A10 Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ATEN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Dhrupad Trivedi: Yeah. So good question and I think if you look at our trended financials, right? And as I said before, Enterprise segment actually, even in this year, is growing 5% to 7% for us. Globally, obviously, right, it’s — revenue-wise it’s still not as big or close to the SP segment. But I would say Q3, our Enterprise revenue was roughly $29 million out of that. So that’s a pretty good mix, if you will. Now we don’t want it to grow because SP is declining, right? But that is a pretty high mark for us so far in the last seven quarters, eight quarters, right? And the connection for us really there is a lot of the large Enterprise customers have concluded that it is more efficient and risk manage-wise — management-wise better for them to operate on-prem and cloud, and our ability to provide that, right, is what is helping us regain growth in that market and be credible for those customers.

Hamed Khorsand: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Dhrupad Trivedi: Yeah, Thanks. Thank you, Hamed.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We now turn to Christian Schwab with Craig-Hallum Capital. Your line is open.

Christian Schwab: Hey. Great. Thanks for taking my question. Just looking at your generic guidance then, you know, if we assume Enterprise remained stable at 5% and Service Provider not sure when it’s going to come back, but it should come back eventually. Just — does that kind of mean that’s a flat year-over-year or it kind of sounds like it should be up modestly, maybe like 5%. Is that kind of given the visibility at hand, I know you are not giving guidance, but it kind of seems what you are implying? But did I hear that right or did I not hear that right at all?

Dhrupad Trivedi: Yeah. Good question, Christian. So, obviously, we have talked about Q4, so put that aside. One of the principles we talk about, right, is we plan to always over perform versus our peer group by a couple of hundred basis points with execution and strategy. And I think if you look at all the earnings that have already come out and you look at our peer group right now, you are correct, right, it would — does call for that group next year year-over-year to be 3% to 4% and we obviously expect to do better. So we are not giving guidance, but we certainly are mindful of where the market is and working on things that help us do a little bit better than that.

Christian Schwab: Okay. And then how long would — at these type of growth rates versus kind of our hope to be a double-digit growth company now that many quarters ago. How long would it take before you would maybe have to readjust the cost structure of the company permanently, if you would, if the business is reverting back to kind of, call it, a mid-to-high single-digit growth company?

Dhrupad Trivedi: Yeah. Good question. So I think, right now, obviously, we are taking actions where we can deliver results even without that high double-digit growth number. My expectation is, our new products and security-led offerings obviously can grow in that ZIP code. Our ability to drive Enterprise, although it’s a smaller number, is also in that ZIP code. Service Provider, we are continuing to derisk. That spending is not going to snap back, but we are trying to derisk by going more to also regional providers around the world. And I would say a lot of the other people in our sector have talked about it, that they expect Service Provider spending to resume in the first half, but be at a more normal clip by second half of 2024, right? So I think we — obviously, we will continue to monitor it, but our goal is obviously to get back to the double-digit growth without necessarily calling a date, right, which I can’t do.

Christian Schwab: Yeah. That’s extremely fair. Great. I don’t have any other questions. Thank you.

Dhrupad Trivedi: Thanks. Thank you, Christian.

Operator: Our next question comes from Anja Soderstrom with Sidoti. Your line is open.

Anja Soderstrom: Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. Most of them have been addressed already. But are you starting to see any lost deals or is it just a matter of them being pushed out, you think?