ZS reports Q1 FY24 Earnings

-Quick Take: Looks like a solid beat and raise. I will listen to the conference call when I get a chance. I was happy with the solid beat of $496.7M in Revenue but was hoping the Q2 guide would be a little higher. Probably the most disappointing thing was that they didn’t raise the FY24 billing guide of $2.56B or 25.8% growth. Stock down 6.7% AH.

  • Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.67 beats by $0.18.
  • Revenue of $496.7M (+39.7% Y/Y) beats by $23.27M.
  • Calculated billings grows 34% year-over-year to $456.6 million
  • Deferred revenue grows 39% year-over-year to $1,399.5 million
  • GAAP net loss of $33.5 million compared to GAAP net loss of $68.2 million on a year-over-year basis
  • Non-GAAP net income of $106.5 million compared to non-GAAP net income of $44.0 million on a year-over-year basis

“We had a strong start to our fiscal year with all key metrics coming above our guidance. We are enabling enterprises to move forward with their key transformative initiatives - Zero Trust and AI - which is driving demand for our Zero Trust Exchange,” said Jay Chaudhry, Chairman and CEO of Zscaler. “In order to meet this growing need, we are scaling our go-to-market and R&D organizations, strengthening our foundation for the long-term growth of our business.”

Financial Outlook

For the second quarter of fiscal 2024, we expect:

  • Revenue of $505 million to $507 million or approx 30.8% top line
  • Non-GAAP income from operations of $84 million to $86 million
  • Non-GAAP net income per share of approximately $0.57 to $0.58, assuming approximately 160 million fully diluted shares outstanding

For the full year fiscal 2024, we expect:

  • Revenue of approximately $2.09 billion to $2.10 billion
  • Calculated billings of $2.52 billion to $2.56 billion
  • Non-GAAP income from operations of $360 million to $365 million
  • Non-GAAP net income per share of $2.45 to $2.48, assuming approximately 161 million fully diluted shares outstanding
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Agreed - I was happy with the results and raised guidance, moderately disappointed by the billings growth and not impressed with the after hours reaction which swung from +6% to -6% as far as I could tell.

In particular, was happy with revenue growth durability (at scale), adjusted operating margin and especially cash margin - they made a big deal in earnings call and presentation on the “rule of 60”, along with: cross selling across the platform, fed penetration and the next leg of the journey from $2b ARR to $5b.

Criticisms were reserved for lower RPO (due to FedRamp success) and billings and the internal quota carrying rep issues (likened to ServiceNow’s top down enterprise consultative selling model).

Reassuringly, apparently Macro hasn’t worsened.

Results presentation story looked solid…
https://ir.zscaler.com/static-files/740acaef-f4e2-491a-8498-7e5276d44574

Earnings call transcript is available here:-

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Agree on the Q1 headline numbers. I felt the Q2 guide was good as well. In addition to the flat billings though, Q1 RPO declined sequentially for the first time in five years. Yes, federal played a part but $100K customer adds was only 99 vs 128 and 136 the last two years. To me that suggests some uncharacteristic softness in enterprise sales. Adding a new CRO and CMO shows management is willing to adjust, but how long with this adjustment take? To be determined…

ZS is still performing well, but that combo of billings/RPO/$100K doesn’t imply much wiggle room for any outperformance in the 2nd half. I can understand why the market took back some of the 20%+ November run it had given ZS into earnings.

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agree with everything said here…

to me, three other points stood out:

  1. Federal biz starting to show up… they said new booking ACV up 90% y/y, not sure what was the base…
  2. data security… i believe Jay said its reaching $250M ARR for data protection up 60% y/y
  3. Booking projections: while I did not like that they kept it flat from last Q, it does seem to be a conservatism

last point - if someone else has better idea but I am wondering if increased fed / gov biz has impact on booking… it certainly has impact of RPO as they mentioned on the call…

overall, I am keeping my mid size position

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@stocknovice note that >$1M customer adds was also the lowest they’ve added in 12 quarters.

The business is scaling nicely, but agree that these leading indicators warrant caution in quarters to come.

-RMTZP

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