When a company beats earnings, beats on guidance, and then tells you it's on track for a big future target, the market tends to like that. That's the simple story behind why shares of Veeva Systems Inc (VEEV) are rocketing higher Wednesday.
The cloud-based software provider for the life sciences industry reported its fourth-quarter financial results, and the numbers were good. Really good. The kind of good that makes investors forget about whatever else they were worried about and start buying.
The Numbers That Mattered
So, what did Veeva actually report? Revenue for the quarter came in at $836 million. That's up 16% from the same period last year, and more importantly, it beat what Wall Street was expecting. Analysts, according to market data, had been looking for about $810.6 million.
On the bottom line, the company earned $2.06 per share. Again, that topped the consensus estimate of $1.93. The core of the business, subscription revenue, hit $707.7 million, also growing at that steady 16% clip. For the entire fiscal year, revenue was $3.20 billion, maintaining that same growth rate.
"The fourth-quarter results exceeded our guidance and reflect durable, profitable growth," said CFO Brian Van Wagener, which is the kind of straightforward, confident statement investors love to hear from a finance chief.
Not Just a Look Back, But a Look Ahead
Earnings reports are about the past, but stock prices are about the future. That's where Veeva's guidance comes in, and it was arguably the bigger catalyst for the stock move.
For the current quarter (Q1), Veeva expects revenue between $855 million and $858 million. The analyst consensus was sitting at $847.2 million. For earnings, the company guided to $2.13-$2.14 per share, above the $2.06 estimate.
Zooming out to the full next fiscal year, the outlook gets even more interesting. Veeva sees revenue landing between $3.585 billion and $3.600 billion. The Street was at $3.56 billion. For earnings, the company is projecting $8.85 per share for the year, comfortably above the $8.58 estimate.
CEO Peter Gassner tied the performance to the company's strategic focus, saying, "Our progress with Veeva AI and continued strong execution in Commercial Cloud, Development Cloud and Quality Cloud will create significant value for the industry."
But perhaps the most forward-looking comment came from the CFO. Van Wagener said, "As we look ahead, strong momentum and operational discipline give us confidence in our trajectory toward our $6 billion revenue run rate target by 2030." That's a big, round, multi-year number that gives long-term investors a specific milestone to anchor on.
