Shares of enterprise planning company Anaplan Inc. gained more than 14% in extended trading today after it posted a smaller-than-expected loss and followed up with strong guidance for the next quarter.

The company reported a fiscal 2022 second-quarter loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 9 cents per share on revenue of $144.3 million, up 35.5% from a year ago. That was better than expected, with Wall Street looking for a bigger loss of 14 cents per share on lower revenue of $134.1 million.

Anaplan’s subscription revenue came to $130.8 million in the quarter, up 34.6% from a year ago.

In a statement, Anaplan Chief Executive Frank Calderoni (pictured) said the company was showing “healthy momentum.”

“With the post-pandemic economy emerging, we are well-positioned to take advantage of the numerous market opportunities to help solve our customers’ biggest challenges,” he said.

Anaplan sells an enterprise platform that’s used for all kinds of business planning purposes. The offering is centered on an in-memory database and calculation engine called HyperBlock that enables customers to organize and analyze disparate sets of data quickly from finance, human resources, sales and other business operations.

One key advantage of Anaplan’s platform is its Excel-style functionality, which helps make it more accessible to ordinary business workers. The software includes modules to help make data-driven decisions in key areas such as budgeting, demand, quota and workforce planning, planning and forecasting, commission calculation, financial consolidation and profitability modeling, for example.

Anaplan’s platform is available on Amazon Web Services Inc.’s public cloud, as well as Google Cloud.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that Anaplan was well positioned to grow because the enterprises it serves have an insatiable thirst for more insights, and that’s what it helps them to find.

“Insights are perhaps even more important as we enter a post-pandemic world,” Mueller said. “Its growth of almost 35% shows Anaplan is on the right path, but the sore spot is that it grew its deficit as well. Looking forward, management will have to rein in costs so the company can drive towards profitability.”

During the quarter, Anaplan announced a big refresh of its platform, adding new features around management reporting, modeling and collaboration. It also announced some major new customers, such as Russian banking giant Ozon Holdings Plc. and British children’s clothes retailer Childrensalon Ltd.

For the next quarter, Anaplan seems to think its healthy momentum will continue. It said it’s expecting third-quarter revenue of $145.5 million to $146.5 million, ahead of Wall Street’s forecast of $143.5 million.

For the full year, the company updated its revenue guidance to a range of $571.5 million to $573.5 million. That compares with Wall Street’s forecast of $558.5 million.

Photo: Constellation Research