UPDATED 21:25 EDT / AUGUST 28 2018

CLOUD

Box stock drops as it provides weak revenue guidance

Updated:

Cloud storage company Box Inc. beat Wall Street’s expectations in its fiscal second-quarter earnings report, but its stock fell almost 7 percent in after-hours trading on a combination of weak guidance and concerns over its future profitability.

Box said it made a loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 5 cents per share on revenue of $148.2 million, down from a net loss of 11 cents per share a year before.

Wall Street had predicted a net loss of 6 cents on revenue of $146.54 million. Box also reported a free cash flow of negative $10.3 million, which is an improvement on the negative $15 million a year ago. Billings also rose 17 percent year-over-year, to $162.8 million.

But investors were more concerned with Box’s future profitability, and poor guidance and some worrying comments from an executive were followed by a scramble to sell off the company’s stock.

Box executives said they are forecasting an adjusted loss of between 7 and 8 cents per share on revenue of $154 million to $155 million. Wall Street had forecast a loss of 6 cents per share on revenue of $155 million, prompting Box’s stock to fall sharply after-hours.

In the ensuing conference call, Box Chief Financial Officer Dylan Smith talked about the company’s efforts to boost its future revenue. Box executives have previously said they hope to hit a $1 billion revenue run rate by the second half of the company’s fiscal 2021.

But on the call, Smith said he didn’t want to identify a specific quarter when Box might hit that target. Instead, he seemed to back away from those earlier projections, saying executives are “committed” to achieving $1 billion in revenue by the end of its fiscal 2022. Those comments reportedly saw Box’s share price fall even further. Update: Shares fell 11 percent in Wednesday trading, closing at $23.70 a share.

Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie did at least attempt to highlight the company’s positive achievements. He noted the firm now counts more than 87,000 paying customers, including new ones such as the city of Atlanta and the Sacramento Kings basketball team. He also spoke about the company’s efforts to increase revenue from its existing customers by adding new capabilities to its products based on artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.

“Driving deeper relationships with customers such as JLL, Nationwide and Societe Generale, as well as focusing on strategic solution sales, led to another quarter of strong attach rates for add-on products like Box Governance, Zones and Platform,” said Levie, who will keynote the company’s annual two-day BoxWorks conference in San Francisco starting Wednesday.

Image: Box/Facebook

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