Five9 Inc. posted strong financial results today with profit and revenue beating expectations, showing that its recent purple patch during the COVID-19 pandemic is no fluke.

The company reported a fourth-quarter profit before certain costs such as stock compensation of 34 cents per share on revenue of $127.9 million. That was well ahead of Wall Street’s model of 23 cents per share in earnings and $115.3 million in revenue, and the company’s stock shot up by more than 9% in after-hours trading.

Five9 Chief Executive Rowan Trollope (pictured) didn’t hold back, calling the company’s results “outstanding” thanks to revenue that grew by 39% year-over-year and 14% in the quarter. He added that both of these growth rates were new records for the company, as was the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin of 22.8%.

“Our performance underscores our leadership in the market and momentum on our mission to help customers modernize and transform their contact center and reimagine their customer experience,” Trollope said. “We enter 2021 well-positioned to capture the massive market opportunity and expand our leadership position.”

Five9 is a provider of cloud-based contact center software and related services that enable companies to manage their customer service interactions. Its software caters to traditional phone calls, video calls, emails, messages and social media.

FIve9’s software is entirely web-based, and it can also provide telephone hardware and phone lines too, which makes things even easier for customers, since it means they can just pay a monthly subscription fee and not have to worry about investing in expensive contact center infrastructure.

It’s a business model that has done well during the COVID-19 pandemic, as Five9 has now beaten expectations in four straight quarters. And the company is confident it will extend that hot streak, as it posted strong guidance for the next three-month period.

Holger Mueller, an analyst with Constellation Research Inc., told SiliconANGLE that Five9 is a showcase for how to move application use cases to the cloud. He said the company is well-placed to break the “half-unicorn” mark in terms of revenue within the next year. Even so, he said there are still some concerns Five9’s management needs to address.

“One worry is that it has swung from an operating surplus to an operating loss this quarter,” Mueller said. “And while revenue growth of 39% looks good, the 10% growth on the loss side is a problem. The good news is that Five9’s losses are still less than 10% of its overall revenue, so strong growth and cost management in the next year should be enough for it to return to profitability.”

For the first quarter, Five9 said, it’s expecting earnings in the range of 12 to 14 cents per share on revenue of $122 million to $123 million. Wall Street had forecast earnings of 12 cents per share on revenue of $116 million. For the full year, Five9 is modeling total revenue of between $518.5 million and $521.5 million, versus Wall Street’s forecast of just $451.5 million.

Photo: SiliconANGLE