DigitalOcean Holdings Inc (DOCN) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Revenue Growth and ...

GuruFocus.com
26 Feb
  • Revenue: $205 million in Q4 2024, up 13% year-over-year.
  • Net Dollar Retention (NDR): Improved to 99% in Q4 2024 from 96% in Q4 2023.
  • Adjusted EBITDA Margin: 42% for both Q4 and full year 2024.
  • Free Cash Flow Margin: 18% in Q4 2024.
  • Annual Run Rate Revenue (ARR): $820 million in Q4 2024.
  • Scaler Plus Revenue Growth: 37% year-over-year in Q4 2024.
  • Gross Margin: 62% in Q4 2024, up 500 basis points year-over-year.
  • Non-GAAP Diluted Net Income Per Share: $0.49 in Q4 2024, up 11% year-over-year.
  • Cash and Cash Equivalents: $428 million as of the end of Q4 2024.
  • 2025 Revenue Guidance: $870 million to $890 million, approximately 13% growth at midpoint.
  • 2025 Adjusted EBITDA Margin Guidance: 37% to 40% for the full year.
  • 2025 Adjusted Free Cash Flow Margin Guidance: 16% to 18% for the full year.
  • Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Sign with DOCN.

Release Date: February 25, 2025

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

Positive Points

  • Revenue growth accelerated to 13% year-over-year in Q4 2024, reaching $205 million.
  • Net dollar retention improved to 99% from 96% in the previous year, indicating better customer retention and expansion.
  • Scaler Plus customers, who are critical to growth, increased by 17% year-over-year and contributed 22% of total revenue.
  • The AIML platform exceeded growth expectations with over 160% ARR growth, showing strong adoption and potential.
  • Adjusted EBITDA margins remained strong at 42% for both Q4 and the full year, demonstrating effective cost management.

Negative Points

  • Despite improvements, net dollar retention is still below 100%, indicating room for further customer retention and expansion.
  • The company faces challenges in meeting the needs of larger customers, which has historically impacted growth.
  • Gross margin improvements are partially attributed to changes in server useful life, which may not be sustainable long-term.
  • The initial investment in the new Atlanta data center may lead to a temporary dip in gross margins.
  • The company is still working to improve growth in the non-Scaler Plus cohort, which is not growing as fast as desired.

Q & A Highlights

Q: At your recent deploy conference, you talked about several customers that were disappointed with their experience at the Hyperscalers and ended up migrating to DigitalOcean's platform. Can you expand on that and touch on what types of customers you're targeting and what types of workloads? A: Paddy Srinivasan, CEO: We highlighted customers looking for alternatives due to the complexity and cost of running workloads on Hyperscalers. Our migration program offers a scalable platform that's simpler and more cost-effective. We're targeting tech-native companies with globally distributed, bandwidth-intensive workloads that require elasticity. Our core value proposition is simplicity, scalability, and approachability.

Q: On the EBITDA guidance, you initially guided for 36% to 38% but ended at 42%. Can you explain the main drivers of this outperformance and how we should view the 2025 guidance? A: Matt Steinfort, CFO: We built in some cushion for R&D to accelerate the product roadmap, but we managed resources efficiently, focusing on top initiatives. The wide guidance reflects potential variability in expenses. We're committed to improving gross margins and operating efficiencies, but we may adjust spending to accelerate revenue-driving product capabilities.

Q: Can you provide insights on how much ARR you're able to capture per dollar of GPU-related CapEx and the gross margin profile of the AI services business? A: Matt Steinfort, CFO: GenAI capabilities have higher margins than infrastructure layers and drive significant pull-through revenue in cloud services. The gross margins on core GPU services are not spectacular due to high costs, but we expect improvements as we leverage infrastructure for inferencing and focus on higher-margin platform services.

Q: Can you give more details on the size of the AIML ARR base and its composition? Is it mainly from the Scaler Plus cohort? A: Matt Steinfort, CFO: We don't disclose specific AI ARR as it's intermingled with other revenue streams. The AI customer base includes many smaller customers from our PaperSpace acquisition. While there's a healthy chunk of AI revenue from Scalers Plus, it's not the majority.

Q: How should we think about the behaviors of the Scaler Plus versus non-plus in terms of upsell and cross-sell? Why isn't the non-plus cohort growing faster? A: Matt Steinfort, CFO: The focus on Scalers Plus addresses past challenges with large customers. We've improved product offerings to meet their needs, leading to better retention and growth. The non-plus cohort hasn't grown as fast due to prioritizing larger customers first, but we're working on scalable go-to-market strategies to address this.

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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