Darktrace raises full-year guidance following 'significant growth' in H1

Cybersecurity AI firm Darktrace said on Tuesday that "significant growth" witnessed in the six months ended 31 December had led it to increase full-year expectations.

Darktrace said customer numbers had increased 39.6% to 6,531 in the half, helping it deliver strong results in its constant currency, with annual recurring revenues now projected to have grown at least 45% to $426.0m.

The FTSE 100-listed firm expects total revenues for the first half to be at least $190.0m, reflecting year-on-year growth of at least 50%, and also anticipates that interim gross margins will have remained broadly flat.

Based on its interim outperformance, as well as management's unchanged view of the second half, Darktrace increased its constant currency ARR guidance, with the group now expecting to see year-on-year growth of between 37% and 38.5%, up from the previously expected print of 34-36%.

Darktrace added that foreign exchange headwinds had continued to be "less than previously forecasted", accelerating the conversion of constant currency ARR to US dollar-denominated revenue, leading the firm to now expect year-on-year revenue growth of between 42% and 44%, up from 37-39%. The firm also increased guidance for its full-year 2022 adjusted underlying earnings margin to between 3% and 6% from 2-5%.

Chief executive Cathy Graham said: "I am very pleased that we have continued to deliver strong growth across our customer base, ARR and revenue in 1H FY 2022. We also achieved our aim of driving improvement in churn and net ARR retention rates over the past six months by leveraging our customer success team and focusing on upsell programmes.

As of 0825 GMT, Darktrace shares were up 24.47% at 491.40p.