What happened
Shares of Coupa Software (COUP) gained 132.7% in 2019, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The business-spending management specialist's stock rallied as its earnings outlook improved dramatically early in the year, and the company delivered a string of earnings beats and guidance hikes.
2019 saw Coupa Software add a substantial number of high-profile business partners to its platform. Major new customers included Cloudflare, International Flavors & Fragrances, Volkswagen, Waste Management, American Red Cross, MongoDB, and Shopify, and strong customer-addition levels combined with ramping usage from companies already on board with Coupa's platform drove better-than-expected sales and earnings growth in the year.
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So what
When Coupa reported its results for the final quarter of its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2019, it guided for revenue to come in between $325 million and $327 million. Non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share were expected to be between $0.04 and $0.10. By the time Coupa published its third-quarter results for the current fiscal year early in December, the company had raised its annual sales guidance to between $379.8 million and $380.8 million and its adjusted earnings guidance to between $0.34 and $0.37 per share.
Now what
Coupa Software's rally has continued into early 2020, with shares up roughly 16% in the year's trading so far.
The company expects to be at cash-flow breakeven or slightly positive in the quarter ending Jan. 31. Sales for the period are expected to be between $325 million and $327 million, and adjusted earnings per share are projected to come in between $0.04 and $0.10.
Coupa Software is valued at roughly 28.5 times this year's expected sales.
