Earnings Labs

QuinStreet, Inc. (QNST)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Tue, May 6, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to QuinStreet Third Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Erica Abrams. Ma'am, you may begin.

Erica Abrams

Analyst

Thank you, Sayeed, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today to report QuinStreet's third quarter fiscal 2014 financial results. Joining me on the call today are Doug Valenti, CEO; and Greg Wong, CFO of QuinStreet. This call is being simultaneously webcast on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.quinstreet.com. Before we get started, I would like to remind you that the following discussion contains forward-looking statements. These are statements that relate to future events or financial performance and involve risks and uncertainties. QuinStreet's actual results may vary materially from those discussed here. Factors that may cause the results to differ from our forward-looking statements are discussed in our most recent 10-K filing with the SEC, completed on August 20, 2013. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and the company does not intend to and undertakes no duty to update this information to reflect future events or circumstances. Now I'll turn the call over to Doug, CEO of QuinStreet. Please go ahead.

Douglas Valenti

Analyst

Thank you, Erica. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Revenue in the quarter was $71.9 million, at the top of the outlook range we provided last quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was 9% of revenue. Normalized free cash flow was $5 million. We closed the quarter with $120 million in cash and $39 million of net cash. We continue to spend aggressively on initiatives to return to growth with good progress. This has been especially true in auto insurance, our largest market where we successfully launched our full range of complementary new policy, lead and click products in the quarter, as committed in our last earnings call. The launch of these products is an important milestone for QuinStreet. They significantly increase our revenue opportunity and competitive advantages in auto insurance and we are now more fully shifting from investment in product to investment in revenue. We believe that this is the most direct path to returning the company to revenue growth and stronger margins. We are particularly excited about the new version of our policy or rate comparison product and brand, Insurance.com. It has new technology that allows more effective optimization and monetization. Its new design is more consumer-friendly and is driving stronger engagement. With these important features now in place, we have begun direct-to-consumer advertising. This one form rate comparison product represents a revolutionary and compelling consumer proposition for auto insurance shopping in the United States, one already proven in Europe, and we believe that Insurance.com has the most complete and capable assets for successfully delivering and thriving on this enormous long-term opportunity. We expect the new policy, lead and click products to add to auto insurance revenue in the current quarter, and to do so at an accelerating rate in future quarters. We now project that auto…

Gregory Wong

Analyst

Thanks, Doug. Hello, and thanks again for joining us today. For our third quarter of fiscal 2014, we posted $71.9 million of revenue, a 9% decline compared to the same quarter last year. Adjusted net income for fiscal Q3 was $2 million or $0.04 per share on a fully-diluted basis. Adjusted EBITDA was $6.3 million or 9% margin. We delivered results at the top end of the revenue outlook we provided last quarter and we're pleased with the accelerated progress we made around our primary growth initiatives, particularly our product launches in auto insurance. We believe the growth of these new products is our path forward to returning the company to year-over-year revenue growth and stronger margins. So with that overall context, I'll now discuss the details of our fiscal Q3 results. Please see the supplemental data sheets available for download on the Investor Relations page of our corporate website. They provide essentially all of the figures that I will now walk you through. For revenue by client vertical, our Education client vertical represented 43% in Q3 revenue or $30.7 million. The year-over-year decline of 13% was driven by the continuing challenges in the for-profit postsecondary Education market. To offset the for-profit industry headwinds, we're making good progress with our initiatives to diversify our products, markets and media. Those initiatives include broadening our product set from our traditional lead business, inviting clicks and calls to our product mix. While we work hard to diversify our product set, we have a continued focus on optimizing the quality and monetization of our traditional lead business. We are also broadening our market footprint with our efforts with not-for-profit schools and our international expansion in Brazil, both of which are not subject to the radiance or dynamics of the for-profit Education market. Although these…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I am showing no questions at this time. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our Q&A session for today's conference call. A replay will be available starting May 6, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time until May 13, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time by dialing 1 (800) 585-8367 and entering conference ID 30843970. Thank you for participating in today's conference call. You may all disconnect and have a wonderful day.