F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

These areas are growing rapidly but from a small base, and this is where we’re seeing a different trend in demand. That, I think, is kind of — when you look at the overall portfolio, this is how we see the various demand levels.

James Fish: Makes sense. And Frank, maybe for you. You guys keep mentioning expansion opportunities and expansion rates being pretty strong. I know you’re not quantitatively giving them, but can you qualitatively kind of give us some color around what you saw versus the first half of the year with net retention rates, be it on recurring revenue or just the recurring software piece? And also trying to understand how much of growth is being constrained by the transition to recurring sources, particularly the SaaS side of things, as you collect more revenue over time but less upfront. Thanks, guys.

Francois Locoh-Donou: Sure. So yes, that dynamic, I will be excited to see, Jim, but we have not yet seen that, where the SaaS piece has overtaken the term-based subscription side of the business. That still is the majority of our software revenue. In terms of net retention rates, it was strong in the quarter. That part is part of our renewal base of revenue, which has been, frankly, much closer to plan than new business. New business activity was challenged in the quarter in relation to what we expected to do at the beginning of the year but much better than what we had seen in the first half of the year. And so in totality, again, the net retention that we have seen in our recurring base of revenue and the renewal base of revenue has been growing and strong.

But the new business opportunities that we see, those are the ones that are still challenged in relation to what we expected to do at the beginning of the year. But they were largely in line, slightly better than the revised expectations that we set last quarter.

James Fish: Thanks, Frank.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Meta Marshall with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Meta Marshall: Great. Thanks. Maybe first question, was there any difference in the mix that you ended up seeing in the quarter versus expectation? I guess I’m just asking because the backlog seems to have been exhausted. But yes, the systems number was maybe a little bit lighter than expected. So just are more customers kind of opting now for virtual editions as they move back towards kind of thinking about hybrid cloud? And then I have a second question just on — you made a point of talking about the share gain opportunities. Just what has been the best entry point or targeted sales program to kind of identify and go after some of those customers? Thanks.

Francois Locoh-Donou: Thank you. And in a way, your two questions are related because it comes down to this flexibility of the model we’ve built, of offering hardware, software and SaaS. So, to the first part of your question, was there any — relative to our expectation in terms of the mix, hardware/software. Look, I think we were pleased to see that a couple of the bigger software deals that we have been expecting for a while actually did come through and were not delayed. And so that helped the overall software performance for the quarter and we think also speaks to the stabilization in terms of customers. Still not returning to, of course, ’22 level in terms of new projects and starting these new especially big software transmission projects, but at least the ones that are absolutely necessary for customers to move through with them.