NICE (NICE) Q4 2021 earnings summary

Executive summary

• FY21 marked an inflection in the cloud shift: cloud revenue exceeded $1B, grew 31% YoY and reached 53% of total revenue.

• Total revenue rose 16.6% to $1,921.2M; net income was $199.2M, with higher gross profit partly offset by increased operating and financial expenses.

• Strategic priorities center on expanding cloud, digital, AI and self-service capabilities across Customer Engagement and Financial Crime & Compliance.

Financial highlights

• Revenue was $1,921.2M in FY21 vs. $1,648.0M in FY20; cloud revenue increased 31.0% to $1,018.6M.

• Gross profit rose 19.4% to $1,296.7M; gross margin increased to 67.5% from 65.9%.

• Operating income was $263.9M vs. $242.0M; net income was $199.2M vs. $196.3M.

• Basic EPS was $3.15 vs. $3.13; diluted EPS was $2.98 vs. $2.98.

• Non-GAAP EBITDA reached $608M; non-GAAP operating margin was 28.2%, while cloud gross margin expanded 206 bps to a record 67.7%.

Outlook and guidance

• Long-term strategy targets continued CXone leadership, digital and self-service expansion, AI-led solutions, and cloud migration across both business segments.

• Financial Crime & Compliance priorities include growing X-Sight and Xceed, expanding mid-market reach and developing cloud-native AI solutions.

• Management expects continued investment in R&D, sales and marketing, new offerings, geographic expansion and complementary acquisitions; future capital needs depend on growth and market acceptance.