Earnings results often indicate what direction a company will take in the months ahead. With Q4 behind us, let’s have a look at ON24 (NYSE: ONTF) and its peers.

The Internet and the exploding amount of data have transformed how businesses interact with, market to, and transact with their customers. Personalization of offerings, e-commerce, targeted advertising and data-empowered sales teams are now table stakes for modern businesses, and sales and marketing software providers are becoming the tools of evolving customer interaction.

The 23 sales and marketing software stocks we track reported a mixed Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 1.5% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.

Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 17.4% since the latest earnings results.

ON24 (NYSE: ONTF)

Started in 1998 as a platform to broadcast press conferences, ON24’s (NYSE: ONTF) software helps organizations organize online webinars and other virtual events and convert prospects into customers.

ON24 reported revenues of $36.68 million, down 6.8% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 2.5%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a slower quarter for the company with full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations.

“Our fourth quarter results marked the end of a year in which we improved our retention rates, executed on our product innovation roadmap, consistently exceeded our profitability targets, and laid the foundation for a return to growth,” said Sharat Sharan, co-founder and CEO of ON24.

ON24 delivered the slowest revenue growth of the whole group. The stock is up 11.9% since reporting and currently trades at $6.79.

Read our full report on ON24 here, it’s free.

Best Q4: Yext (NYSE: YEXT)

Founded in 2006 by Howard Lerman, Yext (NYSE: YEXT) offers software as a service that helps their clients manage and monitor their online listings and customer reviews across all relevant databases, from Google Maps to Alexa or Siri.

Yext reported revenues of $113.1 million, up 11.9% year on year, in line with analysts’ expectations. The business had an exceptional quarter with a solid beat of analysts’ annual recurring revenue estimates and an impressive beat of analysts’ billings estimates.

Although it had a fine quarter compared to its peers, the market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 6.1% since reporting. It currently trades at $6.16.

Is now the time to buy Yext? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.

Weakest Q4: The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD)

Founded by former Microsoft engineers Jeff Green and Dave Pickles, The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) offers cloud-based software that uses data to help advertisers better plan, place, and target their online ads.

The Trade Desk reported revenues of $741 million, up 22.3% year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 2.3%. We struggled to find many positives in these results. Its revenue missed in the quarter, which is rare for this company. Revenue guidance for next quarter slightly missed as well, and EBITDA guidance fell below expectations by an even larger amount.

The stock is down 55.1% since the results and currently trades at $54.99.

Read our full analysis of The Trade Desk’s results here.

Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH)

Founded in Chennai, India in 2010 with the idea of creating a “fresh” helpdesk product, Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH) offers a broad range of software targeted at small and medium-sized businesses.

Freshworks reported revenues of $194.6 million, up 21.5% year on year. This result surpassed analysts’ expectations by 2.7%. It was a strong quarter as it also put up a solid beat of analysts’ billings estimates and EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations.

The company added 199 enterprise customers paying more than $5,000 annually to reach a total of 22,558. The stock is down 21% since reporting and currently trades at $14.11.

Read our full, actionable report on Freshworks here, it’s free.

VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN)

While the company is not a domain registrar and does not directly sell domain names to end users, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) operates and maintains the infrastructure to support domain names such as .com and .net.

VeriSign reported revenues of $395.4 million, up 3.9% year on year. This print was in line with analysts’ expectations. However, it was a mixed quarter as it failed to impress in some other areas of the business.

The stock is up 15.5% since reporting and currently trades at $254.20.

Read our full, actionable report on VeriSign here, it’s free.

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