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    Veeva Systems Inc (VEEV)

    Q3 2025 Earnings Summary

    Reported on Feb 18, 2025 (After Market Close)
    Pre-Earnings Price$231.66Last close (Dec 5, 2024)
    Post-Earnings Price$250.00Open (Dec 6, 2024)
    Price Change
    $18.34(+7.92%)
    • Veeva achieved a record operating margin of 43.5%, the highest on record and the biggest beat versus guidance in 3 years, demonstrating strong execution and operational efficiency.
    • Veeva's safety solutions are approaching a tipping point, with customers seeking to modernize legacy systems and adopt Veeva's comprehensive, cloud-based safety suite, including Safety Signal and Safety Workbench, indicating significant growth potential in this area.
    • Veeva's Vault CRM is achieving a high win rate among pre-commercial companies, with 13 wins in the quarter, indicating a strong market position and future growth potential as these companies expand into commercial operations.
    • Increased competition from Salesforce in the life sciences cloud sector may impact Veeva's market share and growth prospects. According to Paul Shawah, Salesforce is appearing more frequently in larger customers and is considered the primary competitor. He stated, "They're in the vast majority of our customers having conversations...we're competing with Salesforce."
    • Uncertainty surrounding Veeva's strategy for horizontal enterprise applications could create execution risks. CEO Peter Gassner mentioned that there's no specific timeline for introducing concrete product strategies in the horizontal enterprise space, stating, "There's no specific time line for that. We'll just have to let that play out."
    • Delayed realization of gross margin improvements from the migration to Vault CRM may affect near-term profitability. CFO Brian Van Wagener indicated that the margin improvements from moving customers to Vault CRM will take time to materialize, stating, "That adjustment, that shift to margins over time and that improvement will take some time for you to see in the results and really spread out between now and 2030."
    1. Vault CRM Adoption and Migration Progress
      Q: How is the adoption of Vault CRM progressing among customers?
      A: Veeva is making strong progress with Vault CRM, securing commitments from four top 20 biopharma companies, including Boehringer Ingelheim, an existing CRM customer. Additional commitments are expected over the next several months, and having a real product in the market has been a significant advantage. Migration timelines vary by customer size, with small customers taking 4–6 weeks and top 20 companies up to 2 years.

    2. Growth Visibility and Outlook
      Q: How does Veeva's visibility into FY '26 growth compare to prior years?
      A: Veeva has marginally better visibility compared to a year ago, as customers have settled into the current macro environment. The company is pleased with its updated guidance reflecting subscription growth of about 15% for the year.

    3. Impact of Macroeconomic Environment
      Q: How is the current macro environment affecting Veeva's business?
      A: Customers are settling into the current macro environment, viewing it as a "new normal". Veeva hasn't detected significant changes and notes that people are getting used to high interest rates and global uncertainties.

    4. Operating Margin and Cost Discipline
      Q: What's driving the strong operating margin performance?
      A: Veeva achieved an operating margin of 43.5%, the highest on record, driven by strong execution across sales, services, and product teams. Over half of the margin outperformance was due to revenue beat, with additional gains from expense timing and ongoing cost discipline.

    5. Development Cloud Strategic Partnerships
      Q: What progress is Veeva making with large strategic partnerships in Development Cloud?
      A: Veeva is making progress on several large strategic partnership opportunities in Development Cloud, similar but not identical to previous deals with Merck and Boehringer Ingelheim. Each partnership is unique, and discussions are more expansive due to a more mature product suite.

    6. Generative AI Products and Gross Margin Impact
      Q: How will the adoption of generative AI applications impact gross margins?
      A: Veeva introduced two generative AI solutions: CRM Bot and MLR Bot. MLR Bot will be charged for and may impact compute costs, but there won't be any material impact on gross margins, and AI is factored into the gross margin profile for 2030.

    7. Competitive Landscape with Salesforce
      Q: Is Salesforce showing up more often in customer discussions?
      A: Salesforce is present in the majority of Veeva's larger customers, which is expected. Veeva continues to compete primarily with Salesforce in the market, as IQVIA's product has sunset.

    8. Crossix Performance and Drivers
      Q: What factors are driving Crossix's strong performance?
      A: Crossix's growth is driven by good execution, innovation in micro audiences, and an expanding data network. Integration with Veeva's CRM suite is also a factor. Crossix is one of several drivers of commercial strength, alongside CRM products and Commercial Content.

    9. Impact of Regulatory Changes on Business
      Q: How could potential regulatory changes, such as elimination of direct-to-consumer advertising, impact Veeva?
      A: Such changes would require significant steps, including policy and legislation, and would likely be challenged. Veeva does not expect any near-term impact and hasn't seen customers reacting negatively.

    10. CRO Market Challenges and Veeva's Position
      Q: Why is Veeva not affected by challenges facing CROs?
      A: CROs are impacted by fluctuations in study volumes, while Veeva's revenue is less tied to study-by-study arrangements. Products like eTMF and CTMS are long-term enterprise licenses, insulating Veeva from short-term study volume changes.

    11. Services Revenue Outlook
      Q: How is the services market outlook, and what growth is expected?
      A: Veeva is pleased with execution and momentum in services, seeing stabilization after earlier factors impacted performance. Specific growth assumptions were not provided, with guidance to be given after Q4 results.

    12. Headcount Increase and Investment
      Q: What's behind the acceleration in net headcount increase?
      A: Veeva is investing in growth, with headcount increases focused on product areas. The company is pleased with hiring execution as it looks ahead to next year.

    13. Horizontal Enterprise Applications Strategy
      Q: When will Veeva share more about its horizontal enterprise applications strategy?
      A: Veeva is taking a platform-specific approach to horizontal business applications but has no specific timeline to share. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.

    14. Replatforming Effort to Vault CRM
      Q: How is the replatforming of Veeva CRM to Vault CRM progressing?
      A: Veeva is very comfortable with the replatforming effort. They have live customers and the necessary product features are in place, with Vault CRM now offering full functionality compared to Veeva CRM.

    15. Contribution from MLR Bot and Monetization
      Q: What is the early interest and monetization plan for MLR Bot?
      A: There is significant customer excitement for MLR Bot, which will be offered as a separate license. Veeva is working through monetization details but anticipates it as an add-on to PromoMats.