SentinelOne Q4 FY1/25 Earnings Review

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Tough Crowd

By Hermit Warrior a.k.a Richard Iacuelli

We all know the feeling. We put everything into that report, or perhaps that presentation; it was good and was sure to wow our audience. Yet instead we got... Meh.

That must have been how SentinelOne ($S) management felt watching the after market reaction to earnings last week, as the stock sank 16% after hours, although by market close the next day, the market had changed its mind and the stock closed down a mere 3% 

Results were pretty good, with revenue growth of 29% exceeding guidance of 28% and above most of their peers. Gross margins, EBITDA margins and unlevered free cashflow margins (UFCF) all improved year on year (and quarter on quarter for EBITDA and UFCF margins) and Q4 marked the first ever quarter of positive non-GAAP operating margin. So far so good.

Here are the headlines:

The stumble was on Q1 guidance which at 22% was a notable step down, although in the cold light of day, and perhaps after a couple of re-reads of the earnings call transcript, most analysts appear to have concluded that Q1 guidance was conservative. More on that later.