Confluent Inc (CFLT) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Subscription Growth and Strategic ...

GuruFocus.com
12 Feb
  • Subscription Revenue: Grew 24% to $250.6 million in Q4, representing 96% of total revenue.
  • Confluent Cloud Revenue: Increased 38% to $137.9 million, accounting for 55% of subscription revenue.
  • Confluent Platform Revenue: Grew 10% to $112.7 million, making up 45% of subscription revenue.
  • Non-GAAP Operating Margin: Improved to 5.2% in Q4, exceeding guidance.
  • Free Cash Flow Margin: Reached a record high of 11.1% in Q4.
  • Net Income Per Share: $0.09 using 362.1 million diluted weighted average shares outstanding.
  • Cash and Marketable Securities: Ended Q4 with $1.91 billion.
  • Customer Growth: Ended fiscal year 2024 with approximately 5,800 customers, an increase of 840 customers.
  • 100K+ ARR Customers: Grew 12% to 1,381, representing approximately 90% of revenue.
  • 1 Million+ ARR Customers: Increased 23% to 194 customers.
  • Net Revenue Retention (NRR): 117% in Q4.
  • Gross Revenue Retention (GRR): Remained above 90%.
  • Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Signs with DIOD.

Release Date: February 11, 2025

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Positive Points

  • Confluent Inc (NASDAQ:CFLT) exceeded all guided metrics with a 24% growth in subscription revenue and a 38% increase in Confluent Cloud revenue.
  • The company achieved a non-GAAP operating margin of 5%, marking its third consecutive positive quarter.
  • Confluent Inc (NASDAQ:CFLT) announced a major expansion of its strategic partnership with Databricks, enhancing real-time data capabilities for AI-driven decision-making.
  • The introduction of Tableflow has been well-received, providing real-time, consistent, and secure data as structured tables in cloud object storage.
  • Confluent Inc (NASDAQ:CFLT) reported its first non-GAAP profitable year with a 26% growth in subscription revenue and a significant improvement in free cash flow margin.

Negative Points

  • The company faces risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements.
  • Despite positive growth, the reliance on non-GAAP financial measures may present limitations in financial analysis.
  • The transition to a consumption-driven go-to-market model may require ongoing adjustments and tuning.
  • The competitive landscape includes potential acquisitions by competitors, such as Snowflake's interest in Redpanda, which could impact market dynamics.
  • Confluent Inc (NASDAQ:CFLT) must continue to navigate the complexities of integrating new technologies and partnerships, which could pose operational challenges.

Q & A Highlights

Q: Can you discuss how customers are using Confluent for streaming and processing outside of analytic engines, especially in light of your expanded partnership with Databricks? A: Jay Kreps, CEO, explained that the rise of AI applications is driving the need for real-time data in analytics, moving beyond traditional data warehousing. The partnership with Databricks integrates Confluent's streaming data with Databricks' analytics, enabling real-time data processing and AI-driven decision-making. This collaboration aims to unify operational and analytical data ecosystems, enhancing the utility of streaming data across various applications.

Q: What gives you confidence that 2025 will be the year of DSP, and what trends are you observing? A: Jay Kreps noted that both qualitative and quantitative factors support this confidence. The qualitative aspect includes strong customer interest and open-source adoption of DSP components. Quantitatively, there is a significant ramp in consumption and a robust pipeline for DSP products, indicating a growing demand for comprehensive real-time data capabilities.

Q: How are Gen AI use cases evolving in the context of streaming and DSP technology? A: Jay Kreps highlighted two main patterns: initially, AI applications focused on real-time ETL to prepare data for AI models. Now, there's a shift towards applying language models directly to streaming data, enabling real-time decision-making and automation in business processes, such as insurance claims processing, which enhances efficiency and reduces costs.

Q: Can you elaborate on the changes in your go-to-market strategy and any adjustments for 2025? A: Jay Kreps stated that the major transformation last year involved aligning incentives with consumption-based models. For 2025, the focus is on fine-tuning these changes, emphasizing specific DSP workloads and use cases. The sales team is now better equipped to track and drive adoption of DSP components, which is expected to enhance customer engagement and growth.

Q: How is Confluent positioning itself against traditional data integration vendors, and is this changing your go-to-market approach? A: Jay Kreps acknowledged that while Confluent has always replaced legacy integration technologies, there's now a stronger focus on directly competing with commercial batch processing vendors. As awareness of data streaming grows and Confluent's product offerings become more comprehensive, the company is increasingly targeting these larger batch workloads, positioning streaming as a superior, scalable, and real-time alternative.

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

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