NetApp Inc (NTAP) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome to the NetApp fourth quarter fiscal year 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kris Newton, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 NetApp 2024 財年第四季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。我現在想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁克里斯牛頓 (Kris Newton)。請繼續。

Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us. With me today are our CEO, George Kurian, and CFO, Mike Berry. This call is being webcast live and will be available for replay on our website at netapp.com.

大家好。感謝您加入我們。今天與我在一起的有我們的執行長 George Kurian 和財務長 Mike Berry。本次電話會議正在進行網路直播，並將在我們的網站 netapp.com 上重播。

During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements and projections with respect to our financial outlook and future prospects, including, without limitation, our guidance for the first quarter and fiscal year 2025, our expectations regarding future revenue, profitability, and shareholder returns, and other growth initiatives and strategies. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause our actual results to differ materially. For more information, please refer to the documents we file from time to time with the SEC and on our website, including our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. We disclaim any obligation to update our forward-looking statements and projections.

在今天的電話會議中，我們將就我們的財務前景和未來前景做出前瞻性陳述和預測，包括但不限於我們對第一季度和2025 財年的指導，我們對未來收入、盈利能力和股東回報的預期，以及其他成長舉措和策略。這些陳述受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致我們的實際結果有重大差異。如需了解更多信息，請參閱我們不時向 SEC 以及我們網站上提交的文件，包括我們最新的 10-K 表格和 10-Q 表格。我們不承擔更新前瞻性陳述和預測的義務。

During the call, all financial measures presented will be non-GAAP unless otherwise indicated. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP estimates are available on our website. I'll now turn the call over to George.

除非另有說明，在電話會議期間提出的所有財務指標都將採用非公認會計準則。我們的網站上提供了 GAAP 與非 GAAP 估算的調整表。我現在把電話轉給喬治。

Thank you, Kris. Welcome, everyone. We concluded FY24 on a high note, demonstrating robust performance in the fourth quarter and building positive momentum as we step into FY25. Our revenue for both Q4 and FY24 exceeded the midpoint of our guidance, reflecting the strong growth of our expanded All Flash portfolio.

謝謝你，克里斯。歡迎大家。我們高調結束了 2024 財年，展示了第四季度的強勁業績，並在邁入 25 財年時建立了積極的勢頭。我們第四季和 2024 財年的營收都超過了我們指導的中點，反映出我們擴展的全快閃產品組合的強勁成長。

Throughout FY24, we maintained a high level of operational discipline, leading to company records for annual gross margin, operating margin, earnings per share, operating cash flow, and free cash flow. At the start of FY24, we implemented a plan to enhance the performance of our storage business and build a more focused approach to the public cloud business while managing the elements within our control in an uncertain macro environment. This plan has yielded tangible results, and our value proposition is resonating strongly in the marketplace.

在整個 2024 財年，我們維持了高水準的營運紀律，導致年度毛利率、營業利潤率、每股盈餘、營業現金流和自由現金流創下公司記錄。在 2024 財年年初，我們實施了一項計劃，以提高儲存業務的績效，並為公有雲業務建立更加集中的方法，同時在不確定的宏觀環境中管理我們控制範圍內的要素。該計劃已經取得了實質的成果，我們的價值主張在市場上引起了強烈反響。

Customers are increasingly turning to NetApp to help them build intelligent data infrastructures and leverage the power of public and hybrid clouds for rapidly growing data-intensive workloads like AI, cloud-native, open-source, and enterprise applications, while ensuring their data remains secure and protected from ransomware attacks.

客戶越來越多地求助於NetApp 來幫助他們建立智慧資料基礎設施，並利用公有雲和混合雲的強大功能來處理快速成長的資料密集型工作負載（例如人工智慧、雲端原生、開源和企業應用程式），同時確保他們的資料保持安全並免受勒索軟體攻擊。

NetApp uniquely delivers a comprehensive and integrated portfolio of unified data storage solutions based on one operating system on tap, supporting any application, any data type, and spanning on-premises and multiple cloud environments. We deliver unparalleled simplicity of data management and infrastructure and application deployment with consistent automation, all unified by common APIs and a single control plane.

NetApp 獨特地提供了基於單一作業系統的全面、整合的統一資料儲存解決方案組合，支援任何應用程式、任何資料類型，並且跨越本地和多個雲端環境。我們透過一致的自動化提供無與倫比的資料管理、基礎架構和應用程式部署的簡單性，所有這些都透過通用 API 和單一控制平面進行統一。

In a world of limited IT resources, rapid data growth, and escalating cybersecurity threats, we empower customers with the flexibility to rapidly deploy new applications unify their data for AI, simplify cloud integration, and strengthen data protection.

在 IT 資源有限、數據快速增長和網路安全威脅不斷升級的世界中，我們使客戶能夠靈活地快速部署新應用程序，統一人工智慧數據，簡化雲端整合並加強數據保護。

Now to the results of the quarter. We delivered robust year-over-year performance in our hybrid cloud segment with revenue growth of 6% and product revenue growth of 8%. Strong customer demand for our broad portfolio of modern all-flash arrays, particularly the C-Series Capacity Flash and ASA Block Optimized Flash, was again ahead of our expectations. This demand propelled our all-flash array annualized revenue run rate to an all-time high at $3.6 billion, up 17% year over year.

現在來看看本季的業績。我們在混合雲領域實現了強勁的年比業績，營收成長了 6%，產品營收成長了 8%。客戶對我們廣泛的現代全快閃陣列產品組合（特別是 C 系列容量快閃記憶體和 ASA 區塊優化快閃記憶體）的強烈需求再次超出了我們的預期。這項需求推動我們的全快閃陣列年化營收運行率達到 36 億美元的歷史新高，年增 17%。

Early in Q1 of FY25, we unveiled our new All Flash A-Series Unified Data Storage products, offering customers enhanced performance and effective density at a lower cost than the previous A-Series generation. These products set a new standard for enterprise storage, enabling customers to turbocharge workloads ranging from traditional enterprise applications to GenAI. The new AFF A-Series coupled with our highly successful C-Series and TAM expanding ASA products position us to further increase our share in the all-flash market.

早在 2025 財年第一季度，我們就推出了全新的全快閃 A 系列統一資料儲存產品，以比上一代 A 系列更低的成本為客戶提供增強的效能和有效密度。這些產品為企業儲存樹立了新標準，使客戶能夠增強從傳統企業應用程式到 GenAI 的工作負載。新的 AFF A 系列加上我們非常成功的 C 系列和 TAM 擴展 ASA 產品，使我們能夠進一步增加我們在全快閃市場的份額。

Keystone, our storage-as-a-service offering, was also a highlight of the quarter. Keystone provides cloud-like management for hybrid cloud resources in a single subscription with flexible multi-year contracts that align storage costs with business needs, enabling rapid response to changing capacity and performance requirements. We consistently hear from customers that our integrated service-level assurance with performance, availability, ransomware recovery, and sustainability guarantees, is our differentiator. This has enabled us to accelerate growth by displacing competitors' storage-as-a-service subscriptions, winning new Keystone subscriptions, and expanding existing ones.

我們的儲存即服務產品 Keystone 也是本季的一大亮點。 Keystone 在單一訂閱中為混合雲資源提供類似雲的管理，並提供靈活的多年期合同，使存儲成本與業務需求保持一致，從而能夠快速響應不斷變化的容量和性能要求。我們不斷從客戶那裡聽到，我們的整合服務水準保證與效能、可用性、勒索軟體復原和永續保證是我們的差異化優勢。這使我們能夠透過取代競爭對手的儲存即服務訂閱、贏得新的 Keystone 訂閱以及擴展現有訂閱來加速成長。

FY24 total contract value sales of Keystone more than doubled from the prior year to almost $150 million. We expect this momentum to continue and that FY25 will be another significant growth year for Keystone.

Keystone 2024 財年合約總銷售額比前一年成長了一倍多，達到近 1.5 億美元。我們預計這一勢頭將持續下去，2025 財年將是 Keystone 又一個顯著增長的一年。

A leading semiconductor manufacturer selected Keystone as the vehicle to consolidate its storage needs. Initially aiming to select one vendor for block and another for file, we established ourselves as a single global standard for both environments, displacing the incumbent for block storage. This multi-year, eight-figure deal allowed the customer to reduce the complexity and improve the availability of their storage environment.

一家領先的半導體製造商選擇 Keystone 作為整合其儲存需求的工具。最初的目標是為區塊選擇一個供應商，為文件選擇另一個供應商，我們將自己建立為這兩種環境的單一全球標準，取代了區塊儲存的現有供應商。這項為期多年、價值八位數的交易使客戶能夠降低儲存環境的複雜性並提高其可用性。

AI is a top priority for organizations as they seek to accelerate innovation, revolutionize operations, drive competitive advantage, and deliver superior solutions to their customers. Data management is essential for enterprise AI.

人工智慧是組織尋求加速創新、變革營運、提升競爭優勢並為客戶提供卓越解決方案的首要任務。數據管理對於企業人工智慧至關重要。

Customers choose NetApp to support them at every phase of the AI lifecycle. Due to our high-performance all-flash storage, complemented by comprehensive data management capabilities that support requirements from data preparation, model training and tuning, retrieval augmented generation or RAG, and inferencing, as well as requirements for responsible AI, including model and data versioning, data governance, and privacy. We continue to strengthen our position in enterprise AI, focusing on making it easier for customers to derive value from their AI investments.

客戶選擇 NetApp 在 AI 生命週期的每個階段提供支援。由於我們的高效能全快閃存儲，輔以全面的資料管理功能，可支援資料準備、模型訓練和調優、檢索增強生成或RAG 和推理等要求，以及負責任的AI 要求，包括模型和資料版本控制、資料治理和隱私。我們不斷加強在企業人工智慧領域的地位，專注於讓客戶更輕鬆地從人工智慧投資中獲取價值。

In Q4, we introduced NetApp AIPod with C-series capacity flag system, delivering a new level of cost and performance, rack space utilization, and sustainability. In conjunction with Cisco, we updated FlexPod AI reference architectures to support the NVIDIA AI enterprise software platform, giving customers an end-to-end blueprint to efficiently design, deploy, and operate AI infrastructure. We were one of the first partners to complete the storage validation for NVIDIA OVX system, and at the start of Q1, we were the first to announce a full-stack OVX system.

在第四季度，我們推出了具有 C 系列容量標記系統的 NetApp AIPod，將成本和性能、機架空間利用率和永續性提升到了新的水平。我們與思科合作更新了 FlexPod AI 參考架構，以支援 NVIDIA AI 企業軟體平台，為客戶提供端對端藍圖，以高效設計、部署和營運 AI 基礎架構。我們是第一批完成 NVIDIA OVX 系統儲存驗證的合作夥伴之一，並且在第一季初，我們率先發布了全端 OVX 系統。

The NetApp AIPod with Lenovo ThinkSystem servers for NVIDIA OVX is optimized for GenAI and designed to support RAG. We announced much of this innovation at NVIDIA GTC, where we were honored to be recognized during the keynote for our role in storing a significant portion of enterprise's unstructured data, which is the fuel for GenAI. Through our partnership with NVIDIA, we give customers the ability to talk directly to the large amount of existing data stored on NetApp on-premises and in the cloud, demonstrating the value of our install base and the critical role we play in AI.

配備適用於 NVIDIA OVX 的 Lenovo ThinkSystem 伺服器的 NetApp AIPod 針對 GenAI 進行了最佳化，並旨在支援 RAG。我們在 NVIDIA GTC 上宣布了大部分創新成果，我們很榮幸在主題演講中獲得認可，因為我們在儲存企業非結構化資料的很大一部分方面所發揮的作用，這些資料是 GenAI 的燃料。透過與 NVIDIA 的合作，我們使客戶能夠直接與儲存在 NetApp 本地和雲端中的大量現有資料進行對話，展示了我們安裝基礎的價值以及我們在人工智慧中發揮的關鍵作用。

We are the AI infrastructure of choice for one of the world's leading oil and gas companies. The company is developing its own large language model using a high-performance AI cluster with NetApp all-flash storage. They are now also building an AI center of excellence to support various departmental AI initiatives and have again selected NetApp storage for this part of their AI infrastructure, leveraging CCVs to optimize price and performance.

我們是世界領先的石油和天然氣公司之一選擇的人工智慧基礎設施。該公司正在使用高效能 AI 叢集和 NetApp 全快閃儲存來開發自己的大型語言模型。他們現在也正在建造一個 AI 卓越中心，以支援各種部門的 AI 計劃，並再次選擇 NetApp 儲存作為其 AI 基礎設施的這一部分，利用 CCV 來優化價格和效能。

They are rapidly ramping up their AI infrastructure, building new models and onboarding AI resources. They awarded us the deal over their AI server vendor because of our ability to remove roadblocks in their AI workflows and accelerate the time-to-value from their AI investments.

他們正在迅速加強人工智慧基礎設施、建立新模型並引入人工智慧資源。他們將這筆交易授予了我們，而不是他們的人工智慧伺服器供應商，因為我們有能力消除他們人工智慧工作流程中的障礙，並加快他們人工智慧投資的價值實現時間。

Public cloud segment revenue was $152 million, up 1% year over year. First-party and hyperscaler marketplace storage services remain our priority and are growing rapidly, increasing more than 30% year over year and driving cloud storage services to two-thirds of total public cloud ARR. These offerings are highly differentiated and closely aligned with customers' purchase preferences. In Q4, we had a good number of takeouts of competitors' on-premises infrastructure with cloud storage services based on NetApp ONTAP technology, which helped drive our best quarter for cloud storage services with each of our hyperscaler partners.

公有雲部門營收為1.52億美元，年增1%。第一方和超大規模市場儲存服務仍然是我們的首要任務，並且正在快速成長，年成長超過 30%，並將雲端儲存服務推至公有雲總 ARR 的三分之二。這些產品具有高度差異化，並且與客戶的購買偏好密切相關。在第四季度，我們透過基於 NetApp ONTAP 技術的雲端儲存服務取代了競爭對手的大量本地基礎設施，這有助於推動我們與每個超大規模合作夥伴的雲端儲存服務取得最佳季度業績。

We are well ahead of the competition in cloud storage services and we are innovating to further extend our leadership position. In Q4, we further increased the performance of Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, addressing an even broader set of performance-intensive workloads. We also introduced a new service level for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, giving customers more granular control to match the capacity and performance needs of their cloud workloads. We were proud to receive Google Cloud's Technology Partner of the Year for Infrastructure — Storage for the second consecutive year.

我們在雲端儲存服務的競爭中遙遙領先，我們正在創新以進一步擴大我們的領導地位。在第四季度，我們進一步提高了適用於 NetApp ONTAP 的 Amazon FSx 的效能，解決了更廣泛的效能密集工作負載。我們也為 Google Cloud NetApp Volumes 推出了新的服務級別，為客戶提供更精細的控制，以滿足其雲端工作負載的容量和效能需求。我們很榮幸連續第二年榮獲 Google Cloud 年度基礎架構 - 儲存技術合作夥伴獎。

Reflecting on FY24, I want to thank the NetApp team for their work to strengthen our position. We have a stronger, more complete all-flash portfolio after addressing a wider set of cloud storage workloads and have a robust go-to-market plan, better positioning us to win across the board and in new markets like AI. Without question, our modern approach to unified data storage, spanning data types, price points, and hybrid multicloud environments is resonating in the market, giving us solid momentum as we enter the new fiscal year.

回顧 2024 財年，我要感謝 NetApp 團隊為鞏固我們的地位所做的工作。在解決了更廣泛的雲端儲存工作負載之後，我們擁有了更強大、更完整的全快閃產品組合，並製定了穩健的上市計劃，使我們能夠更好地全面贏得勝利，並在人工智慧等新市場中獲勝。毫無疑問，我們的統一資料儲存現代方法，涵蓋資料類型、價格點和混合多雲環境，正在市場中引起共鳴，為我們進入新財年提供了堅實的動力。

Looking ahead to FY25, we are cautiously optimistic on the macro environment; the backdrop is better now than it was at the start of FY24. We will remain laser-focused on our top priorities while continuing to raise the bar on execution and maintaining our operational discipline. NetApp is leading the evolution of the storage industry, helping our customers make their data infrastructure intelligent for the age of AI. I am confident that this leadership, coupled with the strong momentum we've built through FY24, positions us for continued growth and share gain.

展望25財年，我們對宏觀環境持謹慎樂觀態度；現在的背景比 2024 財年年初好。我們將繼續專注於我們的首要任務，同時繼續提高執行標準並維持我們的營運紀律。 NetApp 正在引領儲存產業的發展，幫助我們的客戶在 AI 時代實現資料基礎設施的智慧化。我相信，這種領導力，加上我們在 2024 財年建立的強勁勢頭，將使我們能夠持續成長和份額成長。

I encourage you to attend or tune into our June 11 Investor Day to learn more about our long-term strategy. Visit our investor relations website for more information. I'll now turn the call over to Mike.

我鼓勵您參加或收聽我們 6 月 11 日的投資者日，以了解有關我們長期策略的更多資訊。請造訪我們的投資者關係網站以了解更多資訊。我現在將電話轉給麥克。

Thank you, George, and good afternoon, everyone. As George noted, we are laser-focused on managing the elements within our control. This focus enables us to deliver strong P&L performance for Q4 and the full year.

謝謝喬治，大家下午好。正如喬治所指出的，我們專注於管理我們控制範圍內的元素。這一重點使我們能夠在第四季度和全年實現強勁的損益表現。

Before getting into the details, let me quickly highlight the key themes. As a reminder, all numbers discussed are non-GAAP unless otherwise noted. We delivered solid revenue growth in Q4, driven by our all-flash and cloud storage portfolio, which have strong momentum as we head into fiscal year '25. For Q4, our all-flash array revenue achieved a $3.6 billion annualized run rate, growing 17% year on year. Flash now accounts for approximately 60% of hybrid cloud revenue.

在討論細節之前，讓我先快速強調關鍵主題。提醒一下，除非另有說明，所有討論的數字均非公認會計原則。在我們的全快閃和雲端儲存產品組合的推動下，我們在第四季度實現了穩健的收入成長，隨著我們進入第 25 財年，這些產品組合的勢頭強勁。第四季度，我們的全快閃陣列營收實現了 36 億美元的年化運作率，年成長 17%。 Flash 目前約佔混合雲營收的 60%。

Keystone, our storage-as-a-service offering, delivered another strong quarter and a strong year, with revenue growth up triple digits year over year in fiscal year '24. And first party and marketplace cloud storage, the largest part of our cloud business, grew double digits quarter over quarter and over 30% year over year in Q4. Our operating profit margin was a record for a Q4, and operating cash flow was an all-time record.

我們的儲存即服務產品 Keystone 再次實現了強勁的季度和強勁的一年，24 財年的營收年增了三位數。第一方和市場雲端儲存是我們雲端業務的最大組成部分，第四季環比成長兩位數，年增超過 30%。我們的營業利潤率創下了第四季的記錄，營業現金流也創下了歷史記錄。

For the full year of fiscal '24, product gross margins reached a record high of 60%, representing around 1,000 basis points of year-over-year improvement, driven by product mix, lower SSD costs, and a normalizing supply chain environment. We have an increasing share of total revenue derived from higher margin and recurring revenue sources, which we expect to continue into fiscal '25.

24財年全年，在產品組合、SSD成本下降和供應鏈環境正常化的推動下，產品毛利率達到60%的歷史新高，年增約1,000個基點。我們在總收入中所佔的份額越來越大，來自於更高的利潤率和經常性收入來源，我們預計這種情況將持續到 25 財年。

In fiscal '24, we generated $1.53 billion in free cash flow, a 76% year-over-year increase compared to fiscal year 23, and an all-time high. And we returned 86% of fiscal '24 free cash flow to shareholders, through $900 million of share repurchases and around $400 million of dividends.

在 24 財年，我們產生了 15.3 億美元的自由現金流，與 23 財年相比年增 76%，創歷史新高。我們透過 9 億美元的股票回購和約 4 億美元的股息，將 24 財年自由現金流的 86% 返還給股東。

Our share repurchases resulted in a reduction of full-year diluted share count by approximately 3% from the prior year. We plan to continue a strong policy of shareholder returns in fiscal '25 and are announcing today an increase in our quarterly dividend from $0.50 to $0.52. Furthermore, today, we are announcing an increase to our share repurchase authorization by another $1 billion.

我們的股票回購導致全年稀釋後股票數量比上年減少約 3%。我們計劃在 25 財年繼續實施強有力的股東回報政策，並在今天宣布將季度股息從 0.50 美元增加到 0.52 美元。此外，今天，我們宣布將股票回購授權再增加 10 億美元。

Now to the details of Q4. Revenue came in slightly above the midpoint of our guidance range at $1.67 billion, up 6% year over year, and up 4% quarter over quarter. Q4 billings of $1.81 billion were up 8% year over year. This marks our second straight quarter of year-over-year revenue and billings growth.

現在介紹第四季的詳細資訊。收入略高於我們指導範圍的中點，為 16.7 億美元，年增 6%，環比增長 4%。第四季營收為 18.1 億美元，較去年同期成長 8%。這標誌著我們的收入和帳單連續第二個季度實現同比增長。

Q4 hybrid cloud revenue of $1.52 billion was up 6% year over year. Product revenue was $806 million and up 8% year over year. Support revenue of $623 million increased 4% year over year. Public cloud ARR exited the year at $630 million, up 2% year over year, and up $22 million from Q3. Public cloud revenue composed 9% of total revenue in Q4 and grew 1% year over year to $152 million.

第四季混合雲營收為 15.2 億美元，年增 6%。產品收入為 8.06 億美元，年增 8%。支援收入為 6.23 億美元，年增 4%。公有雲 ARR 全年營收為 6.3 億美元，年增 2%，較第三季成長 2,200 萬美元。公有雲營收佔第四季總營收的 9%，年增 1%，達到 1.52 億美元。

We exited fiscal '24 with $4.23 billion in deferred revenue, a decrease of 2% year over year, consistent with the year-over-year decrease in Q3.

24 財年結束時，我們的遞延收入為 42.3 億美元，年減 2%，與第三季的年減一致。

Q4 consolidated gross margin was approximately 71.5%. Total hybrid cloud gross margin was 72%. Product gross margin was 61%, 130 basis points ahead of our prior guidance, driven by better mix and continued growth in our C-series products. Our recurring support business continues to be highly profitable, with gross margin of 92%. Public cloud gross margin increased 290 basis points both quarter over quarter and year over year to 68%.

第四季綜合毛利率約為71.5%。混合雲總毛利率為 72%。在我們的 C 系列產品的更好組合和持續成長的推動下，產品毛利率為 61%，比我們之前的指導高出 130 個基點。我們的經常性支援業務持續保持高利潤，毛利率為 92%。公有雲毛利率較上月及年比均成長 290 個基點，達 68%。

Q4 again highlighted the strength of our business model and our operational discipline with operating margin of 28%, the highest for a Q4 in the history of NetApp, and the second only to last quarter's 30% operating margin. EPS of $1.80 was $0.02 ahead of guidance of $1.78, predominantly driven by better gross margins. As a reminder, we had a one-time improvement in our tax rate in Q3 that normalized towards our usual low 20% range in Q4, which was contemplated in our prior guidance.

第四季再次凸顯了我們業務模式和營運紀律的優勢，營運利潤率為 28%，是 NetApp 史上第四季的最高水平，僅次於上季 30% 的營運利潤率。每股收益 1.80 美元，比指導值 1.78 美元高出 0.02 美元，這主要是由於毛利率提高。提醒一下，我們在第三季一次性提高了稅率，在第四季度朝著我們通常的 20% 低範圍正常化，這是我們之前的指導中考慮到的。

In Q4, cash flow from operations was $613 million, and free cash flow was $567 million. These cash flow metrics came in above our expectations in Q4 due to higher customer collections, lower tax payments, and lower supply chain payments.

第四季度，營運現金流為 6.13 億美元，自由現金流為 5.67 億美元。由於客戶收款增加、稅金減少和供應鏈付款減少，這些現金流量指標在第四季度超出了我們的預期。

During Q4, we repurchased $100 million in stock and paid out $104 million in dividends. Q4 diluted share count of $212 million, was down 2% year over year. We had approximately $500 million left on our current share repurchase authorization as of the end of fiscal '24, and today, we are announcing an increase in that authorization by another $1 billion.

第四季度，我們回購了 1 億美元的股票，並支付了 1.04 億美元的股利。第四季攤薄後股本數量為 2.12 億美元，較去年同期下降 2%。截至 24 財年末，我們目前的股票回購授權還剩約 5 億美元，今天，我們宣布將授權再增加 10 億美元。

Before moving to guidance, let's review the results for the full year of fiscal '24. Revenue of $6.27 billion was down 1% year over year, and billings of $6.25 billion were down 2% year over year. Discipline operational management yielded all-time fiscal year highs for operating margin and EPS. For fiscal '24, operating margin was 27%, up 260 basis points year over year, driven predominantly by 450 basis points of year-over-year improvement in gross margins, slightly offset by the small year-over-year revenue decline and targeted operating expense growth.

在轉向指導之前，讓我們先回顧一下 24 財年全年的表現。營收為 62.7 億美元，年減 1%，帳單為 62.5 億美元，年減 2%。嚴格的營運管理使營業利潤率和每股盈餘創下了本財年的歷史新高。 24 財年，營業利潤率為 27%，年增 260 個基點，主要是由於毛利率年增 450 個基點，略有被同比收入小幅下降和目標營業費用增長。

For fiscal '24, operating cash flow was $1.69 billion, and free cash flow was $1.53 billion, both all-time company highs.

24 財年，營運現金流為 16.9 億美元，自由現金流為 15.3 億美元，皆為公司歷史新高。

Our balance sheet remains very healthy. We closed the year with $3.25 billion in cash and short-term investments against $2.4 billion in total debt.

我們的資產負債表仍然非常健康。我們以 32.5 億美元的現金和短期投資結束了這一年，而總債務為 24 億美元。

Now to guidance, starting with fiscal '25. Let me underscore our confidence in our strategy and the strength of our position in addressing key customer priorities, such as business analytics, AI, cloud transitions, data security, and application modernization.

現在從 25 財年開始提供指導。讓我強調我們對我們的策略的信心以及我們在解決關鍵客戶優先事項（例如業務分析、人工智慧、雲端轉型、資料安全和應用程式現代化）方面的地位優勢。

Macro indicators today are better than a year ago. However, while there has been some improvement, in our view, the macro environment remains unsettled. As a result, we expect fiscal '25 total revenue to be in the range of $6.45 billion to $6.65 billion, which at the midpoint reflects 4.5% year-over-year growth. Implied in our fiscal '25 revenue guidance is year-over-year revenue growth in each quarter of fiscal '25.

今天的宏觀指標好於一年前。然而，儘管有所改善，但我們認為宏觀環境仍然不穩定。因此，我們預計 25 財年的總營收將在 64.5 億美元至 66.5 億美元之間，中間值反映了 4.5% 的年成長。我們的 25 財年營收指引中隱含的是 25 財年每季的年收入成長。

While we are not providing specific cloud revenue guidance, we do expect public cloud revenue to return to consistent growth in fiscal '25. We expect fiscal '25 consolidated gross margin to be roughly 71% to 72% consistent with fiscal '24 gross margins, despite the pressure coming from rising NAND component costs. We expect growth in supporting cloud gross profit to help maintain our overall gross margins. Implied in this guidance is growth year over year in gross profit dollars, which is our focus.

雖然我們沒有提供具體的雲端收入指導，但我們確實預期公有雲收入將在 25 財年恢復持續成長。儘管面臨來自 NAND 組件成本上漲的壓力，但我們預計 25 財年的綜合毛利率將與 24 財年的毛利率大致一致，為 71% 至 72%。我們預計支持雲毛利潤的成長將有助於維持我們的整體毛利率。本指引暗示的是毛利逐年成長，這是我們的重點。

We have secured a large majority of our forecasted SSD demand for fiscal '25, albeit at higher prices than fiscal '24. Given our existing inventory levels and the forecasted use of our pre-buy supply, product gross margins are expected to be higher in the first half of fiscal '25, as we utilize our inventory, compared to the second half of fiscal '25. We remain confident in our long-term public cloud gross margin target of 75% to 80% and expect to make progress in fiscal '25 towards this target.

我們已經滿足了 25 財年預測的大部分 SSD 需求，儘管價格高於 24 財年。鑑於我們現有的庫存水準和預購供應的預期使用情況，與 25 財年下半年相比，隨著我們利用庫存，25 財年上半年的產品毛利率預計會更高。我們對 75% 至 80% 的長期公有雲毛利率目標仍然充滿信心，並預計在 25 財年實現這一目標方面取得進展。

We anticipate operating margins of 27% to 28% and EPS of $6.80 to $7. For the year, we expect a tax rate in the range of 21% to 22%.

我們預計營業利潤率為 27% 至 28%，每股收益為 6.80 美元至 7 美元。我們預計今年的稅率將在 21% 至 22% 之間。

We expect operating cash flow will move in line with net income, although there will be some quarterly variance based on working capital, especially in Q1 when we will pay our annual incentive compensation plans. Our anticipated healthy cash generation enables us to continue our strong return of capital to shareholders.

我們預計營運現金流將與淨利潤保持一致，儘管根據營運資本會出現一些季度差異，特別是在我們將支付年度激勵薪酬計畫的第一季。我們預期的健康現金流使我們能夠繼續向股東提供強勁的資本回報。

In fiscal '25, we intend to return up to 100% of free cash flow to shareholders in share buybacks and dividends. Our conviction in future cash flow generation is driving the increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.52 per share in fiscal '25, with the remainder of free cash flow going to share buybacks. We expect to reduce share count by approximately 1% to 2% in fiscal '25.

在 25 財年，我們打算透過股票回購和股利將高達 100% 的自由現金流返還給股東。我們對未來現金流產生的信念推動我們在 25 財年將季度股利增加至每股 0.52 美元，剩餘的自由現金流將用於股票回購。我們預計 25 財年的股份數量將減少約 1% 至 2%。

Now on to Q1 guidance. We expect Q1 revenue to range between $1.455 billion and $1.605 billion, which at the midpoint implies growth of 7% year over year. We expect Q1 consolidated gross margin to be roughly 72% and operating margin to be approximately '25%. EPS should be in the range between $1.40 and $1.50.

現在進入第一季指引。我們預計第一季營收將在 14.55 億美元至 16.05 億美元之間，這意味著年增 7%。我們預計第一季綜合毛利率約為 72%，營業利潤率約為 25%。 EPS 應在 1.40 美元至 1.50 美元之間。

In closing, I want to echo George's appreciation of the NetApp team and their continued focus and execution in this uncertain environment. As I look forward into fiscal '25, I am confident in our strategy and our ability to capture our growing set of opportunities and increase profitability.

最後，我想表達 George 對 NetApp 團隊以及他們在這個不確定的環境中持續關注和執行的讚賞。展望 25 財年，我對我們的策略以及我們抓住不斷增長的機會和提高盈利能力的能力充滿信心。

I'll now turn the call over to Khris for Q&A.

我現在將把電話轉給克里斯進行問答。

Thanks, Mike. Operator, let's begin the Q&A.

謝謝，麥克。接線員，我們開始問答。

(Operator Instructions) David Vogt, UBS.

（操作員說明）David Vogt，UBS。

Maybe, George, to start, you spent some time talking about the competitive successes that you had in the quarter and the strength of both the A-Series and the C-Series. Can you maybe expand upon that relative to sort of what you're seeing in the macro? I mean, there's a lot of discussion in the market, not just for storage, but in IT for general, macro headwinds, and it doesn't appear to be a big factor for you this quarter.

喬治，也許您首先花了一些時間談論您在本季度取得的競爭成功以及 A 系列和 C 系列的實力。您能否根據您在宏觀中看到的內容來擴展這一點？我的意思是，市場上有很多討論，不僅是針對存儲，而且在 IT 領域也針對一般的宏觀逆風，而這對本季度的您來說似乎並不是一個重要因素。

And then with regards to Keystone, you talked about some displacements because of a whole host of factors with the offering. Can you maybe expand upon what were some of the more important factors? You mentioned performance. Was price a consideration, or is it really the suite of solutions, the suite of offerings that really drives sort of that Keystone success? And can you maybe talk about the average length of these agreements or these two- to three-year agreements? Any color there would be helpful. Thank you.

然後，關於 Keystone，您談到了由於產品的一系列因素而導致的一些位移。能否詳細說明一些更重要的因素？你提到了性能。價格是一個考慮因素，還是真正推動 Keystone 成功的解決方案套件、產品套件？您能否談談這些協議或兩到三年協議的平均期限？任何顏色都會有幫助。謝謝。

Thanks for the question. Listen, we are cautiously optimistic on the macro. As you noted, it's better than we started the prior year, but there's still a good amount of uncertainty and caution in customer spending.

謝謝你的提問。聽著，我們對宏觀形勢持謹慎樂觀態度。正如您所指出的，這比我們去年開始時要好，但客戶支出仍然存在很大的不確定性和謹慎。

They are prioritizing the applications like analytics, unifying their data for AI, modernizing their environment, and dealing with disruptions from changes like VMware. And we have had really good success across all of those landscapes. We've had strong wins across multiple elements of the AI opportunity, from data lakes to model training to rag on our customers' installed data, and we see that across multiple verticals. We've had strong success with our offerings displacing VxRail and other hyper-converged platforms that customers look to optimize their VMware landscapes.

他們正在優先考慮分析等應用程序，統一人工智慧數據，實現環境現代化，並應對 VMware 等變化帶來的干擾。我們在所有這些領域都取得了非常好的成功。我們在人工智慧機會的多個要素上都取得了巨大的勝利，從數據湖到模型訓練，再到客戶安裝的數據，我們在多個垂直領域都看到了這一點。我們的產品取代了 VxRail 和其他超融合平台，並且取得了巨大成功，客戶希望這些平台能夠優化其 VMware 環境。

And in the case of Keystone, which has had a really strong year, every quarter of the year has been strong, and we had a really, really strong Q4. What we are seeing is customers like the idea of a unified integrated data platform for all of their data and a cloud-like experience. What we are able to offer uniquely in the market is the same experience in your data center as in a co-location environment as in all the leading public clouds. And so the value of the flexibility that we offer and the operational consistency and simplicity is what's allowing us to win all these deals. And they're not on price. These are long-term architectural commitments that customers are making. They are multi-year agreements. I'll leave it there.

就 Keystone 而言，它經歷了非常強勁的一年，一年中每個季度都表現強勁，我們的第四季也非常非常強勁。我們看到的是，客戶喜歡為他們的所有數據提供統一的整合數據平台和類似雲端的體驗的想法。我們能夠在市場上提供獨特的體驗，即在您的資料中心中提供與在主機代管環境中以及在所有領先的公有雲中相同的體驗。因此，我們提供的靈活性以及操作的一致性和簡單性的價值使我們能夠贏得所有這些交易。而且它們沒有價格。這些都是客戶所做的長期架構承諾。它們是多年協議。我會把它留在那裡。

Perfect. Thank you very much.

完美的。非常感謝。

Matt Sheerin, Stifel.

馬特謝林，史蒂菲爾。

George, regarding your outlook for growth for fiscal '25, 4.5% growth, which, as you say, reflects macro concerns, we are hearing another reason is that vendors focusing on AI investments, which are leading to push-outs of other projects, including both hardware and software. We heard from a number of big companies just this week. Are you seeing signs of that as well in your business, or are you just seeing continued cautiousness concerning all budgets?

喬治，關於您對 25 財年 4.5% 的增長前景，正如您所說，這反映了宏觀擔憂，我們聽到另一個原因是供應商專注於人工智能投資，這導致了其他項目的推出，包括硬件和軟體兩方面。就在本週，我們收到了一些大公司的來信。您在您的業務中是否也看到了這種跡象，或者您只是看到對所有預算的持續謹慎？

I think more of the latter. There's just generally continued scrutiny of spending. I think with regard to our outlook, we are very confident entering the year. We finished really strong. Our flash portfolio has even got stronger in Q1 with the refresh of our A-series flash products. We feel really good with a really up-to-date A-series, a CAM expanding ASA product, which had a really strong quarter, and, of course, the C-series, which has been setting records for performance in our business. So we feel really good.

我個人認為更多的是後者。對支出的審查普遍持續。我認為就我們的前景而言，我們對進入今年非常有信心。我們最終表現非常強勁。隨著 A 系列快閃記憶體產品的更新，我們的快閃記憶體產品組合在第一季變得更加強大。我們對最新的 A 系列、CAM 擴展 ASA 產品感覺非常好，該產品在本季度表現強勁，當然還有 C 系列，它在我們的業務中創造了業績記錄。所以我們感覺非常好。

I think on the AI side, listen, we are the installed incumbent for the world's largest unstructured data set, and we are helping customers unify those data sets, building data lakes. We saw that, for example, in one of the world's largest genomics companies where, together with NVIDIA, we built a supercomputing environment that allows them to accelerate drug discovery.

我認為在人工智慧方面，聽著，我們是世界上最大的非結構化資料集的安裝者，我們正在幫助客戶統一這些資料集，建立資料湖。例如，我們在世界上最大的基因組公司之一中看到，我們與 NVIDIA 一起建立了一個超級運算環境，使他們能夠加速藥物發現。

And then we talked about the success we had at one of the world's largest oil and gas companies where we not only built their supercomputer for a trillion-parameter large language model, but we are also the backbone for all of their RAG at their AI center of excellence. So I feel really good about our ability to tap into the AI opportunity as well as continue the leadership we've shown in traditional enterprise applications.

然後我們談到了我們在世界上最大的石油和天然氣公司之一所取得的成功，我們不僅為他們的萬億參數大型語言模型構建了超級計算機，而且我們還是他們人工智能中心所有 RAG 的支柱卓越的。因此，我對我們利用人工智慧機會以及繼續我們在傳統企業應用程式中所表現出的領導地位的能力感到非常滿意。

Okay. Thank you very much.

好的。非常感謝。

Meta Marshall, Morgan Stanley.

梅塔‧馬歇爾，摩根士丹利。

Maybe the first question, just on the first party and marketplace cloud storage strength, is there any trends that you're seeing with the type of customer? Is that somebody who is an existing NetApp customer or those largely new customers? Just any trends of who are those customers where you're seeing that strength?

也許第一個問題，就第一方和市場雲端儲存實力而言，您在客戶類型方面是否看到了任何趨勢？該客戶是 NetApp 的現有客戶還是大部分新客戶？您看到這種優勢的客戶有哪些趨勢？

Maybe just as a second question for Mike, it would seem Q1 is starting seasonally strong, at least in comparison with last year, which maybe was seasonally weak. Is some of that A-series launch, just how to think about how A-series launch impacts the seasonality of the year? Thanks.

也許就像麥克的第二個問題一樣，第一季似乎開始季節性強勁，至少與去年相比，去年可能季節性疲軟。是否有一些 A 系列的發布，如何思考 A 系列的發佈如何影響當年的季節性？謝謝。

I'll take the first question, Meta. On the cloud storage side, the first party and marketplace storage services, which are our focus, have had strong results throughout the year. In Q4, we continue to see a really good balance of new customers that are new to NetApp, including competitive displacement, bringing competitor footprints to cloud on our platform, as well as a mix of existing NetApp customers who were deploying and migrating workloads to the cloud, and expansions, where a customer might have not had a first-party service like in Google, now expanding on our first-party Google Cloud service. So good balance across the board sets us up to have a continued strong outlook for cloud storage this coming year. Mike?

我來回答第一個問題，Meta。在雲端儲存方面，我們關注的第一方和市場儲存服務全年都取得了強勁的業績。在第四季度，我們繼續看到NetApp 的新客戶之間實現了良好的平衡，包括競爭性取代、將競爭對手的足跡引入我們平台上的雲，以及正在部署和遷移工作負載到雲端的現有NetApp 客戶。如此良好的全面平衡使我們對來年的雲端儲存前景保持強勁。麥克風？

Thank you, George. Thanks for the question, Meta. So, yes, we do expect Q1 to be seasonally strong. As you mentioned, Q1 of last year was seasonally weak, so it is one of the easier compares, I'll say, for the year.

謝謝你，喬治。謝謝你的提問，梅塔。所以，是的，我們確實預計第一季將季節性強勁。正如您所提到的，去年第一季季節性疲軟，因此我想說，這是今年最容易比較的一個。

In reference to the A-series launch, we're super excited about it. That is something that's just gotten started, though, so it won't have a big impact on Q1. We do expect that, though, to start driving some nice trajectory as we move through fiscal '25.

對於 A 系列的發布，我們感到非常興奮。不過，這才剛開始，因此不會對第一季產生太大影響。不過，我們確實預計，隨著我們進入 25 財年，這將開始推動一些良好的發展軌跡。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

Samik Chatterjee, JPMorgan.

薩米克‧查特吉，摩根大通。

I guess, George, you talked about the support and sort of the infrastructure you're providing your customers as they go through their AI deployments and the wins you have. I was just curious if you can give us a bit more sense about how to then translate that into revenue, particularly when I think about sort of fiscal '25 guide here, how much of that is incorporated in terms of those deployments in your revenue and how to think about that ramping in the out year.

我想，喬治，您談到了在客戶進行人工智慧部署時為客戶提供的支援和基礎設施類型以及您所取得的勝利。我只是好奇您能否讓我們更了解如何將其轉化為收入，特別是當我想到這裡的 25 財年指南時，其中有多少內容包含在您的收入中的這些部署中，以及如何看待未來一年的成長。

And a quick follow-up from Mike. Mike, if you can just help me with the puts and takes in terms of gross margin variance between Q3 and Q4, that will be helpful in terms of what the headwinds and tailwinds were. Thank you.

麥克的快速跟進。麥克，如果你能幫我了解第三季和第四季之間毛利率差異的賣權和賣出選擇權，這對於了解逆風和順風是什麼會有幫助。謝謝。

Listen, broadly speaking, we had about more than 50 AI wins in Q4 across all elements of the AI landscape I talked about, both in data foundations like data lakes as well as model training and inferencing across all of the geographies. I would tell you that in the AI market, the ramp on AI servers will be much ahead of storage because what clients are doing is they're building new computing stacks but using their existing data. And so we expect that over time, there will be a lot more data created and unified to continue to feed the model. But at this stage, we are in proof of concepts We think that there's a strong opportunity over time for us and all of the AI growth is factored into our guidance for next year.

聽著，從廣義上講，我們在第四季度在我談到的人工智慧領域的所有元素上取得了大約50 多項人工智慧勝利，包括資料湖等資料基礎以及跨所有地區的模型訓練和推理。我想告訴你，在人工智慧市場中，人工智慧伺服器的成長將遠遠領先於存儲，因為客戶正在做的是他們正在建立新的計算堆棧，但使用現有的數據。因此，我們預計隨著時間的推移，將會創建和統一更多的數據來繼續為模型提供數據。但在現階段，我們正在進行概念驗證，我們認為隨著時間的推移，我們將面臨巨大的機會，所有人工智慧的成長都將納入我們明年的指導中。

On your follow-up, Samik, on gross margins from Q3 to Q4, so as we talked about in the prepared remarks, we did come in about 130 basis points higher on product margins. We had guided around 60%. That was largely due to better mix. As we had talked about, we did expect that to come down from Q3 just because it was our Q4 and that's largely what happened. We support gross margin very consistent and importantly, we started to see a nice increase in our cloud gross margins and we expect that to continue in the next year. So pretty consistent performance Q3 to Q4 in our gross margin line.

Samik，關於您的後續行動，關於第三季度到第四季度的毛利率，正如我們在準備好的評論中談到的那樣，我們的產品利潤率確實提高了約 130 個基點。我們指導了大約60%。這主要是由於更好的混合。正如我們所討論的，我們確實預計這一數字會比第三季度有所下降，因為這是我們的第四季度，而這很大程度上就是發生的情況。我們對毛利率的支持非常一致，重要的是，我們開始看到雲毛利率的良好成長，我們預計這種情況將在明年持續下去。因此，我們的毛利率線從第三季到第四季的表現非常一致。

Thank you. Thanks for taking the questions.

謝謝。感謝您提出問題。

Mehdi Hosseini, SIG.

邁赫迪·侯賽尼，SIG。

Mike, when I look at your Q1 operating margin guide and put it in context of fiscal year, it seems like you're going to exit FY25 in the high 20% operating margin, 29% to be exact. Does that 29% operating margin exiting FY25 include all the OpEx leverage given the resizing that you went through last year?

麥克，當我查看你們第一季營業利潤率指南並將其放在財年背景下時，看起來你們將以 20% 的高營業利潤率退出 25 財年，確切地說是 29%。鑑於您去年經歷的規模調整，2025 財年 29% 的營業利潤率是否包括所有營運支出槓桿？

Yeah, so we got in full year 27% to 28% operating margin and yes, operating margin is always a little bit lower on a percentage in Q1 just given the seasonality. So I think what you're referring to, Mehdi, is we did do the restructuring last year in Q4. As we enter fiscal '25, we do have some leverage continuing in OpEx. We do expect OpEx to grow, I'm going to say, about 2% for the full-year basis on a revenue guide of about 4.5%. We are doing targeted hiring in sales and in engineering to drive key product initiatives. Outside of that, as we've always said, our goal is to always drive operating leverage in the business and have OpEx grow at a rate less than revenue growth.

是的，所以我們全年的營業利潤率為 27% 至 28%，是的，考慮到季節性因素，營業利潤率總是比第一季的百分比低一些。所以我認為，邁赫迪，你指的是我們去年第四季確實進行了重組。當我們進入 25 財年時，我們在營運支出方面確實有一些槓桿作用。我想說，我們確實預計全年營運支出將成長 2% 左右，而收入指引則約為 4.5%。我們正在有針對性地招募銷售和工程人員，以推動關鍵產品計劃。除此之外，正如我們一直所說的那樣，我們的目標是始終提高業務的營運槓桿，並使營運支出的成長速度低於收入成長速度。

But you did 30% operating margin in January at a lower revenue run rate. Why shouldn't we be able to meet or exceed 30% operating margin given your reduced footprint?

但 1 月份，您的營業利潤率為 30%，但收入運行率較低。鑑於您的佔地面積減少，為什麼我們不能達到或超過 30% 的營業利潤率？

Yeah, so the 30%, keep in mind, that was the highest that we saw in our gross margin numbers. And we have talked about, Mehdi, those starting higher in fiscal '25 and then coming down as we go through the year as we go through the pre-buys that we have for SSD. So it is significantly influenced by that gross margin number. We'd love to get back to the 30%. At this point, a lot of that depends on where the gross margin line goes.

是的，所以請記住，30% 是我們毛利率數字中看到的最高值。 Mehdi，我們已經討論過，那些在 25 財年開始走高，然後隨著我們對 SSD 的預購而經歷這一年而下降。因此，它受到毛利率數字的顯著影響。我們很想回到 30%。在這一點上，很大程度上取決於毛利率線的走向。

Okay, thank you.

好的謝謝。

Steven Fox, Fox Advisors.

史蒂文‧福克斯，福克斯顧問公司。

Hi. Mike, just to follow up on his points on pre-buys, can you just maybe further outline your strategy in terms of pre-buys? Would you continue to do that 6 months out, 12 months out, et cetera? Or is it more depending on how you view the market? And along those lines, can you give us a better sense of sort of the gross margin headwinds as you get into the second half from the higher NAM costs?

你好。麥克，為了跟進他關於預購的觀點，您能否進一步概述您在預購方面的策略？您會在 6 個月、12 個月後繼續這樣做嗎？還是更取決於您如何看待市場？沿著這些思路，您能否讓我們更了解下半年NAM成本上升帶來的毛利率不利因素？

Thanks. Sure. So as we talked about, we were very active in pre-buys for fiscal '24. As we talked about in the prepared remarks, we have locked in a large majority of our forecasted SSDs for '25, albeit at prices higher than '24, as you would expect, Steve. And really, when we look at that, we look at where the market is. We look at, obviously, our demand and where we think the prices are going to go. The supply chain team has been very active in this market, and we think it's an important part of protecting our margins.

謝謝。當然。正如我們所說，我們非常積極地進行 24 財年的預購。正如我們在準備好的評論中談到的那樣，我們已經鎖定了 25 年預測的大部分 SSD，儘管價格高於 24 年，正如您所期望的，史蒂夫。事實上，當我們關注這個問題時，我們關注的是市場在哪裡。顯然，我們會關注我們的需求以及我們認為價格的走向。供應鏈團隊在這個市場上非常活躍，我們認為這是保護我們利潤的重要部分。

At this point, we are still comfortable with the full year 58% to 60% range that we talked about in product gross margins for fiscal '25. The variables there are potential further increases or decreases in NAM costs over the rest of the year, and then, of course, storage market pricing plays into it.

目前，我們仍然對 25 財年產品毛利率所討論的全年 58% 至 60% 的範圍感到滿意。今年剩餘時間裡，NAM 成本可能會進一步增加或減少，當然，儲存市場定價也會影響其中。

I do want to reiterate, hey, we are focused on driving the topline growth and driving additional gross margin dollars at EPS while being disciplined in pricing. We certainly continue to look at product gross margin percentages, but at the end of the day, we will focus on driving profitable revenue growth and margin dollars. Again, 58% to 60% for the full year, starting higher in the first half, and then scaling down as we go through the year.

我確實想重申，嘿，我們專注於推動營收成長並提高每股收益的毛利率，同時嚴格定價。我們當然會繼續關注產品毛利率百分比，但最終，我們將專注於推動獲利收入成長和利潤率。同樣，全年為 58% 至 60%，從上半年開始較高，然後隨著全年的增長而縮小。

Great. That's helpful. Thank you.

偉大的。這很有幫助。謝謝。

Simon Leopold, Raymond James.

西蒙·利奧波德，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

I did catch the comment that you expect public cloud services to grow through the year. I just want to see if we can maybe get a refresh on what's changing in that business that's getting us back to growth, and maybe if you could quantify what you mean in terms of your contributions with some more numbers. I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

我確實聽到了這樣的評論：您預計公有雲服務將在今年實現成長。我只是想看看我們是否可以重新了解該業務正在發生的變化，這些變化使我們恢復成長，也許您可以用更多的數字來量化您的貢獻的含義。我會很感激。謝謝。

Yeah, listen, a couple of quarters ago, we said that we were taking action to sharpen the focus of our public cloud business. Those are along two dimensions. The first was to continue to drive the execution of a growth strategy around our first-party and hyperscaler storage services. As we said, storage is now about two-thirds of the total cloud business, and first-party and marketplace cloud storage services are the preponderant majority of our cloud storage, and that has performed really, really well and is the foundation for long-term success and growth in cloud.

是的，聽著，幾個季度前，我們說過我們正在採取行動來加強我們的公有雲業務的重點。這些是沿著兩個維度的。首先是繼續推動圍繞我們的第一方和超大規模儲存服務的成長策略的執行。正如我們所說，儲存現在約佔整個雲端業務的三分之二，第一方和市場雲端儲存服務是我們雲端儲存的絕大多數，並且表現非常非常好，是長期的基礎。成功和增長。

Second, we said that the subscription business had headwinds related to cloud optimization, and we took several actions to improve the health of our subscription business. As a reminder, we said that subscription was about a fifth of the total cloud business, so a small part, and we took actions to both stop selling certain products and services that were no longer a part of our go-forward plan, to migrate some customers from our subscription offerings to our first-party cloud consumption offerings, to integrate some of the subscription products as big features of our cloud storage offerings, and to be able to sharpen the value proposition of our subscription offerings and work with our customer success team to improve the value of the client.

其次，我們表示訂閱業務存在與雲端優化相關的阻力，我們採取了多項措施來改善訂閱業務的健康狀況。提醒一下，我們說過訂閱業務約佔雲端業務總量的五分之一，所以只是一小部分，我們採取行動停止銷售某些不再屬於我們前進計劃的產品和服務，以遷移一些客戶從我們的訂閱產品轉向我們的第一方雲端消費產品，將一些訂閱產品集成為我們的雲端儲存產品的重要功能，並能夠銳化我們訂閱產品的價值主張並與我們的客戶成功合作團隊，提升客戶價值。

What this has resulted in is a decrease in subscription revenue in the second half of this year, as we forecast, but the headwinds from that decrease are getting smaller and smaller, and over the course of the first half of next year, we feel that a large part of those headwinds will be mitigated. We expect that cloud first-party and marketplace cloud storage should continue to ramp strongly, which will deliver overall growth in cloud, consistent revenue growth in cloud in fiscal year '25, stronger in the second half than in the first half.

正如我們預測的那樣，這導致了今年下半年訂閱收入的下降，但這種下降帶來的阻力越來越小，在明年上半年，我們認為這些不利因素的很大一部分將得到緩解。我們預計雲端第一方和市場雲端儲存將持續強勁成長，這將帶來雲端的整體成長，25 財年雲端收入的持續成長，下半年的成長將強於上半年。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Wamsi Mohan, Bank of America.

萬西·莫漢，美國銀行。

I was wondering, Mike, did I hear correctly? You say that the range of product gross margin could be between 50% to 60%, starting at sort of the high end of that range and maybe closing out somewhere towards the lower end of that range. Could you clarify that?

我想知道，麥克，我沒聽錯嗎？您說產品毛利率的範圍可能在 50% 到 60% 之間，從該範圍的高端開始，可能會在該範圍的低端某個地方結束。你能澄清一下嗎？

Yeah, so Wamsi, sorry if I said it correctly. What we talked about is we're still comfortable with the 58% to 60% range in product gross margins for the full year, starting out higher in the first half and then sliding down as we go through the second half and use the inventory of pre-buys.

是的，Wamsi，如果我說得對的話，我很抱歉。我們談到的是，我們仍然對全年 58% 至 60% 的產品毛利率感到滿意，上半年開始較高，然後隨著下半年的庫存而下滑。

Okay. I mean, historically, when you looked at the swing in product gross margins, given change in commodity pricing, you've had two impacts. First one is just sort of your ability to pass some of that through on your top line. And secondarily, the swing on product gross margin has been a little bit larger. So could you just maybe talk through maybe 400 or 500 basis points? Maybe historically, Mike, and correct me if I'm wrong there. Can you just talk through sort of what is the upside on revenue that you're thinking could come from pass-through of the increased NAND cost in the second half and why is it not quite as wide this time around when presumably you've done pre-buys in the past too? Thank you.

好的。我的意思是，從歷史上看，當你觀察產品毛利率的波動時，考慮到商品定價的變化，你會產生兩個影響。第一個是你將其中一些收入傳遞給你的收入的能力。其次，產品毛利率波動較大。那麼您能否談談 400 或 500 個基點？也許從歷史上看，麥克，如果我錯了，請糾正我。您能談談您認為下半年 NAND 成本增加的轉嫁可能帶來的收入上行空間嗎？謝謝。

Listen, I'll take that question in two parts, one on the revenue side and the second on the gross margin side. On the revenue side, we continue to believe that customers budget in dollars, not in systems. And so while we expect that the industry will follow the normal course of behavior, which is to raise prices to customers as commodity prices go up, we don't expect that to translate into directly increasing revenue. Customers will buy smaller amounts of storage if they have to pay more for it, but they will spend the dollars budgeted for it. And that's what's reflected in our top line.

聽著，我將分兩部分回答這個問題，第一部分是收入方面，第二部分是毛利率方面。在收入方面，我們仍然相信客戶以美元而非系統進行預算。因此，雖然我們預計該行業將遵循正常行為流程，即隨著商品價格上漲而向客戶提高價格，但我們預計這不會轉化為直接增加收入。如果客戶需要支付更多費用，他們會購買較少量的儲存空間，但他們會花掉預算中的美元。這也反映在我們的營收中。

With regard to cost of goods sold, I think, first of all, as Mike said, we have completed a large percentage of our forecasted demand for NAND through the course of next year. And as we have said before, NAND is less than 50% of our total cost of goods, the rest of which stays flat.

關於銷售成本，我認為，首先，正如 Mike 所說，我們已經完成了明年 NAND 預測需求的很大一部分。正如我們之前所說，NAND 占我們商品總成本的比例不到 50%，其餘部分保持不變。

The outlook we are providing is based on current market pricing. If the overall market raises prices as they have done in the past, we expect to follow the market, and that should be accreted to the outlook that we have provided.

我們提供的前景是基於當前的市場定價。如果整體市場像過去那樣提高價格，我們預計會跟隨市場，這應該會增加到我們提供的前景。

And if I could just add one thing, Wamsi, and you asked about the volatility of the margins. Keep in mind that in fiscal '23 we had to deal with the premium issue. That then went away. So that's caused a lot of it. Fiscal '24 was really 55 to 61. So just keep that in mind as you look at fiscal '23, please.

如果我可以補充一件事，Wamsi，您詢問了利潤率的波動性。請記住，在 23 財年，我們必須處理保費問題。然後就消失了。所以這造成了很多事情。 24 財年的比例實際上是 55 比 61。

Okay. Thank you so much.

好的。太感謝了。

Tim Long, Barclays.

提姆朗，巴克萊銀行。

(technical difficulty) Can you hear me?

（技術難度）你聽得到我說話嗎？

No, you are off the static. You might need to dial back into the queue. Next question, please.

不，你已經脫離了靜態。您可能需要撥回隊列。請下一個問題。

(Operator Instructions) Nehal Chokshi, Northland Capital Markets.

（操作員指示）Nehal Chokshi，Northland 資本市場。

Given the discussion around the driver of the 10% cubic increase in first-party marketplace cloud storage, it sounds like this is a sustainable driver. So is it fair to expect that the public, the cloud storage and first-party marketplace year-over-year growth will accelerate as we go through fiscal year '25 here?

鑑於圍繞第一方市場雲端儲存 10% 立方成長的驅動因素的討論，這聽起來像是一個可持續的驅動因素。那麼，當我們進入 25 財年時，預期公眾、雲端儲存和第一方市場的年成長將會加速是否公平？

Listen, we expect public cloud storage, particularly first-party and marketplace, which are the focus of our cloud efforts, to continue to grow nicely through the course of the year. I'm not going to comment about sequential growth rates each quarter. We had a really nice quarter this quarter, and we had a good year all year.

聽著，我們預計公共雲存儲，特別是第一方和市場，這是我們雲端工作的重點，將在今年繼續良好成長。我不會評論每季的連續成長率。本季我們度過了一個非常美好的季度，全年也度過了美好的一年。

I think that we see that first-party cloud storage and marketplace is a much bigger part of our overall cloud business entering fiscal year '25 than it was entering fiscal year '24. And the rest of the offerings, as I said, we continue to sharpen the focus and be more targeted in terms of our subscription offerings. They will have a little bit more headwinds in the first half of the year. But we expect cloud to grow consistently in FY25, stronger in the second half than in the first.

我認為我們看到，進入第 25 財年，第一方雲端儲存和市場在我們整個雲端業務中所佔的比例比進入第 24 財年時要大得多。至於其餘的產品，正如我所說，我們將繼續加強重點，並在訂閱產品方面更具針對性。今年上半年他們將面臨更多的阻力。但我們預計雲端運算將在 25 財年持續成長，下半年比上半年強勁。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Tim Long, Barclays.

提姆朗，巴克萊銀行。

Just wanted to touch on the QLC C-Series business. It seems like there's been some competitors trying to get into that piece of the market as well. So two-parter, number one, what do you think the increased competition would mean for that business, for NetApp? And then secondly, if you could just remind us, that business has been very successful for you. Can you talk a little bit about how that business has been going, meaning has there been a lot of success with new customers or keeping your own base that's upgrading from hybrid systems? Any help there would be great. Thank you.

只是想談談 QLC C 系列業務。似乎也有一些競爭對手試圖進入該市場。那麼，第一，您認為競爭加劇對該業務、對於 NetApp 意味著什麼？其次，請您喚醒我們，您的生意非常成功。您能否談談該業務的進展情況，即在新客戶方面是否取得了很大成功，或者保持了從混合系統升級的自己的基礎？任何幫助都會很棒。謝謝。

Yeah, thanks for the question. With regard to upgrading an existing hybrid flash customer to our C-Series, there are enormous advantages for a customer of NetApp to stay in place because we have the same operating system, the same management console, the same telemetry system, and we can do that virtually seamlessly for customers. And so we've seen a good chunk of upgrades from 10-K drive environments to our all-flash, and we expect that to continue over time. Those will come up as customers upgrade their fleet in a periodic and steady fashion.

是的，謝謝你的提問。關於將現有混合快閃記憶體客戶升級到我們的 C 系列，對於 NetApp 的客戶來說，保持原樣有巨大的優勢，因為我們擁有相同的作業系統、相同的管理控制台、相同的遙測系統，而我們可以這對客戶來說幾乎是無縫的。因此，我們已經看到從 10-K 驅動器環境到全快閃記憶體的大量升級，並且我們預計這種情況會隨著時間的推移而持續下去。當客戶定期、穩定地升級他們的機隊時，這些就會出現。

We also saw a lot of new to NetApp environments in our customers where we were able to either displace competitive footprints and/or bring new footprints to NetApp as customers deployed new applications. We talked about the example with Keystone in a large customer that was considering two different approaches, one for file and one for block, and decided to unify on NetApp. We have seen several environments where hyper-converged VMware landscapes are now moving to optimize the cost of their VMware licenses and are using C-Series. And over time, we just introduced the C-Series AI part that gives clients a cost-effective capacity flash-based AI model training and inferencing environment. So we're excited about the prospects with C-Series.

我們也在客戶中看到了許多新的 NetApp 環境，我們能夠在客戶部署新應用程式時取代競爭足跡和/或為 NetApp 帶來新的足跡。我們與 Keystone 討論了一個大客戶的範例，該客戶正在考慮兩種不同的方法，一種用於文件，一種用於區塊，並決定在 NetApp 上進行統一。我們已經看到了一些超融合 VMware 環境現在正在轉向優化其 VMware 授權成本並使用 C 系列的環境。隨著時間的推移，我們剛剛推出了 C 系列 AI 部分，為客戶提供了經濟高效的基於快閃記憶體的 AI 模型訓練和推理環境。因此，我們對 C 系列的前景感到興奮。

Listen, everybody will have their alternatives in the market. We feel really good about the fact that we have the industry's most comprehensive data management, the only real hybrid cloud solution, and the track record of having really large-scale data management capabilities on our flash products. And we feel very, very confident getting into next year.

聽著，每個人都會在市場上有自己的選擇。我們感到非常高興的是，我們擁有業界最全面的資料管理、唯一真正的混合雲端解決方案，以及在我們的快閃記憶體產品上擁有真正大規模資料管理能力的記錄。我們對明年充滿信心。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Ananda Baruah, Loop Capital.

阿南達·巴魯阿（Ananda Baruah），Loop Capital。

George, maybe just actually picking up right there. Is there a useful way to think about which of these kind of opportunities you've been stepping into are sort of the most accretive through the fiscal year? And I believe you were talking, I think, like the last few quarters, I'm saying few loosely. It's kind of been ASA SAN opportunity and the 10-K drive opportunity. Is there any way to, I don't know, like sort of anecdotally, not force range, but give us context around which opportunities are going to be the biggest catalyst as you go through the year? Thanks a lot.

喬治，也許只是在那裡接聽。有沒有一個有用的方法來思考您所抓住的哪些機會在整個財年中最具增值性？我相信你在談論，我想，就像過去幾個季度一樣，我說的很少。這有點像 ASA SAN 機會和 10-K 驅動器機會。我不知道，有沒有什麼方法可以像軼事一樣，而不是強制範圍，而是為我們提供背景信息，讓我們了解在這一年中哪些機會將成為最大的催化劑？多謝。

We have four growth opportunities that we are focused on, all-flash storage, block storage, cloud storage, and AI. And let me give each of those in turn. In all-flash storage, we have seen strong success with high-performance flash replacing legacy frame array and sort of traditional mainframe-class storage with much more modern, high-performance landscapes. We have seen the C-series both replace hyperconverged as well as traditional hybrid flash architectures, upgrading both our install base and competitor install bases.

我們專注於四個成長機會：全快閃儲存、區塊儲存、雲端儲存和人工智慧。讓我依序介紹這些內容。在全快閃儲存領域，我們看到高效能快閃存取得了巨大成功，它以更現代、高效能的方式取代了傳統幀陣列和傳統大型主機級儲存。我們已經看到 C 系列取代了超融合以及傳統的混合快閃架構，升級了我們的安裝基礎和競爭對手的安裝基礎。

With the ASA platform, which is block, the second part of the growth opportunity, that is TAM expanding for NetApp. And we are excited at the wins that we've seen and the momentum that we have. It will be a smaller business this coming year relative to the C-series and the AFF, A-series, but it will be all TAM expanding for NetApp. And I'm excited at where we are today.

借助 ASA 平台（即區塊），成長機會的第二部分是 NetApp 的 TAM 擴充。我們對所看到的勝利和所擁有的勢頭感到興奮。相對於 C 系列和 AFF、A 系列，明年的業務規模將較小，但 NetApp 的所有 TAM 業務都將擴展。我對我們今天的處境感到興奮。

With cloud storage, listen, the cloud market is an enormous market. It's a multi-billion dollar opportunity. And our cloud storage is a part of that opportunity. As the cloud providers have seen a re-acceleration in their business, we are well-positioned to grow our business. And our focus is to grow it at a rate higher than the infrastructure as a service growth rate of the big hyperscalers.

有了雲端存儲，聽著，雲端市場是一個巨大的市場。這是一個價值數十億美元的機會。我們的雲端儲存就是這個機會的一部分。隨著雲端供應商的業務重新加速，我們已做好了發展業務的有利條件。我們的重點是使其成長速度高於大型超大規模企業的基礎設施即服務成長率。

And then finally, AI. This is the opportunity that will become much more meaningful over time. We are well-positioned with the huge install base of unstructured data, which is the fuel for GenAI. And we are focused on helping customers do in-place RAG and inferencing of that data.

最後是人工智慧。隨著時間的推移，這個機會將變得更加有意義。我們擁有龐大的非結構化資料安裝基礎，這是 GenAI 的燃料。我們專注於幫助客戶進行就地 RAG 和數據推斷。

Second, our unified data storage systems with integrated data services provide an ideal foundation for customers looking to build a data lake or model training landscapes. And then our hybrid cloud architecture gives us a unique place in the environment, allowing customers to use public cloud AI platforms such as Vertex from Google or Bedrock from AWS with their on-premises data and be able to scale inferencing to where every piece of customer's data and IT landscape exists.

其次，我們具有整合資料服務的統一資料儲存系統為希望建置資料湖或模型訓練環境的客戶提供了理想的基礎。然後，我們的混合雲架構為我們在環境中提供了獨特的地位，允許客戶將公有雲人工智慧平台（例如Google 的Vertex 或AWS 的Bedrock）與其本地數據結合使用，並能夠將推理擴展到客戶的每一個部分。

So those are the four. We're excited about the year ahead. We will tell you more about the specific puts and takes of each opportunity at our Financial Analyst Day on June 11.

這就是四個。我們對未來的一年感到興奮。我們將在 6 月 11 日的金融分析師日向您詳細介紹每個機會的具體看跌期權和賣出期權。

That's great, George. Thanks so much.

太棒了，喬治。非常感謝。

Krish Sankar, TD Cowen.

克里斯·桑卡爾，TD·考恩。

This is Eddie for Chris. When it comes to RAG applications, have you seen any increase in storage density for units requirements? And I wonder if you can update us on your efforts of adopting 30-terabyte SSDs in your system. Thank you.

這是克里斯的艾迪。當談到 RAG 應用時，您是否發現單位要求的儲存密度增加？我想知道您是否可以向我們介紹您在系統中採用 30 TB SSD 所做的最新努力。謝謝。

Listen, I think with -- I didn't hear the question entirely clearly, but what we see with RAG is customers wanting to use a large amount of unstructured data alongside a model that has already been trained to get it even more aware of the context in which it's operating. Our C-series and A-series are both well-suited for that. For customers that want really large landscapes, we are really excited about the opportunity with the C-series where we already have 30-terabyte drives and are adding higher-density drives as customers need. And then for large-scale data lakes, we are able to build highly dense object storage or mixed object and file storage landscapes that we have done for many, many clients over the last quarter.

聽著，我想——我沒有完全清楚地聽到這個問題，但我們在 RAG 中看到的是，客戶希望將大量非結構化資料與已經經過訓練的模型一起使用，以使其更加了解它的運作環境。我們的 C 系列和 A 系列都非常適合這一點。對於想要真正大景觀的客戶，我們對 C 系列的機會感到非常興奮，我們已經擁有 30 TB 驅動器，並根據客戶需求添加更高密度的驅動器。然後，對於大規模資料湖，我們能夠建立高密度物件儲存或混合物件和文件儲存環境，我們在上個季度為許多客戶所做的事情。

Okay. Yeah, my question, George -- thank you. My question was about 30-terabyte SSDs. So it seems like that's already shipping in your systems as of today. Is that right?

好的。是的，我的問題，喬治——謝謝你。我的問題是關於 30 TB SSD。所以看起來從今天開始它已經在您的系統中發布了。是對的嗎？

We have 30-terabyte SSDs, and they're growing quickly as a percentage of the total capacity. The way our systems are built, we can pack a lot more density into a single system than many of our competitors.

我們擁有 30 TB 的 SSD，它們佔總容量的百分比正在快速成長。根據我們系統的建構方式，我們可以將比許多競爭對手更高的密度整合到單一系統中。

Got it. Thank you, George.

知道了。謝謝你，喬治。

Asiya Merchant, Citigroup.

花旗集團 Asiya Merchant。

I apologize if this question's been asked, but maybe if I can just focus on the free cash flow for next year. I don't know if this is a guide that was provided for that and how you can think about how we should think about that and the shareholder returns for the fiscal year.

如果有人問這個問題，我深表歉意，但也許我可以只專注於明年的自由現金流。我不知道這是否是為此提供的指南，以及您如何思考我們應該如何考慮這一點以及本財政年度的股東回報。

Sure. Thanks for asking the cash flow question. So maybe we'll have a couple more minutes. As I talked about in the prepared remarks, we expect cash flow to continue to track with net income. So if you take the midpoint of the guide, that says that net income does go up year over year.

當然。感謝您詢問現金流問題。所以也許我們還有幾分鐘的時間。正如我在準備好的演講中談到的，我們預計現金流將繼續與淨利潤保持一致。因此，如果你取指南的中點，那就表示淨利確實逐年上升。

A couple things. So we would expect cash flow to move with it. During the year, there will be some working capital changes, and I just want to make sure and highlight these. Keep in mind that in Q1, we will pay our annual incentive compensation payments and incrementally year over year. Thankfully, it's a relatively large number. It's about $150 million. We expect then collections to increase year over year.

有幾件事。因此，我們預期現金流會隨之改變。今年，營運資金將會發生一些變化，我只是想確認並強調這些變化。請記住，在第一季度，我們將支付年度激勵薪酬，並逐年遞增。值得慶幸的是，這是一個相對較大的數字。大約是1.5億美元。我們預計收集量將逐年增加。

And then as long as we continue to purchase, do pre-buys, we expect that to even out over the year as well. So all of that says we would expect operating cash flow to continue to track with net income. And from a CapEx perspective, we did about $155 in fiscal '24. You should expect something relatively consistent with that in fiscal '25. And then that caps it off with capital allocation.

然後，只要我們繼續購買、預購，我們預計這一情況在今年也會趨於平衡。因此，所有這些都表明我們預計營運現金流將繼續與淨利潤保持一致。從資本支出的角度來看，我們在 24 財年的支出約為 155 美元。您應該期待與 25 財年的情況相對一致。然後透過資本配置來結束它。

We did increase the dividend from $0.50 a share to $0.52 a share. So that will use probably $425 million of cash about for the year. The remainder of free cash flow is slated to go against share repurchases.

我們確實將股息從每股 0.50 美元增加到每股 0.52 美元。因此，今年將使用約 4.25 億美元的現金。剩餘的自由現金流預計將用於股票回購。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

Thank you. I'll now pass it over to George for some final comments.

謝謝。現在我將把它轉交給喬治，徵求一些最後的意見。

Thanks, Kris. We ended FY24 strong with robust performance in Q4 and building positive momentum entering FY25. Capacity flash, block storage, cloud storage services, and AI all represent enormous growth opportunities for us. We are performing well and expect continued growth in these areas.

謝謝，克里斯。我們以強勁的勢頭結束了 2024 財年，第四季度表現強勁，並在進入 2025 財年建立了積極的勢頭。容量快閃記憶體、區塊儲存、雲端儲存服務和人工智慧都為我們帶來了巨大的成長機會。我們表現良好，並預計這些領域將持續成長。

NetApp is leading the evolution of the storage industry, helping our customers make their data infrastructure intelligent for the age of AI. We are capitalizing on our share gain opportunities and will maintain the operating discipline that has yielded record profitability.

NetApp 正在引領儲存產業的發展，幫助我們的客戶在 AI 時代實現資料基礎設施的智慧化。我們正在利用我們的股票增值機會，並將維持已產生創紀錄盈利能力的經營紀律。

Thank you for your time today, and I hope to see you at our June 11 Investor Day.

感謝您今天抽出時間，希望在 6 月 11 日投資者日見到您。

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

會議現已結束。感謝您的參與。現在您可以斷開線路。