Okta (OKTA -0.89%) reported strong third-quarter earnings results this week while also raising its outlook for fiscal 2020 -- a classic beat and raise. The enterprise identity access management provider now expects revenue this year to be in the range of $574 million to $575 million. As usual, executives provided a lot of insightful details on the related conference call with analysts.
Here are three takeaways from the call.
Image source: Okta.
Adding more of the biggest customers
CEO Todd McKinnon typically kicks off the call with details about Okta's customer base, which continues to grow at a rapid clip. "We added 400 new customers in the quarter, bringing our total customer count to over 7,400," McKinnon said. "We also continue to broaden our base of enterprise customers as demonstrated by the addition of 103 customers with annual contract value greater than $100,000."
The number of large customers is a particularly important metric for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, as those enterprise organizations represent a disproportionate percentage of sales. Okta now has 1,325 customers with annual contract value (ACV) above $100,000, up from 937 such clients a year ago.
Data source: Okta. Chart by author. Fiscal quarters shown.
"That's great progress as we continue to focus on broadening our enterprise business, with the investments we're making in our customer-facing teams and deepening our relationships with global systems integrators," McKinnon added regarding the trend.
Okta reported a dollar-based net retention rate of 117%, down 1 percentage point sequentially, showing that the company is upselling customers on more services. CFO Bill Losch attributed the modest sequential drop in part to the fact that Okta is inking larger initial deals with enterprise customers, which inevitably makes a tougher comparison.
International demand remains healthy
When asked by an analyst about slowing international revenue growth (37% in the third quarter), McKinnon and Losch both sounded confident in Okta's long-term prospects. McKinnon noted that demand is "very, very healthy in every segment, every geography," while Losch said the company is investing heavily to grow abroad:
The [strong demand] trends that we're seeing here, we're certainly seeing outside of the U.S. Internationally, we think that there is big long-term opportunities there. We're continuing to invest there. And we feel like the demand for our products is very strong outside the U.S. So we're feeling very good about that.
International revenue typically represents around 15% of total sales in any given quarter.
Enterprise customers are driving RPO growth
Okta's total remaining performance obligations (RPO) has now exceeded $1 billion for the first time. RPO includes deferred revenue plus a company's backlog, and is a useful metric in providing insight into revenue that will soon be recognized. Okta's RPO has now doubled over the past six quarters, thanks in large part to the company's growing enterprise business.
Data source: Okta. Chart by author. Fiscal quarters shown.
"The exceptional growth in total RPO reflects the success we've been experiencing with large enterprise customers, where the contracts tend to be much larger in value and longer in length," Losch said.
