Jeffrey Likosar
Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Jim, and thank you everyone for joining our call today. As Jim described, we've started the year with solid momentum across the business and are pleased with our first quarter results. Total company revenue in the first quarter was $1.55 billion, up 18%, which includes the benefit of our Solar acquisition. Excluding Solar, our revenue grew approximately 4%. Importantly, our recurring monthly revenue or RMR base grew to $365 million, the record level Jim mentioned, and was $60 million higher than last year. This is the result of the cumulative effect of our recent growth in customer retention progress. Our gross new additions to RMR were down slightly in the first quarter as planned due to last year's initial Ackerman account acquisitions. Our revenue growth combined with efficiency improvements, especially within our CSB segments, generated an 11% increase in adjusted EBITDA at $601 million. On a segment basis, Consumer and Small Business or CSB delivered total revenue of $1.063 billion, an increase of 2% or $24 million versus last year. This performance was largely driven by the increase in monitoring and service revenue from the higher RMR balance I mentioned earlier. We continue to see an increasing number of customers choose interactive, integrated, and more comprehensive systems. In addition to the retention benefits Jim described, the resulting mix shift has also helped improve our average revenue per subscriber. We expect this base of interactive customers to grow as we add more Google products to our portfolio. CSB adjusted EBITDA increased by more than $40 million, representing the largest contribution to our overall improvement. This was driven by the higher revenue combined with strong cost performance. A key driver of this cost performance was the virtual service initiative Jim mentioned, which allowed us to service our growing and increasingly interactive customer base, while keeping our service costs relatively flat. We're also seeing continued improving performance in our commercial segment. First quarter commercial revenue grew by 9% to $290 million with increases in both installation, and monitoring and services revenue. We have continued to recover from COVID-19 challenges and capture market share as conditions have improved. Commercial adjusted EBITDA was up slightly as these higher revenues were offset by some inflation driven challenges on parts, labor and fuel. The commercial team has moved quickly to take actions to offset much of this inflation. Our new solar business also delivered strong results in the first full quarter since our December acquisition of Sunpro, with a revenue of $192 million and adjusted EBITDA of $17 million. Solar installation revenue included a $30 million headwind from the amortization of the pre -acquisition backlog, which will not affect subsequent quarters. Like commercial, solar has moved quickly to recover cost inflation pressures. As Jim described, we're pleased with some early indicators of cross-selling opportunities, and we remain very excited about our new solar business as we continue to integrate within our ADT ecosystem. Turning to cash flow in the balance sheet, adjusted free cash flow was negative $42 million, which was slightly better than our internal plan for the quarter. We remain on track for our full-year guidance for adjusted free cash flow, in addition to our guidance for adjusted EBITDA and revenue. Our quarterly cash flows are uneven for a variety of reasons, including especially the timing of interest payments, which are much higher in the first and third quarters. Additionally, this year's first quarter included the effects of a variety of working capital and timing items, including our annual incentive compensation payments. We expect second quarter adjusted free cash flow to be around $200 million higher than the first quarter, about half of which is due to lower interest payments. We remain very comfortable with our capital structure and our liquidity overall. Our next significant maturity is our $700 million first-lien note due next year. We plan to access the capital markets later this year to refinance that debt with the exact timing, amount, and structure, dependent upon market conditions. As a reminder, we plan to reduce our net debt by a billion dollars by 2025. Before concluding, I want to touch on a couple non-cash items. Our depreciation and amortization expense was up slightly in the quarter as we have grown our business. However, we expect year-over-year reductions of $50 to $75 million for each of the next four quarters. This is the result of the roll-off of intangible assets acquired in 2015 and 2016 transactions associated with Apollo's acquisitions of Protection 1 and ADT. Additionally, our GAAP interest expense was down year-over-year with the decline driven by mark-to-market adjustments on our interest rate swaps, which have increased in value with rising rates. The resulting $145 million reduction to interest expense, net of the associated tax effects, drove our first quarterly GAAP profit since 2017. To conclude, I want to reiterate that we're executing on the strategy and committed to delivering the financial targets we laid out during our Investor Day in March. For only a couple of months have passed, we're very pleased with the progress we made in the first quarter of this year, as we continue to balance near-term results with building for the longer-term. I want to add my thanks to all the ADT employees, dealers, suppliers, customers, communities, and investors who have enabled our progress. Thank you for joining our call, and thank you for your support of our company. Operator, please open the call for questions.