Dan MacLachlan
Analyst · Barrington, your question please
Thank you, Derek and good afternoon. Before diving into the financial results and in addition to the key accomplishments Derek addressed, I wanted to highlight some 2016 financial metrics and what is just early stage of our incredible growth story. Looking back at the first quarter of 2016, the first four quarter post acquisition of our marketing services business improvement, we had revenues of 39.4 million and adjusted EBITDA of 2.4 million. With fourth quarter revenue of 54.2 million and adjusted EBITDA of 6.3 million, we drove revenue and adjusted EBITDA as a compound annual growth rate of over 50% and 250% respectively in just nine months. Our adjusted EBITDA margin grew to 12% in the fourth quarter, representing a 600 basis points increase from the first quarter 2016. Our gross profit margin was 33%, a 500 basis points increase from the first quarter 2016. Since this team embarked on this process a little over 24 months ago, we have transformed this company into a leading provider of information and data driven performance marketing solutions. Our 2016 results reaffirm the execution of our business model and the solid foundation we have created leading into 2017 to achieve Cogint of being a multibillion dollar company. Moving on to our results, I’ll be comparing fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2015 and to the third quarter 2016, walking you through our results of operation including segment information and adjusted EBITDA. I’ll conclude with the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Fourth quarter revenues were 54.2 million, compared to 10.8 million for the fourth quarter 2015. Revenues grew 2 million, a 4% increase over the third quarter, driven primarily by our Information Services segment. Adjusted EBITDA was 6.3 million, compared to a loss of 2.2 million for the fourth quarter 2015. Adjusted EBITDA grew 3.2 million, a 100% increase over third quarter. Continuing to the details of our P&L, as mentioned revenues were 54.2 million for the fourth quarter. Our Information Services and Performance Marketing segments contributed 16.2 million and 38 million respectively for the fourth quarter 2016, compared to 3.2 million and 7.7 million respectively for the fourth quarter of 2015. Information Services revenue grew 1.4 million, a 9% increase over third quarter, resulting from continued demand of our targeted acquisition solution, leveraging our unique ability to build custom audiences in real time, several new client wins in our publishing and CPG verticals and some expected seasonal lift from our retail and CPG clients. Performance Marketing revenue increased 0.6 million, a 2% increase over third quarter, showing continued strength in our mobile app, career and education and health verticals. Cost of revenues were 36.1 million, compared to 8.5 million for the fourth quarter 2015. Our cost of revenue decreased 3.6 million for the third quarter, a result of greater optimization of our consumer traffic through data rich media buying and thus reducing publisher spend. Gross margin was 33% for the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to 21% for the same period of 2015. Gross margin increased 900 basis points from the third quarter. SG&A was $20.2 million compared to $36.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. SG&A increased $2.9 million from the third quarter, the result of increased sales and marketing related expenses. The $20.2 million in SG&A for the fourth quarter consisted primarily of $7.3 million of non-cash share-based compensation, $6.3 million in employee salaries and benefits and $3 million in accounting, legal, and other professional fees. Depreciation and amortization was $3.5 million in the fourth quarter 2016, of which $3.2 million is attributable to the intangible assets related to acquisition. Depreciation and amortization remained consistent from the third quarter. Fourth quarter net loss was $5.4 million, largely a result of non-cash share-based payment of $7.3 million that I will discuss later in the call, compared to a net loss of $32.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. Net loss improved $4.3 million compared to the third quarter, primarily the result of higher gross profit and no write-offs related to intangible assets, partially offset by higher sales and marketing expenses. We reported a loss of $0.10 per share for the fourth quarter based on a weighted average share count of 53.7 million shares. Moving on to the balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents were $10.1 million at December 31, 2016 compared to $13.5 million at December 31, 2015. Total debt including the current portion of long-term debt, which was used to finance a portion of Fluent acquisition was $50 million at December 31, 2016, a decrease of $0.9 million from December 31, 2015. Current assets were $43.1 million at December 31, 2016, compared to $37.6 million at December 31, 2015. Current liabilities exclusive of the current portion of long-term debt were $22 million at December 31, 2016, compared to $18.8 million at December 31, 2015. Moving on to the statement of cash flows, for the year ended December 31, 2016, cash provided by operating activities was $2.1 million compared to cash used for operating activities of $10.7 million for the same period of 2015. The $2.1 million provided by operating activities was primarily the result of generating operating income of $7.3 million after adjustments for non-cash items totaling $36.4 million. Cash used in investing activities was $12 million for the year ended December 31, 2016, mainly the result of $10.2 million used for software developed for internal use and capitalized litigation costs. Cash provided by financing activities was $6.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2016, a result of $10.1 million in net proceeds from registered direct offering, offset by the repayment of $2.3 million in long-term debt. For the year ended December 31, 2016, our leverage ratio was 2.7 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA. As we look at our capital allocation strategy going into 2017 and our ability to extract tremendous operating leverage from the execution of our business model, we wanted to position the company for continued accelerated growth in revenue and profitability. As an example, we discussed last quarter that in line with our growth initiative we saw increased adoption of new solutions in both our reporting segments. And at the outset those initiatives required additional spend. The increased spend created pressure on our third quarter gross margin. However, we explain that these initiatives would quickly scale at both the top line and margin level positioning us well for margin expansion in the fourth quarter and first half of 2017. As you can see from our margin expansion of 900 basis points and our 100% adjusted EBITDA growth from third quarter, we executed and positioned ourselves extremely well extracting the inherent operating leverage in our business model. With our continued focus of driving the business in 2017 and accelerating profitable growth, we secure a $15 million term loan from our lending partner in the first quarter of 2017 on substantially the same term as our current debt. This $15 million infusion provides the accelerance and flexibility we need to feed upon the abundance of opportunities we have in our pipeline. With our growing adjusted EBITDA and continued strong cash flows in 2017, we expect deleveraging throughout the year and we’ll continue to focus on strong organic growth. As we focus on our organic growth in 2017, I do want to take some time to reflect and discuss our strategic acquisition of Q Interactive in 2016. Q Interactive provided an excellent strategic acquisition opportunity for us. It expanded our data assets, customer base, and thought leadership. From an acquisition standpoint, our strategy is to be opportunistically inquisitive, looking for assets that are perhaps mispriced or under-appreciated that can synergistically expand our capabilities, accelerate our business model, and/or provide long-term profitability, all while having an acquisition cost that is significantly lower than the target intrinsic value. After analyzing the synergies and identifying the capabilities that drive the greatest ROI within our marketing business, we commenced in the first quarter of 2017 integration of the Q Interactive business on to our marketing platform, leveraging the best capabilities across the organization and realizing cost, technology, and restore synergies that will translate into material profitability. By the end of first quarter of 2017, we expect to have the Q Interactive business fully integrated; meaning all traffic, customers, and revenue will be monetized on our agile audience engine platform. We expect little or no customer or revenue attrition associated with the integration. As a result of the cost synergies, we expect to realize annual saving in SG&A of approximately $4.5 million beginning in the second quarter of 2017. We also estimate a potential write-off in the amount of $3.6 million for certain intangible assets including trade names and proprietary technology acquired in the Q Interactive acquisition to be recognized in the first quarter of 2017. Before concluding our prepared remarks, I would like to spend a moment and talk about our share-based compensation, discussing our philosophy, objectives, and recent trends. As you may know, of our net loss of $5.4 million and $29.1 million for the fourth quarter and full year 2016 respectively, non-cash share-based payments contributed $7.3 million and $29.2 million respectively. The use of equity is an important part of our compensation program and is used to secure and retain the services of highly qualified personnel throughout the entire organization with the goal of conserving cash, retaining talent, and providing strong incentive for achieving long-term results by aligning the interests of our key personnel with those of our shareholders. We seek to hire, motivate, and retain the highest talent consistent with our vision. By way of example, for our Seattle-based technology team we have been able to attract and retain some of the brightest minds in the field of data science and machine learning, hailing from careers at Microsoft, Boeing, and Craig [ph]. In making strategic acquisitions, we often use equity grants to secure smooth integration and retention of thought leadership. This principle has paid enormous dividends with the acquisition of Fluent and Q Interactive, securing the leadership within our marketing services business driven by a senior management team at the forefront of innovation in the digital marketing space. This same senior management team that was running the companies at the time of acquisition remains today and we have been able to augment with additional talent along the way. That concludes our prepared remarks on the fourth quarter financial results. Our operator will now open the line for Q&A.