By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Zoom stock (NASDAQ:ZM) traded 8% lower in Tuesday’s premarket as the company’s addition of large clients fell short of expectations for the second straight quarter.
The company closed October at 512,100 customers with more than 10 employees, an increase of just 18%. Growth in such users was 36% in the second quarter, and the numbers were taken as fresh evidence of the company's inability to sustain the explosive growth it showed in the first phase of the pandemic.
Expectations from the video-conferencing platform, which became a household name as the pandemic triggered a boom in remote work and study.
Experts have been focusing on its popularity with larger customers and its expansion beyond video-conferencing tools to assess its ability to compete in the long run with companies such as Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which offer fuller suites of services.
The company has launched new offerings such as its Events platform for large business meetings, Cloud-calling service Zoom Phone and Zoom Rooms for in-office meetings, all directed at widening its user base.
Sales in the third quarter rose 35% to $1.05 billion while adjusted profit per share was $1.11, both a little ahead of expectations.
Adjusted EPS in the current quarter is seen at about $1.06 on revenue of around $1.05 billion.