Internet security and content delivery network Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) beat analysts' expectations in Q4 FY2023, with revenue up 32% year on year to $362.5 million. The company expects next quarter's revenue to be around $373 million, in line with analysts' estimates. It made a non-GAAP profit of $0.15 per share, improving from its profit of $0.06 per share in the same quarter last year.
Is now the time to buy Cloudflare? Find out by accessing our full research report, it's free.
Cloudflare (NET) Q4 FY2023 Highlights:
- Revenue: $362.5 million vs analyst estimates of $353 million (2.7% beat)
- EPS (non-GAAP): $0.15 vs analyst estimates of $0.12 (26.3% beat)
- Revenue Guidance for Q1 2024 is $373 million at the midpoint, roughly in line with what analysts were expecting
- Management's revenue guidance for the upcoming financial year 2024 is $1.65 billion at the midpoint, in line with analyst expectations and implying 27.2% growth (vs 33.1% in FY2023)
- Free Cash Flow of $50.72 million, up 45.4% from the previous quarter
- Gross Margin (GAAP): 77%, up from 75.3% in the same quarter last year
- Market Capitalization: $27.99 billion
"We had an exceptionally strong fourth quarter. We grew revenue by 32% percent year-over-year, to $362.5, blew away our previous records for new ACV—delivering the highest quarterly growth since 2021—and signed both our largest new customer win and largest customer renewal ever. Our pipeline close rates, sales force productivity, average deal size, and linearity all improved markedly quarter-over-quarter. To close out the year, strength in our business was driven by robust momentum with large customers, significant progress in the public sector, and growth in Cloudflare One," said Matthew Prince, co-founder & CEO of Cloudflare.
Founded by two grad students of Harvard Business School, Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) is a software as a service platform that helps improve security, reliability and loading times of internet applications and websites.
Content Delivery
The amount of content on the internet is exploding, whether it is music, movies and or e-commerce stores. Consumer demand for this content creates network congestion, much like a digital traffic jam which drives demand for specialized content delivery networks (CDN) services that alleviate potential network bottlenecks.
Sales Growth
As you can see below, Cloudflare's revenue growth has been impressive over the last two years, growing from $193.6 million in Q4 FY2021 to $362.5 million this quarter.
Unsurprisingly, this was another great quarter for Cloudflare with revenue up 32% year on year. Quarter on quarter, its revenue increased by $26.87 million in Q4, which was roughly in line with the Q3 2023 increase. This steady growth shows that the company can maintain a strong growth trajectory.
Next quarter's guidance suggests that Cloudflare is expecting revenue to grow 28.5% year on year to $373 million, slowing down from the 36.8% year-on-year increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. For the upcoming financial year, management expects revenue to be $1.65 billion at the midpoint, growing 27.2% year on year compared to the 33% increase in FY2023.
Today’s young investors won’t have read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.
Cash Is King
If you've followed StockStory for a while, you know that we emphasize free cash flow. Why, you ask? We believe that in the end, cash is king, and you can't use accounting profits to pay the bills. Cloudflare's free cash flow came in at $50.72 million in Q4, up 50.7% year on year.
Key Takeaways from Cloudflare's Q4 Results
It was good to see Cloudflare beat analysts' revenue expectations this quarter. Its full-year guidance also showed the company can maintain a strong level of growth. And with free cash flow now in positive territory, we believe that growth is sustainable over the long term. Zooming out, we think this was a very solid quarter, showing that the company is staying on track. The stock is up 20.2% after reporting and currently trades at $115 per share.
So should you invest in Cloudflare right now? When making that decision, it's important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free.
One way to find opportunities in the market is to watch for generational shifts in the economy. Almost every company is slowly finding itself becoming a technology company and facing cybersecurity risks and as a result, the demand for cloud-native cybersecurity is skyrocketing. This company is leading a massive technological shift in the industry and with revenue growth of 50% year on year and best-in-class SaaS metrics it should definitely be on your radar.