Stephen M. Scheppmann
Analyst · Merrill Lynch
Thanks, Mike, and welcome. Currency movement during the quarter created about a 1% headwind on our Q3's overall revenue growth, and consequently negatively impacted EPS. Product revenue of $294 million was down 4% from the third quarter of 2013, down 3% in constant currency. Year-to-date, product revenue was up 1%, both as reported and in constant currency. Services revenue of $373 million was up 4% from Q3 2013, up 4% in constant currency. Year-to-date, services revenue was up 4%, both as reported and in constant currency. Within services revenue for the quarter, consulting services revenue was $200 million, flat compared to Q3 2013, up 1% in constant currency. And maintenance services revenue of $173 million was up 8%, both as reported and in constant currency. Year-to-date, consulting services revenue was also basically flat year-over-year, while maintenance revenue was up 8%, up 9% in constant currency. During my discussion today, except where otherwise noted, I'll be addressing margins and expenses on a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation and special items, including acquisition-related and special items identified in our earnings release. Product gross margin in the third quarter was 60.9%. The lower-than-normal product gross margin was influenced by floor sweeps and increased 1000 Series revenue, which have lower gross margin profiles. In addition, Q3 2014's product gross margin compared to the prior year was impacted by increased FAS 86 amortization of $3 million and less favorable product mix from a gross margin perspective. Year-to-date, product gross margin was 64.9% compared to 65.2% for the year-to-date 2013. The 30 basis point decrease resulted from 160 basis point headwind created from increased amortization of capitalized software development costs, offset by more favorable net COD activity. From a gross margin [Audio Gap] amortization of capitalized software, FAS 86, is expected to increase approximately $14 million for 2014 versus 2013, with anticipated increase of approximately $5 million in 2015. We anticipate that Q4 2014's product gross margin will approximate a mid-60s percentage, due primarily to a more normalized deal mix. Services gross margin in the quarter was 48.3%, flat compared to Q3 2013. Year-to-date, services gross margin was 47.1% compared to 47.7% year-to-date in 2013. Overall, gross margin was 53.8% in the third quarter compared to 55.0% in the third quarter of '13, driven primarily by product gross margin. Year-to-date, overall gross margin was 54.9% versus 55.5% in 2013. Turning to operating expenses. SG&A expense of $169 million was down $1 million from the third quarter of 2013. We continue to invest in direct selling and marketing activities, offset by reductions in noncustomer-facing expenses. Research and development expense in the quarter was $40 million, up 5% from the third quarter of 2013, influenced both by our recent technology acquisitions and our internal road map. We expect our R&D expense for the year to increase approximately 10% as investing in our R&D activities continue to be a key initiative for Teradata. Total R&D spend for the third quarter, which includes R&D expense plus additions to capitalize software development costs from the cash flow statement, less capitalization of internally developed software, was $58 million. This compared to $59 million in Q3 of '13. Total expenses were $649 million for the 9 months ended September 30, 2014, an increase of 3% over the same period of last year. Our 2014 plan had anticipated an approximate $30 million increase in variable compensation expense. Based on our results year-to-date, we are relatively flat with 2013 as it relates to this variable compensation program. As a result for all these items, operating margin for the quarter was 22.5% versus 23.7% in Q3 2013. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate for the third quarter was 26%, slightly lower than the 26.6% non-GAAP effective tax rate in Q3 2013. On a year-to-date basis, our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 28.1% versus 27.6% for the same period in 2013. The lower tax rate in Q3 was primarily driven by the discrete impact resulting from an IRS audit settlement in Q3 2014. However, this favorable impact was offset by the expiration of the U.S. federal research and development tax credit on December 31, 2013, which as a result, is not reflected in our marginal tax rate through September 30, 2014. We are currently forecasting our full year non-GAAP effective tax rate to be approximately 27.5%, which assumes that the U.S. R&D tax credit will be reinstated retroactively for 2014, before December 31, 2014. If the tax credit is not restated by December 31, 2014, it would increase our non-GAAP effective tax rate by 170 basis points in the fourth quarter and 40 basis points in the full year 2014. In terms of earnings per share. Our Q3 GAAP EPS was $0.60 compared to $0.59 in Q3 2013. Adjusting for stock-based compensation and other special items, which equated to $17 million after tax or $0.11 in the third quarter of 2014, our non-GAAP EPS was $0.71 compared to $0.70 in Q3 2013. Turning to cash flow. Net cash provided by operating activities was $102 million in Q3 2014 versus $64 million in Q3 2013. Year-to-date, cash from operating activities was $583 million, a 30% increase from the $447 million generating -- generated during the same period in 2013. In the third quarter, we had $36 million of capital expenditures, including capitalized software, versus $35 million in the third quarter of 2013. Resulting in free cash flow of $66 million versus $29 million generated in Q3 2013. Free cash flow for the first 9 months was $489 million, a 41% increase from the $347 million generated during the same period in 2013. We now expect our 2014 full year free cash flow to approximate $50 million higher than GAAP net income, above our normal plus or minus $25 million to $35 million of GAAP net income range. However, due to the strong free cash flow performance through September 30, and specifically, our strong cash collections in Q3, we are forecasting negative free cash flow in Q4. Moving on to the balance sheet. We had $848 million of cash as of September 30, 2014. This is down from the $934 million at the end of the second quarter. Of the $848 million of cash, approximately 12% was held within the U.S. as we continue to utilize our domestic free cash flow for share repurchases. During the third quarter, we bought approximately 2.4 million shares of our stock for $102 million. Through the 9 months ended September 30, we bought approximately 6.9 million shares for a total cost of approximately $293 million. As of September 30, we have approximately $353 million of share repurchase authorization remaining under our general share repurchase program. With respect to accounts receivable. As of September 30, 2014, accounts receivable decreased $24 million compared to September 30, 2013, primarily due to the timing of the cash collections. Day sales outstanding was 70 days as of September 30, 2014, compared to 75 days as of September 30, 2013. Total deferred revenue was $402 million as of September 30, 2014, which was up $2 million from September 30, 2013. Turning to guidance. For the full year and on a constant-currency basis, we do not see a change from our prior view of revenue growth being at the low end of our previous guidance range of 3% to 7%. However, based on the October 31 exchange rates, we now expect reported revenue growth to be approximately 1 point lower, or approximately 2% revenue growth for the full year resulting in 2014 reported revenue of approximately $2.75 billion. Said another way, assuming the exchange rates as of October 31, the foreign currency movement will reduce our 2014 revenue by approximately $25 million and will be a headwind of approximately 1.5 points in 2015. We are maintaining our prior expectation that non-GAAP EPS will come in at the lower end of our prior guidance range of $2.85 to $3. But currency movement also has impact on EPS. Historically, only 20% to 25% of the currency movement impact on revenue flows through to operating income. In closing, it is clear that the market is moving to an IT architecture of multiple best-of-breed solutions, working together in an analytical ecosystem, as we advocate in the Unified Data Architecture. Our technology and expertise enable this architecture. Our IDW and Big Data platforms are an integral components of this architecture and are recognized by industry analysts as leaders. Our QueryGrid software drives query execution across the analytical ecosystem and we continue to enhance our strong consulting capabilities. Teradata has an outstanding and compelling value proposition, focused on delivering breakthrough analytics from all data. And with that, operator, we are ready to take questions.