth with our innovative video communications platform, on which our customers can build, run, and grow their businesses; our globally recognized brand; and a team ever focused on delivering happiness to our customers.”
Piper Sandler analyst James Fish noted in a brief research note published Monday after earnings that results came in above expectation on all metrics and that the full-year guidance suggested “the market dynamics remain strong” in cloud-based communications.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]
