What happened
Shares of UiPath (PATH 0.39%), an enterprise automation company, are losing ground following the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call. The stock is down 24.2% as of 11:19 a.m. ET on Thursday.
So what
During the three months ended Jan. 31, 2022, UiPath reported revenue that rose 39% year over year to $289.7 million. The company beat expectations on the bottom line with $0.05 per share in adjusted earnings. The average analyst following UiPath was expecting just $0.03 per share.
Despite a solid fiscal fourth quarter, investment banks up and down Wall Street were quick to cut their price targets on UiPath in response to weaker-than-expected forward guidance. In the fiscal first quarter, the company expects revenue to land in a range between $223 million and $225 million. The average analyst was expecting the company to forecast $236 million.
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Now what
UiPath's robotic process automation software allows organizations of all shapes and sizes to automate tasks that eat up employees' valuable time, and a lot of those organizations are in Europe. The company has paused operations in Ukraine and Russia, and there's no telling when they'll start up again.
UiPath's outlook was darker than expected because management is a little bit more concerned about Russia's war in Ukraine than Wall Street analysts. UiPath co-founder and CEO Daniel Dines recently returned from a tour in Europe, where the company does a lot of business. While optimistic, he feels the war is affecting economic sentiment throughout Europe more powerfully than American investors seem to appreciate.
