Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Fourth quarter revenue accelerated to $608 million, up 20% year-over-year and 9% sequentially. We generated $2.23 billion of revenue in 2023, representing a growth rate of 17% year-over-year. We generated $1.38 billion in total US revenue in 2023, representing a growth rate of 19% year-over-year. Excluding the impact of revenue from strategic commercial contracts, fourth quarter revenue grew 20% year-over-year and 8% sequentially, and full year revenue grew 20% year-over-year. Customer count grew 35% year-over-year and 10% sequentially to 497 customers. Revenue from our largest customers continues to expand. Fourth quarter trailing 12-month revenue from our top 20 customers increased to 11% year-over-year to $55 million per customer. Now moving to our commercial segment.

Fourth quarter commercial revenue grew 32% year-over-year and 13% sequentially to $284 million. Full year commercial revenue grew 20% year-over-year to over $1 billion, surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time. Excluding the impact from strategic commercial contracts, fourth quarter commercial revenue grew 35% year-over-year and 12% sequentially, and full year commercial revenue grew 28% year-over-year. Fourth quarter commercial TCV booked was $699 million, our highest commercial TCV quarter in the company’s history, representing a 156% growth year-over-year and 74% growth sequentially. Last quarter, our US commercial business saw rapid acceleration and unprecedented demand. Fourth quarter US commercial revenue grew 70% year-over-year and 12% sequentially to $131 million.

Full year US commercial revenue grew 36% year-over-year to $457 million. Excluding revenue from strategic commercial contracts, fourth quarter US commercial revenue grew 71% year-over-year and 8% sequentially, and full year US commercial revenue grew 52% year-over-year. Our momentum in AIP is driving both new customer conversions and existing customer expansions. The transformation that AIP is having on our business It’s best highlighted in our US commercial bookings and backlog. In the fourth quarter, we booked $343 million of US commercial TCV, representing a 107% growth year over year on a dollar-weighted duration basis. Total remaining deal value in our US commercial business grew 32% year-over-year and 28% sequentially. Our US commercial customer count grew to 221 customers, reflecting 55% growth year-over-year and 22% growth sequentially.

Fourth quarter international commercial revenue grew 11% year-over-year and 14% sequentially to a $154 million, as we continue to capitalize on targeted growth opportunities in Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. As Ryan mentioned, we’ve been capturing value and footprint from AIP momentum, and two examples are from our work with Fujitsu and SOMPO. These customers have been using AIP for months prior to the deal’s closing, resulting in some revenue catch up last quarter. Full year international commercial revenue grew 9% year-over-year to $546 million. Revenue from strategic commercial contracts was $20 million for the quarter. We anticipate first quarter 2024 revenue from these customers to decline to between $14 million to $16 million compared to $33 million in the first quarter of 2023.

We anticipate 2024 revenue from these customers to decline to approximately 2% of full year revenue compared to approximately 4% of revenue in 2023. Shifting to our government segment. Fourth quarter government revenue grew 11% year-over-year and 5% sequentially to $324 million. Full year government revenue grew 14% year-over-year to $1.22 billion. Fourth quarter US government revenue grew 6% year-over-year and 3% sequentially to $237 million. Full year US government revenue grew 11% year-over-year to $921 million. As Ryan mentioned, while our fourth quarter US government results are muted due to the timing of larger contract awards, we expect our US government business to reaccelerate in 2024. Fourth quarter international government revenue grew 27% year-over-year and 11% sequentially to $87 million, bolstered by our work in healthcare and defense.

This included the receipt of funding from a partner nation related to our ongoing efforts in Eastern Europe, which resulted in a revenue catch-up for the quarter. Full year international government revenue grew 23% year-over-year to $301 million. We had an outstanding quarter of bookings. Fourth quarter TCV booked was $1.15 billion, up a 192% year-over-year and 38% sequentially. Net dollar retention was a 108%, an increase of a 100 basis points from last quarter. Net dollar retention does not include revenue from new customers that we acquired in the past 12 months and, therefore, does not yet fully capture the acceleration in our US commercial business. We ended the fourth quarter with $3.9 billion in total remaining deal value, an increase of 5% sequentially, and $1.2 billion in remaining performance obligations, an increase of 28% year-over-year and 26% sequentially.

As a reminder, RPO is primarily comprised of our commercial business, as it does not take into account contracts with an initial term of less than 12 months and contractual obligations that fall beyond termination for convenience clauses, both of which are common in most of our government business. Turning to margin and expense. Adjusted gross margin, which excludes stock-based compensation expense, was 84% for the quarter and 82% for the year. Adjusted income from operations, which excludes stock-based compensation expense and related employer payroll taxes, was $209 million, representing an adjusted operating margin of 34% and marking the fifth consecutive quarter of expanding adjusted operating margins. Full year adjusted income from operations was $633 million, representing a margin of 28% and 600 basis point increase compared to 2022.

Q4 adjusted expense was $399 million, up 1% sequentially and up 1% year-over-year. Full year adjusted expense was $1.6 billion, up 7% year-over-year. Our bottom-line outperformance in 2023 has positioned us to be able to escalate investment and resources to AIP. As a result, we expect expenses to increase in Q1, but remain focused on calibrating expense growth below revenue growth for the full year in order to continue delivering on our goals of sustained GAAP profitability and operating income. In the fourth quarter, we generated GAAP operating income of $66 million, representing an 11% margin, our fourth consecutive quarter of GAAP operating income. Full year GAAP operating income was $120 million. We generated fourth quarter GAAP net income of $93 million, representing a 15% margin, our fifth consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability.

Full year GAAP net income was $210 million. Fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share was $0.08, and GAAP earnings per share was $0.04. Full year adjusted earnings per share was $0.25, and GAAP earnings per share was $0.09. Additionally, our combined revenue growth and adjusted operating margin accelerated to 54% in the fourth quarter, an 800 basis point increase to our Rule of 40 score from the prior quarter. We continue to strive to maintain this exceptional balance of top- and bottom-line performance. Turning to our cash flow. In the fourth quarter, we generated $301 million in cash from operations and $305 million in adjusted free cash flow, both representing a margin of 50%. In 2023, we generated $712 million in cash flow from operations and $731 million in adjusted free cash flow.