Box to Wall Street: We didn't miss earnings, you guys can't count
At first, it looked like Box had missed on earnings. Wall Street estimated an non-GAAP loss of $1.17 per share, while Box reported negative $1.65 per share.
But it turns out Wall Street analysts counted the wrong number of shares.
"A number of news reports have quoted consensus non-GAAP EPS estimates that relied on an incorrect share count," Box CEO Aaron Levie said as he joined his first-ever earnings call since going public in January.
"For reference, FactSet, which we believe aggregated an analyst that used the correct share count, calculated consensus non-GAAP EPS at negative $1.99 per share, as compared to our actual Q4 results of negative $1.65. Therefore, based on FactSet consensus, Box beat by $0.34."
Box said in its earnings report that its EPS were based on 20 million shares outstanding in Q4. Based on the incorrect EPS, Wall Street analysts had used 28 million shares outstanding in the past quarter.
But investors didn't seem to respond to the change. Box's shares are still down more than 13% after hours because of big growth in operating expenses.
The company's operating expenses grew $23 million (33%) from last year's quarter, to $94 million, while revenue grew $24 million (61%) to $63 million. That's barely $1 in additional revenue for every $1 in additional operating expenses.