Penguin Solutions Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2024 Financial Results

SMART Global Holdings Is Now Penguin Solutions

Q4 FY24 Revenue Across All Business Segments Up Sequentially

Penguin Solutions, Inc. (“Penguin Solutions,” “we,” “us,” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: PENG) today announced its new company name and reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2024.

New Company Name and Ticker Symbol

The Company is pleased to announce the successful completion of its name change from SMART Global Holdings, Inc. to Penguin Solutions, Inc., a move that reflects the Company’s strategic transformation and evolving focus on key areas such as artificial intelligence (“AI”) infrastructure deployment, advanced memory enterprise solutions and high-performance computing. Effective today, the Company’s ordinary shares are trading under the new ticker symbol “PENG” on Nasdaq.

Fiscal 2024 Highlights

• Net sales of $1.2 billion versus $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2023
• GAAP gross margin of 29.1%, up 30 basis points versus fiscal year 2023
• Non-GAAP gross margin of 31.9%, up 20 basis points versus fiscal year 2023
• GAAP EPS of $(0.85) versus $0.15 in fiscal year 2023
• Non-GAAP EPS of $1.25 versus $2.52 in fiscal year 2023

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2024 Highlights

• Net sales of $311 million, down 1.7% versus the year-ago quarter
• GAAP gross margin of 28.0%, down 90 basis points versus the year-ago quarter
• Non-GAAP gross margin of 30.9%, down 80 basis points versus the year-ago quarter
• GAAP EPS of $(0.46) versus $1.17 in the year-ago quarter
• Non-GAAP EPS of $0.37 versus $0.35 in the year-ago quarter

“We are pleased with our Q4 results, highlighted by our third consecutive quarter of sequential top line growth,” said Mark Adams, CEO of Penguin Solutions. “Our Company’s transition to Penguin Solutions reinforces our commitment to solving the complexities of AI infrastructure, managing our customers’ implementations with the design, build, deployment, and management of cutting-edge AI solutions,” concluded Adams.

Annual Financial Results

Quarterly Financial Results

Business Outlook

As of October 15, 2024, Penguin Solutions is providing the following financial outlook for fiscal year 2025:

Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast Details

Penguin Solutions will hold a conference call and webcast to discuss the fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2024 results and related matters today, October 15, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time (4:30 p.m. Eastern Time). Interested parties may access the call by dialing +1-833-470-1428 in the United States or +1-929-526-1599 from international locations, using the access code 916986. The earnings presentation and a live webcast of the conference call can be accessed from the Company’s investor relations website (https://ir.penguinsolutions.com/investors/default.aspx) where they will remain available for approximately one year.

Use of Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning or regarding future events and the future financial and operating performance of Penguin Solutions; statements regarding the extent and timing of and expectations regarding Penguin Solutions’ future revenues and expenses; statements regarding Penguin Solutions’ strategic transformation and priorities; statements regarding long-term effective tax rates; and statements regarding the business and financial outlook for the next fiscal year described under “Business Outlook” above.

These statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements often use words such as “anticipate,” “target,” “expect,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “goal,” “believe,” “could,” and other words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements provide our current expectations or forecasts of future events, circumstances, results or aspirations and are subject to a number of significant risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, including but not limited to: global business and economic conditions and growth trends in technology industries (including trends and markets related to AI), our customer markets and various geographic regions; uncertainties in the geopolitical environment; the ability to manage our cost structure; disruptions in our operations or supply chain as a result of global pandemics or otherwise; changes in trade regulations or adverse developments in international trade relations and agreements; changes in currency exchange rates; overall information technology spending; appropriations for government spending; the success of our strategic initiatives including our rebranding and related strategy, any potential collaborations and additional investments in new products and additional capacity; acquisitions of companies or technologies and the failure to successfully integrate and operate them or customers’ negative reactions to them; issues, delays or complications in integrating the operations of Stratus Technologies; failure to achieve the intended benefits of the sale of SMART Brazil and its business; limitations on or changes in the availability of supply of materials and components; fluctuations in material costs; the temporary or volatile nature of pricing trends in memory or elsewhere; deterioration in customer relationships; our dependence on a select number of customers and the timing and volume of customer orders; production or manufacturing difficulties; competitive factors; technological changes; difficulties with, or delays in, the introduction of new products; slowing or contraction of growth in the memory market, LED market or other markets in which we participate; changes to applicable tax regimes or rates; changes to the valuation allowance for our deferred tax assets, including any potential inability to realize these assets in the future; prices for the end products of our customers; strikes or labor disputes; deterioration in or loss of relations with any of our limited number of key vendors; the inability to maintain or expand government business; and the continuing availability of borrowings under term loans and revolving lines of credit and our ability to raise capital through debt or equity financings.

These and other risks, uncertainties and factors are described in greater detail under the sections titled “Risk Factors,” “Critical Accounting Estimates,” “Results of Operations,” “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk” and “Liquidity and Capital Resources” contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, such risks, uncertainties and factors as outlined above and in such filings do not constitute all risks, uncertainties and factors that could cause our actual results to be materially different from such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, we do not undertake to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that may arise after the date that the forward-looking statements were made.

Statement Regarding Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release and the accompanying tables contain the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP effective tax rate, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP weighted-average shares outstanding, non-GAAP diluted earnings per share and Adjusted EBITDA. Penguin Solutions management uses these non-GAAP measures to supplement Penguin Solutions’ financial results under GAAP. Management uses these measures to analyze its operations and make decisions as to future operational plans and believes that this supplemental non-GAAP information is useful to investors in analyzing and assessing the Company’s past and future operating performance. These non-GAAP measures exclude certain items, such as share-based compensation expense; amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets (consisting of amortization of developed technology, customer relationships and trademarks/trade names acquired in connection with business combinations); acquisition-related inventory adjustments; diligence, acquisition and integration expense; restructure charges; impairment of goodwill; changes in the fair value of contingent consideration; gains (losses) from changes in currency exchange rates; amortization of debt issuance costs; gain (loss) on extinguishment or prepayment of debt; other infrequent or unusual items and related tax effects and other tax adjustments. While amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets is excluded, the revenues from acquired companies is reflected in the Company’s non-GAAP measures and these intangible assets contribute to revenue generation. Management believes the presentation of operating results that exclude certain items provides useful supplemental information to investors and facilitates the analysis of the Company’s core operating results and comparison of operating results across reporting periods. Management also uses adjusted EBITDA, which represents GAAP net income (loss), adjusted for net interest expense; income tax provision (benefit); depreciation and amortization expense; share-based compensation expense; acquisition-related inventory adjustments; diligence, acquisition and integration expense; restructure charges; impairment of goodwill; changes in the fair value of contingent consideration; gain (loss) on extinguishment or prepayment of debt and other infrequent or unusual items.

In fiscal 2024, for our non-GAAP reporting, we began to utilize a long-term projected non-GAAP effective tax rate of 28%, which includes the tax impact of pre-tax non-GAAP adjustments and reflects currently available information as well as other factors and assumptions. While we expect to use this normalized non-GAAP effective tax rate through fiscal 2025, this long-term non-GAAP effective tax rate may be subject to change for a variety of reasons, including the rapidly evolving global tax environment, significant changes in our geographic earnings mix or changes to our strategy or business operations. Our GAAP effective tax rate can vary significantly from quarter to quarter based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, discrete items which are recorded in the period they occur, the tax effects of certain items of income or expense, significant changes in our geographic earnings mix or changes to our strategy or business operations. We are unable to predict the timing and amounts of these items, which could significantly impact our GAAP effective tax rate, and therefore we are unable to reconcile our forward-looking non-GAAP effective tax rate measure to our GAAP effective tax rate.

Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP, as they exclude important information about Penguin Solutions’ financial results, as noted above. The presentation of these adjusted amounts varies from amounts presented in accordance with GAAP and therefore may not be comparable to amounts reported by other companies. In addition, adjusted EBITDA does not purport to represent cash flow provided by, or used for, operating activities in accordance with GAAP and should not be used as a measure of liquidity. Investors are encouraged to review the “Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures” tables below.

About Penguin Solutions

The most exciting technological advancements are also the most challenging for companies to adopt. At Penguin Solutions, we support our customers in achieving their ambitions across our computing, memory, and LED lines of business. With our expert skills, experience, and partnerships, we turn our customers’ most complex challenges into compelling opportunities.

For more information, visit www.penguinsolutions.com.