What happened
Shares of IZEA Worldwide (IZEA -0.77%) were gaining ground today after the company issued a bullish update on its first quarter. The digital marketing company said that managed services bookings jumped 130% in the period. As a result, the stock was up 15.5% as of 11:09 a.m. EDT.
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So what
In a press release, the company said its managed services set a record for the first quarter, after posting a healthy fourth-quarter increase of 47%. With 130% growth in the category in the first quarter, it's clear that momentum is building for managed services, which makes up the vast majority of the company's business.
CEO Ted Murphy said: "This is the strongest Q1 Team IZEA has ever delivered, on multiple fronts. Not only have Managed Services bookings more than doubled, but we have also seen record signups for our SaaS offerings. Our total active SaaS customer base reached record numbers at the end of Q1 2021 -- largely driven by IZEAx Discovery, our powerful and affordable influencer discovery tool."
Over the past year, the company has introduced or upgraded a number of key products including Shake, an influencer marketplace where brands can easily partner with online influencers; Brand Graph, an AI platform that provides detailed analysis on social media performance; and IZEAx, its influencer marketing platform.
Now what
Investors mostly shrugged off IZEA's fourth-quarter earnings report last week as the company delivered only modest revenue growth in the period, with the top line rising 10% to $6.4 million.
Management said that those bookings should be converted into revenue over the next six months, a positive sign for investors expecting big things from the growth stock, which has jumped nearly 3,000% over the past 12 month and more than doubled year to date.
