Search Software Provider Elastic Posts Better-Than-Expected Financial Results

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Enterprise search software provider

Elastic

posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal third quarter ended Jan. 31 and raised full-year guidance.

For the quarter, Elastic (ticker: ESTC) reported revenue of $157.1 million, up 39% from a year ago, and ahead of both the guidance range of $145 million to $147 million and the Wall Street analyst consensus forecast of $146.7 million. The company posted a non-GAAP loss of 4 cents a share, ahead of the guidance range of a loss of 14 cents to 16 cents a share, and the Street consensus forecast of a loss of 15 cents. Elastic said software-as-a-service revenues were $44.9 million, up 79%.

For the fiscal fourth quarter ending April 30, Elastic sees revenue of $158 million to $159 million, with a non-GAAP loss of 15 to 18 cents a share, ahead of the previous Street consensus at $152 million and a loss of 22 cents.

That brings the company’s revised full-year forecast to revenue of $589 million to $590 million, with a non-GAAP loss of 18 to 19 cents a share, compared with a previous forecast of $568 million to $572 million and a non-GAAP loss of 32 to 40 cents a share.

In an interview with Barron’s, Elastic CEO
Shay Banon
said he is “very proud of our quarter, and the execution of the whole team.” He says the company is benefiting from more users shifting to the cloud and the software-as-a-service versions of the company’s software.

Banon says it is difficult to tease out precisely how the business has been affected by the pandemic, noting that Elastic saw strength in some areas–like online retailing–but tougher conditions for those customers more directly affected by the shutdown of travel, like airlines. “We haven’t seen a huge tailwind like Zoom,” he said, adding that the growing enterprise IT focus on cloud migration and digital transformation works to the company’s advantage.

Banon says Elastic will wait until next quarter to provide fiscal 2022 guidance. He said the company sees “a lot of opportunity ahead of us,” and expects more aggressive investing in the business in areas like product development, sales, marketing, and customer service.

In Wednesday’s regular session, Elastic shares were up 2.8%, to $157.36. The stock is up about 8% year to date.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com