Splunk Announces Fiscal Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results

Cloud ARR Up 72%

Expects Total ARR of $3.1 Billion by Fiscal Year End

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK), provider of the Data-to-Everything Platform, today announced results for its fiscal second quarter ended July 31, 2021.

Second Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights

• Cloud ARR was $976 million, up 72% year-over-year.
• Total ARR was $2.63 billion, up 37% year-over-year.
• Cloud revenue was $217 million, up 73% year-over-year.
• Total revenues were $606 million, up 23% year-over-year.
• 234 customers with Cloud ARR greater than $1 million, up 100% year-over-year.
• 582 customers with Total ARR greater than $1 million, up 47% year-over-year.

“Our team delivered another strong quarter, validating the high strategic value we deliver to the world’s largest and most dynamic organizations,” said Doug Merritt, President and CEO of Splunk. “We doubled the number of customers with Cloud ARR of $1 million dollars or more as workloads and data continue to shift to cloud. Our second quarter execution was broad-based with each of our major geographic regions exceeding our own expectations as more and more customers around the world rely on Splunk and our market-leading data platform and cloud-based capabilities.”

“We delivered another quarter of high growth with Total ARR of $2.63 billion dollars, up 37% year-over-year,” said Jason Child, Chief Financial Officer, Splunk. “We outperformed in the first half of the year and are well-positioned heading into the second half. We expect $1.3 billion of Cloud ARR and Total ARR of well over $3 billion by fiscal year end as we help our customers accelerate their digital transformations.”

Business Highlights:

New and Expansion Customers Include: Arlo, Chartis Group LLC, Fujitsu, Hiscox Underwriting Group Services Limited, Intel Corporation, N-able Technologies, Inc., Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), and Rover Group, Inc.

• New Cloud-based Platforms Help Customers Maximize the Value from their Data: Splunk launched the Splunk Observability Cloud, Splunk IT Cloud, and Splunk Security Cloud to help organizations safely conquer complexity and fast-track cloud transformation. In addition, Splunk completed the acquisition of TruSTAR, a cloud-native security company offering a data-centric intelligence platform.
• Silver Lake Investment: Silver Lake Partners, a global leader in technology investing, made a $1 billion investment in Splunk senior notes to support the continued transformation of Splunk’s business and management of the company’s capital structure, including Splunk’s $1 billion share buyback program. Kenneth Hao, Chairman and Managing Partner of Silver Lake, was also appointed to Splunk’s Board of Directors.
• Splunk Ranks First in Both IT and Security Market Share Reports By Gartner, Inc.: Splunk leads IT Operations Management (ITOM) Performance Analysis and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) market share rankings for the second and third consecutive year in 2020 reports.*
• Splunk Expands Executive Bench and Technical Leadership: Splunk welcomed Shawn Bice as president of Products and Technology and appointed executives to the positions of Chief Cloud Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Product Officer.
• Splunk Delivers State of Observability and Security Reports: Global research reveals that IT leaders’ early investments in observability lead to improvements in performance, customer experience and bottom line. As well, security strategy evolution is necessary to address the increasing complexity of hybrid, multicloud infrastructures as supply chain attacks and remote work continues.

Financial Outlook

The company is providing the following guidance for its fiscal third quarter 2022 (ending October 31, 2021):

• Cloud ARR is expected to be between $1.10 billion and $1.11 billion.
• Total ARR is expected to be between $2.8 billion and $2.825 billion.
• Total revenues are expected to be between $625 million and $650 million.
• Non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be between negative 15% and negative 20%.

The company is providing the following guidance for its fiscal year 2022 (ending January 31, 2022):

• Cloud ARR is expected to be between $1.305 billion and $1.330 billion.
• Total ARR is expected to be between $3.085 billion and $3.135 billion.
• Total revenues are expected to be between $2.53 billion and $2.60 billion.
• Non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be between negative 14% and negative 17%.
• Operating Cash Flow is expected to be approximately $100 million.

All forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures contained in this “Financial Outlook” section exclude estimates for stock-based compensation and related employer payroll tax, acquisition-related adjustments, amortization of intangible assets, restructuring and facility exit charges and capitalized software development costs.

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 these 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 second quarter 2022 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-presentations. A replay of the call will be available through September 1, 2021 by dialing (855) 859-2056 and referencing Conference ID 2160425.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding Splunk’s guidance for total ARR, cloud ARR, revenue and non-GAAP operating margin targets for the company’s fiscal third quarter and fiscal year 2022 and operating cash flow for the company’s fiscal year 2022 in the paragraphs under “Financial Outlook” above and elsewhere in this press release, statements regarding our market opportunity, including trends in the pace of customer digital and cloud transformation; our global presence and trends in customer demand, engagement and bookings; the growth of our cloud business; the market for data-related products and the importance of data and our ability to leverage these trends; our strategy, technology and product innovation; expectations for our industry, business and products, such as our business model, customer demand, our partner relationships, customer success and feedback, expanding use of Splunk by customers, and expected benefits and scale of our products. There are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including: risks associated with Splunk’s rapid growth, particularly outside of the United States; Splunk’s inability to realize value from its significant investments in the company’s business, including product and service innovations and through acquisitions; Splunk’s shift from sales of licenses to sales of cloud services which impacts the timing of revenue and margins; a shift from generally invoicing multi-year contracts upfront to invoicing on an annual basis, which impacts cash collections; Splunk’s transition to a multi-product software and services business; Splunk’s inability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies; Splunk’s inability to service its debt obligations or other adverse effects related to the company’s convertible notes; the emergence of new COVID-19 variants such as the Delta variant, the impact of new variants such as the Delta variant and related public health measures on our business, as well as the impact of new variants such as the Delta variant on the overall economic environment, including customer buying capacity, urgency and patterns; 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 April 30, 2021, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Splunk’s other filings with the SEC. 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.

*Gartner, Inc., Market Share Analysis: ITOM, Performance Analysis Software, Worldwide, 2020; Laurie Wurster and Shailendra Upadhyay, June 11, 2021; Gartner, Inc., Market Share: All Software Markets, Worldwide 2020, Neha Gupta et al, April 14, 2021

About Splunk Inc.

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) turns data into doing with the Data-to-Everything Platform. Splunk technology is designed to investigate, monitor, analyze and act on data at any scale.

Splunk, Splunk>, Data-to-Everything, D2E and Turn Data Into Doing 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. © 2021 Splunk Inc. All rights reserved.

Splunk Inc.

Operating Metrics

Total Annual Recurring Revenue (“Total ARR”) represents the annualized revenue run-rate of active cloud services, term license and maintenance contracts at the end of a reporting period. Cloud Annual Recurring Revenue (“Cloud ARR”) represents the annualized revenue run-rate of active cloud services contracts at the end of a reporting period. Each contract is annualized by dividing the contract value by the number of days in the contract term and then multiplying by 365.

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 the following non-GAAP financial measures: cloud services cost of revenues, cloud services gross margin, cost of revenues, gross margin, research and development expense, sales and marketing expense, general and administrative expense, operating income (loss), operating margin, income tax provision (benefit), net income (loss), net income (loss) per share and free cash flow (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 intangible assets, acquisition-related adjustments, restructuring and facility exit charges, capitalized software development costs and non-cash interest expense related to convertible senior notes. The non-GAAP financial measures are also adjusted for Splunk's estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income (loss). To determine the estimated non-GAAP tax rate, Splunk evaluates financial projections based on its non-GAAP results and the tax effect of those projections. The estimated non-GAAP tax rate takes into account many factors including our operating structure and tax positions. The non-GAAP tax rate applied to the three and six months ended July 31, 2021 was 20%. The applicable fiscal 2021 tax rates are noted in the reconciliations. In addition, non-GAAP financial measures include free cash flow, which represents operating cash flow less purchases of property and equipment. Splunk considers free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated or used by the business.

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 intangible assets, acquisition-related adjustments, restructuring and facility exit charges, capitalized software development costs and non-cash interest expense related to convertible senior notes from the applicable non-GAAP financial measures because these adjustments are considered by management to be outside of Splunk’s core operating results.

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 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. 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.

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