Shares of Alteryx (AYX) soared 25% in after-hours trading Monday as the company made several announcements that made the bulls run.
The company said that Alteryx co-founder, Chairman, and CEO Dean Stoecker would step down from his role as chief executive and would immediately be replaced by board member Mark Anderson. Stoecker would assume the role of executive chairman while continuing as chairman of the board.
Image source: Getty Images.
Anderson is a seasoned tech company executive who spent more than six years at cybersecurity platform Palo Alto Networks. There he was responsible for sales, go-to-market (GTM) strategy, and customer satisfaction, as well as business and corporate development; he eventually became the company's president. He also previously served as chief growth officer for cloud-based planning platform Anaplan and sits on the board of cloud security platform Cloudflare.
The company's preliminary results, which were released in conjunction with the C-suite announcement, also drove the stock higher. Alteryx updated its third-quarter outlook, saying its revenue for the period ended Sep. 30 would be in a range of $126 million and $128 million, representing year-over-year growth in a range of 22% and 24%. The company previously issued guidance of between $111 million and $115 million, or growth between 7% and 11%. Alteryx will release its full results after the market close on Nov. 5, 2020.
Analysts' consensus estimates mirrored management's original guidance, expecting revenue of $113.63 million, or year-over-year growth of about 10% -- less than half its current growth estimate.
Alteryx was riding high to close out 2019, with year-over-year revenue growth of 75% in the fourth quarter, but the global pandemic seriously derailed its progress. After nearing all-time highs in early August, Alteryx shed nearly 40% of its value in the wake of its second-quarter results, as its growth rate had slipped to 17%. The company at that time also forecast even slower growth for Q3.
