Among the deafening noise of commentary around cloud file sharing and collaboration vendor Box’s announcement of its IPO today there was huge excitement simply about the fact that the IPO, long expected, was finally here. There was also a degree of coverage around the financials exposed in the S-1. At the highest of levels, some important statistics are below:

- Revenue for the year ended January 31, 2014 was $US124 million, which is up 111%
- Box saw a net loss of $US168 million over that period, compared to a loss of $US112 million the
year before
- Sales and marketing expenses were $US171 million. Yes, more than revenue for the same period
- Box has $US109 million in cash on hand, and it just raised $US100 million in December
- Box wants to raise $US250 million
- CEO and co-founder Aaron Levis holds around 4% of the company

Box Signs Up U.S. Justice Department for Cloud File Storage

U.S. Justice Department employees will start using Box Inc. to share files and collaborate on documents, an endorsement that will bolster the startup’s efforts to expand government sales.

It’s the cloud-storage and file-sharing company’s first agency-wide deal, Chief Executive Officer Aaron Levie said in an interview. While Box’s products are already in use at 40 federal government accounts, those are smaller deployments, he said.

Along with the new deal, Box is seeking approval under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, which could boost the use of cloud services in government agencies. Box, which sold shares to the public in January, is trying to add customers in areas where security is a key factor, such as health care, government and financial services. In its first quarter as a public company, billings fell short of some estimates and Box needs to show it can sustain growth.

“This is pretty massive given their security requirements and given the kinds of content they deal with,” Levie said of the agreement with the Justice Department.

Box reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, posting an adjusted loss of 26 cents per share on $85 million in revenue.
Analysts had expected Box to report a loss of 29 cents a share on $82 million in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters

Box's revenue forecast misses estimates; shares plunge

Cloud storage company Box's revenue forecast for the current quarter missed Wall Street estimates amid slowing growth in paid customers in the fourth quarter.

The company's shares fell 12.7 percent to $21.00 in extended trading on Wednesday.

The rate of growth in paid customers slowed to 2,000 in the quarter, compared with 4,000 additions in the third quarter.

Box, which competes with Dropbox, Microsoft's OneDrive and Google's Drive, had 82,000 paid customers in the fourth quarter, up from 80,000 in the third quarter.

Dropbox recently filed for an initial public offering of up to $500 million.

When asked about the rival's IPO, Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said: "I think it's really important to think about Dropbox as being in a very different market."

"... They are much more focused on consumers and small businesses whereas we are very focused on companies in the mid-market all the way up to the largest enterprises in the world," Levie told Reuters in an interview.

Analysts seemed to back up that claim.

D.A. Davidson's Rishi Jaluria said "Dropbox and Box are approaching the content collaboration market differently ... Dropbox will go public at a premium valuation to Box, which could lift Box's multiple somewhat."

The company forecast revenue for the first quarter in the range of $139 million to $140 million as per new accounting standards, below analysts' estimates of $144.3 million.

Box said it expects an adjusted loss per share for the first quarter to be in the range of 8 cents to 9 cents. Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 8 cents.

The company's net loss narrowed to $32.7 million, or 24 cents per share, in the quarter ended Jan. 31 from $36.9 million, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the loss was 6 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected a loss of 8 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Redwood City, California-based Box said its revenue rose 24.3 percent to $136.7 million, in line with Wall Street estimates.

Box shares sink as forecast indicates slower revenue growth

May 31, 2018

Box Inc. saw its shares tumble Wednesday as investors got more nervous about its slowing revenue growth.

Earlier, Box reported fiscal first-quarter results, with revenue and a net loss that were within Wall Street’s expectations, but its outlook indicated continued slower revenue growth for the rest of the year. Box’s full-year outlook called for revenue in the range of $603 million to $608 million, or growth of 20% at the high end of that range, up from fiscal 2018 revenue of $506 million.

While 20% growth is nothing to sneeze at for most companies, last year the cloud-storage company had revenue growth of 27%.

In a brief interview, Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said the company has moved to a multi-product model and is adding more capabilities, including governance features, more security and artificial intelligence to its offerings. “It will show up in much more into the next fiscal year,” he said.

Some questions on the company’s call with analysts were about the pace of getting new customers and whether its new products would contribute much to revenue going forward.

“By now there’s a good five, six, seven [new products], not any of them are broadly adopted or priced in a way that can drive massive revenue growth, correct me if I’m wrong,” one analyst said. Box executives cited new deals that had added “many new logos,” including adding the Defense Department’s DARPA as a new customer.

Levie urged patience, telling analysts that, as the company had discussed in its fiscal fourth-quarter call, over time a greater percentage of overall sales will be coming from those newer products.

But whether or not Box can get back to its higher growth rates is a big question that investors will keep asking, until they see evidence otherwise.

(Reuters) - Cloud storage provider Box Inc on Tuesday forecast current-quarter below analysts' estimates, clouding a strong second-quarter beat and sending its shares down nearly 4 percent in extended trading.

The company said the absence of a head for its Europe, the Middle East and Africa region took a toll on its operations.

"We were doing a search (for a new head of EMEA) for a number of months throughout the first half of the year," Chief Executive Officer Aaron Levie said, adding that it affected Box's ability to run its business smoothly.

The company named Chris Baker as the head of the region earlier this month.

For the third quarter, Box sees revenue between $154 million and $155 million while analysts were expecting $155 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company expects an adjusted loss of 7 cents to 8 cents per share for the third quarter which analysts' estimate a loss of 6 cents per share.

"We expect to have a non-GAAP profitability quarter in financial year 2019," Levie told Reuters, adding that Box is currently in the best position it has ever been competitively.

Earlier this month, rival Dropbox Inc forecast third-quarter above Wall Street estimates, with the online storage firm earning more from a higher number of paying subscribers.

For the full-year 2019, Box forecast an adjusted loss of between 16 cents and 18 cents per share, while analysts, on average, were expecting a loss of 18 cents per share.

Box also raised the lower end of its full-year 2019 revenue forecast to $606 million from $603 million, keeping the higher end at $608 million.

The company, which also competes with Microsoft Corp's OneDrive and Google's Drive, had more than 87,000 paying customers in the quarter, up from 85,000 in the previous quarter.

Box's second-quarter revenue topped Wall Street estimates, despite a rise in costs that the company has been incurring to attract new customers.

Net loss narrowed to $38.1 million, or 27 cents per share, in the second-quarter ended July 31 from $39.3 million, or 30 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Box reported a loss of 5 cents per share, while analysts were expecting a loss of 6 cents per share.

Revenue rose 20.6 percent to $148.2 million, above estimates of $146.5 million.

Box Earnings Expected To Show More Losses For Collaboration Pioneer

Box earnings will arrive after the market close Wednesday, for the pioneer in the field of cloud-based business-collaboration services.

The consensus estimate looks for Box earnings to show an adjusted loss of 7 cents per share, vs. a 13-cent loss in the year-ago period, among analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research. The company, launched in 2015, has yet to show a profit.

The consensus estimate on Box (BOX) revenue is $154.6 million for the quarter ended Oct. 31. That would be up 19.5% from the same quarter a year ago and continue a string of double-digit revenue growth going back more than four years.

The company beat estimates when it reported second-quarter results three months ago. But Box stock fell 11% after it provided an outlook below expectations.

Box held its initial public offering in January 2015, pricing shares at 14.

Box has expanded from data storage into cloud-based business-collaboration services, where it competes against Atlassian (TEAM) and well-funded startup Slack. The company is also a rival of Dropbox (DBX), which went public in March.

Fiscal Third Quarter Financial Highlights
.

• Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was a record $155.9 million, an increase of 21% (ASC 606 in fiscal 2019 compared to ASC 605 in fiscal 2018) and 23% (ASC 605 in fiscal 2019 compared to ASC 605 in fiscal 2018) from the third quarter of fiscal 2018.
• Deferred revenue as of October 31, 2018 was $301.2 million, an increase of 19% (ASC 606 to ASC 605) and 20% (ASC 605 to ASC 605) from October 31, 2017.
• Billings for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 were $155.6 million, an increase of 10% (ASC 606 to ASC 605 and ASC 605 to ASC 605) from the third quarter of fiscal 2018.
• GAAP operating loss in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was $39.5 million, or 25% of revenue (ASC 606), and $42.3 million, or 27% of revenue (ASC 605). This compares to GAAP operating loss of $42.6 million, or 33% of revenue, in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.
• Non-GAAP operating loss in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was $7.7 million, or 5% of revenue (ASC 606), and $10.5 million, or 7% of revenue (ASC 605). This compares to non-GAAP operating loss of $17.0 million, or 13% of revenue, in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.
• GAAP net loss per share, basic and diluted, in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was $0.28 (ASC 606) and $0.30 (ASC 605) on 142.4 million shares outstanding. This compares to GAAP net loss per share of $0.32 in the third quarter of fiscal 2018 on 134.6 million shares outstanding.
• Non-GAAP net loss per share, basic and diluted, in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was $0.06 (ASC 606) and $0.08 (ASC 605). This compares to non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.13 in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.
• Net cash provided by operating activities in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 totaled $6.8 million. This compares to net cash provided by operating activities of $14.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.
• Free cash flow in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was negative $4.1 million, compared to positive $6.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2018. This result was driven by the timing of cash outflows paid in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 that were originally anticipated to be paid in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. Box continues to expect to achieve positive free cash flow for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2019.

Box plummets 18% on revenue miss and weak guidance

Shares of Box plummeted as much as 18 percent in after hours trading after the company reported fourth quarter 2019 revenue that missed analyst expectations. The company also reported weak guidance for the upcoming quarter and full fiscal year.

Here are the numbers Box reported compared to Wall Street expectations:
.

• Earnings per share: $0.06 per share ex-items vs. estimate of $0.02 per share, per Refinitiv
• Revenue: $163.7 million vs. estimate of $164.2 million, per Refinitiv

Box expects revenue between $161 million and $162 million for its Q1 2020. That compares to analyst estimates of $166.2 million to $175 million estimated for the quarter, per Refinitiv.

Box's guidance for the full year 2020 also fell below analyst expectations of $713.9 million to $749.9 million, per Refinitiv. For its full year 2020, the company said it's expecting revenue to fall between $700 million and $704 million.

In a statement in the earnings release, Box CEO Aaron Levie blamed weak billing results in part on longer sales cycles for some of its bigger deals.

Shares of Box dropped nearly 11% in extended trading after the cloud company lowered guidance for the current fiscal year. Box now expected full-year revenue between $688 million and $692 million, down from a previously stated range of $700 million to $704 million. The company reported a first-quarter loss of 3 cents per share and revenue of $163 million, topping Wall Street estimates of a loss of 5 cents per share and revenue of $161.4 million.

Aug 28 (Reuters) - Box Inc, a cloud content management platform provider, reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue on Wednesday but shares fell 8% in extended trading, as investors were disappointed by the company's reiteration of its full-year earnings outlook.

The company reaffirmed its full-year earnings per share outlook in the range of $0.00 to $0.02, while marginally raising the lower end of its sales forecast by $2 million to $690 million, but keeping the top end unchanged at $692 million.

"They are kind of essentially guiding everything in line with what the analysts were expecting, not beating in terms of forward numbers," D.A. Davidson analyst Rishi Jaluria said.

Box had cut its full-year sales forecast in June, citing longer sales cycles from larger deals.

Second-quarter revenue for the cloud storage and content management company rose 16.4% to $172.55 million, above analysts' expectation of $169.53 million, as it added more customers to its cloud management platform.