Database software darling MongoDB Inc. posted strong fiscal fourth-quarter results today that easily beat expectations, sending its stock higher in after-hours trading.

The company reported a loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 9 cents per share on revenue of $266.5 million, up an impressive 56% from the same period one year ago. That was better than expected, with analysts expecting the company to report a bigger 22-cent-per-share loss on revenue of $243.4 million.

The revenue growth was MongoDB’s strongest in nine quarters, but the company couldn’t avoid growing its overall losses as well. For the quarter, it posted a net loss of $84.4 million, compared to a loss of $75.8 million one year ago.

The report sent MongoDB’s stock up more than 9% in extended trading, following a slight gain earlier in the day. The company also reported its full year fiscal 2022 results, posting revenue of $873.8 million, up 42% from a year ago.

In a press release, MongoDB attributed its performance to “strong customer growth,” with more than 33,000 total paying users of its platform at the end of January.

MongoDB sells an enterprise-grade version of the open-source MongoDB database. Known as one of the most powerful document-oriented databases around, it’s used for numerous types of data-hungry applications. Developers especially like MongoDB because the database is said to be easy to use and can store information in many different formats.

The company has also created a special version of MongoDB for customers that prefer to run it in the cloud, called MongoDB Atlas, as well as a mobile version known as MongoDB Realm.

MongoDB Chief Executive Dev Ittycheria (pictured) said the company’s growth was driven by the fact that its modern application data platform “dramatically reduces friction in the development process,” making it simple for developers to build compelling applications.

“Our strong growth in six- and seven-figure customers is evidence that customers increasingly view MongoDB as a strategic platform,” the CEO added. “We are confident in our ability to capitalize on our $70 billion market opportunity and deliver strong growth for the foreseeable future.”

MongoDB Atlas is growing especially fast. The company reported that it saw 85% revenue growth, surpassing $1 billion in annualized revenue for the first time. Part of the reason is the continued momentum MongoDB is seeing with its partnerships with cloud infrastructure providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. It said it saw growth of 80% in deals sourced by its cloud partners.

“We are seeing strong alignment and great field execution in our AWS partnership, especially around larger deals and migrations from on-premise to cloud,” the company said. “Google Cloud is also now featuring MongoDB Atlas in the database portion of their console, further increasing visibility and velocity with developers.”

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said MongoDB’s cloud success can be attributed to its finding the sweet spot that every enterprise wants — namely, a reliable, managed service that doesn’t lock them into any specific cloud platform.

“This has helped get MongoDB on track to become a $1 billion revenue company, with its fourth-quarter revenue passing the $250 million mark,” Mueller said. “As the company grows, it is clear the management is not putting the brakes on costs too much, but its loss per share remained constant with the year-ago period, so that can be seen as progress. As we look to the next quarter, there’s no reason why MongoDB can’t keep growing at a similar rate.”

Indeed, the company seems quietly optimistic that’s exactly what will happen. For the next quarter, it’s forecasting a loss of between eight and 12 cents per share and revenue of $263 million to $267 million. Wall Street estimates a bigger loss of 17 cents per share on lower revenue of $253.6 million.

Photo: SiliconANGLE