SaaS earnings bump Dropbox, Box and Sprout Social

A quick hit as we

have a podcast to record

, but a few public companies in the broader SaaS market reported earnings in the past week. Their results are worth unpacking as they paint a good picture of what the markets are hunting for in modern software companies.

Of course, we’re covering the firms’ share-price movements in the context of

an epic selloff

stemming from global conditions that are already impacting earnings

.

But, hey, not all the news out there is bad. In fact, for our three companies, public investors are waving green flags. So let’s take a peek regarding why

Dropbox

, Box

and Sprout Social

— one recent IPO and two slightly-out-of-favor SaaS shops — each shot higher after reporting their Q4-era results.

Earnings, results

Let’s proceed in alphabetical order, putting

Box

at the top of our list. We’ll then work through Dropbox and Sprout Social.

Box’s

calendar Q4-era earnings report

(the company’s Fiscal 2020 Q4) beat investor expectations three times. It reported more revenue than anticipated, $183.6 million over expectations

of $181.6 million; a slimmer loss than predicted, $0.07 per-share in adjusted profit against a projected

$0.04; and the storage-grounded, corporate productivity company’s quarterly forecast of $183.0 million to $184.0 million was a few million ahead of expectations ($181.8 million, per Yahoo Finance

).