Robbie Owens

Robbie Owens of Bank of America inquired about BJ's Wholesale Club's inventory positioning for Q4, its potential impact on sales and margins, and the future of the Fresh 2.0 program, including any plans for re-acceleration or a 'Fresh 3.0' initiative.

Answer

Chairman and CEO Bob Eddy explained that the proactive management of general merchandise inventory, tightened due to tariff uncertainty, aims to limit markdown potential and fund investments in member value across other business areas. He noted that while it might limit GM upside, overall inventory management has been excellent, with improved in-stock rates. Regarding Fresh 2.0, he confirmed it continues to yield benefits, with ongoing improvements in meat, seafood, and bakery categories, aiming to drive traffic and lifetime value.

Robbie Owens from Bank of America questioned BJ's Wholesale Club's Q4 inventory positioning, specifically how proactive general merchandise inventory management might impact sales versus margins, and sought an update on Fresh 2.0's tailwind and future acceleration plans like "Fresh 3.0."

Answer

Chairman and CEO Bob Eddy explained that conservative general merchandise inventory limits sales upside but funds investments in member value. He praised the team's overall inventory management, noting improved in-stock rates despite lower inventory levels. Eddy also detailed ongoing benefits from Fresh 2.0 in produce and plans for its next iteration in meat, seafood, and bakery to drive traffic and lifetime value.

Representing Robbie Owens from Bank of America, an analyst asked about the performance of the Fresh 2.0 initiative in meat and seafood since its May launch and whether there were signs of a multiplier effect where members also buy more produce.

Answer

CEO Bob Eddy described Fresh 2.0 as a major success, noting that the perishables category led growth with a comp roughly double the grocery division's 3% comp. He pointed to pilot clubs in Florida, now in their second year, which are still comping at chain levels, as proof of a durable and significant improvement. For the newer meat and seafood rollout, he stated that while it's early, they are seeing 'exciting results' with substantial improvements in sales and salvage, validating the strategy of stacking key fresh categories to drive trips and engagement.

Representing Robbie Owens from Bank of America, a speaker asked how the "Fresh 2.0" initiative in meat and seafood performed versus expectations and if there were signs of a multiplier effect, encouraging members to shop for both produce and meat more frequently.

Answer

CEO Bob Eddy described "Fresh 2.0" as a key part of the company's transformation, noting that perishables comps were roughly double the grocery comp. He highlighted that pilot clubs are still comping at chain levels in their second year, indicating a durable improvement. For meat and seafood, he stated it's still early days, but they are seeing exciting results with substantial improvements in sales and reduced salvage expense.

Robbie Owens inquired about the current state of customer modernization, the extent of legacy solutions within the installed base, and whether the record new logo ARR quarter indicates a tipping point in identity transformation.

Answer

Matt Mills, President, SailPoint, confirmed an acceleration in migrations from the installed base and legacy business. He attributed this to the impending shift towards Agentic capabilities, which he believes legacy, customized solutions are ill-equipped to handle, creating a sense of urgency among customers. Mills noted an increase in opportunities within both the legacy and IIQ installed bases.

Robbie Owens asked about the current state of modernization among SailPoint's customers, the extent of legacy solutions remaining, and whether the record new logo ARR quarter indicates a tipping point in identity transformation.

Answer

Matt Mills, SailPoint's President, confirmed an acceleration of migrations from the install base and legacy business, driven by the impending adoption of Agentic technologies which legacy solutions cannot support. Mark McClain, CEO, added that the 'pull' from Agentic and a potentially improving macro environment could further accelerate the movement to SaaS.

Robbie Owens pivoted to the security opportunity, asking what Dynatrace needs to do to unlock its potential more broadly and whether the focus should be on product depth or go-to-market.

Answer

CEO Rick McConnell responded that it is a combination of both. On the product side, he pointed to traction with RVA and plans to expand into CADR and cloud SIM. On the go-to-market side, he highlighted the creation of a dedicated AppSec 'strike team' to drive sales and adoption in the security space.

Robbie Owens followed up on the large deals, asking if they were already in the Q1 pipeline or if they represented a pull-forward of demand related to the end-of-life cycle, similar to discussions in the previous quarter.

Answer

CAO and incoming CFO Christiane Ohlgart confirmed that the large transactions in the quarter were already in the pipeline and closed as expected. She emphasized that the company is not yet seeing deals being pushed out.

Robbie Owens asked for an expansion on the acquisition of the remaining share of Linx, specifically its strategic positioning and expected benefits.

Answer

CEO Ken Xie explained that Fortinet acquired the remaining stake in Linx to enter the consumer and home-based network security market, a space where he believes Fortinet is uniquely positioned due to its ASIC technology and Unified SASE platform. The strategy is to leverage Linx's leading brand, with its 25 million active users, to support work-from-home, home business, and consumer use cases, representing a huge potential growth market over the next 5 to 10 years.

Robbie Owens followed up on the cautious Q4 guidance, asking if the 'chunky deals' requiring more maturation had slipped relative to previous expectations or were a new development.

Answer

CFO Keith Jensen confirmed that compared to other quarters, there has been 'a little bit slower progress on the maturation of those larger deals' as they were teed up for Q4, making it prudent to take a more cautious approach. An unnamed executive added that a shift towards annual billing on some large deals, rather than multi-year upfront, also gives them some pause on near-term billings guidance, though it benefits the company long-term with better margins and customer relations.

Robbie Owens of Piper Sandler questioned the geographic revenue mix, specifically asking for reasons behind the soft low-to-mid-single-digit growth in North America compared to the stronger performance internationally over the last year.

Answer

CEO Sumedh Thakar attributed the stronger international performance to those markets being more inherently partner-oriented, aligning well with Qualys' current strategic focus. He acknowledged the opportunity to improve execution in North America and explained that the strategy involves leveraging MROC services and a 'give-to-get' motion with partners, where Qualys transitions direct accounts in exchange for new business leads.

Robbie Owens of Piper Sandler inquired about the adoption and attach rate of the 'Impact' guided adoption offering and its effectiveness in accelerating customers' time to value.

Answer

President, CPO and COO Amit Zavery described Impact as a key offering that provides digital tools and expert advice to accelerate implementation and adoption, leading to faster time to value. President and CFO Gina Mastantuono added that the attach rates for Impact are getting better and that she is pleased with its progress.

Robbie Owens asked for more detail on the business outlook, including the puts and takes of the hardware refresh cycle and customer sentiment regarding tariffs and spending.

Answer

CFO Roei Golan stated that while the pipeline for Quantum Force appliances is strong and no macro impact is currently visible, the company is taking a prudent approach to guidance due to market volatility. CEO Nadav Zafrir added that historically, cybersecurity budgets are resilient and often the last to be cut during uncertain economic times.

Robbie Owens asked for an update on performance across geographic regions and specifically what actions are being taken to reinvigorate growth in the highly competitive North American market.

Answer

CEO Nadav Zafrir identified the Americas as a top priority, outlining a strategy of direct executive engagement with customers and a focus on industry-specific needs to accelerate growth. CFO Roei Golan added that new business bookings in the Americas were strong in Q4, serving as a positive leading indicator for future revenue.

Robbie Owens of Piper Sandler asked if Check Point is seeing an inflection in new customer acquisition, which products are serving as the primary entry point, and which competitors are being displaced.

Answer

Founder and CEO Gil Shwed stated that new customer acquisition is happening across the board, with core network security remaining the primary landing point, which he views as a positive sign. While e-mail security is also a strong entry point, he noted that even with dual-vendor strategies at large customers, Check Point is winning more new orders based on security value, taking share from various competitors.

Robbie Owens from Piper Sandler asked for more detail on customer conversations regarding AI's impact, specifically why GitLab believes AI will increase the number of software creators rather than lead to optimization and fewer developers.

Answer

CEO William Staples explained that customers have always been resource-constrained and that AI raises the level of abstraction, making it easier for more people to create software. He stressed that development is more than just writing code; it involves ensuring quality, security, and compliance. The GitLab platform manages this entire lifecycle, so an increase in code—whether from humans or AI—drives more demand for the platform's governance capabilities.

Robbie Owens asked how customer conversations about developer seat counts are changing due to AI productivity gains and what pricing yield GitLab is seeing from Duo add-ons.

Answer

CFO Brian Robbins stated that when GitLab Duo is attached to a deal, it accounts for over 25% of the total net ARR in the first year. He also noted that customers typically purchase Duo for most users but deploy it in a phased rollout across their organizations.

Robbie Owens of Piper Sandler asked if the SSP accounting impact was in line with expectations and about the drivers behind strong large deal activity and RPO growth, including upsell versus new customer trends.

Answer

CFO Brian Robins confirmed the SSP accounting impact was anticipated and that the business is performing well across first orders and expansions, with churn and contraction at an eight-quarter low. He highlighted real strength in the enterprise segment, with customers over $100k ARR growing over 30%. He attributed this momentum to the platform's quick time to value, positive business outcomes, and the benefits of toolchain consolidation.

Robbie Owens pointed out the momentum in large deals but asked for color on why the total customer count was weaker than in previous periods, questioning the 'land' aspect of the go-to-market motion.

Answer

CEO Ash Kulkarni explained that the company's focus is on high-propensity enterprise and mid-market customers, not total customer count. He emphasized that key metrics are customers over $100k and the significant increase in new million-dollar customers this fiscal year. Interim CFO Eric Prengel reiterated this focus on higher-value customers and expressed satisfaction with the go-to-market execution in Q2 and Q3.

Robbie Owens asked about the competitive dynamics surrounding the Elastic Express Migration program, particularly in relation to the Splunk customer base, and customers' willingness to switch. He also asked if a similar program exists for the observability market.

Answer

CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni responded that the competitive environment is unchanged and customer interest in moving from incumbents is high. He explained the Express Migration program facilitates this by combining technology (like ESQL and Automatic Import) with financial incentives to reduce switching costs and risk. He confirmed the program applies to both security (SIEM) and observability (log analytics) to drive platform consolidation.

Robbie Owens asked about the product breadth of deals with new logos, particularly in light of the three large new logo wins and the broader identity consolidation trend.

Answer

CEO Matt Cohen highlighted that Q4 was an exceptional quarter for landing broad, full-platform deals. He specified that the top three deals were all new logos and encompassed the full scope of the platform, securing the workforce, machines, and developers, not just traditional privileged access. He concluded that this trend is increasing deal sizes across the board, especially within the new logo segment.

Robbie Owens noted CyberArk's results were stronger than the market trend and asked if a new sense of urgency from customers was driving performance. He also questioned why the full-year free cash flow guidance was below the trailing-twelve-month margin.

Answer

CEO Matt Cohen attributed the strong demand to an elevated threat landscape, which has made identity security a top priority for CISOs seeking to reduce risk. CFO Josh Siegel explained the full-year free cash flow guidance is prudently 'handicapped' to account for costs related to the Venafi acquisition, potential interest rate cuts, and second-half tax obligations.

Robbie Owens from Piper Sandler requested more elaboration on the comment that AI contribution was 'meaningful' for the first time, asking for quantification or details on what changed quarter-over-quarter to make it more significant.

Answer

CFO and COO Guy Melamed explained that the acceleration in new customer ARR growth to 50% in Q4 was driven by both MDDR and Copilot. He noted that because the two are often bundled in a single SKU, it's hard to separate them. However, to provide a metric, he revealed that in 2024, Varonis added nearly 100% more new users protected by its Microsoft 365 offering compared to 2023, which he attributed to increased interest in protecting Microsoft 365 and Copilot.

Robbie Owens, using the alias Rob Owens, asked about the sustainability of the strong gross margin performance, particularly on the cloud side, and what the gross margin outlook is in the context of achieving long-term operating margin targets.

Answer

CFO Joe Binz attributed the strong 85% gross margin to revenue outperformance and lower cloud costs, driven by optimization efforts. However, he reiterated the long-term view from Investor Day: overall gross margins are expected to decline over the next three years. This is because the revenue mix shift towards the structurally lower-margin cloud business will more than offset ongoing improvements in cloud gross margin.

Robbie Owens asked about SentinelOne's success in the large enterprise market, particularly from a macroeconomic perspective, and the sales motion for selling multiple platform components.

Answer

CEO Tomer Weingarten stated that the company's playbook is evolving to land larger initial deals with multiple platform components, evidenced by rising average deal sizes and a record number of high-value customers. He added that the AI SIEM and data analytics solutions are particularly well-suited for the current macro environment due to the significant cost savings they can provide customers.

Robbie Owens sought clarification on the CFO's comment about 'ongoing customer scrutiny in large deals,' asking if it was a general economic observation or if other factors, like the complexity of new AI solutions, were lengthening sales cycles.

Answer

CFO Remo Canessa confirmed it was a general economic comment, noting the environment has not changed for a while. CEO Jay Chaudhry added that this scrutiny can be a tailwind for Zscaler, as its platform addresses top customer priorities like Zero Trust security and cost reduction, which are compelling in the current environment.

Robbie Owens asked for an update on the company's data security strategy and its long-term evolution, particularly following its acquisition of a DSPM capability.

Answer

Chief Product Officer Lee Klarich outlined a two-pronged strategy. The first part involves using AI for more accurate data classification. The second, and more critical part, is integrating these capabilities with the Prisma Access Browser. This provides deep context into user-data interactions, effectively positioning the browser as a next-generation data security solution for all enterprise users, not just contractors.

Robbie Owens from Piper Sandler requested elaboration on the mentioned 'shifts in the business model,' particularly regarding changes in pricing and the strategy to increase 'velocity business.'

Answer

CEO Corey Thomas explained the shift is about adding more upgrade and uplift motions in the installed base, which they hadn't captured effectively, especially as customers moved to the cloud. The new strategy, centered on Exposure Command, offers a more integrated value proposition at a better price point to monetize the existing base, balancing the successful but larger D&R deals with smaller, faster 'velocity' transactions.