Red Hat Reports Third Quarter Results for Fiscal Year 2017 

RALEIGH, N.C., Dec. 22 -- Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, has announced financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2017 ended November 30, 2016.

“Enterprise and service provider customers continue to adopt a hybrid cloud strategy for developing, deploying and managing the life-cycle of their critical applications.  Red Hat is uniquely positioned to address this need. In aggregate, customers utilizing our cloud-enabling technologies either on-premise or in the public cloud are spending more with Red Hat than customers that have not yet embraced our cloud-enabling technologies." said Jim Whitehurst, President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Hat.

CFO Transition: Frank Calderoni notified Red Hat of his decision to step down as Executive Vice President, Operations and Chief Financial Officer of Red Hat, effective in late January 2017, to enable him to accept a chief executive officer position at another company. Mr. Calderoni has indicated that he would make himself available to Red Hat after the effective date of the resignation for transitional support, as needed. Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO, after consulting with the Board of Directors of Red Hat, announced that upon Mr. Calderoni’s resignation in January, Red Hat intends to appoint Eric Shander, Vice President, Finance and Accounting and our principal accounting officer, to act as the CFO of Red Hat, pending a decision on a permanent replacement.

Jim Whitehurst said, “Our warm thanks to Frank for his contributions to Red Hat and for helping prepare Red Hat for the rich business opportunity we have before us.”

Frank Calderoni said, “I want to thank the associates around the globe for the opportunity to be part of the Red Hat team. I am most proud of the leadership team we were able to build. We also enhanced the strong operational and financial foundation that has enabled the company’s continued growth. Red Hat is an exceptional company and well positioned to continue to leverage the broad transformation that is occurring in the IT industry.”

Revenue: Total revenue for the quarter was $615 million, up 18% in U.S. dollars year-over-year, or 17% measured in constant currency. Constant currency references in this release are detailed in the tables below. Subscription revenue for the quarter was $543 million, up 19% in U.S. dollars year-over-year, or 18% measured in constant currency. Subscription revenue in the quarter was 88% of total revenue.

Subscription Revenue Breakout: Subscription revenue from Infrastructure-related offerings for the quarter was $431 million, an increase of 16% in U.S. dollars year-over-year and 14% measured in constant currency. Subscription revenue from Application development-related and other emerging technologies offerings for the quarter was $112 million, an increase of 33% in U.S. dollars year-over-year and 32% measured in constant currency.

Operating Income: GAAP operating income for the quarter was $81 million, up 17% year-over-year. After adjusting for non-cash share-based compensation expense, amortization of intangible assets, and transaction costs related to business combinations, non-GAAP operating income for the third quarter was $143 million, up 16% year-over-year. Non-GAAP references in this release are detailed in the tables below. For the third quarter, GAAP operating margin was 13.1% and non-GAAP operating margin was 23.3%.

Net Income: GAAP net income for the quarter was $68 million, or $0.37 per diluted share, compared with $47 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. During the third quarter of fiscal year 2017, GAAP net income and earnings per diluted share benefited by $6 million and approximately $0.03, respectively, from the adoption of Accounting Standards Update 2016-09 ("ASU 2016-09") in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017.

After adjusting for non-cash share-based compensation expense, amortization of intangible assets, transaction costs related to business combinations, and non-cash interest expense related to the debt discount, non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $111 million, or $0.61 per diluted share, as compared to $89 million, or $0.48 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP diluted weighted average shares outstanding excludes any dilution resulting from the convertible notes because any potential dilution is expected to be offset by our convertible note hedge transactions.

Cash: Operating cash flow was $136 million for the third quarter, a decrease of 8% on a year-over-year basis. Total cash, cash equivalents and investments as of November 30, 2016 was $2.0 billion after repurchasing approximately $125 million, or approximately 1.6 million shares, of common stock in the third quarter. The remaining balance in the current repurchase authorization as of November 30, 2016 was approximately $775 million.

Deferred revenue: At the end of the third quarter, the company’s total deferred revenue balance was $1.7 billion, an increase of 15% year-over-year. The full year positive impact to total deferred revenue from changes in foreign exchange rates was $9 million year-over-year. On a constant currency basis, total deferred revenue would have been up 14% year-over-year.

Outlook: Red Hat’s outlook assumes current foreign currency exchange rates, which have weakened since the outlook provided on September 21, 2016, and current business conditions.

For the full year:

• Revenue guidance is expected to be $2.397 billion to $2.405 billion in U.S. dollars.
• GAAP operating margin is expected to be approximately 13.5% and non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be approximately 23.0%.
• Fully diluted GAAP earnings per share (EPS) is expected to be approximately $1.33 per share. Fully diluted non-GAAP EPS is expected to be approximately $2.27 per share. Both GAAP and non-GAAP EPS assume a $1 million to $2 million per quarter forecast for other income. Both GAAP and non-GAAP EPS also assume an estimated annual effective tax rate of 27% before discrete tax items and 183 million fully diluted shares outstanding.
• Operating cash flow guidance range is expected to be approximately $770 million to $785 million.

For the fourth quarter:

• Revenue guidance is $614 million to $622 million.
• GAAP operating margin is expected to be approximately 14.0% and non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be approximately 24.0%.
• Fully diluted GAAP EPS is expected to be approximately $0.33 per share. Fully diluted non-GAAP EPS is expected to be approximately $0.61. Both GAAP and non-GAAP EPS assume a $1 million to $2 million forecast for other income. Both GAAP and non-GAAP EPS also assume an estimated annual effective tax rate of 27% before discrete tax items and 181 million fully diluted shares outstanding.

GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation:

Full year non-GAAP operating margin guidance is derived by subtracting the estimated full year impact of non-cash share-based compensation expense of approximately $195 million, amortization of intangible assets of approximately $32 million, and transaction costs related to business combinations of $2 million. Full year fully diluted non-GAAP EPS guidance is derived by subtracting the expenses listed in the previous sentence and the full year impact of non-cash interest expense related to the debt discount of approximately $19 million and an estimated annual effective tax rate of 27% before discrete tax items. Additionally, full year fully diluted non-GAAP EPS excludes approximately $16 million of discrete tax benefits related to share-based compensation that are included in full year fully diluted GAAP EPS.

Fourth quarter non-GAAP operating margin guidance is derived by subtracting the estimated impact of non-cash share-based compensation expense of approximately $54 million and amortization of intangible assets of approximately $8 million. Fourth quarter fully diluted non-GAAP EPS guidance is derived by subtracting the expenses listed in the previous sentence and non-cash interest expense related to the debt discount of approximately $5 million and an estimated annual effective tax rate of 27% before discrete tax items. Additionally, fourth quarter fully diluted non-GAAP EPS excludes approximately $1 million of discrete tax benefits related to share-based compensation that are included in fourth quarter fully diluted GAAP EPS.

Source: Red Hat