Box may not be profitable, but that doesn’t bother investors who cheered the cloud software company’s latest earnings report.
The company reported a loss of 26 cents per share with revenue of $85 million, which narrowly beat analyst expectations of a loss of 29 cents per share on $82 million.
Box (BOX) also reported sales of $85 million in its first quarter, which is a 36% increase from the $62.6 million it brought in the previous year during the same period. For Box’s 2016 fiscal year, it logged $303 million in sales, which is a 40% year-over-year increase from $216.4 million.
This increase of sales—plus a handful of major deals with big companies like Bain Capital, Campbell Soup Company (CPB), and Genentech (GENENTECH)—pleased investors.
Shares of Box rose 13.42% in after-hours trading to $14.20.
Get Data Sheet, Coins2Day’s technology newsletter.
Still, the company’s stock price has a ways to go to hit its $23.15 peak after it went public nearly a year ago.
In an interview with Coins2Day Box CEO Aaron Levie said that it’s difficult comparing the company’s current stock price to what it was the day it went public. The “hype of going public” caused the company’s shares to jump nearly 70% from its IPO price of $14 per share.
Levie said the company has a “pretty long-term perspective around the stock price,” and he’s hopeful it will rise over time because Box is a “$340 million company going at a $40 billion market.”
“We think there is a tremendous amount of upside,” said Levie.
One of the big drivers for the company’s higher sales was the partnerships Box signed with bigger business technology companies like IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT), explained Levie. The fact that these companies have long-term business relationships with older and more regulated companies lets Box get inside businesses it would have been more difficult to do on its own.
“The partners have sales teams to reinforce your message,” said Levie in reference to how the IBM and Microsoft’s more experienced sales staff is helping them land more deals and expand overseas to Europe and Asia.
Unlike other tech companies like Cisco (CSCO) and security company FireEye (FEYE) that said the rough global market caused them to see a slowdown in technology spending, Box said it saw no impact on its sales.
For more on Box watch our video:
Levie did not want to compare his company to other businesses. But, he explained that the trend of businesses moving to cloud computing technology and related cloud services means companies are still spending money, just not on older technology.
“We replace more expensive technology,” said Levie.
As for analysts potentially watching Box’s earnings as a sign of health of the broader technology market and how it impacts newly public companies, Levie said “I was hoping people were looking at Square (SQ) for that.”