Shares of Box (BOX 1.39%) rallied 20.1% through Thursday trading this week, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Box released its first-quarter earnings report earlier this week, roundly surpassing expectations, while also giving better-than-expected guidance for the quarter ahead.
While Box is somewhat of a "legacy" content management software service, founded in 2005, it has taken an artificial intelligence (AI)-first approach to enhancing its enterprise offerings, which appears to be paying off.
A solid quarter and guide, fueled by AI
In the first quarter, Box grew revenue 4%, or 5% in constant currency, while adjusted non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings per share fell from $0.39 to $0.30. While adjusted EPS technically "declined," there was a $0.12 impact from Box having to pay taxes on earnings this year, whereas last year it still had deferred tax assets from prior-year losses.
Absent that taxation effect, EPS would have been $0.42, up 8%. Both revenue and EPS beat analyst expectations.
In addition, Box's guidance was also above expectations, with revenue projected to be between $290 million and $291 million versus expectations of $284 million, with earnings guidance of $0.30 exceeding expectations of $0.28.
Box also repurchased $50 million of shares in the quarter, and has $152 million left on its remaining authorization.
Image source: Getty Images.
Is Box a value stock in the AI arena?
While Box only grew revenue 4%, its remaining performance obligations, which is similar to the company's signed backlog to be delivered in the future, were up 21%, or 17% in constant currency, relative to the year-ago quarter. That seems to indicate revenue growth could accelerate from here.
Adjusted earnings guidance for the year ahead is between $1.22 and $1.26 per share. So, with shares at $37.35 as of this writing, the stock trades for about 30 times this year's earnings estimates.
While not "cheap" in an absolute sense, that valuation actually isn't that demanding for a subscription-based enterprise software stock. And if the company can accelerate growth on the back of its AI offerings, there could be more upsides ahead.
