Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) reported a wider loss in the first quarter of 2019 due to higher costs and expenses despite an 81% jump in the top line. However, the results exceeded analysts’ expectations. The company guided second-quarter revenue above consensus estimates and raised its full-year 2019 earnings and revenue outlook.
Net loss was $36.5 million or $0.31 per share, wider than the previous year quarter’s loss of $23.73 million or $0.25 per share. Adjusted earnings were $0.05 per share compared to a loss of $0.04 per share a year ago.
Revenue jumped by 81% to $233.1 million. The latest quarter results included revenue from Twilio SendGrid starting on February 1, 2019. Base revenue climbed by 88% to $220.9 million.
Looking ahead into the second quarter, the company expects revenue in the range of $262 million to $265 million and adjusted earnings in the range of $0.02 to $0.03 per share. Base revenue is predicted to be in the range of $252 million to $254 million.
For the full year 2019, the company lifted its total revenues outlook to the range of $1.102 billion to $1.111 billion from the prior range of $1.06 billion to $1.07 billion. Adjusted earnings guidance is raised to the range of $0.11 to $0.13 per share from the prior range of $0.08 to $0.11 per share. Base revenue estimates are increased to the range of $1.062 billion to $1.068 billion from the previous range of $1.02 billion to $1.03 billion.
As of March 31, 2019, the company had 154,797 active customer accounts compared to 53,985 active customer accounts as of March 31, 2018, due to the inclusion of the contribution from Twilio SendGrid customer accounts. Dollar-based net expansion rate was 146%, up from 132% a year ago.
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During the first quarter, the company launched Twilio for Salesforce on the Salesforce AppExchange to allow organizations using Salesforce to easily send and receive SMS messages directly from their Salesforce CRM. The company announced support for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for email, new technology being implemented by Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google that enables a more dynamic and interactive experience for Gmail.
The company has been facing stiff competition from Bandwidth.com, Nexmo, Plivo, and Sinch. It has been trying new and innovative products and services that are offered along with affordable pricing for having an edge over its rivals. The company is likely to face revenue dependency from the top 10 customers as a headwind as the contribution to the top line has been slowly shrinking.
Twilio has depended on Uber, Whatsapp, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) as its customers. The company’s voice and messaging services have been the core offering that has seen solid growth due to increased adoption from clients. It’s crucial for the cloud platform to diversify its revenues from the current cohort of customers.
Shares of Twilio ended Tuesday’s regular session up 0.88% at $137.14 on the NYSE. Following the earnings release, the stock inched down over 3% in the after-market session.