What happened
Shares of hypermodern database specialist MongoDB (MDB -2.10%) soared as much as 16.1% higher on Friday morning, boosted by a fantastic first-quarter earnings report.
So what
MongoDB's first-quarter sales rose 39% year over year to $182 million, comfortably ahead of Wall Street's consensus estimate of $170 million. On the bottom line, a net loss of $0.15 per share was less than half of the $0.36 loss per share that your average analyst was expecting. The company also set up optimistic guidance targets for the full fiscal year.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
The rock-solid results sprung from a 73% revenue increase from the cloud-based Atlas database service. Atlas generated 51% of MongoDB's revenue in the first quarter, passing the 50% marker within five years of its introduction.
Businesses of every size and description are racing to take advantage of MongoDB's flexible database systems to power their own software and services. The document-based NoSQL platform is particularly appropriate when the incoming data is generated by messy, unpredictable sources such as user input or sensors in Internet of Things devices.
This model is a perfect fit for the database needs of many companies right now, especially since MongoDB's tools usually require fewer database administrators than traditional SQL systems do. That's especially true for the Atlas package, which can be deployed on all the leading cloud computing services.
And the growth story is still in its early innings. CEO Dev Ittycheria expects clients to continue embracing MongoDB's modern database technology for years to come, shaking off their aging relational database systems over time.
"As the world opens up, we believe that people have even more confidence and more conviction in using MongoDB," he said in last night's earnings call. "And we think we're well positioned because what the pandemic did tell us is that those companies who were adept at using software and data thrive because everyone had to become digital-first. And so proficiency in using software and data, and I've said in the past, you can't buy your competitive advantage. You have to build it yourself."
MongoDB's stock isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but the company earns its sky-high valuation by delivering incredible business growth. I'm a happy shareholder, and MongoDB looks like a solid idea for new money today.
