Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNT) stock rose over 7.6% on 10th September, 2020 (as of 2:05 pm GMT-4 ; Source: Google finance) post better than expected second quarter of 2021 performance. The firm reported a new perpetual license equivalent booking rise of 3% yoy boosted by cloud. New perpetual license equivalent bookings are expected to improve during the second half of the year, by over mid-to-high single digits. The firm won new cloud customers and displace competitors, on the back of solid differentiation in artificial intelligence and automation, and communication infrastructure neutralit.
New SaaS ACV rose 65% yoy while Non-GAAP cloud revenue, excluding ForeSee rose 28% yoy. Non-GAAP recurring revenue as a percentage of software revenue reached 80%, rising 600 bps year-over-year. Non-GAAP estimated fully allocated gross margins reached 71%, which is over 500 bps rise on a year-over-year basis. Overall, demand of cyber solutions is ongoing while the firm forecasts a sequential non-GAAP revenue growth in Q3 and Q4. The firm has over $850 million of cash in short-term investments, net debt of $131 million and a leverage ratio of less than one times net debt to adjusted EBITDA. The firm’s Cyber business, won many governments and enterprise customers around the world and during the second quarter the firm won multiple large orders, including two orders for approximately $15 million each, one order for over $10 million and four orders for over $4 million each.
The firm has cash flow from operations on a GAAP basis at $61 million during the second quarter and was $137 million for the first half, rising 39% year-over-year. The group is investing in helping existing partners to sell more of their cloud portfolio. This is a huge market opportunity as the firm is already generating about 50% of the business through partners. The firm is adopting AI and automation to drive efficiencies and to deliver superior customer experience and accordingly launched several new AI-based applications, including real-time agent assist.