Looking back on productivity software stocks’ Q4 earnings, we examine this quarter’s best and worst performers, including Box (NYSE:BOX) and its peers.
Rising employee costs and the shift to more remote work has increased the ever-present pressure to improve corporate productivity, which in turn has driven rising demand for productivity software that enables remote work, streamline project management and automate business tasks.
The 17 productivity software stocks we track reported a mixed Q4; on average, revenues beat analyst consensus estimates by 2.3% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 0.9% below consensus. Investors abandoned cash-burning companies to buy stocks with higher margins of safety, but productivity software stocks held their ground better than others, with share prices down 1.3% on average since the previous earnings results.
Box (NYSE:BOX)
Founded in 2005 by Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith, Box (NYSE:BOX) provides organizations with software to securely store, share and collaborate around work documents in the cloud.
Box reported revenues of $262.9 million, up 2.5% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a decent quarter for the company, with a small revenue beat and a more convincing EPS beat. Guidance was relatively in line with expectations, showing that the company is staying on track and presenting the market with no major surprises.
The stock is up 4.1% since the results and currently trades at $28.35.
Is now the time to buy Box? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Best Q4: Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA)
Founded by Alan Trefler in 1983, Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) offers a software-as-a-service platform to automate and optimize workflows in customer service and engagement.
Pegasystems reported revenues of $474.2 million, up 19.6% year on year, outperforming analyst expectations by 14.2%. It was an incredible quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ revenue estimates and a significant improvement in its gross margin. Its revenue, EPS, and free cash flow guidance for full-year 2024 also beat expectations (specifically, free cash flow is projected to be $350 million in 2024 vs estimates of $258 million), with the company forecasting 11% annual contract value growth.
Pegasystems delivered the biggest analyst estimates beat among its peers. The stock is up 28.3% since the results and currently trades at $65.06.
Is now the time to buy Pegasystems? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Weakest Q4: 8×8 (NASDAQ:EGHT)
Founded in 1987, 8×8 (NYSE:EGHT) provides software for organizations to efficiently communicate and collaborate with their customers, employees, and partners.
8×8 reported revenues of $181 million, down 1.8% year on year, falling short of analyst expectations by 1.3%. It was a weak quarter for the company, with full-year revenue guidance missing analysts’ expectations. A bright spot was a beat on profit that led to a non-GAAP EPS beat.
8×8 had the weakest performance against analyst estimates and slowest revenue growth in the group. The stock is down 19.3% since the results and currently trades at $2.71.
Read our full analysis of 8×8’s results here.
Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM)
Started by Eric Yuan who once ran engineering for Cisco’s video conferencing business, Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM) offers an easy to use, cloud-based platform for video conferencing, audio conferencing and screen sharing.
Zoom reported revenues of $1.15 billion, up 2.6% year on year, surpassing analyst expectations by 1.4%. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with full-year revenue guidance missing analysts’ expectations. On the other hand, there was an acceleration in new large contract wins.
The company added 79 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 3,810. The stock is up 5.7% since the results and currently trades at $66.73.
Read our full, actionable report on Zoom here, it’s free.
Asana (NYSE:ASAN)
Founded in 2008 by Facebook’s co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Asana (NYSE:ASAN) is a cloud-based project management software, where you can plan and assign tasks to employees and monitor and discuss progress of work.
Asana reported revenues of $171.1 million, up 13.9% year on year, surpassing analyst expectations by 1.9%. It was a decent quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ billings estimates. On the other hand, while revenue guidance for next quarter the the full year was in line with expectations, Asana’s guidance for operating loss for those periods was worse than expectations.
The company added 300 enterprise customers paying more than $5,000 annually to reach a total of 21,646. The stock is down 18% since the results and currently trades at $15.4.
Read our full, actionable report on Asana here, it’s free.
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