Asana's stock pops on solid earnings beat and CEO's $350M cash injection

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Shares of Asana Inc. popped in the after-hours trading session today after the company reported a solid second-quarter earnings beat and announced that Chief Executive Dustin Moskovitz has put $350 million of his own money into the company.

The collaboration software firm reported a loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 34 cents per share on revenue of $134.9 million, up by an impressive 51% from a year earlier. But that resulted in a net loss of $113 million for the quarter, rising from the $68.4 million net loss it saw one year earlier. The results were better than expected, with Wall Street analysts modeling a wider loss of 39 cents per share on revenue of just $127.2 million.

Asana sells a work management platform that’s used by teams to organize tasks in a centralized visual dashboard, improving coordination among workers. The software, which integrates with Zoom, is available as a freemium service, wherein the most basic features are free to use, but more advanced tools must be paid for.

Moskovitz (pictured) said in a statement that the company’s earnings beat was driven by large enterprise deals and momentum in the U.S., where the number of customers spending at least $100,000 a year on its platform has increased by 105%. “We believe that Asana is the most scalable work management platform out there, as evidenced by our broad deployment and millions of users worldwide, including our largest customer deployment of over 100,000 paid seats,” he said.

The strong performance was enough to convince Moskovitz to throw his full weight behind the company he leads. In a separate announcement today, it was revealed that the CEO acquired 19.3 million class A shares for $350 million in a private placement, with the price determined on the stock’s closing price on Sept. 2. Asana said in a statement that the proceeds of the sale will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Moskowitz explained that he was investing further into the company because he sees an “enormous” market opportunity and he believes Asana’s Work Graph is the best solution to help enterprises achieve their most important goals. “The market is ready and our customers are validating our strategy every day,” he said. “With the additional $350 million in capital announced today, we believe we are fully funded to execute on our current strategies and well-positioned to reach free cash flow positive before the end of calendar 2024.”

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that Asana was enjoying success despite the worrying macroeconomic climate because enterprise work needs to be managed, regardless of whatever economic headwinds, wars and other trends are affecting software sales elsewhere. “Some vendors are struggling, but not Asana, which grew at a remarkable 51%,” the analyst said.

Mueller also praised Moskovitz’s decision to invest a significant amount of his own capital into the company. “It’s good to see Dustin believing in his company, betting his own money on its future,” he added. “Investors like that kind of confidence. Now, investors will be watching to see if Asana can meet its stated goal of becoming cash flow neutral by 2024. In the meantime, Asana’s losses are piling up, so something will have to change, and the sooner it does the better.”

Investors reacted warmly, as Asana’s stock gained more than 20% in the wake of the news.

Asana also offered positive guidance for the next quarter and full year. For the third quarter, it said it sees revenue of between $138.5 million and $139.5 million, representing growth of 38% to 39% and above Wall Street’s consensus of $137.8 million.

For the full year, Asana sees revenue coming between $544 million and $547 million, well ahead of Wall Street’s target of $137.6 million in sales.

Photo: Asana