Database software firm MongoDB Inc. might feel a bit hard done by today after posting financial results that easily beat Wall Street’s expectations, only to see its stock fall hard and fast after warning of a slightly bigger-than-expected loss in the coming quarter.

The company reported a second-quarter loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 23 cents per share on revenue of $303.6 million, up by an impressive 53% from the same period one year earlier. The results were nicely ahead of Wall Street’s targets, with analysts modeling a bigger loss of 29 cents per share on sales of just $280.2 million.

Overall, MongoDB reported a net loss of $118.9 million in the quarter, compared with a net loss of $77.1 million a year earlier.

The results were good, but what worried investors was the company’s guidance for the three months ahead. For the third quarter, MongoDB is forecasting a loss of between 16 and 19 cents per share on revenue of $300 million to $303 million. Analysts are targeting a 16-cent loss on sales of $294.8 million. As a result, MongoDB’s stock plummeted in the minutes after the report, and is currently down more than 16%, having already fallen 2% earlier in the day.

The company sells an enterprise-grade version of the popular open-source database MongoDB. It’s considered to be one of the most powerful document-oriented databases around and is a perfect fit for all kinds of data-hungry applications.

MongoDB is especially popular with developers because it’s easy to use and can store data in many different formats. The company has created a special version of MongoDB for those who prefer to run the database in the cloud, called MongoDB Atlas. There’s also a mobile version known as MongoDB Realm.

Atlas is key to the company’s prospects going forward, which explains why it was keen to point out its stellar growth, with revenue rising 73% from a year earlier to account for 64% of its total sales.

MongoDB President and Chief Executive Dev Ittycheria (pictured) praised the company’s “strong results,” noting it drove a record number of net additions of direct sales customers. “We are seeing robust growth in new workloads being deployed on our platform, which is indicative of the critical role we play in enabling customers to build and run mission critical applications that transform their business,” the CEO added.

The company shared details of its subscription-based revenue, which jumped 52% from a year ago to $291.6 million. Meanwhile, services revenue came to $12.1 million, up 64% from a year before.

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that MongoDB is firing on all cylinders, fueled primarily by the growth of MongoDB Atlas.

“This is what enterprises want to see from their vendors, and MongodDB has hit the sweet spot here,” Mueller saidm “The challenge is that growth is not enough for investors in the current macroeconomic conditions, as they want to see a path to cash neutrality or even a small profit. So now it all depends on Dev Ittcheria and team to deliver on their full year guidance, which looks like a challenge, returning a non GAAP net loss per share into the 28-35 cents range. Nothing is impossible, so the third quarter will be a key landmark.”

During the quarter MongoDB held its annual user conference MongoDB World. The event was the first in-person conference the company has held since 2019 and was a big success, with more than 3,000 attendees, 35 sponsors and 290 speakers, surpassing all previous events. The event also set the stage for the launch of MongoDB 6 in general availability, the latest revamp of its flagship database that came with new encryption tools and analytics features.

Although it was a busy event, Ittycheria found time to sit down with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, where he discussed the latest updates to the MongoDB database, and the company’s unique approach to meeting customer needs at the edge.

Here’s the full interview:

Photo: SiliconANGLE