Shares in Appian Corp. closed regular trading up 16% today after the business automation software provider reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue in its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter and smashed earnings expectations for the year ahead.

Appian broke even, compared with earning six cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2023, on revenue of $166.7 million, up 15% year-over-year. Both figures were just ahead of the penny-per-share loss and revenue of $166.35 million expected by analysts.

The company saw cloud subscription revenue of $98.9 million, up 19% year-over-year. Total subscription revenue, which includes cloud, on-premises and maintenance support, rose 18%, to $136.8 million. Professional services revenue rose just 1%, to $29.9 million.

Appian’s customers are notably sticking around, with the company reporting a cloud subscription revenue retention rate of 116% as of the end of the quarter.

Business highlights in the quarter included Appian’s December launch of its latest platform release which introduced process automation powered by enterprise artificial intelligence. The update included the launch of Appian Autoscale and enhanced AI insights, both designed for operational efficiency, scalability and process performance.

Appian Autoscale allows organizations to manage high-volume, straight-through processes such as real-time claims validation, continuous transaction monitoring and credit risk scoring. The solution also allows users to scale new and existing processes efficiently while providing monitoring tools for better visibility into millions of process instances.

The release also included AI advancements, including FedRAMP Moderate compliance for AI Skills and AI Copilot, improved document extraction for multipage tables, and faster response times in AI Copilot for data fabric. The company’s Process Insights AI now provides AI-driven key performance indicator suggestions and insight summaries, enhancing collaboration and decision-making.

For the full year, Appian reported an adjusted loss of 35 cents per share, up from a loss of 81 cents per share in 2023, on revenue of $617 million, up 13% year-over-year.

“In 2024, Appian demonstrated its ability to grow with increasing efficiency,” founder and Chief Executive Matt Calkins said in the company’s earnings release. “We specialize in creating value with AI, by deploying it in a process. While others bring work to AI, we bring AI to work.”

For its fiscal 2025 first quarter, Appian expects adjusted earnings per share of two to five cents on revenue of $162 million to $164 million. For the full year, the company expects adjusted earnings of 17 to 22 cents on revenue of $680 million to $684 million.

The earnings per share forecast for the first quarter was smashed out of the park and halfway to the moon, as analysts had expected Appian to forecast a 39-cent-per-share loss. The margin wasn’t quite as large for the full-year outlook but was still a beat, as analysts had forecast earnings of 12 cents per share.

Appian’s revenue outlooks, however, were a miss and a slight miss at the midpoint. Analysts had forecast revenue of $166.9 million in the first quarter and $682.8 million for the full year. The revenue outlook wasn’t enough to dampen investor enthusiasm. At the end of the day, Appian is a company that is switching from years of losses to profitability and its share increase reflects that.

Photo: Appian