Axon Q3 Results: Record Revenue of $105 million; Software Annual Recurring Revenue Exceeds $100 million

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Axon (Nasdaq: AAXN), the global leader in public safety technology, today released the following quarterly update letter to shareholders. Results included:

• Total quarterly revenue of $104.8 million, up 16% year-over-year
• Axon Cloud revenue of $23.9 million, up 47% year-over-year
• Software & Sensors annual recurring revenue of $101.6 million, up 60% year-over-year
• All-new TASER 7 conducted energy weapon in active field trials, shipping soon
• Introduced Axon Body 3, with LTE live-streaming capability

Dear shareholders,

Axon's third quarter was highlighted by both innovation and execution. For the 25th anniversary of the company's founding, we were delighted to introduce the TASER 7 at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in early October.

TASER 7 is the first ground-up redesign of the TASER handheld weapon since the founding of the company in 1993. TASER 7 improves performance across all key metrics, increasing effectiveness, reducing size and improving ease of use. TASER 7 delivers a more compact multi-shot weapon, faster reloads, more stable darts with greater kinetic energy, and increased effectiveness yielding faster, more reliable threat stoppage. New adaptive cross connect technology actively measures and optimizes the flow of charge across up to four probes deployed on the target.

TASER 7 is the most effective TASER weapon ever developed and represents a new premium tier in our weapons category that creates a compelling upgrade opportunity for our entire installed base. It also represents an important step toward our mission of making the bullet obsolete.

Also, for the first time, the TASER 7 integrates seamlessly with our cloud-based software solution for Axon on-officer cameras without requiring a manual connection through a PC. Each TASER 7 is sold with a dock and subscription on Axon Evidence (Evidence.com). Law enforcement customers across the board tell us that TASER 7 is a game changer. It has already been ordered for full deployment by the Fort Worth Police Department and the Nevada State Highway Patrol and is in field trials with several other major agencies. We expect to begin meaningful shipments in December and will continue to sell prior models.

In early October, we also introduced the Axon Body 3 camera, Axon's first LTE-connected device. Axon will procure embedded LTE services directly from FirstNet, built with AT&T, and Verizon's dedicated Public Safety Private Core, eliminating the need for agencies to handle the logistics of a separate LTE bill.

Axon Body 3 retains all the features that made Axon Body 2 the market leader, including full-shift battery life, ruggedness, simplicity, and ease of use. Improvements include better low-light capture, higher image clarity, GPS functionality, and audio that allows for ambient noise reduction. Axon Body 3 also offers live-streaming video and the ability to react to active intelligence, with a processor that can handle edge-AI capabilities such as gunshot detection.

Live streaming offers command staff real-time insight into what is happening during a major incident. In incidents such as mass shootings, bomb scares or SWAT team entries, command staff can see what the officers on the ground are seeing and can more expeditiously allocate the appropriate resources and inform the public. Also, we believe that arriving officers can perform better if they have enhanced situational awareness in advance.

The timing of Axon Body 3's introduction was optimized for 2019 procurement cycles and to leverage the inflection point in adoption of FirstNet's and Verizon's mission-critical LTE services. Some agencies will receive test units in early 2019 and we expect shipments to begin ramping in mid-2019.

In conjunction with revealing two new compelling hardware products — TASER 7 and Axon Body 3 — we also unveiled our go-to-market strategy for Axon Records, our new law enforcement records management system currently under development. In short, Axon is disrupting how agency records management systems are packaged and sold. Agencies that procure the TASER 7 and Axon Body 3 via our Officer Safety Plan package will receive Axon Records' core functionality at no incremental cost for five years. Because records management systems represent one of the largest technology costs for agencies, we believe this offering provides us with a significant competitive advantage.

Axon Records remains on track to be commercially available in Q3 2019, with deployments beginning to scale at that time. We are building a foundational product, upon which we will incorporate additional modules and apps over time, including transcription and automatic report writing. Axon Records will support the key functions that agencies require, including incident report writing, case management, routing and task management, and Axon Evidence integration.

Making Axon Records available for free as part of our popular Officer Safety Plan is a strategy designed to rapidly drive mass adoption. Combining agencies' text records with on-officer camera data puts video at the heart of the record and creates the ecosystem for us to develop breakthrough premium services, leveraging our industry-leading AI team. Axon Records creates the training data set to enable us to develop AI models that extract the records meta data from the audio-video data. The value created by automating the incident report creation process will be far greater than the value of any records system currently in existence.

Summary of Q3 2018 Results ⁽¹⁾

• Revenue of $104.8 million grew 16% year-over-year, with strength driven by domestic weapons demand and Axon Fleet.
• Gross margin of 62.6% was up 750 basis points from gross margin of 55.1% in Q3 2017.
• Much of the improvement in gross margin was driven by an improved mix of body-camera shipments, better margins associated with Axon Fleet, which were negative one year ago as Axon deployed leader pricing to early adopters, and the elimination of duplicate data storage costs, which were incurred one year ago as we transitioned from Amazon Web Services to Microsoft Azure.
• Operating expenses of $61.7 million grew 7% sequentially.
• The increase in operating expenses was driven by a 19% increase in research and development spending as we added engineering talent to support Axon Records and incurred incremental costs in our final push to bring the TASER 7 to market.
• SG&A spending grew 0.9% sequentially, reflecting additional payroll to support our growth, offset by ongoing cost control measures and lower professional and consulting fees. Q3 2018 SG&A expenses include a non-cash intangible asset abandonment charge of $2.0 million.
• GAAP EPS was $0.10. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.20, which excludes $0.10 related to stock-based compensation expense, was up substantially versus non-GAAP EPS of $0.05 a year ago.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $15.5 million grew 129% year over year and represents an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.8%.

• TASER weapons sales grew 7% year over year and 5% sequentially as Q3 2018 benefited from higher handle volumes tied to shipments to domestic customers and an increase in cartridge revenue.
• Weapons gross margin was up 220 basis points year over year and was higher than the average of the prior six quarters on customer mix.
• About 33% of TASER weapons sales in Q3 2018 were sold on a recurring payment plan such as TASER 60 or Officer Safety Plan. We expect recurring payment plan subscriptions to increase substantially in 2019 as we drive sales of TASER 7, which includes a software subscription with Axon Evidence.

• Axon Cloud sales grew 47% year over year to $23.9 million.
• Axon Cloud gross margin gained year over year largely due to the elimination of data migration costs that we incurred a year ago, and was down sequentially because of professional services fees, which vary by quarter.
• Sensors and Other sales, which primarily consist of hardware sensors, totaled $17.3 million and were boosted by installations of the new Axon Fleet 2, which began shipping in September. We believe our progress and success with Axon Fleet, which began shipping in Q2 2017, demonstrates our ability to identify a market adjacency and expand into a compelling new product category.
• Sensors and Other gross margin was adversely affected by delivering upon VIEVU contracts we acquired in May.

• Software & Sensors bookings of $92.9 million grew 5% sequentially and 19% year over year, and represented strength across categories, including domestic bookings of Axon Fleet and new international markets adopting Axon solutions.
• Software & Sensors annual recurring revenue (software & warranty) was $101.6 million, surpassing $100 million for the first time, and reflecting growth of 60% year over year.
• As of September 30, 2018, we had 325,200 booked seats on the Axon network, representing an increase of 20,000 seats from June 30, 2018.
• As of September 30, 2018, Software & Sensors backlog increased to approximately $700 million, which is a subset of Axon's total remaining performance obligations of approximately $820 million.

Outlook

We are providing the following updated guidance for the full year ending December 31, 2018:

• Maintaining revenue growth guidance of 18% to 20%.
• Based on current Q4 business trends, we are tracking to achieve the midpoint of our full year guidance range.
• We expect TASER 7 to contribute modestly to Q4 2018 and to be a significant growth driver beginning in 2019.
• Reiterating Adjusted EBITDA margin guidance of 14% to 16%, which compares to Adjusted EBITDA margin of 11.6% in 2017.
• The Adjusted EBITDA margin guidance range includes the impact of cost absorption related to a large domestic customer transitioning from VIEVU cameras to Axon Body 2 cameras, beginning in Q4 2018.
• A normalized tax rate of 20% to 25%, which can fluctuate depending on geography of income and the effects of discrete items, including changes in our stock price; and
• Capital expenditures in the range of $10 million to $12 million.

Looking ahead, you can expect to see us continue to deliver product innovation and a superior customer experience, stay scrappy and remain focused on driving strong top-line growth and profitability. We look forward to updating you again in 2019.

Signed,

Rick Smith, CEO
Luke Larson, President
Jawad Ahsan, CFO

Quarterly conference call and Webcast

We will host our Q3 2018 earnings conference call on Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 2 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. AZT / 5 p.m. ET.

The call will be available via live audio webcast and archived replay on Axon's investor relations website at http://investor.axon.com.

Statistical Definitions

Software & Sensors bookings are an indication of the activity the Company is seeing relative to Software & Sensors hardware, software and Axon Evidence. We consider bookings to be a statistical measure defined as the sales price of orders (not invoiced sales), including contractual optional periods we expect to be exercised, net of cancellations, placed in the relevant fiscal period, regardless of when the products or services ultimately will be provided. Most bookings will be invoiced in subsequent periods.

Due to municipal government funding rules, in some cases certain of the future period amounts included in bookings are subject to budget appropriation or other contract cancellation clauses. Although Axon has entered into contracts for the delivery of products and services in the future and anticipates the contracts will be fulfilled, if agencies do not exercise contractual options, do not appropriate money in future year budgets or do enact a cancellation clause, revenue associated with these bookings may not ultimately be recognized, resulting in a future reduction to bookings.

For more information relative to our revenue recognition policies, please reference our SEC filings.

Non-GAAP Measures

To supplement the Company's financial results presented in accordance with GAAP, we present the non-GAAP financial measures of EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Non-GAAP Net Income, Non-GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share and Free Cash Flow. The Company's management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in evaluating the Company's performance in comparison to prior periods. We believe that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing its performance, and when planning and forecasting our future periods. A reconciliation of GAAP to the non-GAAP financial measures is presented herein.

• EBITDA (Most comparable GAAP Measure: Net income) - Earnings before interest expense, investment interest income, income taxes, depreciation and amortization.
• Adjusted EBITDA (Most comparable GAAP Measure: Net income) - Earnings before interest expense, investment interest income, income taxes, depreciation, amortization, non-cash stock-based compensation expense and pre-tax certain other items (described below).
• Non-GAAP Net Income (Most comparable GAAP Measure: Net income) - Net income excluding the costs of non-cash stock-based compensation and excluding pre-tax certain other items, including, but not limited to, net gain/loss/write-down/disposal/abandonment of property, equipment and intangible assets; loss on impairment; and costs related to business acquisitions. The Company tax-effects non-GAAP adjustments using the blended statutory federal and state tax rates for each period presented.
• Non-GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share (Most comparable GAAP Measure: Earnings Per share) - Measure of Company's Non-GAAP Net Income divided by the weighted average number of diluted common shares outstanding during the period presented.
• Free Cash Flow (Most comparable GAAP Measure: Cash flow from operating activities) - cash flows provided by operating activities minus purchases of property and equipment, intangible assets and cash flows related to business acquisitions.

Caution on Use of Non-GAAP Measures

Although these non-GAAP financial measures are not consistent with GAAP, management believes investors will benefit by referring to these non-GAAP financial measures when assessing the Company's operating results, as well as when forecasting and analyzing future periods. However, management recognizes that:

• these non-GAAP financial measures are limited in their usefulness and should be considered only as a supplement to the Company's GAAP financial measures;
• these non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, the Company's GAAP financial measures;
• these non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered to be superior to the Company's GAAP financial measures; and
• these non-GAAP financial measures were not prepared in accordance with GAAP and investors should not assume that the non-GAAP financial measures presented in this earnings release were prepared under a comprehensive set of rules or principles.

Further, these non-GAAP financial measures may be unique to the Company, as they may be different from similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. As such, this presentation of non-GAAP financial measures may not enhance the comparability of the Company's results to the results of other companies.

About Axon

Axon is a network of devices, apps, and people that helps law enforcement become smarter and safer. Our mission is to Protect Life. Our technologies give law enforcement and public safety personnel the confidence, focus and time they need to keep their communities safe. Our products impact every aspect of an officer's day-to-day experience.

We work hard for those who put themselves in harm's way for all of us. To date, there are more than 325,200 software seats booked on the Axon network around the world and more than 207,000 lives and countless dollars have been saved with the Axon network of devices, apps and people. Learn more at www.axon.com or by calling (800) 978-2737.

Amazon is a trademark of Amazon, AT&T is a trademark of AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P. AT&T Intellectual Property, Inc., Azure is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation, Facebook is a trademark of Facebook, Inc., FirstNet is a trademark of the US Department of Commerce, LTE is a trademark of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Twitter is a trademark of Twitter, Inc., and Verizon is a trademark of Verizon Trademark Services, LLC.

Axon, Axon Body 3, Axon Fleet, Axon Fleet 2, Axon Network, Axon Evidence (Evidence.com), the Delta Logo, Protect Life, Smart Weapons, TASER, and TASER 7 are trademarks of Axon Enterprise, Inc., some of which are registered in the US and other countries. For more information, visit www.axon.com/legal. All rights reserved.

Follow Axon here:

Axon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/axon_us

Axon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Axon.ProtectLife/

Forward-looking statements

These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding: proposed products and services and related development efforts and activities; expectations about the market for our current and future products and services; expectations about customer behavior; statements concerning projections, predictions, expectations, estimates or forecasts as to our business, financial and operational results and future economic performance; and statements of management's strategies, goals and objectives and other similar expressions; as well as the ultimate resolution of financial statement items requiring critical accounting estimates, including those set forth in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. Such statements give our current expectations or forecasts of future events; they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "would," "predict," "potential," "continue," "expect," "anticipate," "future," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimate," and similar expressions, as well as statements in future tense, identify forward-looking statements. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.

We cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will be realized, although we believe we have been prudent in our plans and assumptions. Achievement of future results is subject to risks, uncertainties and potentially inaccurate assumptions. The following important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: customer purchase behavior, including adoption of our software as a service delivery model; our exposure to cancellations of government contracts due to appropriation clauses, exercise of a cancellation clause, or non-exercise of contractually optional periods; our ability to design, introduce and sell new products or features; our ability to manage our supply chain and avoid production delays or shortages; changes in the costs of product components and labor; defects in our products; the impact of product mix on projected gross margins; loss of customer data, a breach of security or an extended outage, including our reliance on third party cloud-based storage providers; negative media publicity regarding our products; our ability to defend against litigation and protect our intellectual property, and the resulting costs of this activity; changes in government regulations in the U.S. and in foreign markets, especially related to the classification of our product by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; counter-party risks relating to cash balances held in excess of FDIC insurance limits; our ability to integrate acquired businesses; and our ability to attract and retain key personnel. Many events beyond our control may determine whether results we anticipate will be achieved. Should known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove inaccurate, actual results could differ materially from past results and those anticipated, estimated or projected. You should bear this in mind as you consider forward-looking statements. The Annual Report on Form 10-K that we filed with the SEC on March 1, 2018 listed various important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected and historical results. These factors are intended as cautionary statements for investors within the meaning of Section 21E of the Exchange Act and Section 27A of the Securities Act. Readers can find them under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Report on Form 10-K and in the Report on Form 10-Q, and investors should refer to them. You should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors. Consequently, you should not consider any such list to be a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties.

Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are advised, however, to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our Form 10-Q, 8-K and 10-K reports to the SEC.

Please visit http://investor.axon.com, https://www.axon.com/press, www.twitter.com/axon_us and https://www.facebook.com/Axon.ProtectLife/ where Axon discloses information about the company, its financial information, and its business.

For investor relations information please contact Andrea James via email at [email protected].

CONTACT:
Investor Relations
Axon Enterprise, Inc.
[email protected]

SOURCE Axon

Related Links

https://www.axon.com

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