By Sabela Ojea
Box logged higher revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter as it boosts its artificial-intelligence technology offering, but warned of a significant hit to profitability from a stronger U.S. dollar.
Shares fall 8% to $30.69 in post-market trading. Through Tuesday's close, shares have risen 20% over the past 12 months.
The Redwood City, Calif., cloud-storage firm posted a profit for the three months ended Jan. 31 of $194 million, or $1.12 a share, compared with $99.2 million, or 57 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier.
Stripping out one-time items, the company's earnings per share came in at 42 cents. Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast adjusted earnings of 41 cents a share.
Revenue rose 6.3% to $279.5 million, beating the $279.4 million forecast by Wall Street. Billings increased 5% to $398.6 million after being impacted by a much larger-than-expected headwind from unfavorable foreign exchange rates of 150 basis point from prior views of an 80 basis point headwind.
The company had most recently guided for fourth-quarter adjusted per-share earnings of 41 cents, and revenue of $279 million.
Chief Executive Aaron Levie said the company is boosting its enterprise advanced business and AI technology as the industry enters one of the biggest shifts in business, driven by AI.
"Our proven financial strategy of a balanced approach to rigorous cost discipline while making strategic investments in furthering our Intelligent Content Management platform is paying off," Levie said.
For the first quarter, Box said it projects a profit of 0 cents to 1 cent a share on a 6 cent impact from a stronger U.S. dollar, adjusted earnings between 25 cents and 26 cents a share, and revenue of $274 million to $275 million. Around a third of Box's revenue is generated outside of the U.S., of which approximately 65% is in Japanese Yen.
For fiscal 2026 as a whole, Box anticipates earnings of 10 cents to 14 cents a share, adjusted earnings of $1.13 to $1.17 a share, and revenue of $1.155 billion to $1.160 billion.
Wall Street had expected first-quarter earnings of 11 cents a share, adjusted earnings of 43 cents a share, and revenue of $279.6 million. For the year, analysts had forecast earnings of 52 cents a share, adjusted earnings of $1.83 a share, and revenue of $1.16 billion.
Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 04, 2025 16:43 ET (21:43 GMT)
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