NetSuite delivers strong Q4, eyes investments in 2013

NetSuite reported a better-than-expected fourth quarter as the company continues to land cloud ERP deals.

The company reported a fourth quarter loss of $9.6 million, or 13 cents a share, on revenue of $85 million, up 33 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings for the fourth quarter were 6 cents a share.

Wall Street was expecting fourth quarter earnings of 4 cents a share on revenue of $83.04 million.

For 2012, NetSuite reported a net loss of $35.2 million, or 50 cents a share, on revenue of $308.8 million, up 31 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings for 2012 were 26 cents a share.

In a statement, NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson took aim at rivals Microsoft and SAP and noted "more large enterprises moved to the cloud."

For 2013, NetSuite projected revenue of $397 million to $402 million, but noted it would be expanding aggressively. Earnings for 2013 will be between 2 cents a share to 3 cents a share on a non-GAAP basis. Nelson noted that NetSuite will be adding salespeople and offices.

Wall Street was expecting earnings of 31 cents a share on revenue of $396.4 million.

Key points from NetSuite's conference call and Nelson:

• The company added 400 new customers in the quarter.
• NetSuite has 1,700 employees.
• "To take advantage of our leadership position and market opportunity, we're going continue to invest aggressively in 2013. We plan to add more sales people than we have during any year in our history. We will invest incrementally in brand marketing, and we'll continue to expand our sales, as we expand our product capabilities to meet the needs of small, medium and large companies across many industries. As we have for the last two years, we plan to front load as much of this investment as possible in Q1 and Q2," said Nelson.