Smartsheet stock is up 15% on Friday: here's the catalyst

Shares of Smartsheet Inc (NYSE: SMAR) are up nearly 15% this morning after the cloud company reported market-beating results for its fiscal second quarter.

Smartsheet Q2 financial highlights

• Lost $62.3 million versus the year-ago $44.2 million
• Per-share loss climbed from 35 cents to 48 cents
• Loss after adjusting for nonrecurring items was 10 cents
• Revenue jumped 42% year-on-year to $186.7 million
• Consensus was 20 cents loss on $181 million revenue

Smartsheet to slow hiring

With the Q2 results, the Washington-headquartered company also announced plans of moderating hiring. On CNBC’s “TechCheck”, CEO Mark Mader said:

Smartsheet stock is down 55% for the year.

Smartsheet just bought Outfit

Other notable figures in the earnings report include calculated billings that went up 44% on a year-over-year basis. Smartsheet generated $7.10 million in free cash flow this quarter.

Also on Friday, the Software-as-a-Service company revealed to have acquired “Outfit” – a brand management, templating, and creative automation platform. The chief executive added:

Smartsheet’s forecast for the full year

For the full financial year, Smartsheet forecasts 49 cents to 56 cents of per-share loss on up to $755 million in revenue.

Wall Street recommends that you buy Smartsheet stock as it has upside to $45 on average.