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F5(FFIV) - 2025 Q4 - Earnings Call Transcript
2025-10-27 21:32
Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - The company achieved over $3 billion in revenue and $1 billion in operating profit for fiscal year 2025, with revenue growth of 10% and earnings per share growth of 18% [5] - Gross margins improved to 83.6%, up 80 basis points from FY 2024, and operating margins increased to 35.2%, up 160 basis points from FY 2024 [5] - Free cash flow reached a record $906 million, representing a 19% increase compared to FY 2024 [5][13] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - Q4 revenue grew 8% to $810 million, with global services revenue at $396 million (up 2% year-over-year) and product revenue at $414 million (up 16% year-over-year) [10] - Systems revenue increased by 42% year-over-year to $186 million, driven by tech refresh and data center modernization [10] - Software revenue totaled $229 million, showing slight growth against a strong Q4 of FY 2024, with perpetual license software up 25% year-over-year [10][11] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - Revenue from the Americas grew 7% year-over-year, representing 57% of total revenue, while EMEA and APAC grew 7% and 19%, representing 26% and 17% of revenue, respectively [11] - Enterprise customers accounted for 73% of Q4 product bookings, with government customers at 19% and service providers at 8% [11] Company Strategy and Development Direction - The company is focusing on incident response and enhancing security measures following a recent security incident, with significant investments planned in cybersecurity [6][8] - The strategic emphasis is on hybrid multi-cloud adoption and AI infrastructure demand, positioning the company to address complex customer challenges [21][22] - The company aims to leverage its Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) to unify traffic management and security across hybrid and multi-cloud environments [21] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management anticipates mid-single-digit revenue growth for FY 2026, with potential near-term disruptions due to the recent security incident [16][17] - The company expects FY 2026 gross margins to be in the range of 83%-83.5% and non-GAAP operating margins between 33.5%-34.5% [18][19] - Management remains optimistic about long-term growth drivers, including hybrid multi-cloud adoption and AI readiness [16][21] Other Important Information - The company has seen a significant increase in customers leveraging its XOps capabilities, growing from 20 to nearly 900 customers [22] - The total security revenue for FY 2025 grew 6% to approximately $1.2 billion, representing 39% of total revenue [15] Q&A Session Summary Question: What form of conservatism has been put into estimates? - Management noted that customer resources are focused on upgrading environments, which may delay new project considerations [38] Question: How to size the potential impact from the security breach? - Management took a granular approach to profile revenue streams, identifying which could be more impacted and which would be resilient [46] Question: What percentage of revenue comes from F5 BIG-IP? - F5 BIG-IP is the highest revenue product, but specific revenue contributions are not disclosed [56] Question: Are there additional costs as a result of the data breach? - There are costs related to incident remediation, which may be covered by cyber insurance or accounted for as one-time expenses [57]
F5(FFIV) - 2025 Q4 - Earnings Call Transcript
2025-10-27 21:32
Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - The company reported exceptional fiscal year 2025 results, exceeding $3 billion in revenue and $1 billion in operating profit, with revenue growth of 10% and earnings per share growth of 18% [5] - Gross margins improved to 83.6%, up 80 basis points from FY24, and operating margins increased to 35.2%, up 160 basis points from FY24 [5] - Free cash flow reached a record $906 million, up 19% compared to FY24, resulting in a free cash flow margin of 29% [13] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - Q4 revenue grew 8% to $810 million, with global services revenue at $396 million (up 2% year over year) and product revenue at $414 million (up 16% year over year) [10] - Systems revenue totaled $186 million, up 42% year over year, driven by tech refresh and data center modernization [10] - Software revenue was $229 million, slightly up against a strong Q4 of FY24, with perpetual license software up 25% year over year [10][11] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - Revenue from the Americas grew 7% year over year, representing 57% of total revenue, while EMEA and APAC grew 7% and 19%, representing 26% and 17% of revenue, respectively [11] - Enterprise customers accounted for 73% of Q4 product bookings, with government customers at 19% and service providers at 8% [11] Company Strategy and Development Direction - The company is focusing on incident response and enhancing security posture following a recent security incident, with significant investments in security planned for the future [6][8] - The strategic direction emphasizes hybrid multi-cloud adoption and AI infrastructure demand, positioning the company to address complex challenges in application delivery and security [20] - The company aims to leverage its Application Delivery and Security Platform to simplify hybrid multi-cloud complexity and enhance operational efficiency [20] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management anticipates some near-term disruption to sales cycles due to the recent security incident, with guidance for FY26 revenue growth in the range of 0 to 4% [17] - The company expects mid-single-digit revenue growth in FY26, driven by hybrid multi-cloud adoption and a strong systems refresh opportunity [16] - Management remains confident in the long-term growth potential, particularly in software and security revenue, despite short-term challenges [15][17] Other Important Information - The company has made significant investments in cybersecurity, doubling its investment over the last three years, and plans to continue this trend [53] - The total security revenue grew 6% to approximately $1.2 billion, representing 39% of total revenue [15] Q&A Session Summary Question: What form of conservatism have you put into the estimates? - Management noted that customer conservatism may lead to delays in purchasing decisions and additional approvals due to the recent security incident [35][36] Question: How much of fiscal 2025 growth was due to the product upgrade cycle? - Approximately two-thirds of the systems business growth in FY2025 was attributed to tech refresh, with the remainder from data center capacity expansion [38] Question: How do you size the potential impact from the security breach? - Management took a granular approach to profile revenue streams, identifying which would be more impacted and which would be resilient [44][46] Question: What percentage of revenue comes from F5 BIG-IP? - While specific revenue breakdowns are not provided, F5 BIG-IP is the highest revenue product for the company [53] Question: Are there additional costs as a result of the data breach? - There are costs related to incident remediation, which may be covered by cyber insurance or accounted for as one-time expenses [54]
F5(FFIV) - 2025 Q4 - Earnings Call Transcript
2025-10-27 21:30
Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - F5 reported exceptional fiscal year 2025 results, exceeding $3 billion in revenue and $1 billion in operating profit, with revenue growth of 10% and earnings per share growth of 18% [4] - Gross margins improved to 83.6%, up 80 basis points from FY24, and operating margins increased to 35.2%, up 160 basis points from FY24 [4] - Free cash flow reached a record $906 million, up 19% compared to FY24, resulting in a free cash flow margin of 29% [13] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - Q4 revenue grew 8% to $810 million, with global services revenue at $396 million (up 2% year-over-year) and product revenue at $414 million (up 16% year-over-year) [10] - Systems revenue totaled $186 million, up 42% year-over-year, driven by tech refresh and data center modernization [10] - Software revenue was $229 million, slightly up against a strong Q4 of FY24, with perpetual license software up 25% year-over-year [11] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - Revenue from the Americas grew 7% year-over-year, representing 57% of total revenue, while EMEA and APAC grew 7% and 19%, representing 26% and 17% of revenue, respectively [11] - Enterprise customers accounted for 73% of Q4 product bookings, with government customers at 19% and service providers at 8% [11] Company Strategy and Development Direction - F5's immediate focus is on incident response and enhancing security posture following a security incident, with significant investments in cybersecurity planned for the future [5][7] - The company aims to leverage hybrid multi-cloud adoption and AI-driven infrastructure demand as key growth drivers, with a commitment to innovation in its Application Delivery and Security Platform [21][22] - F5 is transitioning legacy offerings to F5 Distributed Cloud Services, expecting to complete this transition in the first half of FY26 [15] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management anticipates some near-term disruption to sales cycles due to the security incident, with guidance for FY26 revenue growth in the range of 0 to 4% [18] - The company expects to see a return to growth in revenue from SaaS and managed services, driven by the completion of legacy transitions and ongoing demand for hybrid multi-cloud solutions [17] - Management expressed confidence in the long-term growth potential, citing strong demand drivers and a robust pipeline [17] Other Important Information - F5's total security revenue grew 6% to approximately $1.2 billion, representing 39% of total revenue [16] - The company has seen significant growth in AI-related use cases, securing wins with over 30 customers for AI data delivery, runtime security, and factory load balancing [26][27] Q&A Session Summary Question: What form of conservatism has been put into estimates? - Management indicated that customer conservatism may manifest as delays in purchasing decisions and resource allocation towards upgrading environments due to the security incident [36][38] Question: How much of fiscal 2025 growth was due to the product upgrade cycle? - Approximately two-thirds of the systems business growth in FY2025 was attributed to tech refresh, with the remainder from data center capacity expansion [40] Question: How is the potential impact from the security breach sized? - Management took a granular approach to profile revenue streams, identifying which could be more impacted and which would be resilient, with a focus on recurring revenue streams [44][46] Question: What percentage of revenue comes from F5 BIG-IP? - While specific revenue breakdowns are not provided, F5 BIG-IP is noted as the highest revenue product [54] Question: What are the implications of the government shutdown on U.S. Federal business? - Guidance assumes some level of disruption in the federal segment, particularly in Q1, due to project delays related to the government shutdown [78]
F5(FFIV) - 2025 Q3 - Earnings Call Transcript
2025-07-30 21:32
Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - F5 reported a total revenue growth of 12% year-over-year, reaching $780 million, with product revenue growing by 26%, marking the strongest growth in 14 years [8][27] - The company achieved a GAAP net income of $190 million, translating to $3.25 per share, while non-GAAP net income was $243 million or $4.16 per share, reflecting a 24% EPS growth year-over-year [32][38] - Cash flow from operations reached a record $282 million, with cash and investments totaling approximately $1.44 billion at the end of the quarter [32][33] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - Global services revenue grew by 1% to $392 million, while product revenue increased by 26% to $389 million [27] - Software revenue grew by 16% year-over-year to $208 million, with subscription-based software revenue increasing by 19% to $185 million, representing 89% of total software revenue [28] - Systems revenue totaled $181 million, up 39% year-over-year, driven by tech refresh and data center modernization [28] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - Revenue from the Americas grew by 13%, accounting for 55% of total revenue, while EMEA delivered 6% growth (26% of revenue) and APAC grew by 21% (19% of revenue) [29] - Enterprise customers represented 70% of product bookings, with government customers at 15% and service providers also at 15% [29] Company Strategy and Development Direction - F5 is focusing on modernizing data centers and adopting hybrid multi-cloud architectures, which are seen as significant growth drivers [7][11] - The company is leveraging its application delivery and security platform to simplify operations and enhance security for customers, particularly in the context of AI workloads [11][12] - F5 aims to continue innovating and expanding its offerings in AI-driven applications and infrastructure [19][21] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management expressed confidence in the ongoing demand for data center modernization and hybrid multi-cloud solutions, expecting continued strong demand in Q4 [10][36] - The company anticipates Q4 revenue in the range of $780 million to $800 million, implying approximately 9% revenue growth for FY '25 [10][36] - Management noted that the long-term structural shift towards data center modernization will persist, creating ongoing investment opportunities [11][37] Other Important Information - F5 repurchased $125 million worth of shares during the quarter, with $1 billion remaining on the authorized stock repurchase program [34] - The company ended the quarter with approximately 6,540 employees [35] Q&A Session Summary Question: Can you discuss the strength in hardware and its sustainability? - Management noted strong tech refresh dynamics and secular trends in hybrid cloud and AI driving hardware growth, with expectations for continued growth next year but at a more modest rate [45][50] Question: What is the outlook for software renewals and new deal activity? - Management highlighted a healthy renewal base and strong expansion trends, with new use cases contributing to software growth [52][55] Question: What factors affected gross margins this quarter? - Gross margins were slightly lower due to high-performance use cases with compliance demands and the strength in the systems business, which has a lower margin than software [58][60] Question: How significant is the AI-related business for F5? - Management indicated that direct AI use cases are currently small but growing, with indirect AI-related spending also increasing as customers invest in data capacity for AI [98][99] Question: What is the expected growth for hardware and software in FY '26? - Management expects hardware to grow modestly next year, while software growth is anticipated in the mid-single digits, with potential for reacceleration in FY '27 [67][70]