UPDATED 00:37 EDT / SEPTEMBER 01 2016

NEWS

Box’s Q2 earnings edge past market expectations

File sharing firm Box Inc. posted encouraging second-quarter results for its fiscal 2017, narrowly beating analysts’ estimates.

The company reported an adjusted loss of 14 cents a share, which came in below Wall Street analysts’ expected loss of 19 cents a share. Box also sneaked past analysts’ expectations on revenue, reporting $95.7 million instead of the forecast $94.65 million, which is a 30 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago. Shareholders were initially encouraged by the results, with Box’s shares ticking up about 5 percent in after-hours trading, before falling back a bit to a 3 percent gain.

In the conference call, Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said the firm’s billings grew by 34 percent year over year, to $106.5 million, while the company added about 4,000 new paying customers in the quarter. The company now boasts of 66,000 paying customers overall, including Uber Technologies Inc. and Pfizer Ltd.

Levie pointed to some of Box’s more recent initiatives, such as its Box Shuttle service for migrating existing files to the cloud, as reasons for the uptick in performance. He also touted the company’s Box Partner Platform Program for enterprise applications.

Box’s stronger-than-expected showing reflects the firm’s “clear differentiation as the leading enterprise content platform,” Levie said in a canned statement. “Our excellent sales execution and traction with new products drove deals with 4,000 new customers and expanded deployments with leaders such as Pfizer, Electronic Arts and Uber.”

Levie elaborated further on what Box’s results meant in an interview with TechCrunch, saying they showed the company was seeing a “dramatic improvement in efficiency,” with lower marketing and sales costs relative to customer acquisition. Levie conceded that some shareholders were concerned Box was spending too much money on these efforts, but argued the results show everything is falling into place.

“We will be cash flow positive by the end of this year,” Levie said.

Box also issued guidance for the third quarter, saying it expects to report net losses of 19 to 20 cents a share on expected revenues of $100 million to $101 million. Box also raised its guidance for the full fiscal year, saying it expects revenues to hit $394 million to $396 million, up from its initial forecast of $391 million to $395 million. Overall, its losses should fall within the 67- to 69-cent-per-share range.

Photo Credit: farouq_taj via Compfight cc

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