Looking back on software development stocks’ Q4 earnings, we examine this quarter’s best and worst performers, including Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND) and its peers.
As legendary VC investor Marc Andreessen says, "Software is eating the world", and it touches virtually every industry. That drives increasing demand for tools helping software developers do their jobs, whether it be monitoring critical cloud infrastructure, integrating audio and video functionality, or ensuring smooth content streaming.
The 11 software development stocks we track reported a mixed Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 2.4% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.
Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 13.3% since the latest earnings results.
Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND)
Started in 1999 by David Morken who was later joined by Henry Kaestner as co-founder in 2001, Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND) provides thousands of customers with a software platform that uses its own global network to provide phone numbers, voice, and text connectivity.
Bandwidth reported revenues of $210 million, up 27% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 3%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a slower quarter for the company with full-year guidance of decelerating revenue growth and a poor net revenue retention rate.
"2024 was a transformative year for Bandwidth, delivering record financial results and groundbreaking product innovation," said David Morken, CEO of Bandwidth.
The stock is down 19.7% since reporting and currently trades at $14.69.
Read our full report on Bandwidth here, it’s free.
Best Q4: F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)
Initially started as a hardware appliances company in the late 1990s, F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) makes software that helps large enterprises ensure their web applications are always available by distributing network traffic and protecting them from cyberattacks.
F5 reported revenues of $766.5 million, up 10.7% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 7.2%. The business had a strong quarter with a solid beat of analysts’ billings estimates and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
F5 pulled off the biggest analyst estimates beat among its peers. The market seems content with the results as the stock is up 1.5% since reporting. It currently trades at $273.88.
Is now the time to buy F5? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Weakest Q4: Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM)
Founded in 1999 by two engineers from MIT, Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) provides software for organizations to efficiently deliver web content to their customers.
Akamai reported revenues of $1.02 billion, up 2.5% year on year, in line with analysts’ expectations. It was a softer quarter as it posted full-year guidance of slowing revenue growth and full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations significantly.
Akamai delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates and weakest full-year guidance update in the group. As expected, the stock is down 18.1% since the results and currently trades at $80.31.
Read our full analysis of Akamai’s results here.
Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG)
Named after a database the founders had to painstakingly look after at their previous company, Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) is a software-as-a-service platform that makes it easier to monitor cloud infrastructure and applications.
Datadog reported revenues of $737.7 million, up 25.1% year on year. This number topped analysts’ expectations by 3%. Taking a step back, it was a mixed quarter as it also logged a solid beat of analysts’ annual recurring revenue estimates but full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations significantly.
The company added 120 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 3,610. The stock is down 26.9% since reporting and currently trades at $108.34.
Read our full, actionable report on Datadog here, it’s free.
PagerDuty (NYSE:PD)
Started by three former Amazon engineers, PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) is a software-as-a-service platform that helps companies respond to IT incidents fast and make sure that any downtime is minimized.
PagerDuty reported revenues of $121.4 million, up 9.3% year on year. This print beat analysts’ expectations by 1.4%. Zooming out, it was a mixed quarter as it also recorded accelerating customer growth but EPS guidance for next quarter missing analysts’ expectations significantly.
The company added 64 customers to reach a total of 15,114. The stock is up 24% since reporting and currently trades at $19.31.
Read our full, actionable report on PagerDuty here, it’s free.
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