What happened
Shares of Twilio (TWLO 1.59%) soared on Wednesday morning following the release of strong fourth-quarter results. As of 11:40 a.m. EST, the digital communications specialist's stock was trading 20.3% higher for the day.
So what
Twilio's total fourth-quarter sales rose 40% year over year to land at $115.2 million. The bottom line moved from a breakeven result in the year-ago quarter to an adjusted net loss of $0.03 per share this time. Analysts would have settled for a net loss of $0.06 per share on revenue in the neighborhood of $104 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Ridesharing service Uber was once Twilio's largest customer, until that company declared its intention to find other solutions for its online communications needs. At this point, Uber's share of Twilio's top-line sales has declined from 12% to 5% and any further drops will no longer move Twilio's needle to any great degree.
In the face of this significant headwind, Twilio still pulled out a massive 40% revenue increase -- not by landing one or two massive new client names but by finding lots of smaller customers. Looking ahead, a more programmer-friendly suite of app development tools should increase Twilio's appeal to smaller companies with limited development resources, diversifying its future client lists even further.
It's no surprise to see investors embracing this rock-solid earnings report today.
