Workflow automation and service management software provider ServiceNow Inc. has chalked up another solid quarter, signing up 41 new customers in deals worth over $1 million as it beat analysts’ expectations.

The company today reported a fourth-quarter profit after certain costs such as stock compensation of $63.6 million, or 35 cents per share, in line with Zack Investment Research’s poll of 14 analysts. Including all expenses, the Santa Clara, California-based company lost $27.8 million, or 16 cents per share.

Total revenue rose 44 percent from a year ago, to $546.4 million, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $535.4 million. For the full year, ServiceNow reported a net loss of $149.1 million on revenue of $1.93 billion.

“ServiceNow continues to impress, and they now have 500 customers over $1 million with 50 customers at $5 million, in addition to a $20 million deal this year,” said Dave Vellante, chief analyst at Wikibon, a research firm owned by the same company as SiliconANGLE.

The company’s share price gained 1.6 percent in regular trading today, but it fell 2.6 percent in after-hours trading as investors apparently wanted more. After its third-quarter report in November, shares fell 4 percent on a weaker-than-expected forecast for subscription revenues. Update: Investors woke up more optimistic, as shares were rising nearly 4 percent on Thursday.

ServiceNow’s continued customer success is the big story here, said Technology Business Research Inc. analyst Meaghan McGrath. The new accounts signed up in the fourth quarter “demonstrate the potential ServiceNow has within its customer base to cross-sell complementary services, as it aspires to grow at a 32 percent compound annual growth rate over the next three years to reach $4 billion in annual revenue in 2020,” she said.

ServiceNow is also benefiting from investments made in customer success over the last year, and this puts it in a good position as it eyes further expansion in the year ahead, McGrath added. The company has unified its customer success management, professional services, training and certification and the partner ecosystem teams into a single group reporting to its Chief Revenue Officer Dave Schneider over the past few months.

“This unification makes the clear connection that customer success is an extension of the sales team, to ultimately help both land and expand efforts,” McGrath said. “This progression of ServiceNow’s sales and support engagement model reflects the company’s growth as a strategic partner to customers, and sets the business up for ongoing growth across its product portfolio moving forward.”

McGrath’s enthusiasm was shared by Vellante, who added that ServiceNow remains on track to hit its target of becoming a $5 billion software company in the not-too-distant future.

“They continue to release new innovations at a fast pace and are becoming a strategic supplier to some of the world’s largest organizations, moving beyond IT into lines of business, as we predicted years ago,” Vellante said.

Asked about the negatives, Vellante said ServiceNow has yet to deliver a service for smaller businesses, and that its software remains high-priced for some customers. But he added, “The Street loves the stock, customers are happy, the ecosystem is expanding dramatically,” Vellante said. “ServiceNow is one of the best stories in enterprise software, period.”

For the next quarter, ServiceNow said it’s targeting subscription revenue of $525 million to $530 million. For the full year, the company said it hopes to pull in subscription revenue of $2.35 billion to $2.37 billion, amounting to growth of 35 to 37 percent.

Image: ServiceNow/Facebook