William Nurthen
Analyst · ROTH Capital
Thank you, Roy and good afternoon, everyone. Total revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was $8.7 million, a 10.7% increase compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2022. As noted in our press release, this represents our second consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. Platform revenue increased 31% to $2.1 million, primarily driven by a net increase of Platform deployments over the last 12 months, including 34 net new deployments in the second quarter and upselling of current Platform customers. Annual recurring revenue or ARR, at the end of the quarter stood at $8.8 million, up 5% sequentially and 28% year-over-year, reflecting our continued sales and upselling efforts and low churn of existing Platform customers. We also had 3 sales in the quarter related to our newly launched Curedatis product. Please see today's press release for our definition and use of annual recurring revenue and other non-GAAP items. As I turn to Transaction revenue, I comment that the numbers to follow do not include any impact from the FIZ transaction that was completed in our fiscal Q1. This customer acquisition will begin impacting transaction revenue in our fiscal Q3 and I will talk more about that later. Transaction revenue for the second quarter was $6.6 million compared to $6.3 million from the prior year quarter. This represents 5.4% growth year-over-year and is the second consecutive quarter of growth for the Transactions business. In the past, we had noted wanting to see 2 consecutive quarters of growth prior to saying that we could be well positioned for growth in this segment going forward. We are now seeing signs that, that trend can continue as we are seeing growth in both and academic paid Transaction counts. Transaction customer count for the quarter was 1,223 versus 1,179 in the second quarter of fiscal 2022. The increase was driven by an increase in corporate customers. Gross margin for the first quarter was 39%, a 300 basis point improvement over the second quarter of fiscal 2022. The increase is due to the revenue mix shift towards our higher-margin Platforms business which now constitutes 24% of the revenue and 55% of the business' gross profit. With some limited exceptions which I will note later in the call, we see no reason why the trend in improvement in corporate gross margin percentage cannot continue as the mix of Platform revenue continues to grow. The Platform business recorded gross margin of 88%, a 240 basis point increase from the prior year quarter due to proportionately lower labor and software costs. I expect that for the foreseeable future, we can continue to maintain Platform gross margin at 85% or above. Gross margin in our Transaction business was 23.4%, similar to the prior year quarter. Our expectation is that Transaction gross margin will continue to stay within a range of 23% to 24%. Total operating expenses in the quarter were $3.7 million compared to $3.3 million in the prior year quarter, due primarily to higher noncash stock-based compensation costs and higher discretionary sales and marketing spend. I want to take a moment here to explain the stock compensation expense as it is notably higher for this quarter. As many on the call are aware, starting with this fiscal year, we ended the prior Restricted Stock Program for executives and installed a new Long-Term Equity Bonus program. The fundamental change when we did this was to eliminate a program where executives received restricted stock as part of their quarterly bonus and replace it with a program designed to better align executive compensation with stockholder interests. This involved the granting of 1.8 million restricted shares across the executive team which vest in 20% increments when the stock attains and maintains price levels of $3, $3.75, $4.50, $5.25 and $6 per share within the next 5 years. If the stock prices are not attained, the shares do not vest. Conversely, if the stock fully vests at $6, this would imply an over $100 million market cap increase with the payout to executives being under 10% of that amount. Restricted stock grants such that these require a third-party valuation to determine how they are expensed. The high volatility of our stock drove the value of the grant upwards and it has been determined that the value of the grant is roughly $2.5 million to be spread over approximately 2.6 years. Thus, this is the amount that we will expense during that time. The net of all this is that from a stock compensation expense standpoint, we are presently dealing with the runoff expense from the old plan while effectively accelerating or pulling forward some of the expense associated with the new plan, as the expense for the new plan is weighted more earlier than the 2.6-year period and will eventually expense to 0 and not continue indefinitely. In addition, in Q2, we also had our annual Board Stock Option Grant which served to increase the compensation expense as well. For Q3 and Q4, I expect stock compensation expense to be approximately $500,000 for each quarter, $300,000 coming from the new plan and $200,000 coming from the runoff of the old plan. In fiscal year 2024, we should start to see the expense come down from these levels. I apologize for the long-winded explanation there but we thought it important to discuss it given the expense level in Q2 and also to reiterate the point that we believe the new plan over the long term will prove more beneficial for our shareholders. Turning back to profitability. Net loss for the quarter was $256,000 or $0.01 per share compared to a net loss of $482,000 or $0.02 per share in the prior year quarter. Removing the effects of the new restricted stock plan, our net income would have been roughly or close to breakeven from a GAAP perspective. Adjusted EBITDA was positive $201,000 compared to a loss of $165,000 in the year ago quarter. We have now generated over $600,000 of adjusted EBITDA in the first 6 months of the fiscal year compared to a loss of over $300,000 in the first 6 months of our prior fiscal year. Turning to our balance sheet and cash. The increase in adjusted EBITDA has been backed up by an increase in cash flow which I think speaks well to the quality of our earnings as they grow. Cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022, were $11.3 million versus $10.6 million on June 30, 2022. We have now generated over $1 million of cash flow from operations in the first 6 months of our fiscal year. There were no outstanding borrowings under our $2.5 million revolving line of credit and we have no long-term debt or liabilities. As we look ahead, I wanted to make everyone aware of a few items. First, on January 1, we moved all of our employees in Mexico to a direct hire relationship. We expect this will result in approximately $400,000 of additional annualized cost and may cause a slight dip in gross margin in Q3, before it starts rising again. Second, commencing January 1, realizing revenue from Transactions related to our FIZ customer contract acquisition. It is too early to provide a projection of the impact of these new customers but we do think it gives us an opportunity to continue to push transaction growth upward, perhaps hitting double-digit growth rates in that segment. There are some unique expense items that will be hitting us in Q3. As a result, I expect our operating expense level to be at its highest level for the year in Q3 before coming back down again in Q4. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 will likely be flat to down from Q2 but then showing upside in Q4, resulting in a very strong finish to our fiscal year. I'll now turn the call back to Roy. Roy?