Box Q1 beats market estimates but slow enterprise sales cycles sting outlook
Enterprise cloud company Box posted better-than-expected first quarter financial results on Monday but lowered its fiscal 2020 revenue guidance due to slow enterprise sales cycles. The company reported a Q1 net loss of $36.8 million, or 25 cents per share. On a non-GAAP basis, the net loss was 3 cents per share on top of $163 million in revenue, up 16% year over year.
Wall Street was expecting a net loss of 5 cents per share with $161.45 million in revenue. Shares of Box were down nearly 8% after hours.
Elsewhere on the balance sheet, Box said Q1 billings were $118.4 million, up 1% year over year.
In terms of guidance, Wall Street as is expecting Box to report a Q2 net loss of 2 cents per share on revenue of $170.8 million. Box responded on the low end, saying it expects Q2 revenue in the range of $169 million to $170 million. Box expects its EPS loss to range from 2 cents to 1 cent.
For its fiscal 2020, Box expects revenue in the range of $688 million to $692 million -- down from its previous range of $700 million to $704 million -- with EPS ranging from zero to 2 cents. Analysts are expecting a loss of 2 cents per share on revenue of $701.9 million.
"In the first quarter, we drove record add-on product attach rates of more than 90% across our six-figure deals," said Box CEO Aaron Levie. "While we are encouraged by the demand for these larger, more strategic deployments, these deals often have longer sales cycles, which is reflected in our updated guidance. Our go-to-market initiatives, in combination with our expanded product portfolio, will enable us to improve sales productivity and meet the demand for Cloud Content Management."