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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The U.S. now has more billionaires than China for the first time in a decade, driven by AI and a booming stock market.
3 min
The number of U.S. billionaires in the world reached 870 in mid-January, outpacing the number in China for the first time in 10 years, according to a snapshot of the wealthiest in the world by the Hurun Report.
The U.S. gained 70 billionaires since last year, powered by a rising stock market, a strong dollar, and the insatiable appetite for all things AI, according to the 14th annual Hurun Global Rich List . China gained nine billionaires overall for a total of 823. Hurun is a China-based research, media, and investment group.
“It’s been a good year for AI, money managers, entertainment, and crypto,” Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report, said in a news release. “It’s been a tough year for luxury, telecommunications, and real estate in China.”
Overall, the Hurun list—which reflects a snapshot of global wealth based on calculations made Jan. 15—counted 3,442 billionaires in the world, up 5%, or 163, from a year ago. Their total wealth rose 13% to just under $17 trillion.
In November, New York research firm Altrata reported that the billionaire population rose 4% in 2023 to 3,323 individuals and their wealth rose 9% to $12.1 trillion.
Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car maker Tesla and right-hand advisor to President Donald Trump, topped the list for the fourth time in five years, with recorded wealth of $420 billion as of mid-January as Tesla stock soared in the aftermath of the U.S. election, according to Hurun’s calculations.
The firm noted that Musk’s wealth has since nosedived about $100 billion, falling along with shares of Tesla although the EV car maker is benefiting on Thursday from Trump’s 25% tariff on cars made outside the U.S.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s wealth stood at about $336 billion as of the market’s close on Wednesday, although measuring his exact wealth —including stakes in his privately held companies and the undiscounted value of his Tesla shares—is difficult to precisely determine.
The overall list this year contained 387 new billionaires, while 177 dropped off the list—more than 80 of which were from China, Hurun said. “China’s economy is continuing to restructure, with the drop-offs coming from a weeding out of healthcare and new energy and traditional manufacturing, as well as real estate,” Hoogewerf said in the release.
Among those who wealth sank was Colin Huang, the founder of PDD Holdings —the parent company of e-commerce platforms Temu and Pinduoduo—who lost $17 billion.
Also, Zhong Shanshan, the founder and chair of the Nongfu Spring beverage company and the majority owner of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise , lost $8 billion from “intensifying competition” in the market for bottled water. The loss knocked Zhong from his top rank in China, which is now held by Zhang Yiming founder of Tik-Tok owner Bytedance. Zhang is ranked No. 22 overall.
Hurun’s top 10 billionaires is a familiar group of largely U.S. individuals including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison. The list has France’s LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault in seventh place, three notches down from his fourth ranked spot on the Bloomberg list, reflecting a slump in luxury products last year.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is ranked No. 11 on Hurun’s list as his wealth nearly tripled to $128 billion through Jan. 15. Other AI billionaires found lower down on the list include Liang Wenfeng, 40, founder and CEO of DeepSeek, with wealth of $4.5 billion and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, with $1.8 billion.
Also making the list were musicians Jay-Z ($2.7 billion), Rihanna ($1.7 billion), Taylor Swift ($1.6 billion), and Paul McCartney ($1 billion). Sports stars included Michael Jordan ($3.3 billion), Tiger Woods ($1.7 billion), Floyd Mayweather ($1.3 billion), and LeBron James ($1.3 billion).
Wealth continues to surge across the globe, but Hoogewerf noted those amassing it aren’t overly generous.
“We only managed to find three individuals in the past year who donated more than $1 billion,” he said. Warren Buffet gave $5.3 billion, mainly to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, while Michael Bloomberg —ranked No. 19 with wealth of $92 billion—gave $3.7 billion to various causes. Netflix founder Reed Hastings, ranked No. 474 with wealth of $6.2 billion, donated $1.1 billion.
