Box shares climb 6% as large-enterprise deals jump

Box Inc. shares initially climbed 6% in the extended session Wednesday after the enterprise-content platform reported fiscal first-quarter results that illustrated hunger among large customers for work-collaboration technology that, in turn, exceeded Wall Street estimates. The shares subsequently cooled to a 0.5% gain.

Box BOX, +0.61% reported a narrowing loss of $25.6 million, or 17 cents a share, compared with a loss of $36.8 million, or 25 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings were 10 cents a share, compared with a loss of 3 cents a share a year ago. Revenue improved 13% to $183.6 million from $163 million a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of 5 cents a share on sales of $182 million.

“The quarter was about driving expansion in large enterprises, and they adopted it in a healthy way,” Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie told MarketWatch in a phone interview shortly after the results were announced. The company said it inked 40 deals of at least $100,000; in the same quarter a year ago, it was 33.

Box estimates fiscal-year revenue of between $760 million and $768 million. FactSet analysts are projecting $761 million.

Demand for Box’s cloud content-management solutions and remote-working software and services got a boost as more people worked from home. The company’s cloud content-management customers include Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.13% , International Business Machines Corp. IBM, +3.10% , Splunk Inc. SPLK, +0.25% , Adobe Inc. ADBE, -0.38% and Alphabet Inc.’s Google GOOGL, -0.07% GOOG, +0.05% .

Box shares are up 17% this year. The broader S&P 500 index SPX, +1.48% is down 6% in 2020.