Summary
Box closed fiscal 2021 with fourth-quarter revenue of $198.9 million, up 8.3% from $183.6 million a year earlier. Full-year revenue reached $770.8 million, up 10.7% from $696.3 million. Remaining performance obligations stood at $896.9 million on January 31, 2021, up 16.8% from $767.8 million. Deferred revenue was $465.6 million, up 9.9% from $423.8 million. Billings for the fourth quarter were $310.1 million, up 10%, and full-year billings were $812.5 million, up 9%. The company reported fourth-quarter gross profit of $140.3 million, up 10.6% from $126.9 million, and full-year gross profit of $546.0 million, up 13.6% from $480.7 million. Gross margin improved to 70.5% in the quarter from 69.1%, and to 70.8% for the year from 69.0%.
Profitability improved sharply. The fourth-quarter operating loss was $3.3 million, compared with a loss of $28.6 million, a narrowing of 88.5%. The full-year operating loss was $37.6 million, compared with $139.5 million, a narrowing of 73.0%. Operating margin was negative 1.6% in the quarter, up 13.9 percentage points from negative 15.6%. For the full year, operating margin was negative 4.9%, up 15.1 percentage points from negative 20.0%. The fourth-quarter net loss was $4.9 million, compared with $30.4 million, a narrowing of 83.7%. The full-year net loss was $43.4 million, compared with $144.3 million, a narrowing of 69.9%. On a non-GAAP basis, fourth-quarter operating income was $36.4 million, compared with $12.3 million. Full-year non-GAAP operating income was $118.8 million, compared with $9.3 million. Non-GAAP diluted net income per share was $0.22 in the fourth quarter, compared with $0.07, and $0.70 for the full year, compared with $0.03. Fourth-quarter operating cash flow was $57.5 million, up 283.2% from $15.0 million. Full-year operating cash flow was $196.8 million, up 340.2% from $44.7 million. Free cash flow was $41.0 million in the fourth quarter, up $41.0 million from a year earlier, and positive $120.3 million for the full year, compared with negative $7.2 million.
Box kept adding products and customers. The company acquired e-signature provider SignRequest and unveiled Box Sign, an e-signature capability to be integrated natively into Box. It announced an all-new Box Shuttle for content migration, Box for Google Workspace Essentials, and enhanced integrations with Slack and WebEx. Wins and expansions during the period included Arena Pharmaceuticals, Asahi Group Holdings, Pan-American Life Insurance Group, Talend, the Texas Office of the Attorney General, Twilio, and United Parcel Service of America. As of January 31, 2021, Box had 77.7 million registered users, over 105,000 paying organizations, and offered its solution in 25 languages. Paying users made up 20% of registered users. The company said 67% of the Fortune 500 use Box. Paying organizations increased 8% from January 31, 2020 to January 31, 2021. Net retention rate was 102% at period end, compared with 104% a year earlier.
Guidance points to continued growth. For the first quarter of fiscal 2022, Box expects revenue of $200 million to $201 million and non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.16 to $0.17. For the full fiscal year 2022, the company expects revenue of $840 million to $848 million and non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.76 to $0.81. Risks remain. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected many customers and prospects, leading to increased churn and delayed sales cycles, including delays in contract signing or renewals and reduced budgets. The market is highly competitive, with pricing pressures, industry consolidation, new competitors, and new marketing initiatives. Other risks include customers not renewing or expanding, failure to provide timely product enhancements, security vulnerabilities or breaches, problems integrating acquisitions, and the potential impact of shareholder activism. Box also faces seasonality, with billings concentrated in the back half of the fiscal year, especially the fourth quarter, and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.
Forecast
Reported figures
GAAP, from SEC filings| Metric | Q4 FY2021 | Q3 FY2021 | QoQ | Q4 FY2020 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $198.9M | $196.0M | +1.5% | $183.6M | +8.3% |
| Gross profit | $140.3M | $139.2M | +0.8% | $126.9M | +10.6% |
| Gross margin | 70.5% | 71.0% | -0.5 pp | 69.1% | +1.4 pp |
| Research & development | $48.6M | $49.5M | -1.8% | $53.2M | -8.6% |
| Sales & marketing | $68.1M | $67.1M | +1.5% | $75.5M | -9.7% |
| General & administrative | $26.9M | $25.2M | +6.5% | $26.8M | +0.2% |
| Total operating expenses | $143.6M | $141.8M | +1.3% | $155.4M | -7.6% |
| Operating income (loss) | -$3.3M | -$2.6M | -25.4% | -$28.6M | +88.5% |
| Operating margin | -1.6% | -1.3% | -0.3 pp | -15.6% | +13.9 pp |
| Net income (loss) | -$4.9M | -$5.3M | +6.5% | -$30.4M | +83.7% |
| Net margin | -2.5% | -2.7% | +0.2 pp | -16.6% | +14.1 pp |
| Net retention rate | 102.0% | 103.0% | -1.0 pp | — | — |
Risks
COVID-19 has caused increased customer churn and delayed sales cycles, including delays in contract signing or renewals and reduced customer budgets, even though the pandemic had no material adverse impact on FY2021 financial results.
Net retention rate declined to approximately 102% as of January 31, 2021 from 104% as of January 31, 2020. The company depends on renewals and expansion, and further declines could harm future revenue.
In January 2021 Box issued $345.0 million of 0.00% convertible senior notes due 2026 and elected to settle principal in cash. The notes create future cash settlement, repurchase and accounting risks, including potential reclassification to current liability and if-converted diluted EPS impact.
Box faces larger competitors including Microsoft, OpenText, Google and Dropbox, some offering lower-priced or free products, which creates pricing pressure and could reduce sales or margins.
Data protection rules such as GDPR, the CJEU invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield, CCPA/CPRA and Brexit-related transfer uncertainty may increase compliance costs and limit Box's ability to serve customers with cross-border data needs.
Increasing focus on cloud content management use cases and enterprise and highly-regulated customers may lengthen and increase costs of sales, create greater pricing pressure, and delay revenue recognition for complex transactions.
Box is expanding internationally, including a Warsaw office and the acquisition of SignRequest B.V. in the Netherlands, while Brexit creates regulatory and data transfer uncertainty that could increase costs and impede growth outside the United States.
Responding to activist shareholders could be costly and disruptive, and Box recorded $1.4 million in fees related to shareholder activism in FY2021.
Sales to government entities face certification requirements, public sector budget cycles and funding delays, and COVID-19 budget shortfalls may cause governments to delay or reduce technology spending.
SaaS KPIs
All quarters →Billings
Non-GAAP Operating Margin
Free Cash Flow
Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO)
Paying Organizations
Net Retention Rate (period end)
Registered Users
Summary, forecast, risks and KPIs are extracted from BOX INC's SEC filings for Q4 FY2021 (10-Q / 10-K and the 8-K earnings release); GAAP figures in the summary are checked against the reported XBRL data. They can contain errors; the filings are authoritative. Processed Oct 2, 2026.