Why Wix.com Ltd. Shares Popped Today

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of cloud-based web development specialist Wix.com Ltd.  jumped more than 10% Tuesday after the company announced its worldwide user base has surpassed 50 million registered users.

So what: The milestone admittedly seems a bit arbitrary, but it does serve to highlight just how rapidly users have embraced Wix's easy-to-use, function-rich web development platform. For perspective, as of March 31, 2014, Wix stated it had 46.2 million registered users, which itself represented a 45% increase over the same year-ago period.

Now what: At the same time, Wix is working to monetize that base. Last quarter's 45% user growth, for example, resulted in an 86% increase in revenue to $28.8 million, which translated to an $11.3 million adjusted net loss. To its credit, Wix did end the quarter with around $81.5 million in cash and equivalents to hold it over as it bustles for market share and grows its top line. As long as that growth continues with the hope of ultimately achieving sustained profitability, there should be little preventing Wix stock from rewarding long-term investors from here.