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AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. (AMN)

Q4 2011 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 8, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the AMN Healthcare Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2011 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Vice President of Investor Relations, Amy Chang. Please go ahead.

Amy Chang

Analyst

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to AMN Healthcare’s Fourth Quarter 2011 Earnings Call. A replay of this webcast will be available until March 29th, 2012 at amnhealtchare.com/investors. Details for the audio replay of the conference call can be found in our earnings press release. Regarding our policy on forward-looking statements, various remarks and characterizations we make during this call about future expectations, projections, plans, prospects, events, or circumstances constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as believe, anticipate, expect, intend, plan, will, may, and other similar expressions. It is possible that our actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including those identified in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 and other periodic reports, which have been filed with and are publicly available from the SEC. The results reported in this call may not be indicative of results for future quarters. These statements reflect the company’s current beliefs and are based upon information currently available to it. Developments subsequent to this call may cause these statements to become outdated. The company does not intend, however, to update the guidance provided today prior to its next earnings release. This call may also contain certain non-GAAP financial information. From time to time, we make available additional information regarding non-GAAP financial measures including pro forma measures in the earnings release and on the company’s website. On the call today are Susan Salka, our President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as Brian Scott, our Chief Financial Officer. Joining us during the Q&A session will be Ralph Henderson, our President of Healthcare Staffing and Bob Livinous, our President of Strategic Workforce Solutions. I will now turn the call over to Susan.

Susan Nowakowski

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Thank you so much, Amy. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to AMN Healthcare’s 2011 Full Year and Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. 2011 was a year of continued market recovery, solid execution, and further innovation in the Workforce Solutions that we provide to our clients. For the full year, we grew consolidated revenues by 11% and adjusted EBITDA by 40% on a pro forma basis. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the year was 7.2%, which was a 150 basis point improvement over 2010. Our growth in operating leverage was driven by several key factors. First, the Travel Nurse division experienced full year pro forma revenue growth of 32% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 71%. This impressive growth reflects the strength of our MSP client relationships, our recruitment strategies, and the ability to leverage our infrastructure. Of course, none of this is possible without maintaining a very keen focus on the quality of our healthcare professionals that we source and select for our clients. A second factor was the revenue synergies we enjoyed from our combination with Medfinders, which enabled our team to significantly improve fill rates. Our more powerful integrated sales team led the industry in MSP growth, winning over 20 new MSP clients in 2011 with an estimated 80 million in annualized growth spend under management. A third factor was the successful integration of the Nurse and Allied brands into 1 platform. This contributed to the improvement in operating margins in this segment of 220 basis points on a pro forma basis. In addition to solid execution, we have further evolved our suite of Workforce Solutions to provide greater value to our healthcare clients. The pace of change has accelerated in healthcare. And hospital executives are increasingly seeking more sophisticated solutions and partners. The hunger for new and innovative solutions…

Brian Scott

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Thanks, Susan. Good afternoon, everyone. As previously mentioned, with the recent sale of our Home Healthcare business, the operating results for this segment have been classified separately as discontinued operations for all periods reported. Fourth quarter revenue from continuing operations was $222.1 million, up 8% from last year and down 3% from last quarter. For the full year 2011, we reported revenue of $887.5 million, a 32% increase from 2010. Our gross margin for the quarter was 28.3%, up 80 basis points from last year and up 50 basis points from the last quarter. The increase from both periods was from improved gross margins in the Nurse and Allied segment. Full year 2011 gross margin of 28.1% included favorable workers’ compensation adjustments and the realization of deferred revenue from the adoption of a new accounting standard in our Physician Permanent Placement segment. Excluding these items, gross margin improved from the prior year by 10 basis points. More importantly, end of the year at its highest point. SG&A in the quarter totaled $49 million, which included approximately $300,000 of cost associated with the integration of Medfinders. Excluding acquisition and integration expenses, SG&A as a percentage of revenue of 21.9% decreased from the prior year by 170 basis points, an increase of 40 basis points sequentially. The significantly improved leverage from the prior year resulted from achieving the targeted integration synergies from the acquisition. Also the impact from operations changes implemented over the last several years as well as the prior year having unusually high bad debt expense. Our Nurse and Allied segment revenue increased sequentially by 0.3% to $148.1 million. Volume grew 0.3% sequentially to 5,317 healthcare professionals. And revenue per day was essentially flat on slightly higher bill rates offset by the typical seasonal decline in hours worked. Nurse and…

Operator

Operator

[Operator instructions] Our first question comes from the line of A.J. Rice with Susquehanna Financial.

Albert Rice

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

I have just a couple of different questions, if I could get a couple of technical ones first. How much working capital - how much of the net investment is tied up in home health that your hoping to collect on, just curious, how much of that is on the balance sheet at this point?

Brian Scott

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

You know, as we said at the [indiscernible] on the sale, the target capital when we originally negotiated the deal was about 4 million, at the closing it ended up a little bit, a little bit higher than that, and we expect to be able to realize all of that over the next 6 months.

Albert Rice

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Okay, so that basically receivables there that you’re…

Brian Scott

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

The bulk of that AR and then just normal accrued compensation, other liabilities. So as I said, you normally try to see most of that unwind over the next 6 months.

Albert Rice

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Okay, and then second, [indiscernible] workmen’s comp and deferred revenue recognition, was that in this quarter, or was that in last year’s quarter? I’m sorry I missed that [indiscernible].

Brian Scott

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

You kind of cut out there a little bit, but I think I heard that you were asking about the revenue recognition and the workers’ comp. The workers’ comp adjustments were in the first and third quarter, there weren’t any in the fourth quarter at all. And then on the deferred revenue, the majority of that was in the first 2 quarters of the year, with much smaller impact on the fourth quarter.

Albert Rice

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Okay, and then on the Locum Tenens business, it sounds like that the volume adjustments you’re saying it’s -- or the year-to-year volume trend or the sequential volume trend is -- or replacement trend is mostly due to hospital volumes. I just want to confirm that that is what you think, and then therefore, I guess, if hospital lines stabilize, you would see that [indiscernible] asset, the main driver of what you are seeing? And then on the year-to-year price - the price [indiscernible] at 3%, is that really a mix, or is that on an apples-to-apples basis in pressure or price?

Susan Nowakowski

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Sure, A.J. Well, on the first part of the question, in volume, yes, certainly is, if which we see census continue to stabilize or even grow that would be positive. But our softness has been more in the radiology, anesthesia, surgery related areas. So it does have to be more specific to elective and general surgeries I think for us to see some improvement in a couple of those specialties. If you look at the last year as an example, primary care actually grew quite nicely in 2011. It was up double digits, but we unfortunately saw double digit declines in surgery, radiology, and anesthesia, which offset that. Regarding the 3% of revenue per day filled, it’s a combination of both true bill rate declines in those areas I just mentioned, particularly radiology, where they’ve felt the hardest impact of reimbursement changes that have been made over the last 5 years, and just continue to feel pricing pressure in that business. But also there was a reduction in the on-call hours and the overtime hours. And specifically in those specialties as well as those providers look to find ways to cut their cost overall. They’re hiring fewer Locums in those areas and they are wanting to pay them less, and when they do hire them, they don’t want to pay them overtime, and they don’t want to put them on call.

Albert Rice

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Okay. All right, that’s helpful. Just my last question, on the nurse staffing where you are seeing some strength, how much -- I mean, obviously you are having some success with the MSP benefit, how much is sort of - maybe can you delineate between that and the underlying market tone? Are you grabbing share through the MSP additions or is it -- and how does that compare versus what we are seeing overall on the marketplace?

Unknown Executive

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Sure. We’re definitely seeing improvement in market share through winning MSP contracts as we look back to the 20 contracts that we won throughout 2011 as an example. Some very key ones and large ones did come from other competitors, and even those that didn’t where they were more traditional competitive accounts where there was no previous MSP, we are picking up share there because typically in a non-MSP client our fill rates are about 0.5 of what we would expect when we actually are the MSP provider. So we pick up share really in either situation when we would in MSP, but we are also seeing improvements in the traditional business. We do measure our orders and our traveler count based on those MSP, and what we consider sort of the traditional competitive accounts. So, Ralph, you want to add anything?

Ralph Henderson

Analyst · Susquehanna Financial

Yes, the growth in the MSP, you know, it’s about 60% of the growth comes from the MSP portion of the business, about 40% comes from the traditional clients, which implies that there’s good demand, you know, in kind of both segments.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets.

Jeffrey Silber

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Forgive me, I may have missed some of the comments, but your gross margin in the Nurse and Allied segment were fairly high, I am assuming that is the reason that your overall gross margins were ahead of guidance. Is that something that you should think you could sustain into the first quarter and the rest of the year? Obviously, I know there are some payroll reset, but you know, disregarding that.

Brian Scott

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

The margin in the fourth quarter was probably the main driver of us being above our guidance range. And we did have -- it was a little better than what we really expected as well. So I -- as Susan mentioned earlier, we are getting bill rate increases, we also are planning to pass along the majority of that to both drive more supply as well as to offset the housing cost increases. So I would expect it, for our margins remain where they are, or they could come down slightly as you look into 2012. We had just some good outcomes in the fourth quarter that lifted it a little more than what we would expect.

Unknown Executive

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Some of these other workforce consulting and solution businesses also helped to improve the margins, which is why we are very interested in continuing to expand them along with the value that they bring to our clients. They help us to move our gross margins and EBITDA margins along And so while they weren’t huge things, such as our RPO business growing, our EMR staffing business continuing to do very well, and then some of the smaller workforce consulting projects that we’ve done and we’ve had a nice one in the fourth quarter help us to incrementally move that needle upwards on, again, growth and EBITDA margins.

Jeffrey Silber

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Okay, great, that is helpful. You know, in terms of your end market, there has been a lot of talk about the potential consolidation, or even further consolidation of your -- of the hospital providers, and I know Moody’s had a report on that that has gotten a lot of airplay the past day or so. If this consolidation continues, what do you think the impact would be on your business?

Bob Livonius

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

This is Bob, thank, Jeff. Yes, I think it actually is positive for us. We have been very successful in terms of incorporating the large hospital systems under our MSP program, and we find that during these consolidations they are looking for, you know, consolidations of vendors and often times we get pulled into that in a very positive way. We also are happy with many of our clients who are actually expanding themselves, so they are out acquiring other hospitals and that has been a real benefit to us in a few instances as well. So we think that that’s actually a positive for us in the way which we’ve designed our model.

Jeffrey Silber

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Okay, great. Brian, you have given some annual guidance for, you know, D&A, interest share count, and CapEx, can we get rough estimates for the first quarter as well?

Brian Scott

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Sure, I think for D&A, if you take the full year now that I’ve given, and probably spread that pretty evenly.

Brian Scott

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

For year on the interest expense - you know, fourth quarter interest expense was 5.4 million, I think, so, you can - it’s going to probably go down a couple hundred thousand a quarter, and kind of just do it from there.

Jeffrey Silber

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Share counts?

Brian Scott

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Share counts will be pretty similar to the fourth quarter.

Jeffrey Silber

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

All right, great, and then one more numbers question. In terms of stock based comp, which would we expect for both the quarter and the year?

Brian Scott

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Stock count for the entire year?

Jeffrey Silber

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Stock count for the quarter and the entire year if possible.

Brian Scott

Analyst · Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets

Yes, it’s going to be, again, it would be able 6 ½ million for the year more or less, and I would just -- I would probably just spread that evenly as well.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Frank Atkins with Suntrust.

Frank Atkins

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

Going back to the MSP side, can you talk a little bit about the pricing environment there. Any changes, anything you see?

Bob Livonius

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

This is Bob again. We actually have started to see a continued improvement in pricing opportunities within the MSP market, and part of that comes from being one of the largest providers, or by far the largest provider, we have a lot of data what we can educate the client on what the trends are that are going on in the marketplace. So as a part of the MSP sale, we can have a very strategic discussion with our clients about what’s going on in the market and what rates will be necessary to meet the demand and the fill rate that you’re looking for. We find clients are less -- not that they’re not concerned about price, but it’s the third thing they worry about. The first thing is quality, fill rates, in one of those 2 orders, and then third tends to be price. And statistically, we’ve looked at the last 10 or so and we’ve actually not seen any price decreases from where we were. We’ve actually increased prices from where we were in several cases.

Frank Atkins

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

Okay, great. And if you could talk about tax rate, any guidance you could give for either 1Q or the year?

Brian Scott

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

Well, for 2012, the effective tax rate we’re projecting about 50% based on our current full-year forecast and that should be -- it should be the same for all the quarters.

Frank Atkins

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

Great. And in terms of the position perm, it was a pretty nice performance there. Can you talk a little bit about the kind of areas of strength you’re seeing?

Susan Nowakowski

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

Sure. And in the fourth quarter, the strength came from placements. Our ability to fill the placements that we had gotten in the third quarter in particular was kind of a nice kind of little uptick in searches. And then going into the first quarter, we’re seeing our searches go up again sequentially and year over year. Now, as we start to build that, you do get a small deferred revenue impact, but just from a forward-looking standpoint, we see that as a very positive sign of gaining some momentum back in the business. It’s also reflective, Frank, of us being able to build up our marketing staff, the individuals who are you in the field actually talking with our clients, potential clients and building those relationships and we’ve seen more successes at some of the larger teaching facilities, so starting to see more pockets of opportunity open up and we have more of the sales staff to actually be out there educating and selling.

Frank Atkins

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

Okay, great. And then, as you look forward, do you see any more strategic rationalization of offices you mentioned in your prepared remarks?

Brian Scott

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

You know, we kind of constantly evaluate the profitability of all of our offices, you know, that overall initiative includes taking a look at markets we should be in that we’re not in today that are kind of MSP centers, you know, so to speak. So we look at both the performance of the office, closing offices as well as opening offices. I think it’s a couple-year journey for us to probably get our footprint exactly like we want it to be.

Frank Atkins

Analyst · Frank Atkins with Suntrust

Okay, and finally, to the extent it’s possible, could you give us any color on some of the, I guess [Technical difficulties]