A month has gone by since the last earnings report for Splunk . Shares have added about 7.5% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500.
Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Splunk due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers.
Splunk Incurs Loss in Q3 Earnings, Revenues Down Y/Y
Splunk reported third-quarter fiscal 2021 non-GAAP loss of 7 cents per share, which was wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 10 cents. The company had reported non-GAAP earnings of 58 cents in the year-ago quarter.
Revenues decreased 10.8% year over year to $558.6 million and missed the consensus mark by 8.9%.
Quarter in Details
License revenues (43% of revenues) were $240.2 million, down 35.7% year over year. Cloud services revenues (25.9% of revenues) surged 79.9% year over year to $144.7 million. Maintenance & service revenues (31.1% of revenues) climbed 0.8% to $173.6 million.
Notably, Cloud represented 46% of total software bookings in the reported quarter.
Remaining performance obligation (“RPO”) was $1.71 billion, up 18.1% year over year. The company expects to recognize $1.04 billion (indicating a 20.1% year-over-year increase) of this RPO as revenues over the next 12 months.
Splunk ended the period with total annual recurring revenues (“ARR”) of $2.07 billion, up 43.6% year over year. Cloud ARR soared 71.2% year over year to $630 million.
The company ended fiscal third quarter with 444 customers with ARR greater than $1 million.
Notable clients in the reported quarter included Bass Pro Shops, Carvana, Clemson University, E.ON (Germany), Founders Federal Credit Union (FIT CUSO), Herbalife Nutrition, HSBC Group (United Kingdom), Idaho National Laboratory, Intrado, James Paget University Hospitals - NHS Foundation Trust (United Kingdom), National University of Singapore, Nu Skin, Ocado Group (United Kingdom), Toyota Systems (Japan) and TripActions.
Operating Details
Non-GAAP gross margin contracted 590 basis points (bps) from the year-ago quarter to 79.9% due to greater proportion of cloud revenue contribution. Splunk’s non-GAAP cloud gross margin expanded 800 bps from the year-ago quarter to 62%
Non-GAAP operating expenses, as a percentage of revenues, increased to 81.6% from 75.2% in the year-ago quarter. Research & development, general and administrative, and sales & marketing expenses expanded 510 bps, 670 bps and 90 bps year over year, respectively.
Non-GAAP operating loss was $9.5 million against an operating income of $105.5 million in the year-ago quarter.
Balance Sheet
As of Oct 31, 2020, cash & cash equivalents, including investments, were $1.9 billion compared with $1.4 billion as of Jul 31, 2020.
Key Q3 Highlights
During fiscal third quarter, Splunk acquired Plumbr, an application performance monitoring company offering auto-instrumentation, Real User Monitoring and deep application performance insights. The company also announced the acquisition of Rigor, a digital experience monitoring company.
Moreover, Splunk announced its plan to acquire Flowmill, a cloud network observability company with expertise in network performance monitoring.
Further, the company introduced new solutions including Splunk Machine Learning Environment and Data Stream Processor 1.2. The latter helps customers in expanding their data streaming capabilities and access, process and route data across multiple cloud services, including Google Cloud Platform and Azure Event Hub.
The company also launched Observability Suite that combines Splunk’s infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, digital experience monitoring, log investigation and incident response solutions into a single, tightly integrated suite of products.
The company also announced Splunk Log Observer and Splunk Real User Monitoring. Other notable solutions included Splunk Service Intelligence for SAP solutions, enhancements to Splunk ITSI and Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring Add-On.
Guidance
For fourth-quarter fiscal 2021, Splunk expects revenues in the range of $650 million to $700 million. Non-GAAP operating margin is likely to be between -4% and 3%.
How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?
In the past month, investors have witnessed a downward trend in estimates revision. The consensus estimate has shifted -121.89% due to these changes.
VGM Scores
Currently, Splunk has a subpar Growth Score of D, a grade with the same score on the momentum front. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock was allocated a grade of F on the value side, putting it in the bottom 20% quintile for this investment strategy.
Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of F. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.
Outlook
Estimates have been broadly trending downward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions indicates a downward shift. It's no surprise Splunk has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). We expect a below average return from the stock in the next few months.
Image: Bigstock
Why Is Splunk (SPLK) Up 7.5% Since Last Earnings Report?
A month has gone by since the last earnings report for Splunk . Shares have added about 7.5% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500.
Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Splunk due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers.
Splunk Incurs Loss in Q3 Earnings, Revenues Down Y/Y
Splunk reported third-quarter fiscal 2021 non-GAAP loss of 7 cents per share, which was wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 10 cents. The company had reported non-GAAP earnings of 58 cents in the year-ago quarter.
Revenues decreased 10.8% year over year to $558.6 million and missed the consensus mark by 8.9%.
Quarter in Details
License revenues (43% of revenues) were $240.2 million, down 35.7% year over year. Cloud services revenues (25.9% of revenues) surged 79.9% year over year to $144.7 million. Maintenance & service revenues (31.1% of revenues) climbed 0.8% to $173.6 million.
Notably, Cloud represented 46% of total software bookings in the reported quarter.
Remaining performance obligation (“RPO”) was $1.71 billion, up 18.1% year over year. The company expects to recognize $1.04 billion (indicating a 20.1% year-over-year increase) of this RPO as revenues over the next 12 months.
Splunk ended the period with total annual recurring revenues (“ARR”) of $2.07 billion, up 43.6% year over year. Cloud ARR soared 71.2% year over year to $630 million.
The company ended fiscal third quarter with 444 customers with ARR greater than $1 million.
Notable clients in the reported quarter included Bass Pro Shops, Carvana, Clemson University, E.ON (Germany), Founders Federal Credit Union (FIT CUSO), Herbalife Nutrition, HSBC Group (United Kingdom), Idaho National Laboratory, Intrado, James Paget University Hospitals - NHS Foundation Trust (United Kingdom), National University of Singapore, Nu Skin, Ocado Group (United Kingdom), Toyota Systems (Japan) and TripActions.
Operating Details
Non-GAAP gross margin contracted 590 basis points (bps) from the year-ago quarter to 79.9% due to greater proportion of cloud revenue contribution. Splunk’s non-GAAP cloud gross margin expanded 800 bps from the year-ago quarter to 62%
Non-GAAP operating expenses, as a percentage of revenues, increased to 81.6% from 75.2% in the year-ago quarter. Research & development, general and administrative, and sales & marketing expenses expanded 510 bps, 670 bps and 90 bps year over year, respectively.
Non-GAAP operating loss was $9.5 million against an operating income of $105.5 million in the year-ago quarter.
Balance Sheet
As of Oct 31, 2020, cash & cash equivalents, including investments, were $1.9 billion compared with $1.4 billion as of Jul 31, 2020.
Key Q3 Highlights
During fiscal third quarter, Splunk acquired Plumbr, an application performance monitoring company offering auto-instrumentation, Real User Monitoring and deep application performance insights. The company also announced the acquisition of Rigor, a digital experience monitoring company.
Moreover, Splunk announced its plan to acquire Flowmill, a cloud network observability company with expertise in network performance monitoring.
Further, the company introduced new solutions including Splunk Machine Learning Environment and Data Stream Processor 1.2. The latter helps customers in expanding their data streaming capabilities and access, process and route data across multiple cloud services, including Google Cloud Platform and Azure Event Hub.
The company also launched Observability Suite that combines Splunk’s infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, digital experience monitoring, log investigation and incident response solutions into a single, tightly integrated suite of products.
The company also announced Splunk Log Observer and Splunk Real User Monitoring. Other notable solutions included Splunk Service Intelligence for SAP solutions, enhancements to Splunk ITSI and Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring Add-On.
Guidance
For fourth-quarter fiscal 2021, Splunk expects revenues in the range of $650 million to $700 million. Non-GAAP operating margin is likely to be between -4% and 3%.
How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?
In the past month, investors have witnessed a downward trend in estimates revision. The consensus estimate has shifted -121.89% due to these changes.
VGM Scores
Currently, Splunk has a subpar Growth Score of D, a grade with the same score on the momentum front. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock was allocated a grade of F on the value side, putting it in the bottom 20% quintile for this investment strategy.
Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of F. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.
Outlook
Estimates have been broadly trending downward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions indicates a downward shift. It's no surprise Splunk has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). We expect a below average return from the stock in the next few months.