What happened

Enterprise cloud computing company Nutanix (NTNX -0.70%) saw its stock rise as much as 16.7% on Friday, following the company's first-quarter results for fiscal 2018. The stock is up 6.8% at the time of this writing.

The stock's rise is likely due to better-than-expected revenue and earnings per share, as well as confirmation from management about its plans to shift toward a software-centric business model.

A chart showing a stock price moving up

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

Nutanix reported revenue of $276 million, up 46% year over year. On average, analysts were expecting revenue of about $267 million. Nutanix's non-GAAP loss per share was $0.16 -- narrower than a consensus analyst estimate for a loss of $0.26.

Now what

Nutanix CFO Duston Williams said the company "will be focusing even more intently on selling software going forward." Williams went on to note that Nutanix would have registered about $800 million in pure software and support billings, as well as non-GAAP gross profit margins above 80%, over the past 12 months if it had not billed "pass-through hardware-related transactions."

Looking to Q2, Nutanix expects revenue to be between $280 and $285 million, including the elimination of about $12 million in pass-through hardware sales.