PagerDuty, Inc. (PD)
SIC breadcrumb: Services > Business Services > SIC 7372 Services-Prepackaged Software
SEC company page: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1568100. Latest filing source: 0001568100-26-000012.
Informational only - descriptive public-record data, not investment advice.
Business
Read PD's verbatim Item 1 Business section from its latest 10-K: Business.
Risk Factors
Read PD's verbatim Item 1A Risk Factors from its latest 10-K: Risk Factors.
Selected Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Unit | FY | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 492,546,000 | USD | 2026 | 2026-03-12 |
| Net income | 173,373,000 | USD | 2026 | 2026-03-12 |
| Assets | 990,515,000 | USD | 2026 | 2026-03-12 |
Financials
Annual standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-03-12. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001568100.json. Derived margins, ratios, and free cash flow are computed from the extracted annual SEC facts.
| Metric | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 79,630,000 | 117,823,000 | 166,351,000 | 213,556,000 | 281,396,000 | 370,793,000 | 430,699,000 | 467,499,000 | 492,546,000 | |
| Net income | -38,149,000 | -40,741,000 | -50,339,000 | -68,903,000 | -107,455,000 | -128,423,000 | -75,189,000 | -42,735,000 | 173,373,000 | |
| Operating income | -38,316,000 | -42,321,000 | -55,559,000 | -66,282,000 | -101,711,000 | -129,377,000 | -96,246,000 | -59,772,000 | 5,840,000 | |
| Gross profit | 66,913,000 | 100,568,000 | 141,772,000 | 182,870,000 | 233,035,000 | 300,359,000 | 352,867,000 | 387,834,000 | 418,404,000 | |
| Diluted EPS | -0.77 | -0.87 | -1.27 | -1.45 | -0.89 | -0.59 | 1.87 | |||
| Operating cash flow | -11,836,000 | -5,608,000 | -173,000 | 10,095,000 | -6,021,000 | 16,980,000 | 71,974,000 | 117,891,000 | 114,857,000 | |
| Capital expenditures | 822,000 | 3,730,000 | 5,174,000 | 4,038,000 | 3,457,000 | 4,637,000 | 2,164,000 | 2,791,000 | 2,941,000 | |
| Share buybacks | 0.00 | 0.00 | 50,000,000 | 100,104,000 | 134,916,000 | |||||
| Assets | 197,234,000 | 435,398,000 | 795,443,000 | 806,448,000 | 817,873,000 | 925,306,000 | 927,266,000 | 990,515,000 | ||
| Liabilities | 93,141,000 | 127,460,000 | 428,716,000 | 539,473,000 | 575,787,000 | 746,413,000 | 779,221,000 | 719,850,000 | ||
| Stockholders' equity | -38,550,000 | -56,365,000 | -68,930,000 | 307,938,000 | 366,727,000 | 266,975,000 | 240,978,000 | 171,600,000 | 129,828,000 | 253,593,000 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 43,999,000 | 127,875,000 | 124,024,000 | 339,166,000 | 349,785,000 | 274,019,000 | 363,011,000 | 346,460,000 | 237,402,000 | |
| Free cash flow | -12,658,000 | -9,338,000 | -5,347,000 | 6,057,000 | -9,478,000 | 12,343,000 | 69,810,000 | 115,100,000 | 111,916,000 |
Ratios
| Metric | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net margin | -47.91% | -34.58% | -30.26% | -32.26% | -38.19% | -34.63% | -17.46% | -9.14% | 35.20% | |
| Operating margin | -48.12% | -35.92% | -33.40% | -31.04% | -36.15% | -34.89% | -22.35% | -12.79% | 1.19% | |
| Return on equity | -16.35% | -18.79% | -40.25% | -53.29% | -43.82% | -32.92% | 68.37% | |||
| Return on assets | -20.66% | -11.56% | -8.66% | -13.32% | -15.70% | -8.13% | -4.61% | 17.50% | ||
| Liabilities / equity | 0.41 | 1.17 | 2.02 | 2.39 | 4.35 | 6.00 | 2.84 | |||
| Current ratio | 1.95 | 3.52 | 3.70 | 2.84 | 2.21 | 2.50 | 1.93 | 2.01 |
Industry Peer Context
Net margin peer context
Operating margin peer context
ROE peer context
ROA peer context
Financial Bridges
Income statement bridge from reported figures
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts FY 2026. Revenue: accession 0001568100-26-000012; concept RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax; source concepts us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax | Gross profit: accession 0001568100-26-000012; concept GrossProfit; source concepts us-gaap:GrossProfit | Operating income: accession 0001568100-26-000012; concept OperatingIncomeLoss; source concepts us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss | Net income: accession 0001568100-26-000012; concept NetIncomeLoss; source concepts us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss
Free cash flow = operating cash flow - capital expenditures
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts FY 2026. Operating cash flow: accession 0001568100-26-000012; concept NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities; source concepts us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities | Capital expenditures: accession 0001568100-26-000012; concept PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment; source concepts us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment | Free cash flow: accession 0001568100-26-000012; concept NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities - PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment; source concepts us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities; us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment
Financial Charts
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax. Source concepts: us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: NetIncomeLoss. Source concepts: us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: OperatingIncomeLoss. Source concepts: us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: GrossProfit. Source concepts: us-gaap:GrossProfit.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: EarningsPerShareDiluted. Source concepts: us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities. Source concepts: us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment. Source concepts: us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock. Source concepts: us-gaap:PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: Assets. Source concepts: us-gaap:Assets.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: Liabilities. Source concepts: us-gaap:Liabilities.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: StockholdersEquity. Source concepts: us-gaap:StockholdersEquity.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue. Source concepts: us-gaap:CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-01-31; accession 0001568100-26-000012; filed 2026-03-12. Concept: NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities - PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment. Source concepts: us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities; us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment.
Quarterly
Quarterly standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-05-28. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001568100.json.
| Quarter | End Date | Revenue | Net Income | Diluted EPS | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-Q2 | 2022-07-31 | -0.44 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q3 | 2022-10-31 | -0.36 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2024-Q1 | 2023-04-30 | -0.13 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2024-Q2 | 2023-07-31 | 107,616,000 | -22,053,000 | -0.26 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q3 | 2023-10-31 | 108,720,000 | -12,766,000 | -0.16 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q4 | 2024-01-31 | 111,117,000 | -28,152,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2025-Q1 | 2024-04-30 | 111,172,000 | -17,139,000 | -0.26 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q2 | 2024-07-31 | 115,935,000 | -10,912,000 | -0.14 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q3 | 2024-10-31 | 118,946,000 | -5,924,000 | -0.07 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q4 | 2025-01-31 | 121,446,000 | -8,760,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2026-Q1 | 2025-04-30 | 119,805,000 | -7,162,000 | -0.07 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2026-Q2 | 2025-07-31 | 123,411,000 | 9,575,000 | 0.10 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2026-Q3 | 2025-10-31 | 124,545,000 | 161,586,000 | 1.69 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2026-Q4 | 2026-01-31 | 124,785,000 | 9,374,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2027-Q1 | 2026-04-30 | 120,967,000 | 5,283,000 | 0.13 | reported discrete quarter |
Quarterly Charts
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2027 ended 2026-04-30; accession 0001568100-26-000031; filed 2026-05-28. Concept: RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax. Source concepts: us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2027 ended 2026-04-30; accession 0001568100-26-000031; filed 2026-05-28. Concept: NetIncomeLoss. Source concepts: us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2027 ended 2026-04-30; accession 0001568100-26-000031; filed 2026-05-28. Concept: EarningsPerShareDiluted. Source concepts: us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted.
Macro Cross-References
- CPIAUCSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
- UNRATE - Unemployment Rate
- FEDFUNDS - Federal Funds Effective Rate
- CES0500000003 - Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private
- DFEDTARU - Federal Funds Target Range - Upper Limit
- DFEDTARL - Federal Funds Target Range - Lower Limit
- DGS3MO - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 3-Month Constant Maturity
- DGS2 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 2-Year Constant Maturity
- DGS10 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 10-Year Constant Maturity
- DGS30 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 30-Year Constant Maturity
- T10Y2Y - 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 2-Year Treasury Constant Maturity
- CPILFESL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy
- CPIUFDSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food
- CPIENGSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Energy
- CUSR0000SAH1 - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Shelter
- PCEPI - Personal Consumption Expenditures: Chain-type Price Index
- PCEPILFE - Personal Consumption Expenditures Excluding Food and Energy: Chain-type Price Index
- PPIACO - Producer Price Index by Commodity: All Commodities
- T10YIE - 10-Year Breakeven Inflation Rate
- U6RATE - Total Unemployed, Plus All Marginally Attached Workers Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons
- PAYEMS - All Employees, Total Nonfarm
- CIVPART - Labor Force Participation Rate
- EMRATIO - Employment-Population Ratio
- UNEMPLOY - Unemployed
- CE16OV - Employment Level
- ICSA - Initial Claims
- JTSJOL - Job Openings: Total Nonfarm
- JTSQUR - Quits: Total Nonfarm
- GDPC1 - Real Gross Domestic Product
- A191RL1Q225SBEA - Real Gross Domestic Product: Percent Change from Preceding Period
- INDPRO - Industrial Production: Total Index
- TCU - Capacity Utilization: Total Index
- HOUST - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Started: Total Units
- PERMIT - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units
- RSAFS - Advance Retail Sales: Retail Trade
- PCE - Personal Consumption Expenditures
- DSPIC96 - Real Disposable Personal Income
- PSAVERT - Personal Saving Rate
- M2SL - M2
- BOPGSTB - U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: Balance
- MSPUS - Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States
- HSN1F - New One Family Houses Sold: United States
- RHORUSQ156N - Homeownership Rate in the United States
- TTLCONS - Total Construction Spending: Total Construction in the United States
- RRVRUSQ156N - Rental Vacancy Rate in the United States
- TOTALSL - Total Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
- REVOLSL - Revolving Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
- DRCCLACBS - Delinquency Rate on Credit Card Loans, All Commercial Banks
- GDP - Gross Domestic Product
- GPDI - Gross Private Domestic Investment
- GCE - Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment
- PCEC - Personal Consumption Expenditures
- NETEXP - Net Exports of Goods and Services
- GFDEBTN - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt
- GFDEGDQ188S - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product
- FYFSD - Federal Surplus or Deficit
- FGRECPT - Federal Government Current Receipts
- FGEXPND - Federal Government: Current Expenditures
- MANEMP - All Employees, Manufacturing
- USCONS - All Employees, Construction
- USTRADE - All Employees, Retail Trade
- USFIRE - All Employees, Financial Activities
- USGOVT - All Employees, Government
- AWHAETP - Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, Total Private
- DGORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Durable Goods
- NEWORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Nondefense Capital Goods Excluding Aircraft
- BUSINV - Total Business Inventories
- EXPGS - Exports of Goods and Services
- IMPGS - Imports of Goods and Services
- IR - Import Price Index (End Use): All Commodities
- PPIFIS - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Final Demand
Latest quarter (10-Q)
Latest 10-Q source: 0001568100-26-000031.
Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of the financial condition and results of operations of PagerDuty, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and subsidiaries in which PagerDuty, Inc. holds a controlling interest (“PagerDuty,” “we,” “us” or “our”) should be read in conjunction with our unaudited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and with our audited financial statements and related notes in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2026. You should review the sections titled “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” above in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for a discussion of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, adverse effects on our business and general economic conditions as identified below, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The last day of our fiscal year is January 31. Our fiscal quarters end on April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31. Except as otherwise noted, all references to fiscal 2027 refer to the fiscal year ending January 31, 2027.
Overview and Business Model
PagerDuty, Inc. transforms critical work for modern business by building operational resilience, reducing risk, improving customer experience, and driving operational efficiency across digital operations. As a global leader in digital operations management since 2009, PagerDuty helps enterprises manage the complex web of infrastructure, applications, and systems that power today's digital experiences. The PagerDuty Operations Cloud sits at the center of the enterprise technology stack as a system of intelligence and action, ingesting signals from over 750 integrations—including monitoring, observability, security, customer service, and development tools—to orchestrate the right response across people, machines, and software.
Built for the modern era of artificial intelligence (“AI”), PagerDuty empowers customers to maximize the value of their AI investments through agentic workflows, AI-powered automation, and intelligent orchestration that accelerates incident detection and resolution while enabling teams to focus on innovation rather than firefighting.
In today's environment, every business is fundamentally a digital business. Whether in retail, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, or supply chain logistics, modern commerce depends on increasingly complex networks of digital infrastructure, cloud services, applications, and distributed teams that operate in an always-on world. This complexity continues to accelerate as organizations adopt AI-driven systems and integrate artificial intelligence across their operations.
Customer expectations have never been higher. Incidents are measured not just in lost revenue but in damaged brand reputation and customer trust. Organizations face mounting pressure to deliver always-on digital experiences, resolve issues proactively before customers are impacted, and innovate rapidly without proportionally increasing operational costs or headcount. The ability to anticipate, orchestrate, and resolve time-sensitive, critical, and unplanned work before it escalates has become a strategic imperative and competitive differentiator.
Since our founding in 2009, PagerDuty has evolved from a single product focused on on-call management for developers into a comprehensive, multi-product operations cloud that spans the entire enterprise. Today, our platform breaks down organizational silos across development, IT operations, security, customer service, and business operations, reaching technical practitioners and executive stakeholders alike.
Over more than a decade, we have built one of the industry's most comprehensive integration ecosystems, with over 750 direct integrations spanning monitoring tools, cloud platforms, collaboration systems, ITSM solutions, and business applications. We also support the Model Context Protocol (“MCP”), enabling seamless integration with AI agents and large language model-powered tools to extend our platform's capabilities into emerging AI workflows. This deep integration fabric allows our customers to gather and correlate digital signals from across their entire technology stack – both modern cloud-native and legacy systems – without the friction of context switching or manual data aggregation.
These same integrations enable powerful workflow automation, connecting technical operations with popular collaboration tools and business applications to drive coordinated responses and accelerate resolution. Our open platform approach and extensive partner ecosystem have become a strategic moat, making PagerDuty increasingly embedded and essential within our customers' operations.
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We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscriptions, with additional revenue from term-license arrangements. Our land-and-expand business model drives viral adoption and natural expansion as teams experience value and extend PagerDuty to new users, use cases, and products. During the current fiscal year, we took initial steps to provide customers with more flexible pricing options, including usage-based pricing models that enable customers to seamlessly scale between human responders, agents, and automated solutions, better aligning customer investments to business outcomes rather than headcount and licenses, and supporting our transition from traditional single-year seat-based licensing to multiyear platform usage agreements.
While the PagerDuty platform serves organizations of all sizes, we have strategically focused our go-to-market investments, including our enterprise field sales organization, on serving enterprise customers where we see the greatest opportunity for platform adoption and expansion. Today, nearly half of the Fortune 500 and approximately two-thirds of the Fortune 100 rely on PagerDuty as mission-critical infrastructure. Our enterprise customers represent the majority of our revenue and demonstrate strong retention and expansion characteristics.
Macroeconomic Environment
Our business and financial performance has and may continue to be subject to the effects of worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including, but not limited to, global inflation and heightened interest rates, tariffs and trade wars, existing and new laws and regulations, and economic uncertainty and volatility globally and in the jurisdictions in which we do business.
We will continue to monitor the direct and indirect impacts of these or similar circumstances on our business and financial results. For additional information on the potential impact of macroeconomic conditions on our business, see Part II, Item 1A, Risk Factors.
Key Business Metrics
We review the following key business metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
While these metrics are based on what we believe to be a reasonable representation of our customer base for the applicable period of measurement, we rely on a third party to validate legal entities using the best available data at period end, and therefore, these metrics are subject to change as new information becomes available. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our methodology, which may result in future changes to our key metrics.
Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”)
We believe ARR is a key metric to measure our business performance because it is an indication of our ability to maintain and expand our relationships with existing customers and generate new business. We define ARR as the annualized recurring revenue of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period.
ARR was as follows as of the dates indicated (in millions):
| As of April 30, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | |||||
| ARR | $ | 495.6 | $ | 496.0 |
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Number of Customers
We believe that the number of customers using our platform, particularly those that have subscription agreements for more than $100.0 thousand in ARR, are indicators of our market penetration, particularly within enterprise accounts, the growth of our business, and our potential future business opportunities. We define a customer as a separate legal entity, such as a company or an educational or government institution, that has an active subscription with us or one of our partners to access our platform. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, we treat the parent entity as the customer instead of treating each subsidiary or division as a separate customer. Increasing awareness of our platform and its broad range of capabilities, coupled with the fact that the world is always on and powered by increasingly complex technology, has expanded the diversity of our customer base to include organizations of all sizes across virtually all industries. Over time, enterprise customers have constituted a greater share of our revenue. The total number of paid customers and the number of customers with greater than $100.0 thousand in ARR were as follows as of the dates indicated:
| As of April 30, | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | |||
| Customers | 15,380 | 15,247 | ||
| Customers with greater than $100.0 thousand in ARR | 860 | 848 |
Dollar-based Net Retention Rate
We use dollar-based net retention rate to evaluate the long-term value of our customer relationships, since this metric reflects our ability to retain and expand the ARR from our existing paid customers. Our dollar-based net retention rate compares our ARR from the same set of customers across comparable periods.
We calculate dollar-based net retention rate as of a period end by starting with the ARR from the cohort of all paid customers as of 12 months prior to such period end (“Prior Period ARR”). We then calculate the ARR from these same customers as of the current period end (“Current Period ARR”). Current Period ARR includes any expansion and is net of downgrades or churn over the last 12 months but excludes ARR from new customers in the current period. We then divide the total Current Period ARR by the total Prior Period ARR to arrive at the dollar-based net retention rate. The dollar-based net retention rate was as follows as of the dates indicated:
| Last 12 months ended April 30, | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | ||||
| Dollar-based net retention rate | 97 | % | 104 | % |
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Results of Operations
Three months ended April 30, 2026 compared to three months ended April 30, 2025
The following table sets forth our results of operations for the periods indicated and as a percentage of revenue (in thousands, except percentages):
[[GREPCENT_TABLE]]
[["","Three months ended April 30,"],["","2026","","2025"],["Revenue","$","120,967","","","100.0","%","","$","119,805","","","100.0","%"],["Cost of revenue(1)","19,020","","","15.7","%","","19,184","","","16.0","%"],["Gross profit","101,947","","","84.3","%","","100,621","","","84.0","%"],["Operating expenses:"],["Research and development(1)","29,988","","","24.8","%","","34,048","","","28.4","%"],["Sales and marketing(1)","39,610","","","32.7","%","","50,045","","","41.8","%"],["General and administrative(1)","23,166","","","19.2","%","","26,855","","","22.4","%"],["Total operating expenses","92,764","","","76.7","%","","110,948","","","92.6","%"],["Income (loss) from operations","9,183","","","7.6","%","","(10,327)","","","(8.6)
[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]
Latest 10-K MD&A
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of the financial condition and results of operations of PagerDuty, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and subsidiaries in which PagerDuty, Inc. holds a controlling interest (“PagerDuty,” “we,” “us” or “our”) should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Form 10-K”). This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, adverse effects on our business and general economic conditions due to those identified below, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The last day of our fiscal year is January 31. Our fiscal quarters end on April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31.
In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended January 31, 2026 compared to the year ended January 31, 2025. For a discussion of the year ended January 31, 2025 compared to the year ended January 31, 2024, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2025.
Overview
PagerDuty, Inc. transforms critical work for modern business by building operational resilience, reducing risk, improving customer experience, and driving operational efficiency across digital operations. As a global leader in digital operations management since 2009, PagerDuty helps enterprises manage the complex web of infrastructure, applications, and systems that power today's digital experiences. The PagerDuty Operations Cloud sits at the center of the enterprise technology stack as a system of intelligence and action, ingesting signals from over 700 integrations—including monitoring, observability, security, customer service, and development tools—to orchestrate the right response across people, machines, and software.
Built for the modern era of artificial intelligence (“AI”), PagerDuty empowers customers to maximize the value of their AI investments through agentic workflows, AI-powered automation, and intelligent orchestration that accelerates incident detection and resolution while enabling teams to focus on innovation rather than firefighting.
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Table of Contents
In today's environment, every business is fundamentally a digital business. Whether in retail, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, or supply chain logistics, modern commerce depends on increasingly complex networks of digital infrastructure, cloud services, applications, and distributed teams that operate in an always-on world. This complexity continues to accelerate as organizations adopt AI-driven systems and integrate artificial intelligence across their operations.
Customer expectations have never been higher. Incidents are measured not just in lost revenue but in damaged brand reputation and customer trust. Organizations face mounting pressure to deliver always-on digital experiences, resolve issues proactively before customers are impacted, and innovate rapidly without proportionally increasing operational costs or headcount. The ability to anticipate, orchestrate, and resolve time-sensitive, critical, and unplanned work before it escalates has become a strategic imperative and competitive differentiator.
Since our founding in 2009, PagerDuty has evolved from a single product focused on on-call management for developers into a comprehensive, multi-product operations cloud that spans the entire enterprise. Today, our platform breaks down organizational silos across development, IT operations, security, customer service, and business operations, reaching technical practitioners and executive stakeholders alike.
Over more than a decade, we have built one of the industry's most comprehensive integration ecosystems, with over 700 direct integrations spanning monitoring tools, cloud platforms, collaboration systems, ITSM solutions, and business applications. We also support the Model Context Protocol (“MCP”), enabling seamless integration with AI agents and large language model-powered tools to extend our platform's capabilities into emerging AI workflows. This deep integration fabric allows our customers to gather and correlate digital signals from across their entire technology stack – both modern cloud-native and legacy systems – without the friction of context switching or manual data aggregation.
These same integrations enable powerful workflow automation, connecting technical operations with popular collaboration tools and business applications to drive coordinated responses and accelerate resolution. Our open platform approach and extensive partner ecosystem have become a strategic moat, making PagerDuty increasingly embedded and essential within our customers' operations.
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscriptions, with additional revenue from term-license arrangements. Our land-and-expand business model drives viral adoption and natural expansion as teams experience value and extend PagerDuty to new users, use cases, and products. During the current fiscal year, we took initial steps to provide customers with more flexible pricing options, including usage-based pricing models that enable customers to seamlessly scale between human responders, agents, and automated solutions, better aligning customer investments to business outcomes rather than headcount and licenses, and supporting our transition from traditional single-year seat-based licensing to multiyear platform usage agreements.
While the PagerDuty platform serves organizations of all sizes, we have strategically focused our go-to-market investments, including our enterprise field sales organization, on serving enterprise customers where we see the greatest opportunity for platform adoption and expansion. Today, nearly half of the Fortune 500, half of the Forbes AI 50, and approximately two-thirds of the Fortune 100 rely on PagerDuty as mission-critical infrastructure. Our enterprise customers represent the majority of our revenue and demonstrate strong retention and expansion characteristics.
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As of January 31, 2026, we had 15,351 paying customers globally, ranging from the most disruptive startups to established Fortune 100 companies across every industry including software and technology, financial services, telecommunications, retail, travel and hospitality, and media and entertainment. Our customers use our products across a broad range of use cases such as engineering, IT operations, security, and customer service. Of these customers, 861 customers contribute annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) in excess of $100.0 thousand, and 79 customers contribute ARR in excess of $1.0 million. We define ARR as the annualized recurring revenue of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period. We define a customer as a separate legal entity, such as a company or an educational or government institution, that has an active subscription with us or one of our partners to access our platform. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, we treat the parent entity as the customer instead of treating each subsidiary or division as a separate customer. Our 10 largest customers represented approximately 2% of our revenue for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026, and no single customer represented more than 10% of our revenue in the same period, highlighting the breadth of our customer base. We serve a vital role in our customers’ digital operations and grow with them as their needs expand. As such, we have developed a loyal customer base, with total ARR churn representing less than 10% of beginning ARR for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026. Our ARR churn rate represents lost revenue from customers that were no longer contributing revenue at the end of the current period but did contribute revenue in the equivalent prior year period. We generally bill monthly subscriptions on a monthly basis and subscriptions with terms of greater than one year annually in advance.
We expand within our existing customer base by adding more users, creating additional use cases, and upselling higher priced packages and additional products. Once our platform is deployed, we typically see increased expansion within our customer base. Our dollar-based net retention rate was 98% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026.
We have an efficient operating model, which comes from a combination of our cloud-native architecture, optimal utilization of our third-party hosting providers, and prudent approach to headcount expansion. This has allowed us to achieve profitability and a gross margin of 84.9% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026. This has allowed us the flexibility to invest more in our platform and go-to-market function while maintaining strong operating leverage on our path to profitability.
Macroeconomic Environment
Our business and financial performance has and may continue to be subject to the effects of worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including, but not limited to, global inflation and heightened interest rates, existing and new laws and regulations, and economic uncertainty and volatility globally and in the jurisdictions in which we do business.
We will continue to monitor the direct and indirect impacts of these or similar circumstances on our business and financial results. For additional information on the potential impact of macroeconomic conditions on our business, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors.
Key Factors Affecting Our Performance
Attracting New Customers
Sustaining our growth requires continued adoption of our platform by new customers. We will continue to invest in building brand awareness as we further penetrate our addressable markets. Our financial performance will depend in large part on the overall demand for our platform, particularly demand from enterprise customers, and our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers. As of January 31, 2026, we had 15,351 paying customers spanning organizations of a broad range of sizes and industries, compared to 15,114 as of January 31, 2025.
Expanding Within our Customer Base
The majority of our revenue is generated from our existing customer base. Often, our customers expand the deployment of our platform across large teams and more broadly within the enterprise as they realize the benefits of our platform. We believe that our land-and-expand business model allows us to efficiently increase revenue from our existing customer base. Further, we will continue to invest in enhancing awareness of our brand, creating additional use cases, and developing more products, features, and functionality, which we believe are important factors to achieve widespread adoption of our platform.
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Sustaining Product Innovation and Technology Leadership
Our success is dependent on our ability to sustain product innovation and technology leadership in order to maintain our competitive advantage. We believe that we have built a highly differentiated platform that will position us to further extend the adoption of our products. While sales of subscriptions to our incident management product account for a significant majority of our revenue, we intend to continue to invest in building additional products, features, and functionality that expand our capabilities and facilitate the extension of our platform to new use cases. Our future success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop, market, and sell these additional products to both new and existing customers.
Continued Investment in Growth
We plan to continue investing in our business so we can capitalize on our market opportunity. We are focusing our field sales resources to target expansion within our enterprise customers and to attract new customers. We expect to continue to make focused investments in marketing to drive brand awareness and enhance the effectiveness of our self-service, low friction customer acquisition model. We continue to make investments in headcount, tools, and technology so our research and development team can continue to develop new and improved products, features, and functionality. Although these investments may adversely affect our operating results in the near term, we believe that they will contribute to our long-term growth.
Key Business Metrics
We review the following key business metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
While these metrics are based on what we believe to be a reasonable representation of our customer base for the applicable period of measurement, we rely on a third party to validate legal entities using the best available data at period end, and therefore, these metrics are subject to change as new information becomes available. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our methodology, which may result in future changes to our key metrics.
Our key metrics include the results of Jeli, Inc. (“Jeli”), to the extent applicable, beginning on the acquisition date of November 15, 2023.
Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”)
We believe ARR is a key metric to measure our business performance because it is an indication of our ability to maintain and expand our relationships with existing customers and generate new business. We define ARR as the annualized recurring revenue of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period.
ARR was as follows as of the dates indicated (in millions):
| As of January 31 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | |||||
| ARR | $ | 498.7 | $ | 493.8 |
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Number of Customers
We believe that the number of customers using our platform, particularly those that have subscription agreements for more than $100.0 thousand in ARR, are indicators of our market penetration, particularly within enterprise accounts, the growth of our business, and our potential future business opportunities. We define a customer as a separate legal entity, such as a company or an educational or government institution, that has an active subscription with us or one of our partners to access our platform. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, we treat the parent entity as the customer instead of treating each subsidiary or division as a separate customer. Increasing awareness of our platform and its broad range of capabilities, coupled with the fact that the world is always on and powered by increasingly complex technology, has expanded the diversity of our customer base to include organizations of all sizes across virtually all industries. Over time, enterprise customers have constituted a greater share of our revenue. The total number of paid customers and the number of customers with greater than $100.0 thousand in ARR were as follows as of the dates indicated:
| January 31, | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | |||||
| Customers | 15,351 | 15,114 | 15,039 | ||||
| Customers greater than $100.0 thousand in ARR | 861 | 849 | 804 |
Dollar-based Net Retention Rate
We use dollar-based net retention rate to evaluate the long-term value of our customer relationships, since this metric reflects our ability to retain and expand the ARR from our existing paid customers. Our dollar-based net retention rate compares our ARR from the same set of customers across comparable periods.
We calculate dollar-based net retention rate as of a period end by starting with the ARR from the cohort of all paid customers as of 12 months prior to such period end (“Prior Period ARR”). We then calculate the ARR from these same customers as of the current period end (“Current Period ARR”). Current Period ARR includes any expansion and is net of downgrades or churn over the last 12 months but excludes ARR from new customers in the current period. We then divide the total Current Period ARR by the total Prior Period ARR to arrive at the dollar-based net retention rate. The dollar-based net retention rate was as follows as of the dates indicated:
| Last 12 months ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | ||||||
| Dollar-based net retention rate | 98 | % | 106 | % | 107 | % |
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Results of Operations
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data for the periods indicated and as a percentage of revenue (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 492,546 | 100.0 | % | $ | 467,499 | 100.0 | % | |||||
| Cost of revenue(1) | 74,142 | 15.1 | % | 79,665 | 17.0 | % | |||||||
| Gross profit | 418,404 | 84.9 | % | 387,834 | 83.0 | % | |||||||
| Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||
| Research and development(1) | 126,937 | 25.8 | % | 141,489 | 30.3 | % | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 184,040 | 37.4 | % | 201,821 | 43.2 | % | |||||||
| General and administrative(1) | 101,587 | 20.6 | % | 104,296 | 22.3 | % | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 412,564 | 83.8 | % | 447,606 | 95.7 | % | |||||||
| Income (loss) from operations | 5,840 | 1.2 | % | (59,772) | (12.8) | % | |||||||
| Interest income | 22,693 | 4.6 | % | 27,492 | 5.9 | % | |||||||
| Interest expense | (8,857) | (1.8) | % | (9,258) | (2.0) | % | |||||||
| Other income (expense), net | 489 | 0.1 | % | (215) | — | % | |||||||
| Income (loss) before (benefit from) provision for income taxes | 20,165 | 4.1 | % | (41,753) | (8.9) | % | |||||||
| (Benefit from) provision for income taxes | (152,544) | (31.0) | % | 1,783 | 0.4 | % | |||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | 172,709 | 35.1 | % | $ | (43,536) | (9.3) | % | |||||
| Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | (664) | (0.1) | % | (801) | (0.2) | % | |||||||
| Net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | 173,373 | 35.2 | % | $ | (42,735) | (9.1) | % | |||||
| Less: Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | (481) | (0.1) | % | 11,725 | 2.5 | % | |||||||
| Net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | $ | 173,854 | 35.3 | % | $ | (54,460) | (11.6) | % |
______________
Note: Certain figures may not sum due to rounding.
(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | |||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 4,283 | $ | 5,984 | ||
| Research and development | 36,345 | 44,691 | ||||
| Sales and marketing | 22,420 | 31,185 | ||||
| General and administrative | 34,756 | 44,350 | ||||
| Total | $ | 97,804 | $ | 126,210 |
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Revenue
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscription fees. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. Our subscriptions are typically one year in duration but can range from monthly to multi-year. Subscription fees are driven primarily by the number of customers, the number of users per customer, and the level of subscription purchased. We generally invoice customers in advance in annual installments for subscriptions to our software. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. For our term-license software subscriptions, we recognize license revenue upon delivery, and software maintenance revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Due to the low complexity of implementation and integration of our platform with our customers’ existing infrastructure, revenue from professional services has not been material to date.
The following sets forth our revenue for the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | $ | % | |||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 492,546 | $ | 467,499 | $ | 25,047 | 5 | % |
Revenue increased primarily due to growth from existing customers, which was driven by an increase in the number of users and upsell of additional products and services.
Cost of Revenue and Gross Margin
Cost of revenue primarily consists of expenses related to providing our platform to customers, including personnel expenses for operations and global support, payments to our third-party cloud infrastructure providers for hosting our software, payment processing fees, amortization of capitalized software costs, amortization of acquired developed technology and intangible assets, and allocated overhead costs for facilities, information technology, and other allocated overhead costs. We will continue to invest additional resources in our platform infrastructure and our customer support and success organizations to expand the capability of our platform and ensure that our customers are realizing the full benefit of our offerings. The level and timing of investment in these areas could affect our cost of revenue in the future.
Gross profit represents revenue less cost of revenue. Gross margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of revenue. Our gross margin may fluctuate from period to period as our revenue fluctuates, and as a result of the timing and amount of investments to expand the capacity of our third-party cloud infrastructure providers and our continued efforts to enhance our platform support and customer success teams.
The following sets forth our cost of revenue and gross margin for the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | $ | % | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 74,142 | $ | 79,665 | $ | (5,523) | (7) | % | ||||||
| Gross margin | 84.9 | % | 83.0 | % |
Cost of revenue decreased primarily due to: (i) a decrease of $6.4 million in amortization of acquired intangible assets; and (ii) a decrease of $3.1 million in outside services spend for the customer service team; offset by (iii) an increase of $1.9 million in hosting, software, and telecom costs; and (iv) an increase of $0.9 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure, which include allocated overhead costs; (v) an increase of $0.7 million in personnel costs, primarily as a result of an increase in headcount for cost of revenue employees; and (vi) an increase of $0.5 million for amortization of capitalized software costs.
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Operating Expenses
Our operating expenses consist of research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses. Personnel expenses are the most significant component of operating expenses and consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense, and sales commissions. Operating expenses also include amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, allocated overhead costs for facilities, shared IT related expenses, including depreciation expense, and certain company-wide events and functions.
The following table sets forth our operating expenses for the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | $ | % | |||||||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||||||||
| Research and development | $ | 126,937 | $ | 141,489 | $ | (14,552) | (10.3) | % | ||||||
| Sales and marketing | 184,040 | 201,821 | (17,781) | (8.8) | % | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 101,587 | 104,296 | (2,709) | (2.6) | % | |||||||||
| Total operating expenses | $ | 412,564 | $ | 447,606 | $ | (35,042) | (7.8) | % |
Research and development: Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our engineering, product, and design teams. Additionally, research and development expenses include outside services, depreciation of equipment used in research and development activities, acquisition-related expenses, impairment of capitalized software costs, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our recurring research and development expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows.
The decrease in research and development was primarily driven by: (i) a decrease of $15.9 million in personnel costs as a result of a decrease in headcount for research and development employees and decreased costs related to stock-based compensation; and (ii) a decrease of $0.8 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure, which include allocated overhead costs; offset by (iii) a net increase of $1.1 million in other expenses, primarily due to impairment of capitalized software of $1.2 million; and (iv) an increase of $0.7 million in outside consulting services.
Sales and marketing: Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, costs of outside services, costs of general marketing and promotional activities, training and travel-related expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, allocated overhead costs, and credit loss expense. Sales commissions earned by our sales force that are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a subscription with a customer are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over the expected period of benefit, which we have determined to be four years. We expect that our recurring sales and marketing expenses will generally increase in dollar value and continue to be our largest operating expense for the foreseeable future as we expand our sales and marketing efforts.
The decrease in sales and marketing was primarily driven by: (i) a decrease of $9.9 million in personnel costs as a result of a decrease in headcount for sales and marketing employees and decreased costs related to stock-based compensation; (ii) a decrease of $8.1 million in outside consulting services; (iii) a decrease of $2.8 million in training and travel-related costs; offset by (iv) an increase of $2.0 million in marketing costs for media campaigns in the current year; and (v) an increase of $0.7 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure, which include allocated overhead costs.
General and administrative: General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, training and travel-related costs, and outside services fees for finance, legal, human resources, information technology, and other administrative functions. In addition, general and administrative expenses include non-personnel costs, such as legal, accounting, and other professional fees, hardware and software costs, certain tax, license and insurance-related expenses, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our recurring general and administrative expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows. However, we expect that our general and administrative expenses will decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the longer term, as we expect our investments to allow for improved efficiency for future growth in the business.
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The decrease in general and administrative was driven by: (i) a decrease of $6.9 million related to personnel costs primarily driven by decreased costs related to stock-based compensation; (ii) a decrease of $0.5 million in training and travel-related costs; (iii) a decrease of $0.1 million in insurance, business taxes and licenses; offset by (iv) an increase of $3.3 million in outside consulting services; and (v) an increase of $1.7 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure, which include allocated overhead costs.
Non-Operating Income (Expense)
The following table sets forth our non-operating income (expense) for the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | $ | % | |||||||||||
| Interest income | $ | 22,693 | $ | 27,492 | $ | (4,799) | (17.5) | % | ||||||
| Interest expense | $ | (8,857) | $ | (9,258) | $ | 401 | (4.3) | % | ||||||
| Other income (expense), net | $ | 489 | $ | (215) | $ | 704 | (327.4) | % | ||||||
| (Benefit from) provision for income taxes | $ | (152,544) | $ | 1,783 | $ | (154,327) | (8,655.5) | % |
Interest income: Interest income consists of accretion income and amortization expense on our available-for-sale investments, income earned on our cash and cash equivalents, and interest earned on our short-term investments which consist of U.S. Treasury securities, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and U.S. Government agency securities.
Interest income decreased primarily due to a decrease in interest rates year-over-year.
Interest expense: Interest expense consists primarily of contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.25% Convertible senior notes due 2025 (the “2025 Notes”) that were repaid during the year ended January 31, 2026 and the contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.50% Convertible Senior Notes due 2028 (the “2028 Notes”) that were issued in October 2023.
Interest expense decreased primarily due to a decrease in interest expense related to our convertible notes, driven by the repayment of the 2025 Notes during the year ended January 31, 2026.
Other income (expense), net: Other income (expense), net primarily consists of foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
The change in other income (expense), net was due to fluctuations in foreign currency during the period.
(Benefit from) provision for income taxes: (Benefit from) provision for income taxes consists primarily of income taxes in certain foreign and U.S. jurisdictions in which we conduct business.
The change in (benefit from) provision for income taxes is primarily attributable to the release of the valuation allowance against U.S. federal and certain state deferred tax assets. The (benefit from) provision for income taxes may fluctuate to the extent the mix of earnings fluctuates between jurisdictions with different tax rates.
We regularly assess the need for a valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets. In making that assessment, we consider both positive and negative evidence in the various jurisdictions in which we operate related to the likelihood of realization of the deferred tax assets to determine, based on the weight of available evidence, whether it is more likely than not that some or all of our deferred tax assets will not be realized. For the period ended January 31, 2026, we achieved cumulative U.S. income measured as pre-tax income adjusted for permanent book-tax differences. Based on all available positive and negative evidence, including the amount of our taxable income in recent years which is objective and verifiable, and taking into account anticipated future taxable earnings, we concluded that it is more likely than not that our U.S. federal and certain state deferred tax assets will be realizable which resulted in an income tax benefit of $169.2 million. We continue to maintain a valuation allowance of $0.8 million against other non-material state deferred tax assets due to the uncertainty regarding realizability of these deferred tax assets as they have not met the more likely than not realization criteria.
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Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to our results determined in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP” or “GAAP”), we believe the following non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating our operating performance. We use the below referenced non-GAAP financial information, collectively, to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance and assists in comparisons with other companies, some of which use similar non-GAAP financial information to supplement their U.S. GAAP results. The non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and may be different from similarly-titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies. The principal limitation of these non-GAAP financial measures is that they exclude significant expenses that are required by U.S. GAAP to be recorded in our financial statements. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgment by our management about which expenses are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation is provided below for each non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Specifically, we exclude the following from historical and prospective non-GAAP financial measures, as applicable:
Stock-based compensation: PagerDuty utilizes stock-based compensation to attract and retain employees. It is principally aimed at aligning their interests with those of its stockholders and at long-term retention, rather than to address operational performance for any particular period. As a result, stock-based compensation expenses vary for reasons that are generally unrelated to financial and operational performance in any particular period.
Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions: PagerDuty views the amount of employer taxes related to its employee stock transactions as an expense that is dependent on its stock price, employee exercise and other award disposition activity, and other factors that are beyond PagerDuty’s control. As a result, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions vary for reasons that are generally unrelated to financial and operational performance in any particular period.
Amortization of acquired intangible assets: PagerDuty views amortization of acquired intangible assets as items arising from pre-acquisition activities determined at the time of an acquisition. While these intangible assets are evaluated for impairment regularly, amortization of the cost of purchased intangibles is an expense that is not typically affected by operations during any particular period.
Acquisition-related expenses: PagerDuty views acquisition-related expenses, such as transaction costs, acquisition-related retention payments, and acquisition-related asset impairment, as events that are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a period. In particular, PagerDuty believes the consideration of measures that exclude such expenses can assist in the comparison of operational performance in different periods which may or may not include such expenses.
Amortization of debt issuance costs: The imputed interest rates of the Company's convertible senior notes (the "2025 Notes" and the "2028 Notes" or, collectively, the "Notes") was approximately 1.91% for the 2025 Notes and 2.13% for the 2028 Notes. This is a result of the debt issuance costs, which reduce the carrying value of the convertible debt instruments. The debt issuance costs are amortized as interest expense. The expense for the amortization of the debt issuance costs is a non-cash item, and we believe the exclusion of this interest expense will provide for a more useful comparison of our operational performance in different periods.
Restructuring costs: PagerDuty views restructuring costs, such as employee severance-related costs, as events that are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a period. In particular, PagerDuty believes the consideration of measures that exclude such expenses can assist in the comparison of operational performance in different periods which may or may not include such expenses.
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Shareholder matters: PagerDuty views certain charges, including third-party legal, consulting, and advisory fees, related to shareholder activity that are outside of the ordinary course of our business and expenses related to a cooperation agreement as events that are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a period. PagerDuty believes that such charges do not have a direct correlation to the operations of the Company’s business and may vary in size depending on the timing, results, and resolution of such shareholder matters. The consideration of measures that exclude such expenses can assist in the comparison of operational performance in periods which may or may not include such expenses.
Impairment of long-lived assets: PagerDuty views non-cash charges for impairment of long-lived assets, including impairments related to capitalized software costs, office leases, and acquired intangible assets, as events that are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a period. Impairment charges can vary significantly in terms of amount and timing and PagerDuty believes the exclusion of such adjustments can assist in comparison of operational performance in different periods.
Gains (or losses) on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes: PagerDuty views gains (or losses) on partial extinguishment of debt as events that are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a period. PagerDuty believes that the consideration of measures that exclude such gain (or loss) impact can assist in the comparison of operational performance in different periods which may or may not include such gains (or losses).
Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest: PagerDuty adjusts the value of redeemable non-controlling interest of its joint venture PagerDuty K.K. according to the operating agreement. PagerDuty believes this adjustment is not reflective of operational performance during a period and exclusion of such adjustments can assist in comparison of operational performance in different periods.
Income tax effects and adjustments: For fiscal 2026, PagerDuty used a projected non-GAAP tax rate of 22%. PagerDuty uses a projected non-GAAP tax rate in order to provide better consistency across the interim reporting periods by eliminating the impact of non-recurring and period specific items, which can vary in size and frequency. PagerDuty's estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income is determined annually and may be adjusted during the year to take into account events or trends that PagerDuty believes materially impact the estimated annual rate including, but not limited to, significant changes resulting from tax legislation, material changes in the geographic mix of revenue and expenses and other significant events.
Non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin
We define non-GAAP gross profit as gross profit excluding the following expenses typically included in cost of revenue: stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and restructuring costs. We define non-GAAP gross margin as non-GAAP gross profit as a percentage of revenue.
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The following table presents the calculation of non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | ||||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 418,404 | $ | 387,834 | $ | 352,867 | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 4,283 | 5,984 | 7,586 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 125 | 162 | 199 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 2,700 | 9,075 | 8,614 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 292 | (2) | 137 | |||||||
| Non-GAAP gross profit | $ | 425,804 | $ | 403,053 | $ | 369,403 | ||||
| Revenue | $ | 492,546 | $ | 467,499 | $ | 430,699 | ||||
| Gross margin | 84.9 | % | 83.0 | % | 81.9 | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP gross margin | 86.4 | % | 86.2 | % | 85.8 | % |
Non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin
We define non-GAAP operating income as income (loss) from operations excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, acquisition-related expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, restructuring costs, shareholder matters, and impairment of long-lived assets, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period. We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP operating income as a percentage of revenue.
The following table presents the calculation of non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | ||||||||
| Income (loss) from operations | $ | 5,840 | $ | (59,772) | $ | (96,246) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 97,804 | 126,210 | 127,152 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 2,314 | 2,796 | 3,498 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 286 | 977 | 1,800 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 5,220 | 11,750 | 11,510 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs(1) | 5,990 | 742 | 194 | |||||||
| Shareholder matters | 2,470 | — | — | |||||||
| Impairment of long-lived assets(1) | 1,213 | — | 8,483 | |||||||
| Non-GAAP operating income | $ | 121,137 | $ | 82,703 | $ | 56,391 | ||||
| Revenue | $ | 492,546 | $ | 467,499 | $ | 430,699 | ||||
| Operating margin | 1.2 | % | (12.8) | % | (22.3) | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP operating margin | 24.6 | % | 17.7 | % | 13.1 | % |
(1) Certain reclassifications of prior period amounts have been made to conform to current period presentation. We have reclassified a portion of restructuring costs to the impairment of long-lived assets line item in the relevant non-GAAP reconciliations. The reclassification has no effect on the reported non-GAAP operating income.
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Non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders
We define non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders as net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of debt issuance costs, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, restructuring costs, shareholder matters, impairment of long-lived assets, gain on extinguishment of convertible senior notes, adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest, and income tax effects and adjustments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period.
The following table presents the calculation of non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | ||||||||
| Net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | $ | 173,854 | $ | (54,460) | $ | (81,757) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 97,804 | 126,210 | 127,152 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 2,314 | 2,796 | 3,498 | |||||||
| Amortization of debt issuance costs | 2,518 | 2,629 | 2,078 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 5,220 | 11,750 | 11,510 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 286 | 977 | 1,800 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs(1) | 5,990 | 742 | 194 | |||||||
| Shareholder matters | 2,470 | — | — | |||||||
| Impairment of long-lived assets(1) | 1,213 | — | 8,483 | |||||||
| Gain on extinguishment of convertible senior notes | — | — | (3,699) | |||||||
| Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | (481) | 11,725 | 6,568 | |||||||
| Income tax effects and adjustments | (182,897) | (21,989) | (3,273) | |||||||
| Non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | $ | 108,291 | $ | 80,380 | $ | 72,554 |
(1) Certain reclassifications of prior period amounts have been made to conform to current period presentation. We have reclassified a portion of restructuring costs to the impairment of long-lived assets line item in the relevant non-GAAP reconciliations. The reclassification has no effect on the reported non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders.
Free cash flow
We define free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities, less cash used for purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of software costs. In addition to the reasons stated above, we believe that free cash flow is useful to investors as a liquidity measure because it measures our ability to generate or use cash in excess of our capital investments in property and equipment in order to enhance the strength of our balance sheet and further invest in our business and potential strategic initiatives. A limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of our liquidity is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the period. We use free cash flow in conjunction with traditional U.S. GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our liquidity, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts and to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies. There are a number of limitations related to the use of free cash flow as compared to net cash provided by operating activities, including that free cash flow includes capital expenditures, the benefits of which are realized in periods subsequent to those when expenditures are made.
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The following table presents the calculation of free cash flow for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | ||||||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 114,857 | $ | 117,891 | $ | 71,974 | ||||
| Purchases of property and equipment | (2,941) | (2,791) | (2,164) | |||||||
| Capitalization of software costs | (9,233) | (6,686) | (5,384) | |||||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 102,683 | $ | 108,414 | $ | 64,426 | ||||
| Net cash used in investing activities | $ | (18,277) | $ | (19,968) | $ | (30,525) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | $ | (206,423) | $ | (116,138) | $ | 51,600 |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Sources and Uses of Liquidity
As of January 31, 2026, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents and investments totaling $469.8 million. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, investments, and net cash generated from our operating activities will be sufficient to support working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. Since inception, we have financed operations primarily through sales of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions, net proceeds received from sales of equity securities, and the issuance of our 2028 Notes. We believe we will meet long-term expected future cash requirements and obligations through a combination of cash flows from operating activities and available cash and short-term investment balances.
Debt and Financing Arrangements
Refer to Note 8. Debt and Financing Arrangements, in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for discussion of our debt arrangements, including the timing of expected maturity of such arrangements. The $57.5 million principal of our 2025 Notes was repaid by us in cash at maturity during the year ended January 31, 2026.
Deferred Revenue
A significant majority of our customers pay in advance for our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions. Therefore, a substantial source of our cash is from our deferred revenue, which is included in the liabilities section of our consolidated balance sheet. Deferred revenue consists of the unearned portion of customer billings, which is recognized as revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policy. As of January 31, 2026, we had deferred revenue of $248.9 million, of which $246.5 million was recorded as a current liability and expected to be recorded as revenue in the next 12 months, provided all other revenue recognition criteria are met.
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Share Repurchase Program
In March 2025, we announced that our Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program (the “2025 Share Repurchase Program”) for the repurchase of shares of our common stock in an aggregate amount of up to $150.0 million. In August 2025, our Board of Directors approved an additional $50.0 million under the 2025 Share Repurchase Program, thus allowing for the repurchase of shares of the Company’s common stock in an aggregate amount of up to $200.0 million. No other changes were made to the program. The 2025 Share Repurchase Program does not obligate us to acquire a specified number of shares, and may be suspended, modified, or terminated at any time, without prior notice. The repurchases are expected to be executed from time to time through March 2027, subject to general business and market conditions and other investment opportunities, through open market purchases or other legally permissible means, including through Rule 10b5-1 plans. As of January 31, 2026, we had repurchased 10,073,731 shares under the 2025 Share Repurchase Program and subsequently retired 9,710,463 of those shares. The cost of the remaining 363,268 shares is recorded as treasury stock in the consolidated balance sheets. As of January 31, 2026, $63.1 million of the total amount authorized to be repurchased remained available.
The 2025 Share Repurchase Program replaces the share repurchase program approved by our Board of Directors in May 2024 (the “2024 Share Repurchase Program”) for the repurchase of shares of our common stock in an aggregate amount of up to $100.0 million. The 2024 Share Repurchase Program did not obligate us to acquire a specified number of shares, and could be suspended, modified, or terminated at any time, without prior notice. Under the 2024 Share Repurchase Program, the Company repurchased a total of 5,223,071 shares of common stock through open market purchases, including through 10b5-1 plans, at an average per share price of $19.15 for a total repurchase price of $100.0 million. During the year ended January 31, 2025, these shares were retired.
Future Contractual Obligations
Our estimated future obligations as of January 31, 2026 include both current and long-term obligations. Our debt obligations total $395.7 million, all of which is long-term. Additionally, we had $1.0 million of irrevocable standby letters of credit outstanding which were fully collateralized by our restricted cash, all of which represents a long-term cash obligation. Under our operating leases, we had a current obligation of $5.0 million and a long-term obligation of $12.6 million. Operating lease obligations primarily represent the initial contracted term for leases that have commenced as of January 31, 2026, not including any future optional renewal periods. Additionally, as of January 31, 2026, we had non-cancellable purchase commitments with certain service providers totaling approximately $44.4 million. Refer to Note 9. Commitments and Contingencies for additional information regarding our purchase commitments.
Effect of Exchange Rates
Our changes in cash can be impacted by the effect of fluctuating exchange rates. Foreign exchange had a negative effect on cash in the year ended January 31, 2025, decreasing our total cash balance by $0.1 million, and an immaterial effect on cash in the year ended January 31, 2026.
Cash Flow Information
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | |||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 114,857 | $ | 117,891 | ||
| Net cash used in investing activities | (18,277) | (19,968) | ||||
| Net cash used in financing activities | (206,423) | (116,138) | ||||
| Effects of foreign currency exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash | (4) | (124) | ||||
| Net change in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash | $ | (109,847) | $ | (18,339) |
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Operating Activities
Net cash provided by operating activities decreased, primarily due to decreases related to adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by operating activities, such as stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, and deferred income taxes, as well as decreases related to regular operating activity in operating assets and liabilities, offset by improvements in our operating performance due to the 5% increase in revenue coupled with the 8% decrease in operating expenses. Cash provided by operating activities is subject to variability period-over-period as a result of timing differences, including with respect to the collection of receivables and payments of accounts payable, and other items.
Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities decreased, primarily due to a decrease in purchases of available-for-sale investments of $19.1 million offset by a decrease in proceeds from maturities of available-for-sale investments of $12.4 million and an increase in capitalized software costs of $2.5 million.
Financing Activities
Net cash used in financing activities increased, primarily as a result of an increase in repurchases of common stock and the repayment of our 2025 Notes during the year ended January 31, 2026.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
Indemnification Agreements
See Note 9. Commitments and Contingencies, in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of our indemnification agreements.
Letters of Credit
We had $1.0 million of irrevocable standby letters of credit outstanding as of January 31, 2026. Letters of credit are primarily used as a form of security deposits for the spaces we lease.
Critical Accounting Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of consolidated financial statements also requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ significantly from the estimates made by management. To the extent that there are differences between our estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows will be affected. We believe that the accounting policies described below involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, these are the estimates we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial condition and results of operations.
Revenue Recognition
We enter into contracts with our customers that may include promises to transfer multiple services, software licenses, support, and professional services. A performance obligation is a promise in a contract with a customer to transfer products or services that are distinct. Determining whether products and services in agreements with non-standard terms are distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately or combined as one unit of accounting may require significant judgment.
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Deferred Contract Costs
Deferred contract costs include sales commissions earned by our sales force which are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a contract with a customer. Sales commissions for initial contracts are deferred and then amortized on a straight-line basis over a period of benefit, determined to be four years. Significant judgment is required in arriving at this period of benefit. We determined the period of benefit by taking into consideration our customer contracts, technology, and other factors.
Stock-Based Compensation – Market-Based Performance Stock Units
Stock-based compensation expense is measured at the grant date based on the fair value of the award and is recognized as compensation expense generally on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the award, which is typically the vesting period.
We occasionally grant market-based performance stock unit (“PSU”) awards, for which vesting is dependent upon the relative growth of the per share price of the Company’s common stock as compared to the S&P Software & Services Select Index over the one-year performance period. The fair value for these awards is measured on the grant date based on estimated projections of our stock price over the performance period. These estimates are made using a Monte Carlo simulation, which models multiple stock price paths of our common stock and that of the peer group to evaluate and determine our ultimate expected relative growth of the per share price of the Company’s common stock. Compensation expense for the PSUs with market conditions is recorded over the vesting period under the graded-vesting attribution method, and is recorded regardless of whether, and the extent to which, the market condition is ultimately satisfied.
Income Taxes
We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and in many foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our provision for income taxes, our deferred tax assets and liabilities, and any valuation allowance recorded against our net deferred tax assets that are not more likely than not to be realized. We monitor the realizability of our deferred tax assets, taking into account all relevant factors at each reporting period. In completing our assessment of realizability of our deferred tax assets, we consider our history of income (loss) measured at pre-tax income (loss) adjusted for permanent book-tax differences on a jurisdictional basis, volatility in actual earnings, excess tax benefits/shortfalls related to stock-based compensation in recent prior years, and impacts of the timing of reversal of existing temporary differences. We also rely on our assessment of our projected future results of business operations, including uncertainty in future operating results relative to historical results, volatility in the market price of our common stock and its performance over time, variable macroeconomic conditions impacting our ability to forecast future taxable income, and changes in business that may affect the existence and magnitude of future taxable income. Our valuation allowance assessment is based on our best estimate of future taxable income and our ability to utilize deferred tax attributes considering all available information.
For the period ended January 31, 2026, we had U.S. pre-tax book income and we also demonstrated sustained profitability in the form of U.S. pre-tax book income adjusted for permanent book-to-tax differences. Our taxable income for the annual period resulted in the utilization of a portion of our tax attributes that we generated in prior years. This resulted in a net reduction to our U.S. federal and state net deferred tax assets. This evidence is both objective and verifiable and provides strong positive evidence as to our ability to realize our U.S. deferred tax assets. After considering all available positive and negative evidence, including that which is objective and verifiable positive evidence, as well as our anticipated future earnings, we concluded it is more-likely-than-not that our U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets will be realizable.
We account for uncertainty in tax positions by recognizing a tax benefit from uncertain tax positions when it is more-likely-than-not that the position will be sustained upon examination. The tax benefits recognized in the financial statements from such uncertain tax positions are then measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than 50% likelihood of being realized upon settlement. Although we believe that we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions (including net interest and penalties), we can provide no assurance that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be materially different. We make adjustments to these reserves when facts and circumstances change, such as the closing of a tax audit or the refinement of an estimate. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different from the amounts recorded, such differences will affect the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made and could have a material impact on our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows.
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Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See Note 2, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted.
MD&A history
Prior-year 10-K MD&A spans are extracted from SEC filings with the same bounded parser used for the latest filing. The latest 10-K appears above; prior years are below.
FY 2025 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001568100-25-000023.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of the financial condition and results of operations of PagerDuty, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and subsidiaries in which PagerDuty, Inc. holds a controlling interest (“PagerDuty,” “we,” “us” or “our”) should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Form 10-K”). This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, adverse effects on our business and general economic conditions due to those identified below, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The last day of our fiscal year is January 31. Our fiscal quarters end on April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31.
In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended January 31, 2025 compared to the year ended January 31, 2024. For a discussion of the year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the year ended January 31, 2023, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2024.
Overview
PagerDuty, Inc. is a global leader in digital operations management, enabling customers to achieve operational efficiency at scale and transform critical work for modern enterprises. The PagerDuty Operations Cloud combines artificial intelligence (“AI”) operations (“AIOps”), automation, customer service operations, and incident management with a generative AI assistant to create a flexible, resilient, and scalable platform to protect revenue and improve customer experience, accelerate innovation, improve operational efficiency, and mitigate risk of operational failures.
Today, nearly every business is a digital business. From retail to financial services, from travel and entertainment to supply chain logistics, everyday commerce relies on an incredibly complex network of digital infrastructure, systems, software, and teams. And while that complexity is only increasing, the need for those digital operations to be resilient is also rising, as organizations face pressure to meet escalating customer expectations, resolve incidents proactively, and deliver innovation without increasing costs. In this environment, the ability to anticipate, orchestrate, and resolve time-sensitive, critical and unplanned work before it escalates is a critical requirement for success.
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Since our founding in 2009, we have expanded our capabilities from a single product focused on on-call management for developers to a multi-product platform that crosses the silos of development, information technology (“IT”) infrastructure and operations, security, customer service, and business operations and reaches executive stakeholder roles across an organization. Today, we collect data and digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device and leverage AI and machine learning to correlate, process, and predict opportunities and incidents. Using incident management, automation, AI operations, and customer service operations, our platform for digital operations brings together the right people with the right information so they can resolve issues and act on opportunities in minutes or seconds from wherever they are. In addition, our generative AI capabilities allow organizations to manage mission-critical tasks smarter and faster.
We have spent more than a decade building deep product integrations to our platform, and our ecosystem now includes over 700 direct integrations to enable our customers to gather and correlate digital signals from their technology stack. This allows technical teams to collect digital signals from nearly any system or platform in their environment without the effects of context switching. Those same integrations connect with popular collaboration tools and business applications within modern and legacy technology stacks to drive automation of work.
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscription fees. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. PagerDuty has a land-and-expand business model that leads to viral adoption and expansion of our products. Although the PagerDuty platform can be used by any size of company, from small to mid-market to enterprise companies, we have increasingly focused our go-to-market motion, including our field sales team, on serving enterprise customers. Nearly half of the Fortune 500 and approximately two thirds of the Fortune 100 rely on PagerDuty as essential infrastructure for the modern enterprise.
The PagerDuty sales and customer success teams drive expansion to additional users, new use cases, and additional products, as well as upgrades to higher-value plans. Our enterprise customers account for the majority of our revenue today. The PagerDuty platform is central to customer initiatives targeted at incident management transformation, operations center modernization, automation standardization, and customer experience operations. Our platform provides the technology to solve the customer problems underlying these and many other business initiatives.
As of January 31, 2025, we had 15,114 paying customers globally, ranging from the most disruptive startups to established Fortune 100 companies across every industry including software and technology, financial services, telecommunications, retail, travel and hospitality, and media and entertainment. Our customers use our products across a broad range of use cases such as engineering, IT operations, security, and customer service. Of these customers, 849 customers contribute annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) in excess of $100.0 thousand, and 72 customers contribute ARR in excess of $1.0 million. We define ARR as the annualized recurring revenue of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period. We define a customer as a separate legal entity, such as a company or an educational or government institution, that has an active subscription with us or one of our partners to access our platform. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, we treat the parent entity as the customer instead of treating each subsidiary or division as a separate customer. Our 10 largest customers represented approximately 1% of our revenue for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025, and no single customer represented more than 10% of our revenue in the same period, highlighting the breadth of our customer base. We serve a vital role in our customers’ digital operations and grow with them as their needs expand. As such, we have developed a loyal customer base, with total ARR churn representing less than 5% of beginning ARR for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025. Our ARR churn rate represents lost revenue from customers that were no longer contributing revenue at the end of the current period but did contribute revenue in the equivalent prior year period. We generally bill monthly subscriptions on a monthly basis and subscriptions with terms of greater than one year annually in advance.
We expand within our existing customer base by adding more users, creating additional use cases, and upselling higher priced packages and additional products. Once our platform is deployed, we typically see increased expansion within our customer base. Our dollar-based net retention rate was 106% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025.
We have an efficient operating model, which comes from a combination of our cloud-native architecture, optimal utilization of our third-party hosting providers, and prudent approach to headcount expansion. This has allowed us to achieve gross margin of 83.0% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025. Our strong gross margins allow us the flexibility to invest more in our platform and go-to-market function while maintaining strong operating leverage on our path to profitability.
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Macroeconomic Environment
Our business and financial performance has and may continue to be subject to the effects of worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including, but not limited to, global inflation and heightened interest rates, existing and new laws and regulations, and economic uncertainty and volatility globally and in the jurisdictions in which we do business.
We will continue to monitor the direct and indirect impacts of these or similar circumstances on our business and financial results. For additional information on the potential impact of macroeconomic conditions on our business, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors.
Key Factors Affecting Our Performance
Attracting New Customers
Sustaining our growth requires continued adoption of our platform by new customers. We will continue to invest in building brand awareness as we further penetrate our addressable markets. Our financial performance will depend in large part on the overall demand for our platform, particularly demand from enterprise customers, and our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers. As of January 31, 2025, we had 15,114 paying customers spanning organizations of a broad range of sizes and industries, compared to 15,039 as of January 31, 2024.
Expanding Within our Customer Base
The majority of our revenue is generated from our existing customer base. Often, our customers expand the deployment of our platform across large teams and more broadly within the enterprise as they realize the benefits of our platform. We believe that our land and expand business model allows us to efficiently increase revenue from our existing customer base. Further, we will continue to invest in enhancing awareness of our brand, creating additional use cases, and developing more products, features, and functionality, which we believe are important factors to achieve widespread adoption of our platform.
Sustaining Product Innovation and Technology Leadership
Our success is dependent on our ability to sustain product innovation and technology leadership in order to maintain our competitive advantage. We believe that we have built a highly differentiated platform that will position us to further extend the adoption of our products. While sales of subscriptions to our incident management product account for a significant majority of our revenue, we intend to continue to invest in building additional products, features, and functionality that expand our capabilities and facilitate the extension of our platform to new use cases. Our future success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop, market, and sell these additional products to both new and existing customers.
Continued Investment in Growth
We plan to continue investing in our business so we can capitalize on our market opportunity. We intend to grow our sales team to target expansion within our enterprise customers and to attract new customers. We expect to continue to make focused investments in marketing to drive brand awareness and enhance the effectiveness of our self-service, low friction customer acquisition model. We also intend to continue adding headcount to our research and development team to develop new and improved products, features, and functionality. Although these investments may adversely affect our operating results in the near term, we believe that they will contribute to our long-term growth.
Key Business Metrics
We review the following key business metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
While these metrics are based on what we believe to be a reasonable representation of our customer base for the applicable period of measurement, we rely on a third party to validate legal entities using the best available data at period end, and therefore, these metrics are subject to change as new information becomes available. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our methodology, which may result in future changes to our key metrics.
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Our key metrics include the results of Jeli, Inc. (“Jeli”) and Catalytic, to the extent applicable, beginning on the respective acquisition dates of November 15, 2023 and March 8, 2022.
Number of Customers
We believe that the number of customers using our platform, particularly those that have subscription agreements for more than $100.0 thousand in ARR, are indicators of our market penetration, particularly within enterprise accounts, the growth of our business, and our potential future business opportunities. Increasing awareness of our platform and its broad range of capabilities, coupled with the fact that the world is always on and powered by increasingly complex technology, has expanded the diversity of our customer base to include organizations of all sizes across virtually all industries. Over time, enterprise customers have constituted a greater share of our revenue. The total number of paid customers and the number of customers with greater than $100.0 thousand in ARR were as follows as of the dates indicated:
| January 31, | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||
| Customers | 15,114 | 15,039 | 15,244 | ||||
| Customers greater than $100.0 thousand in ARR | 849 | 804 | 752 |
Dollar-based Net Retention Rate
We use dollar-based net retention rate to evaluate the long-term value of our customer relationships, since this metric reflects our ability to retain and expand the ARR from our existing paid customers. Our dollar-based net retention rate compares our ARR from the same set of customers across comparable periods.
We calculate dollar-based net retention rate as of a period end by starting with the ARR from the cohort of all paid customers as of 12 months prior to such period end (“Prior Period ARR”). We then calculate the ARR from these same customers as of the current period end (“Current Period ARR”). Current Period ARR includes any expansion and is net of downgrades or churn over the last 12 months but excludes ARR from new customers in the current period. We then divide the total Current Period ARR by the total Prior Period ARR to arrive at the dollar-based net retention rate. The dollar-based net retention rate was as follows as of the dates indicated:
| Last 12 months ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||
| Dollar-based net retention rate | 106 | % | 107 | % | 120 | % |
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Results of Operations
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data for the periods indicated and as a percentage of revenue (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | ||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 467,499 | 100.0 | % | $ | 430,699 | 100.0 | % | |||||
| Cost of revenue(1) | 79,665 | 17.0 | % | 77,832 | 18.1 | % | |||||||
| Gross profit | 387,834 | 83.0 | % | 352,867 | 81.9 | % | |||||||
| Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||
| Research and development(1) | 141,489 | 30.3 | % | 139,769 | 32.5 | % | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 201,821 | 43.2 | % | 196,769 | 45.7 | % | |||||||
| General and administrative(1) | 104,296 | 22.3 | % | 112,575 | 26.1 | % | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 447,606 | 95.7 | % | 449,113 | 104.3 | % | |||||||
| Loss from operations | (59,772) | (12.8) | % | (96,246) | (22.3) | % | |||||||
| Interest income | 27,492 | 5.9 | % | 22,101 | 5.1 | % | |||||||
| Interest expense | (9,258) | (2.0) | % | (6,500) | (1.5) | % | |||||||
| Gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes | — | — | % | 3,699 | 0.9 | % | |||||||
| Other expense, net | (215) | — | % | (433) | (0.1) | % | |||||||
| Loss before (provision for) benefit from income taxes | (41,753) | (8.9) | % | (77,379) | (18.0) | % | |||||||
| (Provision for) benefit from income taxes | (1,783) | (0.4) | % | 12 | — | % | |||||||
| Net loss | $ | (43,536) | (9.3) | % | $ | (77,367) | (18.0) | % | |||||
| Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | (801) | (0.2) | % | (2,178) | — | % | |||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | (42,735) | (9.1) | % | $ | (75,189) | (17.5) | % | |||||
| Less: Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | 11,725 | 2.5 | % | 6,568 | 1.5 | % | |||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | $ | (54,460) | (11.6) | % | $ | (81,757) | (19.0) | % |
______________
(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | |||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 5,984 | $ | 7,586 | ||
| Research and development | 44,691 | 44,800 | ||||
| Sales and marketing | 31,185 | 30,345 | ||||
| General and administrative | 44,350 | 44,421 | ||||
| Total | $ | 126,210 | $ | 127,152 |
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Revenue
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscription fees. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. Our subscriptions are typically one year in duration but can range from monthly to multi-year. Subscription fees are driven primarily by the number of customers, the number of users per customer, and the level of subscription purchased. We generally invoice customers in advance in annual installments for subscriptions to our software. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. For our term-license software subscriptions, we recognize license revenue upon delivery, and software maintenance revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Due to the low complexity of implementation and integration of our platform with our customers’ existing infrastructure, revenue from professional services has been immaterial to date.
The following sets forth our revenue for the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | $ | % | |||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 467,499 | $ | 430,699 | $ | 36,800 | 9 | % |
Revenue increased primarily due to growth from existing customers, which was driven by an increase in the number of users and upsell of additional products and services.
Cost of Revenue and Gross Margin
Cost of revenue primarily consists of expenses related to providing our platform to customers, including personnel expenses for operations and global support, payments to our third-party cloud infrastructure providers for hosting our software, payment processing fees, amortization of capitalized software costs, amortization of acquired developed technology, and allocated overhead costs for facilities, information technology, and other allocated overhead costs. We will continue to invest additional resources in our platform infrastructure and our customer support and success organizations to expand the capability of our platform and ensure that our customers are realizing the full benefit of our offerings. The level and timing of investment in these areas could affect our cost of revenue in the future.
Gross profit represents revenue less cost of revenue. Gross margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of revenue. Our gross margin may fluctuate from period to period as our revenue fluctuates, and as a result of the timing and amount of investments to expand the capacity of our third-party cloud infrastructure providers and our continued efforts to enhance our platform support and customer success teams.
The following sets forth our cost of revenue and gross margin for the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | $ | % | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 79,665 | $ | 77,832 | $ | 1,833 | 2 | % | ||||||
| Gross margin | 83.0 | % | 81.9 | % |
Cost of revenue increased primarily due to: (i) an increase of $2.0 million for amortization of capitalized software; (ii) an increase of $1.2 million in outside services spend for the customer service team; (iii) an increase of $1.1 million in hosting, software, and telecom costs; and (iv) an increase of $0.5 million in amortization of acquired intangible assets; offset by (v) a decrease of $2.2 million in personnel costs primarily as a result of changes in the components of compensation plans and a decrease in stock-based compensation compared to the prior year; and (vi) a decrease of $1.0 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure, which include allocated overhead costs.
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Operating Expenses
Our operating expenses consist of research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses. Personnel expenses are the most significant component of operating expenses and consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense, and sales commissions. Operating expenses also include amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, allocated overhead costs for facilities, shared IT related expenses, including depreciation expense, and certain company-wide events and functions.
The following table sets forth our operating expenses for the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | $ | % | |||||||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||||||||
| Research and development | $ | 141,489 | $ | 139,769 | $ | 1,720 | 1.2 | % | ||||||
| Sales and marketing | 201,821 | 196,769 | 5,052 | 2.6 | % | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 104,296 | 112,575 | (8,279) | (7.4) | % | |||||||||
| Total operating expenses | $ | 447,606 | $ | 449,113 | $ | (1,507) | (0.3) | % |
Research and development: Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our engineering, product, and design teams. Additionally, research and development expenses include outside services, depreciation of equipment used in research and development activities, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our recurring research and development expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows.
The increase in research and development was primarily driven by: (i) an increase of $2.8 million in personnel costs as a result of increased bonuses for research and development employees in the current year; offset by (ii) a decrease of $0.9 million in outside services spend due to higher leverage of internal resources.
Sales and marketing: Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, costs of general marketing and promotional activities, travel-related expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, allocated overhead costs, and credit loss expense. Sales commissions earned by our sales force that are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a subscription with a customer are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over the expected period of benefit, which we have determined to be four years. We expect that our recurring sales and marketing expenses will generally increase in dollar value and continue to be our largest operating expense for the foreseeable future as we expand our sales and marketing efforts.
The increase in sales and marketing was primarily due: (i) an increase of $3.0 million in outside consulting services; (ii) an increase of $2.5 million in marketing costs for media campaigns in the current year; (iii) an increase of $1.5 million in training and travel-related costs; and (iv) an increase of $1.4 million in personnel costs, primarily related to an increase in stock-based compensation, commissions, and bonuses; offset by (v) a decrease of $1.8 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure, which include allocated overhead costs.
General and administrative: General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs and outside services fees for finance, legal, human resources, information technology, and other administrative functions. In addition, general and administrative expenses include non-personnel costs, such as legal, accounting, and other professional fees, hardware and software costs, certain tax, license and insurance-related expenses, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our recurring general and administrative expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows. However, we expect that our general and administrative expenses will decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the longer term, as we expect our investments to allow for improved efficiency for future growth in the business.
The decrease in general and administrative was driven by: (i) a decrease of $8.7 million in costs related to prior year real estate impairment charges that did not recur in the current year; and (ii) a decrease of $1.5 million in costs related to insurance, business taxes, and licenses; offset by (iii) an increase of $1.4 million in personnel costs, primarily driven by increased bonuses related to general and administrative employees.
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Non-Operating Expenses
The following table sets forth our non-operating income (expenses) for the periods indicated (in thousands, except percentages):
| Year ended January 31, | Change | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | $ | % | |||||||||||
| Interest income | $ | 27,492 | $ | 22,101 | $ | 5,391 | 24.4 | % | ||||||
| Interest expense | $ | (9,258) | $ | (6,500) | $ | (2,758) | 42.4 | % | ||||||
| Gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes | $ | — | $ | 3,699 | $ | (3,699) | (100.0) | % | ||||||
| Other expense, net | $ | (215) | $ | (433) | $ | 218 | (50.3) | % | ||||||
| (Provision for) benefit from income taxes | $ | (1,783) | $ | 12 | $ | (1,795) | (14,958.3) | % |
Interest income: Interest income consists of accretion income and amortization expense on our available-for-sale investments, income earned on our cash and cash equivalents, and interest earned on our short-term investments which consist of U.S. Treasury securities, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and U.S. Government agency securities.
Interest income increased primarily due to accretion on our cash, cash equivalent and investment balances in the current year.
Interest expense: Interest expense consists primarily of contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.25% Convertible senior notes due 2025 (the “2025 Notes”) that were partially extinguished in October 2023 and the contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.50% Convertible Senior Notes due 2028 (the “2028 Notes”) that were issued in October 2023.
Interest expense increased primarily due to contractual interest and amortization of debt issuance costs for the 2028 Notes that were issued in October 2023. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in the amortization of debt issuance costs and interest for the 2025 Notes that were partially extinguished in October 2023 and therefore had less of an impact on the current period.
Gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes: During the year ended January 31, 2024, we recorded a gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes as a result of the October 2023 partial extinguishment of the 2025 Notes. Refer to Note 9. Debt and Financing Arrangements in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further discussion.
Other expense, net: Other expense, net primarily consists of foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
The change in other income (expense), net was due to fluctuations in foreign currency during the period.
(Provision for) benefit from income taxes: (Provision for) benefit from income taxes consists primarily of income taxes in certain foreign and U.S. jurisdictions in which we conduct business. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our net federal and state deferred tax assets as we have concluded that it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will not be realized for all years presented. The provision may fluctuate to the extent the mix of earnings fluctuates between jurisdictions with different tax rates.
The change in (provision for) benefit from income taxes was primarily driven by an increase in foreign, federal, and state income taxes.
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Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to our results determined in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP” or “GAAP”), we believe the following non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating our operating performance. We use the below referenced non-GAAP financial information, collectively, to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance and assists in comparisons with other companies, some of which use similar non-GAAP financial information to supplement their U.S. GAAP results. The non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and may be different from similarly-titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies. The principal limitation of these non-GAAP financial measures is that they exclude significant expenses that are required by U.S. GAAP to be recorded in our financial statements. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgment by our management about which expenses are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation is provided below for each non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Specifically, we exclude the following from historical and prospective non-GAAP financial measures, as applicable:
Stock-based compensation: PagerDuty utilizes stock-based compensation to attract and retain employees. It is principally aimed at aligning their interests with those of its stockholders and at long-term retention, rather than to address operational performance for any particular period. As a result, stock-based compensation expenses vary for reasons that are generally unrelated to financial and operational performance in any particular period.
Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions: PagerDuty views the amount of employer taxes related to its employee stock transactions as an expense that is dependent on its stock price, employee exercise and other award disposition activity, and other factors that are beyond PagerDuty’s control. As a result, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions vary for reasons that are generally unrelated to financial and operational performance in any particular period.
Amortization of acquired intangible assets: PagerDuty views amortization of acquired intangible assets as items arising from pre-acquisition activities determined at the time of an acquisition. While these intangible assets are evaluated for impairment regularly, amortization of the cost of purchased intangibles is an expense that is not typically affected by operations during any particular period.
Acquisition-related expenses: PagerDuty views acquisition-related expenses, such as transaction costs, acquisition-related retention payments, and acquisition-related asset impairment, as events that are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a period. In particular, PagerDuty believes the consideration of measures that exclude such expenses can assist in the comparison of operational performance in different periods which may or may not include such expenses.
Amortization of debt issuance costs: The imputed interest rates of the Company's convertible senior notes (the "2025 Notes" and the "2028 Notes" or, collectively, the "Notes") was approximately 1.91% for the 2025 Notes and 2.13% for the 2028 Notes. This is a result of the debt issuance costs, which reduce the carrying value of the convertible debt instruments. The debt issuance costs are amortized as interest expense. The expense for the amortization of the debt issuance costs is a non-cash item, and we believe the exclusion of this interest expense will provide for a more useful comparison of our operational performance in different periods.
Restructuring costs: PagerDuty views restructuring costs, such as employee severance-related costs and real estate impairment costs, as events that are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a period. In particular, PagerDuty believes the consideration of measures that exclude such expenses can assist in the comparison of operational performance in different periods which may or may not include such expenses.
Gains (or losses) on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes: PagerDuty views gains (or losses) on partial extinguishment of debt as events that are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a period. PagerDuty believes that the consideration of measures that exclude such gain (or loss) impact can assist in the comparison of operational performance in different periods which may or may not include such gains (or losses).
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Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest: PagerDuty adjusts the value of redeemable non-controlling interest of its joint venture PagerDuty K.K. according to the operating agreement. PagerDuty believes this adjustment is not reflective of operational performance during a period and exclusion of such adjustments can assist in comparison of operational performance in different periods.
Income tax effects and adjustments: For fiscal 2025, PagerDuty used a projected non-GAAP tax rate of 23%. PagerDuty uses a projected non-GAAP tax rate in order to provide better consistency across the interim reporting periods by eliminating the impact of non-recurring and period specific items, which can vary in size and frequency. PagerDuty's estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income is determined annually and may be adjusted during the year to take into account events or trends that PagerDuty believes materially impact the estimated annual rate including, but not limited to, significant changes resulting from tax legislation, material changes in the geographic mix of revenue and expenses and other significant events.
Non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin
We define non-GAAP gross profit as gross profit excluding the following expenses typically included in cost of revenue: stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and restructuring costs. We define non-GAAP gross margin as non-GAAP gross profit as a percentage of revenue.
The following table presents the calculation of non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 387,834 | $ | 352,867 | $ | 300,359 | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 5,984 | 7,586 | 6,827 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 162 | 199 | 163 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 9,075 | 8,614 | 7,401 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | (2) | 137 | 357 | |||||||
| Non-GAAP gross profit | $ | 403,053 | $ | 369,403 | $ | 315,107 | ||||
| Revenue | $ | 467,499 | $ | 430,699 | $ | 370,793 | ||||
| Gross margin | 83.0 | % | 81.9 | % | 81.0 | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP gross margin | 86.2 | % | 85.8 | % | 85.0 | % |
Non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin
We define non-GAAP operating income as loss from operations excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, acquisition-related expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and restructuring costs, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period. We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP operating income as a percentage of revenue.
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The following table presents the calculation of non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||
| Loss from operations | $ | (59,772) | $ | (96,246) | $ | (129,377) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 126,210 | 127,152 | 109,907 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 2,796 | 3,498 | 3,096 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 977 | 1,800 | 4,559 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 11,750 | 11,510 | 10,237 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 742 | 8,677 | 5,035 | |||||||
| Non-GAAP operating income | $ | 82,703 | $ | 56,391 | $ | 3,457 | ||||
| Revenue | $ | 467,499 | $ | 430,699 | $ | 370,793 | ||||
| Operating margin | (12.8) | % | (22.3) | % | (34.9) | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP operating margin | 17.7 | % | 13.1 | % | 0.9 | % |
Non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders
We define non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders as net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of debt issuance costs, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, restructuring costs, gain on extinguishment of convertible senior notes, adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest, and income tax adjustments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period.
The following table presents the calculation of non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | $ | (54,460) | $ | (81,757) | $ | (128,423) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 126,210 | 127,152 | 109,907 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 2,796 | 3,498 | 3,096 | |||||||
| Amortization of debt issuance costs | 2,629 | 2,078 | 1,839 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 11,750 | 11,510 | 10,237 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 977 | 1,800 | 4,559 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 742 | 8,677 | 5,035 | |||||||
| Gain on extinguishment of convertible senior notes | — | (3,699) | — | |||||||
| Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | 11,725 | 6,568 | — | |||||||
| Income tax effects and adjustments | (21,989) | (3,273) | (2,556) | |||||||
| Non-GAAP net income attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | $ | 80,380 | $ | 72,554 | $ | 3,694 |
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Free cash flow
We define free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities, less cash used for purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of software costs. In addition to the reasons stated above, we believe that free cash flow is useful to investors as a liquidity measure because it measures our ability to generate or use cash in excess of our capital investments in property and equipment in order to enhance the strength of our balance sheet and further invest in our business and potential strategic initiatives. A limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of our liquidity is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the period. We use free cash flow in conjunction with traditional U.S. GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our liquidity, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts and to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies. There are a number of limitations related to the use of free cash flow as compared to net cash provided by operating activities, including that free cash flow includes capital expenditures, the benefits of which are realized in periods subsequent to those when expenditures are made.
The following table presents the calculation of free cash flow for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 117,891 | $ | 71,974 | $ | 16,980 | ||||
| Purchases of property and equipment | (2,791) | (2,164) | (4,637) | |||||||
| Capitalization of software costs | (6,686) | (5,384) | (3,836) | |||||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 108,414 | $ | 64,426 | $ | 8,507 | ||||
| Net cash used in investing activities | $ | (19,968) | $ | (30,525) | $ | (86,165) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | $ | (116,138) | $ | 51,600 | $ | (6,413) |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Sources and Uses of Liquidity
As of January 31, 2025, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents and investments totaling $570.8 million. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, investments, and net cash generated from our operating activities will be sufficient to support working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. Since inception, we have financed operations primarily through sales of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions, net proceeds received from sales of equity securities, and the issuance of our 2025 Notes and 2028 Notes (collectively, the “Notes”). We believe we will meet long-term expected future cash requirements and obligations through a combination of cash flows from operating activities and available cash and short-term investment balances.
Debt and Financing Arrangements
Refer to Note 9, Debt and Financing Arrangements, in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for discussion of our debt arrangements, including the timing of expected maturity of such arrangements.
Deferred Revenue
A significant majority of our customers pay in advance for our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions. Therefore, a substantial source of our cash is from our deferred revenue, which is included in the liabilities section of our consolidated balance sheet. Deferred revenue consists of the unearned portion of customer billings, which is recognized as revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policy. As of January 31, 2025, we had deferred revenue of $245.8 million, of which $243.3 million was recorded as a current liability and expected to be recorded as revenue in the next 12 months, provided all other revenue recognition criteria are met.
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Share Repurchase Program
In May 2024, our Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program (the “2024 Share Repurchase Program”) for the repurchase of shares of our common stock in an aggregate amount of up to $100.0 million. The 2024 Share Repurchase Program did not obligate us to acquire a specified number of shares, and could be suspended, modified, or terminated at any time, without prior notice. During the year ended January 31, 2025, the Company repurchased a total of 5,223,071 shares of common stock through open market purchases at an average per share price of $19.15 for a total repurchase price of $100.0 million. During the year ended January 31, 2025, these shares were retired.
In March 2025, our Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program (the “2025 Share Repurchase Program”) for the repurchase of shares of our common stock in an aggregate amount of up to $150.0 million. The 2025 Share Repurchase Program replaces the 2024 Share Repurchase Program, which was completed in November 2024. The 2025 Share Repurchase Program does not obligate us to acquire a specified number of shares, and may be suspended, modified, or terminated at any time, without prior notice. The repurchases are expected to be executed from time to time through March 13, 2027, subject to general business and market conditions and other investment opportunities, through open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, or other legally permissible means, including through Rule 10b5-1 plans.
Future Contractual Obligations
Our estimated future obligations as of January 31, 2025 include both current and long-term obligations. Our debt obligations total $450.7 million, of which $57.4 million is short-term, and the remainder is long-term. Additionally, we had $1.8 million of irrevocable standby letters of credit outstanding which were fully collateralized by our restricted cash, all of which represents a long-term cash obligation. Under our operating leases, we had a current obligation of $3.3 million and a long-term obligation of $9.6 million. Operating lease obligations primarily represent the initial contracted term for leases that have commenced as of January 31, 2025, not including any future optional renewal periods. Additionally, as of January 31, 2025, we had non-cancellable purchase commitments with certain service providers totaling approximately $72.0 million. Refer to Note 10. Commitments and Contingencies for additional information regarding our purchase commitments.
Cash Flow Information
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the periods indicated (in thousands):
| Year ended January 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | |||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 117,891 | $ | 71,974 | ||
| Net cash used in investing activities | (19,968) | (30,525) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | (116,138) | 51,600 | ||||
| Effects of foreign currency exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash | (124) | (401) | ||||
| Net change in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash | $ | (18,339) | $ | 92,648 |
Operating Activities
Net cash provided by operating activities improved, primarily due to improvements in our operating loss performance due to the 9% increase in revenue. Cash provided by operating activities is subject to variability period-over-period as a result of timing differences, including with respect to the collection of receivables and payments of accounts payable, and other items.
Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities decreased, primarily due to a decrease in cash outflows from the prior year acquisition of Jeli, Inc. of $24.1 million, along with a decrease in cash inflows related to proceeds from maturities of available-for-sale investments of $16.3 million.
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Financing Activities
Net cash used in financing activities increased, primarily as a result of an increase in repurchases of common stock and net cash inflow activity related to the conversion of our 2025 Notes which occurred during the year ended January 31, 2024 and did not recur during the year ended January 31, 2025.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
Indemnification Agreements
See Note 10. Commitments and Contingencies, in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of our indemnification agreements.
Letters of Credit
We had $1.8 million of irrevocable standby letters of credit outstanding as of January 31, 2025. Letters of credit are primarily used as a form of security deposits for the spaces we lease.
Effect of Exchange Rates
Our changes in cash can be impacted by the effect of fluctuating exchange rates. Foreign exchange had a negative effect on cash in the year ended January 31, 2024, decreasing our total cash balance by $0.4 million, and a negative effect on cash in the year ended January 31, 2025, decreasing our total cash balance by $0.1 million.
Critical Accounting Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of consolidated financial statements also requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ significantly from the estimates made by management. To the extent that there are differences between our estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows will be affected. We believe that the accounting policies described below involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, these are the estimates we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial condition and results of operations.
Revenue Recognition
We enter into contracts with our customers that may include promises to transfer multiple services, software licenses, support, and professional services. A performance obligation is a promise in a contract with a customer to transfer products or services that are distinct. Determining whether products and services in agreements with non-standard terms are distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately or combined as one unit of accounting may require significant judgment.
Deferred Contract Costs
Deferred contract costs include sales commissions earned by our sales force which are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a contract with a customer. Sales commissions for initial contracts are deferred and then amortized on a straight-line basis over a period of benefit, determined to be four years. Significant judgment is required in arriving at this period of benefit. We determined the period of benefit by taking into consideration our customer contracts, technology, and other factors.
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Business Combinations and Valuation of Intangible Assets
We apply the acquisition method of accounting for business combinations. Under this method of accounting, all assets acquired and liabilities assumed are recorded at their respective fair values at the date of the acquisition. Determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed requires management’s judgment and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. These estimates can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in the future, the appropriate weighted-average cost of capital, and the cost savings expected to be derived from acquiring an asset. These estimates are inherently uncertain and unpredictable.
Acquired intangible assets consist of identifiable intangible assets, including developed technology, customer relationships, and trade name resulting from our acquisition. Acquired intangible assets are recorded at fair value on the date of acquisition and amortized over their estimated useful lives. The carrying amounts of our acquired intangible assets are periodically reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may not be recoverable or that the useful life is shorter than originally estimated.
Stock-Based Compensation – Market-Based Performance Stock Units
Stock-based compensation expense is measured at the grant date based on the fair value of the award and is recognized as compensation expense generally on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the award, which is typically the vesting period.
We occasionally grant market-based performance stock unit (“PSU”) awards, for which vesting is dependent upon the relative growth of the per share price of the Company’s common stock as compared to the S&P Software & Services Select Index over the one-year performance period. The fair value for these awards is measured on the grant date based on estimated projections of our stock price over the performance period. These estimates are made using a Monte Carlo simulation, which models multiple stock price paths of our common stock and that of the peer group to evaluate and determine our ultimate expected relative growth of the per share price of the Company’s common stock. Compensation expense for the PSUs with market conditions is recorded over the vesting period under the graded-vesting attribution method, and is recorded regardless of whether, and the extent to which, the market condition is ultimately satisfied.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See Note 2, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted.
FY 2024 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001568100-24-000013.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, adverse effects on our business and general economic conditions due to those identified below, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The last day of our fiscal year is January 31. Our fiscal quarters end on April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31.
In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the year ended January 31, 2023. For a discussion of the year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the year ended January 31, 2022, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2023.
Overview
PagerDuty is a global leader in digital operations management, enabling customers to achieve operational efficiency at scale and transform critical work for modern enterprises. The PagerDuty Operations Cloud combines AIOps, Automation, Incident Management, and Customer Service Operations into a flexible, resilient, and scalable platform to increase innovation velocity, protect revenue, reduce cost, and mitigate the risk of operational failure.
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Today, nearly every business is a digital business. As such, organizations are under pressure to enhance their digital operations in order to meet escalating customer expectations, resolve incidents proactively and free-up time for innovation projects. This means critical, time sensitive, and unpredictable work needs to be detected and orchestrated.
We collect data and digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device and leverage powerful machine learning to correlate, process, and predict opportunities and incidents. Using incident management, process automation, AI operations, and customer service operations, we bring together the right people with the right information so they can resolve issues and act on opportunities in minutes or seconds from wherever they are.
Since our founding in 2009, we have expanded our capabilities from a single product focused on on-call management for developers to a multi-product platform that crosses silos into IT infrastructures and operations, security, customer service, and executive stakeholder roles across the organization. We have evolved from an on-call tool into the platform for digital operations, which resides at the center of a company’s technology ecosystem.
We have spent more than a decade building deep product integrations to our platform, and our ecosystem now includes over 700 direct integrations to enable our customers to gather and correlate digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device. This allows technical teams to collect digital signals from any system or platform in their environment, and without the effects of context switching. Those same integrations connect with popular collaboration tools and business applications, as well as all types of technology stacks to drive automation of work.
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted subscription fees. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. PagerDuty has a land-and-expand business model that leads to viral adoption of our products and subsequent expansion. An increasing focus for our go-to-market motion, including our field sales team, is serving enterprise customers. Our mid-market and enterprise customers account for the majority of our revenue today. These teams drive expansion to additional users, new use cases, and add-on products, as well as upsell to higher value plans. The PagerDuty field organization is focused on selling the PagerDuty platform across IT, DevOps, and customer service operations teams.
As of January 31, 2024, we had more than 15,000 paying customers globally, ranging from the most disruptive startups to established Fortune 100 companies across every industry including software and technology, telecommunications, retail, travel and hospitality, media and entertainment, and financial services. Our customers use our products across a broad range of use cases such as Engineering, IT Operations, Security, and Customer Service. Of these customers, 804 customers contribute annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) in excess of $100,000, and 58 customers contribute ARR in excess of $1,000,000. We define ARR as the annualized recurring value of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period. We define a customer as a separate legal entity, such as a company or an educational or government institution, that has an active subscription with us or one of our partners to access our platform. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, we treat the parent entity as the customer instead of treating each subsidiary or division as a separate customer. Our 10 largest customers represented approximately 9% of our revenue for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024, and no single customer represented more than 10% of our revenue in the same period, highlighting the breadth of our customer base. We serve a vital role in our customers’ digital operations and grow with them as their needs expand. As such, we have developed a loyal customer base, with total ARR churn representing less than 5% of beginning ARR for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024. Our ARR churn rate represents lost revenue from customers that were no longer contributing revenue at the end of the current period but did contribute revenue in the equivalent prior year period. We generally bill monthly subscriptions monthly and subscriptions with terms of greater than one year annually in advance.
We expand within our existing customer base by adding more users, creating additional use cases, and upselling higher priced packages and additional products. Once our platform is deployed, we typically see significant expansion within our customer base. Our dollar-based net retention rate was 107% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024.
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We have an efficient operating model, which comes from a combination of our cloud-native architecture, optimal utilization of our third-party hosting providers, and prudent approach to headcount expansion. This has allowed us to achieve gross margin of over 81% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024. Our strong gross margins allow us the flexibility to invest more in our platform and go-to market function while maintaining strong operating leverage on our path to profitability.
Macroeconomic Environment
Our business and financial performance may be subject to the effects of the worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including, but not limited to global inflation and the rise in interest rates, existing and new laws and regulations, recession or economic downturn globally or in the jurisdictions in which we do business, health epidemics or pandemics, volatility in foreign currency exchange rates, and bank failures.
We continuously monitor geopolitical conflicts around the world and their effects on our business. While we do not believe the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict or the conflict in Israel and the surrounding areas will have a material impact on our business and results of operations, our business and results of operations could be materially impacted if these conflicts continue or worsen, leading to greater global economic disruptions and uncertainty. Our customers in regions impacted by conflict represented an immaterial portion of our net assets and total consolidated revenue both as of and for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024.
We will continue to monitor the direct and indirect impacts of these or similar circumstances on our business and financial results. For additional information on the potential impact of macroeconomic conditions on our business, see Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”
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Key Factors Affecting Our Performance
Attracting New Customers
Sustaining our growth requires continued adoption of our platform by new customers. We will continue to invest in building brand awareness as we further penetrate our addressable markets. Our financial performance will depend in large part on the overall demand for our platform, particularly demand from mid-market and enterprise customers, and our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers. As of January 31, 2024, we had over 15,000 paying customers spanning organizations of a broad range of sizes and industries, compared to over 15,200 as of January 31, 2023.
Expanding Within our Customer Base
The majority of our revenue is generated from our existing customer base. Often, our customers expand the deployment of our platform across large teams and more broadly within the enterprise as they realize the benefits of our platform. We believe that our land and expand business model allows us to efficiently increase revenue from our existing customer base. Further, we will continue to invest in enhancing awareness of our brand, creating additional use cases, and developing more products, features, and functionality, which we believe are important factors to achieve widespread adoption of our platform.
Sustaining Product Innovation and Technology Leadership
Our success is dependent on our ability to sustain product innovation and technology leadership in order to maintain our competitive advantage. We believe that we have built highly differentiated platform that will position us to further extend the adoption of our products. While sales of subscriptions to our incident management product account for a significant majority of our revenue, we intend to continue to invest in building additional products, features, and functionality that expand our capabilities and facilitate the extension of our platform to new use cases. Our future success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop, market, and sell these additional products to both new and existing customers.
Continued Investment in Growth
We plan to continue investing in our business so we can capitalize on our market opportunity. We intend to grow our sales team to target expansion within our mid-market and enterprise customers and to attract new customers. We expect to continue to make focused investments in marketing to drive brand awareness and enhance the effectiveness of our self-service, low friction customer acquisition model. We also intend to continue adding headcount to our research and development team to develop new and improved products, features, and functionality. Although these investments may adversely affect our operating results in the near term, we believe that they will contribute to our long-term growth.
Key Business Metrics
We review the following key business metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
While these numbers are based on what we believe to be a reasonable representation of our customer base for the applicable period of measurement, we rely on a third party to validate legal entities, which uses the best available data at period end, and therefore is subject to change as new information becomes available. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our methodology, which may result in future changes to our key metrics.
Our key metrics include the results of Jeli and Catalytic, to the extent applicable, beginning on the respective acquisition dates of November 15, 2023 and March 8, 2022.
Number of Customers
We believe that the number of customers using our platform, particularly those that have subscription agreements for more than $100,000 in ARR, are indicators of our market penetration, particularly within enterprise
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accounts, the growth of our business, and our potential future business opportunities. Increasing awareness of our platform and its broad range of capabilities, coupled with the fact that the world is always on and powered by increasingly complex technology, has expanded the diversity of our customer base to include organizations of all sizes across virtually all industries. Over time, enterprise and mid-market customers have constituted a greater share of our revenue.
| As of January 31, | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||||
| Customers | 15,039 | 15,244 | 14,865 | ||||
| Customers greater than $100,000 in ARR | 804 | 752 | 594 |
Dollar-based Net Retention Rate
We use dollar-based net retention rate to evaluate the long-term value of our customer relationships, since this metric reflects our ability to retain and expand the ARR from our existing customers. Our dollar-based net retention rate compares our ARR from the same set of customers across comparable periods.
We calculate dollar-based net retention rate as of a period end by starting with the ARR from the cohort of all customers as of 12 months prior to such period end, or Prior Period ARR. We then calculate the ARR from these same customers as of the current period end, or Current Period ARR. Current Period ARR includes any expansion and is net of downgrades or churn over the last 12 months but excludes ARR from new customers in the current period. We then divide the total Current Period ARR by the total Prior Period ARR to arrive at the dollar-based net retention rate.
| Last 12 Months Ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||
| Dollar-based net retention rate for all customers | 107 | % | 120 | % | 124 | % |
Components of Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscription fees with the majority of our revenue derived from such arrangements. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. Our subscriptions are typically one year in duration but can range from monthly to multi-year. Subscription fees are driven primarily by the number of customers, the number of users per customer, and the level of subscription purchased. We generally invoice customers in advance in annual installments for subscriptions to our software. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. For our term-license software subscriptions, we recognize license revenue upon delivery and software maintenance revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Due to the low complexity of implementation and integration of our platform with our customers’ existing infrastructure, revenue from professional services has been immaterial to date.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue primarily consists of expenses related to providing our platform to customers, including personnel expenses for operations and global support, payments to our third-party cloud infrastructure providers for hosting our software, payment processing fees, amortization of capitalized internal-use software costs, amortization of acquired developed technology, and allocated overhead costs for facilities, information technology, and other allocated overhead costs. We will continue to invest additional resources in our platform infrastructure and our customer support and success organizations to expand the capability of our platform and ensure that our customers
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are realizing the full benefit of our offerings. The level and timing of investment in these areas could affect our cost of revenue in the future.
Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross profit represents revenue less cost of revenue. Gross margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of revenue. Our gross margin may fluctuate from period to period as our revenue fluctuates, and as a result of the timing and amount of investments to expand the capacity of our third-party cloud infrastructure providers and our continued efforts to enhance our platform support and customer success teams.
Operating Expenses
Our operating expenses consist of research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses. Personnel expenses are the most significant component of operating expenses and consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense, and sales commissions. Operating expenses also include amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, allocated overhead costs for facilities, shared IT related expenses, including depreciation expense, and certain company-wide events and functions.
Research and development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our engineering, product, and design teams. Additionally, research and development expenses include outside services, depreciation of equipment used in research and development activities, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our research and development expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows.
Sales and marketing
Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, costs of general marketing activities and promotional activities, travel related expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, allocated overhead costs, and bad debt expense. Sales commissions earned by our sales force that are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a subscription with a customer are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over the expected period of benefit, which we have determined to be four years. We expect that our sales and marketing expenses will generally increase in dollar value and continue to be our largest operating expense for the foreseeable future as we expand our sales and marketing efforts.
General and administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs and outside services fees for finance, legal, human resources, information technology, and other administrative functions. In addition, general and administrative expenses include non-personnel costs, such as legal, accounting, and other professional fees, hardware and software costs, certain tax, license and insurance-related expenses, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our general and administrative expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows. However, we expect that our general and administrative expenses will decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the longer term as we expect our investments to allow for improved efficiency for future growth in the business.
Interest Income
Interest income consists of accretion income and amortization expense on our available-for-sale investments and income earned on our cash and cash equivalents and interest earned on our short-term investments which consist of U.S. Treasury securities, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and U.S. Government agency securities.
Interest Expense
Interest expense consists primarily of contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2025 that were outstanding from the beginning of the year and partially
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extinguished in October 2023. Interest expense for the year ended January 31, 2024 also includes the contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.50% Convertible Senior Notes due 2028 (the “2028 Notes”) that were issued in October 2023.
Gain on Partial Extinguishment of Convertible Senior Notes
During the year ended January 31, 2024, we recorded a gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes as a result of the October 2023 partial extinguishment of the 2025 Notes. Refer to Note 9, “Debt and Financing Arrangements” for additional details.
Other (Expense) Income, Net
Other (expense) income, net primarily consists of foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
Benefit from (Provision for) Income Taxes
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes consists primarily of income taxes in certain foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our net federal and state deferred tax assets as we have concluded that it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will not be realized for all years presented. (Provision for) benefit from income taxes also includes the benefit associated with the reduction in our valuation allowance from the increase in the deferred tax liability associated with acquired intangible assets from our acquisitions.
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Results of Operations
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data for the periods indicated:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 430,699 | $ | 370,793 | $ | 281,396 | ||||
| Cost of revenue(1) | 77,832 | 70,434 | 48,361 | |||||||
| Gross profit | 352,867 | 300,359 | 233,035 | |||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||||
| Research and development(1) | 139,769 | 134,876 | 95,690 | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 196,769 | 195,622 | 161,624 | |||||||
| General and administrative(1) | 112,575 | 99,238 | 77,432 | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 449,113 | 429,736 | 334,746 | |||||||
| Loss from operations | (96,246) | (129,377) | (101,711) | |||||||
| Interest income | 22,101 | 5,383 | 762 | |||||||
| Interest expense | (6,500) | (5,433) | (5,398) | |||||||
| Gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes | 3,699 | — | — | |||||||
| Other expense, net | (433) | (637) | (573) | |||||||
| Loss before benefit from (provision for) income taxes | (77,379) | (130,064) | (106,920) | |||||||
| Benefit from (provision for) income taxes | 12 | 839 | (535) | |||||||
| Net loss | $ | (77,367) | $ | (129,225) | $ | (107,455) | ||||
| Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | (2,178) | (802) | — | |||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | (75,189) | $ | (128,423) | $ | (107,455) | ||||
| Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | 6,568 | — | — | |||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | $ | (81,757) | $ | (128,423) | $ | (107,455) |
______________
(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 7,586 | $ | 6,827 | $ | 3,751 | ||||
| Research and development | 44,800 | 39,012 | 23,764 | |||||||
| Sales and marketing | 30,345 | 29,804 | 19,012 | |||||||
| General and administrative | 44,421 | 34,264 | 23,506 | |||||||
| Total | $ | 127,152 | $ | 109,907 | $ | 70,033 |
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The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data expressed as a percentage of revenue:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||
| Revenue | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | ||
| Cost of revenue | 18 | 19 | 17 | |||||
| Gross profit | 82 | 81 | 83 | |||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||
| Research and development | 32 | 36 | 34 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 46 | 53 | 57 | |||||
| General and administrative | 26 | 27 | 28 | |||||
| Total operating expenses | 104 | 116 | 119 | |||||
| Loss from operations | (22) | (35) | (36) | |||||
| Interest income | 5 | 1 | — | |||||
| Interest expense | (2) | (1) | (2) | |||||
| Gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes | 1 | — | — | |||||
| Other expense, net | — | — | — | |||||
| Loss before benefit from (provision for) income taxes | (18) | (35) | (38) | |||||
| Benefit from (provision for) income taxes | — | — | — | |||||
| Net loss | (18) | % | (35) | % | (38) | % | ||
| Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | (1) | — | — | |||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | (17) | % | (35) | % | (38) | % | ||
| Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | 2 | — | — | |||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | (19.0) | % | (34.6) | % | (38.2) | % |
______________
Note: Certain figures may not sum due to rounding.
Comparison of the Years Ended January 31, 2024 and 2023
Revenue
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 430,699 | $ | 370,793 | $ | 59,906 | 16 | % |
Revenue increased by $59.9 million, or 16%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. The increase in revenue was attributable to a combination of growth from both new and existing customers. Growth from existing customers was attributable to increases in the number of users and upsell of additional products and services.
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Cost of Revenue and Gross Margin
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 77,832 | $ | 70,434 | $ | 7,398 | 11 | % | ||||||
| Gross margin | 82 | % | 81 | % |
Cost of revenue increased by $7.4 million, or 11%, primarily due to an increase of $1.8 million in amortization of internally developed software, an increase of $1.7 million in higher hosting, software, and telecom costs, an increase of $1.5 million in personnel expenses as a result of increased headcount and salaries, an increase of $1.2 million in amortization of acquired intangible assets related to acquisitions, and an increase of $1.0 million in other expenses, primarily related to outside services.
Research and Development
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Research and development | $ | 139,769 | $ | 134,876 | $ | 4,893 | 4 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 32 | % | 36 | % |
Research and development expenses increased by $4.9 million, or 4%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 and decreased as a percentage of revenue. The increase in research and development expense was primarily driven by an increase in personnel expenses of $5.4 million as a result of increased headcount and salaries to support our continued investment in our platform, an increase of $1.7 million in costs to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, which included allocated overhead costs, and an increase of $0.6 million in travel related costs as a result of increased travel. This was partially offset by a decrease of $3.1 million in outside services spend due to higher leverage of internal resources through hiring.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing | $ | 196,769 | $ | 195,622 | $ | 1,147 | 1 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 46 | % | 53 | % |
Sales and marketing expenses increased by $1.1 million, or 1%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 and decreased as a percentage of revenue. The increase in sales and marketing expense was primarily due to an increase of $3.3 million in marketing, advertising and promotion costs related to third party trade shows, events and media campaigns, and an increase of $0.3 million in hosting and software costs. This was partially offset by a decrease of $2.5 million in personnel expenses.
General and Administrative
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | $ | 112,575 | $ | 99,238 | $ | 13,337 | 13 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 26 | % | 27 | % |
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General and administrative expenses increased by $13.3 million, or 13%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 and decreased as a percentage of revenue. The increase in general and administrative expense was driven by an increase of $8.4 million in real estate impairment charges and an increase of $8.0 million in personnel expenses. This was partially offset by a decrease of $3.0 million in outside services related to higher leverage of internal resources through hiring.
Interest Expense
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | $ | (6,500) | $ | (5,433) | $ | (1,067) | (20) | % |
Interest expense increased by $1.1 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Interest expense in the year ended January 31, 2024 includes contractual interest and amortization of debt issuance costs for the 2028 Notes that were issued in October 2023. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in the amortization of debt issuance costs and interest for the 2025 Notes that were partially extinguished in October 2023 and therefore outstanding for most of the comparative years.
Interest Income, Gain on Partial Extinguishment of Convertible Senior Notes and Other Expense, Net
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest income | $ | 22,101 | $ | 5,383 | $ | 16,718 | 311 | % | ||||||
| Gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes | $ | 3,699 | $ | — | $ | 3,699 | n/m | |||||||
| Other expense, net | $ | (433) | $ | (637) | $ | 204 | n/m |
______
n/m - not meaningful
Interest income increased by $16.7 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023, primarily due to higher accretion income on our available-for-sale investments, higher investment balances and favorable interest rates on our cash, cash equivalent and investment balances in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024.
During the year ended January 31, 2024, we recorded a $3.7 million gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes that was generated from the October 2023 repurchase $230.0 million of aggregate principal amount of the 2025 Notes with a carrying value of $223.7 million, net of unamortized issuance costs.
Other expense, net decreased by $0.2 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023, primarily due to higher unrealized losses on our foreign cash balances in the prior period.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we believe the following non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating our operating performance. We use the below referenced non-GAAP financial information, collectively, to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance and assists in comparisons with other companies, some of which use similar non-GAAP financial information to supplement their U.S. GAAP results. The non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and may be different
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from similarly-titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies. The principal limitation of these non-GAAP financial measures is that they exclude significant expenses that are required by U.S. GAAP to be recorded in our financial statements. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgment by our management about which expenses are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation is provided below for each non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Non-GAAP Gross Profit and Non-GAAP Gross Margin
We define non-GAAP gross profit as gross profit excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and restructuring costs. We define non-GAAP gross margin as non-GAAP gross profit as a percentage of revenue.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 352,867 | $ | 300,359 | $ | 233,035 | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 7,586 | 6,827 | 3,751 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 199 | 163 | 131 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 8,614 | 7,401 | 1,120 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 137 | 357 | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP gross profit | $ | 369,403 | $ | 315,107 | $ | 238,037 | ||||
| Gross margin | 82 | % | 81 | % | 83 | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP gross margin | 86 | % | 85 | % | 85 | % |
Non-GAAP Operating Income (Loss) and Non-GAAP Operating Margin
We define non-GAAP operating income (loss) as loss from operations excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, restructuring costs, and acquisition-related expenses, which include transaction costs, acquisition-related retention payments, and asset impairment, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period. We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP operating income (loss) as a percentage of revenue.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Loss from operations | $ | (96,246) | $ | (129,377) | $ | (101,711) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 127,152 | 109,907 | 70,033 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 3,498 | 3,096 | 3,017 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 11,510 | 10,237 | 3,500 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 1,800 | 4,559 | 2,108 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 8,677 | 5,035 | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP operating income (loss) | $ | 56,391 | $ | 3,457 | $ | (23,053) | ||||
| Operating margin | (22) | % | (35) | % | (36) | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP operating margin | 13 | % | 1 | % | (8) | % |
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Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) Attributable to PagerDuty, Inc.
We define non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders as net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of debt issuance costs, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, which include transaction costs, acquisition-related retention payments, and asset impairment, restructuring costs, adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest, gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes, and income tax adjustments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. common stockholders | $ | (81,757) | $ | (128,423) | $ | (107,455) | ||||
| Add (Less): | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 127,152 | 109,907 | 70,033 | |||||||
| Amortization of debt issuance costs | 2,078 | 1,839 | 1,805 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 3,498 | 3,096 | 3,017 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangibles assets | 11,510 | 10,237 | 3,500 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 1,800 | 4,559 | 2,108 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 8,677 | 5,035 | — | |||||||
| Adjustment attributable to redeemable non-controlling interest | 6,568 | — | — | |||||||
| Gain on partial extinguishment of convertible senior notes | (3,699) | — | — | |||||||
| Income tax effects and adjustments | (3,273) | (2,556) | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | 72,554 | $ | 3,694 | $ | (26,992) |
______________
Free Cash Flow
We define free cash flow as net cash (used in) provided by operating activities, less cash used for purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of internal-use software costs. In addition to the reasons stated above, we believe that free cash flow is useful to investors as a liquidity measure because it measures our ability to generate or use cash in excess of our capital investments in property and equipment in order to enhance the strength of our balance sheet and further invest in our business and potential strategic initiatives. A limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of our liquidity is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the period. We use free cash flow in conjunction with traditional U.S. GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our liquidity, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts and to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to assess its liquidity.
There are a number of limitations related to the use of free cash flow as compared to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, including that free cash flow includes capital expenditures, the benefits of which are realized in periods subsequent to those when expenditures are made.
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| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | 71,974 | $ | 16,980 | $ | (6,021) | ||||
| Less: | ||||||||||
| Purchases of property and equipment | (2,164) | (4,637) | (3,457) | |||||||
| Capitalization of internal-use software costs | (5,384) | (3,836) | (3,353) | |||||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 64,426 | $ | 8,507 | $ | (12,831) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities | $ | (30,525) | $ | (86,165) | $ | 17,376 | ||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities | $ | 51,600 | $ | (6,413) | $ | (736) |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of January 31, 2024, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents and investments totaling $571.2 million. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, investments and cash provided by sales of our subscriptions will be sufficient to support working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. Since inception, we have financed operations primarily through sales of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions, net proceeds received from sales of equity securities, and the issuance of our Notes.
On June 25, 2020, we issued $287.5 million aggregate principal amount of 2025 Notes in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act. The total net proceeds from the sale of the Notes, after deducting the initial purchasers’ discounts and debt issuance costs of $9.3 million, and purchases of the Capped Calls of $35.7 million, were $242.5 million.
On October 13, 2023, we issued $402.5 million aggregate principal amount of the 2028 Notes in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act. The total net proceeds from the debt offering, after deducting initial purchasers’ discount and debt issuance costs of $12.0 million, and purchases of the Capped calls of $55.1 million, were $390.4 million.
In October 2023, we entered into multiple privately negotiated purchase agreements with the holders of our 2025 Notes to repurchase $230.0 million in aggregate principal of the existing notes, resulting in cash payments of $223.7 million. In October 2023, we also repurchased $50.0 million in common stock through open market purchases related to the issuance of the 2028 Notes.
We believe we will meet longer-term expected future cash requirements and obligations, through a combination of cash flows from operating activities and available cash and short-term investment balances. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the effects of the worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including but not limited to, global inflation and the rise in interest rates, existing and new laws and regulations, recession or economic downturn globally or in the jurisdictions in which we do business, volatility in foreign currency exchange rates, our subscription growth rate, subscription renewal activity, including the timing and the amount of cash received from customers, the timing and extent of spending to support development efforts, the expansion of sales and marketing activities, the introduction of new and enhanced product offerings, and the continuing market adoption of our platform. We may in the future enter into arrangements to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, services, and technologies. We may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing. In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in continued innovation, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations, and financial condition.
A significant majority of our customers pay in advance for our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions. Therefore, a substantial source of our cash is from our deferred revenue, which is included in the liabilities section of our consolidated balance sheet. Deferred revenue consists of the unearned portion of customer billings, which is recognized as revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policy. As of January 31, 2024,
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we had deferred revenue of $228.2 million, of which $223.5 million was recorded as a current liability and expected to be recorded as revenue in the next 12 months, provided all other revenue recognition criteria have been met.
Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the periods presented:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | 71,974 | $ | 16,980 | $ | (6,021) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities | $ | (30,525) | $ | (86,165) | $ | 17,376 | ||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities | $ | 51,600 | $ | (6,413) | $ | (736) |
Operating Activities
Our largest source of operating cash is cash collection from sales of our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions to our customers. Our primary uses of cash from operating activities are for personnel expenses, marketing expenses and hosting and software expenses. In the last several years, we have had periods in which we generated negative cash flows from operating activities and have supplemented working capital requirements through net proceeds from both private and public sales of equity securities and issuance of the Notes.
Cash provided by operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 of $72.0 million primarily related to our net loss of $77.4 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $175.8 million and net cash outflows of $26.5 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $127.2 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $20.6 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment, capitalized implementation costs, and acquired intangible assets of $20.2 million, a $8.4 million impairment of property and equipment, net and lease right of use assets and liabilities related to leased office space, noncash lease expense of $4.4 million, and amortization of debt issuance costs of $2.1 million, offset by a $3.7 million gain on partial extinguishment of 2025 Notes and other net gains of $3.2 million, which consist primarily of accretion on investments. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash outflows from an $18.8 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings in line with revenue growth, a $13.3 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued compensation, a $10.7 million increase in accounts receivable, and a $6.0 million in payments for operating lease liabilities. These amounts were offset by a $18.1 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increase billings for subscriptions and a $4.1 million increase in accrued expenses.
Cash provided by operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $17.0 million primarily related to our net loss of $129.2 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $153.0 million and net cash outflows of $6.8 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $109.9 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $19.2 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment, capitalized implementation costs, and acquired intangible assets of $17.4 million, noncash lease expense of $4.1 million, amortization of debt issuance costs of $1.8 million, other charges of $1.8 million, which consist primarily of acquisition-related asset impairment and bad debt expense, and a tax benefit related to release of valuation allowance of $1.3 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash outflows from a $22.8 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, a $16.6 million increase in accounts receivable due to a combination of timing of cash collections and growth in billings, payments for operating lease liabilities of $5.8 million, a $2.9 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities and a $2.8 million increase in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services. These amounts were partially offset by cash outflows from a $38.0 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, and a $6.1 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount and restructuring charges.
Cash used in operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $6.0 million primarily related to our net loss of $107.5 million, adjusted for noncash charges of $103.4 million and net cash outflows of $1.9
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million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $70.0 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $14.9 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized implementation costs of $8.4 million, noncash lease expense of $4.5 million, other charges relating to accretion of our investments and bad debt expense of $3.8 million, and amortization of debt issuance costs of $1.8 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash outflows from a $26.2 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, a $21.6 million increase in accounts receivable due a combination of timing of cash collections and a growth in billings, and payments for operating lease liabilities of $5.3 million. These amounts were partially offset by cash outflows from a $40.3 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, a $6.8 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount, a $2.8 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities and a $1.3 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services.
Investing Activities
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 of $30.5 million consisted of proceeds from maturities of investments of $218.3 million partially offset by purchases of investments of $217.0 million, $24.1 million cash paid for the acquisition of Jeli, net of cash acquired, capitalization of internal use software costs of $5.4 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $2.2 million primarily for purchases of computers for new employees.
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $86.2 million consisted of purchases of investments of $212.2 million, cash paid for the Catalytic acquisition, net of cash acquired, of $66.3 million, purchases of property and equipment of $4.6 million primarily for purchases of computers for new employees and to support new international office space, capitalization of internal use software costs of $3.8 million, and cash paid for an asset acquisition of $1.8 million, partially offset by proceeds from maturities of investments of $202.6 million.
Cash provided by investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $17.4 million consisted of proceeds from maturities of investments of $221.4 million, offset by purchases of investments of $197.1 million, capitalization of internal use software costs of $3.4 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $3.5 million primarily for purchases of computers for new employees and to support office space for our San Francisco office.
Financing Activities
Cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024 of $51.6 million consisted primarily of $390.8 million proceeds from issuance of our 2028 Notes, net of issuance costs paid, proceeds from the ESPP purchase of $10.3 million, proceeds of $9.9 million from the exercise of stock options, and a $1.8 million of cash received from the non-controlling shareholder of PagerDuty K.K. These amounts were partially offset by $223.7 million in repurchases of our 2025 Notes, $55.1 million for purchase of capped calls related to convertible senior notes, $50.0 million for repurchase of common stock, and $32.4 million in employee payroll taxes paid related to vesting of restricted stock units.
Cash used in financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $6.4 million consisted primarily of $28.7 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $10.5 million, proceeds from our ESPP of $9.9 million, and $1.9 million of cash received from the non-controlling shareholder of PagerDuty K.K.
Cash used in financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $0.7 million consisted primarily of $23.6 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $15.1 million and proceeds from our ESPP of $7.7 million.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our estimated future obligations consist of purchase commitments, and principal and interest payments related to the Notes. As of January 31, 2024, we had non-cancellable purchase commitments with certain service
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providers totaling approximately $39.8 million, and principal and interest payments in conjunction with the Notes of $489.5 million. Refer to Note 10, “Commitments and Contingencies” for additional information.
Indemnification Agreements
In the ordinary course of business, we may agree to indemnify customers, vendors, lessors, business partners, and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, losses arising out of the breach of such agreements, services to be provided by us, or from intellectual property infringement claims made by third parties. As permitted under Delaware law, we have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors and certain officers and employees that will require us, among other things, to indemnify them against certain liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service as directors, officers, or employees. No demands have been made upon us to provide indemnification under such agreements, and there are no claims that we are aware of that could have a material effect on our consolidated balance sheets, consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, or consolidated statements of cash flows.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Form 10-K are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. The preparation of consolidated financial statements also requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ significantly from the estimates made by management. To the extent that there are differences between our estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows will be affected. We believe that the accounting policies described below involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, these are the policies we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial condition and results of operations.
Revenue Recognition
We enter into contracts with our customers that may include promises to transfer multiple services, software licenses, support and professional services. A performance obligation is a promise in a contract with a customer to transfer products or services that are distinct. Determining whether products and services in agreements with non-standard terms are distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately or combined as one unit of accounting may require significant judgment.
Deferred Contract Costs
Deferred contract costs include sales commissions earned by our sales force which are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a contract with a customer. Sales commissions for initial contracts are deferred and then amortized on a straight-line basis over a period of benefit, determined to be four years. Significant judgment is required in arriving at this period of benefit. We determined the period of benefit by taking into consideration our customer contracts, technology, and other factors.
Business Combinations and Valuation of Intangible Assets
We apply the acquisition method of accounting for business combinations. Under this method of accounting, all assets acquired and liabilities assumed are recorded at their respective fair values at the date of the acquisition. Determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed requires management’s judgment and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. These estimates can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in the future, the appropriate weighted-average cost of capital, and the cost savings expected to be derived from acquiring an asset. These estimates are inherently uncertain and unpredictable
Acquired intangible assets consist of identifiable intangible assets, including developed technology, customer relationships, and tradename, resulting from our acquisition. Acquired intangible assets are recorded at fair value on
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the date of acquisition and amortized over their estimated useful lives. The carrying amounts of our acquired intangible assets are periodically reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may not be recoverable or that the useful life is shorter than originally estimated.
Stock-Based Compensation – Market-based Performance Stock Units
Stock-based compensation expense is measured at the grant date based on the fair value of the award and is recognized as compensation expense generally on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the award, which is typically the vesting period.
The fair value of our market-based performance stock unit (PSU) awards, for which vesting is dependent upon the relative growth of the per share price of the Company’s common stock as compared to the S&P Software & Services Select Index over the one-year performance period, is measured on the grant date based on estimated projections of our stock price over the performance period. These estimates are made using a Monte Carlo simulation, which models multiple stock price paths of our common stock and that of the peer group to evaluate and determine our ultimate expected relative growth of the per share price of the Company’s common stock. Compensation expense for the PSUs with market conditions is recorded over the vesting period under the graded-vesting attribution method, and is recorded regardless of whether, and the extent to which, the market condition is ultimately satisfied.
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
For further information on our recently adopted accounting pronouncements, refer to Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in the consolidated financial statements contained within this Form 10-K.
FY 2023 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001568100-23-000013.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, adverse effects on our business and general economic conditions due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, those identified below, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The last day of our fiscal year is January 31. Our fiscal quarters end on April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31.
In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the year ended January 31, 2022. For a discussion of the year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the year ended January 31, 2021, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2022.
Overview
PagerDuty is a digital operations management platform that manages urgent and mission critical work for a modern, digital enterprise. We empower teams to respond rapidly to incidents to resolve or avoid customer issues,
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reduce noise, predict and avoid performance degradation, improve productivity, and accelerate digital transformation.
Today, nearly every business is a digital business. As such, organizations are under pressure to enhance their digital operations in order to meet escalating customer expectations, resolve incidents proactively and free-up time for innovation projects. This means critical, time sensitive, and unpredictable work needs to be detected and orchestrated.
We collect data and digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device and leverage powerful machine learning to correlate, process, and predict opportunities and issues. Using incident response, event management, and automation, we bring together the right people with the right information so they can resolve issues and act on opportunities in minutes or seconds from wherever they are.
Since our founding in 2009, we have expanded our capabilities from a single product focused on on-call management for developers to a multi-product platform that crosses silos into IT operations, security, customer service, and executive stakeholder roles across the organization. We have evolved from an on-call tool into the platform for digital operations, which resides at the center of a company’s technology ecosystem.
We have spent more than a decade building deep product integrations to our platform, and our ecosystem now includes over 700 direct integrations to enable our customers to gather and correlate digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device. This allows technical teams to collect digital signals from any system or platform in their environment, and without the effects of context switching. Those same integrations connect with popular collaboration tools and business applications, as well as all types of technology stacks to drive automation of work.
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted subscription fees. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. We have a land-and-expand business model that leads to viral adoption of our products and subsequent expansion. Our online self-service model is the primary mechanism for landing new customers and enabling teams to get started without assistance. We complement our self-service model with high-velocity inside sales focused on small and medium businesses, a commercial team focused on mid-market customers, and a field sales team focused on enterprise customers. Our mid-market and enterprise customers account for the majority of our revenue today. These teams drive expansion to additional users, new use cases, and add-on products, as well as upsell to higher value plans.
As of January 31, 2023, we had more than 15,200 paying customers globally, ranging from the most disruptive startups to established Fortune 100 companies across every industry including software and technology, telecommunications, retail, travel and hospitality, media and entertainment, and financial services. Our customers use our products across a broad range of use cases such as Engineering, IT Operations, Security, and Customer Service. Of these customers, 752 customers contribute annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) in excess of $100,000, and 50 customers contribute ARR in excess of $1,000,000. We define ARR as the annualized recurring value of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period. We define a customer as a separate legal entity, such as a company or an educational or government institution, that has an active subscription with us or one of our partners to access our platform. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, we treat the parent entity as the customer instead of treating each subsidiary or division as a separate customer. Our 10 largest customers represented approximately 9% of our revenue for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023, and no single customer represented more than 10% of our revenue in the same period, highlighting the breadth of our customer base. We serve a vital role in our customers’ digital operations and grow with them as their needs expand. As such, we have developed a loyal customer base, with total ARR churn representing less than 5% of beginning ARR for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Our ARR churn rate represents lost revenue from customers that were no longer contributing revenue at the end of the current period but did contribute revenue in the equivalent prior year period. We generally bill monthly subscriptions monthly and subscriptions with terms of greater than one year annually in advance.
We expand within our existing customer base by adding more users, creating additional use cases, and upselling higher priced packages and additional products. Once our platform is deployed, we typically see
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significant expansion within our customer base. Our dollar-based net retention rate was 120% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023.
We have an efficient operating model, which comes from a combination of our cloud-native architecture, optimal utilization of our third-party hosting providers, and prudent approach to headcount expansion. This has allowed us to achieve gross margin of over 80% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Our strong gross margins allow us the flexibility to invest more in our platform and go-to market function while maintaining strong operating leverage on our path to profitability.
Macroeconomic Environment
Our business and financial performance may be subject to the effects of the worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including, but not limited to global inflation and the rise in interest rates, existing and new laws and regulations, recession or economic downturn globally or in the jurisdictions in which we do business, the COVID-19 pandemic, volatility in foreign currency exchange rates, and bank failures. For example, on March 10, 2023, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), took control and was appointed receiver of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). If other banks and financial institutions enter receivership or become insolvent in the future in response to financial conditions affecting the banking system and financial markets, our ability to access our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments may be threatened and could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
We continuously monitor geopolitical conflicts around the world and their effects on our business. While we do not believe the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict will have a material impact on our business and results of operations, our business and results of operations could be materially impacted if the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues or worsens, leading to greater global economic disruptions and uncertainty. Our customers in Russia represented an immaterial portion of our net assets and total consolidated revenue both as of and for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023.
Since its inception, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a variety of challenges to our day-to-day operations. Despite these challenges, we do not believe the pandemic has had a material, adverse impact on our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity or cash flows. While we are unable to accurately predict the full impact that COVID-19 and its continuing repercussions will have on our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and cash flows, we have implemented policies and practices that have enabled us to support critical operations and execute our strategy. As our offices have now reopened, we have incurred incremental expenses related to onsite services and related in-office costs.
We will continue to monitor the direct and indirect impacts of these or similar circumstances on our business and financial results. For additional information on the potential impact of macroeconomic conditions on our business, see Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”
Recent Development
On January 24, 2023, we announced that as part of our ongoing actions to drive efficient growth and expand operating margins, we were advancing global scaling initiatives designed to increase our capacity while improving our cost structure. The changes include reallocating certain roles and realigning teams to continue to improve operational resiliency and agility, and rationalizing our real estate footprint. The immediate impact is a 7% reduction in headcount, as some roles are eliminated and new roles created in high-talent, lower-cost geographies.
During the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023, the Company incurred costs associated with the restructuring plan of approximately $5.0 million in connection with the headcount reductions, primarily consisting of severance payments, notice pay (where applicable), employee benefits contributions and related costs. The majority of the restructuring charges have been incurred in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 and that the implementation of the headcount reductions, including cash payments, will be substantially complete by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2024.
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Potential position eliminations are subject to legal requirements that vary by jurisdiction, which may extend this process beyond the first quarter of fiscal 2024 in certain cases. The charges that we expect to incur are subject to a number of assumptions, including legal requirements in various jurisdictions, and actual expenses may differ materially from the estimates disclosed above.
Concurrent with our efficient growth strategy, we are considering real estate rationalization in line with the distributed nature of the workforce and a changed use of office facilities. We expect the majority of the real estate charges will be incurred in fiscal 2024.
We may incur additional expenses not currently contemplated due to events associated with the restructuring. Refer to Item 1A, “Risk Factors—Our recent restructuring, announced on January 24, 2023, may not result in anticipated savings or operational efficiencies, could result in total costs and expenses that are greater than expected, and could disrupt our business.”
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Key Factors Affecting Our Performance
Attracting New Customers
Sustaining our growth requires continued adoption of our platform by new customers. We will continue to invest in building brand awareness as we further penetrate our addressable markets. Our financial performance will depend in large part on the overall demand for our platform, particularly demand from mid-market and enterprise customers, and our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers. As of January 31, 2023, we had over 15,200 paying customers spanning organizations of a broad range of sizes and industries, compared to over 14,500 as of January 31, 2022.
Expanding Within our Customer Base
The majority of our revenue is generated from our existing customer base. Often our customers expand the deployment of our platform across large teams and more broadly within the enterprise as they realize the benefits of our platform. We believe that our land and expand business model allows us to efficiently increase revenue from our existing customer base. Further, we will continue to invest in enhancing awareness of our brand, creating additional use cases, and developing more products, features, and functionality, which we believe are important factors to achieve widespread adoption of our platform.
Sustaining Product Innovation and Technology Leadership
Our success is dependent on our ability to sustain product innovation and technology leadership in order to maintain our competitive advantage. We believe that we have built highly differentiated platform that will position us to further extend the adoption of our products. While sales of subscriptions to our Incident Response product account for a significant majority of our revenue, we intend to continue to invest in building additional products, features, and functionality that expand our capabilities and facilitate the extension of our platform to new use cases. Our future success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop, market, and sell these additional products to both new and existing customers.
Continued Investment in Growth
We plan to continue investing in our business so we can capitalize on our market opportunity. We intend to grow our sales team to target expansion within our mid-market and enterprise customers and to attract new customers. We expect to continue to make focused investments in marketing to drive brand awareness and enhance the effectiveness of our self-service, low friction customer acquisition model. We also intend to continue to add headcount to our research and development team to develop new and improved products, features, and functionality. Although these investments may adversely affect our operating results in the near term, we believe that they will contribute to our long-term growth.
Key Business Metrics
We review the following key business metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
While these numbers are based on what we believe to be a reasonable representation of our customer base for the applicable period of measurement, we rely on a third party to validate legal entities, which uses the best available data at period end, and therefore is subject to change as new information becomes available. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our methodology, which may result in future changes to our key metrics.
Our key metrics include the results of Rundeck and Catalytic, to the extent applicable, beginning on the acquisition dates of October 1, 2020 and March 8, 2022, respectively.
Number of Customers
We believe that the number of customers using our platform, particularly those that have subscription agreements for more than $100,000 in ARR, are indicators of our market penetration, particularly within enterprise
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accounts, the growth of our business, and our potential future business opportunities. Increasing awareness of our platform and its broad range of capabilities, coupled with the fact that the world is always on and powered by increasingly complex technology, has expanded the diversity of our customer base to include organizations of all sizes across virtually all industries. Over time, enterprise and mid-market customers have constituted a greater share of our revenue.
| As of January 31, | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||
| Customers | 15,244 | 14,865 | 13,837 | ||||
| Customers greater than $100,000 in ARR | 752 | 594 | 426 |
Dollar-based Net Retention Rate
We use dollar-based net retention rate to evaluate the long-term value of our customer relationships, since this metric reflects our ability to retain and expand the ARR from our existing customers. Our dollar-based net retention rate compares our ARR from the same set of customers across comparable periods.
We calculate dollar-based net retention rate as of a period end by starting with the ARR from the cohort of all customers as of 12 months prior to such period end, or Prior Period ARR. We then calculate the ARR from these same customers as of the current period end, or Current Period ARR. Current Period ARR includes any expansion and is net of downgrades or churn over the last 12 months but excludes ARR from new customers in the current period. We then divide the total Current Period ARR by the total Prior Period ARR to arrive at the dollar-based net retention rate. The calculation of dollar-based net retention rate for the year ended January 31, 2023 includes the Current Period ARR of Catalytic customers to the extent that they were PagerDuty customers as of 12 months prior to period end. The calculation of dollar-based net retention rate for the year ended January 31, 2021 includes the Current Period ARR of Rundeck customers to the extent that they were PagerDuty customers as of 12 months prior to period end.
| Last 12 Months Ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||
| Dollar-based net retention rate for all customers | 120 | % | 124 | % | 121 | % |
Components of Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscription fees with the majority of our revenue from such arrangements. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. Our subscriptions are typically one year in duration but can range from monthly to multi-year. Subscription fees are driven primarily by the number of customers, the number of users per customer, and the level of subscription purchased. We generally invoice customers in advance in annual installments for subscriptions to our software. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. For our term-license software subscriptions, we recognize license revenue upon delivery and software maintenance revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Due to the low complexity of implementation and integration of our platform with our customers’ existing infrastructure, revenue from professional services has been immaterial to date.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue primarily consists of expenses related to providing our platform to customers, including personnel expenses for operations and global support, payments to our third-party cloud infrastructure providers for hosting our software, payment processing fees, amortization of capitalized internal-use software costs, amortization
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of acquired developed technology, and allocated overhead costs for facilities, information technology, and other allocated overhead costs. We will continue to invest additional resources in our platform infrastructure and our customer support and success organizations to expand the capability of our platform and ensure that our customers are realizing the full benefit of our offerings. The level and timing of investment in these areas could affect our cost of revenue in the future.
Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross profit represents revenue less cost of revenue. Gross margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of revenue. Our gross margin may fluctuate from period to period as our revenue fluctuates, and as a result of the timing and amount of investments to expand the capacity of our third-party cloud infrastructure providers and our continued efforts to enhance our platform support and customer success teams.
Operating Expenses
Our operating expenses consist of research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses. Personnel expenses are the most significant component of operating expenses and consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense, and sales commissions. Operating expenses also include amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, allocated overhead costs for facilities, shared IT related expenses, including depreciation expense, and certain company-wide events and functions.
Research and development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our engineering, product, and design teams. Additionally, research and development expenses include contractor fees, depreciation of equipment used in research and development activities, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our research and development expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows.
Sales and marketing
Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, costs of general marketing activities and promotional activities, travel related expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, allocated overhead costs, and bad debt expense. Sales commissions earned by our sales force that are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a subscription with a customer are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over the expected period of benefit, which we have determined to be four years. We expect that our sales and marketing expenses will increase in dollar value and continue to be our largest operating expense for the foreseeable future as we expand our sales and marketing efforts.
General and administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs and contractor fees for finance, legal, human resources, information technology, and other administrative functions. In addition, general and administrative expenses include non-personnel costs, such as legal, accounting, and other professional fees, hardware and software costs, certain tax, license and insurance-related expenses, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our general and administrative expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows. However, we expect that our general and administrative expenses will decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the longer term as we expect our investments to allow for improved efficiency for future growth in the business.
Interest Income
Interest income consists of income earned on our cash and cash equivalents and interest earned on our short-term investments which consist of U.S. Treasury securities, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and U.S. Government agency securities.
Interest Expense
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Interest expense consists primarily of contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.25% Convertible Senior Notes (the “Notes”) due 2025. Refer to Note 9, “Debt and Financing Arrangements” for additional details.
Other (Expense) Income, Net
Other (expense) income, net primarily consists of accretion income and amortization expense on our available-for-sale investments and foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
Benefit from (Provision for) Income Taxes
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes consists primarily of income taxes in certain foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our net federal and state deferred tax assets as we have concluded that it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will not be realized for all years presented. (Provision for) benefit from income taxes also includes the benefit associated with the reduction in our valuation allowance from the increase in the deferred tax liability associated with acquired intangible assets from our acquisitions.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data for the periods indicated:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 370,793 | $ | 281,396 | $ | 213,556 | ||||
| Cost of revenue(1) | 70,434 | 48,361 | 30,686 | |||||||
| Gross profit | 300,359 | 233,035 | 182,870 | |||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||||
| Research and development(1) | 134,876 | 95,690 | 64,566 | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 195,622 | 161,624 | 122,155 | |||||||
| General and administrative(1) | 99,238 | 77,432 | 62,431 | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 429,736 | 334,746 | 249,152 | |||||||
| Loss from operations | (129,377) | (101,711) | (66,282) | |||||||
| Interest income | 4,765 | 2,946 | 4,232 | |||||||
| Interest expense | (5,433) | (5,398) | (9,965) | |||||||
| Other expense, net | (19) | (2,757) | (794) | |||||||
| Loss before benefit from (provision for) income taxes | (130,064) | (106,920) | (72,809) | |||||||
| Benefit from (provision for) income taxes | 839 | (535) | 3,906 | |||||||
| Net loss | $ | (129,225) | $ | (107,455) | $ | (68,903) | ||||
| Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interests | (802) | — | — | |||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | (128,423) | $ | (107,455) | $ | (68,903) |
______________
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(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 6,827 | $ | 3,751 | $ | 1,702 | ||||
| Research and development | 39,012 | 23,764 | 11,095 | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 29,804 | 19,012 | 14,733 | |||||||
| General and administrative | 34,264 | 23,506 | 15,701 | |||||||
| Total | $ | 109,907 | $ | 70,033 | $ | 43,231 |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data expressed as a percentage of revenue:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||
| Revenue | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | ||
| Cost of revenue | 19 | 17 | 14 | |||||
| Gross margin | 81 | 83 | 86 | |||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||
| Research and development | 36 | 34 | 30 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 53 | 57 | 57 | |||||
| General and administrative | 27 | 28 | 29 | |||||
| Total operating expenses | 116 | 119 | 117 | |||||
| Loss from operations | (35) | (36) | (31) | |||||
| Interest income | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Interest expense | (1) | (2) | (5) | |||||
| Other expense, net | — | (1) | — | |||||
| Loss before benefit from (provision for) income taxes | (35) | (38) | (34) | |||||
| Benefit from (provision for) income taxes | — | — | 2 | |||||
| Net loss | (35) | % | (38) | % | (32) | % | ||
| Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interests | — | % | — | % | — | % | ||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | (34.6) | % | (38.2) | % | (32.3) | % |
______________
Note: Certain figures may not sum due to rounding.
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Comparison of the Years Ended January 31, 2023 and 2022
Revenue
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 370,793 | $ | 281,396 | $ | 89,397 | 32 | % |
Revenue increased by $89.4 million, or 32%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022. The increase in revenue was attributable to a combination of growth from both new and existing customers. Growth from existing customers was attributable to both increases in the number of users and upsell of additional products and services.
Cost of Revenue and Gross Margin
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 70,434 | $ | 48,361 | $ | 22,073 | 46 | % | ||||||
| Gross margin | 81 | % | 83 | % |
Cost of revenue increased by $22.1 million, or 46%, primarily due to an increase of $7.4 million in personnel expenses as a result of increased headcount and salaries, an increase of $6.3 million in amortization of intangible assets related to acquisitions, increases of $4.2 million in hosting, software, and telecom costs and $1.4 million in allocated overhead costs, both of which were to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, and an increase of $1.1 million in other expenses, primarily related to merchant fees.
Research and Development
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Research and development | $ | 134,876 | $ | 95,690 | $ | 39,186 | 41 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 36 | % | 34 | % |
Research and development expenses increased by $39.2 million, or 41%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and increased as a percentage of revenue. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in personnel expenses of $33.1 million as a result of increased headcount and salaries to support our continued investment in our platform and restructuring costs, an increase of $5.1 million in costs to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, which included allocated overhead costs, and an increase of $1.0 million in travel related costs as a result of increased travel due to reduced travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing | $ | 195,622 | $ | 161,624 | $ | 33,998 | 21 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 53 | % | 57 | % |
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Sales and marketing expenses increased by $34.0 million, or 21%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and decreased as a percentage of revenue. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $26.8 million in personnel expenses driven by headcount growth, increased salaries, restructuring costs, and amortization of deferred contract costs, an increase of $4.8 million in costs to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, which includes allocated overhead costs, an increase of $4.2 million in travel expenses as a result of increased travel due to reduced travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, partially offset by a decrease of $1.5 million in outside services and a decrease of $0.8 million in marketing costs due to decreases in brand campaigns and digital marketing.
General and Administrative
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | $ | 99,238 | $ | 77,432 | $ | 21,806 | 28 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 27 | % | 28 | % |
General and administrative expenses increased by $21.8 million, or 28%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and decreased as a percentage of revenue. The increase was driven by an increase of $18.1 million in personnel expenses as a result of increased headcount, increased salaries, and restructuring costs, an increase of $1.3 million in travel expenses as a result of increased travel due to reduced travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an increase of $0.9 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure which includes allocated overhead costs.
Interest Expense
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | $ | (5,433) | $ | (5,398) | $ | (35) | 1 | % |
Interest expense was consistent for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and was related to contractual interest and amortization of debt issuance costs for the Notes.
Interest Income and Other Expense, Net
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest income | $ | 4,765 | $ | 2,946 | $ | 1,819 | 62 | % | ||||||
| Other expense, net | $ | (19) | $ | (2,757) | $ | 2,738 | (99) | % |
Interest income increased by $1.8 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022, primarily due to favorable interest rates on our cash, cash equivalent and investment balances in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Other expense, net decreased by $2.7 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022, primarily due to higher accretion income on our cash, cash equivalent and investment balances.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we believe the following non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating our operating performance. We use the below referenced non-GAAP financial information, collectively, to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting
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purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance and assists in comparisons with other companies, some of which use similar non-GAAP financial information to supplement their U.S. GAAP results. The non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and may be different from similarly-titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies. The principal limitation of these non-GAAP financial measures is that they exclude significant expenses that are required by U.S. GAAP to be recorded in our financial statements. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgment by our management about which expenses are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation is provided below for each non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Non-GAAP Gross Profit and Non-GAAP Gross Margin
We define non-GAAP gross profit as gross profit adjusted for stock-based compensation expense and related employer taxes, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and restructuring costs. We define non-GAAP gross margin as non-GAAP gross profit as a percentage of revenue.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 300,359 | $ | 233,035 | $ | 182,870 | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 6,827 | 3,751 | 1,702 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 163 | 131 | 54 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 7,401 | 1,120 | 373 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 357 | — | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP gross profit | $ | 315,107 | $ | 238,037 | $ | 184,999 | ||||
| Gross margin | 81 | % | 83 | % | 86 | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP gross margin | 85 | % | 85 | % | 87 | % |
Non-GAAP Operating Income (Loss) and Non-GAAP Operating Margin
We define non-GAAP operating income (loss) as loss from operations excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, which include transaction costs, acquisition-related retention payments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period, and restructuring costs. We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP operating income (loss) as a percentage of revenue.
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| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Loss from operations | $ | (129,377) | $ | (101,711) | $ | (66,282) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation(1) | 109,907 | 70,033 | 43,231 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 3,096 | 3,017 | 1,609 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 10,237 | 3,500 | 1,167 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 4,559 | 2,108 | 2,437 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 5,035 | — | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP operating income (loss) | $ | 3,457 | $ | (23,053) | $ | (17,838) | ||||
| Operating margin | (35) | % | (36) | % | (31) | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP operating margin | 1 | % | (8) | % | (8) | % |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) Attributable to PagerDuty, Inc.
We define non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. as net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of debt issuance costs, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, which include transaction costs and acquisition-related retention payments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period, restructuring costs, and the associated tax impact of these items, where applicable.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | (128,423) | $ | (107,455) | $ | (68,903) | ||||
| Add (Less): | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation(1) | 109,907 | 70,033 | 43,231 | |||||||
| Amortization of debt issuance costs(2) | 1,839 | 1,805 | 7,808 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 3,096 | 3,017 | 1,609 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangibles assets | 10,237 | 3,500 | 1,167 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 4,559 | 2,108 | 2,437 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 5,035 | — | — | |||||||
| Income tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments | (2,556) | — | (5,017) | |||||||
| Non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | 3,694 | $ | (26,992) | $ | (17,668) |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
(2) During the first quarter of fiscal 2022, we early adopted ASU 2020-06 which resulted in the elimination of amortization of debt discount on the convertible senior notes from February 1, 2021.
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Free Cash Flow
We define free cash flow as net cash (used in) provided by operating activities, less cash used for purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of internal-use software costs. In addition to the reasons stated above, we believe that free cash flow is useful to investors as a liquidity measure because it measures our ability to generate or use cash in excess of our capital investments in property and equipment in order to enhance the strength of our balance sheet and further invest in our business and potential strategic initiatives. A limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of our liquidity is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the period. We use free cash flow in conjunction with traditional U.S. GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our liquidity, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts and to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to assess its liquidity.
There are a number of limitations related to the use of free cash flow as compared to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, including that free cash flow includes capital expenditures, the benefits of which are realized in periods subsequent to those when expenditures are made.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | 16,980 | $ | (6,021) | $ | 10,095 | ||||
| Less: | ||||||||||
| Purchases of property and equipment | (4,637) | (3,457) | (4,038) | |||||||
| Capitalization of internal-use software costs | (3,836) | (3,353) | (810) | |||||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 8,507 | $ | (12,831) | $ | 5,247 | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities | $ | (86,165) | $ | 17,376 | $ | (49,320) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | $ | (6,413) | $ | (736) | $ | 254,367 |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Since inception, we have financed operations primarily through sales of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions, net proceeds we have received from sales of equity securities, and the issuance of our Notes.
On April 15, 2019, upon the closing of our IPO, we received net proceeds of $213.7 million, after deducting underwriters' discounts and commissions of $16.6 million and other issuance costs of $6.4 million.
On June 25, 2020, we issued $287.5 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act. The total net proceeds from the sale of the Notes, after deducting the initial purchasers’ discounts and debt issuance costs of $9.3 million, and purchases of the Capped Calls of $35.7 million, were $242.5 million.
As of January 31, 2023, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents and investments totaling $477.0 million. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, investments and cash provided by sales of our subscriptions will be sufficient to support working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. We believe we will meet longer-term expected future cash requirements and obligations, through a combination of cash flows from operating activities and available cash and short-term investment balances. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the effects of the worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including but not limited to, global inflation and the rise in interest rates, existing and new laws and regulations, recession or economic downturn globally or in the jurisdictions in which we do business, ongoing geopolitical conflict in Ukraine and other areas of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic, volatility in foreign currency exchange rates, our subscription growth rate, subscription renewal activity, including the timing and the amount of cash received from customers, the timing and extent of spending to support development efforts, the expansion of sales and marketing activities, the introduction of new and enhanced product offerings, and the continuing market adoption of our platform. We may in the future enter into arrangements to acquire or invest in
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complementary businesses, services, and technologies. We may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing. In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in continued innovation, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations, and financial condition.
A significant majority of our customers pay in advance for our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions. Therefore, a substantial source of our cash is from our deferred revenue, which is included in the liabilities section of our consolidated balance sheet. Deferred revenue consists of the unearned portion of customer billings, which is recognized as revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policy. As of January 31, 2023, we had deferred revenue of $209.1 million, of which $204.1 million was recorded as a current liability and expected to be recorded as revenue in the next 12 months, provided all other revenue recognition criteria have been met.
Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the periods presented:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | 16,980 | $ | (6,021) | $ | 10,095 | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities | $ | (86,165) | $ | 17,376 | $ | (49,320) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | $ | (6,413) | $ | (736) | $ | 254,367 |
Operating Activities
Our largest source of operating cash is cash collection from sales of our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions to our customers. Our primary uses of cash from operating activities are for personnel expenses, marketing expenses and hosting and software expenses. In the last several years, we have had periods in which we generated negative cash flows from operating activities and have supplemented working capital requirements through net proceeds from both private and public sales of equity securities and issuance of the Notes.
Cash provided by operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $17.0 million primarily related to our net loss of $129.2 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $153.0 million and net cash outflows of $6.8 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $109.9 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $19.2 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment, capitalized implementation costs, and acquired intangible assets of $17.4 million, noncash lease expense of $4.1 million, amortization of debt issuance costs of $1.8 million, other charges of $1.8 million, which consist primarily of acquisition-related asset impairment and bad debt expense, and a tax benefit related to release of valuation allowance of $1.3 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash outflows from a $22.8 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, a $16.6 million increase in accounts receivable due to a combination of timing of cash collections and growth in billings, payments for operating lease liabilities of $5.8 million, a $2.9 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities and a $2.8 million increase in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services. These amounts were partially offset by cash outflows from a $38.0 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, and a $6.1 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount and restructuring charges.
Cash used in operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $6.0 million primarily related to our net loss of $107.5 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $103.4 million and net cash outflows of $1.9 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $70.0 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $14.9 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized implementation costs of $8.4 million, noncash lease expense of $4.5 million, other charges relating to accretion of our investments and bad debt expense of $3.8 million, and amortization of debt issuance costs of $1.8 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash
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outflows from a $26.2 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, a $21.6 million increase in accounts receivable due a combination of timing of cash collections and a growth in billings, and payments for operating lease liabilities of $5.3 million. These amounts were partially offset by cash outflows from a $40.3 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, a $6.8 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount, a $2.8 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities and a $1.3 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services.
Cash provided by operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $10.1 million primarily related to our net loss of $68.9 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $74.2 million and net cash inflows of $4.8 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $43.2 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $11.0 million, amortization of debt discount and issuance costs of $7.8 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized implementation costs of $5.3 million, and noncash lease expense of $4.4 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash inflows from a $34.7 million increase in deferred revenue, resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, an $11.2 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount, and a $0.5 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities. These amounts were partially offset by a $17.6 million increase in accounts receivable due to a combination of timing of cash collections and a growth in billings, a $16.9 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, payments for operating lease liabilities of $4.1 million, and an increase of $2.0 million in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services.
Investing Activities
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $86.2 million consisted of purchases of investments of $212.2 million, cash paid for the Catalytic acquisition, net of cash acquired, of $66.3 million, purchases of property and equipment of $4.6 million primarily for purchases of computers for new employees and to support new international office space, capitalization of internal use software costs of $3.8 million, and cash paid for an asset acquisition of $1.8 million, partially offset by proceeds from maturities of investments of $202.6 million.
Cash provided by investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $17.4 million consisted of proceeds from maturities of investments of $221.4 million, offset by purchases of investments of $197.1 million, capitalization of internal use software costs of $3.4 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $3.5 million primarily for purchases of computers for new employees and to support office space for our San Francisco office.
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $49.3 million consisted of purchases of investments of $222.0 million, cash paid for the Rundeck acquisition, net of cash acquired of $49.7 million, purchases of property and equipment of $4.0 million primarily to support additional office space for our San Francisco and Atlanta offices and purchases of computers for new employees, and capitalization of internal use software costs of $0.8 million. These costs were partially offset by proceeds from maturities and sales of investments of $227.2 million.
Financing Activities
Cash used in financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $6.4 million consisted primarily of $28.7 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $10.5 million, proceeds from our ESPP of $9.9 million, and $1.9 million of cash received from the non-controlling shareholder of PagerDuty K.K.
Cash used in financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $0.7 million consisted primarily of $23.6 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $15.1 million and proceeds from our ESPP of $7.7 million.
Cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $254.4 million consisted primarily of net proceeds of $278.2 million related to the issuance of the Notes, proceeds from the exercise of stock
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options of $14.1 million, and proceeds from our ESPP of $6.0 million. This was partially offset by purchases of the Capped Calls of $35.7 million and $8.2 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our estimated future obligations consist of purchase commitments, principal and interest payments related to the Notes, and payments for our leases. As of January 31, 2023, we had non-cancellable purchase commitments with certain service providers totaling approximately $61.3 million, principal and interest payments in conjunction with the Notes of $296.5 million, and lease payments of $20.0 million. Refer to Note 10, “Commitments and Contingencies” for additional information.
Indemnification Agreements
In the ordinary course of business, we may agree to indemnify customers, vendors, lessors, business partners, and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, losses arising out of the breach of such agreements, services to be provided by us, or from intellectual property infringement claims made by third parties. As permitted under Delaware law, we have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors and certain officers and employees that will require us, among other things, to indemnify them against certain liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service as directors, officers, or employees. No demands have been made upon us to provide indemnification under such agreements, and there are no claims that we are aware of that could have a material effect on our consolidated balance sheets, consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, or consolidated statements of cash flows.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Form 10-K are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. The preparation of consolidated financial statements also requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ significantly from the estimates made by management. To the extent that there are differences between our estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows will be affected. We believe that the accounting policies described below involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, these are the policies we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial condition and results of operations.
Revenue Recognition
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted subscription fees with the majority of our revenue from such arrangements. We also generate revenue from term license software subscription fees. Our cloud-hosted software subscription arrangements do not provide customers with the right to take possession of the software supporting the cloud-based products and, as a result, are accounted for as service arrangements. Revenue is recognized when control of these services is transferred to customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those services. Subscription revenue excludes sales and other indirect taxes.
We determine revenue recognition through the following steps:
•Identification of the contract, or contracts, with a customer.
•Identification of the performance obligations in the contract.
•Determination of the transaction price.
•Allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract.
•Recognition of revenue when, or as, we satisfy a performance obligation.
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Cloud-hosted software subscriptions
The majority of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions allow customers to use our cloud-hosted software over the contract period without taking possession of the software. Our cloud-hosted software subscription agreements generally have monthly or annual contractual terms. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. Access to the platform represents a series of distinct services as we continually provide access to, and fulfill our obligation to, the end customer over the subscription term. The series of distinct services represents a single performance obligation that is satisfied over time. We recognize revenue ratably because the customer receives and consumes the benefits of the platform throughout the contract period.
Term-license software subscriptions
Our on-premise software subscriptions are primarily term (or time-based) license subscriptions to our platform, which include both open source and proprietary software as well as support, patches, and the right to receive unspecified software updates and upgrades released when and if available during the subscription. Our term-license software subscription agreements generally have annual contractual terms. We account for the license to the software and support as two separate performance obligations. As the open source software is publicly available at no cost to the customer, we have determined that there is no value to be assigned to the open source software in our term-license software subscription arrangements. The proprietary software license represents a promise to provide a license to use functional intellectual property that is recognized at a point in time on the date access to the software is made available to the customer and the term-license software subscription period has begun. We have concluded the support is a stand-ready performance obligation that consists of a series of distinct services that are satisfied ratably over time as the services are provided. We use a time-based output method to measure progress because our efforts are expended evenly throughout the period given the nature of the promise is a stand-ready service. We recognize support revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Cloud-hosted and term license software subscriptions
In order to determine the stand-alone selling price, we conduct a periodic analysis that requires judgment and considers multiple factors that are reasonably available and maximizes the use of observable inputs that may vary over time depending upon the unique facts and circumstances related to each performance obligation. To have observable inputs, we require that a substantial majority of the stand-alone selling prices for a product offering fall within a pricing range. If a directly observable stand-alone selling price does not exist, we estimate a stand-alone selling price range by reviewing external and internal market factor categories, which may include pricing practices, historical discounting, industry practices, service groups, and geographic considerations. We believe that these analyses result in an estimate that approximates the price we would charge for the performance obligations if they were sold separately.
Our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscription arrangements are generally non-cancellable and do not contain refund provisions. We bill for monthly cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions on a monthly basis and annually in advance for arrangements with terms of one year or more.
The price of the cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions is generally fixed at contract inception and therefore, our contracts do not contain a significant amount of variable consideration. As a result, the amount of revenue recognized in the periods presented from performance obligations satisfied (or partially satisfied) in previous periods due to changes in the transaction price was not material. Subscription revenue excludes sales and other indirect taxes.
Deferred Contract Costs
Deferred contract costs include sales commissions earned by our sales force which are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a contract with a customer. Sales commissions for initial contracts are deferred and then amortized on a straight-line basis over a period of benefit, determined to be four years. Significant judgment is required in arriving at this period of benefit. We determined the period of benefit by taking into consideration our customer contracts, technology, and other factors. Amounts anticipated to be recognized within
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one year of the balance sheet date are recorded as deferred contract costs, current, with the remaining portion recorded as deferred contract costs, noncurrent, on the consolidated balance sheets. Amortization expense of deferred contract costs is recorded as sales and marketing expense in the consolidated statements of operations.
Business Combinations and Valuation of Goodwill and Intangible Assets
We apply the acquisition method of accounting for business combinations. Under this method of accounting, all assets acquired and liabilities assumed are recorded at their respective fair values at the date of the acquisition. We allocate the purchase consideration to the net tangible and identifiable intangible assets. Determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed requires management’s judgment and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. These estimates can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in the future, the appropriate weighted-average cost of capital, and the cost savings expected to be derived from acquiring an asset. These estimates are inherently uncertain and unpredictable.
Goodwill is evaluated for impairment annually in the fourth quarter, and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of goodwill may not be recoverable. Triggering events that may indicate impairment include, but are not limited to, a significant adverse change in customer demand or business climate or a significant decrease in expected cash flows. Goodwill is evaluated for impairment at the consolidated level, as we operate as a single reporting unit.
Acquired intangible assets consist of identifiable intangible assets, including developed technology, customer relationships, and tradename, resulting from our acquisition. Acquired intangible assets are recorded at fair value on the date of acquisition and amortized over their estimated useful lives. The carrying amounts of our acquired intangible assets are periodically reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may not be recoverable or that the useful life is shorter than originally estimated.
Stock-Based Compensation
We recognize compensation expense for all stock-based payment awards, including stock options, restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and performance stock units (“PSUs”), based on the estimated fair value of the award on the grant date.
We estimate the fair value of stock options issued to employees on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, which is impacted by the estimated fair value of our common stock, as well as certain assumptions including the expected volatility over the term of the option awards, the expected term of the awards, risk-free interest rates and the expected dividend yield. Assumptions and estimates used in the determination of the fair value of stock options include expected volatility, expected term, risk-free rate, and expected dividend yield.
We estimate the fair value of RSUs and PSUs at its stock price on the grant date.
We estimate the fair value of shares to be issued under the employee stock purchase plan (the “ESPP”) on the first day of the offering period using the Black-Scholes valuation model, which is impacted by the estimated fair value of our common stock, as well as certain assumptions including the expected volatility over the term of the offering period, the expected term of the awards, risk-free interest rates and the expected dividend yield. Assumptions used in the determination of the fair value of the ESPP are the same as those used in the determination of the fair value of our stock options.
We generally recognize compensation expense for employee stock-based payment awards on a straight-line basis over the period during which an award recipient is required to provide services in exchange for the award (generally the vesting period of the award), with the exception of PSUs which are recognized using the accelerated attribution method. We account for forfeitures as they occur.
The fair value of each non-employee stock option is estimated at the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model and is not remeasured over the vesting term. Assumptions used in valuing non-employee stock
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options are generally consistent with those used for employee stock options with the exception that the expected term is over the contractual life.
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
For further information on our recently adopted accounting pronouncements, refer to Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in the consolidated financial statements contained within this Form 10-K.
FY 2022 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001568100-22-000014.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the section titled “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data” and the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, adverse effects on our business and general economic conditions due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, those identified below, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The last day of our fiscal year is January 31. Our fiscal quarters end on April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31.
In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the year ended January 31, 2021. For a discussion of the year ended January 31, 2021 compared to the year ended January 31, 2020, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2021.
Overview
PagerDuty is a digital operations management platform that manages urgent and mission critical work for a modern, digital enterprise. We empower teams to respond rapidly to incidents to resolve or avoid customer issues,
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reduce noise, predict and avoid performance degradation, improve productivity, and accelerate digital transformation.
Today, nearly every business is a digital business. As such, organizations are under pressure to enhance their digital operations in order to meet escalating customer expectations, resolve incidents proactively and free-up time for innovation projects. This means critical, time sensitive, and unpredictable work needs to be detected and orchestrated.
We collect data and digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device and leverage powerful machine learning to correlate, process, and predict opportunities and issues. Using incident response, event management, and automation, we bring together the right people with the right information so they can resolve issues and act on opportunities in minutes or seconds from wherever they are.
Since our founding in 2009, we have expanded our capabilities from a single product focused on on-call management for developers to a multi-product platform that crosses silos into IT operations, security, customer service, and executive stakeholder roles across the organization. We have evolved from an on-call tool into the platform for digital operations, which resides at the center of a company’s technology ecosystem.
We have spent more than a decade building deep product integrations to our platform, and our ecosystem now includes over 650 direct integrations to enable our customers to gather and correlate digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device. This allows technical teams to collect digital signals from any system or platform in their environment, and without the effects of context switching. Those same integrations connect with popular collaboration tools and business applications, as well as all types of technology stacks to drive automation of work.
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted subscription fees. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. We have a land-and-expand business model that leads to viral adoption of our products and subsequent expansion. Our online self-service model is the primary mechanism for landing new customers and enabling teams to get started without assistance. We complement our self-service model with high-velocity inside sales focused on small and medium businesses, a commercial team focused on mid-market customers, and a field sales team focused on enterprise customers. Our mid-market and enterprise customers account for the majority of our revenue today. These teams drive expansion to additional users, new use cases, and add-on products, as well as upsell to higher value plans.
As of January 31, 2022, we had more than 14,500 paying customers globally, ranging from the most disruptive startups to established Fortune 100 companies across every industry including software and technology, telecommunications, retail, travel and hospitality, media and entertainment, and financial services. Our customers use our products across a broad range of use cases such as Engineering, IT Operations, Security, and Customer Service. Of these customers, 594 customers contribute annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) in excess of $100,000, and 43 customers contribute ARR in excess of $1,000,000. We define ARR as the annualized recurring value of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period. We define a customer as a separate legal entity, such as a company or an educational or government institution, that has an active subscription with us or one of our partners to access our platform. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, we treat the parent entity as the customer instead of treating each subsidiary or division as a separate customer. Our 10 largest customers represented approximately 11% of our revenue for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022, and no single customer represented more than 10% of our revenue in the same period, highlighting the breadth of our customer base. We serve a vital role in our customers’ digital operations and grow with them as their needs expand. As such, we have developed a loyal customer base, with total ARR churn representing less than 5% of beginning ARR for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022. Our ARR churn rate represents lost revenue from customers that were no longer contributing revenue at the end of the current period but did contribute revenue in the equivalent prior year period. We generally bill monthly subscriptions monthly and subscriptions with terms of greater than one year annually in advance.
We expand within our existing customer base by adding more users, creating additional use cases, and upselling higher priced packages and additional products. Once our platform is deployed, we typically see
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significant expansion within our customer base. Our dollar-based net retention rate was 124% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022.
We have an efficient operating model, which comes from a combination of our cloud-native architecture, optimal utilization of our third-party hosting providers, and prudent approach to headcount expansion. This has allowed us to achieve gross margins of over 82% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022. Our strong gross margins allow us the flexibility to invest more in our platform and go-to market function while maintaining strong operating leverage on our path to profitability.
COVID-19 Update
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus and the resulting disease (“COVID-19”) was reported, and in March 2020, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic.
The extent and continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business continues to depend on certain developments including the duration and spread of the pandemic; government responses to the pandemic; vaccination rates; impact of variants; impact on our customers and our sales cycles; industry or employee events; and effect on our partners and vendors, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. While our revenues, billings, and earnings are relatively predictable as a result of our subscription-based business model and the majority of our revenues are generated from annual subscriptions, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the seasonality we historically experience, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations and overall financial performance until future periods, if at all. In addition, while the majority of our revenues are generated from annual subscriptions, we have seen, and may continue to see greater variability in the demand of our product from small and medium business customers. While we see risks associated with more highly impacted companies and industries, we are also seeing new interest from other organizations, driven by rapidly changing work and business environments. As workforces have transitioned to working from home in a distributed model, PagerDuty has become an increasingly critical service.
The majority of our employees continue to work remotely in order to minimize the spread of COVID-19 among our employee base and comply with local regulations within the United States and internationally. As we continue to monitor the local regulations related to COVID-19, we have begun to release travel restrictions on business-related travel, allowing certain employees to travel on a voluntary basis. We continue to provide allowances to our employees to cover expenses related to transitioning to a work from home environment. We also continue to offer local employee assistance programs to employees if needed. These changes remain in effect and could extend into future quarters. The impact, if any, of these and any additional operational changes we may implement to facilitate remote work is uncertain but changes we have implemented have not affected and are not expected to affect our ability to maintain operations, including financial reporting systems, internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls, and procedures.
Since 2020, we have shifted to virtual-only events and experiences, including shifting Summit, our global customer conference series. We have typically relied on marketing and promotional events such as Summit and other in-person conferences, events, and meetings to facilitate customer sign-ups and generate leads for potential customers, and these virtual marketing events and phone or virtual sales interactions may not be as successful as in-person events and meetings. We cannot predict how long nor the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may continue to constrain our marketing, promotional, and sales activities.
On March 27, 2020, the former President of the United States signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) which includes several significant provisions for corporations, including modifications to the limitation on business interest expense and the usage of net operating losses, and a payment deferral of employer payroll taxes. We elected to defer the payment of employer payroll taxes in the nine months ended October 31, 2020. We are no longer deferring the payment of our employer payroll taxes and have paid all amounts deferred as of January 31, 2022.
Refer to Item 1A, “Risk Factors” for further discussion of the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business.
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Key Factors Affecting Our Performance
Attracting New Customers
Sustaining our growth requires continued adoption of our platform by new customers. We will continue to invest in building brand awareness as we further penetrate our addressable markets. Our financial performance will depend in large part on the overall demand for our platform, particularly demand from mid-market and enterprise customers, and our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers. As of January 31, 2022, we had over 14,500 paying customers spanning organizations of a broad range of sizes and industries, compared to over 13,500 as of January 31, 2021.
Expanding Within our Customer Base
The majority of our revenue is generated from our existing customer base. Often our customers expand the deployment of our platform across large teams and more broadly within the enterprise as they realize the benefits of our platform. We believe that our land and expand business model allows us to efficiently increase revenue from our existing customer base. Further, we will continue to invest in enhancing awareness of our brand, creating additional use cases, and developing more products, features, and functionality, which we believe are important factors to achieve widespread adoption of our platform.
Sustaining Product Innovation and Technology Leadership
Our success is dependent on our ability to sustain product innovation and technology leadership in order to maintain our competitive advantage. We believe that we have built highly differentiated platform that will position us to further extend the adoption of our products. While sales of subscriptions to our Modern Incident Response product account for a significant majority of our revenue, we intend to continue to invest in building additional products, features, and functionality that expand our capabilities and facilitate the extension of our platform to new use cases. Our future success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop, market, and sell these additional products to both new and existing customers.
Continued Investment in Growth
We plan to continue investing in our business so we can capitalize on our market opportunity. We intend to grow our sales team to target expansion within our mid-market and enterprise customers and to attract new customers. We expect to continue to make focused investments in marketing to drive brand awareness and enhance the effectiveness of our self-service, low friction customer acquisition model. We also intend to continue to add headcount to our research and development team to develop new and improved products, features, and functionality. Although these investments may adversely affect our operating results in the near term, we believe that they will contribute to our long-term growth.
Key Business Metrics
We review the following key business metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
While these numbers are based on what we believe to be a reasonable representation of our customer base for the applicable period of measurement, we rely on a third party to validate legal entities, which uses the best available data at period end, and therefore is subject to change as new information becomes available. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our methodology, which may result in future changes to our key metrics.
Our key metrics include the results of Rundeck, to the extent applicable, beginning on the acquisition date of October 1, 2020.
Number of Customers
We believe that the number of customers using our platform, particularly those that have subscription agreements for more than $100,000 in ARR, are indicators of our market penetration, particularly within enterprise
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accounts, the growth of our business, and our potential future business opportunities. Increasing awareness of our platform and its broad range of capabilities, coupled with the fact that the world is always on and powered by increasingly complex technology, has expanded the diversity of our customer base to include organizations of all sizes across virtually all industries. Over time, enterprise and mid-market customers have constituted a greater share of our revenue.
| As of January 31, | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||
| Customers | 14,865 | 13,837 | 12,774 | ||||
| Customers greater than $100,000 in ARR | 594 | 426 | 323 |
Dollar-based Net Retention Rate
We use dollar-based net retention rate to evaluate the long-term value of our customer relationships, since this metric reflects our ability to retain and expand the ARR from our existing customers. Our dollar-based net retention rate compares our ARR from the same set of customers across comparable periods.
We calculate dollar-based net retention rate as of a period end by starting with the ARR from the cohort of all customers as of 12 months prior to such period end, or Prior Period ARR. We then calculate the ARR from these same customers as of the current period end, or Current Period ARR. Current Period ARR includes any expansion and is net of downgrades or churn over the last 12 months but excludes ARR from new customers in the current period. We then divide the total Current Period ARR by the total Prior Period ARR to arrive at the dollar-based net retention rate. The calculation of dollar-based net retention rate for the year ended January 31, 2021 includes the Current Period ARR of Rundeck customers to the extent that they were PagerDuty customers as of 12 months prior to period end.
| Last 12 Months Ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||
| Dollar-based net retention rate for all customers | 124 | % | 121 | % | 122 | % |
Components of Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscription fees with the majority of our revenue from such arrangements. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. Our subscriptions are typically one year in duration but can range from monthly to multi-year. Subscription fees are driven primarily by the number of customers, the number of users per customer, and the level of subscription purchased. We generally invoice customers in advance in annual installments for subscriptions to our software. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. For our term-license software subscriptions, we recognize license revenue upon delivery and software maintenance revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Due to the low complexity of implementation and integration of our platform with our customers’ existing infrastructure, revenue from professional services has been immaterial to date.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue primarily consists of expenses related to providing our platform to customers, including personnel expenses for operations and global support, payments to our third-party cloud infrastructure providers for hosting our software, payment processing fees, amortization of capitalized internal-use software costs, amortization of acquired developed technology, and allocated overhead costs for facilities, information technology, and other allocated overhead costs. We will continue to invest additional resources in our platform infrastructure and our
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customer support and success organizations to expand the capability of our platform and ensure that our customers are realizing the full benefit of our offerings. The level and timing of investment in these areas could affect our cost of revenue in the future.
Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross profit represents revenue less cost of revenue. Gross margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of revenue. Our gross margin may fluctuate from period to period as our revenue fluctuates, and as a result of the timing and amount of investments to expand the capacity of our third-party cloud infrastructure providers and our continued efforts to enhance our platform support and customer success teams.
Operating Expenses
Our operating expenses consist of research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses. Personnel expenses are the most significant component of operating expenses and consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense, and sales commissions. Operating expenses also include amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, allocated overhead costs for facilities, shared IT related expenses, including depreciation expense, and certain company-wide events and functions.
Research and development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our engineering, product, and design teams. Additionally, research and development expenses include contractor fees, depreciation of equipment used in research and development activities, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our research and development expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows.
Sales and marketing
Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, costs of general marketing activities and promotional activities, travel related expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, allocated overhead costs, and bad debt expense. Sales commissions earned by our sales force that are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a subscription with a customer are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over the expected period of benefit, which we have determined to be four years. We expect that our sales and marketing expenses will increase in dollar value and continue to be our largest operating expense for the foreseeable future as we expand our sales and marketing efforts.
General and administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs and contractor fees for finance, legal, human resources, information technology, and other administrative functions. In addition, general and administrative expenses include non-personnel costs, such as legal, accounting, and other professional fees, hardware and software costs, certain tax, license and insurance-related expenses, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our general and administrative expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows. However, we expect that our general and administrative expenses will decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the longer term as we expect our investments to allow for improved efficiency for future growth in the business.
Interest Income
Interest income consists of income earned on our cash and cash equivalents and interest earned on our short-term investments which consist of U.S. Treasury securities, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and U.S. Government agency securities.
Interest Expense
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Interest expense consists primarily of contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.25% Convertible Senior Notes (the “Notes”) due 2025. Refer to Note 8, “Debt and Financing Arrangements” for additional details.
Other (Expense) Income, Net
Other (expense) income, net primarily consists of accretion income and amortization expense on our available-for-sale investments and foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
(Provision for) Benefit from Income Taxes
(Provision for) benefit from income taxes consists primarily of income taxes in certain foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our net federal and state deferred tax assets as we have concluded that it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will not be realized for all years presented. (Provision for) benefit from income taxes also includes the benefit associated with the reduction in our valuation allowance from the increase in the deferred tax liability associated with acquired intangible assets from our acquisition in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data for the periods indicated:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 281,396 | $ | 213,556 | $ | 166,351 | ||||
| Cost of revenue(1) | 48,361 | 30,686 | 24,579 | |||||||
| Gross profit | 233,035 | 182,870 | 141,772 | |||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||||
| Research and development(1) | 95,690 | 64,566 | 49,011 | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 161,624 | 122,155 | 97,350 | |||||||
| General and administrative(1) | 77,432 | 62,431 | 50,970 | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 334,746 | 249,152 | 197,331 | |||||||
| Loss from operations | (101,711) | (66,282) | (55,559) | |||||||
| Interest income | 2,946 | 4,232 | 5,692 | |||||||
| Interest expense | (5,398) | (9,965) | — | |||||||
| Other (expense) income, net | (2,757) | (794) | 203 | |||||||
| Loss before (provision for) benefit from income taxes | (106,920) | (72,809) | (49,664) | |||||||
| (Provision for) benefit from income taxes | (535) | 3,906 | (675) | |||||||
| Net loss | $ | (107,455) | $ | (68,903) | $ | (50,339) |
______________
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(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 3,751 | $ | 1,702 | $ | 1,018 | ||||
| Research and development | 23,764 | 11,095 | 5,566 | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 19,012 | 14,733 | 8,924 | |||||||
| General and administrative | 23,506 | 15,701 | 11,697 | |||||||
| Total | $ | 70,033 | $ | 43,231 | $ | 27,205 |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data expressed as a percentage of revenue:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||
| Revenue | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | ||
| Cost of revenue | 17 | 14 | 15 | |||||
| Gross margin | 83 | 86 | 85 | |||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||
| Research and development | 34 | 30 | 29 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 57 | 57 | 59 | |||||
| General and administrative | 28 | 29 | 31 | |||||
| Total operating expenses | 119 | 117 | 119 | |||||
| Loss from operations | (36) | (31) | (33) | |||||
| Interest income | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||
| Interest expense | (2) | (5) | — | |||||
| Other (expense) income, net | (1) | — | — | |||||
| Loss before (provision for) benefit from income taxes | (38) | (34) | (30) | |||||
| (Provision for) benefit from income taxes | — | 2 | — | |||||
| Net loss | (38) | % | (32) | % | (30) | % |
______________
Note: Certain figures may not sum due to rounding.
Comparison of the Years Ended January 31, 2022 and 2021
Revenue
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 281,396 | $ | 213,556 | $ | 67,840 | 32 | % |
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Revenue increased by $67.8 million, or 32%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021. The increase in revenue was attributable to a combination of growth from both new and existing customers, including customers from the Rundeck acquisition. Growth from existing customers is attributable to both increases in the number of users and upsell of additional products and services.
Cost of Revenue and Gross Margin
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 48,361 | $ | 30,686 | $ | 17,675 | 58 | % | ||||||
| Gross margin | 83 | % | 86 | % |
Cost of revenue increased by $17.7 million, or 58%, primarily due to an increase of $9.3 million in personnel expenses as a result of increased headcount, an increase of $4.0 million in hosting, software, and telecom costs and $2.0 million in outside services, both of which are to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, and an increase of $0.7 million in amortization of intangible assets related to the acquisition of Rundeck.
Research and Development
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Research and development | $ | 95,690 | $ | 64,566 | $ | 31,124 | 48 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 34 | % | 30 | % |
Research and development expenses increased by $31.1 million, or 48%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 and increased as a percentage of revenue. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in personnel expenses of $25.3 million as a result of increased headcount to support our continued investment in our platform, an increase of $3.2 million in costs to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, which includes allocated overhead costs, and an increase of $1.8 million in outside services due to a higher volume of activities to accelerate the development of our product.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing | $ | 161,624 | $ | 122,155 | $ | 39,469 | 32 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 57 | % | 57 | % |
Sales and marketing expenses increased by $39.5 million, or 32%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 and was flat as a percentage of revenue. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $24.6 million in personnel expenses driven by headcount growth and amortization of deferred contract costs, partially offset by a one-time stock-based compensation charge due to the modification of certain option awards incurred in the prior fiscal year, an increase of $5.1 million in costs to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, which includes allocated overhead costs, an increase of $4.0 million in outside services due to a higher volume of activities to assist with the continued growth of the business, an increase in marketing expenses of $3.6 million due to increased volume of marketing and advertising activities, and an increase of $1.6 million in amortization of intangible assets related to the acquisition of Rundeck.
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General and Administrative
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | $ | 77,432 | $ | 62,431 | $ | 15,001 | 24 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 28 | % | 29 | % |
General and administrative expenses increased by $15.0 million, or 24%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 and decreased as a percentage of revenue. The increase was driven by an increase of $14.6 million in personnel expenses as a result of increased headcount, an increase in outside services of $2.3 million, the majority of which was due to non-recurring strategic consulting fees, and an increase in insurance, business taxes and licenses of $1.0 million due to a higher volume of activities to support the continued growth of the business. This was partially offset by a decrease of $3.9 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure which includes allocated overhead costs.
Interest Expense
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | $ | (5,398) | $ | (9,965) | $ | 4,567 | (46) | % |
Interest expense decreased by $4.6 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021, primarily due to the adoption of ASU 2020-06. Refer to Note 2, "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies", for additional details.
Interest Income and Other Expense, Net
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest income | $ | 2,946 | $ | 4,232 | $ | (1,286) | (30) | % | ||||||
| Other expense, net | $ | (2,757) | $ | (794) | $ | (1,963) | 247 | % |
Interest income decreased by $1.3 million and other expense, net increased by $2.0 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021, primarily due to lower interest rates on our cash, cash equivalent and investment balances in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we believe the following non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating our operating performance. We use the below referenced non-GAAP financial information, collectively, to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance and assists in comparisons with other companies, some of which use similar non-GAAP financial information to supplement their U.S. GAAP results. The non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and may be different from similarly-titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies. The principal limitation of these non-GAAP financial measures is that they exclude significant expenses that are required by U.S. GAAP to be recorded in our financial statements. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgment by our management about which expenses are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial
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measures. A reconciliation is provided below for each non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Non-GAAP Gross Profit and Non-GAAP Gross Margin
We define non-GAAP gross profit as gross profit adjusted for stock-based compensation expense and related employer taxes, amortization of acquired intangible assets. We define non-GAAP gross margin as non-GAAP gross profit as a percentage of revenue.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 233,035 | $ | 182,870 | $ | 141,772 | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 3,751 | 1,702 | 1,018 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 131 | 54 | 35 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 1,120 | 373 | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP gross profit | $ | 238,037 | $ | 184,999 | $ | 142,790 | ||||
| Gross margin | 83 | % | 86 | % | 85 | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP gross margin | 85 | % | 87 | % | 86 | % |
Non-GAAP Operating Loss and Non-GAAP Operating Margin
We define non-GAAP operating loss as loss from operations plus our stock-based compensation expense and related employer taxes, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and acquisition-related expenses, which include transaction costs and acquisition-related retention payments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period. We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP operating loss as a percentage of revenue.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Loss from operations | $ | (101,711) | $ | (66,282) | $ | (55,559) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation(1) | 70,033 | 43,231 | 27,205 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 3,017 | 1,609 | 384 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 3,500 | 1,167 | — | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 2,108 | 2,437 | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP operating loss | $ | (23,053) | $ | (17,838) | $ | (27,970) | ||||
| Operating margin | (36) | % | (31) | % | (33) | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP operating margin | (8) | % | (8) | % | (17) | % |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
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Non-GAAP Net Loss
We define non-GAAP net loss as net loss plus our stock-based compensation expense and related employer taxes, amortization of debt issuance costs, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, which include transaction costs and acquisition-related retention payments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period, and acquisition-related tax benefit.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (107,455) | $ | (68,903) | $ | (50,339) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation(1) | 70,033 | 43,231 | 27,205 | |||||||
| Amortization of debt discount and issuance costs(2) | 1,805 | 7,808 | — | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 3,017 | 1,609 | 384 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangibles assets | 3,500 | 1,167 | — | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 2,108 | 2,437 | — | |||||||
| Acquisition-related tax benefit | — | (5,017) | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP net loss | $ | (26,992) | $ | (17,668) | $ | (22,750) |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
(2) During the first quarter of fiscal 2022, we early adopted ASU 2020-06 which resulted in the elimination of amortization of debt discount on the convertible senior notes from February 1, 2021.
Free Cash Flow
We define free cash flow as net cash (used in) provided by operating activities, less cash used for purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of internal-use software costs. In addition to the reasons stated above, we believe that free cash flow is useful to investors as a liquidity measure because it measures our ability to generate or use cash in excess of our capital investments in property and equipment in order to enhance the strength of our balance sheet and further invest in our business and potential strategic initiatives. A limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of our liquidity is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the period. We use free cash flow in conjunction with traditional U.S. GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our liquidity, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts and to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities | $ | (6,021) | $ | 10,095 | $ | (173) | ||||
| Less: | ||||||||||
| Purchases of property and equipment | (3,457) | (4,038) | (5,174) | |||||||
| Capitalization of internal-use software costs | (3,353) | (810) | — | |||||||
| Free cash flow | $ | (12,831) | $ | 5,247 | $ | (5,347) | ||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | $ | 17,376 | $ | (49,320) | $ | (232,070) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | $ | (736) | $ | 254,367 | $ | 225,944 |
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Liquidity and Capital Resources
Since inception, we have financed operations primarily through sales of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions, net proceeds we have received from sales of equity securities, and the issuance of our Notes.
On April 15, 2019, upon the closing of our IPO, we received net proceeds of $213.7 million, after deducting underwriters' discounts and commissions of $16.6 million and other issuance costs of $6.4 million.
On June 25, 2020, we issued $287.5 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act. The total net proceeds from the sale of the Notes, after deducting the initial purchasers’ discounts and debt issuance costs of $9.3 million, and purchases of the Capped Calls of $35.7 million, were $242.5 million.
As of January 31, 2022, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents and investments totaling $543.4 million. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, investments and cash provided by sales of our subscriptions will be sufficient to support working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. We believe we will meet longer-term expected future cash requirements and obligations, through a combination of cash flows from operating activities and available cash and short-term investment balances. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, our subscription growth rate, subscription renewal activity, including the timing and the amount of cash received from customers, the timing and extent of spending to support development efforts, the expansion of sales and marketing activities, the introduction of new and enhanced product offerings, and the continuing market adoption of our platform. We may in the future enter into arrangements to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, services, and technologies. We may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing. In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in continued innovation, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations, and financial condition.
A significant majority of our customers pay in advance for our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions. Therefore, a substantial source of our cash is from our deferred revenue, which is included in the liabilities section of our consolidated balance sheet. Deferred revenue consists of the unearned portion of customer billings, which is recognized as revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policy. As of January 31, 2022, we had deferred revenue of $170.2 million, of which $162.9 million was recorded as a current liability and expected to be recorded as revenue in the next 12 months, provided all other revenue recognition criteria have been met.
Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the periods presented:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities | $ | (6,021) | $ | 10,095 | $ | (173) | ||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | $ | 17,376 | $ | (49,320) | $ | (232,070) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | $ | (736) | $ | 254,367 | $ | 225,944 |
Operating Activities
Our largest source of operating cash is cash collection from sales of our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions to our customers. Our primary uses of cash from operating activities are for personnel expenses, marketing expenses and hosting and software expenses. In the last several years, we have had periods in which we generated negative cash flows from operating activities and have supplemented working capital requirements through net proceeds from both private and public sales of equity securities and issuance of the Notes.
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Cash used in operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $6.0 million primarily related to our net loss of $107.5 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $103.4 million and net cash outflows of $1.9 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $70.0 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $14.9 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized implementation costs of $8.4 million, noncash lease expense of $4.5 million, other charges relating to accretion of our investments and bad debt expense of $3.8 million, and amortization of debt issuance costs of $1.8 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash outflows from a $26.2 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, a $21.6 million increase in accounts receivable due a combination of timing of cash collections and growth in billings, and payments for operating lease liabilities of $5.3 million. These amounts were partially offset by cash outflows from a $40.3 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, a $6.8 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount, a $2.8 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities and a $1.3 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services.
Cash provided by operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $10.1 million primarily related to our net loss of $68.9 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $74.2 million and net cash inflows of $4.8 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $43.2 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $11.0 million, amortization of debt discount and issuance costs of $7.8 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized implementation costs of $5.3 million, and noncash lease expense of $4.4 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash inflows from a $34.7 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, an $11.2 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount, and a $0.5 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities. These amounts were partially offset by a $17.6 million increase in accounts receivable due a combination of timing of cash collections and a growth in billings, a $16.9 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, payments for operating lease liabilities of $4.1 million, and a $2.0 million increase in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services.
Cash used in operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020 of $0.2 million primarily related to our net loss of $50.3 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $37.0 million and net cash inflows of $13.2 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $27.2 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $7.8 million, and depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized implementation costs of $2.3 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash inflows from a $28.5 million increase in deferred revenue, resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, a $3.9 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to employee contributions on the ESPP and increased headcount, and a $2.6 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities. These amounts were partially offset by a $16.0 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, a $3.6 million increase in accounts receivable due to timing of cash collections, and an increase of $2.1 million in prepaid expenses and other assets related to prepayments made in advance for future services.
Investing Activities
Cash provided by investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $17.4 million consisted of proceeds from maturities and sales of investments of $221.4 million, offset by purchases of investments of $197.1 million, capitalization of internal use software costs of $3.4 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $3.5 million primarily for purchases of computers for new employees and to support office space for our San Francisco office.
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $49.3 million consisted of purchases of investments of $222.0 million, cash paid for the Rundeck acquisition, net of cash acquired of $49.7 million, purchases of property and equipment of $4.0 million primarily to support additional office space for our San Francisco and Atlanta offices and purchases of computers for new employees, and capitalization of internal use
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software costs of $0.8 million. These costs were partially offset by proceeds from maturities and sales of investments of $227.2 million.
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020 of $232.1 million consisted of purchases of investments of $269.8 million and purchases of property and equipment of $5.2 million primarily to support additional office space for our San Francisco and Atlanta offices and purchases of computers for new employees. These costs were partially offset by proceeds from maturities of investments of $43.0 million.
Financing Activities
Cash used in financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $0.7 million consisted primarily of $23.6 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $15.1 million and proceeds from our ESPP of $7.7 million.
Cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $254.4 million consisted primarily of net proceeds of $278.2 million related to the issuance of the Notes, proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $14.1 million, and proceeds from our ESPP of $6.0 million. This was partially offset by purchases of the Capped Calls of $35.7 million and $8.2 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units.
Cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020 of $225.9 million consisted primarily of net proceeds from our IPO of $220.1 million after underwriting discounts and commissions, proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $7.2 million, and proceeds from our ESPP of $4.1 million. This was partially offset by $5.9 million in payments related to costs associated with our initial public offering.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our estimated future obligations consist of purchase commitments, principal and interest payments related to the Notes, and payments for our leases. As of January 31, 2022, we had non-cancellable purchase commitments with certain service providers totaling approximately $64.6 million, principal and interest payments in conjunction with the Notes of $300.1 million, and lease payments of $29.1 million. Refer to Note 9, “Commitments and Contingencies” for additional information.
Indemnification Agreements
In the ordinary course of business, we may agree to indemnify customers, vendors, lessors, business partners, and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, losses arising out of the breach of such agreements, services to be provided by us, or from intellectual property infringement claims made by third parties. As permitted under Delaware law, we have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors and certain officers and employees that will require us, among other things, to indemnify them against certain liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service as directors, officers, or employees. No demands have been made upon us to provide indemnification under such agreements, and there are no claims that we are aware of that could have a material effect on our consolidated balance sheets, consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, or consolidated statements of cash flows.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Form 10-K are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. The preparation of consolidated financial statements also requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ significantly from the estimates made by management. To the extent that there are differences between our estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows will be affected. We believe that the accounting policies described below involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, these are the policies we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial condition and results of operations.
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Revenue Recognition
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted subscription fees with the majority of our revenue from such arrangements. We also generate revenue from term license software subscription fees. Our cloud-hosted software subscription arrangements do not provide customers with the right to take possession of the software supporting the cloud-based products and, as a result, are accounted for as service arrangements. Revenue is recognized when control of these services is transferred to customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those services. Subscription revenue excludes sales and other indirect taxes.
We determine revenue recognition through the following steps:
•Identification of the contract, or contracts, with a customer.
•Identification of the performance obligations in the contract.
•Determination of the transaction price.
•Allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract.
•Recognition of revenue when, or as, we satisfy a performance obligation.
Cloud-hosted software subscriptions
The majority of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions allow customers to use our cloud-hosted software over the contract period without taking possession of the software. Our cloud-hosted software subscription agreements generally have monthly or annual contractual terms. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. Access to the platform represents a series of distinct services as we continually provide access to, and fulfill our obligation to, the end customer over the subscription term. The series of distinct services represents a single performance obligation that is satisfied over time. We recognize revenue ratably because the customer receives and consumes the benefits of the platform throughout the contract period.
Term-license software subscriptions
Our subscriptions sold through our on-premise service are primarily term (or time-based) license subscriptions to our platform, which includes both open source and proprietary software as well as support, patches, and the right to receive unspecified software updates and upgrades released when and if available during the subscription. Our term-license software subscription agreements generally have annual contractual terms. We account for the license to the software and support as two separate performance obligations. As the open source software is publicly available at no cost to the customer, we have determined that there is no value to be assigned to the open source software in our term-license software subscription arrangements. The proprietary software license represents a promise to provide a license to use functional intellectual property that is recognized at a point in time on the date access to the software is made available to the customer and the term-license software subscription period has begun. We have concluded the support is a stand-ready performance obligation that consists of a series of distinct services that are satisfied ratably over time as the services are provided. We use a time-based output method to measure progress because our efforts are expended evenly throughout the period given the nature of the promise is a stand-ready service. We recognize support revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Cloud-hosted and term license software subscriptions
In order to determine the stand-alone selling price, we conduct a periodic analysis that requires judgment and considers multiple factors that are reasonably available and maximizes the use of observable inputs that may vary over time depending upon the unique facts and circumstances related to each performance obligation. To have observable inputs, we require that a substantial majority of the stand-alone selling prices for a product offering fall within a pricing range. If a directly observable stand-alone selling price does not exist, we estimate a stand-alone selling price range by reviewing external and internal market factor categories, which may include pricing practices,
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historical discounting, industry practices, service groups, and geographic considerations. We believe that these analyses result in an estimate that approximates the price we would charge for the performance obligations if they were sold separately.
Our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscription arrangements are generally non-cancellable and do not contain refund provisions. We bill for monthly cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions on a monthly basis and annually in advance for arrangements with terms of one year or more.
The price of the cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions is generally fixed at contract inception and therefore, our contracts do not contain a significant amount of variable consideration. As a result, the amount of revenue recognized in the periods presented from performance obligations satisfied (or partially satisfied) in previous periods due to changes in the transaction price was not material. Subscription revenue excludes sales and other indirect taxes.
Deferred Contract Costs
Deferred contract costs include sales commissions earned by our sales force which are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a contract with a customer. Sales commissions for initial contracts are deferred and then amortized on a straight-line basis over a period of benefit, determined to be four years. Significant judgment is required in arriving at this period of benefit. We determined the period of benefit by taking into consideration our customer contracts, technology, and other factors. Amounts anticipated to be recognized within one year of the balance sheet date are recorded as deferred contract costs, current, with the remaining portion recorded as deferred contract costs, noncurrent, on the consolidated balance sheets. Amortization expense of deferred contract costs is recorded as sales and marketing expense in the consolidated statements of operations.
Business Combinations and Valuation of Goodwill and Intangible Assets
We apply the acquisition method of accounting for business combinations. Under this method of accounting, all assets acquired and liabilities assumed are recorded at their respective fair values at the date of the acquisition. We allocate the purchase consideration to the net tangible and identifiable intangible assets. Determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed requires management’s judgment and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. These estimates can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in the future, the appropriate weighted-average cost of capital, and the cost savings expected to be derived from acquiring an asset. These estimates are inherently uncertain and unpredictable.
Goodwill is evaluated for impairment annually in the fourth quarter, and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of goodwill may not be recoverable. Triggering events that may indicate impairment include, but are not limited to, a significant adverse change in customer demand or business climate or a significant decrease in expected cash flows. Goodwill is evaluated for impairment at the consolidated level, as we operate as a single reporting unit.
Acquired intangible assets consist of identifiable intangible assets, including developed technology, customer relationships, and tradename, resulting from our acquisition. Acquired intangible assets are recorded at fair value on the date of acquisition and amortized over their estimated useful lives. The carrying amounts of our acquired intangible assets are periodically reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may not be recoverable or that the useful life is shorter than originally estimated.
Stock-Based Compensation
We recognize compensation expense for all stock-based payment awards, including stock options, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), and performance stock options (“PSUs”, based on the estimated fair value of the award on the grant date.
We estimate the fair value of stock options issued to employees on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, which is impacted by the estimated fair value of our common stock, as well as certain
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assumptions including the expected volatility over the term of the option awards, the expected term of the awards, risk-free interest rates, and the expected dividend yield. Assumptions and estimates used in the determination of the fair value of stock options are as follows:
Expected volatility—Expected volatility is a measure of the amount by which the stock price is expected to fluctuate. Since we do not have sufficient trading history of our common stock, we estimate the expected volatility of our stock options by taking the average historical volatility of a group of comparable publicly traded companies over a period equal to the expected life of the options.
Expected term—We determine the expected term based on the average period the stock options are expected to remain outstanding, generally calculated as the midpoint of the stock options’ vesting term and contractual expiration period, as we do not have sufficient historical information to develop reasonable expectations about future exercise patterns and post-vesting employment termination behavior.
Risk-free rate—We use the U.S. Treasury yield for our risk-free interest rate that corresponds with the expected term.
Expected dividend yield—We utilize a dividend yield of zero, as we do not currently issue dividends, nor do we expect to do so in the future.
We estimate the fair value of RSUs and PSUs at our stock price on the grant date.
We estimate the fair value of shares to be issued under the ESPP on the first day of the offering period using the Black-Scholes valuation model, which is impacted by the estimated fair value of our common stock, as well as certain assumptions including the expected volatility over the term of the offering period, the expected term of the awards, risk-free interest rates and the expected dividend yield. Assumptions used in the determination of the fair value of the ESPP are the same as those used in the determination of the fair value of our stock options.
We generally recognize compensation expense for employee stock-based payment awards on a straight-line basis over the period during which an award recipient is required to provide services in exchange for the award (generally the vesting period of the award), with the exception of PSUs which are recognized using the accelerated attribution method and based on management’s judgment around the probability of achievement of a performance condition. We account for forfeitures as they occur.
The fair value of each non-employee stock option is estimated at the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model and is not remeasured over the vesting term. Assumptions used in valuing non-employee stock options are generally consistent with those used for employee stock options with the exception that the expected term is over the contractual life.
Recently Issued and Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
For further information on our recently adopted accounting pronouncements, refer to Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in the consolidated financial statements contained within this Form 10-K.