F5(US:FFIV)2025-10-27 21:32Financial 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]