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Manhattan Associates, Inc. (MANH)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 4, 2014

$140.91

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Mike, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Manhattan Associates Fourth Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this call is being recorded today, February 4, 2014. I would now like to introduce Chief Financial Officer, Dennis Story, of Manhattan Associates. Mr. Story, you may begin your conference.

Dennis B. Story

Analyst

Thank you, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Manhattan Associates 2013 fourth quarter earnings call. I'll review our cautionary language and then turn the call over to Eddie Capel, our Chief Executive Officer. During this call, including the question-and-answer session, we may make forward-looking statements regarding future events or future financial performance of Manhattan Associates. You are cautioned that these forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results may differ materially from projections contained in our forward-looking statements. I refer you to the reports Manhattan Associates files with the SEC for important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in our projections, particularly our annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2012 and the risk-factor discussion in that report. We are under no obligation to update these statements. In addition, our comments include certain non-GAAP financial measures in an effort to provide additional information to investors. All non-GAAP measures have been reconciled to the related GAAP measures in accordance with SEC rules. And finally, as you all are aware, on December 19, 2013, our Board of Directors approved a 4-for-1 stock split effective January 10, 2014. Unless indicated otherwise, our references to earnings per share and diluted shares during this call, including historical results, have been adjusted for the stock split. For reference, you'll find reconciliation schedules in the Form 8-K we submitted to the SEC earlier today and on our website at manh.com. Now I'll turn the call over to Eddie.

Eddie Capel

Analyst

Good afternoon, everyone. Overall, 2013 was a very successful year for Manhattan Associates. Financial results were solid. Our competitive position improved considerably. Customer satisfaction increased. We continued to innovate at a rapid pace and extend our distribution management in omni-channel market leadership. All positioning us very well for 2014. We set new Q4 and full year revenue and earnings per share records. Q4 total revenue of $107.6 million increased 13% and adjusted earnings per share, on a split-adjusted basis, of $0.24, increased 33% over Q4 2012. For the full year 2013, total revenue of $414.5 million increased 10%, and adjusted earnings per share, again on a split-adjusted basis, of $0.92, increased 30% over 2012. The combination of strong revenue growth and prudent expense discipline led to our most successful year in the company's history. And Dennis will take you through all the details in just a moment. Importantly, we posted software license revenue of $17.3 million in Q4, up 20% versus Q4 2012. We closed 5 $1 million-plus license deals in the quarter, 3 with new customers and 2 with existing customers. One of the large deals was in Europe and 4 were in the U.S. The European deal and 2 of the U.S. deals were led by omni-channel initiatives. And 4 of the 5 deals included our platform-based Warehouse Management system. Also, in 4 of the 5 deals, we were successful head-to-head against very strong competition. Our sales teams across the globe executed well, and our competitive win rates remained strong. In the quarter and for all of 2013 in head-to-head sales cycles against our major competitors, we're winning about 75% of the time. For the quarter, about 60% of our license revenue was from net new customers. And for the year, we finished at about 35% of total…

Dennis B. Story

Analyst

Thanks, Eddie. I'll cover our Q4 and 2013 results followed by our 2014 annual guidance, and then I'll turn the call back to Eddie. As Eddie mentioned, we posted Q4 total revenue of $107.6 million, up 13% from last year and adjusted earnings per share of $0.24, increased 33% over Q4 2012. Apples-to-apples, adjusted earnings per share was $0.22, growing 22% excluding about $0.02 of favorable FX currency impact driven by rupee depreciation and a lower effective tax rate driven by state R&D and jobs tax credits. Strong revenue growth in license services and hardware combined with solid operating expense leverage and a lower effective tax rate led to the strong performance in the quarter. Our Q4 2013 GAAP earnings per share was $0.22, increasing 38% over Q4 of 2012. Full year total revenue totaled $414.5 million, growing 10% over 2012. Total revenue by region was solid with Americas up 10%, EMEA up 7%, and APAC growth was 20%. Full year adjusted earnings per share was $0.92, growing 30%, and GAAP earnings per share was $0.86, growing 34% over 2012 on strong services revenue growth and operating expense leverage. Apples-to-apples, adjusted earnings per share grew 25%, excluding $0.03, or $4.1 million, pretax of favorable FX currency impact, which totaled $2.5 million, and a onetime sales tax reversal benefit of $1.6 million in the year. As you may recall, the release of the sales tax reserve occurred in Q2 2013, positively impacting G&A expense and operating income. This reserve was originally established in 2008 and was released due to expiring tax statutes. Regarding currency, for your reference as part of our supplemental information disclosure in today's earnings release, Item #5 provides a breakout detailing the currency impacts for both total company and the Indian rupee. Q4 license revenue increased 20% to…

Eddie Capel

Analyst

Thanks, Dennis. First, let me provide a little more detail in the deals we closed in Q4. As I discussed at the beginning of the call, we recognized 5 large deals in the quarter, 3 in retail, 1 in grocery and 1 in consumer goods. All 5 deals were driven by strategic technology modernization programs with 3 of the deals specifically driven by omni-channel initiatives. The other 2 large deals were driven by distribution management legacy system replacement programs leveraging our platform-based Warehouse Management system. Maybe not surprisingly, we're starting to see some additional omni-channel interest in the grocery vertical following the announcement that Amazon.com will be entering that space, initially in the NFL cities. And we believe that we some unique capabilities to help the leaders in this market develop new and differentiated offerings. For Q4 and full year, about 60% of our license fees were associated with Warehouse Management solutions and 40% representing our other solutions with retail, consumer goods and grocery being our strongest license fee contributors, making up more than half of the license revenue for Q4 and 2013. We continued to see solid momentum in our core verticals, led by retail. As we all know, it's being fueled by the digital commerce revolution and the way in which retailers wish to engage and service their customers. We believe supply chain commerce is the emerging model for growth and profit in today's omni-channel consumer-centered landscape. For companies to create this balance, they need a wealth of new capabilities and technologies. Leading companies are seeing our solutions, such as Enterprise Order Management, store inventory and fulfillment, distributed selling, and our omni-channel customer service solution that we released late last year, as a key to their supply chain commerce infrastructures of the future. They're critical elements in enabling…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is from Mark Schappel with Benchmark.

Mark W. Schappel - The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

Eddie, a question for you. Last quarter, I believe you mentioned that there were a handful of deals. I think they're principally midsized deals that got pushed off into December or even beyond. And is it fair to say that, given the results this quarter, that a good percentage of those were closed in the quarter?

Eddie Capel

Analyst

A decent percentage, Mark. Certainly not all of them. We will see some pushing out here and there, but I think our sales teams around the globe did a terrific job of closing those deals, and our customers are looking forward to deriving value from the solutions.

Mark W. Schappel - The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

Okay, great. And on the new product front, maybe you just give us a little glimpse of what we can expect this year.

Eddie Capel

Analyst

So investment across all of our solutions, Mark, no question about that. The 22 products that we have in our portfolio, I think you should expect us to see -- you should expect to see us make more weighted investments toward the retail vertical, particularly in the area of distributed order management, call center applications, our store execution solutions and really the entire portfolio centered around the supply chain commerce initiatives. The Momentum will be -- Momentum, I used at conference in early May, we'll be showcasing some of our new releases for sure.

Mark W. Schappel - The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

Okay. And the 6% to 7% license growth rate for 2014. Surprised a little bit how well that is, given the other comps from last year. Is there something out there you're saying that just -- that gives you a little bit of a pause on putting a higher license growth number out there?

Dennis B. Story

Analyst

Yes, Mark, it's called still a pretty stagnant currency sluggish global macro. And as you know, our propensity is, is to under-promise and attempt over-deliver. And given the fact that we've had 2 consecutive years of flat license revenue growth, our intention is to be conservative.

Mark W. Schappel - The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

Okay. That's fair. And then, Dennis, one last kind of housekeeping type of item here. Did I hear you correctly, foreign exchange at about $0.02 of earnings?

Dennis B. Story

Analyst

$0.02 in the -- yes, the full year and roughly $0.01 in Q4.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is from Terry Tillman with Raymond James. Terrell Frederick Tillman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Just the first question, just relates to -- it was impressive to hear about the percentage of business from new customers. I guess, maybe, any comparison on new customer ASP or deal sizes versus existing customer deal sizes that you may be following in the quarter versus maybe a year earlier. Any changes there?

Dennis B. Story

Analyst

Yes. Hey, Terry, let me just interject. The actual new customer ratio in the license was 40% this quarter. That was my error, not 60%. On the number of $1 million-plus deals, it was 50-50. So still very strong. Terrell Frederick Tillman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Okay. And well, I guess, just maybe I could ask another question on just average selling prices. I mean, I know, historically, you've given a wide range, like, I don't know, 200, 350 to 700 -- it is really a wide range. Any trend you're seeing differently in terms of either number of modules folks are buying initially or anything that's related to some of these newer dynamics around omni-channel, or is it still about the same kind of ASP trend?

Dennis B. Story

Analyst

It's about the same ASP trend still in that 250 to 750 range. We're seeing some nice volume in the midsized deals as well. But overall, about the same trend.

Eddie Capel

Analyst

But I think, as the percentage you show, particularly in Q4, we saw a little more slant toward non-WMS solutions and saw some terrific momentum in store order and fulfillment and Order Lifecycle Management, for sure.

Dennis B. Story

Analyst

And we continue to quote our WM, non-WM ratios, but omni-channel is driving some WM implementations as well. Terrell Frederick Tillman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Okay, okay. And I guess, on the confidence of omni-channel, I mean, how -- I'm just trying to get a sense on the sophistication of retailers for consumer product companies in terms of, do they actually craft RFPs more and more now that it's all about omni-channel, or does it start off, "We got an order problem. We want to be able to order at home, pick up in the store, or we want to enhance our WMS." So it really doesn't start as an omni-channel theme, per se, but it ends up there, or how often are you starting to see working very formal, "Hey, we're going omni-channel in a big way," and stick RFP around that from Day 1."

Eddie Capel

Analyst

Yes. So, Eddie here, Terry. So the answer to that is, certainly, the leading retailers around the globe have an omni-channel vision, for sure, and it starts -- the conversation starts there. We are not actually seeing formal, written RFPs asking for omni-channel solutions. Frankly and to be perfectly honest with you, I think it's, firstly, an evolving space but also a very complicated one. And in the WMS, in the transportation space, in the labor-management space, it's pretty mature. There are templates out there that you can get from the consulting strategy companies and so forth. But in the omni-channel space, it's complicated and still emerging. So generally speaking, we engage with the client, and it's more of a -- a much more consultative sell. Terrell Frederick Tillman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Well -- and, Eddie, on the omni-channel front, when they reach -- it's based with dynamics around omni-channel, do you actually see nontraditional competitors somehow vying for something that maybe they're not even in the right place at the right time, or is it actually still the standard point solution providers in some of those categories you just mentioned?

Eddie Capel

Analyst

Yes, so in a number of cases, what you see, Terry, is nontraditional competitors in the early stages of the sales cycle. When, really, the scope is still being defined, and at this point, the marketplace is still, in some cases, a little uncertain as to who the best solution provider is. So they may well call in some nontraditional providers. But by the time you get down to the shortlist, then the folks that we normally compete with are generally there. Terrell Frederick Tillman - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Okay. And I guess, Dennis, just one last question on, you gave us a lot of detail on the guidance. I appreciate that. The OpEx side, I have here in my notes 8% increase in OpEx for 2014. I think at some point, Eddie, you talked about R&D being relatively flat in '14. Am I interpreting this right that if we look at the 3 OpEx line items, I mean, R&D is more of a point of leverage than sales and marketing in G&A, or am I thinking about that the wrong way?

Dennis B. Story

Analyst

No, I think that R&D is going to continue to be a point of leverage, but we are making some strategic investment in R&D given omni-channel and e-commerce. And then, we're looking at strategic investment in sales. Obviously, you get the variable performance comp that's going to drive that up. And then, just through sheer growth, we need to make some facilities investments as well as we get some legacy IT systems that, for us to continue to scale and support the growth of the company, we need to invest there as well. Now all of this investment, Terry, we've got a long rich tradition of being very disciplined about managing our expense. So you got to invest to grow, but we got to see the growth to invest. So...

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions. I will turn the call back over to the presenters.

Eddie Capel

Analyst

Terrific, okay. Thank you, Mike. Well, thanks, everybody, for joining us this afternoon. As I mentioned in my closing comments, we are very pleased with our 2013 results. I am looking forward to a very exciting 2014. So we look forward to talking to you, all, in about 90 days from now.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.