Database company Couchbase Inc. delivered strong fiscal fourth-quarter financial results today, beating expectations, only to see its stock fall in after-hours trading on weak guidance.

The company reported a loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of $12.7 million, or 22 cents per share, with revenue rising 19% from a year ago, to $35.1 million. Wall Street had been modeling a wider loss of 26 cents per share on revenue of $34 million. Its net loss for the period came to $13.2 million, or 30 cents a share.

Couchbase’s fiscal 2022 revenue rose 22% from the previous year, to $123.5 million.

Couchbase went public last year. It sells a popular NoSQL database that’s used to power enterprise applications. As opposed to traditional databases that can only accommodate either structured or unstructured data, Couchbase’s software can store both at the same time. This unique ability means it can function as a data cache, allowing enterprises to accomplish with one system what previously used to require three.

Couchbase President and Chief Executive Matt Cain (pictured), said the company finished its first year as a publicly traded entity with strong momentum. He highlighted the company’s annual recurring revenue of $132.9 million, up 23% from a year ago. Cain also spoke of his optimism over the growth prospects of Couchbase Capella, a new, fully managed and automated version of the company’s database that was launched late last year.

“Looking ahead to fiscal 2023, we are excited about the opportunity to increase our momentum through our Capella database as a service offering and expanded go-to-market efforts,” Cain said. “Modernization of applications remains a top priority for enterprises as they invest in digital transformation initiatives, and Couchbase continues to be thoughtfully architected to meet the market demand for this ongoing trend.”

For all of Cain’s optimism, the company’s guidance for the next quarter and fiscal year was a tad disappointing. For the current quarter, Couchbase forecast revenue of $32.5 million to $32.7 million, in line with Wall Street’s target of $32.6 million. For the full year, Couchbase sees revenue in a range of $146.5 million to $147.5 million, below the consensus of $151.4 million.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said enterprises lean heavily on innovative cloud databases like Couchbase for their next-generation applications. As such, he said Couchbase’s 22% revenue growth over the last year was a bit slow in what is a very fast-growing database segment.

“Couchbase’s costs grew even more than its revenue did too, so it moved deeper into the red than before,” Mueller added. “Because database adoption tends to be steady rather than a roller-coaster, Couchbase’s management may have to rethink its cost structure and plans for growth if it’s going to make progress towards the black. We will see how it does in the next fiscal year.”

Investors voted with their feet, with Couchbase’s stock falling more than 11% in extended trading, more than erasing a 6% gain during the regular session.

Photo: SiliconANGLE