When a quarterly report of good financial results roll in at fast-growing Alteryx Inc., you have a minute to feel totally self-satisfied—then it’s back to work, according to its chief executive.
The latest figures, released on Halloween and once again topping analyst expectations, showed the Irvine-based data analytics company’s revenue grew 65% to $103.4 million in the third quarter.
Full-year guidance for the $6 billion-valued company was raised to an increase of between 53% and 55% in revenue, to just below $400 million.
It generated $253.6 million in sales last year.
The celebratory party following the results was a short one.
“I have a 60-second gloat policy at the company where following a good quarter like this we get a chance to celebrate,” Alteryx co-founder and Chief executive Dean Stoecker told the Business Journal last week.
“But then we have to get back at it to try and figure out what we can do better in subsequent quarters to continue to improve.”
Stoecker said the company (NYSE: AYX) is thinking well beyond the $400 million in annual revenue mark for next year, another sign of growth at one of Orange County’s closely watched tech firms.
Other examples of growth: Alteryx grew its local workforce 24% on a yearly basis to 260 as of August, and was listed as the fastest-growing midsized public company—those with between $100 million and $500 million in revenue—in last month’s Business Journal rankings.
“We never rest on our laurels,” Stoecker said, adding that he recently opened a new office in the Ukrainian city of Kiev. The company’s more than 5,600 customers around the world include Audi, Dell, Vodafone, Office Depot, Hyatt hotels, and Unilever.
Analyzing Data
Alteryx’s software enables users to manipulate huge amounts of data to find insights for business decisions. The company said its product “can discover, prep, and analyze all your data, then deploy and share analytics at scale for deeper insights faster than you ever thought possible” as part of the trend to automate analytics.
Change is in the works for the company’s local operations.
Alteryx said last month it’s moving its corporate headquarters from the Park Place office complex near John Wayne Airport to a building and a half in the city’s Spectrum Terrace development to allow for further growth.
Stoecker said he recently had breakfast with Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren and “pronounced my commitment to Orange County there. We grew up here, we started here, it will be world headquarters for a very long time.”
Spectrum Terrace is Irvine Co.’s highest-end mid-rise office development in the area; its first phase opened a few months ago.
“I’m convinced that Orange County has a treasure trove of talent,” Stoecker told the Business Journal. “We just needed a world headquarters that gave us the opportunity to attract more [of it].”
And in case you’re wondering, Stoecker says the company’s own software helped him pin down the new headquarters location, and has predicted the changes in commuting times.
“It turns out our employees will have an average of a 37-second longer commute and a .53 extra-mile commute,” he said with mathematical precision.
“So all in all, when you’re trying to appease hundreds of people, these are pretty good results for us.”
Shares Slip
Alteryx’s shares have fallen back to earth over the past few months, declining about 36% from a September record high of $147.79. That knocked Stoecker off his temporary perch as a billionaire, based on his stake in the company he founded in 1997.
The company went public in 2017 with a stock price of $14.
There are other potential potholes going forward for the company and its stock.
Stoecker said “there’s a bunch of noise in the market around geopolitical risks” including the U.K.’s tortuous departure from the European Union and the China trade war. Meanwhile, economists are forecasting slower global growth next year.
Still, “I think that we’ll probably do better in a downturn,” Stoecker said. “The questions don’t go away. The data doesn’t get any smaller, but in most cases there will [be] fewer people around to answer the questions.”
D.A. Davidson senior research analyst Rishi Jaluria said the Halloween earnings release contained “nothing spooky as growth accelerates again.”
“Stepping back, we continue to admire Alteryx’s execution and value proposition,” he wrote in a note to investors, adding that “accounting served as a tailwind again.”
Acquisitions, Growth Plans
Alteryx said last month it had bought Feature Labs, a machine learning and artificial intelligence software firm launched from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It paid $25.5 million in cash for the company, with another $12.5 million in potential earn-outs.
While declining to say if other acquisitions are in the offing, Stoecker said: “We knew that we wanted to have a healthy balance sheet so that we could be the beneficiaries of the accelerated consolidation that we’re beginning to see in the space.”
The company ended the quarter with $986.5 million in cash and other short-term investments.
The firm’s future remains bright, the CEO said.
“We’re not a one-trick pony. We are an end-to-end platform that’s easy to use,” Stoecker said as growth continues. “Today, we’re at a less than 1% penetration of our audience, our addressable market.
“We’re in rarefied air,” he said of the company’s success. “I get our team to remain humble on their successes, have some humility in their defeats and pay attention to the data because the data never lies.”
