The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price is racing ahead today.
Shares in the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) tech stock, which provides data solutions for AI applications, closed yesterday trading for $1.97. In morning trade on Wednesday, shares are changing hands for $2.09 apiece, up 6.1%.
For some context, the All Ords is down 0.3% at this same time.
Here's what's grabbing ASX investor interest.
(*Note, all figures are in US dollars and based on unaudited management accounts.)
Appen share price leaps on ex-Google growth
Investors are bidding up the Appen share price following the release of the company's quarterly report for the three months ending 30 September (Q3 FY 2024). Note that Appen's financial year corresponds to the calendar year.
Looking beyond the impact of the termination of Appen's Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ: GOOGL) contract, the ASX AI stock is back on a solid growth trend.
Appen reported quarterly revenue of $54.1 million. This was down 13% from Q3 FY 2023; however, that quarter included $21.9 million in revenue from Google. The company noted that excluding Google, revenue for the three months was up 35% year on year.
This growth, which looks to be supporting the Appen share price today, was attributed to traction in multiple generative AI projects in China and one of Appen's global customers.
As for earnings, underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), before foreign exchange (FX) impacts came in at a profit of $1.0 million. That was a big improvement on the loss of $7.5 million in Q3 FY 2023.
Appen noted that with its cost out programs now completed, the company's focus will be on profitable growth.
On the balance sheet, Appen had $30.3 million of cash as at 30 September. The ASX tech stock's $50.0 million capital raising in October sees it with a pro-forma cash balance of $62.4 million.
What did management say?
Commenting on the results sending the Appen share price soaring today, CEO Ryan Kolln said, "Profitability is a key focus for Appen, and we are very pleased to have returned to underlying EBITDA and underlying cash EBITDA profitability early in Q3 FY24."
Kolln added:
Our external environment is showing promising signs of improvement, and we are excited by the potential opportunities that this presents. We're continuing to experience LLM [large language model] related growth which is contributing to our positive revenue trajectory.
China continues to experience significant revenue growth, and we have ongoing conviction in the potential of our Enterprise and government division.
With today's intraday gains factored in, the Appen share price is up an eye-watering 237%.
