Red Hat announces Q4 2014 earnings

On March 25 Red Hat announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2014.

Total revenue for the first quarter ended February 28, 2015 was $464 million, with an increase of 16% from the same quarter last year. Looking at the financials details we can see that subscription revenue was of $405 million, up 15% year-over-year, full fiscal year subscription revenue was $1.56 billion, up 17% year-over-year in U.S. dollars year-over-year, or 19% measured in constant currency. Operating cash flow of $217 million, up 18% year-over-year, full fiscal year operating cash flow of $623 million, up 15% year-over-year.

GAAP operating income for the fourth quarter was $68 million and for full fiscal year was $250 million. For the first quarter, GAAP operating margin was 14.6% for fourth quarter and 14.0% for the full year and non-GAAP operating margin was 23.3%.

GAAP net income for the quarter was $48 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, in comparison with $45 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, in the year ago quarter. Operating cash flow was $217 million for the fourth quarter and $623 million for the full year.

Jim Whitehurst, President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Hat, declared:

Red Hat delivered strong fourth quarter results that were highlighted by subscription revenue and total revenue that both grew over 20% year-over-year on a constant currency basis.  We continued to experience strong demand for our open, hybrid cloud technologies, as evidenced by increased cross-selling in our top 30 deals which were all over $2 million for the first time, customers value the consistency and flexibility as they run their applications using Red Hat solutions across a variety of deployment models, including public and private clouds, to modernize and transform their IT infrastructure.  We believe that our strategic position as a trusted provider of infrastructure and our execution this past year have positioned us for strong constant currency revenue growth in the next fiscal year.

Charlie Peters, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Red Hat, stated:

Our strong fourth quarter marked the 52nd consecutive quarter of revenue growth and we exited the fiscal year with a record total backlog over $1.86 billion, up 19% year-over-year, we are pleased to have delivered mid-teens growth across revenue, non-GAAP operating income and cash flow despite significant foreign exchange volatility during fiscal 2015.  By focusing on the needs of our customers, our team of global associates achieved remarkable success across the company for the quarter and the year.