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Zoom Communications is struggling to keep pandemic growth going

Zoom Communications (ZM:NASDAQ) is struggling to grow fast in the post-pandemic world after its latest earnings release once again disappointed investors. The San Jose company reported second quarter to 31 July 2022 adjusted earnings per share of $1.05, beating the $0.94 expected by analysts, but revenue growth slowed to single-digits.
Its $1.10 billion of revenue missed expectations of $1.12 billion, representing 8% year-on-year quarterly growth, sending the share price plunging more than 11% to $86.36. The stock peaked at $559 in October 2020.
At first glance, the latest market reaction may look harsh relative to a miss of less than 2%, but that means a $20 million revenue gap in the quarter. Investors were also reacting to lower guidance for Q3, with Zoom steering the market for adjusted EPS of $0.82 to $0.83 on revenue of $1.1 billion sales. Analysts had previously been looking for $0.91 in adjusted EPS and $1.15 billion in revenue.
Based on data from Investing.com, this is the fifth quarter straight of revenues between $1 billion and $1.1 billion. Zoom’s 204,100 enterprise customers increased less than 3% from 198,900 three months earlier.
It’s a far cry from two years ago when Zoom seemed to have the world at its feet, and its video conferencing software appeared as ubiquitous as Google’s Gmail or Microsoft Word.
But Zoom is not alone among pandemic winners to have struggled to keep the growth fires burning. This year has seen Netflix (NFLX:NASDAQ) subscriber numbers decline for the first time in a decade, while Peloton (PTON:NASDAQ) has issued a series of growth misses as losses escalate.
Cloud security firm Zscaler (ZS:NASDAQ) will report Q4 results on 8 September, and they at least offer investors hope that not all pandemic winners are now losers.
Admittedly, Zscaler has suffered a 46% share price decline this year, as investors turned away from growth and tech equities. However, it has a long track record for meeting and beating quarterly forecasts that stretches back to 2018.
Analysts are anticipating $0.205 earnings per share on $305.5 million revenue in the three months to the end of July, compared to the $0.17 and $286.8 billion respectively in the previous quarter, and up to 60% revenue growth for the full year.
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