Exceptional Q4 drives full-year revenue and EPS outperformance with strong cash flow

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today announced financial results for the fourth quarter ended October 31, 2024.

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“HPE delivered an exceptional fourth quarter with record quarterly revenue, capping off a strong FY 2024. We exceeded our full-year commitments for revenue, EPS, and free cash flow,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “Our differentiated portfolio across hybrid cloud, AI, and networking, which will be further enhanced with the pending Juniper Networks acquisition, positions us well to capitalize on the market opportunity, accelerating value for our shareholders.”

“Our exceptional revenue, profitability, and higher-than-expected free cash flow this fiscal year reflect disciplined execution and improving customer demand across our portfolio,” said Marie Myers, executive vice president and CFO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “We are pleased to have exceeded our commitments and look forward to the opportunities ahead in fiscal year 2025.”

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2024 Financial Results

• Revenue: $8.5 billion, up 15% from the prior-year period in actual dollars and in constant currency⁽¹⁾
• Annualized revenue run-rate (“ARR”)⁽²⁾: $1.9 billion, up 49% from the prior-year period in actual dollars and 48% in constant currency⁽¹⁾
• Gross margins:
  • GAAP of 30.8%, down 400 basis points from the prior-year period and down 80 basis points sequentially
  • Non-GAAP⁽¹⁾ of 30.9%, down 390 basis points from the prior-year period and down 90 basis points sequentially
• Diluted net earnings per share (“EPS”):
  • GAAP of $0.99, up 102% from the prior-year period and up 161% sequentially, above our guidance range of $0.76 to $0.81
  • Non-GAAP⁽¹⁾ of $0.58, up 12% from the prior-year period and up 16% sequentially, above our guidance range of $0.52 to $0.57
• Cash flow from operations: $2.0 billion, a decrease of $813 million from the prior-year period
• Free cash flow (“FCF”)⁽¹⁾⁽³⁾: $1.5 billion, a decrease of $821 million from the prior-year period
• Capital returns to common shareholders: $219 million in the form of dividends and share repurchases

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2024 Segment Results

• Server revenue was $4.7 billion, up 32% from the prior-year period in actual dollars and up 31% in constant currency⁽¹⁾, with 11.6% operating profit margin, compared to 10.1% from the prior-year period.
• Intelligent Edge revenue was $1.1 billion, down 20% from the prior-year period in actual dollars and in constant currency⁽¹⁾, with 24.4% operating profit margin, compared to 27.1% in the prior-year period.
• Hybrid Cloud revenue was $1.6 billion, up 18% from the prior-year period in actual dollars and in constant currency⁽¹⁾, with 7.7% operating profit margin, compared to 3.8% from the prior-year period.
• Financial Services revenue was $893 million, up 2% from the prior-year period in actual dollars and in constant currency⁽¹⁾, with 9.2% operating profit margin, compared to 8.0% from the prior-year period. Net portfolio assets of $13.6 billion, up 4% from the prior-year period in actual dollars and in constant currency⁽¹⁾. The business delivered return on equity of 17.0%, up 3.4 points from the prior-year period.

Dividend

The HPE Board of Directors declared a regular cash dividend of $0.13 per share on the company’s common stock, payable on January 16, 2025, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on December 20, 2024.

Fiscal 2025 First Quarter Outlook

HPE estimates revenue to grow by mid-teens percent when compared to revenue for the prior-year period. HPE estimates GAAP diluted net EPS to be in the range of $0.31 to $0.36 and non-GAAP diluted net EPS⁽¹⁾ to be in the range of $0.47 to $0.52. Fiscal 2025 first quarter non-GAAP diluted net EPS excludes net after-tax adjustments of $0.16 per diluted share primarily related to stock-based compensation, acquisition, disposition and other related charges and amortization of intangible assets.

Juniper Networks Pending Transaction Update

HPE’s pending acquisition of Juniper Networks, Inc. has received approval from key jurisdictions including the European Union, United Kingdom, India, South Korea, and Australia, among others. HPE and Juniper Networks are cooperatively engaged with the U.S. Department of Justice as the agency continues to review the transaction into the new calendar year. HPE and Juniper expect that the transaction will close in the early part of 2025 — within the previously stated timeframe.

¹ A description of HPE’s use of non-GAAP financial information is provided below under “Use of non-GAAP financial information and key performance metrics.”

² Annualized Revenue Run-Rate (“ARR”) is a financial metric used to assess the growth of the Consumption Services offerings. ARR represents the annualized revenue of all net HPE GreenLake cloud services revenue, related financial services revenue (which includes rental income from operating leases and interest income from finance leases), and software-as-a-Service, software consumption revenue, and other as-a-Service offerings, recognized during a quarter and multiplied by four. We use ARR as a performance metric. ARR should be viewed independently of net revenue and is not intended to be combined with it.

³ Free cash flow represents cash flow from operations, less net capital expenditures (investments in property, plant & equipment (“PP&E”) and software assets less proceeds from the sale of PP&E), and adjusted for the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash.​

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) is the global edge-to-cloud company that helps organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. Built on decades of reimagining the future and innovating to advance the way people live and work, HPE delivers unique, open and intelligent technology solutions as a service. With offerings spanning Cloud Services, Server, Intelligent Edge, Software, and Hybrid Cloud, HPE provides a consistent experience across all clouds and edges, helping customers develop new business models, engage in new ways, and increase operational performance. For more information, visit: www.hpe.com.

Use of non-GAAP financial information and key performance metrics

To supplement Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s condensed consolidated financial statement information presented on a generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) basis, Hewlett Packard Enterprise provides financial measures, including revenue on a constant currency basis (including at the business segment level), non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross profit margin, non-GAAP operating profit (non-GAAP earnings from operations), non-GAAP operating profit margin (non-GAAP earnings from operations as a percentage of net revenue), non-GAAP income tax rate, non-GAAP net earnings, non-GAAP diluted net earnings per share and free cash flow (“FCF”). Hewlett Packard Enterprise also provides forecasts of revenue growth on a constant currency basis, non-GAAP diluted net earnings per share, non-GAAP operating profit growth, and FCF. Reconciliations of each of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures for this quarter and prior periods are included in the tables below or elsewhere in the materials accompanying this news release. In addition an explanation of the ways in which Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s management uses these non-GAAP measures to evaluate its business, the substance behind Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s decision to use these non-GAAP measures, the material limitations associated with the use of these non-GAAP measures, the manner in which Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s management compensates for those limitations, and the substantive reasons why Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s management believes that these non-GAAP measures provide supplemental useful information to investors is included further below. This additional non-GAAP financial information is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for revenue, gross profit, gross profit margin, operating profit (earnings from operations), operating profit margin (earnings from operations as a percentage of net revenue), net earnings, diluted net earnings per share, and cash flow from operations prepared in accordance with GAAP.

In addition to the supplemental non-GAAP financial information, Hewlett Packard Enterprise also presents annualized revenue run-rate (“ARR”) as performance metric. ARR is a financial metric used to assess the growth of the Consumption Services offerings. ARR represents the annualized revenue of all net HPE GreenLake cloud services revenue, related financial services revenue (which includes rental income for operating leases and interest income from finance leases), and software-as-a-service (“SaaS”), software consumption revenue, and other as-a-service offerings, recognized during a quarter and multiplied by four. ARR should be viewed independently of net revenue and deferred revenue and are not intended to be combined with any of these items.

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If the risks or uncertainties ever materialize or the assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and its consolidated subsidiaries (“Hewlett Packard Enterprise”) may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. The words “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, "guide", “optimistic”, “intend”, “aim”, “will”, "estimates", “may”, “could”, “should” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to any projections, estimations, or expectations of addressable markets and their sizes, revenue (including annualized revenue run rate), margins, expenses (including stock-based compensation expenses), investments, effective tax rates, interest rates, the impact of tax law changes and related guidance and regulations, net earnings, net earnings per share, cash flows, liquidity and capital resources, inventory, order backlog, share repurchases, currency exchange rates, repayments of debts (including our asset-backed debt securities), or other financial items; recent amendments to accounting guidance and any related potential impacts on our financial reporting; any projections or estimations of future orders, including as-a-service orders; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations, as well as the execution and consummation of corporate transactions or contemplated acquisitions (including our proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks, Inc.) and dispositions (including disposition of our H3C shares and the receipt of proceeds therefrom), research and development expenditures, and any resulting benefit, cost savings, charges, or revenue or profitability improvements; any statements concerning the expected development, performance, market share or competitive performance relating to products or services; any statements concerning technological and market trends, the pace of technological innovation, and adoption of new technologies, including artificial intelligence-related and other products and services offered by Hewlett Packard Enterprise; any statements regarding current or future macroeconomic trends or events and the impact of those trends and events on Hewlett Packard Enterprise and our financial performance and our actions to mitigate such impacts to our business; any statements regarding future regulatory trends and the resulting legal and reputational exposure, including but not limited to those relating to environmental, social, and governance, cybersecurity, data privacy, and artificial intelligence issues, among others; any statements regarding pending investigations, claims, or disputes; any statements of expectation or belief, including those relating to future guidance and the financial performance of Hewlett Packard Enterprise; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing.

Risks, uncertainties, and assumptions include the need to address the many challenges facing Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s businesses; the competitive pressures faced by Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s businesses; risks associated with executing Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s strategy; the impact of macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events, including but not limited to heightened global trade restrictions, the use and development of artificial intelligence, the inflationary environment (though easing), the ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East, and the relationship between China and the U.S.; the need to effectively manage third-party suppliers and distribute Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s products and services; the protection of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties and intellectual property shared with its former parent; risks associated with Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s international operations (including from public health crises, such as pandemics or epidemics, and geopolitical events, such as those mentioned above); the development and transition of new products and services and the enhancement of existing products and services to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's transformation and mix shift of its portfolio of offerings, the execution and performance of contracts by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and its suppliers, customers, clients, and partners, including any impact thereon resulting from macroeconomic or geopolitical events such as those mentioned above; the prospect of a shutdown of the U.S. federal government; the hiring and retention of key employees; the execution, consummation, integration, and other risks associated with business combination, disposition, and investment transactions, including but not limited to the risks associated with the disposition of H3C shares and the receipt of proceeds therefrom and completion of our proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks, Inc. and our ability to integrate and implement our plans, forecasts, and other expectations with respect to the consolidated business; the impact of changes to privacy, cybersecurity, environmental, global trade, and other governmental regulations; changes in our product, lease, intellectual property, or real estate portfolio; the payment or non-payment of a dividend for any period; the efficacy of using non-GAAP, rather than GAAP, financial measures in business projections and planning; the judgments required in connection with determining revenue recognition; impact of company policies and related compliance; utility of segment realignments; allowances for recovery of receivables and warranty obligations; provisions for, and resolution of pending investigations, claims, and disputes; the impacts of tax law changes and related guidance or regulations; and other risks that are described in Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2023, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and in other filings made by Hewlett Packard Enterprise from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As in prior periods, the financial information set forth in this press release, including tax-related items, reflects estimates based on information available at this time. While Hewlett Packard Enterprise believes these estimates to be reasonable, these amounts could differ materially from reported amounts in the filings made by Hewlett Packard Enterprise from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hewlett Packard Enterprise assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.