Tuesday 22 August 2023 7:42 am

Zoom: Share bump after pumping up full year guidance

TMT Reporter

Pandemic darling Zoom beat expectations and raised full year guidance in its second quarter as it remains hopeful in its long-term strategy. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Pandemic darling Zoom beat expectations and raised full year guidance in its second quarter as it remains hopeful in its long-term strategy – although customer growth is sluggish.

Shares in the work from home favourite rose eight per cent in after hours trading yesterday as the company reported its net income quadrupled to $182m (£142m) in the quarter, compared with $45.7m (£35.7m) in the same quarter last year.

Earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation came to $1.34 per share, slamming analysts’ target of $1.05.

Revenue also pipped forecasts of $1.12bn, growing 3.6 per cent to $1.14bn.

Although the company floundered as people went back to work as the Covid-19 pandemic waned, it is working on expanding its offerings to customers in an effort to claw back some of its previous success.

Eric Yuan, Zoom founder and chief said: “We continue to innovate and expand our platform to help bring value and enhanced productivity to our customers with new AI features like Zoom IQ Meeting Summary and Team Chat Compose, as well as Intelligent Director.

“I’m also proud of the team for reinventing modern customer experiences with Zoom Virtual Agent and Zoom Contact Center, which surpassed 500 customers in Q2.”

The firm recently announced plans to bring staff back to the office more often, though the firm said this was about adjusting to hybrid working rather than an admission video calling is an inadequate substitute for in-person working.

Zoom appears to think its updates will pay off in the long run, as it confidently raised full year guidance.

The company now expects revenue of $4.485bn to $4.495bn in fiscal year 2024, up from $4.465bn to $4.485bn in revenue.

It also upped earnings per share estimates of between $4.63 and $4.67 per share, compared with previous anticipation of $4.25 to $4.31.

Zoom’s growth has stalled to a slow pace since its glory days during the pandemic, when companies relied on the internet calls for remote work.

The company ended the quarter with around 218,100 enterprise customers, up just one per cent from the 215,900 customers it had at the end of the first quarter.

Zoom says enterprise clients are those business customers that work directly with Zoom’s sales teams, resellers or partners.