A10 Networks (ATEN) 2026年第三季度业绩电话会：营收增长22.6%，上调业绩指引

核心要点

• A10 Networks公布2026年第三季度创纪录营收9150万美元，同比增长22.6%。年初至今营收增长17.4%至2.467亿美元。
• 产品营收达5850万美元，占总营收的64%。安全类产品占产品营收的65%。
• Non-GAAP毛利率为80%，Non-GAAP营业利润率达27.8%。Non-GAAP稀释每股收益从上年同期的0.23美元升至0.31美元。
• 管理层将2026全财年营收增长预期由此前的12%至14%上调至约16%。预计Non-GAAP调整后EBITDA利润率将超过30%，稀释每股收益为1.08美元至1.10美元。
• 需求呈现广泛性：剔除A10最大客户后的营收实现两位数增长，欧洲、中东和非洲地区（EMEA）以及亚太及日本地区（APJ）同比均录得两位数增长。
• A10设定了2029财年的内生增长目标，即年营收达5亿美元，年度Non-GAAP每股收益达2美元。

核心财务数据

本季度，A10支付了440万美元股息，并回购了2300万美元股票，向股东回馈2740万美元。董事会批准了每股0.06美元的季度股息，将于2026年12月1日派发给截至11月16日登记在册的股东。在该公司7500万美元的回购授权额度中，目前仍剩余3010万美元。

业务与运营表现

企业客户贡献了第三季度营收的58%，以及过去12个月营收的约一半。管理层表示，这反映了公司在营收结构多元化方面取得的进展。美洲地区占全球营收的64%，主要得益于AI基础设施建设与企业端需求的支撑。

A10表示，AI相关流量的激增推动了对下一代网络、DDoS防护以及管控AI访问、路由和成本的工具的需求。一家《财富》50强金融服务公司正在约800个智能体AI（Agentic AI）应用中部署A10的AI防火墙，每天有大约5万次会话通过该解决方案进行路由。此外，一家全球信息与分析提供商也正在使用A10的AI红队测试能力，对其模型和应用进行漏洞测试。

管理层强调，增长不仅与新建数据中心密切相关，还受流量增长、安全需求扩大以及负责任AI（Responsible AI）普及的驱动。来自该公司最大战略客户的需求保持稳健，同时其他业务板块也实现了两位数的增长。

管理层业绩指引

A10将2026全财年营收同比增速预期由此前的12%至14%上调至约16%。管理层表示，该预期假定第四季度除最大客户外的各项业务将继续保持同比增长。

公司预计全财年Non-GAAP调整后EBITDA利润率将超过30%。Non-GAAP稀释每股收益预计在1.08美元至1.10美元之间，相当于增长20%至22%，增速跑赢预期营收增长。

全财年自由现金流预计将达到7400万美元至7700万美元，而上年同期约为6400万美元。

针对2029财年，管理层确立了年营收5亿美元、年度Non-GAAP每股收益2美元的内生增长目标。这些长期数据属于公司设定的远期目标，而非已实现的财报业绩。

风险与关注领域

A10正在应对全行业普遍面临的投入成本与交付挑战。管理层还指出，供应受限可能会要求公司在未来四到六个季度内平衡并优先满足部分客户的交付需求。

美洲地区服务提供商的支出已开始常态化，但仍低于历史水平。国际需求也可能随着亚洲、欧洲和美国服务提供商的资本支出周期而出现波动。

管理层将第三季度应收账款周转天数（DSO）降至49天归因于现金回款的时间点差异，这表明该季度营运资金的改善可能不具有持续性。

分析师问答精要

在被问及产品营收增长的可持续性时，管理层表示，这反映了新业务拓展、客户对新解决方案的采用以及在竞标中的胜出，而非异常的设备换代周期所致。A10并未指望依赖重大更新换代周期来支撑未来两到三年的增长。

管理层表示，剔除最大客户后的业务足以支撑两位数增长，尽管供应受限可能会影响个别季度对客户履约的优先级排序。管理层认为需求具有广泛的基础，而非依赖于单一客户。

谈及国际市场表现，管理层将改善部分归因于服务提供商需求的正常波动，以及公司在持续服务最大客户的同时完成订单交付的能力。

业绩电话会完整纪要

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the A10 Networks Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Tom Baumann. The floor is yours.

Tom Baumann

Thank you, and thank you all for joining us today. This call is being recorded and webcast live and may be accessed for at least 90 days via the A10 Networks website at a10networks.com.

Hosting the call today are Dhrupad Trivedi, A10's President and CEO; and CFO, Michelle Caron.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that shortly after the market closed today, A10 Networks issued a press release announcing its third quarter 2026 financial results. Additionally, A10 published a presentation and supplemental trended financial statements. You may access the press release, presentation and trended financial statements on the Investor Relations section of the company's website.

During the course of today's call, management will make forward-looking statements, including statements regarding projections for future operating results, demand, industry and customer trends, macroeconomic factors, strategy, potential new products and solutions, our capital allocation strategy, profitability, expenses and investments, positioning and our dividend program. These statements are based on current expectations and beliefs as of today, November 5, 2026.

These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially, and you should not rely on them as predictions of future events. A10 does not intend to update information containing these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law. For a more detailed description of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our most recent 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q.

Please note that with the exception of revenue, financial measures discussed today are on a non-GAAP basis, unless otherwise noted, and may have been adjusted to exclude certain charges. The non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures presented by other companies. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures can be found in the press release issued today and on the trended quarterly financial statements posted on the company's website at a10networks.com.

Now I would like to turn the call over to Dhrupad Trivedi, President and CEO of A10 Networks.

Dhrupad Trivedi

Thank you, Tom, and thank you all for joining us today. The third quarter was another record quarter for A10 with revenue up 22.6% and profitability that enabled us to consistently exceed our stated performance goals. We continue to win business and gain market share in our key growth markets of advanced network security and next-generation networking. Strong year-to-date results and sustained demand for our solutions gives us the confidence to raise our guidance for the second time this year.

A10 is well positioned at the intersection of advanced networking and security. The growth of AI is increasing the volume and complexity of network traffic, making our portfolio increasingly relevant. Customers need to distribute application requests and connect employees to external AI services reliably. Our next-generation networking solutions help them meet those needs. They also need to defend against DDoS and other attacks that could disrupt access to AI and other shared enterprise applications. Our A10 Defend portfolio helps protect the availability of these critical services with industry-leading performance.

We are also seeing demand for solutions that secure the use and development of AI and help enterprises manage AI access, routing and costs. A Fortune 50 financial services company with over 40,000 employees is using A10's AI firewall, both to help protect employees accessing public AI tools and to govern AI traffic in their internal and external-facing applications.

The deployment illustrates how leading enterprises are moving agentic AI into production at scale with approximately 800 enterprise agentic AI applications connected to our guardrail solution. These include internal and external-facing applications, with the largest application being external-facing. Roughly 50,000 sessions are routed through the solutions each day under unified customized policies.

In another example, a global information and analytics provider is using A10's AI red-teaming capability to test AI models and applications for vulnerabilities. By probing systems for potential weaknesses before deployment, the company can better assess AI-related risks and strengthen its security practices as it expands its use of AI.

These examples reflect how both A10's core portfolio and newer AI solutions can help customers meet mission-critical needs in an increasingly complex environment. Our growth is not solely predicated upon build-out of new data centers. It is in fact linked to growth in traffic, expansion of security and responsible use of AI.

Our deep partnership with our largest strategic customers continues to contribute to our growth. Through this relationship, A10's technology helps protect cloud infrastructure supporting enterprises across industries and geographies. That infrastructure enables AI applications alongside other mission-critical workloads, extending A10's role in helping keep the services businesses and consumers [ who ] rely on availability.

Demand across the rest of the business was broad-based and related to our core differentiation and increasing relevance to evolving needs for networking and security. EMEA and APJ revenue grew at double-digit levels on a year-over-year basis. Overall revenue, excluding our largest customer, grew at a double-digit rate in the quarter.

At the same time, we are converting demand into greater profitability and cash generation. Our goal is to sustain growth while investing in the capabilities this demand environment requires. We remain on track for non-GAAP earnings per share growth to outpace revenue growth.

I'd now like to turn the call over to Michelle Caron, our Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our financial results in greater detail.

Michelle Caron

Thank you, Dhrupad. As a reminder, with the exception of revenue, all of the metrics discussed on this call are on a non-GAAP basis, unless otherwise stated. A full reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results are provided in our press release and on our website.

Let me now turn to the results. As Dhrupad noted, Q3 results reflect encouraging demand globally and our continued ability to convert growth into significant cash generation. We delivered revenue growth of 22.6% to a quarterly record of $91.5 million. Year-to-date, our revenue was $246.7 million, an increase of 17.4%.

Turning to mix, product revenue in the third quarter was $58.5 million or 64% of total revenue, while service revenue was $33 million or 36% of total revenue. From a product mix perspective, security-led revenue continues to drive product revenue growth and meet our long-term goals at 65% of total revenue. From a vertical perspective, enterprise customers represented 58% of Q3 revenue and approximately half of total revenue on a trailing 12-month basis. Stronger enterprise growth reflects progress toward our goal of diversifying our revenue mix.

Service provider spend in the Americas has begun to normalize, but remains below historical levels, representing an opportunity for incremental growth. We're confident that our service provider relationships around the world remain a strong foundation for continued growth, and we're not seeing our share of this market erode.

From a geographic perspective, our Americas region represented 64% of global revenue. This reflects our deliberate focus on the Americas as a growth region, driven by AI infrastructure build-outs and strength in the enterprise markets. We're also seeing improving results from international markets this quarter. Customer satisfaction and on-time delivery remain our top priorities as we navigate input cost and delivery challenges, like everyone else in the industry.

We delivered record non-GAAP gross profit of $73.3 million in Q3 and non-GAAP gross margin came in at 80% of revenue. Operating expenses were $47.8 million as we continue to prioritize investments in AI-facing innovation, next-gen networking and security. Operating margin was 27.8%, resulting in net income of $23.6 million or $0.33 per basic and $0.31 per diluted share, compared to $0.23 in the year-ago period. Our Q3 diluted weighted share count was 75.7 million shares.

We generated a quarterly record for free cash flow. And on a year-to-date basis, free cash flow was $57.5 million, an increase of 18% year-on-year. We continue to expect full year free cash flow to grow year-over-year in the range of $74 million to $77 million from approximately $64 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $29.5 million or 32% of revenue, consistent with our business model goals.

Turning to our balance sheet, cash and marketable securities were $360.4 million as of September 30 and deferred revenue was $157 million. During the quarter, we paid $4.4 million in cash dividends and repurchased $23 million worth of shares, returning a total of $27.4 million to shareholders. The Board has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per share, to be paid on December 1, 2026 to shareholders of record on November 16, 2026. The company has $30.1 million remaining on its $75 million share repurchase authorization.

I'll now turn the call back to Dhrupad for an update on our 2026 outlook and closing comments.

Dhrupad Trivedi

Thank you, Michelle. Our results reflect broad-based demand for A10's networking and security solutions as customers respond to rising traffic, expanding AI deployments and increasingly complex security needs. We are focused on supporting that demand while investing in our portfolio, strengthening profitability and generating cash.

Based on our year-to-date performance, demand visibility and the current supply environment, we are updating our full year 2026 outlook. We expect revenue growth of approximately 16% year-over-year, compared with our prior outlook of 12% to 14%. Note that this is roughly 400 to 500 basis points better than our largest competitor and our peer group. Demand from our largest customer remains healthy and stable. Our outlook also implies continued year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter across rest of the business.

We expect full year non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA margin to exceed 30% and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.08 to $1.10, representing a year-over-year growth of 20% to 22% and outpacing revenue growth, in line with our operating philosophy.

We also discussed in today's press release our longer-term organic target. Our progress, expanding global opportunity and continued execution give us confidence in setting a long-term target of $500 million in annual revenue through organic growth and $2 in annual non-GAAP EPS for fiscal year '29. We remain confident in our strategy and in our ability to capture customer demand while protecting the long-term earnings power of the business.

With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator to open the line for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] First question from Gray Powell with U.S. Bank.

分析师问答

Gray Powell

Congratulations on the great results here. It was really nice to see. So I guess my main question is on product revenue. So growth has been excellent this year. In fact, I think it's the best product revenue growth you've seen in at least 8 years, maybe longer. My model doesn't quite go back that far. Just how should we think about the sustainability of that growth over the next 12 months, particularly as you face tougher comps? And the 14% organic commentary, that was really helpful. I'm just trying to make sure that we have building blocks correct as we think about next year.

Dhrupad Trivedi

Yes. So as we look at our product growth rate, I think that is really a good indicator of us being able to win new business as well as continue to replenish customers with new solutions. There is nothing unusual in the last 2 or 3 years where we draw some artificial refresh cycle or something like that, right? So it is a natural evolution of demand.

As we look on a long-term trend, you are correct, the product growth percentage reflects vitality in the products and customer acceptance of new solutions as well as competitive wins. So we feel pretty good that that is not based on a trend that is going to come and go. It's more broad-based. And if we can drive more of kind of a replacement cycle, that's great, but that is not [ what ] we are counting upon to get the next 2 to 3-year growth.

Gray Powell

Okay. Great. And then my follow-up question would be, so you called out, I think, double-digit growth excluding your largest customer. Just in ballpark terms, give or take, is that how we should think about that segment going forward?

Dhrupad Trivedi

So I would say that you should think of that as that segment can support that double-digit growth going forward. In the next 4 quarters or 6 quarters, we probably will have to balance and optimize, right, if there is supply constraints, on what we choose or prioritize.

But what that is meant to indicate is our growth is not a result of one company doing something, but it's more broad-based, and that we will obviously continue to prioritize customers and high-growth potential as we go through every quarter. But I think it's more meant to be an indicator that the demand is much more broad-based versus single customer based.

Operator

Next question comes from Hamed Khorsand with BWS Financial.

Hamed Khorsand

Could you just talk about the return of your international customers, if this was pent-up demand as far as what was in the pipeline before or if these are new projects that you're now being included in?

Dhrupad Trivedi

So I would say, Hamed, that there's 2 aspects to it. I would say one is, obviously, we are all living in a constrained environment in some ways. And it's not a big revenue impact for us, but obviously, we prioritize customers as we need to. So part of it was not pent-up demand, I would say, but sort of natural variation in demand. Because our historical customer base is service providers and there is a kind of CapEx cyclic variation in demand, whether it's in Asia or Europe and U.S. And so some of it was kind of being able to service that demand.

And second was balancing that fulfillment, right, while keeping our largest customers satisfied as well.

Hamed Khorsand

Okay. And then could you just talk about your accounts receivables declining in the quarter? That was great to see, but is that sustainable? And what's a good area for us to expect that the balance of the year?

Michelle Caron

Yes. So Hamed, our quarter benefited from the timing of cash receipts in that quarter. We're still on track to deliver the cash flow that I talked about a few minutes ago for the full year, between $75 million to $77 million -- or $74 million to $77 million in cash flow. So it was a timing related to this quarter bringing the DSO to 49 days.

Operator

Next question comes from Gian Conti with Deutsche Bank.

Gianmarco Conti

Congrats again on the quarter. Maybe just one on the guide, I'm not sure if you answered this. But what are the main drivers behind the $500 million revenue target? How much comes from your largest customer compared to the rest of the business? What depends on new wins? I'd love to really unpack that.

And then maybe a few thoughts on how did the business grow this quarter if you exclude your largest customer?

Dhrupad Trivedi

Okay. Yes. So we said it in the script, so business grew more than 10% excluding our largest customer. And our competitors and peers are growing 400 to 500 basis points lower than that. So that's the first answer to your question.

Second is, obviously, we expect this growth to be broadly based, which is why we are confident in that. If you look at our actuals and what we have done year-to-date, which is higher than 14%, we feel pretty confident that 14% is a good number for us.

And yes, I think, obviously, and we are highly aligned with a large customer who apparently is also the best positioned in terms of the backlog they have on AI receivables versus the cash they are generating, and they are the only cash flow positive like category in that world. So we feel pretty good about that. And if you look through the data, I think I probably -- we have addressed all your questions quantitatively in the earnings release.

Operator

That concludes our Q&A session. I will turn it back over to Dhrupad Trivedi for closing comments.

Dhrupad Trivedi

Thank you, and thank you to all of our employees around the world, customers and shareholders for joining us today and for your continued support. I remain confident in our strategic orientation with security and next-generation networking spending patterns. Thank you for your time and attention.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.