Medpace Holdings Inc (MEDP) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Medpace third quarter 2024 earnings conference call (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call may be recorded.

女士們、先生們，美好的一天，歡迎參加 Medpace 2024 年第三季收益電話會議（操作員說明） 謹此提醒，本次電話會議可能會被錄音。

I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference call. Lauren Morris, Medpace's Director of Investor Relations. You may be begin.

現在我想介紹一下今天電話會議的主持人。Lauren Morris，Medpace 投資者關係總監。你可能會開始。

Good morning and thank you for joining Medpace's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Also on the call today is our CEO, August Troendle; our President, Jesse Geiger; and our CFO, Kevin Brady. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our remarks and responses to your questions during this teleconference may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

早安，感謝您參加 Medpace 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。今天參加電話會議的還有我們的執行長 August Troendle；我們的總裁傑西·蓋革；和我們的財務長凱文·布雷迪。在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，我們在本次電話會議期間的言論和對您問題的答复可能包括 1995 年《私人安全訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。

These statements involve inherent assumptions with known and unknown risks and uncertainties as well as other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. These factors are discussed in our Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC.

這些陳述涉及已知和未知風險和不確定性的固有假設，以及可能導致實際結果與我們當前預期有重大差異的其他重要因素。這些因素在我們向 SEC 提交的 10-K 表格和其他文件中進行了討論。

Please note that we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements, even if estimates change. Accordingly, you should not rely on any of today's forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date after today.

請注意，即使估計發生變化，我們也不承擔更新前瞻性聲明的義務。因此，您不應依賴今天的任何前瞻性陳述來代表我們在今天之後的任何日期的觀點。

During this call, we will also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not superior to, or a replacement for, the comparable GAAP measures. But we believe these measures help investors gain a more complete understanding of results.

在本次電話會議中，我們也將提及某些非公認會計準則財務指標。這些非公認會計準則衡量標準並不優於或取代可比較的公認會計準則衡量標準。但我們相信這些措施有助於投資人對業績有更全面的了解。

A reconciliation of such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the earnings press release and earnings call presentation slides provided in connection with today's call. The slides are available in the investor relations section of our website at investor.medpace.com.

此類非公認會計原則財務指標與最直接可比較的公認會計原則指標的調節可在與今天電話會議相關的收益新聞稿和收益電話會議簡報幻燈片中找到。這些投影片可在我們網站 Investor.medpace.com 的投資者關係部分取得。

With that, I would now like to turn the call over to August Troendle.

現在，我想將電話轉給奧古斯特·特倫德爾。

Good day. Backlog cancellations in Q3 were above our usual range, making for three consecutive quarters of elevated cancellations. The magnitude of cancellations in Q3 were comparable to Q1 and improved relative to Q2. As a net result of the elevated cancellations experienced in Q1 through Q3. Net new business awards were depressed in Q3, generating a net book to bill ratio of 1.0 for the quarter.

再會。第三季的積壓訂單取消量高於我們的正常範圍，導致取消量連續三個季度上升。第三季的取消數量與第一季相當，但相對第二季有所改善。這是第一季至第三季取消訂單增加的最終結果。第三季淨新業務獎勵下降，導致該季度的淨訂單出貨比為 1.0。

As mentioned last quarter, the elevated cancellations we've experienced are not limited to studies previously recognized in the backlog, but rather span our entire pipeline of awarded future work and therefore, impact current and anticipated future backlog recognition.

正如上個季度所提到的，我們經歷的取消數量增加不僅限於先前在積壓中確認的研究，而是跨越了我們整個已授予的未來工作管道，因此影響了當前和預期的未來積壓確認。

This is expected to depress our reported net backlog awards in Q4 as well as in Q1 of 2025. Assuming cancellations return to a normal range, and the business environment remains stable, we will be able to rebuild our pipeline of opportunities and our reported book to bill numbers should approach a more usual range -- that is, greater than 1.15 in the second half of 2025. The business environment apart from the elevated cancellations remains decent.

預計這將壓低我們報告的 2025 年第四季和第一季的淨積壓訂單獎勵。假設取消訂單恢復到正常範圍，並且商業環境保持穩定，我們將能夠重建我們的機會管道，並且我們報告的帳單到帳單數量應該接近更常見的範圍，即下半年大於 1.15 2025 年。除了航班取消增加之外，商業環境仍然良好。

RFPs were down modestly on year-over-year and sequential basis but quality appears good. We remain optimistic about future growth. Although as I indicated, it will take several quarters to replenish the flow of opportunities converting into backlog.

RFP 同比和環比略有下降，但品質似乎不錯。我們對未來的成長保持樂觀。儘管正如我所指出的，需要幾個季度才能補充轉化為積壓的機會流。

I will now turn the call over to Jesse to provide narrative on the quarter.

我現在將把電話轉給傑西，以提供有關本季的情況。

Thank you, August. Good morning, everyone. Revenue for the third quarter of 2024 was $533.3 million, which represents a year-over-year increase of 8.3%.

謝謝你，八月。大家早安。2024年第三季營收為5.333億美元，年增8.3%。

Net new business awards entering backlog in the third quarter decreased 12.7% from the prior year to $533.7 million representing a 1.0 net book to bill. Ending backlog as of September 30, 2024, was approximately $2.9 billion, an increase of 8.8% from the prior year.

第三季積壓的淨新業務獎勵較上年同期下降 12.7%，至 5.337 億美元，淨帳面價值為 1.0。截至 2024 年 9 月 30 日，積壓訂單約 29 億美元，比上年增長 8.8%。

We project that approximately $1.62 billion of backlog will convert to revenue in the next 12 months. And backlog conversion in the third quarter was 18.2% of beginning backlog.

我們預計，約 16.2 億美元的積壓訂單將在未來 12 個月內轉化為收入。第三季的積壓訂單轉換率為期初積壓訂單的 18.2%。

Now with that, I will turn the call over to Kevin to review our financial performance in more detail, as well as our guidance expectations for the balance of 2024. Kevin?

現在，我將把電話轉給 Kevin，更詳細地審查我們的財務業績，以及我們對 2024 年剩餘時間的指導預期。凱文？

Thank you, Jesse and good morning to everyone listening in. As Jesse mentioned, revenue was $533.3 million in the third quarter of 2024. This represented a year-over-year increase of 8.3%. Revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, was $1.57 billion and increased 13.3%.

謝謝你，傑西，各位聽眾早安。正如傑西所提到的，2024 年第三季的收入為 5.333 億美元。較去年同期成長 8.3%。截至 2024 年 9 月 30 日的九個月營收為 15.7 億美元，成長 13.3%。

EBITDA of $118.8 million increased 31.7% compared to $90.2 million in the third quarter of 2023. Year-to-date EBITDA was $346.7 million and increased 30% from the comparable prior year. EBITDA margin for the third quarter was 22.3% compared to 18.3% in the prior year period.

EBITDA 為 1.188 億美元，較 2023 年第三季的 9,020 萬美元成長 31.7%。年初至今 EBITDA 為 3.467 億美元，比上年同期成長 30%。第三季 EBITDA 利潤率為 22.3%，去年同期為 18.3%。

Year-to-date EBITDA margin was 22% compared to 19.2% in the prior year. EBITDA margin for the quarter was favorably impacted by reimbursable costs which decreased by 350 basis points from the prior year.

年初至今，EBITDA 利潤率為 22%，而前一年為 19.2%。本季的 EBITDA 利潤率受到可償還成本的有利影響，較前一年下降了 350 個基點。

EBITDA also benefited from the direct service activities and productivity. In the third quarter of 2024, net income of $96.4 million increased 36.7% compared to net income of $70.6 million in the prior year period. Net income growth ahead of EBITDA growth was primarily driven by interest income partially offset by a higher effective tax rate in the quarter.

EBITDA 也受益於直接服務活動和生產力。2024 年第三季度，淨利潤為 9,640 萬美元，較上年同期的淨利潤 7,060 萬美元成長 36.7%。淨利潤成長領先 EBITDA 成長，主要是由利息收入推動的，該收入部分被本季度較高的有效稅率所抵消。

Net income per diluted share for the quarter was $3.01 compared to $2.22 in the prior year. Regarding customer concentration, our top five and top 10 customers represent roughly 22% and 29% respectively of our year-to-date revenue.

本季攤薄後每股淨利為 3.01 美元，去年同期為 2.22 美元。就客戶集中度而言，我們的前五名和前十名客戶分別約占我們年初至今收入的22%和29%。

In the third quarter, we generated $149.1 million in cash flow from operating activities and our net days sales outstanding was negative 62 days. We did not repurchase any shares during the second quarter. As of June 30, 2024, we had $656.9 million in cash and $308.8 million remaining under our share purchase authorization program.

第三季度，我們的營運活動產生了 1.491 億美元的現金流，淨銷售天數為負 62 天。我們在第二季沒有回購任何股票。截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日，我們的現金為 6.569 億美元，股票購買授權計畫剩餘 3.088 億美元。

Moving now to our updated guidance for 2024. Full year 2024 total revenue is now expected in the range of $2.09 billion to $2.13 billion, representing growth of 10.8% to 12.9% over 2023 total revenue of $1.89 billion.

現在轉向我們更新的 2024 年指南。目前預計 2024 年全年總收入將在 20.9 億美元至 21.3 億美元之間，較 2023 年 18.9 億美元的總收入增長 10.8% 至 12.9%。

Our 2024 EBITDA is now expected in the range of $450 million to $470 million. Representing growth of 24.1% to 29.7% compared to EBITDA of $362.5 million in 2023.

我們 2024 年的 EBITDA 目前預計在 4.5 億至 4.7 億美元之間。與 2023 年 EBITDA 3.625 億美元相比，成長 24.1% 至 29.7%。

We forecast 2024 net income in the range of $376 million to $388 million. This guidance assumes a full year 2024 effective tax rate of 15.5% to 16.5%, interest income of $24.4 million and 32.1 million diluted weighted average shares outstanding for 2024.

我們預計 2024 年淨利將在 3.76 億美元至 3.88 億美元之間。該指引假設 2024 年全年有效稅率為 15.5% 至 16.5%，利息收入為 2,440 萬美元，2024 年稀釋加權平均已發行股票為 3,210 萬股。

There are no share repurchases in our guidance. Earnings per diluted share is now expected to be in the range of $11.71 to $12.09. Guidance is based on foreign exchange rates as of September 30, 2024. We plan to provide 2025 guidance on our fourth quarter call in February.

我們的指引中沒有股票回購。目前預計攤薄後每股收益將介於 11.71 美元至 12.09 美元之間。指導基於 2024 年 9 月 30 日的外匯匯率。我們計劃在 2 月的第四季電話會議上提供 2025 年指引。

With that, I will call -- turn the call back over to the operator so we can take your questions.

這樣，我會打電話——將電話轉回接線員，以便我們回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

David Windley, Jefferies.

大衛溫德利，傑弗里斯。

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to start August with the cancellations and perhaps if you could, I don't know, quantify what you're seeing, talk about if you're seeing, I think last quarter you said there wasn't really a trend in those cancellations.

嗨，早安。感謝您回答我的問題。我想從八月開始取消，也許你可以，我不知道，量化你所看到的，談論你是否看到，我想上個季度你說過這些並沒有真正的趨勢取消。

I wondered if a trend has emerged in terms of either therapeutic area or otherwise the nature of the cancellations and how they -- if you can, how they break down between the cancellations of the actual backlog that we're seeing run through the book to bill versus the amount that's kind of being pulled out of your pre-backlog.

我想知道在治療領域或其他取消的性質方面是否出現了趨勢，以及它們如何——如果可以的話，它們如何在我們在書中看到的實際積壓的取消之間進行分解賬單與從您的預積壓訂單中提取的金額。

Yeah. Sure, Dave. Well, first the cancellations we've seen -- I guess usually cancellations are a wild card and they come out of the blue -- it’s kind of product performance. Occasionally, a company has financial difficulty but they're kind of random and unexpected.

是的。當然，戴夫。好吧，首先是我們看到的取消——我想通常取消是一個不確定因素，而且它們是突然出現的——這是一種產品性能。有時，公司會遇到財務困難，但這種情況是隨機且出乎意料的。

The cancellation -- we've never seen a period in which we had just across the board kind of elevated cancellations that weren't just kind of one offs. I mean, you have to kind of associate them all. And no, I don't see any trend across therapeutic areas or anything like that.

取消－我們從未見過這樣一個時期，取消的數量全面增加，而且不僅僅是一次性取消。我的意思是，你必須將它們全部聯繫起來。不，我沒有看到治療領域或類似領域的任何趨勢。

I think it's -- the only common factor is these are companies that were funded during the COVID high and have run out of money. It was kind of the one common kind of element. And you have the usual routine cancellations that are random, et cetera.

我認為唯一的共同因素是這些公司在新冠疫情期間獲得了資金，但資金已經耗盡。這是一種常見的元素。並且您會遇到通常的例行取消，隨機的等等。

But I do think that the environment, we've had a great deal of cancellations, many of them related to running out of funding and not being able to refresh from the capital markets. So it is an unusual situation, but no, I don't see any particular trend in terms of therapeutic areas. It's kind of just type of company and when they were funded and lack of future funding would be the elevated level of cancellations that are unexpected. And then you've got the background kind of stuff.

但我確實認為，就環境而言，我們有大量的取消，其中許多與資金耗盡以及無法從資本市場恢復有關。所以這是一個不尋常的情況，但不，我沒有看到治療領域有任何特殊的趨勢。這是一種只是類型的公司，當他們獲得資助時，如果未來缺乏資金，取消的數量就會增加，這是意料之外的。然後你就得到背景之類的東西了。

In terms of backlog, recognized portion of the cancellations versus that is part of the pipeline, but not yet into backlog either the amount of revenue was part of a project that was in backlog but was not because of a regulatory, threshold where there was withholding because either time or some event that prevented us from recognizing the remainder of the amount of that award or just things that hadn't gotten to start up. And so we're in the awarded status but hadn't started.

就積壓而言，已確認的取消部分與正在籌劃中但尚未積壓的部分相比，收入金額屬於積壓項目的一部分，但不是由於監管門檻而扣留的因為時間或某些事件使我們無法識別該獎項的剩餘金額，或只是尚未啟動的事情。所以我們處於獲獎狀態但還沒開始。

The breakout between the two backlog versus the rest of it, is probably roughly equal, maybe even a little bit higher in the amount that is pipeline, not in backlog. So it's been across the board and I don't have the numbers, I think maybe numerically a little bit larger in the non-recognized backlog portion, but across the portfolio.

兩個待辦事項與其餘待辦事項之間的突破可能大致相等，甚至可能比待辦事項的數量稍高一些，而不是積壓的數量。因此，這是全面的，我沒有數字，我認為在未認可的積壓部分中，數字可能稍大一些，但在整個投資組合中。

Got it. Thank you for that. And then the follow up question is around pricing. It sounds like as you said, the RFP flow may have been down a little but generally holding up okay, and quality good. I'm wondering what you are seeing in the competitive environment and actions by competitors in an environment where it seems like there's maybe less opportunities to go around for everybody.

知道了。謝謝你。接下來的問題是關於定價的。聽起來就像您所說的那樣，RFP 流量可能有所下降，但總體上保持良好，並且品質良好。我想知道您在競爭環境中看到了什麼，以及競爭對手在似乎每個人的機會都較少的環境中所採取的行動。

And how folks might be chasing those fewer opportunities either by getting more aggressive about how fast they think their time lines can be or more direct pricing or offering better payment terms of the things that CROs tend to do. I just wonder if you're seeing any change in the pricing environment.

以及人們如何透過更積極地了解他們認為自己的時間表可以多快或更直接的定價或為 CRO 傾向於做的事情提供更好的付款條件來追逐這些較少的機會。我只是想知道定價環境是否有任何變化。

No, I'd say if anything we've seen improvement. I think that if you look back toward early in the year, we might have seen a little bit of that, but I actually think the business environment is pretty normalized if you take out the cancellations of stuff that was awarded during the COVID high. It is a pretty normalized business environment.

不，我想說的是我們是否看到了任何改進。我認為，如果你回顧今年年初，我們可能已經看到了一些這樣的情況，但實際上，如果你除去在新冠疫情期間取消的項目，我認為商業環境已經相當正常化。這是一個相當標準化的商業環境。

I would think that we can get back to robust growth in the future. It's just going to take some time. But no, I've not seen lately any sort of trend toward dropping pricing or aggressive, overly aggressive pricing. I mean, look, it's a competitive environment but nothing unusual in the last quarter, I don't think

我認為我們未來可以恢復強勁成長。這只是需要一些時間。但不，我最近沒有看到任何下降定價或激進、過度激進定價的趨勢。我的意思是，看，這是一個競爭環境，但上個季度沒有什麼異常，我不認為

That's interesting and good to hear. Thank you for the answers.

這很有趣，也很好聽。謝謝您的回答。

Max Smock, William Blair.

馬克斯·斯莫克，威廉·布萊爾。

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just following up on Dave's first question there around the size of the cancellations in total. Last quarter, you mentioned double the normal range. I think if they had been within the range, you quoted a book to bill of about 1.24.

嘿，早安。感謝您回答我的問題。也許只是跟進戴夫的第一個問題，即取消的總數。上個季度，您提到了正常範圍的兩倍。我想如果它們在這個範圍內，你引用的一本書到帳單的價格約為 1.24。

Just wondering if you can give us a similar level of detail this quarter in terms of the difference between gross and net bookings and what book to bill would have looked like if cancellations were within that kind of normal 4% to 5% range that you've seen historically.

只是想知道您是否可以在本季度向我們提供類似的詳細信息，了解總預訂量和淨預訂量之間的差異，以及如果取消量在您所說的正常4% 到5% 範圍內，則需要計費的書籍會是什麼樣子。

Yeah. No, look, I don't have a kind of an analysis of that. Certainly, even if we didn't have elevated cancellations this quarter, which were not massive, they were outside of our range, but it wasn't a large diversion like last quarter. And we still would have had relatively, bookings somewhat below kind of what we've been running at sort of 1.2 sort of range.

是的。不，聽著，我對此沒有任何分析。當然，即使本季度取消訂單數量沒有增加（數量並不多，也超出了我們的承受範圍），但這並不像上季度那樣造成很大的轉移。我們的預訂量仍然會相對低於我們一直在運行的 1.2 左右的範圍。

It would have been well below that just because of the prior, the cumulative prior cancellations in Q1 and Q2. So it's a mix of the cancellations over that entire period, Q1 through Q3 that causes the reduced bookings. Again, if you cancel stuff that's in the pipeline, that hasn't got the backlog. It's going to show up in future backlog awards and book to bill and that's what we've seen.

僅僅因為第一季和第二季之前累積的取消訂單，這一數字就會遠低於這個數字。因此，整個時期（第一季到第三季）的取消混合導致了預訂量的減少。再說一遍，如果你取消了正在進行中的工作，那就沒有積壓。它將出現在未來的積壓訂單獎勵和按帳單預訂中，這就是我們所看到的。

Yeah, it makes sense. So it's basically, it's just a little tougher to come up with that metric this quarter because you're also working off the elevated cancellations in the prior quarter. Is that the right way to think about it?

是的，這是有道理的。因此，基本上，本季提出該指標有點困難，因為您還需要解決上一季取消訂單增加的問題。這是正確的思考方式嗎？

It's sorting it out between the two is -- but it would have been, I don't know, you could say, look, even if we had very low cancellations this quarter, we wouldn't have gotten to a 1.2 so that's the kind of.

它正在兩者之間進行排序 - 但它會是，我不知道，你可以說，看，即使我們本季度的取消量非常低，我們也不會達到 1.2，所以這就是有點。

Maybe following up on that, on the gross booking side, August. Have you seen any change in terms of your win rate or competitive dynamics, to Dave's point around pricing or just any other factors that would cause a shift one way or another maybe be causing a little bit of pullback or maybe even a step up in your run rate here in the back half of the year.

也許會在八月份的總預訂方面跟進。你是否看到你的勝率或競爭動態方面有任何變化，戴夫在定價方面的觀點或任何其他因素會導致這種或另一種方式的轉變，可能會導致一點點回調，甚至可能是你的進步下半年的運行率。

Yeah. No, look, our win rate was actually really strong in late last year, the second half of last year, entire second half, it was very strong. Q1 was a -- Q4 in terms of opportunities were pretty weak. In Q1, we had a very low kind of awards. You kind of put it in that kind of context in terms of new authorizations.

是的。不，你看，其實我們的勝率在去年年底、去年下半年、整個下半年都非常強。第一季－第四季的機會相當薄弱。在第一季度，我們的獎項非常低。您可以將其放在新授權的背景下。

And then subsequently, we've had win rates that are really right in the middle of kind of the range. And so we're doing fine the last couple quarters. Winning something and then having a cancel though it doesn't do you a lot of good in the long term.

隨後，我們的勝率確實處於該範圍的中間。因此，我們在過去幾個季度表現良好。贏得一些東西然後取消，儘管從長遠來看這對你沒有多大好處。

So it's really the cancellations. It's not our win rate, it's not the amount of awards, it's not -- the driver has been a lot of stuff that was awarded in that kind of 2000 -- 2001 maybe early 2002 to '20, '21 and '22 that we've seen a lot of cancellations from things awarded in that time frame.

所以這確實是取消。這不是我們的勝率，也不是獎項的數量，這不是——車手在2000年、2001年或2002年初到20、21和22年間獲得了很多獎項。授予的項目被取消。

I'll leave it there and hop back in the queue. Thanks for taking our questions.

我會把它留在那裡，然後跳回隊伍中。感謝您回答我們的問題。

Eric Coldwell, Baird.

埃里克·科德威爾，貝爾德。

Thanks very much. On average over time, how much of your quarterly gross awards have come from awards that were previously made in prior periods, whether we call that pre backlog or pipeline backlog -- stuff that you had won in the past but would put into backlog and into bookings and backlog in a future period. What was the normal cushion over time when you entered a quarter?

非常感謝。平均而言，隨著時間的推移，您的季度總獎勵有多少來自之前期間的獎勵，無論我們稱之為預積壓還是管道積壓 - 您過去贏得但會放入積壓和進入的東西未來一段時間的預訂和積壓。當您進入一個季度時，一段時間內的正常緩衝是多少？

I mean, basically nothing gets into backlog that is first awarded in that same quarter. So everything comes in from -- I think across the industry, you get an award and often you don't even know how much it is really still, you're refining the -- there's still change in specs and it takes a while before from award to get to a point where you've got it locked down.

我的意思是，基本上沒有任何東西會進入同一季度首次授予的積壓訂單中。所以一切都來自——我認為在整個行業，你獲得了一個獎項，通常你甚至不知道它到底有多少，你正在完善——規格仍然有變化，需要一段時間才能實現從獲獎到鎖定它。

And for us, get it started, for others, it might be under contract. The contract our -- if we did our backlog based on contract versus study start, it'd be about the same time frame. We get a contract that you're often working under a letter of intent or startup agreement and you don't really have a contract until, about when the studies entering patients in the field, which is kind of our criteria for entering backlog.

對我們來說，開始吧，對於其他人來說，可能是在合約範圍內。合約 - 如果我們根據合約與研究開始來完成積壓工作，那麼時間框架將大致相同。我們簽訂的合約通常是根據意向書或啟動協議進行工作，直到研究進入患者現場時，您才真正簽訂合同，這是我們輸入待辦事項的標準。

But that takes multiple quarters usually. Some things, yes, we'll hit the same quarter, but they're the unusual opportunities.

但這通常需要多個季度。是的，有些事情我們會在同一季度實現，但它們是不尋常的機會。

Okay. And then, I guess the – look, the elephant in the room here is that the market has this impression that you've had growth strains on the organization that have led to quality issues and that these cancels are actually being caused by unhappy clients who are not out of money, but in fact, leaving you to go to another CRO. You've not indicated that on this call or prior calls, but do you have a sense on how much of the cancellations actually are projects that will still go on, but they're just going to go on with another vendor?

好的。然後，我想——看起來，房間裡的大像是，市場有這樣的印象，即組織面臨成長壓力，導致品質問題，而這些取消實際上是由於不滿意造成的不是沒錢的客戶，而是實際上讓你去找另一家CRO的客戶。您在這次電話會議或之前的電話會議中沒有表明這一點，但您是否知道有多少取消的項目實際上仍將繼續進行，但它們只是與另一家供應商繼續進行？

So we've had -- so, the number of things that we've lost because of client dissatisfaction with our performance in the last year is not a small number, it's zero. There have been -- years ago, there might have been a case where a client was dissatisfied and moved to another CRO, but that hasn't happened.

所以我們——所以，由於客戶對我們去年的表現不滿意而失去的東西的數量不是一個小數字，它是零。幾年前，可能會出現客戶不滿意並轉到另一家 CRO 的情況，但這種情況並沒有發生。

We have had a fair number of clients that have run out of funding, have had a great deal of difficulty and we've provided notice of termination and they've moved it to another CRO. And some of those have subsequently been funded.

我們有相當多的客戶已經耗盡了資金，遇到了很大的困難，我們已經提供了終止通知，他們已將其轉移給另一個 CRO。其中一些隨後得到了資助。

And so maybe we made the wrong choice at the time. But in the kind of early in the year, things were looking pretty bad in terms of funding we couldn't -- didn't feel we could just accept running the program, continuing it without payment.

所以也許我們當時做了錯誤的選擇。但在今年年初，就資金而言，情況看起來相當糟糕，我們無法——不覺得我們可以接受運行該計劃，繼續不付款。

And I would not expect that a company that is given notice of termination by their CRO is going to go to another CRO and say, we'd like you to take over this work. And the reason is because the prior CRO has, is terminating on us, I suspect they spin it in some different way.

我不認為一家收到 CRO 終止通知的公司會去找另一家 CRO 說，我們希望你接手這項工作。原因是因為之前的 CRO 已經終止了我們，我懷疑他們以某種不同的方式進行了處理。

But the fact is that is, what has happened. So it isn't even necessary that if you hear this from another CRO that they don't actually believe that this was a performance based move. But that's just not true.

但事實就是這樣，已經發生了。因此，如果您從另一位 CRO 那裡聽到這一點，甚至沒有必要表明他們實際上並不相信這是基於績效的舉措。但事實並非如此。

All right. That's a good response. And then on the last one, I'll squeeze in one more if you don't mind. Did I hear you say that you expected to get back to a quote normal 1.15-plus net book to bill next year in the second half?

好的。這是一個很好的回應。最後一張，如果你不介意的話，我會再擠一張。我是否聽說過您預計明年下半年將恢復到 1.15 以上上網本的正常報價？

Correct.

正確的。

Yeah, because your average book to bill since the IPO through the fourth quarter of '23 was 1.25. So I'm just curious on the disconnect between what you see as normal at 1.15, whereas history would say more like 1.25.

是的，因為自 IPO 以來到 2023 年第四季的平均帳面成本為 1.25。所以我只是好奇你所認為的正常值 1.15 與歷史上的值更像是 1.25 之間的脫節。

Yeah, I mean, I'm not targeting 1.15. I'm kind of putting that as the floor for expectations and that we would expect to see that, and hopefully, based on the business environment, it gets to 1.2, 1.25.

是的，我的意思是，我的目標不是 1.15。我將其作為預期的下限，我們希望看到這一點，並希望根據商業環境，它將達到 1.2、1.25。

Okay. Thanks very much. I appreciate it.

好的。非常感謝。我很感激。

Ann Hynes, Mizuho.

安海因斯，瑞穗。

Hi, good morning. I know the past couple of years you have provided forward year guidance. Is there anything directionally you want to say about 2025 from maybe a margin perspective? So like for example, if we're in a maybe mid-single digit revenue growth environment, how do we view margins in that environment?

嗨，早安。我知道過去幾年您提供了遠期指導。從利潤率的角度來看，您對 2025 年有什麼方向性的看法嗎？例如，如果我們處於中等個位數的收入成長環境中，我們如何看待該環境中的利潤率？

Yeah, Ann, we're not going to provide any context on 2025 at this point just given, just the uncertainty around cancellations, we really want to have another quarter under our belts so that we can provide some good perspective and guidance on the fourth quarter call.

是的，安，我們目前不會提供有關2025 年的任何背景信息，只是取消相關的不確定性，我們真的希望再有一個季度的時間，以便我們可以對第四個季度提供一些好的觀點和指導季度電話。

All right. And then how should we think about margins? Like for example, if you only grow mid-single digits, how should we view -- this quarter, you had a lot of cost savings. Can those continue in a lower revenue environment?

好的。那我們該如何考慮利潤呢？舉例來說，如果你只成長中個位數，我們應該如何看待——本季度，你節省了大量成本。這些可以在收入較低的環境中持續下去嗎？

Yeah, I mean, certainly they can continue. But remember there's a lot of other factors that come into play on margins, reimbursable cost, what's going on with utilization, what's going on with retention levels. We're kind of operating in a pretty optimal spot right now across all those different metrics and it just depends on how those progress throughout this quarter and then to 2025 as well.

是的，我的意思是，他們當然可以繼續。但請記住，還有很多其他因素會影響利潤、可報銷成本、利用率、保留水準等。我們目前在所有這些不同的指標上都處於一個相當最佳的位置，這僅取決於這些指標在本季度以及到 2025 年的進展。

Great. And one last question, did you -- I might have missed this, but did you talk about gross bookings, were they actually up in the quarter and the issue is just cancellations?

偉大的。最後一個問題，我可能錯過了這一點，但是您是否談到了總預訂量？

Gross bookings were not up in the quarter. But again, the reason they weren't -- the reason they were low was because of cancellations in the prior few quarters. So I mean, it's cancellation of pipeline work and so I should separate what I'm saying by cancellation.

本季度總預訂量沒有增加。但同樣，他們之所以沒有這樣做——他們之所以低的原因是因為前幾季的取消。所以我的意思是，這是取消管道工作，所以我應該將我所說的取消分開。

We report the cancellation of backlog and gross bookings and backlog would have been lower, but the gross bookings and backlog this quarter were lower because of cancellations in non-backlog work prior to that, which we generally do not provide the non-backlog cancellation magnitude. That makes sense?

我們報告積壓訂單的取消以及總預訂量和積壓量本來會較低，但本季度的總預訂量和積壓量較低，因為在此之前取消了非積壓工作，而我們通常不提供非積壓取消量。這樣有道理嗎？

Yeah. Thank you.

是的。謝謝。

Dan Leonard, UBS.

丹‧倫納德，瑞銀集團。

Thank you. First off the dynamic you're describing where companies were funded during the sugar high of COVID are now running out of money. Any sense for when that will be completely washed out of the system? I mean, the funding peak was three years ago at this point.

謝謝。首先，你所描述的動態是，在新冠疫情高漲時期獲得資金的公司現在資金已經耗盡。什麼時候它會被完全從系統中清除掉，有什麼意義嗎？我的意思是，融資高峰是三年前的此時。

Yeah, I keep hoping that's true. But look, we still have some clients that are kind of taking it quarter to quarter, and continuing programs that really were funded in that period and are not, well-funded companies. Again, we've -- a number of them have, gone bankrupt, we gave term notice to a fair number of companies because of inability to pay and terminated.

是的，我一直希望這是真的。但看，我們仍然有一些客戶按季度進行，並繼續實施那些在那個時期確實得到資助的項目，但這些項目並不是資金充足的公司。再說一次，我們——其中一些公司已經破產，我們向相當多的公司發出了期限通知，因為它們無法付款並被終止。

Most of those didn't make it, some of them eventually did get some funding and have continued on. But there's still a number of projects that we have that are a challenged funding type situations. I'm hoping that that's done but it kind of depends on the future business environment. If things turn south again, you get more of these cancellations, potentially. Certainly the overhang is less, I guess you'd say, but I can't say it's entirely eliminated.

其中大多數都沒有成功，其中一些最終確實獲得了一些資金並繼續前進。但我們仍有許多專案面臨資金類型的挑戰。我希望這已經完成，但這在某種程度上取決於未來的商業環境。如果情況再次惡化，您可能會遇到更多此類取消。當然，我猜你會說，懸垂變少了，但我不能說它已經完全消除了。

And just a quick follow up. Possibly you could frame your expectations on what book to bill could look like in the fourth quarter. I'm trying to triangulate your various comments on pre backlog and RFPs being down and thought it would just be easier to ask

只需快速跟進即可。也許您可以對第四季度的圖書帳單情況進行預期。我正在嘗試對您對預積壓和 RFP 下降的各種評論進行三角測量，並認為詢問會更容易

What we expect our book to bill to be in Q4?

我們預計我們的書在第四季的售價是多少？

Yeah, and I understand you don't want to give an explicit number, but maybe you could just offer some framing thoughts around that.

是的，我知道你不想給出明確的數字，但也許你可以圍繞這個問題提供一些框架性的想法。

Okay. So better than this past quarter, better than 1.0. Look, a lot of things do happen during the quarter. Like I say most things are in that pipeline but what makes it the backlog and what gets canceled and all kinds of other things have a rather large effect on that between a 1 and a 1.2.

好的。比上個季度更好，比 1.0 更好。看，本季確實發生了很多事情。就像我說的，大多數事情都在這個管道中，但什麼導致了積壓、什麼被取消以及所有其他事情對 1 和 1.2 之間的影響相當大。

But I think it's not going to be a 1.2 and it's not going to be a 1.0. It's going to be somewhere above a 1. And look, kind of, if you look at it like it's going to be depressed. So if I -- if it was going to be 1.2, I wouldn't say that was going to be depressed. So we're talking about probably under 1.1.

但我認為它不會是 1.2，也不會是 1.0。它會高於 1。看起來，如果你看著它，它就會變得沮喪。所以如果我——如果是 1.2，我不會說會令人沮喪。所以我們談論的可能是 1.1 以下。

Appreciate that. Thank you.

很欣賞這一點。謝謝。

Justin Bowers, DB.

賈斯汀·鮑爾斯，DB。

Thank you. Good morning. And thanks for the question. So just one on backlog. Can you give us -- this is related to Dan's question. But can you give us a sense of how much of the backlog is from that vintage from 2020 up to let's say 2020 and 2021?

謝謝。早安.謝謝你的提問。所以只有一份積壓訂單。你能否告訴我們──這與丹的問題有關。但您能否讓我們了解一下從 2020 年到 2020 年和 2021 年該年份的積壓訂單有多少？

And then the second part of that would be of the sort of that not yet awarded but impacting the go forward bookings. Is there a way to quantify what the impact of that is or frame how much of your typical bookings historically have reflected some of that not awarded, but it shows up in the gross?

然後，第二部分將是尚未授予但影響繼續預訂的那種。有沒有一種方法可以量化其影響，或者確定歷史上有多少典型預訂反映了一些未授予但顯示在總額中的預訂？

I'm sorry. I don't -- I'm not understanding exactly what you're looking for. How much of the unrecognized backlog is going into backlog or --

對不起。我不——我不明白你到底在尋找什麼。有多少未識別的待辦事項將進入待辦事項或--

Yeah. So part one is just like if you look at the current backlog, how much of that is from the '20 to '21 vintage. And then the second --

是的。所以第一部分就像你看看目前的積壓訂單，其中有多少來自 20 至 21 年份。然後是第二個--

Sure. that’s an easier part. Let me just take that, I don't know, I don't have it broken out. It's like I say, I think there still is an amount there. And I do point to that is because we've never seen an environment where there was, three quarters in a row of, kind of this high bit cancellation.

當然。這是比較容易的部分。讓我這麼說吧，我不知道，我沒有把它打破。就像我說的，我認為還有一定數量。我確實指出，這是因為我們從未見過連續四分之三出現這種高位取消的環境。

And I do put it together to, there was a disproportionate number that we kind of funded during that period. But look this is a -- I don't want to make it sound like that's the only -- it's only the post COVID sugar high that we're -- this is an ongoing thing of course, we do have a lot of clients that are dependent upon the capital markets to complete a project, okay. So just even in normal time, okay.

我確實把它放在一起，在那段時期我們資助的資金數量不成比例。但你看，這是——我不想讓它聽起來是唯一的——這只是我們在新冠疫情後的高糖水平——當然，這是一個持續的事情，我們確實有很多客戶依賴資本市場來完成一個項目，好吧。所以即使在正常時間，也可以。

So I think it was exacerbated though because there were a fair number of projects, funded during that period. And they still represent a chunk of our backlog, I don't think it's a majority of the backlog, but I just don't have a breakout of just, when things were awarded, et cetera.

所以我認為這種情況加劇了，因為在那段時期有相當數量的計畫得到資助。它們仍然占我們積壓工作的很大一部分，我不認為這佔了積壓工作的大部分，但我只是沒有突破，當事情被授予時，等等。

But it enhances the issue in terms of the great rise in funding that was available and then the acute drop off, that's the issue. And this happens all the time even now we're getting projects that are funded because things are better than they could be for that company a year from now.

但它加劇了這個問題，即可用資金大幅增加，然後急劇下降，這就是問題所在。這種情況一直在發生，即使現在我們也得到了資助的項目，因為一年後該公司的情況會比現在更好。

So I don't want to make it, into it just an all one-time event. But I do think that contributed to the size and duration of these cancellations.

所以我不想讓它成為一次性的事件。但我確實認為這導致了這些取消的規模和持續時間。

Understood. And then with -- so just trying to -- part two of that would just be okay historically, in any given quarter, if what percentage of your bookings are related to this dynamic of in the pipeline, but not yet awarded? For example, is that like 10% or 20%?

明白了。然後 - 所以只是嘗試 - 從歷史上看，在任何給定的季度，如果你的預訂中有多少百分比與管道中的這種動態相關，但尚未授予？例如，是 10% 還是 20%？

Virtually 100%. I mean, I thought I answered that just a little bit ago. The -- almost, it's very rare that a project is awarded in a quarter. And then it is recognized in the backlog in the same quarter. It generally takes a few to several quarters for that to happen.

幾乎 100%。我的意思是，我想我剛剛回答過這個問題。一個專案在一個季度內獲得批准的情況幾乎很少見。然後在同季度的積壓訂單中確認。通常需要幾個到幾個季度才能發生。

Because our backlog recognition is the project really beginning to enroll patients in that -- within the next quarter. So -- and that usually takes, you can say six months or whatever, but it's very rare that it's only a month or two.

因為我們的積壓工作認識到該計畫真正開始在下個季度內招募患者。所以——這通常需要，你可以說六個月或其他什麼時間，但只有一兩個月的情況是非常罕見的。

Okay. Understood. And then with -- just based on what you're seeing now with the current backlog, how does that impact your view on employee growth over the next quarter or so? And can you give us a sense of maybe like reimbursable costs now? Are we at like steady state given what you're seeing or would there be any change with sort of the mix there?

好的。明白了。然後，根據您現在所看到的當前積壓情況，這對您對下個季度左右員工成長的看法有何影響？您能否讓我們了解現在可能需要報銷的費用？考慮到您所看到的情況，我們是否處於穩定狀態，或者那裡的混合會有任何變化嗎？

Yeah, I can speak to employee growth. We did increase headcount it's about 1.8% from the prior year. That's likely where we're going to end the year given that Q4 is historically a slower hiring, period for us. We do expect accelerated growth in 2025. Putting a finer point on that is something we'll do as we issue our 2025 guidance on the next quarter call. Kevin, you want to speak to reimbursable cost?

是的，我可以談談員工的成長。我們確實增加了員工人數，比前一年增加了約 1.8%。鑑於從歷史上看，第四季度對我們來說是一個招聘速度較慢的時期，因此我們很可能會在這一點結束今年。我們預計 2025 年將出現加速成長。我們將在下一季電話會議上發布 2025 年指引時對此進行更詳細的闡述。凱文，您想談談可報銷費用嗎？

Yeah. And in terms of reimbursable, we'll provide more context on 2025 next quarter. But historically, we've been in this 33% to 35%, it's always been volatile. Certainly, our ability to predict it has been challenged of late. It was very high in the last three quarters of 2023 approaching 40% and then it dropped in Q1 and then back up in Q2 and back down in Q3.

是的。在可報銷方面，我們將在下個季度提供更多有關 2025 年的背景資訊。但從歷史上看，我們一直處於這個 33% 到 35% 的水平，它總是不穩定的。當然，我們的預測能力最近受到了挑戰。在 2023 年最後三個季度，這一比例非常高，接近 40%，然後在第一季度下降，然後在第二季度回升，在第三季度又回落。

I don't think it's going to get back to that 33% to 35% range. The fourth quarter, our modeling would suggest it picks back up not to the levels that we saw a year ago, but higher than what we saw in the third quarter.

我認為它不會回到 33% 到 35% 的範圍。我們的模型表明，第四季度它不會回升到我們一年前看到的水平，而是高於我們在第三季度看到的水平。

I think costs are stabilizing and normalizing. There's still stress on sites, but likely 2025 is still somewhat elevated but perhaps not as high as what we had expected exiting 2023 but we'll try to provide some more color on the fourth quarter call.

我認為成本正在穩定和正常化。網站仍然面臨壓力，但 2025 年的壓力可能仍會有所上升，但可能沒有我們預期的 2023 年那麼高，但我們將盡力在第四季度的電話會議上提供更多資訊。

Understood. Thank you.

明白了。謝謝。

Charles Rhyee, TD Cowen.

查爾斯‧萊伊 (Charles Rhyee)，TD 考恩 (TD Cowen)。

Oh, yeah. Thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to follow up. August, you talked about, I know it's not all of your backlog, but when we think about that period and during COVID of funding and these companies running out of money, what about the kind of significant amount of funding we had in the first half of this year?

哦，是的。感謝您提出問題。我只是想跟進。八月，你談到，我知道這不是你的全部積壓，但是當我們想到那段時期和新冠疫情期間的資金以及這些公司的資金耗盡時，我們上半年擁有的大量資金怎麼樣？ ？

Did that not go to some of these clients or has that money not been released? Could it be that some of that comes back for these companies that they're waiting on funding. Anything if you connect sort of the companies that you're talking about here that are kind of running out of money versus maybe those that did get funding in the first part of this year, were they not necessarily the same?

難道這筆錢沒有流向其中一些客戶，或者這筆錢沒有被放走嗎？對於那些正在等待資金的公司來說，其中的一些可能會回來。如果你把你在這裡談論的那些資金耗盡的公司與今年上半年確實獲得資金的公司聯繫起來，那它們不一定是一樣的嗎？

Yeah. No, it's -- look there's a lot of overlap, a fair number of companies that we work with did get funding and their projects are continuing and they're the ones that didn't cancel. And there's a fair number that didn't get funding and a few actually, two that I'm aware of that, we -- they had a great deal of difficulty.

是的。不，看起來有很多重疊，與我們合作的相當多的公司確實獲得了資金，他們的項目正在繼續，而且他們是那些沒有取消的項目。有相當多的人沒有獲得資金，實際上還有一些人，據我所知，我們——他們遇到了很大的困難。

We served them kind of notice of our plans to move on because they were unable to pay us and they eventually did get some of that funding. So some of them with us, some of them without us and some did not get funding but it's not like that funding was just evenly distributed, it was given to specific companies and not everybody got funded.

我們向他們發出了我們計劃繼續前進的通知，因為他們無法支付我們費用，但他們最終確實得到了部分資金。所以他們中的一些人與我們在一起，有些人沒有我們，有些人沒有獲得資金，但資金並不是均勻分配的，它被提供給特定的公司，而不是每個人都得到資金。

Got it. That's helpful. Maybe as a follow up, last quarter, I think you guys talked about, looking to be opportunistic with share repurchase, shares. Since earnings, since last quarter, have been, under pressure.

知道了。這很有幫助。也許作為後續行動，上個季度，我想你們談到了尋求股票回購和股票機會主義。自上季以來，獲利一直面臨壓力。

But then when we look, I don't think you guys bought any stock back in the -- in this last quarter. Any reason not to have been more opportunistic this past quarter? Can you talk about sort of your thoughts on buying back shares? Thanks.

但當我們觀察時，我認為你們在上個季度沒有買任何股票。上個季度有什麼理由不更投機取巧呢？能談談您對回購股票的想法嗎？謝謝。

Yeah, I mean, Charles, our strategy hasn't changed. And we try to put plans in place and we're somewhat limited in terms of timing on when we can put things in place and we've got certain restrictions as well.

是的，我的意思是，查爾斯，我們的策略沒有改變。我們試圖將計劃落實到位，但我們在落實計劃的時間方面受到一定限制，而且我們也有某些限制。

And unfortunately, those plans did not trigger, we'll continue to be disciplined in our approach and opportunistically rebuying and to the extent that we're able to execute on that plan, we'll buy shares. If not, we'll continue to build some levels of cash here.

不幸的是，這些計劃沒有觸發，我們將繼續遵守我們的方法並機會主義地重新購買，並且在我們能夠執行該計劃的範圍內，我們將購買股票。如果沒有，我們將繼續在這裡累積一定程度的現金。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

Jailendra Singh, Truist Securities.

Jailendra Singh，Truist 證券公司。

Jailendra Singh? Just want to make sure I hear the name.

賈蘭德拉辛格？只是想確保我聽到這個名字。

Yeah, that’s right, you can go ahead.

是的，沒錯，你可以繼續。

Yeah. Hi, thanks. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. So I just want to go back to cancellations. You called out Q3 trends were similar to Q1 but better than what experienced in Q2. I want you to put a finer point on the intra quarter trends in terms of cancellation last quarter, you called out trends were soft in June but had shown signs of some stabilization in July.

是的。你好，謝謝。早安.感謝您回答我的問題。所以我只想回到取消。您指出第三季的趨勢與第一季相似，但比第二季的趨勢更好。我希望您能更詳細地闡述上季度取消訂單方面的季度內趨勢，您指出 6 月趨勢疲軟，但 7 月顯示出一些穩定的跡象。

Did that not just actually happen as you wrapped up the month or was it really that trends got worse in August and September? It looks like you're expecting book to bill to improve in Q4. Does that mean trends were better exiting Q3 and likely continued in October versus what a book to bill of 1.0 might imply? Just trying to understand the trend, recent trends and maybe something about October.

這不是在本月結束時才真正發生的嗎？您似乎預計第四季度的圖書帳單會有所改善。這是否意味著第三季的趨勢更好，並且可能會在 10 月繼續，而不是一本書的帳單為 1.0 可能意味著？只是想了解趨勢、最近的趨勢以及十月的情況。

Yeah, I don't have the exact dates, I think at the time of our last call, we only had a couple of weeks’ data into July and it looked fine and probably looked like it was going to be within the sort of usual range. But over the quarter, it's not like it just all ramped in the last month or it suddenly spiked at any given time.

是的，我沒有確切的日期，我想在我們上次通話時，我們只有幾週的數據——七月份的數據，看起來不錯，而且可能看起來會在這樣的範圍內通常的範圍。但在整個季度中，它並不像上個月才全部上升或在任何給定時間突然飆升。

But we did have a number of cancellations through the quarter that pushed us out of what, we consider the normal range. But again, it wasn't -- that wasn't the reason, we have a 1.0 book to bill that was more driven by the gutted pipeline from prior cancellations.

但整個季度我們確實有一些取消訂單，這使我們超出了我們認為的正常範圍。但再說一遍，事實並非如此——這不是原因，我們有一本 1.0 版的書需要計費，這更多是由之前取消的管道造成的。

Okay. And then my follow up, I want to go back to Eric's question around market competitiveness with some of your peers making a big push in EVP and biotech space with an argument that they are focused on providing specialized services to meet the unique demands of this customer segment.

好的。然後我想回到埃里克關於市場競爭力的問題，你的一些同行在執行副總裁和生物技術領域大力推動，他們的論點是他們專注於提供專業服務來滿足該客戶的獨特需求部分。

Just trying to understand, like, have you seen this market getting more competitive? I understand you might not have lost any client to a competitor due to client dissatisfaction. But what are your thoughts on your potential clients having more choices today versus Medpace being the partner of choice for these customers in the past?

只是想了解，例如，您是否看到這個市場變得更具競爭力？我了解您可能不會因為客戶不滿意而將任何客戶流失給競爭對手。但是，與過去 Medpace 作為這些客戶選擇的合作夥伴相比，您對現在的潛在客戶有更多選擇有何看法？

Jesse?

傑西？

Yeah. I'll jump in on that. We haven't -- I mean, the win rates been good. But as August mentioned earlier on the call, it is a competitive environment. We're seeing good competition in the field. But nothing that we'd point to in terms of any, irrational behavior or irrational or aggressive pricing, competition in the market, competitive space but no change really that we're seeing.

是的。我會立即介入。我們沒有——我的意思是，勝率很高。但正如奧古斯特早些時候在電話會議中提到的那樣，這是一個競爭環境。我們看到該領域存在良好的競爭。但我們沒有指出任何不合理的行為或不合理​​或激進的定價、市場競爭、競爭空間，但我們確實沒有看到任何變化。

Okay, great. Thanks a lot.

好的，太好了。多謝。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Max Smock, William Blair.

馬克斯·斯莫克，威廉·布萊爾。

Hey, thanks for speaking me into the follow up. I wanted to ask going back to kind of the front end demand environment. I think last quarter, you pointed to RFP flow up about 16% year over year. Biotech funding maybe took a little bit of a step back in the third quarter, but still overall, September was strong.

嘿，謝謝你讓我參與後續行動。我想問回到前端需求環境。我認為上個季度，您指出 RFP 流量同比增長了約 16%。生物技術資金可能在第三季度有所回落，但總體而言，九月仍然強勁。

Just wondering if you could comment on what you're seeing in terms of RFP flow so far in the fourth quarter as well as give an initial kind of update on how that initial awards, that pre backlog or bookings number has trended over the last couple of months.

只是想知道您是否可以對第四季度迄今為止的 RFP 流程發表評論，並提供有關初始獎勵、預積壓或預訂數量在過去幾年中的趨勢的初步更新幾個月。

So RFP numbers in the fourth quarter to date?

那麼迄今為止第四季的 RFP 數量是多少？

Well, or third quarter and then, yeah, any sort of look at how those flows have trended in fourth quarter would be great as well.

好吧，或者第三季度，然後，是的，以任何方式觀察這些流量在第四季度的趨勢也很好。

Okay. So fourth quarter, they were down a little bit sequentially. Not a great deal but they did tick down. July, I'm sorry -- October, we wouldn't really have anything yet. It takes standard turnaround for RFP coming in is 10 days. So you don't have any information on it until at least 10 days after it arrives because you don't have any numbers on it.

好的。因此，第四季度，他們的業績環比略有下降。雖然不是很多，但確實有所下降。七月，對不起——十月，我們還沒有真正擁有任何東西。RFP 的標準週轉時間為 10 天。因此，您至少要在貨物到達後 10 天才能獲得有關該貨物的任何信息，因為上面沒有任何數字。

You could just count them and of course, what I'm talking about is a dollar RFP flow. So we really -- we just have numbers for September, just very recently. So I really don't have any kind of trend. Certainly, the RFPs have continued to come in. I just don't know how dollar wise that would translate into Q4, but Q3 was -- it was down on more than 10% but not a great deal.

你可以數一下它們，當然，我說的是美元的 RFP 流量。所以我們真的 - 我們剛剛有 9 月份的數據，就在最近。所以我真的沒有任何趨勢。當然，RFP 仍在不斷收到。我只是不知道第四季的美元走勢如何，但第三季下降了 10% 以上，但幅度並不大。

So sorry, August, just to clarify on that. So down 10% sequentially off a strong Q2 number. But were they up year over year in the third quarter?

很抱歉，八月，我只是想澄清一下。因此，與第二季的強勁數據相比，季減了 10%。但第三季年增了嗎？

They were down slightly year-over-year.

它們同比略有下降。

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

And they were down less than probably, I don't know, maybe similar kind of, pop down that they had popped up in Q2.

我不知道，他們的下降幅度可能比第二季出現的下降幅度還要小。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Some were similar.

有些是相似的。

David Windley, Jefferies.

大衛溫德利，傑弗里斯。

I missed the name. Was that Dave Windley?

我錯過了這個名字。那是戴夫·溫德利嗎？

Yeah, go ahead.

是的，繼續吧。

Okay. All right. Great, thanks. So follow up, appreciate Eric's question on kind of addressing some rumor that's been out there head on. Another one is that you are pursuing or have one big pharma contracts. And I suppose if those -- if a big pharma opportunity was a full service opportunity and fit your model, that would be good.

好的。好的。太好了，謝謝。因此，請跟進，感謝埃里克提出的關於解決一些謠言的問題。另一種情況是您正在尋求或擁有一份大型製藥合約。我想，如果大型製藥公司的機會是全方位服務的機會並且適合您的模式，那就太好了。

But the odds of that are fairly low. And so I guess my basic question here is to ask you to discuss your go to market discipline. And is that still consistent in terms of your focus on biotech and your focus on full-service work?

但這種可能性相當低。因此，我想我的基本問題是請您討論您的市場准入紀律。您對生物技術的關注和對全方位服務工作的關注是否仍然一致？

Yeah, I will not run if nominated, I will not serve. I don't -- I'm not aware of it being on more large pharma work. No, our go to market is remains the same. We're not jumping and trying to do large pharma. We're not doing partial service, we're not doing functional.

是的，如果被提名我不會競選，我不會任職。我不知道——我不知道它在更大型的製藥工作中。不，我們的市場定位保持不變。我們不會跳槽並嘗試做大型製藥公司。我們不做部分服務，我們不做功能性服務。

We're not doing staffing, we're not doing any that kind of stuff. I think our core business is good and strong. I think that there's been some funding difficulties that have translated into a number of cancellations here, but I think longer term, we're on the winning strategy and we don't plan on changing it.

我們不做人員配置，我們不做任何類似的事情。我認為我們的核心業務良好且強勁。我認為存在一些資金困難，導致了一些取消，但我認為從長遠來看，我們正在製定獲勝策略，並且不打算改變它。

Got it. And further on clarification. So I think your commentary is largely answered this around the kind of the nature and source of the cancellations. One of the perhaps explanatory theories that we offered last night was that because your -- excuse me, your pass-throughs have come in light of your expectations, a couple of the three quarters year-to-date that maybe some of this was a lowered forward expectation around your pass throughs.

知道了。並進一步澄清。因此，我認為您的評論很大程度上是圍繞著取消的性質和來源來回答的。我們昨晚提供的也許具有解釋性的理論之一是，因為你的——對不起，你的傳遞是根據你的期望而來的，今年迄今為止的三個季度中的幾個可能其中一些是降低對你的穿越的預期期望。

And therefore, maybe calling out some amount of pass-through sizing pass-through estimating in the backlog. From your commentary, it doesn't sound like that is actually part of this, but I thought I'd give you an opportunity to clarify and confirm.

因此，可能會在待辦事項中呼叫一定量的傳遞大小傳遞估計。從你的評論來看，聽起來這實際上不是其中的一部分，但我想我應該給你一個澄清和確認的機會。

Kevin, do you have any kind of --

凱文，你有什麼--

Yes, David, it's not related to some kind of an adjustment on future forward pass-through activity if that's your question.

是的，大衛，如果這是你的問題的話，這與未來前向傳遞活動的某種調整無關。

Yeah, it is. Okay. Thank you. And then lastly on labor, appreciate Jesse your answer sounds like if I understood correctly that your Q3 ending headcount is what you expect to end 4Q. And in terms of kind of utilization of those staff, I presume that your margins have benefited from not having continual flow of new employees coming in and not being billable or being underproductive, is that correct? And is there still some of that benefit that you could squeeze out of the organization or is that kind of at a peak?

是的，確實如此。好的。謝謝。最後關於勞動力，謝謝傑西，如果我理解正確的話，你的回答聽起來就像你第三季末的員工人數就是你期望第四季末的人數。就這些員工的利用而言，我認為你們的利潤得益於沒有新員工的持續湧入，並且沒有計費或生產力低下，這是正確的嗎？您是否還可以從組織中榨取一些好處，或者這種好處是否已經達到頂峰？

Yeah, you're right, Dave. There is continued efficiency, we got low turnover and good utilization of staff. So plenty of staff in terms of the individuals that we're sourcing and putting onto new projects. And then also just good efficiency of existing seasoned staff because we're not hiring as much right now or haven't been hiring as much the burden then on the existing employee base, in terms of training and mentoring and bringing up to speed.

是的，你是對的，戴夫。效率持續維持，人員流動率低，員工利用率高。我們正在招募並投入新專案的人員數量如此之多。然後，現有經驗豐富的員工的效率也很高，因為我們現在沒有招募那麼多員工，或者沒有招募那麼多員工，在培訓、指導和提高速度方面給現有員工帶來了負擔。

Those newer individuals is lower and therefore their productivity on billable work is higher. So in a good spot now, as I mentioned, we do expect to accelerate hiring as we move through next year. But the rate of that and the size of that will largely be dependent upon what the bookings look like and what the future opportunities turn out to be.

這些新人的水平較低，因此他們的計費工作生產力較高。因此，正如我所提到的，我們確實希望在明年加快招募速度。但預訂的速度和規模在很大程度上取決於預訂情況以及未來的機會是什麼。

And I'm so sorry. Thanks for that, Jesse. Oh, I'm sorry.

我很抱歉。謝謝你，傑西。哦，對不起。

I'd just add, yeah, our turnover is the lowest, the last two quarters been the lowest possibly ever. Certainly in the last five years. So it's just -- it's really, in the past year just come down to record lows.

我想補充一點，是的，我們的營業額是最低的，過去兩季可能是有史以來最低的。當然是在過去五年。所以，實際上，在過去的一年裡，它只是跌至歷史新低。

Thanks for that. And I was just going to clarify, Jesse, on the productivity point. So is there actually still even room for productivity for further productivity to lead to even higher margin in the near term? And I guess you've kind of guided to that, but I just wanted to ask.

謝謝你。傑西，我只是想澄清一下生產力問題。那麼，實際上是否還有進一步提高生產力的空間，從而在短期內帶來更高的利潤率？我想你已經對此進行了引導，但我只是想問一下。

Yeah, I don't think a great deal. I mean, I think we're at good efficiency now. I don't think there's a lot more of margin expansion in terms of leveraging lower turnover and greater productivity than we currently are experiencing.

是的，我認為沒什麼大不了的。我的意思是，我認為我們現在效率很高。我認為，在利用較低的營業額和提高生產力方面，利潤率的擴張不會比我們目前所經歷的更多。

Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you for taking my follow up.

知道了。這非常有幫助。感謝您接受我的跟進。

Eric Coldwell, Baird.

埃里克·科德威爾，貝爾德。

Thanks. Can you hear me?

謝謝。你聽得到我嗎？

We can hear you, Eric.

我們能聽到你的聲音，艾瑞克。

Great. Yeah, great. I wanted to just wrap up here with backlog burn. You've, over the last couple of years, you've had a range from the mid-16% on a quarterly basis, up to over 19%. Last three quarters, you've run consistently at 18.2%.

偉大的。是的，太棒了。我想以積壓的燃燒來結束這裡。在過去的幾年裡，季度成長率從 16% 到 19% 以上不等。過去三個季度，您的跑步效率始終保持在 18.2%。

What dynamics might be in play that would shift that burn rate up or down over the next 12 months? I'm just thinking about all the moving pieces of these cancellations and then pass through volatility et cetera. I'm just -- I'm trying to get a sense on whether you're expecting a similar low-18s rate going forward or if you have reasons to believe that could go back to the lows of a couple of years ago or the highs of last year.

未來 12 個月內，哪些因素可能會導致資金消耗率上升或下降？我只是在考慮這些取消的所有影響因素，然後再考慮波動性等等。我只是想了解一下，您是否預計未來 18 歲以下兒童的發病率會出現類似的低水平，或者您是否有理由相信，這種情況可能會回到幾年前的低點或去年的高點。

Yeah. Good question, Eric. I mean, certainly, we continue to -- progress of studies continues and it's very healthy for active programs. I think the burn rate is more influenced by what's going on with bookings.

是的。好問題，埃里克。我的意思是，我們當然會繼續下去——研究繼續取得進展，這對於積極的專案來說是非常健康的。我認為燒錢率更多地受到預訂情況的影響。

So in the period that you were stating where it was kind of in the 16%, that was in the period where our bookings were closer to [1.4%] and you're putting all of the programs in to backlog and these are programs that are starting to burn, but it takes a while for those programs to burn up.

因此，在您所說的 16% 的時期內，也就是我們的預訂量接近 [1.4%] 的時期，您將所有節目都列入積壓工作，這些節目正在開始燃燒，但這些程序需要一段時間才能燃燒完畢。

Now here lately, you've seen the reverse of that where the burn rate started to pick up is kind of the bookings have slowed down. So it's not a function of how programs are progressing necessarily more in our case, as much as it is just the calculation on how bookings are progressing. So I think the burn rate you'll see just kind of stay at this level depending on what happens with the future bookings.

最近，你看到了相反的情況，燃燒率開始上升，預訂量有所放緩。因此，在我們的例子中，它並不是程式進度的函數，而只是對預訂進度的計算。因此，我認為您會看到的燃燒率會保持在這個水平，具體取決於未來預訂的情況。

And then last one for me, just a technical one. Would you mind sharing how many projects or trials you're working on in the moment? Just maybe on an annual basis, maybe quarterly. I'm just, I get a lot of questions about how many studies or different programs you're running at a given time. I'd love to get an update for the total number if you have that.

最後一個對我來說只是技術性的。您介意分享您目前正在進行的專案或試驗數量嗎？也許每年一次，也許每季一次。我只是，我收到很多關於您在特定時間運行多少個研究或不同項目的問題。如果您有的話，我很想知道總數的最新情況。

I mean it's in the hundreds, Eric.

我的意思是有數百個，埃里克。

It's in the 500 or so.

都在500左右吧

500 range?

500範圍？

Yeah, I think last time --

是的，我想上次--

Yes.

是的。

Perfect. Okay. Thank you very much.

完美的。好的。非常感謝。

Charles Rhyee, TD Cowen.

查爾斯‧萊伊 (Charles Rhyee)，TD 考恩 (TD Cowen)。

Oh, yeah. Thanks for taking this follow up. Just a question on the pass throughs then. Is some of the issue with pass throughs, is that really from delays and trials? So the service revenues because you're still overseeing the project, so you're billing for them continues.

哦，是的。感謝您接受本次跟進。只是關於通過的問題。傳遞的一些問題是否真的是由於延遲和試驗造成的？因此，由於您仍在監督該項目，因此服務收入仍在繼續。

But have you seen, I think you've talked about in the past is that just a function of delays in study starts or other things that are kind of slowing that process. So the past through revenues, you haven't been, expended yet. But arguably, those would come back as those projects get ramped back up. Yeah, just curious on that dynamic if that plays into it at all. Thanks.

但你有沒有看到，我想你過去談到的是，這只是學習開始延遲或其他減緩這個過程的因素的結果。所以過去的收入，你還沒有支出。但可以說，隨著這些項目的恢復，這些都會回來。是的，只是好奇這種動態是否會發揮作用。謝謝。

Yeah, I mean, it can be a number of things, it can be slower start up activities than expected, it can be a mix of programs across the portfolio. It can be the timing of when sites are submitting their data files and their invoices.

是的，我的意思是，這可能是多種原因，可能是啟動活動比預期慢，也可能是整個產品組合中的多個項目的混合。它可以是網站提交資料檔案和發票的時間。

There's a number of different factors that can contribute to that, as I've said in previous calls. I mean, we're dealing with thousands of sites in hundreds of programs and some of these things are somewhat out of our control in terms of when the data is submitted to us.

正如我在之前的電話會議中所說，有許多不同的因素可能導致這種情況。我的意思是，我們正在處理數百個程式中的數千個網站，其中一些事情在向我們提交資料的時間方面有些超出我們的控制範圍。

So it's a number of different factors and it's very difficult to predict from quarter to quarter. And we've seen this volatility in the past, it's not something Charles, that's new. We've seen this quarterly volatility in the past as well.

因此，這涉及到許多不同的因素，而且很難逐季度進行預測。我們過去已經看到過這種波動，查爾斯，這不是什麼新鮮事。我們過去也看到過這種季度波動。

Great. And actually Kevin one last for you, you said before, you're looking for certain triggers to buying back shares. Can you kind of dive into a little bit? What are generally the triggers for you to be able to go in and repurchase shares? Thanks.

偉大的。實際上，凱文最後對你說，你之前說過，你正在尋找回購股票的某些觸發因素。能深入了解一下嗎？一般而言，您能夠參與並回購股票的觸發因素為何？謝謝。

Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, we're not going to kind of divulge our strategy, but we try to pick different levels where we see value and put plans in place at those different levels. Certainly, the timing of when we do that, we've got some narrow windows to be able to execute that. And again, if those plans trigger they trigger but it's something that we continue to evaluate and remain pretty disciplined in our approach.

是的，我的意思是，聽著，我的意思是，我們不會透露我們的策略，但我們會嘗試選擇我們認為有價值的不同級別，並在這些不同級別制定計劃。當然，當我們這樣做的時候，我們有一些狹窄的視窗來執行它。再說一遍，如果這些計劃觸發了，它們就會觸發，但我們會繼續評估這一點，並在我們的方法中保持相當嚴格的紀律。

Great. I appreciate it. Thank you.

偉大的。我很感激。謝謝。

Thank you. This does conclude the Q&A session. I would like to turn the call back over to Lauren for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

謝謝。問答環節到此結束。我想將電話轉回給勞倫，讓他發表結束語。請繼續。

Thank you for joining us on today's call and for your interest in Medpace. We look forward to speaking with you again on our fourth quarter 2024 earnings call.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議以及對 Medpace 的興趣。我們期待在 2024 年第四季財報電話會議上再次與您交談。

This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may all disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。你們都可以斷開連線。