Pros Holdings Inc (PRO) 2012 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q1 2012 PROS Holdings earnings conference call. My name is Laura, and I'll be your operator for today. At this time all participants are in listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder this conference is being recorded for replay purposes.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Damian Olthoff, General Counsel. Please proceed.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the PROS Holdings financial results conference call for the first quarter of 2012. As mentioned, my name is Damian Olthoff. I'm the General Counsel of PROS. Joining me today is Andres Reiner, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Charlie Murphy, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In today's conference call, Andres will provide commentary on the first quarter of 2012, and then Charlie will provide the review of the financial results and our outlook before we open up the call to questions.

Before we begin, we must caution you that some of today's remarks, including our guidance for the year, our competitive position, future business prospects, revenue growth, market opportunities, as well as statements made during the question and answer session contain forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous and important factors, risks, and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from the results implied by these or other forward-looking statements.

Also, these statements are based solely on the present information and are subject to risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning risks and other factors that may cause actual results to differ can be found in the Company's filings with the SEC. Also, please note that a replay of today's webcast will be available in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.prospricing.com.

Finally, PROS has provided in its earnings release, and will provide in this conference call, forward-looking guidance. We will not provide any further guidance or updates on our performance during the year, unless we do so in a public forum. PROS does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they are made.

I would also like to point out that in addition to reporting financial results in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, PROS reports certain non-GAAP financial results. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of each non-GAAP measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure in the tables accompanying the press release distributed earlier today, and can also be found on the website in the Investor Relations section.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Andres.

Thank you, Damian, and thank you to all who are joining us on today's call. We are pleased to see our market position strengthen in the first quarter as news of our customers' success is reaching more and more companies who are searching for the strategic advantage our technology offers.

During the first quarter, we continued to execute on the three pillars of our growth strategy -- accelerating awareness and adoption of PROS, further extending our product leadership, and increasing our global reach and scale. We are confident that our growth strategies are working.

Let me share with you a few of the highlights from the first quarter. We reported revenue of $27 million, a 26% increase over the first quarter of 2011. Non-GAAP operating income was $4.2 million for the first quarter, up 40% from a year ago, and non-GAAP EPS for the first quarter was $0.10 per share, up from $0.07 a year ago.

We continue to focus on accelerating awareness and adoption of PROS Solutions. Earlier this year we commissioned a third party to help benchmark our brand position. I am pleased to report that this blind survey validated our leadership position within our target industries. We are encouraged that the PROS brand has solid traction in the market, and our efforts to reach our target audiences with our compelling value proposition are clearly working.

I'm also pleased to report the overwhelming success of our recent summits in New York and Munich. We had a record number of attendees at both events, the majority of which were prospects interested in hearing PROS customers share their incredible success stories about monetizing big data and optimizing sales performance with PROS.

We believe one of our key strategic differentiators is our high level of customer referenceability, which was on display with executive presentations from Celanese, Coates Hire, the DePuy, McKesson, Merck, Navistar, S.P. Richards, and Virgin Atlantic. We've heard time and again about the significant ROI PROS delivers, further validating that our investments in product innovation and service quality are enabling our customers to reach their business goals. We view the increasing willingness of our customers to share their success stories and record level of attendance as signs that the market is maturing.

Since our last call, we extended our product leadership by introducing our latest innovation, Rebate Optimizer. This solution was designed in collaboration with several of our key customers to improve profitability of rebate programs by linking pricing and rebates in a single solution. Rebate Optimizer increases transparency of rebate performance and provides sales teams with the rebate insights during negotiations.

The release of Rebate Optimizer enables the collaborative enterprise, bringing together sales, marketing, and pricing to enable our customers to make better business decisions and win more business profitably. We have always been committed to helping our customers compete and win in their markets, and this new innovation is a natural extension of that commitment.

I am pleased to report that we have already licensed this new product. Product innovation has always been at the center of our value proposition, and we will continue to invest in extending our product leadership.

Finally, we continue to expand our global reach and scale through direct sales coverage and our partner ecosystem. In the first quarter, we added additional new quota-carrying sales personnel, bringing us to a total of 30, on track for our goal of approximately 40% increase for 2012. There is strong demand for our solutions, and we are particularly pleased to see an increased rate of new account opportunities in our B2B industries. In addition, we are scaling up to serve the mid-market with the recent addition of a Vice President of Sales focused exclusively on that segment. Kevin Fitzgerald joined PROS in April from iContact, where he led the growth of their mid-market business.

Our global partner ecosystem continues to strengthen. We are seeing the signs of pipeline growth among our resellers, who continue to invest in building market awareness and demand.

Our technology partnerships are also getting stronger. We continue to invest in our SAP partnership. With more than 50% of our B2B customers running SAP, we are committed to providing the most complete and seamless integration capabilities in the market. We have been investing in our SAP partnership for the past 7 years, and we recently achieved the most current product certifications. We will continue to invest in this strategic partnership.

Our partnership with Microsoft is stronger than ever. From a go-to-market standpoint, Microsoft was our primary sponsor at our summits in New York and Munich. Microsoft also featured PROS in two editions of their customer magazine targeting our key industries. On the product side, PROS was selected as a launch partner for Microsoft's recently released SQL Server 2012, with enhanced in-memory database technology now leveraged in our pricing solution. Performance advances like these are critical to support the growing demand for big data solutions, and our partnership with Microsoft positions PROS to capitalize on this opportunity. We are pleased with our continued progress to increase our global reach and scale through our partner ecosystem.

Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in initiatives to accelerate awareness and adoption, extend our product leadership position, and increase our global reach and scale. As we have stated in the past, we can experience variability in the timing of deal closures on a quarter-to-quarter basis. During the first quarter we did experience extended sales cycles, which are expected to have a slight impact on near-term revenue. Based on current sales activity, we don't believe this is a trend. Deals slated to close throughout the year are moving through the pipeline, and we continue to believe we can achieve full year revenue growth of approximately 20%.

We are confident because demand for our solutions has never been stronger, our customers are realizing high value, our partner ecosystem is strengthening, and our product innovations continue to set the pace in the market. We are also confident because our customers continue to turn to PROS for additional solutions and services that help them outperform in their markets, resulting in maintenance renewal rates over 95%.

Our partnership approach with customers distinguishes PROS in the market, and we will continue to invest in solutions and explore potential M&A opportunities that further extend our value proposition. We believe the combination of our highly referenceable customers with the growing demand for technology that optimizes sales performance and monetizes big data positions PROS for continued success in 2012 and beyond.

Now let me turn the call over to Charlie, so that he can provide you with a review of our financial results and our outlook for the second quarter of 2012.

Thanks, Andres. I will be discussing our financial results on a non-GAAP basis. A full GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation is included in our earnings release, which can be found on our website in the Investor Relations section.

Revenue for the first quarter was $27 million, which was up 26% from a year ago. License and implementation revenue was $17.8 million, up 29% from a year ago. License and implementation fees are bundled together, and revenue is generally recognized on a percentage completion basis over the implementation period.

Maintenance and support revenue of $9.2 million was up 21% year over year, and represents the largest component of revenue from recurring sources. Total recurring revenue, which includes maintenance and support revenue and a number of term license contracts, was consistent with prior quarters at 42% of revenue.

In the first quarter, 60% of our revenue came from outside the United States, which was unchanged from a year ago. 32% of our revenue in the first quarter came from Europe, compared to 25% a year ago. We continue to diversify our revenue around the globe, and we are pleased with the strong growth we achieved both in the US and across our international markets.

Gross margins in the first quarter were approximately 72% on a non-GAAP basis, unchanged from the year-ago period. Margins can vary from period to period, primarily due to the level of implementation services required relative to the total contract value.

Looking at operating expenses, total non-GAAP operating expenses for the quarter were $15.2 million, compared with $12.4 million a year ago, with the increase of 23% representing planned investments in our future growth. We will continue to invest as we look ahead to capitalize on what we believe is a very large market opportunity.

Non-GAAP operating income in the first quarter increased approximately 40% to $4.2 million, or a non-GAAP operating margin of 15.5%. Based on a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 35%, non-GAAP net income was $2.7 million for the quarter, an increase of 34% over the prior year. Non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.10 compared to $0.07 per share a year ago.

On a GAAP basis, earnings per share was $0.04 and was lower than our guidance as a result of higher stock based compensation expense. A portion of compensation expense is not deductible, resulting in a higher GAAP effective tax rate. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP is provided in our press release.

Now moving to the balance sheet, we ended the first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $70.9 million, an increase of $2.5 million from the end of the fourth quarter. Gross accounts receivable at the end of the quarter were $27.9 million. Days sales outstanding were approximately 104 days, slightly above our historical average, which considers normal variations in accounts receivable, and the timing of collections and invoicing of milestone billings under our contracts.

We continue to generate operating cash flow, with approximately $3.4 million of operating cash flow generated in the quarter, yielding a cash flow margin of 12.7%. For the year, we expect our annual operating cash flow to approximate our annual non-GAAP operating income. We expect capital spending for the year to be approximately $6.5 million as a result of increased infrastructure investments and facility costs.

Finally, headcount, including outsourcing, at the end of the quarter was 580, up from 540 at the end of 2011, an increase of 40, or approximately 7%. We continue to increase our sales, marketing, engineering, professional services, and administrative resources, which reflects confidence in our long-term opportunity.

Before I turn to our guidance for the second quarter and the year, let me provide you with some additional information. As with past quarters, we believe our history of variability in sales from quarter to quarter has and likely will continue. We did experience extended sales cycles in the first quarter, which we expect will slightly impact near-term revenue growth; however, we remain confident in our ability to grow full year revenue approximately 20%.

Our pipeline activity remains good, and we believe the remainder of the year will have solid deal activity. We also plan to continue on our stated path of investing in support of the growth of the business in order to capitalize on the opportunity we see in front of us.

Notably, customer interest levels in our pricing and revenue management solutions remain high, and we believe our product introductions, our diversification across industries and geographies, and our partner ecosystem contribute to a solid foundation for growth.

Now turning to our outlook, for the second quarter, we anticipate revenue in the range of $27.2 million to $27.8 million, approximately 16% growth at the mid-point from the second quarter of 2011. We expect total expenses to be approximately $23.7 million, up from $20.1 million in the second quarter of 2011, as we continue to make strategic investments in our business.

We expect non-GAAP operating income margins of approximately 14%, at the mid-point of revenue guidance. With a tax rate of 35% in the second quarter, we anticipate non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.08 to $0.09, based on an estimated 28.3 million shares outstanding.

On a GAAP basis, we expect operating income of $1.1 million to $1.7 million and GAAP earnings per share in the range of $0.02 to $0.03.

We expect for 2012 that non-GAAP operating margins now will be approximately 15%. We continue to believe that long term, we will see increasing operating margin leverage as our business scales and we realize the benefits of our investments.

One more note before I turn the call over to Q&A. As mentioned previously, the research and experimentation tax credit has not been renewed for 2012. The credit has expired a number of times since it was originally enacted in 1981, and each time, except for a brief period in 1995, it has been retroactively reinstated. If the tax credit is reinstated during 2012, and it if it is retroactive to the beginning of the year, as has been the case in the past, then we will make a cumulative adjustment in the quarter in which the tax credit is reinstated, as we did during 2010. Should the research and experimentation tax credit be reinstated, the estimated non-GAAP tax rate for the year would be 31%.

In summary, we believe the market readiness for pricing solutions and PROS specifically is progressing, and we are well positioned to capture this growing opportunity.

With that, let me turn the call back to the operator for questions. Operator?

(Operator Instructions). John DiFucci, J.P. Morgan.

Hi, Andres and Charlie. You guys have been very helpful in the past in giving guidance and what you think you can do given the macro backdrop, and we appreciate that. We appreciate sharing with us what you said today about some deal slippage here.

But I guess if you can expand on that a little bit more -- I know your percentage of completion model is great, gives you great visibility. But at the same time, it's not always really reflective of what's happening right now in the market.

You guys sound pretty optimistic about the future, but it does sound like there is something that happened this quarter. If you can talk a little bit more about that, was it geographically focused, or -- and why are you so confident that it'll be fine going forward?

John, this is Charlie. Let me make some comment, but I'm sure Andres will want to elaborate. Your point is well taken. We believe in transparency; that's why we were very specific in our comments to talk about some deals slipping. And we did that in the interest, again, of transparency and recognizing that percentage of completion accounting -- it does take time for it to evidence itself, so we want to be very clear about this.

We want to be very clear about the near-term impact it would have on the Company's revenue. And we believe the guidance we've provided for Q2 is very achievable guidance, and we believe the guidance that we have provided for the full year -- which has not changed from the guidance we provided on the last call -- of revenue growth of approximately 20% is very achievable for us as well.

Now, there's color around that as to why -- when we said some deals slipped, the deals weren't lost. The deals didn't go away. And the confidence is very high that those deals are closing and will close in the very, very near-term. Andres, are there some other comments?

Yes. Yes, in terms of the deals, we've made great progress in closing those deals and the remaining we have -- we feel they are continuing on the right pace. Overall, we don't believe this is a trend, and we don't feel there's anything structurally in the market or the business that has changed.

So overall it's just -- it was a matter of timing. Demand for our solutions have never been stronger. We continue to see very strong demand, and the momentum that we're seeing now is on pace to what we expect.

Okay, thanks. And if I might, just a quick follow-up. It does sound like things are on track, but can you talk about these deals that did slip, even though they -- it sounds like there's progress there. Were they geographically focused, or vertically focused at all?

No. I would say no. There's nothing -- you couldn't point to a specific thing. It's not like -- I know you've been concerned about Europe. We all have had some concerns about the economy. Not Europe. Not any specific industry.

I'd characterize it as somewhat anomalous. This is -- it's very unusual for deals to be slipping like this, and we consider it to be anomalous. Again, there is variability in the size of the deals that we do from quarter to quarter, and it's just that there was variability in Q1. But we really can't point to anything specific, John, that we would say, here it is. Other than it's anomalous.

Okay, great. Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate it.

Jesse Hulsing, Pacific Crest.

You said near-term impact on those deals that slipped -- is that primarily just Q2, or do you expect that to impact Q3 as well?

I'd say primarily the impact is expected to be in Q2. What we are communicating is that we still believe revenue growth of approximately 20%. So Jesse with that, when you do the math, what that says is that we fully expect to have a stronger back half of the year than the first half of the year.

Right. Right.

And we have reflected the impact on the Q2 guidance by giving the guidance we've given.

Thanks. And switching gears, you guys added a midmarket sales exec. Is that reflective of the traction you're seeing in the midmarket, or is this more of a forward-looking and foundation-building move?

Yes, part of our strategy was always to build both a direct and indirect channel for the midmarket. We're pleased with the demand we're seeing, and this was the logical step. We had been searching for a key leader to own this market, both the strategy, from a sales, from a marketing, and from a channel perspective, and we found the right leader to lead this organization. So it is reflective of the confidence that we have in that market opportunity.

And would you say, of the attendance at your user conferences, was there a representation from the midmarket there, or was it primarily your usual customer base?

Yes. Our pricing events that we did both in Munich and New York were focused on the enterprise market, so it was predominantly enterprise customers.

Okay. Thanks for taking my questions.

Tom Roderick, Stifel Nicolaus.

This is Chris Koh, in for Tom Roderick. I was just wondering if you could maybe elaborate a little bit in terms of the 20% guidance that you provided. So when you guys say still approximately 20%, is it meant to be a reflection that for the year, your outlook is pretty much the same as you exited last quarter and it's just a matter of shiftiness? Or would you say approximately 20% might have gone from say, 21% to 19%, for example?

I would say it's more just shift between Q1 to the later quarters of the year.

Excellent. Sounds good. And then so when you look at -- what's giving you the confidence? If you could maybe provide some color on -- is it the pipeline is growing faster? Is there an acceleration we're seeing there? Because clearly, something anomalous happened here. So if you could just maybe provide investors some comfort as to why you feel so comfortable that you can still hit that 20%.

Yes, so the pipeline, as we said, is at record levels. We feel very confident with our pipeline and the movement and tracking of our pipeline. Demand for our solutions, as we said, hasn't been stronger and we are continuing to invest in those areas around demand and awareness, but we are seeing a strong demand in the market, and strong activity.

And we talked a bit -- it's areas in the B2B side we're seeing stronger demand.

I'd like just to add one more point, is that we believe it's anomalous. We came off of a very good Q4, so it's like, you had a good Q4. Q1 wasn't what we would like it to have been. Absolutely confident with that 20%, so it's -- there's really not a trend here. This isn't a situation where we believe Q1's going to get repeated again.

We just don't think that is likely at all. But I did want to reiterate that we did have a good Q4, and we've made good progress in closing the deals that we expect to close.

Great, thanks. And then just one last one from me. In terms of the sales hiring, I think you ended last quarter at 28, if I was -- if I remember correctly, and so you're at 30 right now. So it looks like you might need to pick it up a little bit in terms of getting to that 40% year-over-year increase. Can you give us a sense of -- where is that going to be concentrated in terms of both geographically and timing? Thanks.

Yes, so we are adding, both in the enterprise and in the midmarket, predominantly North America and Europe. And obviously, the hiring ramps up through the remaining 3 quarters -- Q2, Q3 and Q4. You should see continued increase.

Our goal -- as we stated, the growth in sales quota carrying personnel is focused towards growth beyond 2012. So as we said, with our long deal cycle times, 11 months on average, sales reps that we hire now have minimal impact to this year.

Yes, Chris, I would say that from our internal plan we are on track. We're pleased with the progress we've made, and we are on track. As Andres mentioned, we'll be ramping up both enterprise and midmarket sales.

Excellent. Thanks, guys.

(Operator Instructions). Ross MacMillan, Jefferies.

Andres or Charlie, just to go back on the comments regarding deal closures. I just wanted to be clear that these are net new deals that didn't close, as opposed to any change in the pace of existing deployments speeds, or the pace at which customers want to move forward on already signed contracts?

No, that's a good question, Ross. No, no impact at all on existing implementations. They progressed during the quarter on plan and they continue to progress on plan today.

And Charlie, maybe, or either of you actually, just reflecting back on the last two, three years. Can you recall when you last saw a scenario like this, where you had deals that were in your pipeline slated to close within a 90-day period and then a number of them slipped out? Can you recall when you last saw something like this?

Yes, we did. We have variability, but the last time we had something like this would have been in the -- I think it was around the third quarter of 2010.

Okay.

Been a while, but third quarter 2010. As you know, we ended 2010 in a terrific backlog position. Backlog revenue. But that's the last time.

Okay. And obviously, we're talking about relatively small numbers of -- absolute small numbers of deals, right? Because of -- the deal sizes you have are still, I presume, in that high $1.8 million, $1.9 million, $2 million range?

That's correct, yes.

That's correct, yes.

Okay. And then -- any color -- I think it was asked, maybe John asked before, but anything -- there wasn't any concentration -- and I guess specifically, I'm thinking your traditional airline business versus service, manufacturing, distribution. No real delineation there in terms of the deals that did slip?

That's correct.

Okay.

No delineation, correct.

The final question I would have is as you think forward -- let me phrase it this way. Would you -- to hit your 20% for the full year -- I'm assuming that you couldn't afford to have another quarter where you would see deals slip. In other words, you'd have to have a relatively consistent close rate relative to plan, because if we didn't do that, then 3Q would obviously be lower. And by that point, it would probably be hard to make it up. Is that a fair statement?

Yes, it is. I think that's reflective of our model, yes.

Yes, yes.

Okay. That's it for me. Thanks a lot.

Joe Fadgen, Craig-Hallum.

On for Chad here today. Most of my questions have actually already been asked, but a couple of things I just want to get -- make sure I'm square on. What percentage did you say of your revenues came from Europe this quarter? I think it was 32%, is that correct?

Yes, that's correct, Joe.

Okay, okay. Great. And then as far as your system integrator traction goes, I guess typically you've kind of been in that 30% to 35% range. I think last quarter it came in a little higher than that at 40%. What was that for first quarter here? Do you have that number?

yes. It's consistent with the past. It's remained consistent. And the other area that we've also been focused is certifying consultants from our SI partner community, and we are now up to 149 certified consultants, which is up 34% year over year. So that's been another area that we've been working very closely with them around scaling globally to ensure that we are certifying enough consultants for our growth.

Okay. Great, thanks. And then just a couple more here. On the guidance for Q2, can you give us any idea into the breakdown of what you're looking at as far as mix between, like, license versus service, and how you're viewing that? I mean, are the growth rates -- do you see any changes there, or any change in the mix or differences in the growth rates there?

Actually, we don't comment on the mix between L&I. We don't really comment on L&I versus maintenance. We have said that -- I believe what we said on the last call is we do expect to see maintenance growth for the year to be up a bit over last year. I think we said mid-teens. I think last year was 15%; we're saying mid-teens for maintenance. So we do expect maintenance growth to continue this year, and then the balance would come from L&I over the course of the year.

Okay. Great, thanks. And then one last one for me. I guess any color you can give on what opportunities -- how much opportunity you see with your ability to generate additional growth from add-on deals with your existing customer base? Selling more products -- either more products into a customer or into different operating segments of your existing customer base.

I know you've apparently been seeing some of that benefit over the last few quarters. How much room do you think there still is in that one, going out throughout, say, the next two to three quarters?

Yes, I'll start, and I think Andres is going to provide some color here, Joe. And historically, the Company has been very -- we've had a very good sell-in to our existing customer base. It's historically about 50% of our business over the last several years has come from our existing customers.

They come back either to expand from a geography -- perhaps they licensed for a specific geographical region initially, but they want to expand geographically. They may license for a division; they want to expand into other divisions. Or they may license for certain products, and they want to expand across products.

So we've always been in a very nice position to sell back in, and we've got very, very high maintenance renewal rates. We get incredibly great customer referenceability. I think Andres mentioned, 8 of our customers presented at our conferences in New York and Munich.

On that, we're in great shape. We've really got terrific long-term partnerships. It's something that the Company has always fostered and created over years of being in business. We're very focused on being customer centric, so the sell-in will continue.

Having said that, we also, of course, see new customer acquisition as a real growth opportunity for us. Andres, is there anything else you want to comment on?

Yes. So one of the areas, with the launch of our Rebate Optimizer, that's another area that we are seeing quite a bit of interest from our customer base in this solution. We've collaborated with some of our customers on building out this new solution, and have seen quite a bit of interest in the solution in the market. So definitely, we feel very confident around selling back into our customer base and delivering -- continuing to deliver value to our customers.

All right. That's all for me. Thanks a lot, guys.

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference over to Andres Rainer for closing remarks.

Thank you for your participation in today's call and for your support of PROS. We are confident that our growth strategies are working. More and more companies look to PROS to create a competitive advantage in their markets. We continue to invest in innovations and our go-to-market strategies in order to drive long-term sustainable growth.

I would also like to take a moment to thank our PROS team worldwide. I am proud of their relentless passion and commitment to innovation and customer success. Thank you to our customers, partners, and shareholders for your support of PROS. We look forward to a strong 2012 and to speaking with you on our next call. Thank you and goodbye.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.