Box raises revenue outlook for fiscal year, says business is accelerating | ZDNet

Box released preliminary second quarter financial results on Thursday ahead of its earnings call later this month. The company said its Q2 results exceeded guidance and that it has raised its full-year revenue and non-GAAP operating margin guidance.

Box now expects Q2 revenue of approximately $214 million, up 11% year-over-year and above consensus estimates of $211.7 million. For fiscal 2022, Box raised its revenue guidance by $7 million at the high end to the range of $856 million to $860 million. Wall Street is looking for Box to deliver full-year revenue of $849.6 million.

Meanwhile, Box raised its Q2 non-GAAP operating margin to approximately 20%, as compared to previous guidance of 18% to 18.5%. 

In a statement, Box CEO Aaron Levie said the company’s preliminary second quarter results reflect acceleration across its business. Box is in the midst of executing a transition and growth strategy that aims to position the company as the cloud layer for content management via integrations with systems of record in the enterprise. To that end, Box said billings in the second quarter were $213 million, an increase of around 13% year-over-year and above consensus estimates.

However, Box continues to fend off pressure from activist investors at hedge fund Starboard Value LP, who are unhappy that the cloud storage company hasn’t aggressively capitalized on the enterprise trends driven by the Covid-19 pandemic. For an activist investment firm such as Starboard, the end game is to see Box acquired, but Box is intent on remaining a standalone company.

“Customers are recognizing the strategic importance of our comprehensive Content Cloud, as reflected in our Net Retention Rate of 106%, up 300 basis points from the first quarter,” Levie said in prepared remarks. “We were pleased to close 133 new deals over $100K in the first half of fiscal 2022, up 28% year over year. We also continued to deliver on our long-term vision for the Content Cloud with the launch of Box Sign, adding native e-signature capability to our platform. We are extending our leading position in cloud content management and driving our next phase of growth and value creation through the rest of fiscal 2022 and beyond.”