cloudflare, web The infrastructure and safety firm reported earnings Thursday, reaching a major milestone. With revenue of about $254 million, the company is on a run charge of over $1 billion for the first time ever.
Revenue, which was up 47% over the prior year, also outpaced the road’s estimate of $250.6 million. That win was offset by a decrease of $42.5 million, or 13 cents per share, in the third quarter. Still, Cloudflare reported a much smaller loss than the year-ago quarter, when it reported a loss of $107.3 million, or 34 cents per share, per marketwatch,
Following the earnings call, Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince introduced that the corporate has a lofty goal of succeeding in generating $5 billion in revenue organically within 5 years. “Even when we achieve $1 billion, we have entered less than 1% of the identified market for our products that we already have available today.”
“That’s why we believe we’re well on track to achieve annual revenue of $5 billion annually over the next five years,” Prince instructed analysts in the name of earnings.
Prince also pointed out how unusual it is for a company to make $1 billion. “Only 6% of public software companies achieved this milestone, so we are proud to have surpassed it, but nowhere close to being finished,” Prince noted.
In general, markets handled the news with a kick in the tooth, with the company’s inventory down 13% in a single day on Thursday and more than 18.5 percent from Friday’s close.
But what about the $5 billion target, given its current state and projected earnings for 2023?