Splunk Earnings Beat Estimates. Shares Fall on New Business Slowdown.

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Splunk

posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal second quarter ended July 31, while boosting its revenue outlook for the January 2023 fiscal year.

But the stock is trading sharply lower on a slowdown in the company’s new business pipeline.

A provider of data security and IT monitoring software, Splunk (ticker: SPLK) posted revenue of $799 million, up 32% from a year ago, and well ahead of the company’s forecast of $735 million to $755 million. Spunk posted a loss for the quarter of 22 cents a share, narrower than the Street consensus forecast for a loss of 36 cents a share.

Cloud revenue was $346 million, up 59%. The company said 723 customers are generating more than $1 million in annualized revenue, up 24% from a year ago.

“Splunk is well positioned to deliver long-term, durable growth and profitability as we help the world’s largest and most innovative enterprises improve their cybersecurity and business resilience,” CEO Gary Steele said in a statement.

For the fiscal third quarter, Splunk is projecting revenue of $835 million to $855 million, above the consensus call of $834.8 million. The company expects a non-GAAP operating margin of between 6% and 8%.

For the January 2023 fiscal year, Splunk now sees revenue of between $3.35 billion and $3.4 billion, up from a previously forecast range of $3.3 billion to $3.35 billion. The company boosted its forecast for full-year non-GAAP operating margin to 8%, from 2%. The company now sees full-year operating cash flow of at least $420 million, up from a previous target of $400 million.

On the other hand, the company trimmed its forecast for full-year annual recurring revenue to $3.65 billion, with $1.8 billion from the cloud, down from $3.9 billion total and $2 billion from the cloud. That reduction is where investors are focusing in late trading.

Asked about the issue, Splunk replied in a statement, “ARR came in below the expectations we had at the beginning of the quarter, driven by a slower pace of expansions and cloud migrations as macro uncertainty negatively impacted near-term budget availability of many of our customers.

Splunk in late trading is down 10.3%, to $99.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]