What happened Shares of Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) rose 12.9% in October, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. For context, the S&P 500 (including dividends) fell 2.7% last month. In 2020, shares of the cloud-based communications platform provider have gained a whopping 178% through Monday, Nov. 2. The broader market has returned 4% over this period. Image source: Getty Images. So what We can attribute Twilio stock's strong October performance to its continued pandemic-powered upward momentum. The COVID-19 crisis has increased the number of people performing many activities from home, driving companies to accelerate their digital transformations. On Oct. 26, Twilio reported robust third-quarter results. This event, however, did not contribute to the stock's rise last month. In fact, shares fell 4.8% the next day thanks to lower fourth-quarter earnings guidance than Wall Street expected. In Q3, Twilio's revenue soared 50% year over year to $448.0 million, easily beating the $409.8 million analyst consensus estimate. Adjusted earnings per share increased 33% to $0.04, surpassing the Street's expectation of an adjusted loss per share of $0.03. Data by YCharts. Now what Management guided for fourth-quarter revenue of $450 million to $455 million, representing growth of 36% to 37% year over year. It also expects to post an adjusted loss per share of $0.11 to $0.08, compared to adjusted earnings per share of $0.04 in the year-ago period. This outlook doesn't include the contribution from customer-data platform Segment, which Twilio is acquiring in a $3.2 billion deal that's expected to close in the fourth quarter. Prior to the company's release of its Q3 results, Wall Street had been modeling for Q4 adjusted EPS of $0.01 on revenue of $436.9 million. 10 stocks we like better than TwilioWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Twilio wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of October 20, 2020 Beth McKenna has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Twilio. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source