Shares in Snowflake (SNOW) plunged after the software maker reported fourth quarter earnings that beat Wall Street targets but revenue guidance for SNOW stock for fiscal 2025 came in well below expectations. The company announced its chief executive, Frank Slootman, will retire.
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The enterprise software maker released its Snowflake earnings report after the market close on Wednesday. Snowflake said a former top executive at Alphabet‘s (GOOGL) Google, Sridhar Ramaswamy, will be its new CEO. Snowflake acquired artificial intelligence startup Neeva, where Ramaswamy was CEO, in 2023.
Further, Ramaswamy had been senior vice president of artificial intelligence at Snowflake.
“Ramaswamy is likely to focus on accelerating Snowflake’s AI offerings currently being built into the Snowpark development offering, which is likely to improve Snowflake’s position in the emerging market over time,” said Bank of America analyst Brad Sills in a report. “The good news is that Ramaswamy will focus on accelerating these capabilities in existing offerings such as the Snowpark, rather than starting over. Ramaswamy has an impressive background leading engineering-oriented cultures at Neeva and Google. We believe he will bring needed engineering rigor to an already strong sales culture at Snowflake.”
Meanwhile, Slootman will continue to serve as chairman of the board at Snowflake.
SNOW Stock: Fiscal 2029 Target Withdrawn
In addition, Snowflake withdrew its fiscal 2029 target of $10 billion in revenue.
“Upon reflection, we think this model reset should be constructive for the stock in the longer run,” said TD Cowen analyst Derrick Wood in a report. “We think the CEO change was a chance to reset the bar, provide more upside levers to the model and adjust the long-term target given consumption trends haven’t returned to pre-macro levels when it was first established.”
On an adjusted basis, Snowflake earnings were 35 cents, up 150% from a year earlier. Analysts expected Snowflake to report adjusted profit of 18 cents per share.
Revenue climbed 32% to $774.7 million, the…
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