NetScout Systems, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to NETSCOUT's first quarter fiscal year 2025 financial results conference call. At this time, all parties are in a listen-only mode until the question and answer portion of the call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Tony Piazza, deputy, CFO, and his colleagues at NETSCOUT are on the line with us today. If you require operator assistance at any time, please press star zero. I would now like to turn the call over to Tony Piazza to begin the company's prepared remarks.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Again, apologies for the delay. The operator had a technical difficulty. Welcome to NETSCOUT's first quarter fiscal year 2025 conference call for the period ended June 30th, 2024. Joining me today are Anil Sengal, NETSCOUT's President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Zavados, NETSCOUT's Chief Operating Officer, and Jean Bua, NETSCOUT's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. There's a slide presentation that accompanies our prepared remarks. You can advance the slides in the webcast viewer to follow our commentary. Both the slides and the prepared remarks can be accessed in multiple areas within the investor relations section of our website at www.netscout.com. including the IR landing page under financial results, the webcast itself, and under financial information on the quarterly results page. Moving to slide number three, today's conference call will include forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements regarding our future financial performance or position, results of operations, business strategy, plans and objectives of management for future operations, and other statements that are not historical fact. Actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of today's date and involve risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those described on this slide and in today's financial results press release, which are available on the investor relations section of our website, as well as in the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent SEC filings, on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. NETSCOUT assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required by law. Let's now turn to slide number four, which involves non-GAAP metrics. While this slide presentation includes both GAAP and non-GAAP results, unless otherwise stated, financial information discussed on today's conference call will be on a non-GAAP basis only. The rationale for providing non-GAAP measures along with the limitations of relying solely on those measures is detailed on this slide and in today's press release. These measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of all non-GAAP metrics with the applicable GAAP measures are provided in the appendix of this slide presentation in today's earnings press release and on our website. I will now turn the call over to Anil for his prepared remarks. Anil?

Thank you, Tony, and good morning, everyone. Welcome and thank you all for joining us today. We delivered first quarter fiscal year 2025 revenue at the higher end of our expectations while EPS exceeded our expectations. We remain focused on prudently operating the business while continuing to position NETSCOUT to win in the market. We remain confident that our differentiated solutions are aligned with key technology trends and well positioned to address our customer cybersecurity and service assurance needs. Let's turn to slide number six for a brief recap of our non-GAAP financial results for the first quarter of our fiscal year 2025. Revenue was approximately $175 million at the higher end of our expectation. This represents a 17% year-over-year decline due to the approximately $37 million of backlog-related revenue in the prior year's quarter. Excluding this factor, our revenue would have been relatively consistent year-over-year. In regard to the bottom line, our diluted earnings per share was $0.28 for the first quarter exceeding our expectation as we benefited from continued cost management initiatives and an unrealized gain on a foreign investment. EPS was down approximately 10% year-over-year as lower revenue offset these benefits. Now let's move to slide number seven for some further perspective on business and market insights. Starting with our service assurance offering, revenue was down approximately 20% year-over-year. The decline was expected due to the higher level of backlog-related revenue recorded in the prior year's period. In the service assurance space, customers continue to operate with increased scrutiny on their spending agenda. Importantly, though, carriers domestically and internationally are investing in their 5G initiatives just at a more measured price as they manage investment against monetization opportunities. On the enterprise front, we also see tight spending, but remain confident that NETSCOUT is well positioned to win the business and leverage our value proposition of extending visibility to the edges of the networks as customers advance their digital transformations. Moving to our cybersecurity offering, revenue in the first quarter was down approximately 11% year over year. As I previously mentioned, prior years backlog related uses cause a challenging comparison. Cybersecurity continues to represent a strong growth opportunity for NetScout as customers prioritize spending to protect themselves from the expanding cyber threat landscape. Michael will provide more insight regarding customer wins in our offering areas during his remarks. Now let's move to slide number eight to review our outlook. Looking ahead, Our priorities remain to enhance our cybersecurity offerings to meet customer needs given the expanding cyber threat landscape. At the same time, we are focused on continuing to manage costs. During the first quarter, we advance our voluntary separation program. As such, we expect to benefit from approximately $25 to $27 million of annualized cost reduction, a portion of which will be recognized during fiscal year 2025. first quarter performance, and solid pipeline, we are reiterating our fiscal year 2025 revenue and non-gap EPS outlooks. Jill will provide a recap of the outlook in her remarks. Longer term, we are committed to leveraging our Visibility Without Borders platform to help customers address the performance, availability, and security challenges of the complex digital world. We look forward to sharing our progress with everyone throughout the remainder of our fiscal year. With that, I will turn the call over to Michael.