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What's happening?
Shares of NetSuite (N) dropped nearly 12% Friday after the business operations software specialist released fourth-quarter results.
Why it's happening
Quarterly revenue climbed 37% year over year to $157.9 million, which translated to 21% growth in adjusted net income to $7.5 million, or $0.10 per share. Analysts, on average, had expected NetSuite to achieve earnings of $0.10 per share on slightly lower revenue of $155.4 million.
This marks the company's seventh consecutive quarter of more than 30% recurring revenue growth, and its fifth of accelerating recurring revenue growth -- ",,, which, based on public disclosures," said NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson, "we believe is a record unmatched by any publicly traded on-premise or cloud software company during the last five years."
That's all well and good, but if investors have one nitpick, it's that NetSuite's bottom-line growth is not keeping pace with its increasing sales. NetSuite's fourth-quarter operating expenses climbed more than 36% to $128.3 million, notably including a 24.7% increase in product development expenses to $28.5 million and a 45.2% bump in sales and marketing to $82.9 million. Even so, I would argue these expenses are absolutely necessary as NetSuite fights for market share in its burgeoning, high-tech industry. All things considered this early in the game, I think NetSuite's results are as solid as they come.
