Pure Storage : Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2021 Financial Results

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), the IT pioneer that delivers storage as-a-service in a multi-cloud world, announced financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year ended January 31, 2021.

"Pure ended fiscal 2021 with great strength and growth, setting new revenue and sales records for the quarter and for the full fiscal year," said Charles Giancarlo, Chairman and CEO, Pure Storage. "I am confident in our opportunity, our long-term strategy, and our ability to accelerate growth. Our Q4 results are a leading indicator of that acceleration. We saw broad based growth year over year, including in our subscription services, our enterprise and cloud segments, our new product lines, and in every theater."

Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Highlights

• Q4 revenue $502.7 million, up 2.2% year-over-year
• Full-year revenue $1.684 billion, up 2.5% year-over-year
                     
• Q4 GAAP gross margin 67.8%; non-GAAP gross margin 69.4%
• Full-year GAAP gross margin 68.2%; non-GAAP gross margin 70.0%
                          
• Q4 GAAP operating loss $46.8 million; non-GAAP operating income $36.7 million
• Full-year GAAP operating loss $261.0 million; non-GAAP operating income $46.0 million
                           
• Q4 operating cash flow $69.0 million; and full-year operating cash flow $187.6 million
• Q4 free cash flow $47.7 million; and full-year free cash flow $92.7 million
                       
• Total cash and investments $1.25 billion
• Remaining performance obligations (RPO) $1.1 billion, up 24% year-over-year; and deferred revenue $843.7 million, up 21% year-over-year

"We are very pleased to be exiting this year on a high note as sales and revenue have surpassed our expectations with particular strength from our enterprise customers," said Kevan Krysler, CFO, Pure Storage. "The momentum we are seeing is the result of our consistent focus on investing in innovation for our customers."

Fourth Quarter and Full Year Company Highlights and Achievements

• Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage Arrays: Pure was named the clear leader, positioned highest on the ability to execute axis and furthest on the completeness of vision axis in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant.
• Strong Subscription Services Momentum: Only Pure delivers true flexible storage consumption, a cloud experience on-prem, an easy path to move data to the cloud, and aligns spend with actual consumption. In Q4, Pure expanded the Pure as-a-Service™ offering with a new Service Catalog aimed at revolutionizing the industry by publishing transparent pricing for on-prem and hybrid cloud storage delivered as-a-Service, providing a seamless purchasing model for customers.
• Market-Leading Portfolio Innovation: Pure continued its pace of innovation across the portfolio to enable new use cases and render hybrid arrays obsolete. Among this year's new offerings, Pure expanded the industry-defining unified, fast file and object FlashBlade^® with scale-out native SMB support and the industry's first all-QLC solution with the third generation FlashArray//C. Both products achieved consecutive record sales quarters in FY21.
• Extending Kubernetes Market Leadership with Portworx: With Portworx^® fully integrated into Pure, the company delivers the industry's most complete Kubernetes Data Services Platform, supporting cloud native applications on any infrastructure, on-prem or in-cloud. In Q4, we saw significant growth of in-cloud deployments of Portworx and traction through the IBM partnership both in-cloud and on-prem via our best-in-class support for Red Hat OpenShift. In FY21, Portworx was named a leader in the GigaOm Radar for Data Storage for Kubernetes and for Kubernetes Data Protection.

Guidance: Q1 FY22 and Annual FY22

	Q1 FY22	FY22
Revenue	$405 Million	14%-15% Y/Y Growth
Non-GAAP Operating Income (Loss)	$(20) Million	~$90 Million

These statements are forward-looking and actual results may differ materially. Refer to the Forward Looking Statements section below for information on the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements.

Pure has not reconciled its guidance for non-GAAP operating income (loss) to the most directly comparable GAAP measure because certain items that impact this measure are not within Pure's control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted. Accordingly, a reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure guidance to the corresponding GAAP measure is not available without unreasonable effort.

Conference Call Information

Pure will host a teleconference to discuss the fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2021 results at 2:00 pm PT today, February 24, 2021. A live audio broadcast of the conference call will be available at the Pure Storage Investor Relations website, investor.purestorage.com. Pure will also post its supplemental earnings presentation and prepared conference call remarks to the Investor Relations website in advance of the call for reference. A replay will be available following the call on the Pure Storage Investor Relations website for two weeks at [phone] (or 404-537-3406 for international callers) with passcode 6395722.

Upcoming IR Events

• Pure will be presenting at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Virtual Conference on March 2 at 9:30 am PT.
• Pure will be presenting at the Raymond James Institutional Investors Virtual Conference on March 3 at 8:40 am PT.

The presentations from these events will be webcast live, and all information will be available on the Investor Relations website at investor.purestorage.com.

Share Repurchase Authorization

Pure's board of directors has authorized incremental share repurchases of up to an additional $200 million under its stock repurchase program. The authorization allows Pure to repurchase shares of its Class A common stock opportunistically and will be funded from available working capital. Repurchases may be made at management's discretion from time to time on the open market through privately negotiated transactions, transactions structured through investment banking institutions, block purchase techniques, 10b5-1 trading plans, or a combination of the foregoing. The repurchase program does not have an expiration date, does not obligate Pure to acquire any of its common stock, and may be suspended or discontinued by the company at any time without prior notice.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) gives technologists their time back. Pure delivers a modern data experience that empowers organizations to run their operations as a true, automated, storage as-a-service model seamlessly across multiple clouds. One of the fastest-growing enterprise IT companies in history, Pure helps customers put data to use while reducing the complexity and expense of managing the infrastructure behind it. And with a certified customer satisfaction score in the top one percent of B2B companies, Pure's ever-expanding list of customers are  among the happiest in the world. For more information, visit www.purestorage.com.

Analyst Recognition

Pure Storage has been named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage Arrays.

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Pure Storage, the Pure P Logo, Portworx, and the marks on the Pure Trademark List at www.purestorage.com/legal/productenduserinfo.html are trademarks of Pure Storage, Inc. Other names are trademarks of their respective owners. 

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our products, business and operations, including but not limited to our views relating to future period outcomes, our momentum and growth potential, the scope and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our business operations, liquidity and capital resources, employees, customers, supply chain, financial results and the economy, our expectations regarding product and technology differentiation, including our new offerings, strategy and adoption of subscription services, the success of the Portworx acquisition and technology, and other statements regarding our products, business, operations and results. 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, which are available on our Investor Relations website at investor.purestorage.com and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Additional information is also set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2021. All information provided in this release and in the attachments is as of February 24, 2021, and Pure undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, Pure uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) per share, and free cash flow.

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, payments  to former shareholders of acquired companies, payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities, amortization of debt discount and debt issuance costs related to long-term debt, amortization of intangible assets acquired from acquisitions, acquisition-related transaction and integration expenses, restructuring activities, and expenses directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic that may not be indicative of our ongoing core business operating results. Pure believes 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 operating activities to free cash flow," included at the end of this release.

 

PURE STORAGE, INC. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands, unaudited)
		At the End of Fiscal
		2021				2020
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents		$	337,147			$	362,635
Marketable securities		916,388				936,518
Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $1,033 and $542		460,879				458,643
Inventory		46,733				38,518
Deferred commissions, current		57,183				37,148
Prepaid expenses and other current assets		89,836				56,930
Total current assets		1,908,166				1,890,392
Property and equipment, net		163,041				122,740
Operating lease right-of-use assets		134,668				112,854
Deferred commissions, non-current		130,741				102,056
Intangible assets, net		76,648				58,257
Goodwill		358,736				37,584
Restricted cash		10,544				15,287
Other assets, non-current		36,896				25,034
Total assets		$	2,819,440			$	2,364,204
Liabilities and stockholders' equity
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable		$	67,530			$	77,651
Accrued compensation and benefits		160,817				106,592
Accrued expenses and other liabilities		61,754				47,223
Operating lease liabilities, current		32,231				27,264
Deferred revenue, current		438,321				356,011
Total current liabilities		760,653				614,741
Long-term debt		755,814				477,007
Operating lease liabilities, non-current		120,361				92,977
Deferred revenue, non-current		405,376				341,277
Other liabilities, non-current		27,230				8,084
Total liabilities		2,069,434				1,534,086
Stockholders' equity:
Common stock and additional paid-in capital		2,307,608				2,107,605
Accumulated other comprehensive income		7,410				5,449
Accumulated deficit		(1,565,012)				(1,282,936)
Total stockholders' equity		750,006				830,118
Total liabilities and stockholders' equity		$	2,819,440			$	2,364,204

 

PURE STORAGE, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (in thousands, except per share data, unaudited)
		Fourth Quarter of Fiscal								Fiscal Year Ended
		2021				2020				2021				2020
Revenue:
Product		$	350,380			$	376,517			$	1,144,098			$	1,238,654
Subscription services		152,338				115,487				540,081				404,786
Total revenue		502,718				492,004				1,684,179				1,643,440
Cost of revenue:
Product (1)		112,310				103,510				352,987				362,970
Subscription services (1)		49,551				40,284				182,268				146,916
Total cost of revenue		161,861				143,794				535,255				509,886
Gross profit		340,857				348,210				1,148,924				1,133,554
Operating expenses:
Research and development (1)		130,388				114,904				480,467				433,662
Sales and marketing (1)		198,865				190,389				716,014				728,022
General and administrative (1)		50,414				43,611				182,477				163,153
Restructuring and other (2)		8,009				—				30,999				—
Total operating expenses		387,676				348,904				1,409,957				1,324,837
Loss from operations		(46,819)				(694)				(261,033)				(191,283)
Other income (expense), net		(2,427)				(924)				(9,127)				(3,383)
Loss before provision for income taxes		(49,246)				(1,618)				(270,160)				(194,666)
Income tax provision		3,047				3,033				11,916				6,321
Net loss		$	(52,293)			$	(4,651)			$	(282,076)			$	(200,987)
Net loss per share attributable to common   stockholders, basic and diluted		$	(0.19)			$	(0.02)			$	(1.05)			$	(0.79)
Weighted-average shares used in computing net   loss per share attributable to common   stockholders, basic and diluted		274,421				259,218				267,824				252,820
(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
Cost of revenue -- product		$	988			$	889			$	4,001			$	3,732
Cost of revenue -- subscription services		4,018				3,302				14,979				14,403
Research and development		29,450				26,726				117,220				107,658
Sales and marketing		17,230				16,389				65,248				67,560
General and administrative		10,903				8,857				40,896				33,352
Total stock-based compensation expense		$	62,589			$	56,163			$	242,344			$	226,705
(2) Includes expenses related to restructuring and incremental expenses directly related to COVID-19.

 

PURE STORAGE, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands, unaudited)
		Fourth Quarter of Fiscal								Fiscal Year Ended
		2021				2020				2021				2020
Cash flows from operating activities
Net loss		$	(52,293)			$	(4,651)			$	(282,076)			$	(200,987)
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization		20,231				22,925				70,042				89,710
Amortization of debt discount and debt issuance costs		7,545				6,993				29,070				27,179
Stock-based compensation expense		62,589				56,163				242,344				226,705
Impairment of long-lived assets		—				—				7,505				—
Other		3,229				1,819				7,340				1,336
Changes in operating assets and liabilities, net of effects of acquisitions:
Accounts receivable, net		(82,810)				(96,521)				410				(79,442)
Inventory		(3,966)				(329)				(8,690)				2,393
Deferred commissions		(35,836)				(16,073)				(48,721)				(24,231)
Prepaid expenses and other assets		3,624				(18,198)				(33,982)				(16,734)
Operating lease right-of-use assets		7,370				6,549				28,804				26,511
Accounts payable		(22,930)				16,388				(14,364)				(18,856)
Accrued compensation and other liabilities		86,709				47,059				76,972				20,296
Operating lease liabilities		(6,874)				(6,357)				(27,318)				(25,377)
Deferred revenue		82,445				54,091				140,305				161,071
Net cash provided by operating activities		69,033				69,858				187,641				189,574
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchases of property and equipment		(21,332)				(13,641)				(94,975)				(87,847)
Acquisitions, net of cash acquired		165				—				(339,641)				(51,594)
Purchase of intangible assets		—				—				—				(9,000)
Purchases of marketable securities		(119,568)				(155,556)				(573,959)				(795,580)
Sales of marketable securities		39,323				83,733				171,530				200,251
Maturities of marketable securities		99,156				73,402				423,936				419,059
Other		—				—				(5,000)				—
Net cash used in investing activities		(2,256)				(12,062)				(418,109)				(324,711)
Cash flows from financing activities
Net proceeds from exercise of stock options		33,695				17,095				59,372				42,899
Proceeds from issuance of common stock under employee stock purchase plan		—				7				32,439				43,298
Proceeds from borrowings, net of issuance costs		—				—				251,892				—
Repayment of borrowings		(33)				—				(33)				—
Repayment of debt assumed from acquisition		—				—				—				(11,555)
Tax withholding on vesting of equity awards		(4,178)				(1,592)				(8,258)				(10,379)
Repurchases of common stock		(23,621)				(15,017)				(135,175)				(15,017)
Net cash provided by financing activities		5,863				493				200,237				49,246
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash		72,640				58,289				(30,231)				(85,891)
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period		275,051				319,633				377,922				463,813
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period		$	347,691			$	377,922			$	347,691			$	377,922

 

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):

	Fourth Quarter of Fiscal																		Fourth Quarter of Fiscal
	2021																		2020
	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)
								$	988		(c)															$	889		(c)
								18			(d)															14			(d)
								3,062			(e)															2,074			(e)
Gross profit --   product	$	238,070			67.9	%		$	4,068			$	242,138			69.1	%		$	273,007			72.5	%		$	2,977			$	275,984			73.3	%
								$	4,018		(c)															$	3,302		(c)
								64			(d)															88			(d)
								25			(f)															—
Gross profit --  subscription services	$	102,787			67.5	%		$	4,107			$	106,894			70.2	%		$	75,203			65.1	%		$	3,390			$	78,593			68.1	%
								$	5,006		(c)															$	4,191		(c)
								82			(d)															102			(d)
								3,062			(e)															2,074			(e)
								25			(f)															—
Total gross profit	$	340,857			67.8	%		$	8,175			$	349,032			69.4	%		$	348,210			70.8	%		$	6,367			$	354,577			72.1	%

(a)	GAAP gross margin is defined as GAAP 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.
(e)	To eliminate amortization expense of acquired intangible assets.
(f)	To eliminate payments to former shareholders of acquired company.

 

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

	Fiscal Year Ended
	2021
	GAAP results				GAAP gross margin (a)			Adjustment						Non- GAAP results				Non- GAAP gross margin (b)
								$	4,001			(c)
								84				(d)
								735				(e)
								9,465				(f)
Gross profit -- product	$	791,111			69.1	%		$	14,285					$	805,396			70.4	%
								$	14,979			(c)
								267				(d)
								190				(e)
								32				(g)
Gross profit -- subscription services	$	357,813			66.3	%		$	15,468					$	373,281			69.1	%
								$	18,980			(c)
								351				(d)
								925				(e)
								9,465				(f)
								32				(g)
Total gross profit	$	1,148,924			68.2	%		$	29,753					$	1,178,677			70.0	%

(a)	GAAP gross margin is defined as GAAP 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.
(e)	To eliminate expenses directly related to COVID-19 pandemic including hazard pay premiums.
(f)	To eliminate amortization expense of acquired intangible assets.
(g)	To eliminate payments to former shareholders of acquired company.

 

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

	Fourth Quarter of Fiscal																		Fourth Quarter of Fiscal
	2021																		2020
	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)
								$	62,589		(c)															$	56,163		(c)
								6,435			(d)															1,935			(d)
								2,024			(e)															1,401			(e)
								7,977			(f)															—
								3,594			(g)															2,074			(g)
								921			(h)															—
Operating income (loss)	$	(46,819)			-9.3	%		$	83,540			$	36,721			7.3	%		$	(694)			-0.1	%		$	61,573			$	60,879			12.4	%
								$	62,589		(c)															$	56,163		(c)
								6,435			(d)															1,935			(d)
								2,024			(e)															1,401			(e)
								7,977			(f)															—
								3,594			(g)															2,074			(g)
								921			(h)															—
								7,545			(i)															6,993			(i)
Net income (loss)	$	(52,293)						$	91,085			$	38,792						$	(4,651)						$	68,566			$	63,915
Net income (loss) per share -- diluted	$	(0.19)										$	0.13						$	(0.02)										$	0.23
Weighted-average shares used in per share calculation -- diluted	274,421							22,786			(j)	297,207							259,218							17,984			(j)	277,202

(a)	GAAP operating margin is defined as GAAP operating loss divided by revenue.
(b)	Non-GAAP operating margin is defined as non-GAAP operating income divided by revenue.
(c)	To eliminate stock-based compensation expense.
(d)	To eliminate payments to former shareholders of acquired companies.
(e)	To eliminate payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities.
(f)	To eliminate restructuring expenses related to (1) workforce reductions and (2) the cease-use of certain facilities.
(g)	To eliminate amortization expense of acquired intangible assets.
(h)	To eliminate acquisition-related transaction and integration expenses.
(i)	To eliminate amortization expense of debt discount and debt issuance costs related to our long-term debt.
(j)	To include effect of dilutive securities (employee stock options, restricted stock, and shares from employee stock purchase plan).

 

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

	Fiscal Year Ended
	2021
	GAAP results				GAAP operating margin (a)			Adjustment				Non- GAAP results				Non- GAAP operating margin (b)
								$	242,344		(c)
								13,849			(d)
								6,040			(e)
								9,869			(f)
								22,055			(g)
								10,174			(h)
								2,683			(i)
Operating income (loss)	$	(261,033)			-15.5	%		$	307,014			$	45,981			2.7	%

(a)	GAAP operating margin is defined as GAAP operating loss divided by revenue.
(b)	Non-GAAP operating margin is defined as non-GAAP operating income divided by revenue.
(c)	To eliminate stock-based compensation expense.
(d)	To eliminate payments to former shareholders of acquired companies.
(e)	To eliminate payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities.
(f)	To eliminate expenses directly related to COVID-19 pandemic. These expenses included marketing commitments no longer deemed to have value and hazard pay premiums.
(g)	To eliminate restructuring expenses related to (1) workforce reductions and (2) the cease-use of certain facilities.
(h)	To eliminate amortization expense of acquired intangible assets.
(i)	To eliminate acquisition-related transaction and integration expenses.

 

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

		Fourth Quarter of Fiscal								Fiscal Year Ended
		2021				2020				2021				2020
Net cash provided by operating activities		$	69,033			$	69,858			$	187,641			$	189,574
Less: purchases of property and equipment		(21,332)				(13,641)				(94,975)				(87,847)
Free cash flow (non-GAAP)		$	47,701			$	56,217			$	92,666			$	101,727

 

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