Brian Turcotte
Analyst · Oppenheimer. Your line is now open. Please go ahead
Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 8, and I'll review our second quarter 2022 financial results. Second quarter 2022 revenue increased 5% versus the prior year period to $487 million as a result of higher pricing and a mix shift to higher-priced products in our home service plan business, which more than offset a slight decline in customer volume. Looking at our home service plan channels, second quarter revenue derived from customer renewals increased 10% versus the prior year period due to growth in the number of renewed home service plans and improved price realization. First year real estate revenue decreased 26% versus the prior year period, reflecting a continued decline in the number of home service plans in this channel, offset in part by improved price realization. The decline in the number of home service plans in this channel was due to the ongoing challenges presented by the seller's market, driven in part by extremely low home inventory levels across the U.S. First year direct-to-consumer, or D2C, revenue increased 15% versus the prior year period due to improved price realization and a mix shift to higher-priced products as the volume was relatively flat. Second quarter revenue reported in our other channel increased $5 million over the prior year period, primarily driven by ProConnect growth. Gross profit declined 13% in the second quarter versus the prior year period to $211 million, and our gross profit margin was 43%. I'll speak to the inflationary cost pressures that unfavorably impacted gross profit in a moment. Moving down to income statement. I would point out that as part of our efforts to better match our office space footprint to our current needs and also to reduce operating expense, we are entering into a sublease for our downtown Memphis headquarters. Our plans are to do a smaller and less expensive space, which is more centrally located for our Memphis-based employee population. While this action resulted in a noncash impairment charge of $11 million in the second quarter related to our headquarters facility operating lease right-of-use assets and leasehold improvements, the cash flow and adjusted EBITDA impacts over the remainder of our lease term are expected to be positive. Net income decreased $7 million in the second quarter of 2022 to $33 million. Adjusted net income decreased $22 million over the prior year period to $44 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $77 million in the second quarter or $37 million lower than the prior year period. Let's move to the table on Slide 9, and I'll provide context for the year-over-year decline in second quarter adjusted EBITDA. Starting at the top, we had $23 million of favorable revenue conversion in the second quarter of 2022 versus the prior year period. Contract claims costs increased $53 million in the second quarter versus the prior year period, primarily driven by an acceleration of inflationary cost pressures, including rising contract-related expenses and higher parts and equipment costs. Second quarter claims costs were also unfavorably impacted by approximately $4 million from the extremely hot weather across the country, primarily in May. Additionally, contract claims cost for the second quarter of 2022 include a $7 million unfavorable adjustment related to the adverse cost development of prior period claims. Sales and marketing costs increased $6 million in the second quarter versus the prior year period, primarily related to increased investments in the DTC channel and ProConnect. And finally, general and administrative costs increased one million dollar in the second quarter, primarily due to increased professional fees. I'll now go into more detail on the significant claims cost inflation we're experiencing as a result of the challenging macroeconomic environment, the effects on the business and our ongoing cost mitigation strategies. Over the 12 months ended June 2022, the consumer price index increased 9.1%, not only the largest 12-month increase in over 40 years, but also included an acceleration over the last two months of the second quarter. Furthermore, we are seeing cost inflation in home services rising even faster. For example, in June, our contractors were faced with fuel costs that were up over 60% versus one year ago. We also saw the producing price index for heating and air conditioning equipment and appliances up over 20% and 15%, respectively. It is one of the most challenging environments we've ever faced, and it continues to evolve as issues such as the war in Ukraine and its impact on fuel prices and rolling COVID lockdowns in China impacting the global supply chain. However, we are seeing some green shoots as certain commodity prices are now declining. For example, cold-rolled steel, a critical component in the manufacture of water heaters and HVAC equipment, declined 20% in June versus the prior year period. Additionally, as I mentioned last quarter, while we have great pricing visibility and an ability to influence our own direct purchases of parts and equipment, we don't have that same level of real-time visibility into our contractor costs. Our contractors, for the most part, who are small business owners, generally pass along their higher cost to us. And as they can take months to complete their billing process, our ability to identify and manage accelerating contractor costs in the near term is limited. I believe it would be helpful to provide more context as to how the current environment impacts Frontdoor's operations. The challenging macroeconomic environment, including higher parts and equipment costs and contractor-related inflation, resulted in our second quarter year-over-year cost per service request increasing about 23%, which was much higher than the mid- to high-teens increase we experienced in the first quarter. We believe the main drivers of this inflation are: first, a rapid acceleration of contractor-related costs, including higher fuel costs, operating costs and labor rates. It also includes a substantial increase in contractor supply parts and equipment costs; second, our product mix now includes broader coverage offerings, such as our new Platinum product, which has both a higher price point and a higher service cost; and third, although still within our projected ranges, we are paying higher prices for parts and equipment we directly source. As we've mentioned in the past, implementing additional price increases is a lever we can pull to help cover higher inflation, and we've already taken two price increases earlier this year. We will continue to look for opportunities to increase price while minimizing the impact to our customer count. We are currently working on launching an update to our dynamic pricing model. We will take that opportunity to implement a third round of price increases for certain products in the second half of the year. As a result, we are now targeting a 12% to 13% overall price increase in 2022. However, it's worth noting that with our annual service plan structure, price increases take time to be realized. And while we started the process early this year, they will provide more revenue and gross profit benefit in 2023. I also wanted to remind you that our price testing continues to show that our customers are mostly priced in elastic. And we expect to be able to continue to increase our price over time to cover inflationary pressures. Beyond price, our top priority is working to improve visibility into our contractor cost trends and then to mitigate the impact of the inflation on our margins. Let me explain some of our initiatives in more detail. First, we are continuing to improve our processes. These actions primarily focus on how we engage and utilize our contractors, including increasing the percent of total jobs assigned to our preferred contractors. We're also expanding our recruiting efforts to increase our contractor count and create more competition for contractor selection in key markets. Our contract relations team is also improving our end-to-end operating processes in an effort to further mitigate cost increases. One example is they now require a review of all service risk cost estimates over a certain dollar limit from nonpreferred contractors to manage our cost exposure. Second, we are continuing to maximize our strategic sourcing efforts by broadening the Frontdoor parts and equipment sourcing network and supplying lower cost materials to our contractors than they could have purchased on their own. Another example is offering our contractors direct buy programs for water heaters and HVAC equipment that we purchase at much lower prices. The added benefit of this program is that it's digital and reduces the number of inbound phone calls from contractors. And third, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of our SG&A expenses and have already identified a number of cost reduction opportunities that will result in over $30 million of improvement to our original full year 2022 SG&A guidance. Please now turn to Slide 10 for a review of our cash flow and cash position. Net cash provided from operating activities was $94 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022, and was comprised of $68 million in earnings adjusted for noncash charges and $26 million of cash provided from working capital. Net cash used for investing activities was $19 million and was primarily comprised of technology-related capital expenditures. Net cash used for financing activities was $69 million, primarily driven by $59 million used for share repurchases. Since launching the $400 million share repurchase program last September, we have repurchased $162 million worth of shares or 40% of the total program. I should note that we continue to prioritize share repurchases in our capital allocation strategy and remain committed to returning cash to our valued shareholders. However, like many other companies, the amount of additional share repurchases, if any, will depend on the macroeconomic environment and how our business performs throughout the rest of 2022. Free cash flow, calculated as net cash provided from operating activities minus property additions, was $75 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022, compared to $104 million for the prior year. We ended the second quarter of 2022 with $269 million in cash. Restricted net assets totaled $159 million and unrestricted cash totaled $109 million. However, unrestricted cash, combined with $248 million of available capacity under our revolving credit facility, provides us with a solid available liquidity position of $357 million. I'll now conclude my prepared remarks with our current thoughts regarding the financial outlook for the third quarter and updated full year 2022 provided on Slide 11. We expect our third quarter 2022 revenue to be within a range of $470 million to $480 million, which reflects an increase in direct-to-consumer and renewal channel revenue versus the prior year period, partly offset by approximately 30% decline in real estate channel revenue. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA is expected to range between $65 million and $75 million, which is below the prior year period and driven by the accelerating inflationary cost trends, the impact of the July heat wave on HVAC claims and the challenging real estate environment. Turning to our updated full year 2022 outlook, revenue is projected to be within a range of $1.63 billion to $1.65 billion. The full year revenue growth assumptions include upper single-digit revenue growth in the D2C and renewal channels and a nearly 30% decrease in the real estate channel, driven by the historically challenging seller's market and extremely low levels of home inventory. On a consolidated basis, our core home service plan business revenue growth is now expected to be in the low single digits. Customer count is expected to decline by approximately five percent in 2022, primarily driven by the weakness in first year real estate sales. Additionally, reductions in ProConnect marketing investment in the back half of the year will lower the full year revenue target to $30 million to $35 million. Our full year 2022 gross profit margin is projected to be between 41% and 42% as a result of the challenging macroeconomic conditions, including an acceleration of inflationary cost pressures, which is partly offset by higher pricing and process improvement efforts. This projection assumes that inflation will be 20% on a cost per service request basis, and the actual number of service requests will be slightly down versus prior year. We're now targeting full year 2022 SG&A to range between $525 million and $535 million, including a stock compensation expense target of approximately $28 million. The $30 million decrease from our original 2022 guidance primarily relates to the SG&A expense reduction actions I mentioned earlier. Based on these updated inputs, full year 2022 adjusted EBITDA is expected to range between $170 million and $190 million. With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Bill for closing comments before Matt opens the question-and-answer session. Bill?