Twilio shares plunge 34% on light guidance

Twilio shares closed down 34% on Friday, a day after the cloud communications software maker announced third-quarter results that gave a soft revenue outlook.

Here’s how the company did:

• Loss: Loss of 27 cents per share, adjusted, vs. a loss of 36 cents per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• Revenue: $983 million, vs. $972.2 million as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

With respect to guidance, Twilio is calling for a fourth-quarter adjusted net loss of 11 cents to 6 cents per share on $995 million to $1.005 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had been expecting an adjusted loss of 12 cents per share on $1.07 billion in revenue.

“Like many companies, we are facing some short-term headwinds, but the long-term opportunity remains strong as companies continue building their customer engagement strategies, become more efficient, and aim to build better and more personalized relationships with their customers,” Jeff Lawson, Twilio’s co-founder and CEO, was quoted as saying in a statement.

The company’s revenue grew 33% year over year, according to the statement, compared with 41% growth in the second quarter. Twilio said it had over 280,000 active customer accounts at the end of the third quarter, up from over 275,000 at the end of the second quarter.

Twilio shares are down about 83% so far this year, while the S&P 500 index is off by about 20% over the same period.

Twilio is working to start generating operating income on an adjusted basis in 2023. In September the company announced that it was cutting 11% of employees. Over 800 will leave the company in the fourth quarter, Twilio said on Thursday.

WATCH: We’re headed towards profitability in 2023, says Twilio CEO