Software supply chain company JFrog Ltd. clocked another strong quarter, beating Wall Street’s guidance on earnings and revenue, sending its stock higher in extended trading today.

The company reported fourth-quarter earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of 19 cents per share on revenue of $116.1 million, up 19% from a year earlier. That translates to a greater profit and faster growth than expected, with Wall Street analysts forecasting earnings of just 14 cents per share on sales of $114.2 million.

They were solid numbers, but after taking into account various costs and expenses, the company’s net loss widened to $23.2 million in the quarter, compared with $11.2 million in the same period one year ago.

JFrog is widely seen as a promising bet by investors, for it sells a comprehensive supply chain platform for software developers, spanning disciplines such as DevOps, DevSecOps, MLOps and MLSecOps. Its main platform is called Artifactory, an open-source code repository that’s somewhat similar to GitHub, only it’s used for storing binary files rather than application code. Those files are used by the underlying server hardware to understand the human-readable programming language those apps are written in.

In addition, the company sells a continuous integration and continuous delivery platform called JFrog Pipelines, which is used to create automated software workloads that transform the raw application code into binaries.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Shlomi Ben Haim (pictured) said the results demonstrate the rising demand for comprehensive, end-to-end platforms that unify and secure the software supply chain. He added that this demand is being accelerated by the need for responsible generative artificial intelligence development.

“These transformative shifts contributed to our success throughout 2024,” he said. “JFrog achieved strong cloud expansion, accelerated platform adoption and growth in security.”

The company posted some strong numbers across the board, with cloud revenue up 41% in the quarter, driven by what Ben Haim said was large migrations and customer wins. The cloud now accounts for 43% of the company’s total revenue, he added.

Elsewhere, the company recorded a net dollar retention rate of 116%, which suggests that its revenue would have increased by 16% even if it failed to add a single new customer. But of course it did attract plenty of new clients. It said it now counts 52 customers that generate at least $1 million in annual revenue, up 41% from a year earlier. Moreover, customers who have adopted the company’s end-to-end JFrog Platform Enterprise+ subscription now contribute to 54% of its total revenue, up from 49% one year ago.

Industry analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said JFrog’s continued growth is being fueled by the desperation of enterprises to increase developer velocity and ship new software and updates as fast as they can. The company deserves credit for breaking through the $100 million quarterly revenue barrier, but he wondered how long investors will be able to stomach its growing losses.

“JFrog’s growth came at a cost, and the biggest chunk of of its annual loss was racked up during the last quarter,” he said. “In other words, its losses are accelerating and Shlomi Ben Haim and team will be under pressure to sort that out. But his team has made a habit of under-promising and then over-delivering, so investors aren’t too concerned yet.”

With respect to guidance for the current quarter, JFrog is targeting earnings of between 15 and 17 cents per share on sales of between $116 million and $118 million. Meanwhile, the Street is targeting a profit of 14 cents per share on slightly higher revenue of $117.5 million.

Investors liked what they saw, and JFrog’s stock rose more than 8% in after-hours trading, adding to a gain of just over 2% during the regular trading session. In the year to date, the company’s stock is up 28%, compared with a gain of just over 4% for the broader S&P 500 Index.

Photo: JFrog