By Sai Sachin R and Subrat Patnaik
(Reuters) - Cloud storage provider Box Inc posted a bigger loss due to higher operating expenses, in its first quarterly report as a public company.
Shares of Box, which listed in January, fell about 15 percent in extended trading on Wednesday after reports the company posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss.
Box, however, said in an email some analysts had erroneously based their estimates on an inaccurate share count and that it had actually posted a smaller-than-expected loss.
The company's operating expenses rose about 33 percent to $93.8 million (62.8 million pounds) in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31.
Box said in a statement that it had been investing "heavily" to strengthen security for data stored in its cloud platform.
"What you'll see from us over the next few years is far more investment in our security technology," Chief Executive Aaron Levie told Reuters.
He said the company would invest in industry-specific offerings and go after "large enterprises".
The company announced earlier this month that it was acquiring Subspace, which makes software for companies to enable employees to work securely from different devices.
Founded in 2005 by Levie, a University of Southern California dropout, and his friend Dylan Smith, Box competes with privately-held Dropbox, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s Drive and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s OneDrive.
Box, whose customers include General Electric Co, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) and AstraZeneca Plc, forecast revenue of $63 million-$64 million for the current quarter.
The company expects adjusted operating loss of 56-58 percent of revenue in the quarter, which translates into $35.3 million-$37.1 million.
Box, whose first outside investment came from billionaire investor Mark Cuban in 2005, has venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson as its biggest investor with a 19.2 percent stake as of Jan. 23.
Draper Fisher has earlier backed companies such as Skype, Tesla Motors and Tumblr.
Box's net loss attributable to shareholders widened to $52.9 million, or $2.64 per share, in the fourth quarter from $43.5 million, or $3.46 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company had a loss of $1.65 per share.
Revenue rose 61.3 percent to $62.6 million.
Analysts on average had expected a loss of $1.99 per share and revenue of $58 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Box's shares were down 13.8 percent at $17.70 after the bell. Up to Wednesday's close, the stock had risen more than 46 percent since its debut on Jan. 23.