Snowflake Stock Melts as Outlook Disappoints
Snowflake shares fell sharply in premarket trading on Thursday after the cloud-based data warehouse company posted solid results for its fiscal first quarter ended in April, but gave disappointing guidance for the July quarter, while its forecast for the fiscal year ending in January 2024 was trimmed. .
Snowflake (ticker: SNOW) was down 14% at $152.53 in premarket trading.
For the April quarter, Snowflake had revenue of $623.6 million, up 48% from a year earlier and ahead of the Street consensus forecast of $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 per share; Adjusted earnings were 1[ads1]5 cents per share, a penny above Street estimates.
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Snowflake said its net retention rate, a measure that shows existing customers are expanding their use of the company’s software, was 151%. Remaining benefit obligations were $3.4 billion, up 31%.
But the problem for Snowflake shares is that the guidance disappointed the Street.
For the July quarter, Snowflake sees product revenue of $620 million to $625 million, missing the Street consensus of $649 million. The company expects a non-GAAP operating margin for the quarter of 2%.
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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 full-year non-GAAP operating margin 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 eric.savitz@barrons.com