Shares of Box (BOX) slumped Wednesday after the cloud file-storage company reported first quarter results. Though loss per share of 18c on revenue of $90M was ahead of analyst expectations, billings grew just 9% year-over-year to $76M, a deceleration from the 59% and 37% billings growth achieved in the recent fourth and third quarters.

MANAGEMENT RESPONDS: Weighing in on the billings slowdown during the company’s conference call, Box CEO Aaron Levie highlighted the impact of “a few” early renewals last quarter; Box’s focus on annual payment durations rather than multi-year prepayments; and large transactions now shifting later in the year as Box becomes a more “strategic investment” for its customers.

Underlying demand for the service “remains very strong,” Levie added, leading the company to bring on a Chief Marketing Officer and boost hiring targets for its sales representatives. CFO Dylan Smith echoed Levie’s comments, reiterating that the shift to annual billing and the $4M in Q4 contract renewals normally billed in Q1 made quarterly comparisons particularly tough. Normalized for those factors, billings growth would have been 19% year-over-year, “still clearly impacted by our strong Q1 last year.”

Smith cautioned that the company does not expect billings to be a meaningful indicator of the “significant growth” Box expects this year, though he conceded that billings should continue to trend below revenue growth for the remainder of FY17 before tracking “roughly in line” from FY18 onward.

PRICE ACTION: Shares of Box fell 8.04% to $11.78 in Wednesday after-hours trading.