Big-data company Tableau Software Inc. saw its stock rise almost 4% in after-hours trading today after posting financial results that beat expectations on earnings but fell just short of revenue forecasts.

The company, which sells data analytics software that helps enterprises obtain useful insights, reported first-quarter earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of 2 cents per share. Revenue came to $282.5 million, up 15% from a year ago.

Wall Street was expecting a first-quarter loss of a penny a share on revenue of $286.82 million.

Tableau’s rising stock was all the more surprising as the company later provided second-quarter guidance that was some way off Wall Street’s forecasts. Company officials said during a conference call they expect second-quarter earnings of between 22 to 33 cents per share on revenue of $313 million to $328 million. That was in response to analysts’ forecast of 41 cents per share earnings on revenue of $330 million.

The lower guidance may have been offset somewhat by the growth in Tableau’s annual recurring revenue, which the company says is the best gauge of its overall health. Tableau officials said this figure came to $902 million, up 41% from a year ago.

Subscription annual recurring revenue, meanwhile, was $510.1 million, up 115%. Investors may have been buoyed by the last figure as they prefer this kind of revenue stream because it’s a far more predictable source of income than the old perpetual licensing model, which Tableau has been moving away from.

“We are seeing more and more customers cultivate a data-driven culture in their organizations due to the ease of use and flexibility of Tableau’s end-to-end analytics platform,” Tableau Chief Executive Adam Selipsky (pictured) said in a statement.

The first quarter saw Tableau release a new version of its analytics software called Tableau 2019.1. The main new feature was a new natural language processing tool called Ask Data that allows users to ask questions using their voice and glean useful insights. The idea is to make Tableau’s software more accessible to those that don’t have any special expertise in programming or using data.

Tableau also expanded its data preparation capabilities with the release of Tableau Prep Conductor.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said the new capabilities are a key step for the company in terms of usability of its software.

“Humans tend to think in language and not in SQL, and the new capabilities will help Tableau see wide adoption by business users, who now can get to the necessary insights to accelerate their enterprise in a more natural way,” Mueller said. “Overall, Tableau keeps doing well, but needs to execute better and hit quarterly expectations.”

Also in the quarter, Tableau said in repurchased 34,986 shares of its outstanding Class A common stock for $4.3 million. It also received authorization from board members to repurchase the remaining $275.7 million worth of outstanding stock.

Photo: Michael Clinard/Tableau