Earnings Labs

AudioEye, Inc. (AEYE)

Q2 2023 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 10, 2023

$7.12

-2.20%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-14.05%

1 Week

-22.24%

1 Month

-23.08%

vs S&P

-23.09%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to AudioEye's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us for today's call are AudioEye's CEO; Mr. David Moradi and CFO, Ms. Kelly Georgevich. Following their remarks, we will open the call for questions from the Company's publishing analysts. I would like to remind everyone that this call will be recorded and made available for replay via a link available in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.audioeye.com. Before I turn the call over to AudioEye's Chief Executive Officer, the Company would like to remind all participants such statements made by AudioEye management during the course of this conference call, that are not historical facts are considered to be forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides the safe harbor for such forward-looking statements. The words believe, expect, anticipate, estimate, confidence, will and other similar statements of expectation identify forward-looking statements. These statements are predictions, projections or other statements about future events and are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ because of the factors discussed in today's press release and the comments made during this conference call and in the Risk Factors section of the Company's annual report on Form 10-K, its quarterly report on Form 10-Q and its other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Participants on this call are cautioned not to place under lieu reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's belief only as of the date hereof. AudioEye does not undertake any duty to update or correct any forward-looking statements. Further, management's remarks today will include certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures to these non-GAAP financial measures is available in the Company's earnings release posted in the Investor Relations section of its website at www.audioeye.com. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to AudioEye's Cheif Executive Officer. Mr. David Moradi. Sir, please proceed.

David Moradi

Management

Thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. There have been several developments over the last three months, and I'm excited to talk with you about today. But before I do, I want to highlight our solid financial performance and continued focus on efficiencies. We are pleased to announce record revenue of $7.84 million in the second quarter. At the end of the second quarter, annual recurring revenue, or ARR, was $29.7 million. As discussed previously, our results in the first half of 2023 were impacted by certain contract renegotiations. Despite these renegotiations, we are pleased with sequential revenue and ARR growth and are excited about expected ARR acceleration in the second half. In the second quarter, gross margins were 77% and gross profit increased to $6 million versus $5.7 million year-over-year, representing a 100% flow-through of additional revenue into gross profit. Continuing to focus on efficiencies, we expect to increase gross margin further in 2024 as we grow revenues. Revenue increased by 4% year-over-year while operating expenses decreased by 3%. Our CFO, Kelly will discuss the financial performance in more detail shortly. As we have said, we believe we are in the early innings of digital accessibility. 97% of websites today remain inaccessible to people at disabilities despite increased litigation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Last week, the Department of Justice issued a proposed role on website accessibility under Title II of the ADA. The rule would help ensure people with disabilities to have equal access to web content and mobile apps. The proposed rule will drive more awareness and compliance and we are well positioned as we already work with over 900 government organizations and school districts. As a reminder, the European Accessibility Act previously required all EU member states to adopt logs for…

Kelly Georgevich

Management

Thank you, David. Q2 2023 marks the 30th straight quarter of record revenue, ending Q2 at $7.84 million, which was 4% growth year-over-year. Annual recurring revenue or ARR at the end of the second quarter of 2023 was $29.7 million, a $1 million increase from ARR at the end of the second quarter of 2022. As David mentioned, we expect ARR growth to accelerate in the second half of 2023, and we anticipate that ARR will increase by approximately $1 million sequentially. Overall, we are pleased with our financial results for Q2 2023, which came within revenue and net loss expectations. Our two revenue channels are continuing to perform well in a more cost-conscious environment. The Partner and Marketplace channel includes all revenue from our SMB-focused marketplace products and revenue from a variety of partners to deploy these same products for their SMB customers. In the second quarter of 2023, this revenue channel grew 13% year-over-year and represented approximately 56% of revenue and 60% of ARR. We continue to recognize opportunities for expansion in our existing partners. Overall, we expect to continue to be in this channel contribute significantly to our growth in revenue as we build further traction and expand with larger partners. Our Enterprise revenue channel, which typically consists of our larger customers and organizations made up 44% of revenue and 40% of ARR in the second quarter of 2023. As mentioned previously, this channel faced additional headwinds in the first half of 2023 with one larger customer contract renegotiations, having an impact on total enterprise revenue in the quarter. Excluding this renegotiation, we continue to grow enterprise ARR year-over-year. We also continue to see great logo retention rates in 2023, with Q2 similar to Q1 2023, showing some of our best logo retention rates to-date. The total…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now take questions from the Company's publishing analysts. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Zack Cummins from B. Riley. Please proceed.

Zack Cummins

Analyst

David, just starting with the outlook for ARR, I mean, increasing in Q3. I mean can you just talk about some of the factors that are driving that expansion there? Is it mainly just continuing to ramp with some of your partners? Or are we getting a pretty meaningful bump from those renegotiated agreements coming back online here in the second half?

David Moradi

Management

Yes. Good question. We expect both our Partner and Enterprise channel to contribute to the growth going forward in ARR. We have our new revenue team ramping up. The pipeline is starting to build -- building a lot of improvement in processes, systems and people. We're seeing great traction in the partner channel as well, and our partners are seeing a lot of success in selling the product. The renegotiation you mentioned, did slow growth earlier this year, but as we move away, those core growth -- the core growth is there, and we expect to accelerate even more -- and I think with the new enterprise products, those are a game changer in the industry as they start to ramp up, we should really start to accelerate.

Zack Cummins

Analyst

Understood. And can you just talk about the integration with BoIA in terms of transitioning some of that revenue into recurring in nature and kind of what sort of benefit that gives to do that integration?

Kelly Georgevich

Management

Yes, I'm happy to talk about that a bit back. Yes, we're excited that we are to complete the integration of the BoIA and deliver more value to those customers under our model. Historically, they've been essentially one-time audits that are one-time in revenue, and we see opportunity to up-sell like the same customers and retain customers with our set of products and some of the automation and additional things we can offer to them. It does have a one-time impact in Q3, but we see the value in recurring revenue, both for the customers with the recurring products and automation and also on our end, and ARR tick up from BoIA customers going forward.

Zack Cummins

Analyst

Got it. And final question for me is really just around the expenses going forward. I mean, company expecting to flip to positive non-GAAP income in Q3 and positive free cash flow in Q4. Are you expecting to see a ramp down in development expenses now that you have some of the AI products and enterprise expanded capabilities out in the market? Or how should we think about investments going forward?

Kelly Georgevich

Management

Yes, we did invest quite notably in R&D in 2023. We have a really high-performing team and we're excited on the products we're delivering. In the last six months specifically, but over the last couple of years, and we do see more products coming down the pipe. And so,, we're happy with that investment. We do also see a large opportunity to scale up our revenue or especially with the new enterprise products that we're introducing. And so, I think we'd expect to continue to invest in sales and marketing as we generate more profit going forward.

Zack Cummins

Analyst

Understood. Thanks for taking the question. Best of luck with the rest of the quarter.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from George Sutton from Craig-Hallum. Please proceed.

George Suttona

Analyst

Thank you David, I want to address the low penetration rate we've seen thus far in terms of compliance and what some of these things we'll do like the NPRM from the Justice Department relative to pursuing a much larger opportunity and then also the EU in terms of how significant that might be in that market? And then how you are attacking those specific markets?

David Moradi

Management

Sure. I'm not sure there's going to be a large revenue effect in the near term with the DOJ efforts, but I expect over the longer term, call it, one to two years, you're going to see a meaningful ramp with state and local governments. And I think the DOJ is thinking about the private sector as well. I wouldn't be surprised if they take some action there, which could be very, very meaningful. With EU, they're on track for 2025. It's pretty comprehensive. It covers many websites, except for really the smallest ones. It's a very large TAM here. We estimate the TAM of around $3 billion.

George Suttona

Analyst

And more specifically, how do you go after seeing local governments today? And how might that change -- and on the EU side, how are you positioned to go after opportunities there?

David Moradi

Management

Yes, just blocking and tackling with the revenue or and selling -- setting up a sales office over in London, probably first quarter of next year is what we're thinking. But it's just really blocking tackling. We have the product now. So just about going out and getting the business.

George Suttona

Analyst

And lastly, to be clear on the EU when the compliance date is June of '25. My assumption is not everyone is completing that the end of June of '25. Can you just walk through how you anticipate seeing people begin to comply?

David Moradi

Management

Like everything in life, some will do it a year early. Some will do it a little bit late. It's all over the Board is what we saw with AODA in Canada. So, it's really just depends on the Company themselves.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Scott Buck from H.C. Wainright. Please proceed.

Scott Buck

Analyst

Just a quick one, guys. The contingent consideration, I saw that move to current assets. Is that paid in cash? Or do you have the option to pay that in stock for shares?

Kelly Georgevich

Management

The purchase agreement has a cash payment. It's contingent based on 2022 and 2023 performance of the BoIA but it is a cash payment. And the second contingent payments is like a Q2, 2024 time period.

Scott Buck

Analyst

Great. I appreciate it. That's it for me, guys.

Operator

Operator

At this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Moradi for closing remarks.

David Moradi

Management

Thank you for joining us today. As always, I want to thank our employees, partners and investors for their continued support. We look forward to updating you on our next call.

Operator

Operator

Before we conclude today's call, I would like to remind everyone that a recording of today's call will be available for replay via a link available in the Investors section of the Company's website. Thank you for joining us today for AudioEye's second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. You may now disconnect.