Akamai Reports Fourth Quarter 2020 And Full-Year 2020 Financial Results

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the world’s most trusted solution for securing and delivering digital experiences, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2020.

“Akamai’s strong fourth quarter performance capped off an excellent year in which we surpassed $3 billion in revenue and achieved record earnings per share,” said Dr. Tom Leighton, CEO of Akamai. “In addition, our security portfolio exceeded $1 billion in revenue, we delivered record traffic levels on our network and we accomplished our 30% non-GAAP operating margin goal. I am very proud of how the Akamai team supported our global customers and billions of internet users who relied on the internet more than ever before during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we look forward to 2021, we expect to continue investing in innovation and new products with the goal of accelerating our market leadership in security, edge computing and video streaming.”

Akamai delivered the following results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2020:

Revenue: Revenue for the fourth quarter was $846 million, a 10% increase over fourth quarter 2019 revenue of $772 million and an 8% increase when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Total revenue for 2020 was $3.198 billion compared to $2.894 billion for 2019, up 11% year-over-year and when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Revenue by Division⁽¹⁾:

• Web Division revenue for the fourth quarter was $438 million, up 5% year-over-year and up 4% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Web Division revenue for 2020 was $1.666 billion, up 7% year-over-year and when adjusted for foreign exchange.*
• Media and Carrier Division revenue for the fourth quarter was $408 million, up 15% year-over-year and up 14% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Media and Carrier Division revenue for 2020 was $1.532 billion, up 15% year-over-year and when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Revenue from Cloud Security Solutions⁽²⁾:

• Cloud Security Solutions revenue for the fourth quarter was $296 million, up 24% year-over-year and up 23% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Cloud Security Solutions revenue for 2020 was $1.062 billion, up 25% year-over-year and when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Revenue from Internet Platform Customers⁽³⁾:

• Revenue from Internet Platform Customers for the fourth quarter was $58 million, up 11% year-over-year and when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Internet Platform Customers revenue for 2020 was $204 million, up 8% year-over-year and when adjusted for foreign exchange.*
• Revenue excluding Internet Platform Customers for the fourth quarter was $789 million, up 9% year-over-year and up 8% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Revenue excluding Internet Platform Customers for 2020 was $2.994 billion, up 11% year-over-year and when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Revenue by Geography:

• U.S. revenue for the fourth quarter was $467 million, up 5% year-over-year. U.S. revenue for 2020 was $1.777 billion, up 5% year-over-year.
• International revenue for the fourth quarter was $379 million, up 16% year-over-year and up 13% when adjusted for foreign exchange.* International revenue for 2020 was $1.421 billion, up 18% year-over-year and up 19% when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Income from operations: GAAP income from operations for the fourth quarter was $135 million, relatively flat from fourth quarter 2019 income from operations of $135 million. GAAP operating margin for the fourth quarter was 16%, down 2 percentage points from the same period last year. GAAP income from operations for 2020 was $659 million, a 20% increase from the prior year's GAAP income from operations of $549 million. Full-year GAAP operating margin was 21%, up 2 percentage points from the same period last year.

Non-GAAP income from operations* for the fourth quarter was $256 million, a 15% increase from fourth quarter 2019 non-GAAP income from operations of $222 million. Non-GAAP operating margin* for the fourth quarter was 30%, up 1 percentage point from the same period last year. Non-GAAP income from operations* for 2020 was $994 million, an 18% increase from the prior year's non-GAAP income from operations of $844 million. Full year non-GAAP operating margin* was 31%, up 2 percentage points from the same period last year.

Net income: GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $113 million, a 5% decrease from fourth quarter 2019 GAAP net income of $119 million. GAAP net income for 2020 was $557 million, a 17% increase from the prior year's GAAP net income of $478 million.

Non-GAAP net income* for the fourth quarter was $220 million, a 9% increase from fourth quarter 2019 non-GAAP net income of $202 million. Non-GAAP net income* for 2020 was $858 million, a 16% increase from the prior year's non-GAAP net income of $739 million.

EPS: GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter was $0.68 per diluted share, a 7% decrease from fourth quarter 2019 GAAP EPS of $0.73 and an 11% decrease when adjusted for foreign exchange.* GAAP EPS for 2020 was $3.37 per diluted share, a 16% increase from prior year's GAAP EPS of $2.90 per diluted share and a 16% increase when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Non-GAAP EPS* for the fourth quarter was $1.33 per diluted share, an 8% increase from fourth quarter 2019 non-GAAP EPS of $1.23 and a 6% increase when adjusted for foreign exchange.* Non-GAAP EPS* for 2020 was $5.22 per diluted share, a 16% increase from prior year's non-GAAP EPS of $4.49 per diluted share and a 16% increase when adjusted for foreign exchange.*

Adjusted EBITDA*: Adjusted EBITDA* for the fourth quarter was $364 million, a 14% increase from fourth quarter 2019 Adjusted EBITDA of $319 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin* for the fourth quarter was 43%, up 2 percentage points from the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA* for 2020 was $1.397 billion, a 15% increase from the prior year's Adjusted EBITDA of $1.211 billion. Adjusted EBITDA margin* was 44%, up 2 percentage points from the same period last year.

Supplemental cash information: Cash from operations for the quarter was $291 million, or 34% of revenue. Cash from operations for 2020 was $1.215 billion, or 38% of revenue. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities was $2.5 billion as of December 31, 2020.

Share repurchases: The Company spent $72.5 million in the fourth quarter to repurchase 0.7 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $103.32 per share. For the full-year, the Company spent $193.6 million to repurchase 2.0 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $98.53 per share. The Company had 163 million shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020.

_{* See Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures below for definitions
(1) Revenue by Division – A customer-focused reporting view that reflects revenue from customers that are managed by the division
(2) Revenue from Cloud Security Solutions – A product-focused reporting view that reflects revenue from Cloud Security Solutions separately from all other solution categories
(3) Revenue from Internet Platform Customers – Revenue from large Internet platform companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Netflix}

Quarterly Conference Call

Akamai will host a conference call today at 4:30 p.m. ET that can be accessed through 1-844-578-9671 (or 1-508-637-5655 for international calls) and using passcode 1944449. A live webcast of the call may be accessed at www.akamai.com in the Investor section. In addition, a replay of the call will be available for two weeks following the conference by calling 1-855-859-2056 (or 1-404-537-3406 for international calls) and using passcode 1944449. The archived webcast of this event may be accessed through the Akamai website.