The Seattle company beat analyst expectations, but investors may be concerned over continued slower growth in license revenue.
Tableau’s stock plummeted in after-hours trading Thursday, then recovered somewhat, after the Seattle business-intelligence company reported first-quarter financial performance.
The drop came even though Tableau reported numbers that beat Wall Street analyst expectations. Revenue reached $171.7 million for the quarter, up 32 percent from the same period last year. Analysts were expecting revenue of $164 million.
The company, which houses thousands of employees at its Fremont neighborhood headquarters, reported its largest quarterly loss yet of $45.6 million for the quarter, compared with a $10 million loss last year. Still, earnings beat analyst expectations for the quarter. Analysts were expecting an adjusted loss of 9 cents per share, and Tableau reported adjusted earnings of 0 cents per share.
Tableau’s stock took a major hit in February when the company posted fourth-quarter earnings that, despite beating estimates, reported that license revenue growth had slowed. Tableau brings in license revenue when companies sign up, renew or expand their subscriptions to its data-visualization products.
Most Read Business Stories
The stock declined as much as 50 percent in February, and has made only a slight recovery. During the fourth quarter, license revenue grew 31 percent, a big drop from its 57 percent growth in the previous quarter.
During the past three months, license-revenue growth slowed to a 14 percent increase, or $96.4 million, Tableau said.
The company is taking steps to increase license revenue, executives said on a conference call with analysts Thursday.
Tableau will add the position of president to its executive team for the first time. Tableau decided to add the role, CEO Christian Chabot said, after interviewing candidates to replace departing sales chief Kelly Wright, who plans to retire at the end of the year.
The president will oversee sales and marketing and will report directly to Chabot. The company hopes to hire a president by the end of the year.
Chabot also pointed to the booming sales staff as a reason license-revenue growth has not kept pace. At the end of the first quarter, less than 60 percent of the sales representatives was fully trained after the company’s hiring push in 2015, he said. That team is now nearly fully trained.
“The goal with sales productivity first is to reduce our hiring to focus on the sales team that we have,” Chief Financial Officer Tom Walker said on the conference call.
Shares closed the day up 2 percent to $50.98 per share. The stock dropped as low as $42.57, a more than 16 percent drop, but recovered to $48.20, down 5.5 percent.