Tamar Rapaport-Dagim
Analyst · Citi. You may proceed with your question
Thank you, Shuky. Since we completed the divestiture of OpenMarket on December 31, 2020, our reported numbers for income statement and cash flow in the first quarter fiscal 2021 still include OpenMarket, but the reported balance sheet as of December 31, 2020 and the 12 months backlog metric already excludes OpenMarket. In order to provide you with a sense of the underlying business trends, my comments today will refer to certain financial metrics on a pro forma basis, which exclude the financial impact of OpenMarket from the current fiscal year and comparable fiscal year period. First fiscal quarter revenue of $1.086 billion was above the midpoint of our guidance range of $1.055 billion to $1.095 billion, both on a reported and constant currency basis. Revenue includes a positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations of approximately $5 million relative to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2020 and $6 million relative to guidance. On a year-over-year basis, our first quarter revenue grew by 4.3% as reported and 3.7% on constant currency. Our first fiscal quarter non-GAAP operating margin was 17.3%, above the midpoint of our long-term target range of 16.5% to 17.5% and slightly better on a sequential and year-ago basis. Non-GAAP operating margin was consistent with our guidance that we will protect profitability despite the COVID-19 related challenges. Below the operating line, non-GAAP net interest and other expense was $5.3 million in Q1, the mix of which includes interest expense related to our short-term borrowings and 10-year bond, and the impact of foreign currency fluctuations. For forward-looking purposes, we expect that foreign currency fluctuations will continue to impact our non-GAAP net interest and other expense line in the range of a few million dollars on a quarterly basis. Diluted non-GAAP EPS was $1.16 in Q1, above the high-end our guidance range of $1.09 to $1.15. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 16.3% in the first fiscal quarter, consistent with our annual target range of 13% to 17%. Diluted GAAP EPS was $2.28 for the first fiscal quarter, well above the high-end of our guidance range of $0.85 to $0.93 due to a net gain of $1.42 per diluted share realized on the divestiture of OpenMarket, which was not included in the original guidance for the quarter. Free cash flow was $366 million in Q1. This was comprised of cash flow from operations of approximately $416 million, less $50 million in net capital expenditures and other. Free cash flow reflected a healthy level of cash collections with our customers and included the benefit of the new multi-year strategic agreement we signed with T-Mobile during the first fiscal quarter. Normalized free cash flow was $385 million in the first fiscal quarter. Please refer to the reconciliation table provided in our Q1 earnings release for an explanation of the difference between normalized and reported free cash flow in the quarter and for past periods. DSO of 78 days decreased by 10 days year-over-year and increased by 3 days as compared to the prior fiscal quarter. We remind you that DSO's may fluctuate from quarter to quarter. As of December 31, total deferred revenue exceeded total unbilled receivables by $140 million. This reflects a substantial increase in the total deferred revenue of $224 million as compared to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2020, slightly offset by an increase in total unbilled receivables of $10 million. The increase in total deferred revenue is primarily related to the new T-Mobile agreement, as well as many other new activities signed during Q1. Changes in unbilled receivables and total deferred revenue are primarily due to the timing of contract-specific milestones. Moving forward, you should expect these items to fluctuate from quarter to quarter in line with normal business activities. Moving on, our 12-month backlog was $3.49 billion at the end of first fiscal quarter and reflects already the exclusion of OpenMarket following its divestiture as of December 31. On a pro forma basis, excluding the financial impact of OpenMarket, our 12-month backlog had a record increase of approximately $150 million sequentially from the end of the prior quarter and was up roughly 5.6% year-over-year. As a reminder, we believe our 12-month backlog continues to serve as a good leading indicator of our forward-looking revenue. I am pleased to report another record quarter from managed services arrangements which comprised roughly 57% of total revenue. This performance reflects high renewal rates, the adoption of our managed transformation model and continued expansion of activities within existing customers. To clarify, OpenMarket business was not classified as Managed Services and therefore its exit will not impact moving forward our revenue from managed services. Our cash balance at the end of the first fiscal quarter was approximately $1.5 billion, including aggregate borrowings of roughly $750 million and gross proceeds of roughly $300 million realized from the divesture of OpenMarket. Given our plans to use the majority of OpenMarket consideration for accelerated share buyback in the next several months, we expect our cash balance to be lower at the end of fiscal Q2. We remain comfortable with our balance sheet and believe that we have ample liquidity to support our ongoing business needs while retaining the capacity to fund strategic growth investments as and when the right opportunities arise. Additionally, we are committed to maintaining our investment grade rating. Now turning to the outlook, the prevailing level of macro-economic and business uncertainty surrounding the magnitude and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic remains elevated. The midpoint of our revenue guidance reflects what we consider to be the most likely outcomes based on the information we have today, but we cannot predict all possible scenarios, and we remind you that our outlook may be impacted materially as our customers continue to evaluate their strategic business priorities and future pace of investment. We expect revenue for the second fiscal quarter of 2021 to be within a range of $1.015 billion to $1.055 billion. Our Q2 revenue guidance anticipates a positive sequential impact of approximately $4 million from foreign currency fluctuations. Regarding the full fiscal year 2021, we expect pro forma revenue growth of approximately 3.5% to 7.5% year-over-year on a constant currency basis, adjusting for OpenMarket. This outlook is in line with our previous guidance for expected pro forma revenue growth on a constant currency basis. On a reported basis, we are adjusting our full year fiscal 2021 revenue outlook to reflect the divestiture of OpenMarket as of December 31, meaning that OpenMarket is included in the first fiscal quarter numbers only. We therefore expect reported full year revenue growth in the range of negative 0.3% to plus 3.7% year-over-year as compared with our previous range of 4% to 8% year-over-year. The adjusted revenue outlook on a reported basis anticipates a positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations of approximately 1.2% year-over-year as compared to a positive impact of 0.5% previously. As a reminder, our initial outlook at the beginning of fiscal 2021 had anticipated revenue growth of 3.5% to 7.5% on a constant currency basis, including a full year contribution from OpenMarket. Additionally, we expect the ramp-up of customer activity to contribute to an acceleration in the rate of year-over-year revenue growth on a pro forma basis in the fiscal second half. Moreover, we expect all three geographical regions to deliver pro forma revenue growth in the full year fiscal 2021. As a final point to further help with your modeling, we remind you that we originally planned for OpenMarket fiscal 2021 annual revenues in the range of approximately $300 million which represented more or less the same growth rate year-over-year to the rest of the company. OpenMarket generated roughly 75% of its revenues from North America with Europe accounting for the balance. Regarding profitability, we now anticipate quarterly non-GAAP operating margins to track roughly in line with high-end of the annual target range of 16.5% to 17.5%. This improvement relative to the levels of the past several quarters reflects the benefit of ongoing cost and efficiency improvements and the divestiture of OpenMarket for which operating margins were below the corporate average, tracking in the low double-digits. We remain focused on protecting our profitability while maintaining strong execution during the ongoing pandemic and increasing R&D investments to support our customers and future growth strategy. We expect the second fiscal quarter diluted non-GAAP EPS to be in the range of $1.09 to $1.15. Our second fiscal quarter non-GAAP EPS guidance incorporates an expected average diluted share count of roughly 132 million shares. We excluded the impact of incremental future share buyback activity during the second fiscal quarter, as the level of activity will depend on market conditions. Regarding the full year fiscal 2021 outlook, we expect non-GAAP diluted earnings-per-share growth of 5.5% to 9.5% on a pro forma basis, which is slightly better than the original pro forma guidance of 5% to 9% we provided for the year. On a reported basis, we expect to deliver full year diluted non-GAAP EPS growth of 4% to 8% year-over-year. This outlook includes the impact of OpenMarket for the first quarter only and compares with our previous outlook of 5% to 9% year-over-year which included OpenMarket for the full year of fiscal 2021. We expect our non-GAAP effective tax rate to be within our annual target range of 13% to 17% for the full fiscal year 2021. I am pleased to report we are raising our outlook for normalized free cash flow for the year 2021 to approximately $800 million compared to $620 million previously. The new outlook is equivalent to approximately 8% of Amdocs' current market capitalization and represents a conversion rate of roughly 130% relative to our expectations for non-GAAP net income. As a reminder, we expect free cash flow to convert at a rate more on par with our expected non-GAAP net income over the long term. Along similar lines, we are raising our outlook for reported free cash flow for fiscal year 2021 to approximately $600 million as compared to roughly $470 million previously. Our reported free cash flow outlook anticipates expenditures of roughly $140 million in relation to the development of our new campus in Israel, $40 million of capital gains tax to be paid in relation to the divesture of OpenMarket, and other items. As previously stated, we expect fiscal 2021 to be the peak year of capital expenditure for the new campus. Additionally, the gap between expected free cash flow on a normalized and reported basis has widened, primarily due to the tax to be paid on the capital gain of OpenMarket. Additionally, we remind you that free cash flow in the second fiscal quarter is typically lower due to the timing of annual bonus payments. During the first fiscal quarter, we repurchased $90 million of our ordinary shares under our current authorization. Regarding our capital allocations plans for the rest of fiscal 2021, we expect to return cash to shareholders in the form of our regular quarterly dividend and share repurchases at levels roughly similar to that of fiscal Q1, subject to factors such as the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, the outlook for M&A, financial markets and prevailing industry conditions. In addition to our regular quarterly share repurchases, we also plan to return the majority of the net proceeds from OpenMarket to shareholders by way of our share repurchase program over the course of the next several months. As of December 31, we had roughly $588 million of authorized capacity for share repurchases with no stated expiration date, which we will execute at the Company's discretion going forward. Overall, we are on track to deliver accelerated pro forma revenue growth, improved profitability and better-than-expected free cash flow in fiscal 2021, the combination of which supports an outlook for total shareholders returns of nearly 10%, including the 7.5% midpoint of our pro forma non-GAAP earnings-per-share growth guidance, plus our dividend yield. As a final comment, I am proud to say that Amdocs has been recognized once again for its commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility by earning a place on the prestigious S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America for the second consecutive year. I would like to join Shuky in acknowledging our employees for their dedication, commitment to best practices and ability to work together with our partners and customers, without which this achievement would not have been possible. With that, we can turn it back to the operator and we are happy to take your questions.