Netscout Systems Inc (NTCT) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to NetScout's third-quarter fiscal year 2024 financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們的耐心等待，並歡迎參加 NetScout 2024 財年第三季財務業績電話會議。（操作員說明）謹此提醒，此通話正在錄音。

Tony Piazza, Senior Vice President of Finance, and his colleagues at NetScout are on the line with us today. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Tony Piazza to begin the company's prepared remarks.

NetScout 財務高級副總裁 Tony Piazza 和他的同事今天與我們連線。（操作員指示）我現在想將電話轉給托尼·皮亞扎（Tony Piazza），讓他開始公司準備好的發言。

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to NetScout's third-quarter fiscal year 2024 conference call for the period ended December 31, 2023. Joining me today are Anil Singhal, NetScout's President and Chief Executive Officer; Michael Szabados, NetScout's Chief Operating Officer; and Jean Bua, NetScout's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝接線員，大家早安。歡迎參加 NetScout 的 2024 財年第三季電話會議（截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日）。今天加入我的還有 NetScout 總裁兼執行長 Anil Singhal； Michael Szabados，NetScout 營運長； NetScout 執行副總裁兼財務長 Jean Bua。

There is a slide presentation that accompanies our prepared remarks. You can advance the slides in the webcast viewer to follow our commentary. Both the slides and the prepared remarks can be accessed in multiple areas within the Investor Relations section of our website at www.netscout.com, including the IR landing page under financial results, the webcast itself and under financial information on the quarterly results page.

我們準備好的評論附有一個幻燈片簡報。您可以在網路廣播檢視器中前進幻燈片以關注我們的評論。幻燈片和準備好的評論都可以在我們網站 www.netscout.com 投資者關係部分的多個區域訪問，包括財務業績下的投資者關係登陸頁面、網絡廣播本身以及季度業績頁面上的財務信息。

Moving on to slide number 3, today's conference call will include forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements regarding our future financial performance or position, results of operations, business strategy, plans and objectives of management for future operations, and other statements that are not historical facts. You can identify forward-looking statements by their use of forward-looking words such as anticipate, believe, plan, will, should, expect, or other comparable terms.

繼續看第三張投影片，今天的電話會議將包括前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述的例子包括有關我們未來財務表現或狀況、經營績效、業務策略、未來經營管理計畫和目標的陳述，以及其他非歷史事實的陳述。您可以透過使用前瞻性詞語來識別前瞻性陳述，例如預期、相信、計劃、將、應該、期望或其他類似術語。

We caution listeners not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements included in this presentation, which speaks only as of today's date. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements due to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors, including but not limited to those described on this slide and in today's financial results and press release.

我們提醒聽眾不要過度依賴本簡報中包含的任何前瞻性陳述，該簡報僅代表截至今天的情況。這些前瞻性陳述涉及風險和不確定性，由於已知和未知的風險、不確定性、假設和其他因素，包括但不限於本投影片和今天的報告中描述的內容，實際結果可能與前瞻性陳述有重大差異。

For a more detailed description of the risk factors associated with the company, please refer to the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the financial year ending March 31, 2023, on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. NetScout assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this communication or with respect to the announcements described herein.

有關與公司相關的風險因素的更詳細描述，請參閱本公司向美國證券交易委員會備案的截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日的財政年度 10-K 表格年度報告。NetScout 不承擔更新本通訊中或與本文所述公告相關的任何前瞻性資訊的義務。

Let's now turn to slide number 4, which involves non-GAAP metrics. While the slide presentation includes both GAAP and non-GAAP results, unless otherwise stated, financial information discussed on today's conference call will be on a non-GAAP basis. The rationale for providing non-GAAP measures, along with the limitations of relying solely on those measures, is detailed on this slide and in today's press release.

現在讓我們轉向第四張投影片，其中涉及非 GAAP 指標。雖然幻燈片簡報包括 GAAP 和非 GAAP 業績，但除非另有說明，否則今天電話會議上討論的財務資訊將基於非 GAAP 基礎。這張投影片和今天的新聞稿詳細介紹了提供非公認會計原則衡量標準的理由，以及僅依賴這些衡量標準的限制。

These measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with the GAAP. Reconciliations of all non-GAAP metrics with the applicable GAAP measures are provided in the appendix of the slide presentation in today's earnings press release and on our website.

這些措施不應孤立地考慮或取代根據公認會計原則準備的財務資訊。今天的收益新聞稿幻燈片簡報的附錄和我們的網站上提供了所有非 GAAP 指標與適用的 GAAP 指標的對帳。

I will now turn the call over to Anil for his prepared remarks. Anil?

我現在將把電話轉給阿尼爾，聽他準備好的演講。阿尼爾？

Thank you, Tony, and good morning, everyone. Welcome and thank you all for joining us today. At a high level, we delivered third-quarter revenue and non-GAAP EPS ahead of our expectations due to the timing of the customer year-end budget spending and our continued cost-containment efforts. However, the macroenvironment remains challenging with constrained customer spending and elongated sales cycles.

謝謝你，托尼，大家早安。歡迎並感謝大家今天加入我們。在較高水準上，由於客戶年終預算支出的時間安排以及我們持續的成本控制努力，我們第三季的收入和非公認會計準則每股收益超出了我們的預期。然而，由於客戶支出有限和銷售週期延長，宏觀環境仍充滿挑戰。

We continue to see strength in our cybersecurity business, where we delivered double-digit revenue growth during the first nine months of fiscal year 2024. Our service assurance business continues to face headwinds, primarily due to the Tier 1 US carrier capital-constrained environment. Accordingly, our enterprise customer vertical was relatively flat for this period, while our service provider customer vertical is creating the majority of the revenue pressure.

我們繼續看到網路安全業務的實力，在 2024 財年的前 9 個月，我們實現了兩位數的營收成長。我們的服務保障業務持續面臨阻力，這主要是由於美國一級營運商資本緊張的環境。因此，我們的企業客戶垂直領域在此期間相對平穩，而我們的服務提供者客戶垂直領域造成了大部分收入壓力。

Given the macro dynamics, we anticipate delivering full fiscal year 2024 revenue at the low end of our previously disclosed outlook range, while our cost containment efforts and other activities should position us to deliver non-GAAP EPS for the full fiscal year at the higher end of our previously disclosed outlook or relatively in line with the last fiscal year's EPS on a lower revenue base year over year. We'll provide more specifics during our remarks.

考慮到宏觀動態，我們預計2024 年整個財年的收入將處於我們先前披露的展望範圍的低端，而我們的成本控制工作和其他活動應該使我們能夠實現整個財年的非GAAP 每股收益處於較高端我們先前揭露的前景或與上一財年的每股盈餘相對一致，但收入基礎較去年同期較低。我們將在發言中提供更多細節。

With that as a backdrop, let's turn to slide number 6 for a brief recap of our non-GAAP financial results for the third quarter and first nine months of our fiscal year 2024.

以此為背景，讓我們轉向第 6 號投影片，簡要回顧我們 2024 財年第三季和前九個月的非 GAAP 財務業績。

For the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, revenue was ahead of our expectations at approximately $218 million due to the timing of customer year-end budget spending. On a year-over-year basis, this was down approximately 19% as growth in the cybersecurity product line only partially offset a decline in the service assurance product line for reasons previously mentioned.

由於客戶年終預算支出的時間安排，2024 財年第三季的營收約為 2.18 億美元，超出了我們的預期。與去年同期相比，這一數字下降了約 19%，因為網路安全產品線的成長僅部分抵消了服務保障產品線的下降（出於前述原因）。

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $0.73, which exceeded our expectations due to higher revenue and lower costs than we previously anticipated. This was a decrease of 27% year over year, primarily related to lower revenue, partially offset by continued cost-containment efforts and other activities.

本季非 GAAP 攤薄每股收益為 0.73 美元，超出了我們的預期，因為收入高於我們先前的預期，而成本卻低於我們先前的預期。年比下降 27%，主要與收入下降有關，但部分被持續的成本控制努力和其他活動所抵消。

For the first nine months of fiscal year 2024 or the period ended December 31, 2023, revenue was $626 million, down approximately 11% year over year. During this period, our cybersecurity revenue grew more than 13% but was more than offset by a service assurance revenue decline of approximately 20%, both on a year-over-year basis. Excluding radio frequency propagation modeling project revenue from the comparison, service assurance revenue declined approximately 13% year over year.

2024 財年的前 9 個月或截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的期間，收入為 6.26 億美元，年減約 11%。在此期間，我們的網路安全收入成長了 13% 以上，但被服務保障收入年減約 20% 所抵銷。不計入比較中的射頻傳播建模專案收入，服務保障收入較去年同期下降約 13%。

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share for the first nine months was $1.65, down approximately 9% year-over-year as the impact of lower revenue was partially offset by cost containment efforts and a lower share count.

前 9 個月的非公認會計準則攤薄每股收益為 1.65 美元，年減約 9%，原因是收入下降的影響被成本控制措施和股票數量減少部分抵銷。

Now let's move to slide number 7 for some further perspective on market and business insights, starting with the enterprise customer vertical. In the first nine months of fiscal year 2024, enterprise revenue was essentially flat year-over-year as revenue growth in our cybersecurity product lines offset a middle digit percentage decline in our service assurance product line revenue.

現在讓我們轉到第 7 張投影片，從企業客戶垂直領域開始，進一步了解市場和業務洞察。2024 財年的前 9 個月，企業營收年比基本持平，因為我們的網路安全產品線營收成長抵銷了服務保障產品線營收的中位數百分比下降。

In the enterprise market, flow-through rates continued to be affected by higher spending scrutiny and delayed project funding as customer navigated the current macroeconomic environment. However, some sectors grew year to date, such as government and financial, while others like the healthcare sector were notably softer.

在企業市場，隨著客戶應對當前的宏觀經濟環境，支出審查的加強和專案融資的延遲繼續影響流通率。然而，一些行業今年迄今出現成長，例如政府和金融業，而醫療保健等其他行業則明顯疲軟。

We expect our enhanced cybersecurity solution and ability to expand visibility to the edge will continue to resonate with our customers. These solutions help protect customers' networks from attack, covered blind spots, address control challenges, and facilitate the leverage of off-premises and cloud solutions within digital transformation and new network architecture initiatives.

我們期望我們增強的網路安全解決方案和擴大邊緣可見性的能力將繼續引起客戶的共鳴。這些解決方案有助於保護客戶的網路免受攻擊、覆蓋盲點、解決控制挑戰，並促進在數位轉型和新網路架構計劃中利用場外和雲端解決方案。

Moving to our service provider customer vertical, revenue in the first nine months of the fiscal year declined approximately 22% year over year. Excluding radio frequency propagation modeling project revenue from the comparison, the service provider customer vertical revenue declined approximately 13% year over year, as revenue growth in our cybersecurity product line was more than offset by a decline in our core service assurance product line revenue.

轉向服務提供者客戶垂直領域，本財年前 9 個月的營收年減約 22%。不計入比較中的射頻傳播建模專案收入，服務供應商客戶垂直收入年減約 13%，因為我們的網路安全產品線的收入成長被我們的核心服務保障產品線收入的下降所抵銷。

The service provider market remains challenging, especially for the US Tier 1 service provider given capital spending constraints, which is causing intense spending scrutiny and delayed project funding. This dynamic appears to be impacting the finalization of carriers' new calendar year budgets and funding as well. We expect the challenging market dynamics to persist for the remainder of the fiscal year and likely into the next fiscal year.

服務提供者市場仍然充滿挑戰，特別是對於美國一級服務提供者而言，考慮到資本支出限制，這導致了嚴格的支出審查和專案融資的延遲。這種動態似乎也影響了營運商新日曆年預算和資金的最終確定。我們預計充滿挑戰的市場動態將在本財年剩餘時間內持續存在，並可能持續到下一個財年。

However, we believe that as 5G adoption accelerates, new use cases advance, and the 5G traffic volume increases, our core visibility and cybersecurity solution will be increasingly required. We remain prepared and ready to support carriers through this inevitable transition with our differentiated solutions.

然而，我們相信，隨著 5G 採用的加速、新用例的推進以及 5G 流量的增加，我們的核心視覺性和網路安全解決方案的需求將越來越大。我們始終做好準備，透過我們的差異化解決方案來支持營運商度過這一不可避免的過渡。

Despite the current selling environment, we are encouraged by the interest in our new offerings like Omnis and recent traction with our other cybersecurity solutions, particularly our DDoS offering, including adaptive DDoS and mobile security. Michael will provide more insight regarding customer orders in our verticals during his remarks.

儘管目前的銷售環境不佳，但人們對 Omnis 等新產品的興趣以及最近對我們其他網路安全解決方案的關注，特別是我們的 DDoS 產品（包括自適應 DDoS 和行動安全），讓我們感到鼓舞。邁克爾將在演講中提供有關我們垂直行業客戶訂單的更多見解。

Now let's move to slide number 8 to review our outlook. Looking ahead, taking into consideration the current environment for the full fiscal year 2024, we expect revenue will be at the low end of our previously disclosed revenue outlook range or approximately $840 million.

現在讓我們轉到第 8 張投影片來回顧我們的前景。展望未來，考慮到 2024 年整個財年的當前環境，我們預計收入將處於我們先前揭露的收入前景範圍的低端，約 8.4 億美元。

We anticipate delivering non-GAAP EPS at the higher end of our previously disclosed EPS outlook range as we continue to benefit from our cost-containment efforts and our other activities. This would put our non-GAAP EPS relatively in line with last fiscal year EPS on lower revenue year over year. Jean will provide a recap of the outlook in her remarks.

隨著我們繼續受益於我們的成本控制工作和其他活動，我們預計非公認會計原則每股收益將達到我們先前揭露的每股收益展望範圍的高端。這將使我們的非公認會計原則每股收益與上一財年的每股收益相對一致，但收入逐年下降。Jean 將在她的演講中概述前景。

Despite the continuation of near-term headwinds, we believe that the fundamental long-term demand trends remain intact for NetScout as enterprises and service providers require industry-leading cybersecurity and service assurance solutions such as ours to deliver actionable visibility at scale.

儘管近期不利因素持續存在，但我們相信NetScout 的基本長期需求趨勢仍然完好無損，因為企業和服務供應商需要業界領先的網路安全和服務保障解決方案（例如我們的解決方案）來大規模提供可操作的可見性。

Accordingly, we remain focused on leveraging our industry-leading Visibility Without Borders platform to help customers tackle the performance, availability, and cybersecurity challenges of the increasingly complex connected digital world. We expect the continued execution of this strategy will enable us to deliver sustainable value for our shareholders. We look forward to sharing our progress with everyone at the conclusion of our fiscal year. With that, I will turn the call over to Mike.

因此，我們仍然專注於利用業界領先的可見性無國界平台來幫助客戶應對日益複雜的互聯數位世界的效能、可用性和網路安全挑戰。我們預計這項策略的持續執行將使我們能夠為股東創造可持續的價值。我們期待在本財年結束時與大家分享我們的進展。這樣，我會將電話轉給麥克。

Thank you, Anil, and good morning, everyone. Slide 10 outlines the areas that I will be covering today, starting with customer win highlights in the third quarter.

謝謝你，阿尼爾，大家早安。投影片 10 概述了我今天將討論的領域，從第三季的客戶贏得亮點開始。

In our enterprise customer vertical, during the quarter, we displaced a competitor to win a low seven-figure order from a leading domestic insurance company, which is a new logo for us. The opportunity related to our service assurance solution needed to address data center and hybrid cloud visibility.

在我們的企業客戶垂直領域，本季我們取代了競爭對手，贏得了一家國內領先保險公司的七位數低訂單，這對我們來說是一個新標誌。與我們的服務保障解決方案相關的機會需要解決資料中心和混合雲端的可見性問題。

We won this deal due to our superior technology that addressed incumbent vendor shortfalls and our strong reputation as an industry leader. We believe that there are more opportunities on the horizon to support this new customer with further service assurance deployment as well as potential cybersecurity solutions given strong explicit interest in this area as well.

我們之所以贏得這筆交易，是因為我們的卓越技術解決了現有供應商的不足，以及我們作為行業領導者的良好聲譽。我們相信，鑑於對該領域也有強烈的明確興趣，未來將有更多機會透過進一步的服務保證部署以及潛在的網路安全解決方案來支援該新客戶。

Turning to our service provider customer vertical, a Tier 1 European carrier renewed a multi-year agreement with us and placed a mid-seven-figure order that included both service assurance solutions to address their 5G network evolution as well as cybersecurity solutions.

談到我們的垂直服務供應商客戶，一家歐洲一級營運商與我們續簽了多年協議，並下了一份七位數的訂單，其中包括解決其5G 網路演進的服務保證解決方案以及網路安全解決方案。

The order included our recently released mobile security solution that leverages our innovative MobileStream and Sightline offerings to detect DDoS attacks on the mobile network, a product derived from our market-leading solution generally deployed in the fixed-line network.

該訂單包括我們最近發布的行動安全解決方案，該解決方案利用我們創新的 MobileStream 和 Sightline 產品來偵測行動網路上的 DDoS 攻擊，該產品源自於我們普遍部署在固網網路中的市場領先解決方案。

We won this opportunity due to our proven technology and strong long-standing incumbent relationship with this customer. As we advance this new mobile security solution, we are encouraged by the high interest in this offering as we are actively engaged in multiple deal discussions in addition to a handful of trials across the service provider landscape.

我們憑藉成熟的技術以及與該客戶建立的牢固的長期合作關係贏得了這個機會。當我們推進這項新的行動安全解決方案時，我們對這項產品的高度興趣感到鼓舞，因為除了在服務提供者領域進行的一些試驗之外，我們還積極參與多項交易討論。

In terms of go-to-market activities, recently, we announced the launch of Adaptive DDoS for Arbor Edge Defense to protect ISPs and enterprises from so-called DNS water torture attacks as we enhance our solutions with our new technologies.

在進入市場活動方面，最近，我們宣布推出適用於 Arbor Edge Defense 的自適應 DDoS，以保護 ISP 和企業免受所謂的 DNS 水折磨攻擊，同時我們利用新技術增強了我們的解決方案。

Additionally, we plan to attend Mobile World Congress, MWC, in Barcelona in late February, where we will be meeting with existing and prospective customers. Our focus will be on sharing our latest service assurance, AI and ML analytics, and cybersecurity solutions related to 5G network visibility and cybersecurity requirements.

此外，我們計劃於 2 月底參加在巴塞隆納舉行的世界行動通訊大會 (MWC)，屆時我們將與現有和潛在客戶會面。我們的重點將是分享我們最新的服務保證、人工智慧和機器學習分析，以及與 5G 網路可見性和網路安全要求相關的網路安全解決方案。

That concludes my remarks. Thank you, everyone. I will now turn the call over to Jean for a review of our financial results.

我的發言到此結束。謝謝大家。我現在將把電話轉給吉恩，以審查我們的財務表現。

Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. I will review key metrics for our third quarter and first nine months of fiscal year 2024 and provide some additional commentary on our fiscal year 2024 outlook. As a reminder, this review focuses on our non-GAAP results unless otherwise stated, and all reconciliations with our GAAP results appear in the presentation appendix. Regardless, I will note the nature of any such comparisons.

謝謝你，邁克爾，大家早安。我將回顧 2024 財年第三季和前 9 個月的關鍵指標，並對 2024 財年展望提供一些額外評論。提醒一下，除非另有說明，本次審查重點關注我們的非 GAAP 業績，並且與我們 GAAP 業績的所有對帳均出現在簡報附錄中。無論如何，我會注意任何此類比較的性質。

Slide number 12 details the results for the third quarter and first nine months of our fiscal year 2024. Focusing first on our quarterly performance, total revenue was $218.1 million, down 19.1% year over year. Product revenue was $95.8 million, a decrease of 35.9%; while service revenue was $122.2 million, up 1.8%, both on a year over year basis.

第 12 號投影片詳細介紹了 2024 財年第三季和前九個月的業績。首先關注我們的季度業績，總收入為 2.181 億美元，年減 19.1%。產品收入為9,580萬美元，下降35.9%；服務收入為 1.222 億美元，年增 1.8%。

Gross profit margin was 81.8% in the third quarter, up 1.3 percentage points year over year, primarily attributable to higher service revenue and lower variable incentive compensation expense as compared to the last fiscal year.

第三季毛利率為81.8%，年增1.3個百分點，主要得益於服務收入較上一財年增加以及可變激勵薪酬費用減少。

Quarterly operating expenses decreased 5.2% year-over-year, primarily due to cost containment efforts, including reduced variable incentive compensation. Operating expenses for the quarter included our ENGAGE User and Technology Event, which had historically occurred in our first quarter. We reported an operating profit margin of 29% compared with 35.5% in the same quarter last year. And diluted earnings per share was $0.73 compared to $1 in the same quarter last year.

季度營運費用年減 5.2%，主要是由於成本控制措施，包括變動激勵薪酬的減少。本季的營運支出包括我們的 ENGAGE 使用者和技術活動，該活動歷來發生在我們的第一季。我們的營業利益率為 29%，而去年同期為 35.5%。稀釋後每股收益為 0.73 美元，而去年同期為 1 美元。

Turning to slide 13, I will review key revenue trends by customer verticals and product lines. Please note that all comparisons here are on a year-over-year basis, consistent with our other remarks. For the first nine months of fiscal year 2024, our enterprise customer vertical revenue was effectively flat. Our service provider customer vertical revenue decreased 22.1%. During the same period, our enterprise customer vertical accounted for approximately 54% of our total revenue, while our service provider customer vertical accounted for the remaining 46%.

轉向投影片 13，我將按客戶垂直領域和產品線回顧主要收入趨勢。請注意，此處的所有比較都是逐年比較，與我們的其他評論一致。2024 財年的前 9 個月，我們的企業客戶垂直收入實際上持平。我們的服務提供者客戶垂直收入下降了 22.1%。同期，我們的企業客戶垂直領域占我們總營收的約54%，而我們的服務供應商客戶垂直領域佔剩餘的46%。

Turning to our product lines, for the first nine months of fiscal year 2024, our cybersecurity revenue increased by 13.5%, while our service assurance revenue decreased by 19.7%. During the same period, our service assurance product line accounted for approximately 68% of our total revenue, while our cybersecurity product line accounted for the remaining 32%.

談到我們的產品線，2024 財年的前 9 個月，我們的網路安全收入成長了 13.5%，而服務保障收入則下降了 19.7%。同期，我們的服務保障產品線約佔總營收的68%，而我們的網路安全產品線則佔剩餘的32%。

Turning to Slide 14, this shows our geographic revenue mix. In the first nine months of fiscal year 2024, 59% of our revenue was derived from the United States with the remaining 41% provided by international markets. As expected, the mix between domestic and international market shifted from the same period last year, partially due to lower Tier 1 domestic carrier radio frequency propagation modeling project revenue this fiscal year. Also, no customer represented 10% or more of our total revenue in the third quarter or for the first nine months of the fiscal year.

轉向幻燈片 14，這顯示了我們的地理收入組合。在 2024 財年的前 9 個月，我們 59% 的營收來自美國，其餘 41% 由國際市場提供。正如預期的那樣，國內和國際市場的結構與去年同期相比發生了變化，部分原因是本財年國內一級運營商射頻傳播建模項目收入下降。此外，在第三季或本財年的前 9 個月，沒有客戶占我們總收入的 10% 或以上。

Slide 15 details our balance sheet highlights and free cash flow. We ended the third quarter with $330.1 million in cash, cash equivalents; short and long-term marketable securities and investments, representing a decrease of $2.5 million since the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2024. Free cash flow for the quarter was $12.7 million. During the third quarter, we repurchased a total of approximately 706,000 shares of our common stock for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $18.8 million or an average price of $26.66 per share.

投影片 15 詳細介紹了我們的資產負債表亮點和自由現金流。截至第三季末，我們的現金及現金等價物為 3.301 億美元；短期和長期有價證券和投資，自 2024 財年第二季末以來減少了 250 萬美元。該季度的自由現金流為 1270 萬美元。第三季度，我們總共回購了約 706,000 股普通股，總購買價約 1,880 萬美元，平均價格為每股 26.66 美元。

From a debt perspective, we ended the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 with $100 million outstanding on our $800 million revolving credit facility, which expires in July 2026.

從債務角度來看，截至 2024 財年第三季度，我們的 8 億美元循環信貸額度尚未償還 1 億美元，該額度將於 2026 年 7 月到期。

To briefly recap other balance sheet highlights, accounts receivable net was $221.6 million, representing an increase of $77.7 million since March 31, 2023. The DSO metric at the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 was 90 days versus 69 days at the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2023 and 58 days at the end of fiscal year 2023. The higher DSO metric in the third quarter of this fiscal year was due to the timing and composition of bookings.

簡單回顧一下資產負債表的其他亮點，應收帳款淨額為 2.216 億美元，自 2023 年 3 月 31 日以來增加了 7,770 萬美元。2024 財年第三季末的 DSO 指標為 90 天，而 2023 財年第三季末為 69 天，2023 財年末為 58 天。本財年第三季 DSO 指標較高是由於預訂的時間和組成所致。

Let's move to slide 16 for commentary on our outlook. I will focus my review on our non-GAAP targets for fiscal year 2024. As Anil noted earlier, we are updating our outlook for fiscal year 2024, which was last presented on November 2, 2023, during our second-quarter fiscal year 2020 earnings call.

讓我們轉到幻燈片 16 來評論我們的前景。我將重點放在 2024 財年的非 GAAP 目標。正如阿尼爾先前指出的，我們正在更新 2024 財年的展望，該展望最後一次於 2023 年 11 月 2 日在 2020 財年第二季財報電話會議上提出。

We now anticipate revenue to be approximately $840 million at the lower end of our previously disclosed range. We anticipate non-GAAP diluted earnings per share to now be within the range of $2.15 to $2.20. This is toward the upper end of our previously disclosed range as we benefit from continued cost management efforts as well as a lower tax rate and share count.

我們現在預計收入約為 8.4 億美元，處於我們先前披露的範圍的下限。我們預計非 GAAP 攤薄後每股盈餘目前將在 2.15 美元至 2.20 美元的範圍內。這接近我們之前披露的範圍的上限，因為我們受益於持續的成本管理努力以及較低的稅率和股份數量。

The effective tax rate is expected to be at the lower end of our range of 20% to 22% as we finalize the tax impacts related to legislation associated with the capitalization of R&D costs. Our weighted average diluted shares outstanding is assumed to be between 72 million and 73 million shares, which includes the impact of our recent share repurchase activity.

隨著我們最終確定與研發成本資本化相關的立法相關的稅收影響，有效稅率預計將處於 20% 至 22% 範圍的下限。我們的加權平均稀釋後流通股假設為 7,200 萬至 7,300 萬股，其中包括我們最近的股票回購活動的影響。

That concludes my formal review of our financial results. Thank you, and I'll now turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.

我對我們財務表現的正式審查到此結束。謝謝，我現在將把電話轉給接線員進行問答。

(Operator Instructions) Matt Hedberg, RBC.

（操作員說明）Matt Hedberg，RBC。

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Anil, you noted in your prepared remarks, obviously, some of the pressure on service provider spending. I think you said you think some of that could drift into next year, but the 5G could start to improve some spending trends there. I guess I'm wondering as you talk to customers, I think we've always been curious on what that spark could be on 5G.

嘿，早上好，夥計們。感謝您回答我的問題。阿尼爾，您在準備好的發言中顯然指出了服務提供者支出面臨的一些壓力。我想你說過你認為其中一些可能會延續到明年，但 5G 可能會開始改善那裡的一些支出趨勢。我想我想知道，當您與客戶交談時，我們一直對 5G 上的火花感到好奇。

What are some things that you're hearing from customers that gives you some of the confidence that some of those trends could to reverse, something maybe consumer broadband, anything on the wireless side, just anything that you're seeing or that gives you the thought that those trends there could start to improve?

您從客戶那裡聽到的一些事情讓您有信心相信其中一些趨勢可能會扭轉，可能是消費者寬頻，無線方面的任何東西，只是您看到的或給您帶來好處的任何東西認為那裡的趨勢可以開始改善嗎？

Thanks, Matt. So I think maybe we can talk about our strategy for next year at a high level rather than some of the estimates from people because they are still finalizing their budget. And we keep hearing different stories at different time, even though I've met with almost all of the Tier 1 carriers in the last six months.

謝謝，馬特。因此，我認為也許我們可以在高層討論我們明年的策略，而不是人們的一些估計，因為他們仍在敲定預算。儘管我在過去六個月裡見過幾乎所有的一級運營商，但我們在不同的時間不斷聽到不同的故事。

So what we are looking at it is that with this Omnis product line, we have our data while there is lot of pressure on capital spending on the service assurance solution but is very good for AIOps type and automation applications. So that's one direction we are talking to them, appeal to a different audience in their customer base and use our incumbency.

因此，我們所關注的是，透過 Omnis 產品線，我們擁有數據，雖然服務保障解決方案的資本支出面臨很大壓力，但對於 AIOps 類型和自動化應用程式來說非常有好處。因此，這是我們與他們交談的一個方向，吸引他們客戶群中的不同受眾並利用我們的優勢。

And second is reducing our dependency on the service assurance service provider business. And so with the combination of those things, if 5G takes off, in other words, there could be some upside. But that's basically what we are looking at because I think it's not deterministic what's going to happen to the capital spending on the traditional service assurance part of our service provider business.

其次是減少我們對服務保障服務提供者業務的依賴。因此，將這些因素結合起來，換句話說，如果 5G 起飛，可能會帶來一些好處。但這基本上就是我們所關注的，因為我認為我們的服務提供者業務的傳統服務保障部分的資本支出將會發生什麼，這並不是確定性的。

Got it. That's helpful. And then you noted on this a second ago, I guess just double-clicking on the cyber business, which seems to be doing quite well. Are there things that relative to expectations are doing better? And maybe just to double-click on that, because it feels like there's a lot of good things happening kind of even below some of the top-line growth estimates that we're seeing there.

知道了。這很有幫助。然後你在一秒鐘前註意到了這一點，我想只是雙擊了網路業務，這似乎做得很好。是否有一些事情相對於預期做得更好？也許只需雙擊它，因為感覺有很多好事發生，甚至低於我們在那裡看到的一些頂線增長預期。

We have mentioned in the past that we didn't integrate the Arbor business. So in high-level, we have service assurance business, which is like 65% of the business. In that, we have service provider spending challenges as a bigger issue. Then we have the Arbor business, which also have a service provider enterprise. And then Omnis was introduced just last year and still taking some time for traction.

我們過去曾提到過，我們沒有整合Arbor業務。所以在高層，我們有服務保障業務，大概佔業務的65%。在這方面，服務提供者的支出挑戰是一個更大的問題。然後我們有Arbor業務，其中也有一個服務提供者企業。Omnis 於去年剛推出，但仍需要一段時間才能獲得牽引力。

So if Arbor business was integrated into NetScout roughly two years ago, and we are seeing the effect on this -- from a technology point of view, we are bringing the DPI technology to the DDoS market. So typically, DDoS is for volumetric attacks, and we have introduced something called adaptive DDoS, which is really application layer attacks. We talked about -- Michael talked about DNS water torture attack, and that's driving this growth this year. And hopefully, this will continue next year.

因此，如果大約兩年前將 Arbor 業務整合到 NetScout 中，我們將看到對此的影響 - 從技術角度來看，我們正在將 DPI 技術引入 DDoS 市場。通常，DDoS 是針對容量攻擊的，我們引入了稱為自適應 DDoS 的東西，這實際上是應用程式層攻擊。我們談到了——邁克爾談到了 DNS 水酷刑攻擊，這推動了今年的成長。希望這種情況明年能繼續下去。

Thank you very much, appreciate the color.

非常感謝，欣賞顏色。

Jim Fish, Piper Sandler.

吉姆·菲什，派珀·桑德勒。

Hey, guys, thank you. This is Quinton on for Jim. Maybe double-clicking on that second question there, we've heard from both you and other vendors in the space about the acceleration of those DDoS attacks that have occurred this year.

嘿，夥計們，謝謝你們。這是昆頓為吉姆代言的。也許雙擊第二個問題，我們從您和該領域的其他供應商那裡聽到了有關今年發生的 DDoS 攻擊加速的情況。

Can you talk about any relationship you've seen between the pace or the volume of these attacks and your cyber performance in the past? And as we look towards fiscal '25, is this something that could kind of reaccelerate or continue to accelerate security growth as customers may be nearing their upper end of capacity and are in need for an upgrade?

您能談談您所看到的這些攻擊的速度或數量與您過去的網路效能之間的關係嗎？當我們展望 25 財年時，隨著客戶可能接近容量上限並需要升級，這是否會重新加速或繼續加速安全成長？

Yeah, sure. So first thing that I wanted to mention that on our website, we publish a threat report, which talks about how the attacks are morphing. And there are attacks called carpet bombing attack, which is new, which is basically, you -- instead of attacking a server, you basically attack multiple devices in customers' network. It is very hard to detect. And then there's the DNS water torture attacks, where you bring down a DNS server, then nobody can do anything. So these are the two areas we introduced new functionality.

是的，當然。首先，我想在我們的網站上提到，我們發布了一份威脅報告，其中討論了攻擊的演變。還有一種稱為地毯式轟炸攻擊的攻擊，這是一種新的攻擊，基本上，您不是攻擊伺服器，而是攻擊客戶網路中的多個裝置。這是很難被發現的。然後是 DNS 水刑攻擊，當你關閉 DNS 伺服器時，沒有人可以做任何事。這是我們引入新功能的兩個領域。

So yes, attacks are increasing, but we are now handling new kinds of attacks, which we call adaptive DDoS, and we think there won't be -- that there is lot of interest in that. Plus, Arbor business was more service provider business. NetScout had a lot of enterprise business. So as we combine the sales forces, we are seeing traction on the enterprise portion of DDoS, which is our AED product, which is different than in the past.

所以，是的，攻擊正在增加，但我們現在正在處理新類型的攻擊，我們稱之為自適應 DDoS，我們認為不會出現——人們對此很感興趣。另外，Arbor 業務更多的是服務提供者業務。NetScout 擁有大量企業業務。因此，當我們整合銷售力量時，我們看到了 DDoS 企業部分的吸引力，這是我們的 AED 產品，與過去不同。

Makes a lot of sense. And then maybe for Anil, for you in your prepared remarks, you talked about benefiting from the year-end budget flush. It sounds like this was more on that cyber side. Can you walk through any verticals or segments specifically that benefited from this flush compared to last year? Thank you.

很有道理。然後，也許對阿尼爾來說，對你來說，在你準備好的演講中，你談到了從年終預算充裕中受益。聽起來這比較是在網路方面。您能具體介紹一下與去年相比受益於這次上漲的任何垂直行業或細分市場嗎？謝謝。

Yeah, maybe Jean can add to this, but this was not necessarily budget flush. Maybe some of the orders from Q4 went into Q3. And so we didn't see this traditional budget flush, which we have seen in the past, especially after COVID. Jean, anything you'd like to say?

是的，也許讓可以補充這一點，但這不一定是預算充足。也許第四季的一些訂單進入了第三季。因此，我們沒有看到這種傳統的預算充裕，而我們過去曾見過這種情況，尤其是在新冠疫情之後。吉恩，你有什麼想說的嗎？

No, you are correct, Anil. When we had given a color for Q3, we were not sure whether the customers would be using their calendar year 2023 budgets or start using their calendar year 2024 budget, hence the skew between our Q3 and our Q4. And so what we found was that they did use their 2023 budget, which is our fiscal calendar -- fiscal year Q3 year.

不，你是對的，阿尼爾。當我們為第三季指定顏色時，我們不確定客戶是會使用他們的 2023 年預算還是開始使用他們的 2024 年預算，因此第三季和第四季之間存在偏差。我們發現他們確實使用了 2023 年預算，也就是我們的財政日曆——第三財年。

Thanks, I appreciate it.

謝謝，我很感激。

Kevin Liu, K. Liu & Company.

劉凱文，K. Liu & Company。

Hey, good morning. I just wanted to ask about your early expectations for next fiscal year, specifically on the cybersecurity side, given what you're seeing in terms of pipeline build for your new products versus some of the growth coming from the Arbor side of the business. How should we think about the mix of business on cybersecurity? And ultimately, should we expect that to accelerate growth, or do you think it will stay pretty consistent with what you've seen over the past 12 month?

嘿，早安。我只是想問一下您對下一財年的早期預期，特別是在網路安全方面，考慮到您在新產品管道建設方面所看到的情況以及來自 Arbor 業務方面的一些增長。我們應該如何考慮網路安全業務的組合？最終，我們是否應該期望這會加速成長，或者您認為它會與您在過去 12 個月看到的情況保持相當一致嗎？

Yeah, so this one was much higher growth versus in the past. And like I mentioned, some of the integration of technologies, some new products resulted in that. I also want to add that we also have a product called Omnis Security, which is in the NDR space. And so when we talk about security revenue, we will include both of them.

是的，所以這次的成長比過去高很多。正如我所提到的，一些技術的整合和一些新產品導致了這一點。我還想補充一點，我們還有一個名為 Omnis Security 的產品，它屬於 NDR 領域。因此，當我們談論安全收入時，我們會將兩者都納入。

This year, Omnis Security has not picked up, so bulk of the growth is because of Arbor. So we think that security growth will be better -- continue to be better than the service assurance next year also. And hence, the percentage of security might go higher. But we should be able to provide some guidance on this in the next earnings call.

今年，Omnis Security 尚未回升，因此成長的大部分歸功於 Arbor。因此，我們認為安全成長將會更好——明年也將繼續優於服務保證。因此，安全百分比可能會更高。但我們應該能夠在下一次財報電話會議中就此提供一些指引。

Understood. And then, Anil, could you also elaborate a little bit on the opportunities outside of the Tier 1 service provider as we move into this current calendar year? Just wondering if you believe there's enough opportunity there to help offset the declines that might be coming from the capital spending side -- yeah, if you could just talk about that?

明白了。然後，Anil，當我們進入本日曆年時，您能否詳細說明一級服務提供者之外的機會？只是想知道您是否認為有足夠的機會來幫助抵消資本支出方面可能出現的下降——是的，您是否可以談談這一點？

I think the challenge is, Kevin, is in that there are cheaper price incumbents on the lower end of the market beyond the top 10 or 20 where we already are coverage. So I see in service assurance the bigger opportunities. 5G takes off in terms of user plan much faster and/or doing something with the mobile security area or applying some of our solution to AI use cases like a heavy user bandwidth; air fiber, which is like the fiber over FTTH, which AT&T recently announced.

凱文，我認為挑戰在於，除了我們已經涵蓋的前 10 名或前 20 名之外，低端市場上還有價格更便宜的現有企業。所以我在服務保障中看到了更大的機會。5G 在用戶計劃方面起飛得更快，和/或在行動安全領域做一些事情，或將我們的一些解決方案應用於人工智慧用例，例如大量用戶頻寬；空氣光纖，類似於 AT&T 最近宣布的 FTTH 光纖。

And so those are the trends which are going to be, but I think going after that, below Tier 1 or where we are not incumbent, I say it's hard because there are a lot of regional vendors and there is very big price competition.

這些就是未來的趨勢，但我認為，在一級以下或我們不具備的地位之後，我認為這很難，因為有很多區域供應商，而且價格競爭非常激烈。

That's helpful. Thanks for taking the questions.

這很有幫助。感謝您提出問題。

Sure.

當然。

This does conclude the question-and-answer portion of today's call. So I'd like to turn the call back over to Tony for any additional or closing remarks.

今天電話會議的問答部分到此結束。因此，我想將電話轉回給托尼，讓他發表補充或結束語。

Thank you, operator. That concludes our call for today. Thank you all for joining us. Enjoy the rest of the day.

謝謝你，接線生。我們今天的呼籲到此結束。感謝大家加入我們。享受這一天剩下的時間。

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's program, and we appreciate your participation. You may disconnect at this time.

謝謝你們，女士們、先生們。今天的計劃到此結束，我們感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開連線。