It’s been a rough week. After the Supreme Court leak, way too much layoff news, the stock prices of the largest tech companies in retreat, and a general feeling that the economy is going in the wrong direction, it’s easy to think everything sucks.
But we’re here to lift your spirits a little, at least to tell you that it’s not all bad news. There are companies that are still doing quite well, and we wanted to spotlight four that had strong earnings reports this week.
While it’s easy to think everyone is suddenly on a train to nowhere, recent earnings reports from several software companies are proof that we still have tech shops growing at a high rate. How high? Some were above 50%, and 60% growth was not unheard of.
What’s more, the companies we’re looking at today largely shared positive guidance. And yet, even with positive earnings and a favorable outlook, the companies received treatment from investors ranging from noncommittal to downright hostile.
There’s an argument to be made that some tech companies could fare a little better in a recession or similar macroeconomic slowdown than some seem to anticipate today; the lessons of mid-2020 may need to be relearned, in other words.
Let’s look at results from Cloudflare and Confluent to gauge how the market is treating even results that seem pretty darn solid. We’ll also look at Amplitude, a company that took huge lumps after its Q4 2021 earnings report and was therefore doing a little bit of makeup work in its latest financial report, and close with Appian.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare’s Q1 2022 earnings report is a good marker for the state of play. How so? The company bested revenue expectations in the recent period, posting a top line worth $212.2 million, far ahead of expectations of around $205 million. That’s the sort of growth result that would have been electric last year.
For those of you keeping score at home, Cloudflare’s Q1 revenue rose 54% over the previous year. There was other good news, too, like adding 14,000 new customers in the period. What’s more, customers spending at least $500,000 grew 68% and those spending $1 million or more grew 72%.
As CEO and co-founder Matthew Prince put it, Cloudflare’s best customers continued to grow, bringing in more revenue. Furthermore, the company’s guidance doesn’t indicate signs of slowing.