November 17, 2024
Zoom shares jump as quarterly results beat on top and bottom lines
Zoom's growth has moderated dramatically since the pandemic, and the company is projecting a revenue increase of less than 2% for the current fiscal year.

Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom Video Communications, stands before the opening bell during the company’s initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on April 18, 2019.

Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Zoom shares rose as much as 13% in extended trading on Monday after the video chat software vendor announced fiscal fourth-quarter results that topped analysts’ expectations.

Here’s how the company did, compared with consensus among analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

  • Earnings per share: $1.22 adjusted vs. $1.15 expected
  • Revenue: $1.15 billion vs. $1.13 billion expected

Revenue increased less than 3% from $1.12 billion a year earlier, according to a statement. The company reported net income of $298.8 million, or 98 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Jan. 31, compared with a net loss of $104.1 million, or 36 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Far from its heyday during the Covid-19 pandemic, when a surge in the number of remote workers sent revenue up over 100% for five straight quarters, Zoom is now mired in single-digit growth.

Growth would have been faster in the fiscal fourth quarter if not for a sales reorganization. It “took a lot of time for the organization to recover from, frankly,” Kelly Steckelberg, Zoom’s finance chief, said on a conference call with analysts.

At the end of the fiscal fourth quarter, Zoom had 220,400 enterprise customers, up from 219,700 at the end of the prior quarter.

Zoom’s Team Chat migration tool “has seen a 4x increase in downloads in the last six months,” Eric Yuan, the company’s founder and CEO, said during the call. He said Zoom hasn’t done a great job of marketing its chat capabilities.

For the fiscal first quarter, Zoom called for $1.18 to $1.20 in adjusted earnings per share on $1.125 billion in revenue, which would represent growth of less than 2% from a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $1.13 in adjusted earnings per share and $1.13 billion in revenue.

For the 2025 fiscal year, Zoom sees $4.85 to $4.88 in adjusted earnings per share, with $4.60 billion in revenue, implying 1.6% revenue growth. The LSEG consensus was adjusted earnings of $4.71 per share and revenue of $4.65 billion.

Before the jump, Zoom shares were down 12% so far this year, while the S&P 500 stock index had gained 6% during the same period.

WATCH: Boris Schlossberg on Zoom: ‘It has a chance to really shine going forward’