Nimble Storage: Fiscal 1Q16 Financial Results

 Nimble Storage reported financial results for the fiscal first quarter 2016.

“As enterprises aim to consolidate storage infrastructure to contain cost and complexity, while still delivering tailored service levels for hundreds of business-enabling applications, we believe that we stand alone in our ability to address the broadest spectrum of requirements among next-generation flash-optimized storage platforms,” said Suresh Vasudevan, CEO. “Our Q1 results serve as evidence of our continued momentum. During the quarter, we added 542 new customers, more than doubled our bookings from enterprise and service provider customers, and achieved record bookings contribution from current customers expanding their Nimble installations.“

“Revenue grew 53% from prior year at record high non-GAAP gross margins which remained industry leading at 67.6%. Operating margins improved to negative 11% compared to negative 22% in Q1 last year, and we are confident and remain on track to achieve non-GAAP operating income break-even by the end of the current fiscal year,” said Anup Singh, CFO.

Financial Highlights for 1FQ16:

• Total revenue increased 53% to $71.3 million, up from $46.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. Excluding fluctuations in foreign currency, revenue would have been $73.4 million representing a 58% increase over first quarter of fiscal 2015.
• Non-GAAP gross margin was 67.6% compared to 66.2% in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
• Non-GAAP operating loss was $7.9 million or negative 11% of revenue, compared to a loss of $10.1 million or negative 22% of revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
• GAAP net loss was $29.0 million, or $0.38 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $19.6 million, or $0.28 per basic and diluted share in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
• Non-GAAP net loss was $8.0 million, or $0.10 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $10.0 million, or $0.14 per basic and diluted share in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2016, Nimble Storage expects:

• Total revenue in the range of $77.0 to $79.0 million
• Non-GAAP operating loss in the range of $8.0 to $9.0 million
• Non-GAAP net loss per basic and diluted share in the range of $0.11 to $0.12 based on weighted average basic shares outstanding of approximately 78.0 million

Business Highlights

• Appointed Worldwide Sales Leadership. Denis Murphy joined Nimble as the VP of WW sales bringing 25 years of hands-on sales experience and a track record of success in high growth environments, including EMC and Riverbed Technology.
• Named 2015 Best Places to Work. Nimble was recognized by the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal as one of the Best Places to Work in 2015. The  company was honored for creating exceptional workplace that is highly valued by employees.
• Executed Successful Adaptive Flash Challenge Marketing Campaign. After inviting enterprises evaluating flash-only storage to conduct a side-by-side comparison to experience the performance of the Nimble Adaptive Flash platform, Nimble engaged with more than 300 new prospective customers in the first quarter.
• Expanded Cisco Relationship with Introduction of Joint Support. Customers leveraging Nimble’s SmartStack integrated infrastructure platform can now obtain end-to-end support directly through Cisco’s Solution Support for Critical Infrastructure offering.
• Obtained Certification from SAP as an enterprise storage solution for SAP HANA Platform. The certification, given to the CS-Series arrays, enables Nimble to participate in SAP’s program for SAP HANA tailored data center integration using its certified solutions. Leveraging its product certification, Nimble developed a SmartStack integrated infrastructure platform for SAP HANA that delivers performance and the ability to scale storage in line with changing customer requirements.
• Introduced InfoSight VM-level Monitoring. The new monitoring capabilities provide enterprises with granular visibility into VMware VM environments enabling enterprise IT organizations to rapidly resolve resource contention issues and optimize performance.
• Announced Nimble Cloud-Connected Storage. It allows Nimble customers to co-locate their storage arrays at a nearby Equinix data center and connect them directly to AWS EC2 compute instances using a secure and low-latency connection.
• Launched Global Partner Program. The global channel program enables and rewards partners that resell the Nimble Adaptive Flash platform. The new program features the introduction of certification levels, incentives, and unique sales enablement tools. The channel program received industry recognition from CRN’s 2015 5-Star rating in the Partner Program Guide.
• AsiaPac Regional Expansion through New Partnerships. Nimble expanded its partnerships throughout South Asia, including entrance into the India market, to extend the reach of its Adaptive Flash platform.
• Awarded NASPO ValuePoint Master Agreement. Nimble was awarded the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint Master Agreement that enables Nimble to further simplify and expedite the purchasing process for public-sector organizations and agencies across the state and local government markets, as well as the K-12 and higher education sectors. Since shipping the first CS-Series array in 2010, Nimble has acquired more than 800 SLED customers in USA.