What happened
The share price of Clarivate (CLVT -2.60%), an analytics company, was spiking today after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.
The tech stock was up by 10.9% as of 1:52 p.m. ET on Thursday.
So what
Clarivate's adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share of $0.23 beat Wall Street's consensus estimate of $0.21, and was up $0.01 from the year-ago quarter.
Image source: Getty Images.
The tech company also slightly outpaced analysts' consensus revenue estimate with sales of $560.7 million in the quarter -- an increase of 23% year-over-year -- compared to the $560.1 million that Wall Street was expecting.
CEO Jerre Stead said in a press release that the company ended 2021 with more than 24,000 customers and launched 90 new products during the year.
The company highlighted its acquisition of ProQuest, which it completed at the end of 2021, as a main contributor to its subscription revenue growth in the fourth quarter. The purchase helped sales in this segment jump 25% year over year to $305.5 million.
Investors were likely also happy to see that Clarivate’s recurring revenue ticked up nearly 7% higher, to $119.6 million.
Even with these strong results, Stead indicated that there’s still more room for improvement. He noted that the company still thinks it can improve its transactional revenue, which declined 1% year over year, and noted that the segment “faced some headwinds late in the quarter” and that the company is “taking steps to improve this smaller segment of our business.”
Now what
Investors were clearly happy with the company's results, and there could be more good times in store for Clarivate. Management issued sales guidance for 2022 of $2.84 billion, at the midpoint of guidance. That would represent a year-over-year increase of about 52%.
Long-term investors should be happy with the company's latest results, but should also keep in mind that the broader market has been very volatile lately, which could affect Clarivate's share price in the short term.
