Richard Booth
Analyst · David Grossman with Stifel
Thanks, Jason. Q1 was another strong quarter, highlighted by rapid revenue growth and strong profitability. I'll start my remarks with a quick overview of our business model from a financial perspective, then provide a detailed review of our quarterly results before finishing with our outlook for Q2 and full year 2022. As always, in all my remarks, I'll be discussing our results on a non-GAAP basis, unless otherwise noted. First, let me remind everyone of some of the key attributes that make Definitive Healthcare's business model so compelling. We are a high-growth subscription business, selling into a $10 billion and growing total addressable market with low single-digit market penetration. We have excellent forward-looking visibility through our multiyear contracts and high net dollar retention rates. We operate profitably with high gross margins and a very efficient customer acquisition engine. We innovate efficiently by building on our proprietary data assets and data science platform. And finally, upfront billings and low CapEx requirements help us translate profits directly into cash flow and shareholder value. Our Q1 results illustrate how this business model plays out in practice. Highlights include 36% revenue growth compared to Q1 '21, 28% adjusted EBITDA margin, a 34% unlevered free cash flow margin over the prior 12 months and revenue growth plus trailing 12-month unlevered cash flow margin was 69%, putting us well above the Rule of 40. We believe this combination of high growth, high visibility and attractive profitability positions us well both in current conditions and for many years ahead. Turning to our results in more detail. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $50.1 million, up 36% from prior year and 4% above the midpoint of our guidance. Our revenue growth continues to be driven by strong sales momentum, particularly among enterprise customers. We ended the quarter with 447 enterprise customers, which we define as customers with at least $100,000 per year of annual recurring revenue. This was an increase of 127 customers or 40% year-over-year and up 30% from the previous quarter. As a reminder, enterprise customers represent the majority of our ARR and are a key focus of our go-to-market programs. Our total customer count, which includes smaller customers, was 2,944 at the end of Q1, up from 2,635 in Q1 of 2021. We also continue to have success upselling into our existing customers, which is a core component of our growth strategy. We have best-in-class retention rates among enterprise customers and multiple avenues to increase their spending with us over time, through both the adoption of additional modules and expanding usage to additional users and new areas within their organizations. Gross profit was $44.1 million, up 36% from the first quarter of 2021. Gross margin of 88% was unchanged from prior year because investments to add prescription claims data and the acquisition of Analytical Wizards offset our natural scale effects in the short run. In the remainder of 2022, we expect to see a further 100 to 200 bps downward impact on gross margin as we add additional prescription data sources and as Analytical Wizards grows. Prescription data represents a significant opportunity to innovate and expand our upsell opportunity within life sciences, and we fully expect to realize operating leverage from these investments over time as we did with medical claims. Sales and marketing expense was $17.5 million, up 51% year-over-year. And as a percentage of revenue, sales and marketing expenses were 35% of revenue, up from 31% in Q1 of 2021. We're committed to investing for growth, specifically expanding our digital marketing capabilities and building out our sales and customer success teams. We have a highly efficient and scalable go-to-market model, with a 10x LTV to CAC ratio, and we will continue to invest incremental resources into our growth initiatives to capture more and more of this $10 billion market for as long as we continue to generate strong returns. Product development expense was $5.5 million, up 49% from Q1 of 2021. And as a percentage of revenue, product development expense was 11% of revenue, up from 10.1% in Q1 of 2021. Investing in our platform and using our existing data assets to launch or enhance multiple products is a highly effective and efficient way for us to increase the value we deliver to customers. We will continue to invest in our product development efforts, given the number of exciting opportunities we have identified in our long-term product road map. G&A expense was $7.3 million, up 117% from Q1 2021 when we were a private company. As a percentage of revenue, G&A expenses were 14.6% of revenue, up from 9.1% in Q1 2021. The increase in G&A expense reflects incremental public company expense, and the annualization of these largely fixed costs will provide operating leverage throughout the upcoming year and beyond. Operating income was $13.2 million, down 2% from Q1 of 2021. As a percentage of revenue, operating income was 26% of revenue compared to 36% in Q1 of 2021. The year-over-year change in margin is related to 3 key investments: first, 350 bps of continued investment in sales and marketing; second, 100 bps of innovation investments in prescription data and in development; and third, 550 bps of increased G&A costs required to operate as a public company. A brief comment on operating income in the quarter. We set very aggressive hiring goals. We're getting really great people, and we're fully staffed with quota carriers, but the pace has been running slower than anticipated in some technology roles, which drove short-term favorability in margins. With the ability to recruit talent in more markets via both Analytical Wizards and in virtual roles, we plan to make up the shortfall in the remainder of the year. Adjusted EBITDA was $14 million consistent with Q1 of 2021. As a percentage of revenue, adjusted EBITDA was 28% of revenue compared to 38% in the prior year due to the investments outlined earlier. As we move through the year, we will see adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margins expand as we drive operating leverage from these largely fixed investments noted previously. Net income in Q1 was $7.8 million or $0.05 per diluted share based on 154.2 million weighted average shares outstanding. Turning to cash flow. Definitive's high margins, upfront billing and low CapEx requirements provide substantial free cash flow generation. We focus on trailing 12-month cash flows due to seasonality. Unlevered free cash flow was $60.4 million or a 34% unlevered free cash flow margin on a trailing 12-month basis. Converting more than 100% of our TTM adjusted EBITDA of $56 million into cash. We expect this ratio to return closer to 100% on a TTM basis by the end of the year as we make payments to acquire additional sources of prescription drug data. On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $339 million of cash and investments and with only $269 million of debt and strong profitability, we are well positioned to fund both organic and inorganic growth initiatives. To hedge the risk of rising interest rates on our debt, we entered into a swap to fix the interest rate on $136 million of our term loans through March of 2025. Full details of the terms and the resulting rates are in the supplemental slides up on our website as well as in our 10-Q. Current revenue performance obligations of $160.9 million were up 35% year-over-year. And total revenue performance obligations were up 40% year-over-year. Deferred revenue of $94 million was up 31% from $71.6 million in prior year. And this increase in deferred revenue was slightly smaller than normal because several million dollars of contracts were signed on the last day of the quarter, but not invoiced until April. Revenue performance obligations are unaffected, which underscores why we focus on that metric. We view our strong balance sheet and ongoing profitability as a strategic asset in today's dynamic environment. Turning to Analytical Wizards. It's early days, and they're a small tuck-in, so I won't spend much time on them other than to say that their performance is well aligned with expectations. Our sales teams are bullish on the new capabilities, and we're moving swiftly on integration. I'd like to wrap up by providing our guidance for the second quarter and full year. As always, guidance excludes any new M&A or changes in capital structure. And in general, to the extent that we overperform on revenue, we will seek to reinvest upside in incremental growth opportunities rather than maximizing short-term profitability, although that will vary quarter-to-quarter. In the second quarter, we expect total revenue of $53 million to $54 million for a median growth rate of 34%. Non-GAAP income from operations of $13 million to $14 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $14 million to $15 million for 27% median EBITDA margin. And non-GAAP net income of $7 million to $8 million or $0.04 to $0.05 per diluted share on 154.8 million weighted average shares outstanding. For the full year 2022, we're raising full year revenue expectations by $2.5 million to a range of $220.5 million to $224.5 million for a median growth rate of 34%. We are reiterating the profitability guidance we laid out on our last call, which called for non-GAAP income from operations of $57 million to $63 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $61 million to $67 million for a full year median margin of 29%. And non-GAAP net income of $35 million to $41 million. And earnings per share of $0.22 to $0.26 on 155.1 million weighted average shares outstanding. We're pleased with our overperformance on both top line and bottom line, and are confident in our full year outlook. Nonetheless, reiterating and not raising our profitability guidance provides flexibility to respond to attractive opportunities to expand our vision on prescription drug data, drive product innovation for providers and continue to support sales and marketing while exiting the year with Q4 adjusted EBITDA margins of 30% or more. So to summarize, Q2 was a strong quarter for Definitive Healthcare, and we're well positioned to carry that strength into the remainder of 2022 and beyond. We've developed a clear leadership position in a large and attractive market that we believe will support high levels of predictable revenue growth and profitability for the foreseeable future. We believe we have built a unique business that can deliver strong growth at scale and do so in a capital-efficient manner. We feel very good about the opportunity Definitive Healthcare has to become a much larger, more valuable business for our shareholders over time. And with that, we can open the call to questions.