MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov 30, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Elastic (NYSE: ESTC) (“Elastic”), the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack, announced results for its second quarter of fiscal 2023 (ended October 31, 2022).

•Total revenue was $264.4 million, an increase of 28% year-over-year, or 34% on a constant currency basis

•Elastic Cloud revenue was $103.2 million, an increase of 50% year-over-year, or 52% on a constant currency basis

•GAAP operating loss was $49.0 million; GAAP operating margin was -18%

•Non-GAAP operating income was $4.9 million; non-GAAP operating margin was 2%

•GAAP net loss per share was $0.50; non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.00

•Operating cash flow was $10.6 million with adjusted free cash flow of $10.3 million

•Cash and cash equivalents were $856.2 million as of October 31, 2022

“In Q2, we exceeded both our revenue and profitability targets, demonstrating the operating leverage inherent in our business model,” said Ash Kulkarni, CEO, Elastic. “Revenue grew 34% year-over-year in constant currency. Even in this difficult business climate, we continue to see customers consolidate onto our platform with additional use cases. We remain confident in our long-term opportunity as we manage our cost structure with discipline and significantly increase our focus on profitable growth.”

The Company today also announced a selective reduction in its workforce and facilities-related cost optimization actions to align its investments more closely with its strategic priorities. “We are rebalancing investments across all functions and will strategically reinvest some savings in areas that best position us to drive profitable growth. With these changes, we expect to accelerate our non-GAAP operating income growth in the second half of fiscal 2023 and achieve a non-GAAP operating margin of 10% in fiscal 2024,” said Kulkarni.

•Total subscription customer count was approximately 19,700 compared to over 19,300 in Q1 FY23, and over 17,000 in Q2 FY22

•Total customer count with Annual Contract Value (ACV) greater than $100,000 was over 1,050, compared to over 1,010 in Q1 FY23, and over 830 in Q2 FY22

•Net Expansion Rate was approximately 125%

•Elastic Cloud revenue represented 39% of total revenue this quarter versus 34% one year ago

•Delivered a new streamlined sign-up experience for Elastic Cloud on the AWS Marketplace, enabling customers to set up Elastic in just a few clicks

•Added Elastic support for Azure Virtual Machines with Ampere Altra Arm-based processors, letting customers maximize operational efficiency across all solutions

•Announced an expanded partnership between Google Cloud and Elastic to help organizations search, observe, and protect their data and workloads more easily

•Announced a roadmap for a new serverless architecture that will form the foundation for the next-generation Elastic Search Platform

•Announced new threat intelligence capabilities that will enable security teams to identify indicators of compromise and take action on threat intelligence from within Elastic Security

•Released the first Elastic Global Threat Report, compiled using customer telemetry data, which details the evolving nature of cybersecurity threats

•Launched the private beta of Universal Profiling™, an innovative performance optimization and cost-saving capability that overcomes the limitations of other profiling solutions by requiring no changes to the application code

•Added new synthetics monitoring capabilities to provide customers with frictionless visibility at all levels of applications, services, and infrastructure

•Announced the general availability of vector search and updates to improve search relevance with machine learning-based hybrid scoring

•Hosted more than 1,500 customers and prospects at ElasticON events in Singapore, New York, and Amsterdam featuring customer presentations by Affirm, Autozone, BMW, Booking.com, Comcast, and SWIFT

•Sponsored AWS re:Invent, Google Next, KubeCon, and Microsoft Ignite industry conferences

•Named winner of the 2022 CyberSecurity Breakthrough Award for Threat Intelligence Platform of the Year

•Recognized as a Visionary in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant, Security Information and Event Management and as one of the fastest-growing SIEMs in the IDC Worldwide Security Information and Event Management Market Share, 2021

The Company expects the following results for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 and is updating its prior full-year fiscal 2023 guidance as follows:

For the third quarter of fiscal 2023 (ending January 31, 2023):

•Total revenue is expected to be between $272 million and $274 million, representing 22% year-over-year growth at the midpoint (26% year-over-year constant currency growth at the midpoint)

•Non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be between 4.3% and 4.7%

•Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be between $0.04 and $0.07, assuming between 98.5 million and 99.5 million diluted weighted average ordinary shares outstanding For fiscal 2023 (ending April 30, 2023):

•Total revenue is expected to be between $1,067 million and $1,073 million, representing 24% year-over-year growth at the midpoint (28% year-over-year constant currency growth at the midpoint)

•Non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be between 2.2% and 2.6%

•Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be between -$0.03 and $0.03, assuming between 95.0 million and 97.0 million basic weighted average ordinary shares outstanding and 98.5 million and 100.5 million diluted weighted average ordinary shares outstanding

The current guidance assumes, among others, the following exchange rates: 1 Euro = 1.035 US Dollars; and 1 Great British Pound = 1.208 US Dollars.

See the section titled “Forward-Looking Statements” below for information on the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. We present forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. See the section entitled “Statement Regarding Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for an explanation of these non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP guidance measures to corresponding GAAP measures for operating margin and net loss per share is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, many of the costs and expenses that may be incurred in the future. These items necessary to reconcile such non-GAAP measures could be material and have a significant impact on the Company’s results computed in accordance with GAAP.

Elastic’s executive management team will host a conference call today at 2:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. ET to discuss the Company’s financial results and business outlook. A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available through Elastic’s Investor Relations website at ir.elastic.co. Slides containing financial and operating information will accompany the webcast and will be available on the same website. The replay of the webcast and slides will be available for two months.

Elastic (NYSE: ESTC) is a leading platform for search-powered solutions. We help organizations, their employees, and their customers accelerate the results that matter. With solutions in Enterprise Search, Observability, and Security, we enhance customer and employee search experiences, keep mission-critical applications running smoothly, and protect against cyber threats. Delivered wherever data lives, in one cloud, across multiple clouds, or on-premise, Elastic enables its customers to achieve new levels of success at scale and on a single platform. Learn more at elastic.co.

Elastic and associated marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Elastic N.V. and its subsidiaries. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risk and uncertainties, which include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our expected financial results for the fiscal quarter ending January 31, 2023 and the fiscal year ending April 30, 2023, our expectations regarding demand for our products and solutions and our future revenue, our assessments of the strength of our solutions and products, the expected performance or benefits of our offerings, our expectations regarding the business climate and growth opportunities and our ability to manage costs and address those opportunities, and the expected benefits of our investments, our plan to reduce costs and rebalance investments, and our expectations regarding our ability to achieve cost savings, accelerate our non-GAAP operating income growth and increase our non-GAAP operating margin upon implementation of the plan. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements due to uncertainties, risks, and changes in circumstances, including but not limited to those related to: our future financial performance, including our expectations regarding our revenue, cost of revenue, gross profit or gross margin, operating expenses (which include changes in sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses), and our ability to achieve and maintain future profitability; any disruption to our business resulting from our plan to reduce costs and rebalance investments; the effects of currency movements on our financial results; our ability to continue to deliver and improve our offerings and develop new offerings; customer acceptance and purchase of our new and existing offerings and the expansion and adoption of our Elastic Cloud offerings; our inability to realize value from investments in the business; our ability to maintain and expand our user and customer base; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and variants on the macroeconomic environment, on our business, operations, hiring and financial results, and on businesses and spending priorities of our customers and partners; the impact of our licensing model on the use and adoption of our software; the impact of our pricing model strategies on our business; the impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and the uncertain inflation and interest rate environment on our results; our international expansion strategy; our operating results and cash flows; the sufficiency of our capital resources; our ability to successfully execute our go-to-market strategy and expand in new and existing markets, and our ability to forecast customer retention and expansion; and general market, political, economic and business conditions.

Any additional or unforeseen effect from the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertain macroeconomic environment or ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine may exacerbate these risks. Additional risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially are included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2022 and other subsequent reports filed with the SEC. SEC filings are available on the Investor Relations section of Elastic’s website at ir.elastic.co and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Elastic assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we believe the non-GAAP measures listed below are useful in evaluating our operating performance. We use these non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance. However, non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate similarly-titled non-GAAP measures differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of our non-GAAP financial measures as tools for comparison. Investors are cautioned that there are a number of limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures and key metrics as analytical tools. Investors are encouraged to review the differences between GAAP financial measures and the corresponding non-GAAP financial measures, and not to rely on any single financial measure to evaluate our business.

Reconciliations of historical GAAP financial measures to their respective historical non-GAAP financial measures are included below. In relation to constant currency non-GAAP financial measures, the only reconciling item between GAAP financial measures and non-GAAP financial measures is the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations. Further details on how we calculate such effects can be found in the definition of “Constant Currency” below.

We define non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin as GAAP gross profit and GAAP gross margin, respectively, excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer payroll taxes on employee stock transactions, and amortization of acquired intangible assets. We believe non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin provide our management and investors consistency and comparability with our past financial performance and facilitate period-to-period comparisons of operations, as these metrics generally eliminate the effects of certain variables from period to period for reasons unrelated to overall operating performance.

We define non-GAAP operating income (loss) and non-GAAP operating margin as GAAP operating loss and GAAP operating margin, respectively, excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer payroll taxes on employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and acquisition-related expenses. We believe non-GAAP operating income (loss) and non-GAAP operating margin provide our management and investors consistency and comparability with our past financial performance and facilitate period-to-period comparisons of operations, as these metrics generally eliminate the effects of certain variables from period to period for reasons unrelated to overall operating performance.

We define non-GAAP net earnings (loss) per share as GAAP net loss per share, excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer payroll taxes on employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses and the tax effects related to the foregoing. We believe non-GAAP net earnings (loss) per share provides our management and investors consistency and comparability with our past financial performance and facilitates period-to-period comparisons of operations, as this metric generally eliminates the effects of certain variables from period to period for reasons unrelated to overall operating performance.

Adjusted free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure that we define as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities adjusted for cash paid for interest less cash used for investing activities for purchases of property and equipment, and capitalized internal-use software costs. Adjusted free cash flow margin is calculated as adjusted free cash flow divided by total revenue. Adjusted free cash flow does not represent residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditures since, among other things, we have mandatory debt service requirements.

We compare the percent change in certain results from one period to another period using constant currency information to provide a framework for assessing how our business performed excluding the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations. In presenting this information, current and comparative prior period results are converted into United States dollars at the exchange rates in effect on the last day of our prior fiscal year, rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the respective periods.

Elastic Investor Relations

ir@elastic.co

Elastic Corporate Communications

lisa.boughner@elastic.co

 

 

 

Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Data
Supplementary Information

 

(1) Totals may not sum, due to rounding. Gross margin, operating margin, and earnings per share are calculated based upon the respective underlying, non-rounded data.

 

(2) Non-GAAP financial information for the quarter is adjusted for a tax rate equal to our annual estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income. This rate is based on our estimated annual GAAP income tax rate forecast, adjusted to account for items excluded from GAAP income in calculating the non-GAAP financial measures presented above as well as other significant tax adjustments. Our estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income is determined annually and may be adjusted during the year to take into account events or trends that we believe materially impact the estimated annual rate including, but not limited to, significant changes resulting from tax legislation, material changes in the geographic mix of revenue and expenses and other significant events. Due to the differences in the tax treatment of items excluded from non-GAAP earnings, as well as the methodology applied to our estimated annual tax rates as described above, our estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income may differ from our GAAP tax rate and from our actual tax liabilities.