The video conferencing company was a prime beneficiary of the Covid-19 pandemic as many workers and students stayed at home.
2 min
Zoom Video Communications posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter, ended Jan. 31, and stronger-than-expected guidance, driving the stock sharply higher in after-hours trading.
The video conferencing company, a prime beneficiary of the Covid-19 pandemic as many workers and students stayed at home for the last year, reported revenue for the quarter of US$882.5 million, up 369% from a year earlier, with adjusted profits of US$365.4 million, or $1.22 a share. Under generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP, the company earned US$256.1 million, or 87 cents a share.
Zoom shares, which had rallied 9.7% to $409.66 in Monday’s regular session, gained another 9% in late trading to $446.63.
For the full year, Zoom had revenue of $2.65 billion, up 326%, with non-GAAP profits of $995.7 million, or $3.34 a share. The company finished the year with $4.2 billion in cash and short-term investments.
Zoom had projected revenue for the quarter of $806 million to $811 million, with non-GAAP profits of 77 to 79 cents a share. Management has predicted full-year revenue of between $2.575 billion and $2.58 billion, with non-GAAP profits of $2.85 to $2.87 a share.
The consensus call on Wall Street was for January quarter revenue of $811.8 million, with non-GAAP profits of 79 cents a share.
The company said it had 467,000 customers with more than 10 employees, up 33,400 from a year ago. Enterprise customers, those with annual revenue above $100,000, rose 355 to 1,644. Zoom Phone customers increased 269% year-over-year to 10,700.
The company’s financial guidance was higher than Wall Street expected, but still underlines the fact that growth will slow considerably from here as the world begins to get past the pandemic.
For the April quarter, Zoom is projecting revenue of $900 million to $905 million, with non-GAAP profits of 95 to 97 cents a share. The Street had been projecting revenue of $804.8 billion and profits of 72 cents a share.
For the full year ending in January 2022, the company expects revenue of $3.76 billion to $3.78 billion, up 42% from the previous year at the midpoint of the range, with non-GAAP profits of $3.59 to $3.65 a share.
The Street previously had been projecting fiscal year January 2022 revenue of $3.52 billion with non-GAAP profits of $2.96 a share.
“The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to an unprecedented year for Zoom,” CEO and founder Eric Yuan said in a statement. “As we enter [fiscal year] 2022, we believe we are well-positioned for strong growth with our innovative video communications platform, on which our customers can build, run, and grow their businesses; our globally recognized brand; and a team ever focused on delivering happiness to our customers.”
Piper Sandler analyst James Fish noted in a brief research note published Monday after earnings that results came in above expectation on all metrics and that the full-year guidance suggested “the market dynamics remain strong” in cloud-based communications.
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Rugged coastal drives and fireside drams define a slow, indulgent journey through Scotland’s far north.
A haven for hedge-fund titans and Hollywood grandees, Greenwich is one of the world’s most expensive residential enclaves, where eye-watering prices meet unapologetic grandeur.
The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.
4 min
It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.
On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.
Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.
“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.
“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”
Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
What are the goals for Artemis II?
The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.
The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.
Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.
SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .
How is the mission expected to unfold?
Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.
The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.
After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.
Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.
Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?
Yes.
For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.
Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?
The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.
Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.
Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.
Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.
What will the astronauts do during the flight?
The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.
Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.
On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.
There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.
Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.
The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.
What happens after Artemis II?
Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.
NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.
