Box, a cloud storage and productivity company, will report its first quarterly earnings result today after the bell. The market expects Box to announce a $39.75 million loss on revenue of $58.03 million. Billings are expected to total $80.85 million for the period — Box’s fourth quarter of its fiscal 2015.
Investors will have their eyes on Box’s top-line growth — perhaps the company’s most important metric — its net loss including non-cash costs, its adjusted earnings and its margins. Box wants to show that it can grow its revenue with either a flat loss in dollar terms or a declining loss.
There will be some oddity in the company’s earnings per share this time around, due to its recent IPO, and how it counts shares. So, for at least this quarter, Box’s loss per share is greater than it would be if a higher share count were employed.
However, given its limited float in its current lockup period, the situation is thus. The market expects a per-share loss of around $1.17 for the quarter, a figure that will fall in following months as Box’s float expands.
Box earnings matter as the firm isn’t just reporting for its own sake. The company is a key software-as-a-service play that investors might look toward to track broader market sentiment to companies that offer related products and services on a subscription basis. Put another way, as Box goes, so might go a decent slice of the public technology market.
That point rattles down the private stack of tech firms that are still growing, but might have an eye toward an offering. If Box stumbles in its first quarter as a public company, other offerings might hit the brakes.
Earnings should drop at 1:05 pacific. Strap in.