Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. Yet at first sight, there's nothing to be excited about. Revenue increased to $810 million, up 1% year over year. And the near-term outlook doesn't look much brighter, since the midpoint of 2020 revenue guidance of $3.115 billion corresponds to 3.5% year-over-year growth. Also, management expects non-GAAP (adjusted) operating margin to decrease from 30% in 2019 to a range of 28% to 29%.
For a tech company that is expanding its business into the growing cloud computing market, this performance looks weak. But in the long term, Citrix should profit from this transition.
From perpetual to subscription
Citrix's legacy business consists of selling hardware and software that allows users to remotely access a virtual computer desktop hosted in a data center. Compared to a classic Windows 10 workstation, this solution offers the advantage of keeping the same desktop environment from any device, anywhere. Also, computer administrators benefit from the more efficient central management of employees' working environments.
But with the emerging cloud-computing technology, enterprises have been moving a part of their on-premise applications and infrastructure to the cloud, which makes Citrix's legacy portfolio less relevant. In response, Citrix integrated its solutions with the ecosystems of public cloud providers such as Microsoft's Azure and Alphabet's Google Cloud. As a result, Citrix Workspace, the company's new platform, has become an attractive solution for mobile users working in a hybrid multi-cloud environment.
Image source: Getty Images.
This transformation involves short-term headwinds, though. With its legacy offerings, Citrix received up-front payments for selling perpetual licenses and multi-year maintenance. But with the shift to cloud-based solutions, Citrix switched to a subscription model. Thus, the company receives smaller annual recurring fees instead of large upfront payments, which negatively impacts its revenue and free cash flow in the short term.
As an illustration, fourth-quarter revenue from the product and license division and the support and services division dropped to $616 million, down 21% and 5% year over year, respectively. In contrast, revenue from the subscription division increased to $194 million, up 49% year over year.
As a result, revenue from the subscription segment increased to 24% of the company's total revenue during the last quarter, from 16.2% a year ago. And management expects revenue from subscriptions to represent 65% to 75% of the company's total revenue by 2024.
In the medium term, the headwinds resulting from this transition should wane, and revenue growth should accelerate. In fact, total deferred and unbilled revenue, an early indicator of revenue, jumped 15% year over year.
Fully priced growth acceleration
Management forecasts revenue growth to progressively increase to a range of 8% to 10% by 2024 and exceed 10% over the long term. Also, it expects non-GAAP operating margin to reach at least 34%.
However, even if you assume a flawless execution over the next several years, the company's valuation doesn't look cheap.
Data sources: Citrix Systems and Yahoo! Finance
The difference between the company's GAAP and non-GAAP results is mostly due to share-based compensation (SBC) that management excludes from its calculation of non-GAAP earnings. SBC isn't a cash expense but it still represents a real cost to shareholders in terms of dilution.
Thus, investors should value this tech stock based on its GAAP results. And since Citrix's forward GAAP P/E ratio of 36.5 doesn't provide any margin of safety, even when taking into account the forecasted revenue growth acceleration over the next several years, prudent investors should stay on the sidelines.
10 stocks we like better than Citrix Systems
When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*
David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Citrix Systems wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.
*Stock Advisor returns as of December 1, 2019
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Herve Blandin has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Microsoft and recommends the following options: long January 2021 $85 calls on Microsoft and short January 2021 $115 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
"term" - Google News
January 26, 2020 at 02:00AM
https://ift.tt/3aE5WbH
Beyond Short-Term Headwinds, Citrix Is Set to Profit From Its Shift to the Cloud - Nasdaq
"term" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35lXs52
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Beyond Short-Term Headwinds, Citrix Is Set to Profit From Its Shift to the Cloud - Nasdaq"
Post a Comment