By Maria Armental 

Zoom Video Communications Inc. said its growth would continue at a rapid pace amid the vaccine rollout, after pandemic lockdowns turned the company into a household name and an investor darling.

Zoom said Monday that revenue this year would rise more than 41% after more than quadrupling to $2.65 billion in the fiscal year ended in January.

Although Zoom made its name, in part, by giving its services away free to many users during the pandemic, its number of paying users also skyrocketed as large businesses and others tried to connect their workforce and with customers. Zoom ended the year with about 467,100 customers with more than 10 employees, a nearly sixfold increase from the year earlier.

Zoom revenue for the January quarter surged to $882.5 million from $188.3 million a year earlier. The results beat Wall Street targets and Zoom's financial projections, driven by the shift to remote work and distance schooling amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Shares rose nearly 10% in after-hours trading. The stock closed Monday at $409.66, up 9.7% for the day and more than tripling over the past 12 months,

Zoom's fourth-quarter profit surged to more than $260 million from $15.3 million in the year-prior period. On a per-share basis, profit rose to 87 cents, or $1.22 on an adjusted basis.

But operating costs for the quarter and the full year also rose sharply as the company expanded capacity to meet growing demand, including from free accounts like school districts, which weighed on margins.

The videoconferencing company, which started trading in the public markets in 2019, has been one of the biggest corporate beneficiaries from the shift to remote work and distance schooling, pitting it against larger rivals like Microsoft Corp.

The company has also faced stricter regulatory and legal scrutiny over access and storage of user data, for example, including its use of servers outside of the U.S.

Zoom ended the year with a profit of $671.5 million on $2.65 billion in revenue, compared with $21.8 million in profit and $622.7 million in revenue a year earlier.

In the current fiscal year, it expects $3.59 to $3.65 a share in adjusted profit and $3.76 billion to $3.78 billion in revenue, ahead of analysts' projections, according to FactSet.

"In FY2021, we significantly scaled our business to provide critical communications and collaboration services to our customers and the global community in response to the pandemic," Chief Executive Eric Yuan said in a statement. "As we enter FY2022, we believe we are well positioned for strong growth with our innovative video communications platform, on which our customers can build, run, and grow their businesses."

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 01, 2021 17:39 ET (22:39 GMT)