The end of the earnings season is always a good time to take a step back and see who shined (and who not so much). Let’s take a look at how the software development stocks have fared in Q4, starting with Twilio (NYSE:TWLO).

As legendary VC investor Marc Andreessen says, "Software is eating the world", and it touches virtually every industry. That drives increasing demand for tools helping software developers do their jobs, whether it be monitoring critical cloud infrastructure, integrating audio and video functionality, or ensuring smooth content streaming.

The 11 software development stocks we track reported a mixed Q4; on average, revenues beat analyst consensus estimates by 3% while next quarter's revenue guidance was 0.8% above consensus. Stocks have faced challenges as investors prioritize near-term cash flows, but software development stocks held their ground better than others, with share prices down 1.2% on average since the previous earnings results.

Twilio (NYSE:TWLO)

Founded in 2008 by Jeff Lawson, a former engineer at Amazon, Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) is a software as a service platform that makes it really easy for software developers to use text messaging, voice calls and other forms of communication in their apps.

Twilio reported revenues of $1.08 billion, up 5% year on year, topping analyst expectations by 3.2%. It was a weaker quarter for the company, with underwhelming revenue guidance for the next quarter and decelerating customer growth.

“Twilio had a terrific fourth quarter to close out a strong 2023,” said Khozema Shipchandler, Twilio’s CEO.

The stock is down 15.2% since the results and currently trades at $61.4.

Read our full report on Twilio here, it's free.

Best Q4: Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND)

Started in 1999 by David Morken who was later joined by Henry Kaestner as co-founder in 2001, Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND) provides thousands of customers with a software platform that uses its own global network to provide phone numbers, voice, and text connectivity.

Bandwidth reported revenues of $165.4 million, up 5.4% year on year, outperforming analyst expectations by 7.4%. It was an exceptional quarter for the company, with a significant improvement in its net revenue retention rate and optimistic revenue guidance for the next quarter.

Bandwidth scored the biggest analyst estimates beat and highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The stock is up 44.8% since the results and currently trades at $17.62.

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

Weakest Q4: Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM)

Founded in 1999 by two engineers from MIT, Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) provides software for organizations to efficiently deliver web content to their customers.

Akamai reported revenues of $995 million, up 7.2% year on year, falling short of analyst expectations by 0.5%. It was a weak quarter for the company, with underwhelming revenue guidance for the next quarter and a miss of analysts' revenue estimates.

Akamai had the weakest performance against analyst estimates in the group. The stock is down 14.4% since the results and currently trades at $107.08.

Read our full analysis of Akamai's results here.

GitLab (NASDAQ:GTLB)

Founded as an open-source project in 2011, GitLab (NASDAQ:GTLB) is a leading software development tools platform.

GitLab reported revenues of $163.8 million, up 33.3% year on year, surpassing analyst expectations by 3.5%. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts' billings estimates but full-year revenue guidance missing analysts' expectations.

GitLab scored the fastest revenue growth among its peers. The stock is down 23.8% since the results and currently trades at $56.75.

Read our full, actionable report on GitLab here, it's free.

Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG)

Named after a database the founders had to painstakingly look after at their previous company, Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) is a software-as-a-service platform that makes it easier to monitor cloud infrastructure and applications.

Datadog reported revenues of $589.6 million, up 25.6% year on year, surpassing analyst expectations by 3.8%. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts' ARR (annual recurring revenue) estimates but decelerating growth in large customers.

The company added 60 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 3,190. The stock is down 9.4% since the results and currently trades at $122.2.

Read our full, actionable report on Datadog here, it's free.

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