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Cloud content storage and management platform Box (NYSE:BOX) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q3 CY2024, with sales up 5.5% year on year to $275.9 million. The company expects next quarter’s revenue to be around $279 million, close to analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.45 per share was 6.5% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy Box? Find out in our full research report.

Box (BOX) Q3 CY2024 Highlights:

• Revenue: $275.9 million vs analyst estimates of $275.1 million (5.5% year-on-year growth, in line)

• Adjusted EPS: $0.45 vs analyst estimates of $0.42 (6.5% beat)

• Adjusted Operating Income: $80.19 million vs analyst estimates of $77.45 million (29.1% margin, 3.5% beat)

• Revenue Guidance for Q4 CY2024 is $279 million at the midpoint, roughly in line with what analysts were expecting

• Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $1.70 at the midpoint, a 3% increase

• Operating Margin: 8.5%, up from 4.4% in the same quarter last year

• Free Cash Flow Margin: 20.8%, up from 12.1% in the previous quarter

• Billings: $264.7 million at quarter end, up 4.3% year on year

• Market Capitalization: $5.03 billion

“We delivered strong Q3 financial results and unveiled the most transformational product line-up in Box history,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box.

Company Overview

Founded in 2005 by Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith, Box (NYSE:BOX) provides organizations with software to securely store, share and collaborate around work documents in the cloud.

Document Management

The catch phrase "digital transformation" originally referred to the digitization of documents within enterprises. The growth of digital documents has spurred an explosion of collaboration within and between businesses, which in turn is driving the demand for e-signature and content management platforms.

Sales Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Over the last three years, Box grew its sales at a sluggish 8.5% compounded annual growth rate. This fell short of our benchmark for the software sector and is a rough starting point for our analysis.

This quarter, Box grew its revenue by 5.5% year on year, and its $275.9 million of revenue was in line with Wall Street’s estimates. Company management is currently guiding for a 6.1% year-on-year increase in sales next quarter.

Looking further ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.6% over the next 12 months, a slight deceleration versus the last three years. This projection doesn't excite us and indicates its products and services will face some demand challenges.

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Billings

Billings is a non-GAAP metric that is often called “cash revenue” because it shows how much money the company has collected from customers in a certain period. This is different from revenue, which must be recognized in pieces over the length of a contract.

Box’s billings came in at $264.7 million in Q3, and over the last four quarters, its growth was underwhelming as it averaged 5% year-on-year increases. This performance mirrored its total sales and suggests that increasing competition is causing challenges in acquiring/retaining customers.

Customer Acquisition Efficiency

The customer acquisition cost (CAC) payback period measures the months a company needs to recoup the money spent on acquiring a new customer. This metric helps assess how quickly a business can break even on its sales and marketing investments.

It’s relatively expensive for Box to acquire new customers as its CAC payback period checked in at 142.5 months this quarter. The company’s inefficiency indicates its product offering can be replicated by its competitors and that it must continue investing to grow.

Key Takeaways from Box’s Q3 Results

It was great to see Box beat analysts' EPS expectations this quarter and raise its full-year EPS guidance. On the other hand, its revenue was in line and its billings slightly missed. Zooming out, we think this was a decent quarter featuring some areas of strength but also some blemishes. The market seemed to focus on the negatives, and the stock traded down 1.9% to $33.70 immediately following the results.

So do we think Box is an attractive buy at the current price? We think that the latest quarter is just one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.