Cray Reports First Quarter 2015 Financial Results
Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015.
All figures in this release are based on U.S. GAAP unless otherwise noted. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in the financial tables in this press release.
Revenue for the first quarter was $79.6 million, which compares with $55.1 million in the first quarter of 2014. The Company reported a net loss for the quarter of $9.4 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $12.9 million, or $0.34 per diluted share in the prior year period. Non-GAAP net loss was $10.9 million, or $0.28 per diluted share for the first quarter, compared to non-GAAP net loss of $17.6 million, or $0.46 per diluted share for the same period last year.
Overall gross profit margin for the first quarter of 2015 was 30%, compared to 33% for the first quarter of 2014. Total non-GAAP gross profit margin for the first quarter of 2015 was 31%, compared to 34% for the first quarter of 2014.
Operating expenses for the first quarter of 2015 were $40.9 million, compared to $39.8 million for the prior year period. Non-GAAP operating expenses for the first quarter of 2015 were $37.8 million, compared to $37.3 million for the prior year period.
As of March 31, 2015, cash, investments and restricted cash increased slightly compared to December 31, 2014 and totaled $148 million. Working capital decreased modestly to $353 million, compared to $362 million at the end of 2014.
“We had a solid first quarter as we continued our strong run of new wins, including at Petroleum Geo-Services, which selected an XC40 and Cray storage to power its most advanced seismic imaging efforts,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. “We also installed our first XC supercomputer in Poland at Stalprodukt, a leading advanced steel manufacturer. Looking toward the future, we recently outlined our plans for our next-generation supercomputer, code-named ‘Shasta,’ targeted for 2018. A Shasta-based system was selected by Argonne National Laboratory along with Cray storage and an XC system for the Department of Energy’s CORAL project, and we’re excited to be partnering with Intel to deliver these powerful new systems. This is a significant validation of our product roadmap as Shasta will deliver on our Adaptive Supercomputing vision to bridge the world of supercomputing with data analytics.”
Outlook
The Company anticipates revenue for 2015 to be in the range of $715 million. Revenue is expected to ramp quarterly during 2015, with about $130 million in the second quarter and roughly 40-45% of the total year in the fourth quarter. Non-GAAP gross margin for 2015 is expected to be about 35%. Total non-GAAP operating expenses for the year are anticipated to be about $195 million. Based on this outlook, we expect to improve our GAAP and non-GAAP operating profit margin significantly for 2015.
The Company’s 2015 effective non-GAAP tax rate is expected to be in the range of 6-10%.
Actual results for any future period are subject to large fluctuations and a wide range of results remains possible given the nature of Cray’s business.
Recent Highlights
- In April, Cray’s next-generation supercomputer, code-named “Shasta,” was selected by Argonne National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s CORAL project. Cray will be collaborating with Intel on this project and the contract includes a plan for a Cray XC and storage delivery in 2016 and an anticipated larger Cray Shasta-based system delivery in 2018.
- In April, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) selected a Cray XC40 supercomputer to be installed at its laboratory in Berkeley, CA in 2015. This system will be a predecessor to the previously announced “Cori” system, also a Cray, that is expected to be installed at NERSC in 2016.
- In April, the Cray Urika-XA big data analytics solution received the Best of Show award for IT Hardware and Infrastructure at the 2015 Bio-IT World Conference & Expo.
- In March, Cray’s XC and Sonexion storage were selected by Petroleum Geo-Services, a leading global energy company based in Oslo, Norway, to power its most advanced seismic imaging project called Triton. The system is expected to be installed in 2015.
- In the first quarter, a Cray XC30 supercomputer was installed at Stalprodukt S.A. in Poland, a leading global steel processor, for structural analysis modeling used in the testing of steel designs.
- Cray strengthened its global regional sales initiatives with the recent appointments of Catalin Morosanu to head up its sales efforts in Europe, Middle East and Africa and Nick Gorga to head up its sales efforts in Asia-Pacific.
- In March, Martin (“Marty”) Homlish joined Cray’s Board of Directors. Mr. Homlish previously ran marketing for Sony, SAP and Hewlett-Packard, and is currently the CEO of AMP, an end-to-end marketing agency.
