Enterprise software company ServiceNow Inc. picked up where it left off last year with yet another strong set of financial results that pushed its stock up more than 6 percent in after-hours trading.

The company, which sells workflow automation software to enterprises, blew past analysts’ expectations on earnings and also saw its subscription billings top views.

ServiceNow reported fourth-quarter earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of 77 cents per share on revenue of $715.4 million, up 120 percent and 30 percent, respectively, from the same period a year ago. Wall Street was expecting the company to report earnings per share of just 64 cents, though on a bit higher revenue of $717.8 million.

ServiceNow’s all-important subscription revenue also topped estimates, jumping 33 percent, to $666 million. Analysts were expecting subscription revenue of $665 million. Meanwhile, subscription billings rose by 38 percent to $952 million, well ahead of Wall Street’s projected $904 million.

Subscription revenue and billings are often said to be important gauge of the company’s overall performance because shareholders view it as a steadier stream of income.

“We finished 2018 with our strongest fourth quarter ever, continuing our momentum as the leading digital workflow company shaping the future of work,” ServiceNow President and Chief Executive John Donahoe said in a statement.

The company, which posted successive strong quarters in 2018, also continued its streak of big customer wins in, closing 51 transactions worth more than $1 million a year. As a result, ServiceNow said, it now counts 678 enterprise customers with more than $1 million in annual contract value, up from 614 at the end of its third quarter.

ServiceNow’s final quarter of the year didn’t see any new product launches, but the company did announce a potentially important partnership with IBM Corp. It will assist Big Blue’s Multicloud Management Platform with its technology service and operations management products.

“ServiceNow is on a roll, providing enterprises with what they need to manage their operations and their employees, all nicely built around the power of case management,” said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc. “The question enterprises have to ask now is what will ServiceNow do next to increase its relevancy and share of the wallet in 2019. This year should give us all of the answers.”

ServiceNow said in its guidance for the first quarter that it’s expecting revenue in the range of $790 million to $795 million.

Photo: ServiceNow/Facebook