Dropbox Inc.’s (DBX.O) sales and profit topped estimates in its first quarter as a public company, lifted by growing corporate demand for paid versions of its cloud-based file-sharing software.

First-quarter profit, excluding some costs, was 8 cents a share, compared with the 4-cent average prediction of analysts polled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 28 per cent to US$316.3 million, Dropbox said Thursday in a statement. Analysts were projecting revenue of US$309.3 million.

Dropbox, based in San Francisco, is the leading maker of programs that let users share and synchronize digital files. The company sold shares for US$21 apiece in March, and investors are watching this report to get a sense of the company’s momentum post-IPO. To maintain revenue growth, Dropbox, which has more than 500 million total registered users, must woo customers to pay for its premium products, which offer more storage and business management features. Paying users in the recent period rose 24 per cent to 11.5 million, Dropbox said.

Shares were little changed following the report after closing at US$32 in New York. They’re up more than 50 per cent since the IPO. Dropbox was valued at US$10 billion in its last private funding round four years ago. The company was founded by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in 2007.

Including a one-time expense related to restricted stock, the company’s net loss widened to US$465.5 million from US$33.1 million a year ago.

Since 2015, when several investors wrote down the value of their Dropbox stakes, the company has taken pains to focus its business and work toward profitability rather than simply pushing for growth at all costs.

Dropbox now has the potential to expand into markets related to its core business -- such as managing corporate content and workflows, wrote John DiFucci, an analyst at Jefferies LLC, in a note last month. The company’s technique of selling to most of its customers via word of mouth and self-service signups, rather than via pricey salespeople, is also a benefit. Still, the cash the company will gain from this new-market expansion is already priced into the stock, he said.

"We expect the company will continue to expand its unique, viral approach to subscriber acquisition and expansion to adjacent product markets," he wrote. "The resulting cash flow generation, while unique for a company of this size and growth, is valued appropriately at this time."