Dropbox Rises as More Paying Users Power Profit and Sales Growth

(Bloomberg) -- Dropbox Inc. said sales and profit beat analyst estimates as the company gained paying users, sending shares up about 3 percent in extended trading Thursday.

The maker of cloud-based file-sharing software reported profit, excluding some costs, of 10 cents a share, above the 6 cent average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg. Sales were $385.6 million, above the $381.6 million average analyst estimate. The company also posted a narrower net loss of $7.7 million, compared with $465.5 million a year ago. 

San Francisco-based Dropbox persuaded more customers to pay for its software, which boosted average revenue per user, said Chief Executive Officer Drew Houston in a statement. The average revenue from each user rose to $121.04, compared with $114.30 in the same period a year ago. Paying customers rose to 13.2 million from 11.5 million in the year-ago quarter. That still represents a small fraction of total Dropbox users. 

Shares, which have declined 26 percent in the past year, closed at $23.23 in New York. 

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