The conference call on the results of Snowflake ($SNOW (-0,14 %) ) fourth quarter demonstrated how the company continues to work towards its vision of becoming the world's leading end-to-end data platform platform.
CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy mentioned that Snowflake has cemented its position as the central company for data and AI. The progress made in the past year in the areas of product development, customer adoption and go-to-market strategy underline the long-term potential.
A look at the figures shows the strength of the company. The product revenue increased by 28 % to 943 million US dollarswhile the remaining performance obligations (RPO) of 6.9 billion US dollars were 33 % higher above the previous year. Particularly noteworthy is the net revenue retention rate of 126 %which means that existing customers are continuously expanding their use of the Snowflake platform. At the same time, the company achieved a non-GAAP operating margin of 9 % and a free cash flow margin of an impressive 43%, whichgiving Snowflake a solid financial foundation.
The ease of use, strong integration strong integration capabilities and the trust of large corporations in Snowflake are driving more and more companies to build their data platform on Snowflake. Names like ExxonMobil, Honeywell and the London Stock Exchange Group are just a few examples. Particularly interesting is Fiservwhich uses the Snowflake platform to provide its customers with its own analytics platform and Blue Yonderwhich provides AI-powered insights into the supply chain.
In addition to new customers, Snowflake has also made significant progress in product development. SnowConvertthe native code conversion tool, is now available available for freeto help organizations migration from Oracle, Teradata and other legacy systems. systems. The data marketplace is also growing rapidly: companies such as Stripe, NTT and Braze are already using the data exchange functions of Snowflaketo share their data efficiently with over 160 partners partners.
A key factor for future growth is Cortex AIwhich enables companies to data agents for structured and unstructured data. data. Snowflake works closely with Microsoft and integrates OpenAI models into Cortex. Particularly exciting is Cortex Agentsa framework for orchestration and automation of tasks across different data types. Companies like AstraZeneca rely on Snowflake to make their AI-enable their healthcare datawhile State Street gains new market insights with Snowflake AI and machine learning.
CFO Michael Scarpelli explained that product growth amounted to 30% in the 2025 financial yearwhich corresponds to sales of 3.5 billion US dollars is equivalent. Growth was particularly strong in the technology companieswhile financial services remained the largest revenue driver. remain. The EMEA region region also showed particularly strong growth.
For the new financial year Snowflake has issued an ambitious forecast for the new financial year. The product revenue is expected to rise to 4.28 billion US dollarsgrowth of 24 % compared to the previous year. The non-GAAP operating margin is expected to reach 8 % and the free cash flow margin 25 % reach.
In the 2024 financial year, Snowflake purchased 14.8 million shares with a value of 1.9 billion US dollars repurchased. At the end of the year, the company had 5.3 billion US dollars in cash and cash equivalentswhich provides a solid financial basis for future investments.
In the subsequent Q&A part of the conference there were many interesting insights. Morgan Stanley wanted to know why some large customers had capacity before the end of the contract but did not renew immediately. CFO Scarpelli reassuredThis behavior is not unusual and he expects customers to sign new customers will sign new contracts in the coming months.. CEO Ramaswamy addedthat this should even be seen as a positive sign - it shows that customers need more computing power faster than originally planned.
Another key question came from Evercore ISI: What role do partnerships with companies such as ServiceNow and Salesforce play?
Ramaswamy explainedthat Snowflake is positioning itself as leading AI data cloud with bi-directional integrations with enterprise software such as Salesforce and ServiceNow. This means that customers can feed their feed their data from different systems into Snowflake to to make comprehensive analyses and AI-supported decisions.
The adoption of AI technologies was also a major topic. Shigemichi Yoshizu asked, when the support of OpenAI and Anthropic models would lead to higher sales. Ramaswamy emphasizedthat Snowpark is already being well received and that Snowflake expects real revenue streams from real revenue streams from AI-based products in the coming products in the coming quarters.
An exciting question was posed by Deutsche Bank: How does Cortex Agents differ from other AI agents?
Ramaswamy explainedthat Snowflake has a advantage due to its close integration with data. While other software providers offer AI agents for specific applications, Snowflake can can work across data and across functions.
At the end of the conference call CEO Sridhar Ramaswamyemphasized that Snowflake will continue to will continue to benefit from the AI and data revolution. Particularly exciting is the strategic vision: Snowflake combines data, AI and cloud in a platform that is increasingly becoming indispensable infrastructure for companies. infrastructure for companies.
I hope you enjoyed the summary!
