Pure Storage Announces Third Quarter Fiscal 2018 Financial Results

Press Releases

Nov 28, 2017

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) today announced financial results for its third quarter ended October 31, 2017.

www.purestorage.com (PRNewsFoto/Pure Storage)

Key quarterly business and financial highlights include:

  • Record quarterly revenue: $278 million, up 41% Y/Y, 2% ahead of midpoint of guidance
  • Quarterly gross margin: 65.5% GAAP; 66.4% non-GAAP
  • Quarterly operating margin: -15.1% GAAP; -0.7% non-GAAP, up 24.6 ppts and 9.1 ppts Y/Y, respectively
  • Raising full-year fiscal 2018 revenue guidance to between $1.012 billion and $1.020 billion and non-GAAP operating margin guidance to between -4.9% and -3.5%

“Pure has built a platform that allows customers to build a better world with data,” said Pure Storage CEO Charlie Giancarlo. “Pure offers a simpler, more effective, and agile solution for data-rich applications like artificial intelligence.”

In the quarter, more than 300 new customers joined Pure Storage, increasing the total to more than 4,000 organizations, including more than 25% of the Fortune 500. A few new customer wins in the quarter include: NASA Goddard, Krispy Kreme, John Lewis PLC, Movado Group, Weave Communications, Comodo Group, and Pronto Software.

“We had an excellent quarter, highlighted by strong revenue growth, positive free cash flow, and a continued march toward profitability,” said Pure Storage CFO Tim Riitters. “We are excited to be fast approaching the $1 billion annual revenue mark and our first profitable quarter on a non-GAAP basis.”

Third Quarter Fiscal 2018 Financial Highlights

The following tables summarize our consolidated financial results for the fiscal quarters ended October 31, 2017 and 2016 (in millions except percentages and per share amounts, unaudited):

GAAP Quarterly Financial Information

Three Months Ended
October 31, 2017

Three Months Ended
October 31, 2016

Y/Y Change

Revenue

$277.7

$197.0

41%

Gross Margin

65.5%

64.8%

0.7 ppts

Product Gross Margin

66.2%

65.9%

0.3 ppts

Support Gross Margin

62.4%

59.9%

2.5 ppts

Operating Loss

-$41.8

-$78.2

$36.4

Operating Margin

-15.1%

-39.7%

24.6 ppts

Net Loss

-$41.6

-$78.8

$37.2

Net Loss per Share

-$0.20

-$0.40

$0.20

Weighted-Average Shares (Basic and Diluted)

213.3

195.8

N/A

Non-GAAP Quarterly Financial Information

Three Months Ended
October 31, 2017

Three Months Ended
October 31, 2016

Y/Y Change

Gross Margin

66.4%

65.5%

0.9 ppts

Product Gross Margin

66.3%

66.0%

0.3 ppts

Support Gross Margin

67.0%

63.2%

3.8 ppts

Operating Loss

-$2.1

-$19.4

$17.3

Operating Margin

-0.7%

-9.8%

9.1 ppts

Net Loss

-$1.9

-$20.0

$18.1

Net Loss per Share

-$0.01

-$0.10

$0.09

 

A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP information is provided at the end of this release.

Financial Outlook

Pure Storage’s fourth quarter fiscal 2018 guidance is as follows:

  • Revenue in the range of $327 million to $335 million
  • Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 63.5% to 66.5%
  • Non-GAAP operating margin in the range of 3.0% to 7.0%

Pure Storage’s full year fiscal 2018 guidance is as follows:

  • Revenue in the range of $1.012 billion to $1.020 billion
  • Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 65.6% to 66.6%
  • Non-GAAP operating margin in the range of -4.9% to -3.5%

All forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures contained in this section titled “Financial Outlook” exclude stock-based compensation expense, payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities and, as applicable, other special items. We have not reconciled guidance for non-GAAP gross margin and non-GAAP operating margin to their most directly comparable GAAP measures because such items that impact these measures are not within our control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted. Accordingly, a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure guidance to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable effort.

Conference Call Information

Pure Storage will host a teleconference to discuss the third quarter fiscal 2018 results at 2:00 p.m. (PT) on November 28, 2017. Pure Storage will post its supplemental earnings presentation to the investor relations website at investor.purestorage.com following the conference call.

Teleconference details are as follows:

  • To Listen via Telephone: (833) 245-9656 or (647) 689-4543 (for international callers).
  • To Listen via the Internet: A live and replay audio broadcast of the conference call with corresponding slides will be available at investor.purestorage.com.
  • Replay: A telephone playback of this conference call is scheduled to be available two hours after the call ends on Tuesday, November 28, 2017, through December 12, 2017. The replay will be accessible by calling (800) 585-8367 or (416) 621-4642 (for international callers), with conference ID 2498308. The call runs 24 hours per day, including weekends.

Upcoming Investor Events

Pure Storage will be participating in upcoming financial Q&A discussions at industry events on December 5th at 1:15 p.m. MST in Deer Valley, UT and December 7th at 2:30 p.m. PST in San Francisco, CA. Pure Storage will post a link to the live webcast on the investor relations website at investor.purestorage.com for both live and archived events.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) helps companies push the boundaries of what’s possible. Pure’s end-to-end data platform – including FlashArray, FlashBlade and our converged offering with Cisco, FlashStack – is powered by innovative software that’s cloud-connected for management from anywhere on a mobile device and supported by the Evergreen business model. The company’s all-flash based technology, combined with its customer-friendly business model, drives business and IT transformation with solutions that are effortless, efficient and evergreen. With Pure’s industry leading Satmetrix-certified NPS score of 83.7, Pure customers are some of the happiest in the world, and include organizations of all sizes, across an ever-expanding range of industries.

Connect with Pure Storage:
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Analyst Recognition:
Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays 
IDC MarketScape for All-Flash Arrays

Pure Storage, Evergreen, FlashBlade, FlashStack and the “P” Logo mark are trademarks of Pure Storage, Inc. All other trademarks or names referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our products, business and operations, including our expectations regarding technology differentiation, and our outlook for the fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2018 and statements regarding our products, business, operations and results, including fourth quarter profitability. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted include, among others, those risks and uncertainties included under the captions “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our filings and reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, which are available on our investor relations website at investor.purestorage.com and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2017. All information provided in this release and in the attachments is as of November 28, 2017, and we undertake no duty to update this information unless required by law.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our condensed consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, we use the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating loss, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net loss, non-GAAP net loss per share, free cash flow, and free cash flow as a percentage of revenue. In computing these non-GAAP financial measures, we exclude the effects of stock-based compensation expense and payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities. For the three months ended October 31, 2016, non-GAAP loss from operations, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net loss, non-GAAP net loss per share, free cash flow and free cash flow as a percentage of revenue also exclude a one time cash charge related to a legal settlement. The presentation of this financial information 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.

We use these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Our management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance and liquidity by excluding certain expenses and expenditures such as stock-based compensation expense that may not be indicative of our ongoing core business operating results. We believe that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing our performance and when analyzing historical performance and liquidity and planning, forecasting, and analyzing future periods. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and our non-GAAP measures may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies.

For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP measures, please see the tables captioned “Reconciliations of non-GAAP results of operations to the nearest comparable GAAP measures” and “Reconciliation from net cash provided by (used in) operating activities to free cash flow,” included at the end of this release.

PURE STORAGE, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(in thousands)

As of
October 31, 2017

As of
January 31, 2017

(unaudited)

Assets

Current assets:

Cash and cash equivalents

$

182,039

$

183,675

Marketable securities

369,337

362,986

Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $2,073 and $2,000

202,006

168,978

Inventory

37,208

23,498

Deferred commissions, current

20,187

15,787

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

24,522

25,157

Total current assets

835,299

780,081

Property and equipment, net

84,264

81,695

Intangible assets, net

5,432

6,560

Deferred income taxes, non-current

965

844

Other assets, non-current

36,596

30,565

Total assets

$

962,556

$

899,745

Liabilities and stockholders’ equity

Current liabilities:

Accounts payable

$

66,664

$

52,719

Accrued compensation and benefits

50,077

39,252

Accrued expenses and other liabilities

24,945

21,697

Deferred revenue, current

183,889

158,095

Liability related to early exercised stock options

568

1,362

Total current liabilities

326,143

273,125

Deferred revenue, non-current

173,641

145,031

Other liabilities, non-current

3,651

3,159

Total liabilities

503,435

421,315

Stockholders’ equity:

Common stock and additional paid-in capital

1,428,044

1,281,472

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(719)

(562)

Accumulated deficit

(968,204)

(802,480)

Total stockholders’ equity

459,121

478,430

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

$

962,556

$

899,745

 

PURE STORAGE, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(in thousands, except per share data)

Three Months Ended October 31,

Nine Months Ended October 31,

2017

2016

2017

2016

(unaudited)

Revenue:

Product

$

223,196

$

160,523

$

536,634

$

403,181

Support

54,478

36,433

148,132

96,936

Total revenue

277,674

196,956

684,766

500,117

Cost of revenue:

Product (1)

75,392

54,725

179,289

131,618

Support (1)

20,467

14,597

56,569

41,531

Total cost of revenue

95,859

69,322

235,858

173,149

Gross profit

181,815

127,634

448,908

326,968

Operating expenses:

Research and development (1)

68,927

61,612

203,716

173,185

Sales and marketing (1)

129,299

91,392

346,896

262,073

General and administrative (1)

25,406

22,810

67,664

64,021

Legal settlement (2)

30,000

30,000

Total operating expenses

223,632

205,814

618,276

529,279

Loss from operations

(41,817)

(78,180)

(169,368)

(202,311)

Other income (expense), net

1,138

(192)

6,399

1,127

Loss before provision for income taxes

(40,679)

(78,372)

(162,969)

(201,184)

Provision for income taxes

970

441

2,755

967

Net loss

$

(41,649)

$

(78,813)

$

(165,724)

$

(202,151)

Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted

$

(0.20)

$

(0.40)

$

(0.79)

$

(1.05)

Weighted-average shares used in computing net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted

213,274

195,807

209,456

192,637

(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

Cost of revenue — product

$

143

$

138

$

898

$

425

Cost of revenue — support

2,422

1,178

6,441

3,982

Research and development

18,073

15,241

51,632

40,875

Sales and marketing

12,104

8,468

34,169

24,719

General and administrative

6,121

3,210

14,780

9,128

Total stock-based compensation expense

$

38,863

$

28,235

$

107,920

$

79,129

(2) One-time charge for our legal settlement with Dell Inc.

 

PURE STORAGE, INC.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(in thousands)

Three Months Ended October 31,

Nine Months Ended October 31,

2017

2016

2017

2016

(unaudited)

Cash flows from operating activities

Net loss

$

(41,649)

$

(78,813)

$

(165,724)

$

(202,151)

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities:

Depreciation and amortization

15,525

13,642

45,525

35,978

Stock-based compensation expense

38,863

28,235

107,920

79,129

Other

82

557

879

1,051

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

Accounts receivable, net

(33,655)

(44,775)

(33,630)

(38,186)

Inventory

(3,827)

2,203

(14,314)

(189)

Deferred commissions

(3,022)

(43)

(7,629)

1,844

Prepaid expenses and other assets

74

848

(112)

39

Accounts payable

11,607

13,646

11,808

3,639

Accrued compensation and other liabilities

14,319

(1,901)

14,629

6,786

Deferred revenue

29,931

19,078

54,404

60,180

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities

28,248

(47,323)

13,756

(51,880)

Cash flows from investing activities

Purchases of property and equipment

(14,251)

(18,484)

(44,351)

(64,602)

Purchase of intangible assets

(1,000)

Purchases of marketable securities

(56,640)

(55,590)

(151,998)

(483,558)

Sales of marketable securities

12,538

20,744

46,067

79,815

Maturities of marketable securities

25,340

32,413

99,021

38,213

Net increase in restricted cash

(2,029)

(2,029)

(5,600)

Net cash used in investing activities

(35,042)

(20,917)

(53,290)

(436,732)

Cash flows from financing activities

Net proceeds from exercise of stock options

8,968

4,356

15,761

10,725

Proceeds from issuance of common stock under employee stock purchase plan

7,971

10,527

22,137

25,606

Net cash provided by financing activities

16,939

14,883

37,898

36,331

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

10,145

(53,357)

(1,636)

(452,281)

Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period

171,894

205,818

183,675

604,742

Cash and cash equivalents, end of period

$

182,039

$

152,461

$

182,039

$

152,461

 

Reconciliations of non-GAAP results of operations to the nearest comparable GAAP measures

The following table presents non-GAAP gross margins by revenue source before certain items (in thousands except percentages, unaudited):

Three Months Ended October 31, 2017

Three Months Ended October 31, 2016

GAAP
results

GAAP
gross
margin (a)

Adjustment

Non-
GAAP
results

Non-
GAAP
gross
margin (b)

GAAP
results

GAAP
gross
margin (a)

Adjustment

Non-
GAAP
results

Non-
GAAP
gross
margin (b)

$

143

(c)

$

138

(c)

5

(d)

2

(d)

Gross profit —
product

$

147,804

66.2

%

$

148

$

147,952

66.3

%

$

105,798

65.9

%

$

140

$

105,938

66.0

%

$

2,422

(c)

$

1,178

(c)

71

(d)

9

(d)

Gross profit — support

$

34,011

62.4

%

$

2,493

$

36,504

67.0

%

$

21,836

59.9

%

$

1,187

$

23,023

63.2

%

$

2,565

(c)

$

1,316

(c)

76

(d)

11

(d)

Total gross
profit

$

181,815

65.5

%

$

2,641

$

184,456

66.4

%

$

127,634

64.8

%

$

1,327

$

128,961

65.5

%

(a) GAAP gross margin is defined as gross profit divided by revenue.

(b) Non-GAAP gross margin is defined as non-GAAP gross profit divided by revenue.

(c) To eliminate stock-based compensation expense.

(d) To eliminate payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities.

 

The following table presents certain non-GAAP consolidated results before certain items (in thousands, except per share amounts and percentages, unaudited):

Three Months Ended October 31, 2017

Three Months Ended October 31, 2016

GAAP

results

GAAP

operating

margin (a)

Adjustment

Non-

GAAP

results

Non-

GAAP

operating

margin (b)

GAAP

results

GAAP

operating

margin (a)

Adjustment

Non-

GAAP

results

Non-

GAAP

operating

margin (b)

$

38,863

(c)

$

28,235

(c)

902

(d)

548

(d)

$

30,000

(e)

Loss from

operations

$

(41,817)

-15.1

%

$

39,765

$

(2,052)

-0.7

%

$

(78,180)

-39.7

%

$

58,783

$

(19,397)

-9.8

%

$

38,863

(c)

$

28,235

(c)

902

(d)

548

(d)

$

30,000

(e)

Net loss

$

(41,649)

$

39,765

$

(1,884)

$

(78,813)

$

58,783

$

(20,030)

Net loss per share
–basic and diluted

$

(0.20)

$

(0.01)

$

(0.40)

$

(0.10)

Weighted-average shares used in per share calculation — basic and diluted

213,274

213,274

195,807

195,807

(a) GAAP operating margin is defined as loss from operations divided by revenue.

(b) Non-GAAP operating margin is defined as non-GAAP loss from operations divided by revenue.

(c) To eliminate stock-based compensation expense.

(d) To eliminate payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities.

(e) To eliminate one-time charge for our legal settlement with Dell Inc.

 

Reconciliation from net cash provided by (used in) operating activities to free cash flow (in thousands except percentages, unaudited):

Three Months Ended October 31,

2017

2016

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities

$

28,248

$

(47,323)

Less: purchases of property and equipment

(14,251)

(18,484)

Add: cash paid for legal settlement

 

$

30,000

Free cash flow

$

13,997

$

(35,807)

Free cash flow as % of revenue

5.0%

(18.2)%

 

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SOURCE Pure Storage

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