Alejandro Scannapieco
Analyst · William Blair. Please go ahead
Thanks, Martin, and good afternoon, everyone. I will spend a few minutes taking you through the first quarter 2018 results. Then I will talk about our outlook for Q2 and the rest of the year. Let me start by saying that we're pleased with our overall results for the first quarter of the year as the growth journey continues at a healthy pace. Revenues for Q1 amounted to $119.7 million, implying an outstanding 34.9% year-over-year growth. Disney was once again, our largest customer for the quarter, with very healthy growth and positive outlook for the rest of 2018. We also experienced accelerated demand among many of our 50-Squared accounts and particularly strong performance among non-top 10 customers. Revenues for top 10 customers increased by 37.3% over the first quarter of 2017, and customers 11 and beyond increased 33% during the same period. On the vertical front, financial services and media and entertainment industries continue to be key contributors to growth and building up robust pipelines. In terms of regions, during Q1 2018, Latin America outpaced other geographies as we have gained some very interesting new accounts in that region that have started yielding positive results. On a sequential basis, revenues increased 3.7% during Q1 2018 over the last quarter of 2017, the largest increase in Q1 sequentially. This is a consequence of our diversification of operations into multiple regions, and hence we're able to gradually reduce the impact of seasonality in terms of revenues. Our customer concentration numbers for Q1 2018 remain fairly consistent with past quarters, with our top 1, top 5 and top 10 accounts, representing 11.1%, 31.3% and 44.5% of revenues compared to 9.7%, 31.1% and 43.7% of revenues respectively for the first quarter of 2017. Our vertical diversification remains balanced across the different industries, with media and entertainment and financial services leading the pack, accounting for 24.5% and 21.7% of revenues respectively. During the last 12 months ended March 31, 2018, we rendered services to 348 customers, 89 of which accounted for more than $1 million of final revenues compared to 67 one year ago. During the last 12 months, we also had nine accounts about $10 million in annual revenues compared to six accounts for the same period of last year. We continue to grow the size of our accounts aligned with our 50-Squared strategy. During the first quarter of 2018, 78.6% of our revenues were in North America, the U.S. is our top country; 13.8% in Latin America and others, Argentina now being the top country; and 7.6% were in Europe, the Spain being the top country. Latin America continues to outpace the rest of the regions in terms of revenue growth. During the first quarter of 2018, 85.5% of our revenues were denominated in U.S. dollars, minimizing impact in our top-line from currency fluctuations. Turning now to profitability, our adjusted gross profit for the period increased to $46.8 million, 39.1% adjusted gross margin compared to $34.6 million, 39% adjusted gross margin in the first quarter of 2017. Our strategy of diversifying our talent base across the regions remains as a key contributor to keep margins stable. We finished the quarter with 6,940 Globers, 6,462 of which were IT professionals. Attrition for the past 12 months was 19.5% compared to 19% 1 year ago, showing a slight increase year-over-year mainly driven by Argentina. Adjusted SG&A decreased 260 basis points compared to Q1 2017, accounting for 20.8% of our quarterly revenues. We have been very disciplined in managing our costs as we gain scale while we continue investing for the future, primarily to strategically expand our sales coverage in U.S., Europe and Latin America. As a result, our adjusted operating income for the quarter amounted to $17.6 million or 14.7% of revenues compared to $10.9 million or 12.3% for the first quarter of 2017. Higher than expected SG&A dilution combined with the stable gross margins were the two main drivers for the significant operating margin expansion. Share-based compensation expense for the first quarter of 2018 amounted to $2.9 million, compared to $0.9 million for the same quarter last year. This expense is mainly related to the plan of restricted stock units granted to certain key employees and directors of the company during Q2 2017 as part of our long-term retention program. Financial income and expense net amounted to a loss of $0.9 million. This net result is composed of interest income and FX gains and losses resulting from exposure of monetary assets and liabilities in local currencies. Adjusted net income for the first quarter of the year totaled $13.9 million, 11.6% Adjusted net income margin compared to 10% for the first quarter of 2017. Adjusted diluted EPS for the quarter was $0.38, based on 36.5 million average diluted shares for the quarter compared to $0.25 for the first quarter of 2017. During this quarter, EPS is growing higher than revenues. Adjusted diluted EPS for Q1 of 2017, previously reported at $0.27, turned now to $0.25, as we have broken down by quarter the 2017 full year acquisition-related charges recorded in Q4 2017. Moving on to the balance sheet, our cash and investments as of March 31, 2018, amounted to $45 million compared to $60.7 million as of December 31, 2017. This increase of cash was mainly explained by our decision to practically self-fund for the time being M&A transactions, including earn outs, a slight increase in DSO compared to Q4 2017 and investments in CapEx to expand our offices in Latin America, U.S. and Europe. Our balance sheet remains strong, with current assets of $156.3 million accounting for 43.3% of the company's total assets. Total common shares outstanding as of March 31, 2018, were 35.7 million. To wrap up, let me provide you with our guidance for Q2 2018 and the rest of the year. Let me start with the industry and macroeconomic environment. Despite it is only the beginning of the year, we feel confident with the overall business environment, and we're very satisfied with the progress we're seeing in the implementation of our 50-Squared account strategy. In terms of gross margins, we expect a normalized range around 38% and 40% as we pointed out in the last few calls and as we have been able to maintain over several quarters. Diversification of our talent base will continue to be part of our long-term strategy, and that should enable us to have a more balanced cost of structure with a better handle margins while we continue investing in our 50-Squared strategy and training for our Globers in cutting-edge technologies. As always, we'll continue managing our SG&A expenses very carefully to gain additional dilution, while we continue investing for the future. Our effective tax rate is expected to remain in the 20% to 22% range in line with the past several quarters. Based on current visibility, we expect Q2 2018 revenues to be between $124 million and $126 million, implying a 25.5% year-over-year growth at the midpoint of the range. Adjusted EPS is expected to be between $0.36 and $0.40, assuming 36.9 million average diluted shares outstanding for the quarter. Regarding the full year 2018, we expect revenues in the range of $502 million and $510 million, an implied 22.4% year-over-year revenue growth at the midpoint of the range. In terms of adjusted EPS, we're expecting a range of $1.56 and $1.64, assuming 37 million average diluted shares outstanding for the full year. Thanks to everyone for participating on the call and for your coverage and support. Operator, can you please queue questions.