Zuora shares surged more than 20 percent on Friday after the cloud software company reported better-than-expected results in its first earnings report since going public.

The stock jumped $4.69 to $26.87 as of mid-day, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.8 billion. The shares have almost doubled in value since Zuora's IPO in April.

Zuora, whose software is used by companies to manage their subscription offerings, said fiscal first-quarter revenue jumped 60 percent to $51.7 million, topping the $51.3 million average estimate of four analysts surveyed by FactSet. Zuora reported a loss, excluding certain items, of 32 cents a share.

"There are clear signs Zuora's assertion that the subscription economy is upon us is coming true," wrote Richard Davis, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, in a report on Friday.

Davis raised his price target to $23 from $20, and while he didn't increase his rating on the stock to a buy, he admitted to having "a bit of angst that Zuora's idea is so powerful that our HOLD rating will be proven ill-conceived."

For the second quarter, Zuora predicted revenue will reach $53.5 million to $54.5 million, and it forecast a non-GAAP loss of 15 cents to 16 cents a share.

Zuora said its customer retention rate, a key metric for subscription software companies, increased 2 percent from the fourth quarter to 112 percent, on a dollar basis. That means that its existing customers are not just sticking around but spending more money on Zuora's services.

Zuora is part of a crop of software-as-a-service companies that have gone public in the past two years. Others include DocuSign, Okta, Coupa and Twilio.