How quickly do enterprise tech firms need to grow to satisfy today’s investors?

A half-dozen enterprise stocks reported earnings this week, but with the world in turmoil, the market gave them kind of a rough reception.

It’s hard to say what had the stock market in a tizzy, but it certainly wasn’t the companies’ straight revenue numbers, as all reported strong quarters:

There is a lot going on in the world right now, and the stock market has been on a rough ride so far this year. Maybe the negativity is just contagious.

Whatever the reason, the companies that reported positive results saw mixed reactions on the market. At the high end were Box and Splunk, with their stock up around 6% this week. That may not seem like much, but in the current climate (and especially given the stock market’s historically negative response to Box results), it was Wall Street’s equivalent of screaming praise from the rooftops.

At the opposite end, we find Snowflake, whose stock took it on the chin this week despite revenue growing at 101%, something most would consider robust. Instead of being pleased with that result, investors whacked the stock down as much as 30% at one point in after-hours trading. As of today, the company stock was down over 21% for the week.

Here are the five-day results for all six enterprise tech companies reporting this week as of noon ET :

Image Credits: TechCrunch

We decided it would be worthwhile to dig in a bit into these different results and see what was happening underneath the financial hood, and if these companies truly warrant the reaction they got, or if Wall Street is just being skittish like the rest of us.

How to avoid Wall Street pain: Box’s earnings saga

Box being our example today of a company that made it through earnings unscathed is somewhat strange — the company spent much of 2021 locked in a battle with some of its shareholders, so you might not expect it to be in Wall Street’s good graces after such a bruising fight.