Quickie: PTC’s FQ4 revenue up 6%, with strong CAD performance –w00t!

It’s tough to keep up right now! A very quick recap of PTC’s results:

• FQ4 revenue was $306 million, up 6%
• That means total FY’17 revenue was $1,164 million, up 2%
• From the non-GAAP, color materials provided by the company, “CAD bookings grew 14%, far outpacing market growth. This was the second consecutive
  year of double-digit, constant currency CAD bookings growth. PLM grew 6%, in line with the market …” That’s really interesting, because DS just reported that SOLIDWORKS license revenue was up 16% in constant currencies during the quarter just ended. Two of the leading midmarket CAD solutions seeing double-digit growth — clearly a market that’s not dead yet.
• For FQ4, PTC had forecast subscription revenue between $84 million and $86 million — and reported $84 million. The company had thought subs would be 68% of booking, but it came in at 72% (“the highest quarterly mix to date”, per pTC). It’s clearly still hard to predict what buyers will, in the end, want, but PTC seems to be narrowing down the possible band. To me, this indicates that customers value the choice and include it in their decision to go with a particular supplier.

In prepared remarks, CEO James Heppelmann said,“We are very pleased with our fourth quarter results and strong finish to the fiscal year … Fiscal 2017 was another year of great progress in our transformation to become a high-growth subscription software company and industrial IoT leader. During the year, we delivered strong results in our core CAD and PLM businesses, grew bookings in our IoT business well above current market growth rates, and exited the ‘subscription trough’, setting the company up for strong revenue and EPS growth going forward.”

For FQ1 2018, PTC said it expects revenue in the range of $297 million to $302 million, and for FY18, the company expects revenue between $1.23 billion and $1.24 billion.

More after I’ve listened to the earnings call replay.