Technology

Dropbox's First Earnings Beat Not Enough for Investors

Chris Lange

Published: May 11, 2018 8:45 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 11:46 pm

Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ: DBX) released its first earnings report as a public company after the markets closed on Thursday. The company said that it had $0.08 in earnings per share (EPS) on $316.3 million in revenue, while consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters had called for $0.04 in EPS on revenue of $309.26 million. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.02 and $247.9 million in revenue.

During the quarter, paying users totaled 11.5 million, up from 9.3 million for the same period last year. Average revenue per paying user was $114.30, as compared to $110.79 for the same period last year.

Looking ahead to the second quarter and the full year, the company expects to see revenues in the range of $328 million to $331 million and $1.34 billion to $1.36 billion, respectively. The consensus estimates call for $0.04 in EPS on $324.88 million in revenue for the quarter and $0.20 in EPS on $1.33 billion in revenue for the year.

On the books, Dropbox’s cash and cash equivalents totaled $665.3 million at the end of the quarter, up from $430.0 million in the same period of last year.

Drew Houston, Dropbox co-founder and CEO, commented:

2018 has already been a banner year for Dropbox, and we’re proud of our strong first quarter as a public company. Growth in paying users and increased adoption of premium plans helped drive first quarter revenue of $316 million, up 28% year-over-year. We continued to add value to our platform with new product features, and enhanced our ecosystem through partnerships with Salesforce and Google. Our team is focused on building a great business for the long-term, and we’re excited for the opportunities ahead of us.

Shares of Dropbox closed Thursday at $32.00, with a consensus analyst price target of $33.15 and a post-IPO range of $27.75 to $34.83. Following the announcement, the stock was down about 2% at $31.38 in early trading indications Friday.