Twilio stock pared its gains Thursday on fourth-quarter revenue that blew past estimates as the company also projected profitability on an adjusted basis by 2023. The March-quarter revenue guidance of TWLO stock also came in well above expectations.
The San Francisco-based company reported earnings after the market close on Wednesday. Twilio shares rose 1.9% to close at 205.91 on the stock market today. Earlier, TWLO stock hit 233.60.
Amid an acquisition spree, Twilio said it lost 20 cents per adjusted share vs. a 4-cent profit in the year-earlier period. But revenue jumped 54% to $842.7 million, including acquisitions, the communications software maker said. Excluding acquisitions, revenue jumped 34%.
TWLO Stock: Guidance Tops Views
Twilio stock analysts estimated the company would report a 21-cent loss on revenue of $773.4 million.
For the current quarter ending in March, Twilio said it expects revenue of $860 million at the midpoint of its guidance. Analysts had projected revenue of $806.4 million.
"Gross margin saw a large down-tick, but the commitment to profitability in fiscal 2023 and reiteration of its 30%-plus organic compound annual revenue growth target should be well-received," said Cowen analyst Derrick Wood in a report.
In addition, Chief Executive Jeff Lawson outlined a roadmap to profitability in a letter to shareholders.
"We've continued to invest over the last several years to fuel our ability to address the market opportunity ahead of us," Lawson said. "We've consistently delivered strong top-line growth, and we are now starting to reap the benefits of our scale and investments. In that context, I'm excited that beginning in 2023, our goal is to deliver annual non-GAAP operating profitability consistently, in addition to the revenue growth we've committed."
Twilio Stock: More Transparency
Heading into the Twilio earnings report, TWLO stock had retreated 24% in 2022.
"Twilio took major steps in improving financial transparency and disclosures, guiding to organic growth and disclosing revenue mix/growth for messaging and application Services," said RBC Capital analyst Rishi Jaluria in a report.
Twilio's tools enable app developers to embed voice, text messaging and video into their products. In addition, Twilio's software makes it easier for cloud-based applications to communicate.
Twilio's acquisitions include SendGrid in 2018, Segment in 2020 and ZipWhip last year. In 2021, it also invested $750 million in Syniverse.
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