Zoom forecasts annual revenue, profit below estimates

[BENGALURU] Zoom Video Communications forecast full-year revenue and profit below Wall Street estimates on Monday (Feb 28), signalling a hit from tough competition and lower sign ups for its core Meetings platform.

The video conferencing platform, which derives a large portion of its revenue from smaller organisations, has been hit by slowing growth as schools and workplaces reopen, as well as competition from Cisco's conferencing tool Webex, Microsoft's Teams and Salesforce's Slack.

However, Zoom said it would continue to focus on expanding internationally to boost growth.

"The one silver lining from the guidance is there is some implied acceleration in the second half of the fiscal 2023, which suggests that growth rates will trough before reaccelerating," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria.

"The outlook isn't as bad as it looks, especially given how beaten down the stock is." Shares of Zoom, which have fallen more than 30 per cent this year, rose 4.4 per cent to US$130.99 in extended trading as the company's board authorised a stock repurchase programme of up to US$1 billion.

Zoom beat estimates for fourth-quarter sales and profit, as revenue from enterprise customers grew by 38 per cent.

The company forecast annual adjusted profit of between US$3.45 and US$3.51 per share, compared with estimates of US$4.41 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

It also expects full-year revenue to be in the range of US$4.53 billion to US$4.55 billion, below expectations of US$4.71 billion.

Revenue in the fourth quarter rose 21 per cent to US$1.07 billion, the company's slowest-ever growth since it went public in 2019.

Analysts on average expected US$1.05 billion.

Excluding items, the company earned US$1.29 per share, beating estimates of US$1.06 per share. REUTERS