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Howard Ma

Director and Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Securities, LLC

Howard Ma is a Director and Equity Research Analyst at Guggenheim Securities, specializing in the software sector with a focus on infrastructure software and data analytics companies. He covers firms such as MongoDB, Confluent, Teradata, Informatica, Commvault Systems, Datadog, Couchbase, Elastic, and Pure Storage, and maintains a notable track record with a price target met ratio of 47.16% and an average return of 1.74%, earning a 2.99-star analyst rating based on 81 price targets. Ma began his career in equity research and investor relations at firms including Jefferies, Valeon, FBR, and B. Riley Financial before joining Guggenheim in March 2022, and previously held senior strategic and investor relations roles at N-able and SolarWinds. He holds an M.S. and B.S. in Accounting and Finance from NYU Stern School of Business and is known for establishing a software research franchise and primary research processes across dozens of companies.

Howard Ma's questions to Elastic (ESTC) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to Elastic (ESTC) leadership • Q1 2026

Question

Howard Ma from Guggenheim Securities asked if search growth continued to accelerate and whether maturing GenAI use cases were driving observability cross-sells. He also asked for the CFO's perspective on optimism for the year based on go-to-market metrics.

Answer

CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni confirmed that the search business remains very strong due to GenAI tailwinds and noted that this AI strength enhances their competitiveness in security and observability, though it's still early days. CFO Navam Welihinda expressed optimism for the year, attributing it to the durable execution of the sales team, which is supported by strong productivity and effective capacity additions.

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Howard Ma's questions to Elastic (ESTC) leadership • Q4 2025

Question

Howard Ma asked why days-adjusted cloud growth decelerated despite strong AI search momentum, questioning if there were offsets from other segments or customer optimizations. He also asked to quantify the Q4 public sector headwind and its impact on FY26 guidance.

Answer

CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni responded that AI demand is strong across both cloud and self-managed businesses, so AI momentum should not be viewed as exclusive to cloud revenue. CFO Navam Welihinda reiterated that the business is diversified, which helped offset the U.S. public sector pressure. For guidance, he explained they prudently extrapolated the potential for these pressures to extend to the broader business throughout FY26.

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Howard Ma's questions to Elastic (ESTC) leadership • Q3 2025

Question

Howard Ma asked about the pipeline for displacing competing vector databases and whether an uptick was factored into the Q4 guide. He also questioned the cause for the sequential decline in 'other subscription revenue' (self-managed).

Answer

CEO Ash Kulkarni stated that the GenAI market is young, so the focus is on winning new design deals rather than specifically on displacements, and nothing specific is baked into guidance. Interim CFO Eric Prengel addressed the self-managed business, stating they were pleased with its growth and that the Q4 total revenue guidance accounts for headwinds like fewer days and FX, not a fundamental weakness in either cloud or self-managed subscriptions.

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Howard Ma's questions to Elastic (ESTC) leadership • Q2 2025

Question

Howard Ma of Guggenheim Securities asked if Q2's strong performance effectively compensated for the Q1 shortfall and whether guidance would have been cut with this foresight. He also inquired about the pace of GenAI adoption and the potential for future AI revenue disclosure.

Answer

Incoming Interim CFO Eric Prengel stated that despite Q2's strength, the Q1 commitment shortfall will remain a headwind for the full year, particularly for cloud revenue, so the guidance adjustment was necessary. CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni noted GenAI adoption is happening in a 'much more compressed time frame' than prior technology shifts. Eric Prengel added that while the company provides color on GenAI traction, there are no plans for a specific revenue disclosure as there is no separate SKU.

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Howard Ma's questions to Pure Storage (PSTG) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to Pure Storage (PSTG) leadership • Q2 2026

Question

Howard Ma from Guggenheim Securities, LLC questioned the extent to which the high-margin Meta deal contributed to the sequential improvement in product gross margin, providing a hypothetical calculation for context.

Answer

CFO Tarek Robbiati clarified that revenue from the Meta deal in Q2 was not material and did not account for the margin improvement in the way suggested. He attributed the four-point increase in product gross margin to a favorable revenue mix between product and software, a product mix shift towards higher-end solutions, and strong pricing discipline, along with a significant Portworx deal.

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Howard Ma's questions to Pure Storage (PSTG) leadership • Q1 2026

Question

Howard Ma from Guggenheim Securities inquired about potential changes in buyer behavior due to macroeconomic uncertainty, such as customers delaying flash storage purchases or increasingly opting for Evergreen One.

Answer

CEO Charles Giancarlo stated that the company did not observe significant changes in customer sentiment or purchase pull-ins during Q1, though visibility for the second half of the year is lower. CFO Kevan Krysler added that Q1 strength was broad-based and that while Evergreen One could benefit from tariff uncertainty because Pure can absorb those costs, it wasn't the sole driver of its strong performance.

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Howard Ma's questions to Pure Storage (PSTG) leadership • Q4 2025

Question

Howard Ma of Guggenheim Securities, LLC asked for a breakdown of the product gross margin decline, seeking to understand the contribution from E and C family sales versus higher QLC costs or other pricing pressures.

Answer

CEO Charles Giancarlo attributed the decline entirely to the E family, citing both its higher mix of sales and the impact of rising NAND prices against stable disk competitor pricing. CFO Kevan Krysler added that with moderating QLC prices, they expect product gross margin to return to the mid-60s range in FY26.

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Howard Ma's questions to Pure Storage (PSTG) leadership • Q3 2025

Question

Howard Ma inquired about the hyperscaler deal's structure, including its length, and sought validation for his revenue estimates for calendar 2026. He also asked if the deal would be accretive to gross margin and for details on the planned OpEx investments.

Answer

CFO Kevan Krysler described the deal as a multi-year agreement with volumes to be determined. He advised that while the majority of the deal's value is in hardware (which Pure doesn't sell), the company's current gross margin is a good proxy for modeling. He did not comment on specific revenue numbers but confirmed the deal's value would be recognized primarily as software, licensing, and support fees.

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Howard Ma's questions to Pure Storage (PSTG) leadership • Q2 2025

Question

Howard Ma asked if the lower as-a-service TCV forecast, without a corresponding shift to CapEx, implies increased risk to the product revenue outlook.

Answer

CEO Charles Giancarlo clarified that the delayed large Evergreen//One deals have not switched to CapEx but also have not closed, remaining in the pipeline. CFO Kevan Krysler emphasized that the delay in large subscription deals is a separate issue from overall product demand, which has not changed and still supports the annual guidance.

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Howard Ma's questions to COMMVAULT SYSTEMS (CVLT) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to COMMVAULT SYSTEMS (CVLT) leadership • Q1 2026

Question

Howard Ma asked about Commvault's M&A evaluation criteria, the customer demand for AI governance from a data protection vendor, and how much the quality of the renewal base influenced the raised full-year revenue guidance.

Answer

CEO Sanjay Mirchandani detailed that past acquisitions like Appranix and Clumio were focused on core security and cloud-native capabilities. He positioned the Satori acquisition as a natural extension for policy enforcement as customers use AI. CFO Jen DiRico clarified that the raised revenue guidance is based on the overall strength of the business, with the renewal base having already been factored in.

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Howard Ma's questions to COMMVAULT SYSTEMS (CVLT) leadership • Q4 2025

Question

Howard Ma asked if the SaaS Net Dollar Retention mix is expected to shift more towards cross-sell in FY26, given the pace of innovation in security and newer modules. He also questioned how much of the term subscription strength was driven by renewals versus new licenses and the role of the hybrid approach in driving HyperScale X sales.

Answer

CFO Jennifer DiRico responded that while not providing a specific mix, they do expect multi-product adoption to expand as it is a strategic focus, driven by new cyber offerings. She confirmed that term license strength came from both new lands and renewals/expansions. CEO Sanjay Mirchandani emphasized that the company's 'true hybrid multi-cloud approach' is the key differentiator, enabling customers to easily adopt and expand across on-premise and cloud environments, which drives the entire portfolio.

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Howard Ma's questions to COMMVAULT SYSTEMS (CVLT) leadership • Q3 2025

Question

Howard Ma asked about the greenfield opportunity in protecting cloud-native workloads and whether Commvault's expanding offerings could accelerate SaaS net new ARR. He also sought to quantify the impact of foreign exchange swings on the total ARR guidance raise, suggesting the underlying increase was larger than reported.

Answer

CEO Sanjay Mirchandani confirmed his belief that new cloud-first offerings like REWIND and Backtrack can accelerate SaaS net new ARR growth. CFO Jennifer DiRico agreed the analyst's thinking on the FX impact was 'in the ballpark' and pointed to the consistent organic constant currency net new ARR of $37-38 million per quarter as the best indicator of underlying growth, clarifying this figure is separate from the $24 million ARR added from Clumio.

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Howard Ma's questions to COMMVAULT SYSTEMS (CVLT) leadership • Q2 2025

Question

Howard Ma asked about the drivers behind the strength in the on-premise subscription business and whether recent acquisitions should imply more acceleration in SaaS net new ARR in the second half of the year.

Answer

CEO Sanjay Mirchandani stated directly that the on-premise strength is due to taking market share from incumbents like Veritas and Cohesity, driven by their platform's breadth. CFO Jen DiRico noted that any uptick from acquisitions is already factored into the guidance, which remains consistent with historical performance. Sanjay Mirchandani added that a more significant impact from the acquisitions is expected in fiscal year 2026.

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Howard Ma's questions to Couchbase (BASE) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to Couchbase (BASE) leadership • Q1 2026

Question

Howard Ma asked about the competitive threat from Postgres databases, especially following recent acquisitions by Snowflake and Databricks, and whether strategic accounts are adopting advanced features like vector search from the outset.

Answer

CEO Matt Cain asserted that while competitors are adding features, Couchbase's memory-first architecture and focus on high-performance, critical applications provide significant differentiation where downtime is not an option. He confirmed that customers are increasingly adopting Couchbase as a multi-service platform, with strategic discussions focused on leveraging its full capabilities, leading to application growth and strong ARR expansion.

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Howard Ma's questions to Couchbase (BASE) leadership • Q4 2025

Question

Howard Ma asked for more details on a large financial services expansion deal, specifically around the trend of database consolidation, and for clarification on how to model Capella bookings versus consumption.

Answer

CEO Matthew Cain explained that large-scale database consolidation, replacing both relational and NoSQL, is an increasing trend as enterprises seek fewer strategic platforms for AI, playing to Couchbase's strengths. CFO Gregory Henry clarified that for Capella, the full contract value is recognized in ARR upfront, while revenue is recognized based on consumption over time. This creates a temporary divergence in growth rates, but he stressed that consumption is accelerating and migrations to Capella consistently result in ARR growth.

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Howard Ma's questions to Couchbase (BASE) leadership • Q2 2025

Question

Howard Ma requested clarification on the ARR definition, asking why contracted Q4 ARR isn't already included in the current reported figure, and whether the back-half growth weighting is from expansions or new logos.

Answer

CFO Gregory Henry explained that the back-half weighting is driven by a larger renewal pool, which creates upsell opportunities. He clarified the ARR definition: it includes contracted revenue for the next 12 months. Therefore, a future ARR increase in a multi-year deal is only recognized in the reported ARR metric once its start date falls within that 12-month forward-looking window, which is the case for the Q4 contracted amount.

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Howard Ma's questions to Informatica (INFA) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to Informatica (INFA) leadership • Q1 2025

Question

Howard Ma from Morgan Stanley questioned the full-year 2025 guidance, asking if the lower constant currency top-line forecast was due to not flowing through FX tailwinds or a sign of deteriorating business trends. He also inquired about the implied acceleration in the decline of maintenance and self-managed ARR for the rest of the year.

Answer

CFO Mike McLaughlin clarified that the company is not revising its reported dollar guidance for FX volatility one quarter into the year and that the forecast does not reflect deteriorating trends. He explained that the accelerated decline in on-prem ARR is expected and driven by the planned roll-off of workloads from customers migrating to the IDMC cloud platform, a trend that will increase as the year progresses.

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Howard Ma's questions to Informatica (INFA) leadership • Q4 2024

Question

Howard Ma of Guggenheim Securities asked for clarification on the 40% of net new cloud ARR from new customers, inquiring if they were truly new to Informatica and seeking color on their profiles. He also followed up on the lower uplift ratio, asking if additional IPUs sold at the time of migration were included in that metric.

Answer

CFO Mike McLaughlin confirmed these are absolutely net new customers to Informatica, contributing to the 8% annual growth in cloud customer count. CEO Amit Walia added that these are diverse, large enterprise customers across various verticals. Regarding the uplift, McLaughlin clarified that the 1.5x-1.7x ratio is a pure apples-to-apples comparison and does not include the additional IPUs that are often purchased at the time of signing for new use cases, which represents additional value.

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Howard Ma's questions to Informatica (INFA) leadership • Q2 2024

Question

Howard Ma from Guggenheim questioned why the full-year cloud ARR guidance was raised by less than the Q2 beat, and asked about the competitive impact of Databricks open-sourcing its Unity Catalog.

Answer

CFO Mike McLaughlin stated the conservative guidance raise was a matter of prudence and de-risking the forecast. CEO Amit Walia positioned Informatica's offering as a differentiated enterprise 'catalog of catalogs,' arguing that while Unity Catalog is beneficial for the Databricks ecosystem, it does not threaten Informatica's broader, enterprise-grade governance and metadata management use cases.

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Howard Ma's questions to TERADATA CORP /DE/ (TDC) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to TERADATA CORP /DE/ (TDC) leadership • Q1 2025

Question

Howard Ma of Guggenheim Securities asked for parallels between the current macro environment and the 2022-2023 optimization period, and for more detail on the improvement in customer retention rates.

Answer

CEO Stephen McMillan noted the company has line of sight into its guidance despite macro uncertainty, citing the platform's stickiness. Interim CFO Charles Smotherman confirmed that retention rates improved in H2 2024 and Q1 2025 and are expected to continue improving, though he did not provide specific figures.

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Howard Ma's questions to TERADATA CORP /DE/ (TDC) leadership • Q3 2024

Question

Howard Ma requested more concrete evidence to support the claim that staged cloud migrations won't lead to future competitive losses. He also asked for a timeline on when new go-to-market and product initiatives would impact financial results.

Answer

CEO Stephen McMillan pointed to a strong overall pipeline, no lost cloud opportunities from the large deal set, and improving renewal and retention rates in the second half of 2024. CFO Claire Bramley stated the company is committing to total ARR growth in 2025, driven by a higher cloud mix, a meaningful improvement in retention rates, and better on-premise expansion.

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Howard Ma's questions to Datadog (DDOG) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to Datadog (DDOG) leadership • Q1 2025

Question

Howard Ma asked for a reconciliation between the reported consumption downtick in the enterprise segment and the very strong new logo ARR growth of over 70% year-over-year.

Answer

CEO Olivier Pomel and CFO David Obstler explained there is no contradiction, attributing the enterprise usage dip to normal quarter-to-quarter variability rather than a broad trend. They emphasized that strong bookings from new logos take several months to convert into usage and revenue, creating a natural timing difference between the two metrics.

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Howard Ma's questions to Confluent (CFLT) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to Confluent (CFLT) leadership • Q4 2024

Question

Howard Ma asked if Confluent is increasingly displacing traditional commercial data integration vendors for batch processing, moving beyond its typical open-source Kafka replacement, and if this trend is altering the go-to-market strategy.

Answer

CEO Jay Kreps confirmed that Confluent is increasingly winning these direct rip-and-replace deals. He noted that greater market awareness of data streaming, combined with a more complete product offering including connectors and transformations, allows Confluent to present a superior, real-time alternative to legacy batch systems, leading to more direct displacements.

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Howard Ma's questions to Dynatrace (DT) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to Dynatrace (DT) leadership • Q2 2025

Question

Howard Ma, on for John DiFucci, asked about the quality of deals closed in the first half, whether there was an increase in end-to-end observability deals, and if there were concerns about renewal timing in the second half. He also asked about the mix of DPS growth between new logos, expansions, and migrations.

Answer

CFO Jim Benson stated that first-half deal quality was consistent with historical trends, though slightly more weighted to expansions. He reiterated that second-half caution is about letting sales changes mature, not deal-specific concerns. CEO Rick McConnell confirmed an increase in larger, strategic end-to-end observability deals. Regarding DPS, Benson noted that growth and expansion are occurring equally across both new logos and existing customers.

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Howard Ma's questions to Rubrik (RBRK) leadership

Howard Ma's questions to Rubrik (RBRK) leadership • Q2 2025

Question

Howard Ma, on for John DiFucci, asked about the drivers of Net Retention Rate (NRR) beyond security products, such as workload expansion, and inquired about the near-term product roadmap for new applications.

Answer

CEO Bipul Sinha explained that the comprehensive platform drives expansion, with over 50% of new customers adopting the Enterprise Edition at initial purchase. He noted that data security product attachments contribute over one-third of NRR. He highlighted the recent addition of Salesforce support as part of the strategy to consolidate cyber resilience across all enterprise, cloud, and SaaS applications with a single policy engine.

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