NetSuite Posts Strong Q1: Wall Street Applauds Despite Reduced Outlook

NetSuite announced a strong start in 2011, with a Q1 year-over-year revenue boost of 21 percent to $53.4 million. NetSuite says customers continue to shift to its cloud-based ERP from rival offerings like SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. But here’s the really interesting part: NetSuite produced a $7.7 million net loss for the quarter and reduced its earnings guidance for this year, but Wall Street is still cheering the company’s business model and progress.

Shares of NetSuite jumped about 14 percent today, as of 2:42 p.m. eastern. During an earnings call, CEO Zach Nelson said NetSuite dodged the usual Q1 slowdown thanks to rising demand for cloud services. He especially highlighted the success of the NetSuite OneWorld solution for midsized and large enterprises in growing average deal size, and gave plenty of lip service to the company’s apparently record-setting revenue retention.

Hardly surprising, Nelson took several digs at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for announcing Microsoft was “all in” for cloud computing but relies on a traditional hosted client-server application model.

Explaining NetSuite’s growing loss, SVP of Finance Ron Gill said that while the company’s sales and operations are strong, the weak U.S. dollar has had a noteworthy impact on NetSuite’s bottom line, which was also exacerbated by the company’s growing international operations.

As a result, the company lowered its 2011 outlook from 13 cents to 15 cents a share on revenue of $228 million to $230 million. Still, NetSuite’s shares rallied today because investors continue to believe in the company’s business model and growth statements. For updates on NetSuite’s stock, check out the Talkin’ Cloud Stock Index, which we update each weekend.

Also during the earnings call, NetSuite touched on the company’s reseller base. And it’s safe to expect more updates at the NetSuite SuiteWorld event in May.

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