Nimble Storage Reports Financial Results for Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2015

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Nimble Storage (NYSE: NMBL), the flash storage solutions company, today reported financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter 2015.  The Company has released a discussion of these results by posting the current Shareholder Letter on its website at http://investors.nimblestorage.com.

"Our pace of innovation has further extended our technology leadership over established and emerging competitors, positioning us well as a leading contender in the minds of customers and channel partners that are looking for alternatives to legacy storage infrastructure," said Suresh Vasudevan, chief executive officer, Nimble Storage. "As we look back on fiscal year 2015 and Q4 of 2015 in particular, we are convinced that we are now reaching an inflection point as enterprises of all sizes and service providers are concluding that the economic benefits of a modern architecture justify the risks of moving away from long-standing incumbent vendor relationships.  We see this as the beginning of a secular share shift that presents a massive growth opportunity for us over the next several years."

"FY15 was a year of very strong financial execution.  We achieved revenue of $227.7 million, up 81% from FY14.  We had our highest ever share of bookings from deals over $100K and deals over $250K in Q4FY15, which drove further increases in average deal sizes from already record levels in Q3FY15.  We saw an improvement in Gross and Operating Margins during FY15 as a result of economies of scale, the efficiencies of our Adaptive Flash platform, and increased operating leverage," said Anup Singh, chief financial officer.  "Cash flow from operations increased by $12.1 million, from negative $6.7 million in FY14 to positive $5.4 million in FY15.  During the fourth quarter, we generated positive free cash flow for the first time in our history and remain on track to achieve profitability on a non-GAAP basis by the end of FY16."

Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2015 Financial Highlights:

• Revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 were $68.3 million, compared to $41.7 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, representing growth of 64% year-over-year.
• Non-GAAP Gross Margins of 67.2% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to 67.2% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014.
• Non-GAAP Operating Margins of negative 12.4% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to negative 20.9% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014.
• Adjusted EBITDA was negative $6.8 million or negative 10.0% of revenue compared to negative 17.1% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. 
• GAAP net loss for the fiscal fourth quarter was $24.7 million, or $0.33 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $13.2 million, or $0.29 per basic and diluted share in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2014.
• Non-GAAP net loss for the fiscal fourth quarter was $9.8 million, or $0.13 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $9.1 million, or $0.14 per basic and diluted share in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2014.
• Foreign exchange loss was $1.1 million, which had a $0.01 per share negative impact on basic and diluted loss per share.

Fiscal Year 2015 Financial Highlights:

• Revenues for fiscal 2015 were $227.7 million, compared to $125.7 million in fiscal 2014, representing growth of 81% year-over-year.
• Non-GAAP Gross Margins of 67.0% for fiscal 2015, compared to 65.4% in fiscal 2014.
• Non-GAAP Operating Margins of negative 17.1% for fiscal 2015, compared to negative 26.6% in fiscal 2014.
• Adjusted EBITDA was negative $32.3 million or negative 14.2% of revenue for fiscal year 2015 compared to negative 23.4% in fiscal year 2014. 
• GAAP net loss for fiscal 2015 was $98.8 million, or $1.37 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $43.1 million, or $1.61 per basic and diluted share in fiscal 2014.
• Non-GAAP net loss for fiscal 2015 was $41.8 million, or $0.58 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $34.0 million, or $0.56 per basic and diluted share in fiscal 2014.
• Foreign exchange loss was $2.1 million, which had a $0.03 per share negative impact on basic and diluted loss per share.

Forward Outlook:  

Nimble Storage provides guidance based on current market conditions and expectations.  As a reminder, the first quarter is our seasonally slowest quarter; our guidance takes into account this seasonality. For the fiscal first quarter of 2016, Nimble Storage expects: 

• Total revenue in the range of $68 to $70 million
• Non-GAAP operating loss in the range of $9 to $10 million
• Non-GAAP net loss per basic and diluted share in the range of $0.13 to $0.14 using approximately 76 million shares

Business Highlights

• Surpassed 5,000 Customer Mark. As the 5000^th customer, Uecomm, a telecommunications vendor in Australia, will deploy Fibre Channel CS-Series arrays to replace their legacy SAN production environment and disaster recovery footprint.
• Issued an "Adaptive Flash Challenge" to Enterprises Evaluating Flash-Only Storage Solutions.  Nimble invites any IT organization currently evaluating all-flash storage to experience the performance of the Nimble Adaptive Flash platform. By including Nimble in side-by-side evaluations, enterprises will quickly realize that the Nimble Adaptive Flash platform not only meets or exceeds performance requirements for enterprise-wide workloads, but also offers capacity that scales well beyond the limitations of flash-only storage.
• Named 'Storage Vendor of the Year' in 2014 By CRN. Nimble was recognized by CRN in the UK over traditional and startup storage vendors, including tiered hybrid and all-flash vendors, to win the 'Storage Vendor of the Year' category.  
• Recognized as a Storage Product of the Year.  Nimble was recognized by TechTarget as a 2014 Storage Product of the Year in the Storage Systems: disk and hybrid systems category.
• Cisco Relationship Gained Momentum with Expansion of the SmartStack Integrated Infrastructure Solution Portfolio.  Nimble now offers eight unique SmartStack solutions based on Cisco UCS.  The company also recently introduced integration with UCS Director.
• Voted Top Platinum Sponsor at JD Edwards Summit. Cisco and Nimble presented a UCS-mini based SmartStack solution at the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne conference where Cisco and Nimble were voted the top platinum sponsor.
• Tested CS-Series Arrays; Ready to Run on Oracle Linux and Oracle VM. Adaptive Flash CS-Series arrays achieved Oracle VM Ready and Oracle Linux Ready status through Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), demonstrating that Nimble has tested and supports Adaptive Flash CS-Series arrays on Oracle Linux and Oracle VM.
• Nimble Storage Named a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for General-Purpose Disk Arrays, published on November 20, 2014, for the Second Consecutive Year. The report analyzes providers of midrange, high-end and network-attached storage systems, and hybrid arrays and positions vendors into one of four quadrants: Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries and Niche Players. Nimble was recognized as a Visionary based on the company's vision and ability to execute.* 
• Recognized in the Gartner Critical Capabilities Report. Nimble Storage was recognized among competitive products in the Gartner Critical Capabilities for General-Purpose, Midrange Storage Arrays distributed in November 2014.*
• Opened New Campus in Research Triangle Park.  Nimble signed a new lease for an 87,000 sq. ft. building in Research Triangle Park as the company continues to scale its presence in North Carolina.

Conference Call Information

As previously announced, Nimble Storage will host a live question & answer conference call and webcast today at 5:00 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. PT) to discuss its financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year 2015.

Interested parties may access the call by dialing (888) 471-3841 in the U.S. or (719) 325-2186 from international locations.  In addition, a live audio webcast of the conference call will be available on the Nimble Storage Investor Relations website at http://investors.nimblestorage.com.  The live webcast will be archived and available on this site for 45 days.   A replay of the conference call will be available for 45 days. To access the replay, please dial 888-203-1112 and enter pass code 2620521. Callers outside the U.S. and Canada should dial 719-457-0820 and enter pass code 2620521.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, Nimble Storage has disclosed in this release and the accompanying tables non-GAAP financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP. The Company provides non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net loss, non-GAAP net loss per share and adjusted EBITDA. In computing these non-GAAP financial measures, the Company excludes the effects of stock-based compensation, which is a recurring expense for the Company.  The Company has provided a reconciliation below of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

The Company discloses these non-GAAP financial measures because they are key measures used by the Company's management and board of directors to understand and evaluate operating performance and trends, to prepare and approve the annual budget and to develop short-term and long-term operational and compensation plans. In particular, the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating non-GAAP financial measures can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of the Company's business. Accordingly, the Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating the Company's operating results in the same manner as the Company's management and board of directors.

Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as analytical tools and, as such, should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of the Company's results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

• Non-GAAP financial measures do not consider the potentially dilutive impact of equity-based compensation, which is an ongoing expense for the Company; and
• Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate non-GAAP financial measures differently, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements that are based on our management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management.  We intend for such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including information concerning our future financial results, business plans and objectives, potential growth opportunities, competitive position, industry environment and potential market opportunities.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors including, but not limited to, those related to our future financial performance which is inherently uncertain, unforeseen delays in product development or introduction, uncertainty around market acceptance of our solutions, our ability to increase sales of our solutions, our ability to attract and retain customers and to selling additional solutions to our existing customers, our ability to develop new solutions and bring them to market in a timely manner, pricing pressure (as a result of competition or otherwise), introduction of new technologies and products by other companies, our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our brand and intellectual property, the effectiveness of our channel partners and sales team, our ability to recruit new or keep our existing key talent, global economic conditions and fluctuations in foreign currency rates and our ability to continue to expand our business and manage our growth.  Moreover, we operate in very competitive and rapidly changing environments, and new risks may emerge from time to time.  It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. Further information on these and other factors that could affect our financial results are included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied by our forward-looking statements.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although our management believes that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances described in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur.  Moreover, neither we, nor any other person, assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this presentation to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.

Nimble Storage Resources

• Nimble Storage Website
• Case Studies and Videos
• Follow Nimble Storage on Twitter: @NimbleStorage
• Join the Nimble Storage Group on LinkedIn 
• Visit Nimble Storage on Facebook

About Nimble Storage

Nimble Storage (NYSE: NMBL) is redefining the storage market with its Adaptive Flash platform. Nimble's flash storage solutions enable the consolidation of all workloads and eliminate storage silos by providing enterprises with significant improvements in application performance and storage capacity. At the same time, Nimble delivers superior data protection, while simplifying business operations and lowering costs. At the core of the Adaptive Flash platform is the patented Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout (CASL) architecture and InfoSight, an automated cloud-based management and support system that maintains storage system peak health. More than 5,000 enterprises, governments, and service providers have deployed Nimble's flash storage solutions across 38 countries. For more information about Nimble Storage, visit www.nimblestorage.com and follow us on Twitter: @NimbleStorage.

Nimble Storage, the Nimble Storage logo, CASL, InfoSight, SmartStack and NimbleConnect are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nimble Storage. Other trade names or words used in this document are the properties of their respective owners.

* Gartner does not endorse any vendor; product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Press Contact:
Kristalle Cooks
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Investor Relations Contact:
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SOURCE Nimble Storage

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