Patrick Pedonti
Analyst · Alex Kramm with UBS. Please go ahead
Thanks. The results for the fourth quarter 2022 were GAAP revenues of $1.338 billion, GAAP net income of $207.5 million and diluted EPS of $0.81. Adjusted revenues were $1.391 billion. Adjusted revenue was up 3.3% and adjusted operating income decreased 1.1% and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.16, a 9.4% decrease from Q4 2021. Overall, adjusted revenue increased $42.9 million or 3.3% from Q4 2021. Our acquisitions contributed $72.5 million. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact of $28.7 million or 2.2% in the quarter. Adjusted organic revenue was flat on a constant currency basis. We had strength in several product lines, including Alternatives, Institutional and Investment Management and the Intralinks business. That strength was impacted by weakness in our GIDS transfer agency business and Healthcare businesses. Adjusted operating income in the fourth quarter was $502.1 million, a decrease of $5.4 million or 1.1% from Q4 2021. Adjusted operating margins were 37.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to $39.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Excluding acquisitions, expenses increased 2.6% on a constant currency basis. Acquisitions added $56.7 million in expenses and foreign currency decreased cost by $27.9 million. Our cost structure has been impacted by wage inflation and higher staffing to support our business. Adjusted consolidated EBITDA defined in note three of our earnings release, was $518.6 million or 38.7% of adjusted revenue, a decrease of $4.3 million or 0.8% from Q4 2021. Net interest expense for the quarter was $104.9 million and includes $3.7 million of non-cash amortized financing costs and OID. The average interest rate in the quarter for our amended credit facility including the senior notes was 5.64%, compared to 3.09% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Adjusted net income was $296.6 million and adjusted EPS of $1.16, and the effective tax rate used for adjusted net income was 26%. Diluted shares decreased to $256.4 million from $260.9 million in Q3. Share repurchases and the lower average stock price during the quarter led to the decrease. Fourth quarter -- in the fourth quarter of 2022, we reported GAAP fair value, unrealized gains totaling $68.8 million for investments we made in 2020 and 2021. These gains are excluded from our adjusted financial results. On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $440 million of cash and cash equivalents, and $7.1 billion of gross debt. SS&C net debt, which excludes the cash of $134 million at DomaniRx was $6.8 billion as of December 31st. Operating cash flow for the 12 months ended December 2022 was $1.134 billion. It includes the impact of $67 million of Blue Prism post-acquisition transaction costs. Adjusted for the transaction costs, cash flow was $1.21 billion or a decrease of $227 million or 15.9% compared to 2021. Cash flow was impacted by higher interest rates, lower EBITDA, and an increase in receivables, DSO. During the three months ended December 31st, we paid down $166 million of debt and purchased $90.7 million of stock buyback. Highlights for 12 months on the cash flow, we paid $1.36 billion for acquisitions, including Blue Prism, Hubwise, MineralWare, O’Shares and Tier1 and Complete Financial Ops net of cash acquired. Treasury stock buybacks totaled $476 million. We purchase a 7.8 million shares at an average price of $61.01, compared to $487.9 million of treasury stock buyback in 2021. In July, the Board authorized the new stock purchase program up to $1 billion. Program to-date, stock buybacks totaled $305 million for purchases of 5.5 million shares at an average price of $55.78. For the year, we declared and paid dividends of $203 million, compared to $174 million last year, an increase of 16.7%. In 2022, we paid interest of $298 million, compared to $192.5 million in 2021. Income taxes paid this year totaled $281 million, compared to $310 million in 2021. Our accounts receivable DSO was 52.3 days as of December 2022 and that compares to $51.8 million as of September 2022 and 49.5% as of December 2021. Capital expenditures and capitalized software totaled $208 million or 3.9% of adjusted revenue, compared to approximately $137 million in 2021. The spending is predominantly for capitalized software and IT infrastructure. Our LTM consolidated EBITDA, which we use for covenant compliance was $2.010 billion as of December 2022. And based on the net debt of $6.8 billion, our total leverage was 3.4 times and our secured leverage was 2.4 times as of December 31st. On outlook for 2023, I will cover a few assumptions first. We will continue to focus on client services, and we expect our retention rates to continue a range of most recent results. We have assumed foreign currency exchange at the year end 2022 levels. As a result, adjusted organic growth for the year will be between 2% and 6%, and adjusted organic growth for Q1 will be in the range of negative 0.5% and to positive 2.5%. We have assumed interest rates will average approximately 6.35% for the year for our credit facility and senior notes. We expect staff productivity to improve by approximately 5% and we will manage expenses during this period by controlling variable costs to improve our operating margins in the rate of 50 basis points to 150 basis points compared to 2022. We will continue investing in our business long-term in the areas of capital expenditures, product development and sales and marketing. And we will continue allocating free cash flow to both to pay down debt and buy back stock and we have assumed that the tax rate will be approximately 26%. So for the first quarter of 2023, we expect revenue in the range of $1.332 billion to $1.372 billion, adjusted net income in the range of $282 million to $299 million and diluted shares in the range of $156 million to $157 million. For the full year 2023, we expect revenue in the range of $5.45 billion $5.655 billion, adjusted net income in the range of $1.190 billion to $1.285 billion and diluted shares in the range of $455 million to $258.5 million. And for the full year, we expect cash from operating activities to be in the range of $1.275 billion to $1.375 billion. Now I will turn it over to Bill for final comments.