Cloud content management company Box Inc. reported solid first fiscal quarter earnings that edged past analysts’ expectations.

Investors liked what they saw, with the company’s share price rising more than 4 percent in after-hours trading.

Box posted an operating loss after certain costs such as stock compensation of $16.6 million, or 13 cents per share, on revenues of $117.2 million. That’s down from the same period one year ago, when Box reported a loss of 18 cents per share. Wall Street was looking for an adjusted loss of 14 cents per share on revenues of $115 million.

Even better for Box was its reported billings, which totaled $99.6 million for the quarter, up 31 percent compared to one year ago. Box also reported positive cash flow for the first quarter of $4 million, after delivering its first positive free cash flow quarter in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2017.

Box also secured around 3,000 new customers in the quarter, bringing its total paying customers to 74,000. These included new and expanded deployments with major firms such McDonald’s Corp., Morningstar Inc., UnitedHealth Group and the U.S. Forest Service. In total, Box landed 25 new deals worth over $100,000, up from 17 new deals in the same quarter one year ago.

Aaron Levie, co-founder and chief executive officer of Box, said in an interview with MarketWatch that the latest quarter showed Box was making inroads with larger enterprises. “What’s starting to happen is that larger and larger enterprises are adopting Box as their core system of record for securing and managing and governing and organizing their corporate information,” Levie said. “We’re seeing customers basically do larger transactions with us, buying more ‘seats’ of the service for their user base, and add on additional products like our Box governance capabilities and some of our advanced security technology.”

Dylan Smith, co-founder and chief financial officer, added in a statement, “With our leadership position in cloud content management, loyalty of our installed base, and roadmap for continued innovation, we are well positioned to achieve our $1 billion revenue target.”

Box also took the opportunity to highlight its continued efforts at cultivating relationships with other cloud companies. In the last quarter, for example, the company noted it had launched Box KeySafe for Amazon Web Services Inc.’s GovCloud, expanded its integration with Google Cloud Platform, and launched its Box for Workplace by Facebook integration.

Box also issued updated guidance for its second quarter, saying it expects to see revenues of between $121 million and $122 million, with a loss after certain costs such as stock compensation of around 12 to 13 cents per share. For its full fiscal 2018, Box said it expects to hit revenues of between $502 million and $506 million on a loss of 44 to 48 cents per share.

Photo: JD Lasica/Flickr