Tableau Software’s stock is up in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company reported strong quarterly earnings results amid an ongoing shift to a subscription model for the data visualization company.
Tableau reported non-GAAP earnings of $.10 per share, coming in ahead of what the company and Wall Street expected to see, with both looking out for a loss this quarter. The company had $212.9 million in revenue, coming in slightly above analyst expectations of $211.3 million and at the higher range of Tableau’s own guidance.
Tableau highlighted subscription metrics in its quarterly earnings release, noting that subscription bookings now account for 37 percent of the company’s total bookings, up from 16 percent this time a year ago. Subscription revenue, a new metric the company is calling out publicly this quarter, was $103.5 million in the second quarter, up 175 percent over this time last year.
“Customers accelerated their adoption of our subscription offerings in Q2, and have embraced subscription even faster than we had projected,” said Adam Selipsky, Tableau’s president and CEO said in a statement. “The move to a subscription model represents our ongoing commitment to helping our customers adopt and scale Tableau with greater flexibility and reduced risk.”
Under Selipsky, who became the company’s second-ever CEO last year, the company has focused on the subscription-based version of its data visualization technology, Tableau Online, which expanded to AWS in November. Selling subscriptions, rather than perpetual licenses, lets Tableau make its products more available to a variety of organizations and easier to use for thousands of employees at large businesses.
In April, Tableau released monthly subscription prices for all of its data visualization products, another indication of its commitment to the changing model.
Following the positive earnings report Wednesday, Tableau stock is up about 4 percent in after hours trading. For Tableau stock, 2017 has been a recovery year. Shares tumbled from an all-time of $127 in mid 2015 to a low of $41 in early 2016. Throughout 2016 the stock failed to regain value, but since the beginning of this year shares have risen close to 50 percent.
This quarter saw Tableau’s global headcount jump to 3,305. After several quarters of either a flat headcount or a reduction, Tableau brought on 112 new people in the second quarter.
