SentinelOne continues to be the strongest cloud stock on the top line. This earnings report did not disappoint on the top line with 109% revenue year-over-year of $78.3 million compared to consensus of $74.64 million. ARR was up 110% year-over-year to $339 million. Customer count with ARR over $100K also outpaced revenue growth at 131% increase. Net retention rate grew to 131% which is above the 130 line.
The company is expecting growth of 109% at the midpoint for next quarter with $8 million coming from the Attivo acquisition. My notes have analysts expecting $84.83 million so if we add the $8 million for $92.83 million, the company is beating those estimates (consensus would have been for 103% growth including Attivo). Organic is expected to be in “the low to mid 90%” range, which reflects a raise from the 85% consensus for Q2.
The company raised full year organic revenue to “the midpoint of 80% range” up from the previous guidance of 80%. The full year guidance was raised to 98% including Attivo for revenue of $405 million. The company stated Attivo would contribute $30 million to full year revenue (although one analyst felt the math was off and has Attivo contributing $35 million). Previously, organic revenue growth was guided at $368 million for FY2022 with analyst consensus slightly higher at $370 million.
To SentinelOne’s credit, the company offers clear communication about margins. It’s one of the few companies where the CEO will discuss this at the onset of the opening remarks.
Per the analysis on compartmentalizing cloud stocks here, we went into the earnings report wanting to see an improvement in operating margin. The company was expected to report (86%) to (84%) Non-GAAP operating margin and provided a beat at (73%). This is up from (127%) last year for an expansion of 54%.
The GAAP operating margin remains an eyesore due to stock-based compensation at (115%) of revenue, up from (165%) in the year-ago quarter.
SentinelOne demonstrated strong improvement in gross margin from 51% in the year-ago quarter to 65% in this quarter. It’s up 2 basis points sequentially and up 15% YoY and is the highest GM for the preceding four quarters.
The one thing that could have weighed on the AH price action was the guide on operating margin for Q2 being (75%) to (73%) – as the critical point here for SentinelOne is that the full year guide management has provided for two quarters is for Non-GAAP op margin for FY2023 to be (60%) to (55%). Even though Q1 was a beat on Non-GAAP margin, the path to delivering on the guidance becomes a bit obscure the longer we remain above this level.
The reason we’ve accepted the weaker (albeit improving) margins is that the company is working towards being FCF positive by 2025 and is not likely to raise cash before this occurs. Any change to this would cause us to look at our thesis again.
The company expects to improve adjusted gross margin to 69%-70% and if we assume similar GAAP percentage as this quarter, it would be about 66% GAAP GM for FY2023.
Singularity Cloud was the company’s fastest growing module, growing over 50% sequentially.
Management focused on the strength of their MITRE Attack results with 100% protection, 100% detection, 100% real-time protection, 99% visibility, 99% analytic coverage. I’m sure we will hear Crowdstrike’s response to this on Thursday 🙂
One analyst asked about the European segment and management stated there is a wholesale movement away from Kaspersky either by choice or by mandate and this is a tailwind for them. Secondly, the Broadcom-VMWare acquisition is favorable for them as they are now capturing CarbonBlack business. In terms of taking business from these two vendors: “We expect that to accelerate in the quarters to come.” I’ll expand more on this when I get the transcript.
Conclusion:
We had said the following in our cloud update:
“Will SentinelOne be able to provide a meet/beat on operating margin in the upcoming quarter and a meet/beat for the full year guide? This must happen and we also need revenue to remain strong.”
SentinelOne’s operating expenses were front-end weighted last year with Q1 being the steepest operating loss and the year getting progressively better (nearly 100% improvement on weak numbers).
If last year is any guide, then SentinelOne is capable of meeting their full year guidance of (60%) to (55%). The company did beat its operating margin guidance this quarter and revenue was strong including key metrics.
I continue to believe the key to this stock is the ongoing revenue strength and its ability to prove to analysts and institutions that it’ll generate cash by 2025. Due to Crowdstrike being a close comparable, it’s likely SentinelOne can (and must) follow in Crowdstrike's cash efficient footsteps, which is what the market will want to see. The product continues to prove itself as exceptional and there was evidence of this in terms of high ARR customer growth, beat/raise on revenue, strong growth on cloud product, and we are likely to see nice movement in the identity product soon. We are keen on SentinelOne's ability to standardize multiple areas of cybersecurity and to do so at a high MITRE ranking.
Despite the red AH on the stock, I see no notable issues with this ER from my perspective.
Previous product analysis is located here: