Ask Matt: Will Box ever make a dime?

Q: Will Box ever make a dime?

A: Investors who bought shares of Box (BOX) when they were first sold to the public are in the red. But so is the company - a trend expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Box, a provider of cloud-based computing services to other companies, launched its initial public offering in January 2015. Investors sent shares soaring 66% on their first day of trading from the offering price of $14 a share on optimism. It hasn’t been a profitable future for the investment, though. Since then, shares of Box have lost roughly half their value from the first-day closing price and are trading below the offering price.The cloud may be where computing is headed. Box’ revenue is increasing at a healthy clip. The company just reported 36% higher revenue during the quarter ended Jan. 31 of $85 million. Shares of Box rose 21 cents, or 1.7%, to $12.73 as quarterly revenue was 4% better than expected. But Box isn’t making any money on the growth. During the January quarter, the company lost an adjusted 26 cents a share. Analysts are forecasting a loss in each of the next three years as well, says S&P Global Market Intelligence. Most individual investors have no business investing in a company expected to lose money this long.

Paste BN markets reporter Matt Krantz answers a different reader question every weekday. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com or on Twitter @mattkrantz.