Twilio surges 10% as adjusted profit beats expectations and 4th-quarter revenue growth picks up

• Shares of Twilio rose 10% on Thursday after it reported higher-than-expected revenue and earnings for the fourth quarter.
• The San Francisco-based company posted adjusted earnings of 4 cents a share, higher than analysts' estimates on Wednesday.
• Revenue leaped 65% to $548.1 million compared to the $454.8 million expected by analysts.
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Shares of Twilio rose 10% on Thursday after the cloud-computing company reported higher-than-expected revenue and earnings for the fourth quarter as demand for its software continued to rise amid the pandemic.

The San Francisco-based company on Wednesday posted adjusted earnings of $0.04 a share, significantly surpassing the expected adjusted loss of $0.8 a share, according to Refinitiv.

Revenue, meanwhile, leaped 65% to $548.1 million compared to the $454.8 million expected by analysts. Twilio only grew 52% in the previous quarter to $448.0 million.

"These results reinforced that we are addressing a generational opportunity, and with our acquisition of Segment and strong traction with Flex, we are building the leading customer engagement platform to improve every interaction that businesses have with their customers," said Jeff Lawson, Twilio's Co-Founder and CEO in a statement.

Twilio added 13,000 active customer accounts in the fourth quarter. Its total now stands at 221,000 as of December 31, 2020.

Among the notable customers of the cloud-computing company are Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Get Report, Grub, and Postmates. The demand for online services from food delivery to communications infrastructure has heightened during the pandemic as more people stayed indoors to curb virus spread.

For 2021, the company expects an adjusted loss of $0.12 to $0.09 per share and revenue of $526 to $536 million in the first quarter, suggesting growth between 44%-47%.