Snowflake Shares Melt as Outlook Disappoints

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Snowflake

shares are down sharply in late trading Wednesday after the cloud-based data warehousing company posted solid results for the fiscal first quarter ended in April, but offered disappointing guidance for the July quarter, while trimming its forecast for the fiscal year ending in January 2024.

The company didn’t explain the reduced guidance in its earnings press release.

In late trading, Snowflake (ticker: SNOW) is off 13%, at $154.99.

For the April quarter, Snowflake posted revenue of $623.6 million, up 48% from a year earlier and ahead of the Street consensus forecast at $609 million. Product revenue—a measure Snowflake focuses on—was $590.1 million, up 50%, and ahead of the company’s guidance range of $568 million to $573 million.

On a GAAP basis, the company lost 70 cents a share; adjusted profits were 15 cents a share, a dime above Street estimates.

Snowflake said net retention rate, a measure that shows existing customers are expanding their use of the company’s software, was 151%. Remaining performance obligations were $3.4 billion, up 31%.

But the issue for Snowflake shares is that guidance disappointed the Street.

For the July quarter, Snowflake sees product revenue of $620 million to $625 million, missing the Street consensus at $649 million. The company expects non-GAAP operating margin for the quarter of 2%.

For the full year, Snowflake now sees product revenue of $2.6 billion, up 34%, below the previous guidance target of $2.7 billion. The company now sees non-GAAP operating margin for the full year of 5%, down from a previous forecast of 6%. Snowflake increased its forecast for adjusted free cash flow margin to 26%, from 25%.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]