Zoom posts first billion-dollar revenue quarter, but easing of demand sends shares down 11%

Zoom Video Communications Inc posted its first billion-dollar revenue quarter but a faster-than-expected easing in demand for its service sent its shares tumbling 11 percent.

On Monday, Zoom forecast its third-quarter revenue to be between $1.015 billion and $1.020 billion, higher than the analysts' average estimate of $1.013 billion.

It forecast third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of between $1.07 and $1.08, compared with a $1.09 per share expectation.

But it was just a 31.2 percent increase from a year earlier, after a multiple-fold growth rate in 2020 when the COVID-19 crisis caused the rise of remote working and schooling.

Chief Financial Officer Kelly Steckelberg admitted that the slowdown, which was expected towards the year-end, happened more quickly than we expected.

With schools encouraged to reopen and more companies bringing back employees to offices with the availability of vaccines, Zoom's popularity was expected to wane.

It also faced competition from such platforms like Cisco's Webex and Microsoft (MSFT.O) Teams, keeping it from winning bigger contracts from businesses.

Zoom expects a decline in revenue from small and medium businesses which pay bills monthly.

Analysts expect Zoom to try to arrest the growth slowdown by expanding and ramping up its platform and Zoom Phone, its cloud-calling product.

Zoom posted a second-quarter revenue profit of $1.04 per share on revenue of $1.02 billion, both higher than estimates.