Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the Fair Isaac Corporation quarterly earnings call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Wednesday, November 8, 2023. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Dave Singleton, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

您好，歡迎參加 Fair Isaac Corporation 季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，本次會議將於 2023 年 11 月 8 日星期三進行錄製。我現在想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁戴夫·辛格爾頓 (Dave Singleton)。請繼續。

Good afternoon and thank you for joining FICO's fourth quarter earnings call. I'm Dave Singleton, Vice President of Investor Relations, and I'm joined today by our CEO, Will Lansing; and our CFO, Steve Weber.

下午好，感謝您參加 FICO 第四季財報電話會議。我是投資者關係副總裁戴夫辛格頓 (Dave Singleton)，今天我們的執行長威爾蘭辛 (Will Lansing) 也加入了我的行列。和我們的財務長史蒂夫·韋伯。

Today, we issued a press release that describes financial results compared to the prior year. On this call, management will also discuss results in comparison with the prior quarter to facilitate an understanding of the run rate of our business.

今天，我們發布了一份新聞稿，描述了與前一年相比的財務表現。在這次電話會議上，管理層還將討論與上一季相比的結果，以幫助了解我們業務的運作率。

Certain statements made in this presentation are forward-looking under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements involve many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Information concerning these risks and uncertainties is contained in the company's filings with the SEC, particularly in the Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Statements portion of such filings. Copies are available from the SEC, from the FICO website or from our Investor Relations team.

根據《1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法案》，本簡報中的某些陳述具有前瞻性。這些陳述涉及許多風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果有重大差異。有關這些風險和不確定性的資訊包含在該公司向 SEC 提交的文件中，特別是此類文件的風險因素和前瞻性陳述部分。副本可從 SEC、FICO 網站或我們的投資者關係團隊取得。

This call will also include statements regarding certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the company's earnings release and the Regulation G schedule issued today for a reconciliation of each of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measure. The earnings release and Regulation Schedule G are available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website at fico.com or on the SEC's website at sec.gov. A replay of this webcast will be available through November 8, 2024.

此次電話會議還將包括有關某些非公認會計準則財務指標的聲明。請參閱公司的收益報告和今天發布的 G 條例時間表，以了解每項非 GAAP 財務指標與最具可比性 GAAP 指標的調整表。收益報告和監管附表 G 可在公司網站 fico.com 的投資者關係頁面或 SEC 網站 sec.gov 上取得。該網路廣播的重播將持續至 2024 年 11 月 8 日。

Now I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Will Lansing.

現在我將把電話轉給我們的執行長威爾·蘭辛 (Will Lansing)。

Thanks, Dave. Thank you, everyone, for joining us for our fourth quarter earnings call. In the Investor Relations section of our website, we've posted some slides that we'll be referencing during our presentation today.

謝謝，戴夫。感謝大家參加我們的第四季財報電話會議。在我們網站的投資者關係部分，我們發布了一些幻燈片，我們將在今天的簡報中參考這些幻燈片。

I am pleased to report we had a strong quarter, which completed another outstanding year with record annual revenues and record earnings, meeting the guidance that we raised last quarter.

我很高興地向大家報告，我們度過了一個強勁的季度，以創紀錄的年收入和創紀錄的盈利完成了又一個出色的一年，達到了我們上季度提出的指導方針。

Page 2 shows financial highlights from our fourth quarter. We reported fourth quarter revenues of $390 million, up 12% over the prior year; and $1.514 billion of revenue for the fiscal year, up 10% versus the prior year. We delivered $101 million of GAAP net income in the quarter and GAAP earnings of $4.01.

第 2 頁顯示了我們第四季的財務亮點。我們報告第四季營收為 3.9 億美元，比上年增長 12%；本財年營收為 15.14 億美元，較上年成長 10%。我們本季的 GAAP 淨利潤為 1.01 億美元，GAAP 收益為 4.01 美元。

For the full fiscal year, we delivered $429 million in GAAP net income, which equates to $16.93 of earnings per share. On a non-GAAP basis, Q4 net income was $127 million with earnings of $5.01 per share.

在整個財年，我們實現了 4.29 億美元的 GAAP 淨利潤，相當於 16.93 美元的每股盈餘。以非公認會計原則計算，第四季淨利為 1.27 億美元，每股收益為 5.01 美元。

Full year non-GAAP net income was $500 million, up 10% over last year with $19.71 of non-GAAP earnings per share, which is up 14% versus the prior year. We continued to deliver strong free cash flow with a record $163 million in our fourth quarter. For the full year, we delivered $465 million of free cash flow. We continue to return capital to our shareholders through buybacks. In fiscal 2023, we repurchased 615,000 shares at an average price of $659 per share.

全年非 GAAP 淨利潤為 5 億美元，比去年增長 10%，非 GAAP 每股收益 19.71 美元，比上年增長 14%。我們第四季繼續提供強勁的自由現金流，達到創紀錄的 1.63 億美元。全年我們交付了 4.65 億美元的自由現金流。我們繼續透過回購向股東返還資本。 2023 財年，我們以每股 659 美元的平均價格回購了 615,000 股股票。

In our scores segment, as you can see from Page 6, our fourth quarter revenues were $196 million, up 12% versus the prior year. For the full year, our revenues were $774 million, up 10% versus last year. On the B2B side, the current quarter revenues were up 21% versus the prior year and up 18% for the full year. This is a strong result, considering the impact of rising interest rates on loan origination volumes.

在我們的樂譜部分，正如您從第 6 頁看到的，我們第四季度的收入為 1.96 億美元，比上年增長 12%。全年營收為 7.74 億美元，比去年成長 10%。在 B2B 方面，本季營收比上年成長 21%，全年成長 18%。考慮到利率上升對貸款發放量的影響，這是一個強勁的結果。

On the B2C side, the current quarter revenues were down 6% versus the prior year and down 8% for the full year due to difficult comps. Fourth quarter mortgage origination revenues were up 147% versus the prior year and accounted for 24% of our scores revenues and 12% of our total company revenues. Auto origination revenues were up 2%, while credit card and personal loan origination revenues were down 2% versus the prior year.

在 B2C 方面，由於比較困難，本季營收比上年下降 6%，全年營收下降 8%。第四季抵押貸款發放收入比去年同期成長 147%，占我們分數收入的 24% 和公司總收入的 12%。汽車發放收入年增 2%，而信用卡和個人貸款發放收入則下降 2%。

We continue to innovate in scores. We're happy to see traction with our latest score, FICO Score 10 T. This quarter, we announced that Movement Mortgage, a top 10 retail mortgage lender, has become an early adopter of FICO Score 10 T. They're using it to analyze their nonconforming loans in conjunction with the classic FICO Scores. As a first-in-market user of FICO Score 10 T, Movement Mortgage will work with FICO to share early-use insights for nonconforming products to help the mortgage industry understand the benefits of the most predictive credit score in the space. Movement Mortgage's use of FICO Score 10 T will provide opportunities to evaluate risk more efficiently in credit positioning.

我們在分數方面不斷創新。我們很高興看到最新評分 FICO Score 10 T 的吸引力。本季度，我們宣布排名前 10 位的零售抵押貸款機構 Movement Mortgage 已成為 FICO Score 10 T 的早期採用者。他們正在使用它來結合經典的FICO 評分來分析他們的不合格貸款。作為 FICO Score 10 T 的第一個市場用戶，Movement Mortgage 將與 FICO 合作，分享不合格產品的早期使用見解，以幫助抵押貸款行業了解該領域最具預測性的信用評分的好處。 Movement Mortgage 使用 FICO Score 10 T 將為更有效評估信用定位風險提供機會。

The improvements in the predictive power of FICO Score 10 T can help lenders avoid unexpected credit risk and better control default rates while making more competitive credit offers to more consumers. And this all occurs without sacrificing the trusted FICO Score minimum scoring criteria and user experience. A more predictive score will help project cash flows with more precision, potentially increasing the value of securitized assets on the secondary market.

FICO Score 10 T預測能力的提升可以幫助貸款機構避免意外的信用風險，更好地控制違約率，同時向更多消費者提供更具競爭力的信貸服務。而這一切的發生都不會犧牲值得信賴的 FICO Score 最低評分標準和使用者體驗。更具預測性的分數將有助於更準確地預測現金流，從而有可能增加二級市場上證券化資產的價值。

In our software segment, we delivered $194 million in Q4 revenue, up 11% from last year. We delivered $740 million in fiscal year revenue, up 10% from last year. We continue to drive strong growth in ARR and NRR through our land-and-expand strategy with expand driven by increased customer usage.

在我們的軟體部門，我們第四季的營收為 1.94 億美元，比去年成長 11%。我們的財年營收達到 7.4 億美元，比去年成長 10%。我們透過土地擴張策略，透過客戶使用量增加推動擴張，持續推動 ARR 和 NRR 的強勁成長。

As shown on Page 7, total ARR was up 22% with platform ARR growing 53% and nonplatform ARR growing 14%. Total NRR for the quarter shown on Page 8, was 120% with platform NRR at 145% and nonplatform NRR at 111%. We continue to see strong demand from new customers. Our total ACV bookings for the year were $94 million, up 10% year-over-year.

如第 7 頁所示，總 ARR 成長了 22%，其中平台 ARR 成長了 53%，非平台 ARR 成長了 14%。第 8 頁所示的季度總 NRR 為 120%，其中平台 NRR 為 145%，非平台 NRR 為 111%。我們持續看到新客戶的強勁需求。我們今年的 ACV 預訂總額為 9,400 萬美元，年增 10%。

There continues to be strong demand for our FICO Platform. We've built a strong pipeline of prospects interested in using this advanced decisioning technology to optimize interactions with their consumer customers. And we continue to be recognized for our technology. Chartis ranked FICO #1 for innovation and risk management technology for the seventh consecutive year, and we're in the top 5 as a risk and compliance technology provider for the second year in a row. Forrester identified FICO as a leader in AI decisioning platform, and Juniper Resources awarded FICO Platform the Future Digital Award for Banking Innovation of the Year.

對我們的 FICO 平台的需求持續強勁。我們已經建立了一個強大的潛在客戶管道，他們有興趣使用這種先進的決策技術來優化與消費者的互動。我們的技術繼續獲得認可。 Chartis 連續第七年將 FICO 創新與風險管理技術排名第一，我們連續第二年躋身風險與合規技術供應商前 5 名。 Forrester 將 FICO 評為人工智慧決策平台的領導者，Juniper Resources 授予 FICO 平台年度銀行業創新未來數位獎。

I'll highlight the fiscal year 2024 guidance in just a few minutes. But first, let me turn the call back to Steve -- over to Steve for further financial details.

我將在幾分鐘內重點介紹 2024 財年的指導方針。但首先，讓我把電話轉回給史蒂夫——讓史蒂夫了解更多的財務細節。

Thanks, Will, and good afternoon, everyone. We had another outstanding fiscal year, and we are excited about our momentum as we head into fiscal 2024. As Will mentioned, total revenue for the quarter was $390 million, an increase of 12% over the prior year. Full year revenue of $1.514 billion was up 10% over last year.

謝謝威爾，大家下午好。我們又度過了一個出色的財年，在進入 2024 財年之際，我們對自己的勢頭感到興奮。正如 Will 提到的，該季度的總收入為 3.9 億美元，比上年增長 12%。全年營收為 15.14 億美元，比去年成長 10%。

Scores revenues for the quarter were $196 million, up 12% from Q4 of 2022. B2B revenues were up 21% driven by mortgage originations as other areas within B2B were relatively flat to the prior year. Our B2C revenues were down 6% versus the prior year due to primarily to our myFICO.com business, where our B2C partner business was relatively flat compared to the prior year.

該季度的 Scores 營收為 1.96 億美元，比 2022 年第四季成長 12%。在抵押貸款發放的推動下，B2B 營收成長了 21%，而 B2B 內的其他領域與前一年相對持平。我們的 B2C 收入比前一年下降了 6%，這主要是由於我們的 myFICO.com 業務，其中我們的 B2C 合作夥伴業務與前一年相比相對持平。

For the full year, scores revenues were $774 million, up 10% from the prior year, despite sizable headwinds in the mortgage originations market. Software segment revenues in the fourth quarter were $194 million, up 11% versus Q4 of 2022, with full year software revenues of $740 million, up 10% from the previous year.

儘管抵押貸款發放市場面臨巨大阻力，但全年營收仍達 7.74 億美元，比前一年成長 10%。第四季軟體部門營收為 1.94 億美元，較 2022 年第四季成長 11%，全年軟體營收為 7.4 億美元，較上年成長 10%。

This quarter, 85% of total revenues were derived from our Americas region, which is a combination of our North America and Latin American regions. Our EMEA region generated 9% and the Asia Pacific region delivered 6%. Our total software ARR was $669 million, a 22% increase over the prior year. Platform ARR was $173 million, representing 26% of our Q4 ARR, up from 21% in Q4 of 2022. Platform ARR grew 53% versus the prior year, while nonplatform ARR grew 14% and ended the year at $496 million.

本季度，85% 的總收入來自我們的美洲地區，該地區是我們的北美和拉丁美洲地區的組合。我們的 EMEA 地區貢獻了 9%，亞太地區貢獻了 6%。我們的軟體 ARR 總額為 6.69 億美元，比上一年增長 22%。平台ARR 為1.73 億美元，佔第四季ARR 的26%，高於2022 年第四季的21%。平台ARR 較前一年成長53%，而非平台ARR 成長14%，年底達到4.96 億美元。

Our customers continue to show very strong net expansion from land-and-expand follow-on sales and increased usage. Our dollar-based net retention rate in the quarter was 120% for the total software business. Platform NRR was 145% versus 129% in the prior year, while our nonplatform NRR was 111% versus 101% in the prior year. Nonplatform was driven by customers' increased usage and some CPI increases.

我們的客戶透過土地擴張和後續銷售以及使用量的增加繼續表現出非常強勁的淨擴張。本季我們整個軟體業務的以美元計算的淨保留率為 120%。平台 NRR 為 145%，去年為 129%，非平台 NRR 為 111%，去年為 101%。非平台是由客戶使用量增加和部分 CPI 上漲所推動的。

Our software ACV bookings for the quarter were $28 million versus $29 million in the prior year. And as a reminder, Q4 of 2022 contained 1 very large deal. ACV bookings increased 10% for the full year to $94 million versus $85 million in the prior year. And as a reminder, ACV bookings include only the annual value of software sales and exclude professional services.

本季我們的軟體 ACV 預訂額為 2,800 萬美元，而前一年為 2,900 萬美元。提醒一下，2022 年第四季包含 1 筆非常大的交易。全年 ACV 預訂量成長 10%，達到 9,400 萬美元，而上一年為 8,500 萬美元。提醒一下，ACV 預訂僅包含軟體銷售的年度價值，不包括專業服務。

Turning now to our expenses for the quarter. Total operating expenses were $224 million this quarter versus $215 million in the prior year, an increase of 4%. For the full year, our expenses were $871 million versus $835 million in the prior year, also an increase of 4%.

現在談談我們本季的支出。本季總營運費用為 2.24 億美元，而上年同期為 2.15 億美元，成長 4%。全年支出為 8.71 億美元，而前一年為 8.35 億美元，同樣成長了 4%。

In fiscal 2024, we maintain our focus on efficiencies and are committed to prioritizing resources to our most strategic initiatives. In the next year, we'll be focused on investment to accelerate development and distribution of FICO Platform. We also plan to invest in cybersecurities to continue to remain a top standard for both the protection of our clients and the FICO assets. The incremental investment is relatively modest and built into our guidance.

2024 財年，我們持續專注於效率，並致力於將資源優先用於最具戰略意義的措施。明年，我們將重點投資以加速 FICO 平台的開發和發行。我們還計劃投資網路安全，以繼續保持保護客戶和 FICO 資產的最高標準。增量投資相對溫和，並已納入我們的指導中。

Our non-GAAP operating margin, as shown in our Reg G Schedule, was 51% both for the quarter and the full year. We delivered non-GAAP margin expansion of 300 basis points for the full fiscal year.

如 Reg G 附表所示，我們的非 GAAP 營業利潤率本季和全年均為 51%。我們整個財年的非 GAAP 利潤率成長了 300 個基點。

GAAP net income this quarter was $101 million, up 12% from the prior year quarter. Our non-GAAP net income was $127 million for the full -- for the quarter, up 13% from the prior year quarter. For the full year, GAAP net income was $429 million, up 15% from last year. And non-GAAP net income for the current year was $500 million, up 10% from last year.

本季 GAAP 淨利潤為 1.01 億美元，比去年同期成長 12%。我們本季的非 GAAP 淨利潤為 1.27 億美元，比去年同期成長 13%。全年 GAAP 淨利潤為 4.29 億美元，比去年增長 15%。本年度非 GAAP 淨利為 5 億美元，較去年成長 10%。

The effective tax rate for the full year was 22%, including $13 million of reduced tax expense from excess tax benefits recognized upon the settlement or exercise of employee stock awards, and $9 million reduction associated with the valuation of our R&D tax credits. We expect our fiscal 2024 effective tax rate to remain around 20%, while our recurring tax rate is expected to be around 26%. Again, the recurring tax rate is before any excess tax benefits and other discrete items.

全年的有效稅率為 22%，其中包括因結算或行使員工股票獎勵而確認的超額稅收優惠所減少的 1300 萬美元的稅收費用，以及與研發稅收抵免估值相關的 900 萬美元的減少。我們預計 2024 財年的有效稅率將維持在 20% 左右，而經常性稅率預計將在 26% 左右。同樣，經常性稅率是在任何超額稅收優惠和其他離散項目之前的。

Free cash flow for the quarter was a record breaking $163 million. For the full year, the free cash flow was $465 million. At the end of the quarter, we had $170 million in cash and marketable investments. Our total debt at quarter end was $1.86 billion with a weighted average interest rate of 5.1%. Currently, about 70% of our total debt is fixed rate. Our floating rate debt is prepayable at any time, giving us the flexibility to use free cash flow to reduce outstanding floating rate debt balances in future periods.

該季度的自由現金流達到創紀錄的 1.63 億美元。全年自由現金流為 4.65 億美元。截至本季末，我們擁有 1.7 億美元的現金和適銷投資。季末我們的總負債為 18.6 億美元，加權平均利率為 5.1%。目前，我們總債務的約70%是固定利率。我們的浮動利率債務可隨時提前償還，使我們能夠靈活地利用自由現金流來減少未來期間未償還的浮動利率債務餘額。

As Will said, we bought back 136,000 shares in the fourth quarter at an average price of $859 per share. In fiscal 2023, we repurchased 615,000 shares at an average price of $659 per share for a total of $406 million. At the end of the quarter, we had $121 million remaining on the current Board authorization, and we continue to view share repurchases as an attractive use of cash.

正如威爾所說，我們在第四季以每股 859 美元的平均價格回購了 136,000 股股票。 2023財年，我們以每股659美元的平均價格回購了615,000股股票，總金額為4.06億美元。截至本季末，我們目前的董事會授權還剩 1.21 億美元，我們仍然認為股票回購是一種有吸引力的現金用途。

And with that, I'll turn it back to Will for his thoughts on fiscal 2024.

接下來，我將向 Will 詢問他對 2024 財年的想法。

Thanks, Steve. As we enter fiscal 2024, I remain excited about our future. Both our Software and Scores businesses are best in class, and our continued investment will accelerate our competitive advantage. We continually look for ways to build our brand and expand our outreach.

謝謝，史蒂夫。當我們進入 2024 財年時，我對我們的未來仍然感到興奮。我們的軟體和分數業務都是同類中最好的，我們的持續投資將加速我們的競爭優勢。我們不斷尋找建立品牌和擴大影響力的方法。

Last quarter, I talked about our financial literacy efforts. Today, I'd like to discuss the launch of the FICO Educational Analytics Challenge. This program, which we've created for students at historically black colleges and universities, features remote mentoring from FICO data scientists and in-person lectures by FICO's Chief Analytics Officer, Dr. Scott Zoldi. The FICO Educational Analytics Challenge is a program created to help promote diversity in data science, engineering and technology.

上個季度，我談到了我們的金融知識普及工作。今天，我想討論 FICO 教育分析挑戰賽的啟動。該計劃是我們為歷史悠久的黑人學院和大學的學生創建的，其中包括 FICO 數據科學家的遠端指導和 FICO 首席分析官 Scott Zoldi 博士的現場講座。 FICO 教育分析挑戰賽是一項旨在幫助促進數據科學、工程和技術多樣性的計劃。

Today, we announced the departure of Stephanie Covert, who has led our Software business. Stephanie was instrumental in driving FICO software growth and platform transformation, and we wish her well in her future endeavors.

今天，我們宣布領導我們軟體業務的 Stephanie Covert 離職。 Stephanie 在推動 FICO 軟體發展和平台轉型方面發揮了重要作用，我們祝福她未來一切順利。

Before we open for questions, I'll review our fiscal '24 guidance. While we don't break out our segments, we do expect growth in both our Scores and Software segments. As with prior years, we expect the pricing initiatives in fiscal '24 to have an additional impact beyond our guided numbers. And because of uncertainty in volumes, it's difficult to estimate the timing and magnitude of that impact.

在我們開始提問之前，我將回顧我們的 24 財年指南。雖然我們沒有細分我們的細分市場，但我們確實預期分數和軟體細分市場都會成長。與往年一樣，我們預計 24 財年的定價措施將產生超出我們指導數字的額外影響。由於數量的不確定性，很難估計這種影響的時間和程度。

Our fiscal 2023 bookings, strong pipeline, recurring revenues and diversified product portfolio give us considerable visibility into fiscal 2024. So today, we're guiding double-digit growth for both revenue and earnings, as shown on Page 13 of the presentation. We're guiding revenues of about $1.675 billion, an 11% increase versus last year. We are guiding GAAP net income of approximately $490 million, an increase of 14%; GAAP EPS of approximately $19.45, an increase of 15%; non-GAAP net income of about $566 million, an increase of 13%; and non-GAAP earnings per share of about $22.45, an increase of 14%.

我們2023 財年的預訂量、強大的管道、經常性收入和多元化的產品組合使我們對2024 財年有相當大的了解。因此，今天，我們指導收入和利潤實現兩位數增長，如演示文稿第13 頁所示。我們預計營收約為 16.75 億美元，比去年成長 11%。我們預期 GAAP 淨利潤約為 4.9 億美元，成長 14%； GAAP 每股盈餘約 19.45 美元，成長 15%；非公認會計準則淨利約5.66億美元，成長13%；非公認會計準則每股收益約22.45美元，成長14%。

With that, I'll turn the call back to Dave, and we'll take some questions.

之後，我會將電話轉回給戴夫，我們將回答一些問題。

Thanks, Will. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we're now ready to take questions. Operator, please open the lines.

謝謝，威爾。我們準備好的發言到此結束，現在我們準備好回答問題。接線員，請開通線路。

(Operator Instructions) And your first question comes from the line of Faiza Alwy with Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Faiza Alwy 線。

So I wanted a little bit more color on 2024 revenues and EPS. One, you mentioned that origination volumes have been slower. It looks like there's been some tightening, but it seems you're confident in the growth around the scores business. It seems that you are taking some pricing on the -- sort of incremental pricing on the mortgage side. So give us some more color around how you're thinking about all those variables around volume and pricing across the various verticals.

所以我想對 2024 年的營收和每股盈餘有更多的了解。第一，您提到原始數量較慢。看起來有些緊縮，但您似乎對分數業務的成長充滿信心。看來你正在對抵押貸款方面進行一些增量定價。因此，請告訴我們更多關於您如何考慮各個垂直領域的銷售和定價方面的所有變數的資訊。

Faiza, what our forecast reflects is lower volumes than last year, so a decline versus last year, and roughly flat volumes from the level we're at today. That's how we think about the volume side. And as you know, we take price action for CPI, and sometimes in excess of CPI, every year. And so this year is no different. We will be doing that again.

Faiza，我們的預測反映的是銷量低於去年，因此與去年相比有所下降，並且銷量與今天的水平大致持平。這就是我們對音量方面的看法。如您所知，我們每年都會針對 CPI 採取價格行動，有時甚至會超過 CPI。今年也不例外。我們將再次這樣做。

Okay. Understood. And then I'm curious on the expense side. Steve, I think you made some mention around moderate increase in expenses. Give us an idea of how we should think about expense growth in 2024.

好的。明白了。然後我對費用方面很好奇。史蒂夫，我想你提到了適度增加開支。請告訴我們應該如何考慮 2024 年的費用成長。

Yes. I mean it is pretty modest. I mean you can -- when you build out your model, you'll see there's some additional expense in there but not a lot. But a lot of it's reprioritization, right? We're looking to invest on the software side. We're putting a lot of money into the platform as we've done, and we're putting money into security to make sure that we're secure as possible. So it's relatively modest. But we definitely are adding some additional investment there from what we've seen in the past few years.

是的。我的意思是這是相當謙虛的。我的意思是你可以——當你建立模型時，你會發現其中有一些額外的費用，但不是很多。但其中很多都需要重新確定優先級，對嗎？我們正在尋求在軟體方面進行投資。正如我們所做的那樣，我們在平台上投入了大量資金，並且在安全方面投入了資金，以確保我們盡可能安全。所以說還是比較溫和的。但從過去幾年的情況來看，我們肯定會在那裡增加一些額外的投資。

Your next question comes from the line of George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

你的下一個問題來自高盛的喬治唐（George Tong）。

You typically set your rate card in your Scores business in the beginning of September. After your Scores prices were set, did you notice a negative inflection in credit volumes in September and October, particularly among sub-prime consumers? And if you did, do you believe your Scores pricing increases next year are as high as they need to be to sustain your growth momentum?

您通常會在九月初在分數業務中設定價目表。在您的分數價格確定後，您是否注意到 9 月和 10 月的信貸量出現負面變化，特別是在次貸消費者中？如果您這樣做了，您是否認為明年的 Scores 定價增幅足以維持您的成長動能？

Yes, I mean that's a good question, George. The volatility on the card side can be pretty dramatic and it could be pretty short-lived. So I mean nothing surprised us beyond what -- we saw that coming, right? The sub-prime has been trending down for quite a while. So there's nothing that happened in September that kind of caught us by surprise. So we're satisfied that we have the right rate card in place.

是的，我的意思是這是一個好問題，喬治。卡片方面的波動可能非常劇烈，而且可能非常短暫。所以我的意思是，除了我們預見的事情之外，沒有什麼讓我們感到驚訝，對吧？長期以來，次貸一直呈下降趨勢。所以九月發生的事情並沒有讓我們感到驚訝。因此，我們對擁有正確的價目表感到滿意。

Great. That's good to hear. And then secondly, Software ARR growth accelerated to 22% in the quarter from 20% in the prior quarter. Can you elaborate on your overall Software platform strategy and the traction that you're seeing with clients?

偉大的。聽起來還不錯。其次，本季軟體 ARR 成長從上一季的 20% 加速至 22%。您能否詳細說明您的整體軟體平台策略以及您對客戶的吸引力？

Yes. The Software strategy is going exactly as expected. We continue to penetrate enterprise platform customers. We've moved to -- we now have 55 of the top 300 financial services customers worldwide on the platform. And that's 55 what we call them PCs, 55 of these enterprise customers, who are using multiple use cases of the platform. If it's just a question of how many have taken the platform, that number is over 100.

是的。軟體戰略完全按照預期進行。我們持續滲透企業平台客戶。我們現在已經在該平台上擁有全球 300 強金融服務客戶中的 55 家。這就是 55 台我們稱為 PC 的企業客戶，其中 55 台正在使用該平台的多個用例。如果只是問有多少人使用了這個平台，這個數字已經超過100了。

And so we have pretty good penetration. As I've shared in the past, we actually expect that the expand side of land and expand is significantly bigger than land. So we land the business and then our customers find all kinds of new ways to use the platform. And the expansion revenue typically exceeds the land revenue by quite a bit, and that has continued. And that's part of why we're seeing the success that we're seeing.

所以我們有很好的滲透力。正如我過去所分享的，我們實際上預期土地和擴張的擴張面明顯大於土地。因此，我們開展了業務，然後我們的客戶找到了各種新的方式來使用該平台。擴張收入通常遠遠超過土地收入，而且這種情況仍在持續。這就是我們取得成功的部分原因。

And your next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra with RBC Capital Markets.

您的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的 Ashish Sabadra。

Just wanted to follow up on that point on the nonplatform business. We've seen some pretty robust acceleration there compared to historical levels. There was a call-out on increased usage as well as CPI base pricing. On the usage front, I was wondering if you could provide any incremental color. Is there more modules that are adopted, more feature functionality? And how do we think about this sustainability of this accelerated growth in the nonplatform side?

只是想跟進非平台業務的這一點。與歷史水平相比，我們看到了一些相當強勁的加速。有人呼籲增加使用量以及 CPI 基本定價。在使用方面，我想知道您是否可以提供任何增量顏色。是否採用了更多的模組、更多的特色功能？我們如何看待非平台方面加速成長的可持續性？

I would say that most of that is from transaction volume growth. We do invest in features and functionality in our historical products and our legacy products. And so it is all about keeping them up-to-date and useful to our customers.

我想說，其中大部分來自交易量的成長。我們確實對歷史產品和遺留產品的特性和功能進行了投資。因此，這一切都是為了讓它們保持最新狀態並對我們的客戶有用。

Again, as we've discussed in the past, the -- many of these solutions go into a customer of lending institution. And they might go in for a 3-year term initially, but they're typically renewed again at the 3-year mark and again at the next 3-year mark. And we can have these solutions operating for 12 years or more. And so it's incumbent on us to maintain the features and functionality, make sure the security is good and the functionalities that our customers want. We do all that. So we're pretty proud of our classic products. But I would say that the increase that you're seeing is largely just volume-related.

同樣，正如我們過去所討論的那樣，許多解決方案都進入了貸款機構的客戶。它們最初的任期可能為 3 年，但通常會在 3 年標記處再次續簽，並在下一個 3 年標記處再次續簽。我們可以讓這些解決方案運行 12 年或更長時間。因此，我們有責任維護特性和功能，確保良好的安全性以及客戶所需的功能。我們做這一切。因此，我們對我們的經典產品感到非常自豪。但我想說的是，你所看到的增長很大程度上只是與數量有關。

That's very helpful color. And maybe just switching to the special pricing for scores for next year. Our understanding was that mortgage fees were different for Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 institution. And there's a potential for the Tier 1, Tier 2 to start paying the same cycle fees as Tier 3 for fiscal year '24. Is that assumptions appropriate? I was wondering if you can comment on that.

這是非常有用的顏色。也許只是切換到明年的樂譜特價。我們的理解是，一級、二級和三級機構的抵押貸款費用是不同的。第 1 級、第 2 級有可能開始支付與第 3 級 24 財年相同的周期費用。這個假設合適嗎？我想知道你是否可以對此發表評論。

Yes. We really don't go into the detail around the pricing within the segment. We have studied it, and I think that the price increases that we put into the segment are what are fair and appropriate for the market. We're pretty comfortable we've done the right thing, but we don't go to a lot of detail on that.

是的。我們確實不會詳細討論該細分市場內的定價細節。我們對此進行了研究，我認為我們對該細分市場的漲價是公平且適合市場的。我們很高興我們做了正確的事情，但我們沒有詳細說明這一點。

Your next question comes from the line of Seth Weber with Wells Fargo Securities.

您的下一個問題來自富國銀行證券公司的 Seth Weber。

For the last several quarters, you've talked about some shortening of the sales cycle. I'm wondering if that -- if you're continuing to see that dynamic and if you could maybe just give us some color on U.S. versus international.

在過去的幾個季度中，您談到了銷售週期的一些縮短。我想知道您是否會繼續看到這種動態，以及您是否可以給我們一些關於美國與國際的情況。

We are seeing shortening. I mean the sales cycle a year ago was over a year long. And today, it's 2/3 of that. We're very happy with that progress. There's a lot of reasons for it, but it's kind of the cumulative effect of us moving up the process and scaling up, and things are going faster.

我們看到了縮短。我的意思是一年前的銷售週期長達一年多。而今天，這個數字已經達到 2/3了。我們對這項進展感到非常高興。造成這種情況的原因有很多，但這是我們推進流程和擴大規模的累積效應，事情進展得更快。

I'd also say that the demand is really hot for our offering. The customers are really interested and they're in a hurry to get it going. And it's pretty easy for us to get it up and live. So all those things have contributed to a shorter sales process. And I would say that's true overseas as well as in the U.S.

我還想說，我們的產品的需求非常旺盛。客戶確實很感興趣，並且急於開始實施。對我們來說，安裝並生活起來非常容易。所有這些都有助於縮短銷售流程。我想說這在海外和美國都是如此。

Okay. And then maybe just going back to the expenses again for a second. The fourth quarter software expenses were a little higher than what we were expecting. Did that -- does that already include some of these new investments that you're talking to? Or will these investments be incremental to sort of this fourth quarter run rate?

好的。然後也許再回到開支問題。第四季軟體支出略高於我們的預期。這是否已經包括您正在談論的一些新投資？或者這些投資會增加到第四季的運作率嗎？

Yes. I mean it's maybe a little bit incremental. We do have some onetime expenses, a lot of our -- around incentives in the fourth quarter that ramps up. And a lot of our people are in software. So you're going to see a little bit higher expense there. But our run rate is not going to increase significantly off of where we -- our exit rate from the fourth quarter.

是的。我的意思是它可能有點增量。我們確實有一些一次性支出，其中許多是圍繞著第四季度的激勵措施而增加的。我們很多人都從事軟體行業。所以你會看到那裡的費用稍微高一些。但我們的運行率不會比第四季的退出率顯著增加。

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Meuler with Baird.

你的下一個問題來自 Jeff Meuler 和 Baird 的對話。

Can you give us any sense of what you included in the guidance versus what you held back around pricing? For instance, last year, I think you talked about the original guide had the CPI-like pricing increases, but it didn't have the special pricing increases. Just any way to help us kind of like understand what's assumed versus what could still be -- to come.

您能否告訴我們您在指南中包含的內容以及您在定價方面保留的內容？例如，去年，我認為您談到原始指南有類似 CPI 的定價上漲，但沒有特殊的定價上漲。任何方法都可以幫助我們理解假設的情況與未來可能發生的情況。

Yes. Jeff, I know you'd love for us to put a number on it. And you know us, we never do. And so it's not going to happen today either. The way we think about it is we look at the volumes, we make our forecast built around the volumes. We put on a CPI increase, and then we put on what some people call special pricing, but we have some additional increases beyond CPI. And then because the timing of those is uncertain, we leave some of that out of the guidance.

是的。傑夫，我知道你希望我們能提供一個數字。你了解我們，但我們從來不了解。所以今天也不會發生這種情況。我們思考的方式是查看銷量，並圍繞銷量進行預測。我們提高了 CPI，然後我們提出了一些人所說的特殊定價，但我們在 CPI 之外還有一些額外的提高。然後，由於這些時間的不確定性，我們將其中一些內容排除在指導之外。

And so call our guidance conservative. It's really designed to reflect the fact that we just don't know how quickly the full price effect will be ramped into our numbers. And so I hesitate to put any kind of a number on it for you. Is it safe to think about it the way we have in years past? Yes. So think about it the way we do it every year. We haven't changed our methodology.

因此，我們的指導方針是保守的。它的真正目的是反映這樣一個事實：我們只是不知道全價效應將以多快的速度影響到我們的數據。所以我猶豫是否要提供你任何數字。以我們過去幾年的方式思考這個問題是否安全？是的。所以想想我們每年都會這樣做的方式。我們沒有改變我們的方法。

No, I would say the only change is that there's probably more volatility in terms of volumes that had in the past. So I mean, if you could tell me what the interest rate is going to be in 6 or 9 months, I could probably give you a better idea. But I don't think anybody knows that.

不，我想說唯一的變化是，就過去的交易量而言，波動可能更大。所以我的意思是，如果你能告訴我 6 或 9 個月後的利率是多少，我可能會給你一個更好的主意。但我認為沒有人知道這一點。

That's right. Okay. And then I guess I was surprised to see the departure of Stephanie just given how well Software has been doing for a while now. Can you just comment on just any, I guess, reasoning of why there's a change now, when you expect to have a new leader announced, if they're likely to come as an internal promotion, external? Just any perspective on that would be helpful.

這是正確的。好的。然後我想我對史蒂芬妮的離開感到驚訝，因為軟體公司已經有一段時間表現得很好了。我想，當您期望宣布新的領導者時，如果他們可能會作為內部晉升或外部晉升，您能否評論為什麼現在發生變化的原因？任何對此的看法都會有所幫助。

Yes. It's pretty simple. Stephanie has done a great job with us. She's done a lot of good things for FICO and for the Software business in particular. She decided to pursue other professional opportunities, and so we wish her well with all that. We -- FICO graduates a lot of talent. I mean it's not -- Stephanie is not the first talent who's left us. And we have a really strong team, and I'm confident that our software business will continue very smoothly.

是的。這很簡單。史蒂芬妮和我們一起做得很好。她為 FICO，特別是軟體業務做了許多好事。她決定尋求其他職業機會，因此我們祝她一切順利。我們——FICO 培養了很多人才。我的意思是，史蒂芬妮並不是第一個離開我們的人才。我們擁有一支非常強大的團隊，我相信我們的軟體業務將繼續非常順利。

In terms of leadership, I'm taking over the leadership of the Software business directly, so -- which is what I did before Stephanie took it over. And so I'm pretty comfortable with that. Might we have another leader besides me in the future? We might, but that's not the plan right now. So I'm going to run it for the time being, and we'll see.

在領導方面，我將直接接管軟體業務的領導，所以——這就是我在史蒂芬妮接手之前所做的。所以我對此很滿意。未來除了我之外，我們還會有另一個領導者嗎？我們可能會，但這不是現在的計劃。所以我將暫時運行它，我們拭目以待。

(Operator Instructions) The next question comes from the line of Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

（操作員說明）下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫·帕特奈克（Manav Patnaik）。

Will, just on the Software side, I mean, a lot of good numbers this quarter. You talked a lot about the visibility going into next year. So maybe just help us in terms of the '24 guidance. How should we think about the components of the software growth in there?

我的意思是，就軟體方面而言，本季有很多不錯的數字。您談到了很多關於明年的可見性。所以也許只是在 '24 指南方面為我們提供幫助。我們應該如何考慮其中軟體成長的組成部分？

Software business is growing double digits just like the Scores business. I mean it's very strong. And we're -- it continues to be strong. We're -- we haven't decelerated in any way in terms of our platform growth rates, which, as you know, were very high. And we -- trees don't grow to the sky, but we expect that to continue for quite some time. I mean there's a lot of demand. The pipeline this year is stronger even than a year ago. And so yes, we're very optimistic.

就像分數業務一樣，軟體業務也在以兩位數的速度成長。我的意思是它非常強。我們——它繼續保持強勁。我們的平台成長率沒有以任何方式放緩，如你所知，平台成長率非常高。我們－樹不會長到天上，但我們預期這種情況會持續相當長的一段時間。我的意思是需求很大。今年的管道甚至比一年前更強大。所以，是的，我們非常樂觀。

And Manav, the business has changed a lot from the days when we had -- when we were relying on term licenses. So now a lot of the deals -- a lot of the revenue we have visibility to because of the deals are already signed, right? We're just implementing them. So we'll be standing up more of these -- the recurring revenue in the coming quarters.

馬納夫，與我們依賴定期許可證的時代相比，業務已經發生了很大變化。所以現在很多交易——很多收入我們都可以看到，因為這些交易已經簽了，對吧？我們只是實作它們。因此，我們將在未來幾季提供更多的經常性收入。

So we have pretty good line of sight to that. And then there's still a lot of people that we're working with, from the customer success side, to expand their usage. So we're far less dependent on making sure we sign deals at the end of the quarter to pull revenue in.

所以我們對此有很好的視野。從客戶成功的角度來看，我們仍然與許多人合作，以擴大他們的使用範圍。因此，我們不再那麼依賴確保在季度末簽署交易來拉動收入。

Got it. And then, Steve, in looking at the EPS guidance, can you just talk about the assumptions there on -- just help us out with share count. I don't think you include additional buybacks, interest expense and maybe any other items that could change year-over-year.

知道了。然後，史蒂夫，在查看每股盈餘指引時，您能否談談其中的假設——幫助我們計算股票數量。我認為你沒有包括額外的回購、利息費用以及任何其他可能同比變化的項目。

Yes. I mean the share count, it's anybody's guess. So we kind of try to leave that relatively flat because that's just kind of upside for us. The interest expense, we've actually done a pretty good job of paying down a little bit of debt on the revolver, so we're saving a little bit there.

是的。我指的是股份數量，這是任何人的猜測。因此，我們試圖保持相對平穩，因為這對我們來說只是一種好處。利息支出，我們實際上已經很好地償還了左輪手槍的一些債務，所以我們在那裡節省了一點。

We don't have any big plans to really pay that down. We'll probably be maintaining that debt or depending on how the market works, we're sometimes opportunistic if there's a market downturn. So we're basically planning on that to be relatively flat, but we'll react as we always do, depending on what the market conditions look like.

我們沒有任何重大計劃來真正償還這筆費用。我們可能會維持債務，或者根據市場的運作方式，如果市場低迷，我們有時會投機取巧。因此，我們基本上計劃相對平穩，但我們會像往常一樣做出反應，這取決於市場狀況。

And there are no further questions. I'll turn the call back to Dave Singleton for closing remarks. Thank you very much.

沒有其他問題了。我會將電話轉回給戴夫辛格頓 (Dave Singleton)，讓其結束語。非常感謝。

Thanks, everyone, for attending the call, and a great year.

感謝大家參加這次電話會議，祝您有美好的一年。

And that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。我們非常感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。