Bill Nurthen
Analyst · Lake Street. Please go ahead
Thank you, Roy. And good afternoon, everyone. I will begin with a recap of our results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 was $12.1 million, a 22% increase from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, and a new company high for quarterly revenue. Our platform subscription revenue increased 86% to approximately $4.3 million. The growth was primarily driven by platform revenue from the Scite acquisition and a net increase of platform deployments from last year on our core Article Galaxy platform. We ended the quarter with $17.4 million in annual recurring revenue, or ARR, up 84% year-over-year and a little over 5% sequentially. We added about $867,000 of incremental ARR in the quarter, split relatively evenly between B2B and B2C ARR. Scite growth in both B2B and B2C ARR in the quarter was strong and remains above expectations. Additionally, we continue to have good cross-sell success of Scite within our Article Galaxy customer base. Of the $17.4 million in ARR at fiscal year-end, about $12.1 million is B2B ARR, and approximately $5.4 million is ARR associated with Scite’s B2C platform. Please see today's press release for how we define and use annual recurring revenue and other non-GAAP terms. Transaction revenue for the fourth quarter was approximately $7.9 million, a 2.6% increase from the prior year quarter. Our total active customer count for the quarter was 1,398 compared to 1,404 in the same period a year ago. Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 46.5%, a 710 basis point improvement over the fourth quarter of 2023, and a new company high mark for blending gross margin. The increase is due to the ongoing revenue mix shift towards our higher margin platforms business. To provide some perspective on this mix shift, two years ago, in our fourth quarter, platform revenue accounted for about 22% of the total revenue and we had a blended gross margin of 38.3%. Today, the platform revenue mix has been raised to 35% of revenue and that has moved the blended gross margin to 46.5%. In Q4, the platform business contributed 65% of the total gross profit. As the revenue mix shift continues to move in the direction of platform revenue, gross margin should continue to go up and this will ultimately drop more to our bottom line. The platform business recorded gross margin of 85.3%, a decrease compared to 88.1% in the prior year quarter, but within our target gross margin range of low to mid 80%. The decrease is related to the inclusion of Resolute.ai’s revenues, which generate a lower gross margin. Gross margin in our transaction business increased 60 basis points to 25.4%. The increase was primarily attributable to increased copyright margins. This is at the high end of our range and we should expect that transaction gross margins should stay in a range of roughly 24.5% to 25.5%. Total operating expenses in the quarter were $5 million compared to $3.7 million in the prior year quarter. The increase is fully attributable to the addition of the cost bases brought over from the Resolute.ai and Scite acquisitions, including the non-cash depreciation and amortization associated with those acquisitions. Note, there is some seasonality in the Q4 number, which likely reduced the expenses between $200,000 and $300,000 for the quarter. So this quarter's results should not be assumed to be a straight line run rate for our SG&A expense going forward. Our improved gross margin and the containment of operating expenses in Q4 produced a strong income from operations results. Operating income was $662,000 compared to $255,000 in the prior year quarter, a 159% increase, and also a new company record. Other expense for the quarter totaled $3.5 million, which includes a $4.3 million charge related to increase in the earn-out assumption for Scite, offset by a reduction in the earn-out assumption for Resolute.ai, which now sets that earn-out expectation to zero. The increase in the Scite earn-out assumption is based upon the strong activity in the second half of fiscal 2024 and our expectations for the remainder of their earn-out period in fiscal year 2025. It should be noted that this number could change again, either upwards or downwards, as we move closer to the final determination of Scite's earn-out in May 2025. Net loss for the quarter was $2.8 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, compared to net income of $376,000, or $0.01 per diluted share in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter reached a new high at $1.4 million compared to $825,000 in the year-ago quarter, a 70% increase. Now let me turn to our results for the full year fiscal 2024. Before I begin, I'd like to remind everyone that our full year fiscal 2024 includes results of approximately 11 months of contribution from Resolute.ai and seven months from Scite. Total revenue for fiscal 2024 was $44.6 million, an 18% increase from fiscal year 2023. Platform subscription revenue increased 61% to approximately $14 million. Total deployments at year-end were 1,021, a net increase of 186 deployments from the end of fiscal 2023. Transaction revenue for fiscal 2024 was $30.7 million, a 5.7% increase from the prior year. This year's results include a full contribution from the customer contracts acquired from FIZ Karlsruhe compared to just six months in fiscal 2023. Going forward, we expect revenues from the transaction segment to be flat to low single-digit positive as transaction purposes for new customers are offset by the benefits offered within our software platform. Gross margin for fiscal 2024 was 44%, a 500 basis point improvement over fiscal 2023. And again, the improvement is due to the ongoing mix shift to platform revenue. Total operating expenses in fiscal 2024 were $20.4 million compared to $14.5 million in the prior year. The increase is primarily attributable to the addition of the cost bases associated with Resolute.ai and Scite, as well as about $1.5 million in proxy and M&A related expenses incurred in the fiscal year, and then additionally some modest growth in our core cost base. Net loss for fiscal 2024 was $3.8 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, compared to net income of $572,000, or $0.02 per diluted share in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $2.2 million -- or for the year, excuse me, was $2.2 million compared to $2 million in fiscal 2023, an 11% increase. The adjusted EBITDA result includes $1.4 million of the aforementioned proxy and M&A related expenses experienced in the fiscal year. Turning to cash flow on our balance sheet, the business continues to deliver strong cash flow. Cash flow from operations in the last half of our fiscal year was approximately $4 million. Recall, after we did the Scite acquisition, our cash balance on December 31, 2023, was $2.7 million. That balance at fiscal year-end now stands at $6.1 million in cash and cash equivalents. I will note that Q3 and Q4 are seasonally our best times for cash flow, so I would not expect anything nearly as strong in the first quarter of 2025. And last year, recall, we actually burned cash in Q1 as this is the time we pay out our fiscal year-end bonuses. That said, barring any acquisition activity, we do expect to increase cash throughout the year and the vast majority of that increase will come in Q3 and Q4 of fiscal 2025. As of fiscal year end, there were no off-standing borrowings under our new $500,000 revolving line of credit and we have no debt. Looking back on fiscal 2024, I did mention that I thought Q3 and Q4 would be pretty clean and that they would give us an opportunity to demonstrate the profit and cash flow potential of the business. We do believe this has played out well and has served to validate our thesis for profit expansion as the platform revenue becomes a larger and larger component of our overall revenue mix. As we look ahead to fiscal 2025, I will note that our early use shows some softness in Q1 ARR growth. Some of this has to do with the seasonality in B2C ARR, which slows in the summer months, and some of this is in our B2B ARR, where we are experiencing longer sales cycles. That said, we still have some time left in the quarter, and our pipelines remain strong. B2C revenue has already started picking up in September. Overall, the profit profile and potential for the business has not changed. We believe we remain on track to deliver long-term value to our shareholders. I'll now turn the call back to Roy. Roy?