Carrie Dolan
Analyst · Susquehanna. Please go ahead
Thanks Scott and morning everyone. As Scott noted, this quarter demonstrated the resilient shape of [ph] marketplace model. We are pleased with our results given the number of headwinds including the seasonality, economic uncertainty, disruptions in the capital market and some investor uncertainty. We believe our performance this quarter demonstrates the flexibility of our operating model and the resiliency we built in borrower channels and funding sources. Before reviewing results, I’d like to remind you that all year-over-year comments are comparisons to the first quarter and the prior year and all operating expenses discussed exclude stock-based compensation and depreciation and amortization. With that, let’s talk about the results. Total originations in the first quarter were $2.75 billion, an increase of 68% compared to last year. While operating revenue in the first quarter was $151 million, up 87% year-over-year. Revenue growth outpaced origination growth as revenue yields expanded to record highs this quarter. Our revenue yield, which is operating revenue as a percent of origination was 5.5%, up 29 basis points sequentially and 54 basis points year-over-year. The quarter-over-quarter increase was driven by 7 basis points from higher transaction fees, 14 basis points from higher servicing fees, collection fees and gains on sale of home loans and 9 basis points from a servicing asset adjustment. The 54 basis point year-over-year increase was driven by 9 basis points from higher transactions fees, 25 basis points from higher servicing and collection fee, 5 basis point from servicing asset adjustment and 17 basis points from gain on sales of home loans. Transaction fees, which are earned immediately after loan is originated represented 82% of operating revenues and totaled $124.5 million, up 72% year-over-year. Most of the 7 basis points transaction fee increase was due to pricing changes we implemented in March. On an annualized basis, the impact of these pricing changes add roughly 55 basis points to our transaction fees as a percent of originations. While we have seen some negative impact to conversion with these pricing changes in the first quarter, the lower conversion rate has been offset by higher fees. This price adjustment strengthens our margins ahead of potential economic softness, while also helping to offset some seasonally higher marketing costs, credit adjustments and increased issuing bank fees that were put in place to strengthen the programs – to strengthen the programs position under Madden. Going forward, we will continue to assess the impact of these pricing changes on conversion rates, customer satisfaction and credit quality which may result in further adjustments to these pricing changes. Servicing and management fees, which are earned over the life of the investments, totaled $26.8 million in the first quarter, up 212% from last year. Servicing and management fees as a percent of originations increased 45 basis points year-over-year to the 98 basis points, driven by higher relative growth in our servicing portfolio, higher sold loan volumes at inherently higher servicing rates, higher collection fees and as previously noted, a one-time adjustment to the value of the servicing asset. The servicing asset valuation adjustment, which incorporates future servicing revenue was driven by our collection fee pricing changes made last quarter. In the first quarter, our servicing portfolio which comprised of all the loans we serviced and includes loans that we sold, but continued to service reached $10.2 billion, up $4.6 billion or 83% from last year. Servicing and management fees as a percent of our average servicing portfolio and excluding the one-time adjustments, increased 5 basis points year-over-year to 19 basis points and were 1 basis point higher than the fourth quarter. We continue to benefit from favorable investor mix trends and collection fees. Details showing these trends are noted on page 26 in our earnings presentation. Other revenue grew $5 million from the prior year as a result of higher gains associated with selling loans at more favorable rates, which added 17 basis points to the year-over-year revenue yield expansion. Now turning to expenses, first quarter is seasonally the most challenging and this year was no different as you can see on slide 15. Sales and marketing expenses in the first quarter were $64.7 million, up $33 million a year ago. As a percent of originations, sales and marketing expenses were at 2.35% this quarter, which was 33 basis points higher than a year ago and 34 basis points higher sequentially. We estimate that roughly two-thirds of the sequential increase is due to seasonality which has become more pronounced as we’ve grown. The remaining one-third of the quarter-over-quarter increase is due to our business decisions, which includes increasing interest rates and fees and tightening our underwriting, all of which had a negative impact on conversion and acquisition costs. Origination and servicing expenses in the first quarter were $18.5 million, up from $11.6 million last year. As a percent of originations, origination and servicing expenses were 4 basis points lower than last year and were 1 basis point higher quarter-over-quarter at 67 basis points. As we shared last quarter, our technology investments in automation and scale provided significant margin leverage year-over-year. In the coming quarters, we expect origination and servicing as a percent of originations to increase by roughly 10 basis points, as the full impact of the issuing bank loan trailing fees takes effect. On a dollar basis, our contribution income in the first quarter was $68.1 million, up 87% year-over-year. Contribution margin as a percent of operating revenues were flat year-over-year at 45% and down 3.9 points sequentially, driven primarily by higher sales and marketing costs. In Q1, engineering and product development expenses were roughly flat sequentially at $16 million, resulting in a 160 basis points of operating leverage as a percent of operating revenues, which was expected to dropping to a low of 10.6% of revenues. Other G&A expenses increased $2.2 million sequentially this quarter to $25.2 million, as a percent of operating revenues other G&A dropped to 16.7%, down 3.6 percentage points from 20.3% in the prior year, which helped improve our leverage this quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $25.2 million, up 137% from the prior year, while our adjusted EBITDA margin was 16.7%, up 3.6 percentage points year-over-year. Adjusted net income, which is GAAP net income excluding stock-based compensation and acquisition related expenses, was $20.9 million or $0.05 per diluted share during the first quarter versus $7.7 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the same period last year. Our GAAP net income was again positive at $4.1 million or $0.01 per diluted share, compared to a loss of $6.4 million a year ago. The difference between GAAP and adjusted net income is primarily due to stock-based compensation, which increased $3.4 million year-over-year to $15 million. Stock-based compensation as a percent of operating revenues, declined from 14.3% last year to below 10% for the first time this quarter. Now turning to the balance sheet, as of March 31st, total balance sheet assets reached $5.9 billion, of this $4.7 billion is in loans, $868 million is in cash and securities available for sale and the remaining $364 million is in other assets. During the quarter, LendingClub repurchased $19.4 million of our common shares in the open market or 2.3 million shares and has $131 million remaining under its authorization. As Scott noted, our strong financial performance this quarter is rightfully overshadowed by recent events. In the first quarter of 2016, we identified two events that resulted in material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting and the ineffectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures. The circumstances that underlie these material weaknesses are; first, the $22 million sale of non-conforming near-prime loans and the alteration of application dates for $3 million of those near- prime loans. And second, a failure to inform the Board’s Risk Committee of personal investments held in a third-party fund, while the Company was contemplating an investment in that same funds. We currently do not believe that any of these circumstances individually or in the aggregate have any impact on our reported financial results. In light of the event shared today, we believe it is prudent not to provide quarterly or annual guidance at this time. We do intend to resume guidance once we have time to fully assess the impact of today’s news. So with that, let’s open up the call for questions. Operator?