SAN FRANCISCO – November 16, 2017 – Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK), first in delivering “aha” moments from machine data, today announced results for its fiscal third quarter ended October 31, 2017.
Third Quarter 2018 Financial Highlights
“I’m proud of our global performance for the quarter and our increased outlook through the rest of the year,” said Doug Merritt, President and CEO, Splunk. “Splunk announced a wide range of innovations at .conf2017 including native support for metrics and machine learning updates to Splunk® Enterprise and Splunk Cloud; new event analytics capabilities in Splunk IT Service Intelligence; new content updates for Splunk Enterprise Security; and a host of new use case-specific solutions. Splunk customers are seizing upon the growing opportunity machine data presents and only Splunk can help them get answers on-premises, in the cloud or across hybrid environments.”
Third Quarter 2018 and Recent Business Highlights:
Customers:
Products:
Corporate:
Strategic and Channel Partners:
Recognition:
Events:
Appointments:
Financial Outlook
The company is providing the following guidance for its fiscal fourth quarter 2018 (ending January 31, 2018):
The company is updating its previous guidance provided on August 24, 2017 for its fiscal year 2018 (ending January 31, 2018):
The company is providing the following guidance for its fiscal year 2019 (ending January 31, 2019):
All forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures contained in this section “Financial Outlook” exclude estimates for expenses related to stock-based compensation and related employer payroll tax, amortization of acquired intangible assets, adjustments related to a financing lease obligation, adjustments related to facility exits and acquisition-related adjustments.
A reconciliation of non-GAAP guidance measures to corresponding GAAP measures is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, many of the excluded costs and expenses that may be incurred in the future. The company has provided a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures in the financial statement tables for its fiscal third quarter 2018 non-GAAP results included in this press release.
Conference Call and Webcast
Splunk’s executive management team will host a conference call today beginning at 1:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. ET) to discuss the company’s financial results and business highlights. Interested parties may access the call by dialing (866) 501-1535. International parties may access the call by dialing (216) 672-5582. A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available through Splunk’s Investor Relations website at http://investors.splunk.com/events.cfm. A replay of the call will be available through November 23, 2017 by dialing (855) 859-2056 and referencing Conference ID 8994427.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding Splunk’s revenue, billings, and non-GAAP operating margin targets for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, fiscal year 2018 and/or fiscal year 2019 in the paragraphs under “Financial Outlook” above and other statements regarding future growth, strategy, including with respect to our acquisitions, pricing programs and their expected benefits, our partner programs and their expected benefits, customer demand and penetration, expanding use of Splunk by customers, size of machine data opportunity, Splunk’s ability to capture market share, and expected benefits of new products and product innovations as well as existing products and services. There are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including: Splunk’s limited operating history and experience developing and introducing new products, including its cloud offerings; risks associated with Splunk’s rapid growth, particularly outside of the United States; Splunk’s inability to realize value from its significant investments in its business, including product and service innovations; Splunk’s transition to a multi-product software and services business; Splunk’s inability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies; and general market, political, economic, business and competitive market conditions.
Additional information on potential factors that could affect Splunk’s financial results is included in the company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2017, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Splunk does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.
Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) turns machine data into answers. Organizations use market-leading Splunk solutions with machine learning to solve their toughest IT, Internet of Things and security challenges. Join millions of passionate users and discover your “aha” moment with Splunk today: http://www.splunk.com.
Splunk, Splunk>, Listen to Your Data, The Engine for Machine Data, Splunk Cloud, Splunk Light and SPL are trademarks and registered trademarks of Splunk Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective owners. © 2017 Splunk Inc. All rights reserved.
SPLUNK INC.
Non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations
To supplement Splunk’s condensed consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”), Splunk provides investors with certain non-GAAP financial measures, including non-GAAP cost of revenues, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP research and development expense, non-GAAP sales and marketing expense, non-GAAP general and administrative expense, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share (collectively the “non-GAAP financial measures”). These non-GAAP financial measures exclude all or a combination of the following (as reflected in the following reconciliation tables): expenses related to stock-based compensation and related employer payroll tax, amortization of acquired intangible assets, adjustments related to a financing lease obligation, adjustments related to facility exits and acquisition-related adjustments, including the partial release of the valuation allowance due to acquisitions. The adjustments for the financing lease obligation are to reflect the expense Splunk would have recorded if its build-to-suit lease arrangement had been deemed an operating lease instead of a financing lease and is calculated as the net of actual ground lease expense, depreciation and interest expense over estimated straight-line rent expense. The non-GAAP financial measures are also adjusted for Splunk's estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income (loss). To determine the annual non-GAAP tax rate, Splunk evaluates a financial projection based on its non-GAAP results. The annual non-GAAP tax rate takes into account other factors including Splunk's current operating structure, its existing tax positions in various jurisdictions and key legislation in major jurisdictions where Splunk operates. The annual non-GAAP tax rate applied to the three and nine months ended October 31, 2017 was 27%. Splunk will utilize this annual non-GAAP tax rate in fiscal 2018 and will provide updates to this rate on an annual basis, or more frequently if material changes occur. In addition, non-GAAP financial measures include free cash flow, which represents cash from operations less purchases of property and equipment, and billings, which represents revenues plus the change in deferred revenue during the period. The presentation of the non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Splunk uses these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making purposes and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Splunk believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information about Splunk’s operating results, enhance the overall understanding of past financial performance and future prospects and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision making. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures facilitate comparisons to competitors’ operating results.
Splunk excludes stock-based compensation expense because it is non-cash in nature and excluding this expense provides meaningful supplemental information regarding Splunk’s operational performance and allows investors the ability to make more meaningful comparisons between Splunk’s operating results and those of other companies. Splunk excludes employer payroll tax expense related to employee stock plans in order for investors to see the full effect that excluding that stock-based compensation expense had on Splunk’s operating results. These expenses are tied to the exercise or vesting of underlying equity awards and the price of Splunk’s common stock at the time of vesting or exercise, which may vary from period to period independent of the operating performance of Splunk’s business. Splunk also excludes amortization of acquired intangible assets, adjustments related to facility exits, acquisition-related costs, including the partial release of the valuation allowance due to acquisitions, and makes adjustments related to a financing lease obligation from its non-GAAP financial measures because these are considered by management to be outside of Splunk’s core operating results. Accordingly, Splunk believes that excluding these expenses provides investors and management with greater visibility to the underlying performance of its business operations, facilitates comparison of its results with other periods and may also facilitate comparison with the results of other companies in its industry. Splunk considers free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by the business that can be used for strategic opportunities, including investing in its business, making strategic acquisitions and strengthening its balance sheet. Splunk considers billings to be a useful measure for management and investors because it provides visibility into Splunk’s sales activity for a particular period, which is not necessarily reflected in its revenues given that Splunk recognizes term licenses and subscriptions for cloud services ratably.
There are limitations in using non-GAAP financial measures because the non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by Splunk’s competitors and exclude expenses that may have a material impact upon Splunk’s reported financial results. Further, stock-based compensation expense has been and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a significant recurring expense in Splunk’s business and an important part of the compensation provided to Splunk’s employees. The non-GAAP financial measures are meant to supplement and be viewed in conjunction with GAAP financial measures.
The following tables reconcile Splunk’s GAAP results to Splunk’s non-GAAP results included in this press release.