F5 Networks Announces Third Quarter
Earnings; Revenue and Earnings up Sequentially on Strong Sales in
North America and Asia-Pacific
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--xx--F5 Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FFIV)
today announced net income of $1.4 million ($0.05 per share) on
revenue of $29.2 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2003, up from
$0.8 million ($0.03 per share) on revenue of $28.0 million in the
prior quarter. Both results exceeded the target ranges ($0.02 to $0.04
per share on revenue of $27.5 million to $29.0 million) set by
management in the company's April 23rd earnings release. In the third
quarter of fiscal 2002 the company reported revenue of $27.1 million
and a net loss of $4.3 million ($0.17 per share), including
non-recurring expenses related to the discontinuation of its
EDGE-FX(TM) cache business and the consolidation of operations.
F5 president and chief executive officer John McAdam said the
company's sequential revenue growth resulted from strong sales in
North America and Asia-Pacific, up sharply from the prior quarter.
"The growth of sales in North America was stronger in the third
quarter than we had anticipated, with product sales up 12 percent from
the second quarter," McAdam said. "Internationally, sales in
Asia-Pacific grew even faster, helping to offset seasonal slowness in
Japan. From a product perspective, revenue increased sequentially
across all product categories, with system sales representing 68
percent of total revenue and software sales accounting for 5 percent.
We also saw sequential growth in service revenue, which represented 27
percent of total revenue."
According to McAdam, the growth of North American revenue was
fueled primarily by increased channel sales and a number of large
enterprise wins. "As we continued to forge new relationships with some
of the region's largest resellers, we saw meaningful contributions
from several of the new partners we signed up in prior quarters. In
addition, we continued to build momentum in sales to global strategic
accounts, which included four large wins totaling more than $2.5
million," McAdam said.
Operationally, the company turned in a solid performance,
reflected in several key metrics. Gross margin and operating expenses
for the quarter were within the company's target ranges. Days sales
outstanding (DSO) fell to 63 days, and operating cash flow of $3.4
million helped boost cash, cash equivalents and investments to $96.8
million at June 30.
In a separate release issued today
(http://www.f5.com/f5/news/press/), F5 also announced that it has
acquired the assets of uRoam, Inc., a provider of Web-based remote
access solutions, for $25 million in cash. Steve Coburn, F5's senior
vice president of finance and CFO, said he expects early sales of
uRoam's products in September but does not expect revenue from those
sales to be material in the current quarter, ending September 30,
2003. For fiscal 2004, he said uRoam's products could generate revenue
in the range of $8 million to $12 million.
Including the effect of the acquisition, F5 has set a fourth
quarter revenue target of $29.5 million to $30.5 million with earnings
of $0.02 to $0.03 per diluted share.
Further details about third quarter results, the uRoam
acquisition, and company guidance for the fourth quarter will be
discussed in the company's regularly scheduled conference call today
at 1:30 p.m. PDT. The call in numbers: 800-547-2439 (US & Canada) and
706-634-1209 (International). The conference ID is: 1222474. To listen
to the webcast, go to f5.com and click
on the webcast image. |
