GitLab shares soar as developer-tools company posts first adjusted operating profit

GitLab stock jumped as much as 18% in extended trading on Monday after the developer-tools software maker announced fiscal third-quarter results and quarterly guidance that impressed Wall Street.

Here’s how the company did, compared with consensus of estimates among analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

• Earnings: 9 cents per share, adjusted, vs. loss of 1 cent per share expected.
• Revenue: $149.7 million, vs. $141.5 million expected.

This marks the first time GitLab has posted an adjusted operating profit.

“We continue to grow responsibly and delivered over 2,200 basis points of non-GAAP operating margin expansion,” the company’s finance chief, Brian Robins, was quoted as saying in a statement.

GitLab’s revenue grew 32% year over year in the quarter, which ended on Oct. 31, according to the statement. Net loss attributed to the company came to $285.2 million, or $1.84 per share, compared with a net loss of $48.5 million, or 33 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. GitLab made a one-time income tax adjustment during the quarter that skewed results.

The company, which went public in 2021 and runs remotely, now has 874 customers contributing over $100,000 million in annual recurring revenue, up 37% from the same quarter a year ago.

Some organizations have been moving from Microsoft-owned GitHub, Sid Sijbrandij, GitLab’s co-founder and CEO, said on a conference call with analysts. But a portion of GitLab’s small and medium-size customers are still being cautious about economic conditions, Robins said.

A planning tool that non-technical workers will be able to use won’t impact results for the coming fiscal year, but it will make a difference in subsequent years, Sijbrandij said. He said GitLab is talking with Amazon Web Services about an integration into the Amazon Q work assistant, which AWS announced last week.

For the fourth quarter of its 2024 fiscal year, GitLab called for adjusted earnings of 8 to 9 cents per share on $157.0 million to $158.0 million in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG were looking for a net loss of 1 cent per share and $150.2 million in revenue.

Excluding the after-hours move, GitLab stock is up 16% so far this year, while the S&P 500 stock index has gained 19% over the same period.

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