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Shares in enterprise file-sharing company Box Inc. took an absolute beating in extended trading today, falling more than 24 percent on mixed fourth-quarter results and dismal guidance for the upcoming year.

The stock drop came despite Box making good on a promise it made last November that it would become profitable for the first time.

The company did just that, reporting earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of 6 cents per share on revenue of $163.7 million, up 20 percent from a year ago. Wall Street was expecting earnings of just 2 cents per share on revenue of $164.16 million. Box said its net loss for the quarter came to $19.6 million, or 14 cents per share.

The results weren’t all that bad, but what really sent investors running for the exits was the company’s guidance, which came in way below expectations.

For its full fiscal 2020, Box said it’s expecting to see adjusted earnings of between $700 million and $704 million, some way short of the analyst consensus of $713.9 million to $749.9 million. Box’s first-quarter guidance also came up short, with company officials projecting earnings of $161 million to $162 million. Wall Street had reckoned $166.2 million to $175 million.

The dismal guidance means that Box’s stock saw nearly all 2019 gains wiped out, at least in after-hours trading today. The company’s shares had risen more than 47 percent so far this year. Update: Shares closed down more than 18 percent Thursday.

Box’s poor outlook comes at a time when its competitors are showing increased resolve that could see them chip away at its market share, Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Inc., told SiliconANGLE.

“First and foremost, competitor Dropbox is growing faster than Box and focusing its attention on Box’s core enterprise markets,” King said. “Just as troubling, behemoths like Google and Microsoft are including services similar to Box’s in broader productivity packages.”

King said that these issues, combined with the poor guidance, appear to have spooked a considerable number of the company’s shareholders.

But other analysts were more optimistic. Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group told SiliconANGLE that today’s stock selloff was a natural reaction to its poor guidance, but that there was no need to worry about its long-term future.

“Investors invest in the future of a company, not its present, so anything that looks troubling about the future will tend to result in a sharp market pullback and a lower valuation for the firm,” Enderle said. “The company is in no danger, though, since they are still forecasting growth and they are profitable.”

Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc., said that today’s drama is more of an indication that Box simply needs to learn how to manage expectations better and then execute.

“The good news is, the product pipeline is attractive and enterprises need to make their workers more productive,” Mueller said. “Document and content management is one aspect of this.”

Box also reported fourth-quarter billings of $237.7 million, up 16 percent from a year ago, but slightly lower than estimates. In a statement, Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said the weaker-than-expected billings were the result of longer sales cycles on some of its biggest deals.

“While our Q4 billings results were below our expectations — driven by underperformance in EMEA and longer sales cycles for some seven-figure deals, we are encouraged by overall customer momentum and demand for cloud content management,” Levie said.

Box isn’t the only file-sharing company to disappoint investors this quarter. Last week, one of its main rivals, Dropbox Inc., saw its stock fall 10 percent, also due to poor guidance.

Photo: Box