00:05 Good afternoon, and welcome to the TriNet First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded. 00:27 I would now like to turn the conference over to Alex Bauer, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

00:31 Thank you, operator. Good afternoon. This is Alex Bauer, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you for joining us and welcome to TriNet's 2022 first quarter conference call. I'm joined today by our CEO, Burton M. Goldfield; and our CFO, Kelly Tuminelli. 00:48 Before we begin, I would like to address our use of forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Please note that today's discussion will include our 2022 second quarter and full-year financial outlook, and other statements that are not historical in nature or predictive in nature, or depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, such as our expectations, estimates, predictions, strategies, beliefs or other statements that may be considered forward-looking. 01:18 These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are inherently subject to risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and that may cause actual results to differ materially from statements being made today or in the future, except as may be required by law, we do not undertake to update any of these statements in light of new information, future events, or otherwise. 01:43 We encourage you to review our most recent public filings with the SEC, including our 10-K and 10-Q filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that may affect our future results or the market price of our stock. In addition, our discussion today will include non-GAAP financial measures, including our forward-looking guidance for adjusted net income per diluted share. 02:08 For reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures to our GAAP financial results, please see our earnings release, 10-Q filings or 10-K filing, which are available on our website or through the SEC website. 02:18 With that, I will turn the call over to Burton. Burton?

02:22 Thank you, Alex. I am very pleased with both our continued strong operating performance and the outcomes of our key strategic initiatives during the first quarter. We outperformed our financial plan. We closed our acquisition of Zenefits and we successfully executed a significant return of capital to our shareholders. Taken together, these achievements reflect our commitment to create long-term value for all of our stakeholders. 02:58 Turning to our first quarter financial performance. Total revenues grew 15% year-over-year outperforming our guidance. Our outperformance in revenue was attributable to our strong and growing customer base, who operate in our core verticals. They consist of technology, financial services, life sciences, professional services, non-profit, and Main Street. Additionally, we remain disciplined in managing our cost structure while systematically pricing our customers to risk. This approach has yielded both strong revenue and earnings growth at TriNet. 03:46 In the first quarter, our GAAP EPS grew 46% year-over-year to $2.21, and our adjusted net income per share grew 54% to $2.55. Our Q1 financial results were accompanied by strong cash generation and a healthy balance sheet. We leverage these strengths in the first quarter to both acquire Zenefits and complete a $316 million tender offer. Each of these actions were taken to create long-term value for the benefit of all of our stakeholders. 04:34 Our acquisition of Zenefits elevates our product offering while providing the future foundation to serve the SMB community. We are now able to address a larger portion of these cohorts throughout their business lifecycle. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the most impactful strategic acquisition during my 14-year tenure as CEO of TriNet. Additionally, the tender offer demonstrates our effective capital allocation while benefiting our shareholders. 05:14 I am pleased that TriNet finished the quarter with…

16:33 Thank you, Burton. The actions TriNet took during the first quarter and our particularly strong operating performance demonstrated the power of our sustainable business model and resulting cash generation. We are solidly positioned for continued strong performance in 2022. We closed on our acquisition of Zenefits, expanding our product offering, and positioning us to become the most trusted adviser to SMBs by harnessing the power of scale. We successfully returned capital to shareholders as we executed a $316 million share buyback using a modified Dutch auction tender offer. And notably, our strong revenue and earnings growth generated $193 million in corporate operating cash flow during the quarter. 17:24 Our first quarter achievements clearly demonstrate our commitment to serving all of our stakeholders who are represented by our shareholders, customers, employees, and the communities in which we operate. During the first quarter, total revenues increased 15% year-over-year to $1.2 billion. This would have been 14% growth excluding Zenefits. This outperformed our expected guidance by 2 points. The outperformance in total revenues for the first quarter was driven by WSEs outperforming our forecast as we once again benefited from strong hiring within our installed base and rate growth, benefiting both professional services and insurance revenues. We finished the first quarter with approximately 348,000 worksite employees, up 7% year-over-year with an average WSE count for the quarter of over 343,000, also up 7%. 18:31 As Burton noted in his prepared remarks and as we discussed on our Q4 earnings call, we expected and experienced higher than normal WSE attrition during the first quarter. This was primarily due to large customers leaving and M&A transactions within our valuable client base. This resulted in first quarter ending WSEs declining by 5% sequentially. Importantly, customer attrition, as measured by the total number of customers who…

30:04 Thank you, Kelly. After coming off an extremely strong 2021, the first quarter of 2022 was remarkable. Q1 was characterized by strong execution for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We exceeded our guidance on all key metrics. We closed our acquisition of Zenefits, diversifying our product offering and positioning TriNet to further innovate in service of SMBs. We returned capital to shareholders in the form of our $316 million tender offer. We launched a new PEO user experience, again demonstrating our commitment to our customers. We will always put the best possible product into the market and we continue to add new dynamic customers in our verticals, positioning us for future growth. While I'm extremely confident about our strategic direction and our financial performance, I will never be complacent. I look forward to updating you on our progress as the year progresses. Operator?

31:27 We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question today will come from Tien-Tsin Huang with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

31:54 Hey, Tien-Tsin.

31:55 Hey. Good afternoon. Thanks so much for all those detail. I know there's a lot of moving pieces, but I was hoping to maybe just -- would you mind just going through the EPS guidance change a little bit? I saw the rate of $0.15 and some of it is the tender impact, and then you've got -- you're absorbing more than the -- more all the Zenefits layering in. So I'm just trying to understand what's changed in the outlook if we control for those two items.

32:20 Sure, Tien-Tsin. It's Kelly. I'll be happy to take that. When I think about guidance and the rest of the year, as we were looking at first quarter outperformance, honestly, it comes down to a volume story. So when we take into account increased volume and better hiring in the first quarter while we're being cautious for the rest of the year on hiring, that's the net difference other than the difference between Zenefits and the share repurchase. So Zenefits reduced EPS by approximately -- well, a little bit higher than the $0.25 we had anticipated last quarter given the timing of the closing. The share repurchase benefited by $0.18 to adjusted EPS, and the rest of the benefit really was related to volume.

33:16 Got it. Thank you for that. And just my quick follow-up and just on the WSE growth, the plus 4% is a little bit -- plus 4% is better than what we had forecasted, but just trying to -- I heard the attrition was in line with seasonal patterns, so how did it come in versus your expectations? And have your thinking on -- has your thinking on WSE count growth changed for the full year in general?

33:42 Yeah, Tien-Tsin, I'll be happy to take that. Related to the first part of your question on attrition, while client attrition was in line, those clients were larger. And we obviously had foreshadowed that on our call and it was really in line with our guidance and probably the real difference from our guidance from a volume perspective was first quarter hiring. We're muting that for the rest of the year, but we do expect it to contribute to a level of volume growth that we hadn't originally anticipated when we gave guidance in the fourth -- at the end of the fourth quarter.

34:20 Got it. Thank you, guys.

34:23 Thank you.

34:24 Thanks, Tien-Tsin.

34:26 [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from Andrew Nicholas with William Blair. Please go ahead.

34:36 Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. Yeah. I wanted to follow up on that last question. First, just on WSE growth. It sounds like hiring within the installed base was really strong in the first quarter. You're taking a bit more conservative approach through the rest of the year, but are there any indications that hiring is slowing through the second quarter or as the year progressed? I'm just kind of curious if given your visibility into the SMB market broadly, if you could speak to kind of the health of the market, how hiring trends have progressed more recently, and just to make sure that it's not something that you're seeing as much as it is being conservative on the hiring front given some really strong recent activity.

35:19 Yeah. So great question, Andrew. I'll give you my honest opinion. I was surprised that the continued strong hiring in Q1, it continues to this day. So it is above the models that we've built for the company. We have an amazing customer base, as you know and we're selective about those customers and they continue to grow. So the straight answer to your question, the first part is, no, we don't have an indication, but it seems improbable that this will continue all the year, yet we're rooting for these amazing clients that we're trying to support in every way possible. So that's sort of the CIE story. 36:06 I'm also seeing increased productivity in our reps, which was Q1 and it's coming into Q2. So I'm optimistic about the future of the net new sales side of the equation. And as I'm sure you realize, this is just a great market for PEOs. The complexity, both on the regulatory side and the persistence of the work-from-home has really brought in net new customers to the PEO model and we've gotten our share. And then, finally, what we're trying to do is through the acquisition of Zenefits, we're trying to demonstrate that you can have an exceptional technology solution and exceptional customer service. So at TriNet, these two things go hand-in-hand. So yeah, I'm optimistic.

37:05 Great. That's helpful. Thank you. And then for my follow-up, I know last quarter, Zenefits hadn't closed yet so you were a little bit hesitant to speak to some of the operational plans there. Having now headed under your belt for a couple of months, just wondering if you could spend a bit more time on kind of how you expect to run that inside of TriNet now that it's in the fold, what the branding might look like, plans for the sales force. I think you mentioned combining go-to-market efforts in your prepared remarks, but any other kind of logistical things that you could speak to or branding items? Just trying to figure out what the medium-term vision is for the combined organization?

37:46 Great. And I can talk on that for a long time. But I continue to be very excited about Zenefits 10 weeks into the integration. I've gotten to know the Zenefits team, I had a chance to meet all the top sales producers at the Zenefits President's Club, and I'm inspired by the energy, the focus, and the execution of the organization. Today, there is a senior leader at Zenefits who reports directly to me and we are deep diving in the technology for both the short term, which is additional capabilities for Zenefits, meaning over the next six months, as well as the build-out of the long-term unified platform. 38:35 But in the medium term, for me, it's about accelerating new sales for both set of products. It's about adding new capabilities to the Zenefits product for the existing customers as well as new customers. And it's about getting the best ideas from both of these teams, but having said that, have them focus maniacally on their delivered results for each of these products.

39:04 Makes sense. If I could just squeeze one more in if it's okay.

39:08 Absolutely.

39:10 Just on Zenefits, could you speak a bit more, I think you said $40 million to $45 million of revenue. Is there any detail you could provide on kind of an EBITDA contribution for '22? I think last time we spoke, you talked to it being breakeven over a certain time frame. But just wondering if there's any more detail you can provide in terms of near-term contributions. Thank you.

39:35 Yeah, Andrew. When we rolled forward our guidance -- I'll be happy to take it. It's Kelly. But when we rolled forward our guidance, we definitely took our best view into account based on trying to grow the business and investing in the go-to-market there. We expect -- I'm not going to give you an EBITDA view specifically but related to the impact on earnings per share. The negative was slightly higher than the $0.20 to $0.25. I had guided to last quarter. So it's a little bit more than that given some investments we want to do in the go-to-market side. Hopefully, that helps.

40:14 Got it. Appreciate it.

40:20 [Operator Instructions] And our next question will come from David Grossman with Stifel. Please go ahead.

40:40 Hi.

40:43 Hey, David.

40:44 Thank you. Hi, Burton. Thank you. I'm just -- Sorry. I'm juggling a few things here. I just want to make sure I got a couple of things down, right. So on the EPS walk from where the guidance was previously to where we are today, I think you talked about an $0.18 benefit from the share repurchase, and then I missed what the offsets were to that. So I want -- could you just repeat that? And I'm sorry, I just didn't catch everything.

41:18 Sure, David. No problem. And it kind of ties to Andrew's, again, it was a recent question as well. So the share repurchase, given the timing of when it happened will be about $0.18 benefit to adjusted net income per share. That's offset by the expected loss from Zenefits, which I said was slightly higher than the $0.25 I guided to for last quarter's call. And then, we're anticipating insurance cost ratio to really go back to a more normal full year level, which means it would accelerate somewhat, but we're being cautious because we don't know what's going to happen given potential new variants, new governmental programs, et cetera. 42:04 And then, the real benefit frankly, on the quarter was volume and continuing to get our pricing that we're pricing for in the market. So it is really -- when you cut through all of it, it's really a volume story.

42:20 Right. So was the net increase about $0.15? Did I do that in my head right, about the increase?

42:26 That's exactly right. Yeah, exactly right.

42:28 Okay. So you have $0.18 less the $0.25. And then the push above that, I guess is $0.22 of pricing and volume. Is that it?

42:44 And volume. Yeah. That's right.

42:47 Okay. All right. And can you just remind me, how much of your revenue, if any, is tied to wages -- to wage levels?

42:56 Yeah. Really, the few things that are tied to wage levels, workers' comp is a wage base type fee. And given our white-collar workers, our workers' revenues are lower rate because it's less risky, but that's definitely wage-based. Our unemployment insurance is definitely wage-based as well, although that tends to be very seasonal towards the first quarter given high wage base of our WSE base. So a lot of that does cap out in the first quarter given some of the statements.

43:32 All right. And I guess both you and Burton, you spoke kind of very positively about volume growth continuing into the quarter -- into the second quarter that is. And how -- just historically, and maybe Burton, this is a better question for you. I mean historically, how much visibility have you had in terms of shifting momentum of hiring within the base? Is that something that just you typically don't get much visibility into it starting to happen or is it something that you generally have some insight into at least more than a month or so of visibility into?

44:16 It would be hard for me to say I have tremendous visibility, David. Obviously, as they come on, they're onboarded to TriNet. We are involved with our clients and they are continuing to hire. But as Andrew said, look, it's hard for me to believe that this rate continues all year. So if it does, fantastic. But right now, I can say that I have not seen anything that indicates the slowing, it's more a logical outcome of what you're seeing in the overall macroeconomic conditions. Having said that, we have a very unique customer base. They are executing tremendously well and they're -- as I said in my prepared remarks, they are hiring and looking for great talent. So when it comes down to that, for me, they want the good benefits. They're competing for the talent, they love the technology, and they love the service. So if they're looking for a premier service provider, they're looking to TriNet.

45:29 Great. So can I -- maybe just a couple of quick cleanup questions here. So I'm sure you've seen kind of what your competitors [indiscernible] metrics reported today and ADP will report tomorrow. So just maybe to frame kind of what those lost clients. I think you gave some great information about how many lots this year versus in prior years. But can you give us any better sense in terms of exactly what kind of unit impact that had on your growth rate from losing kind of 12 large clients during the quarter, just so that we can frame that on a relative basis.

46:06 Yeah. David, this is Kelly. In total, when I look at it, it had about a 3% impact on the quarter in terms of overall WSEs for just those 12 clients.

46:18 And is that sequential or year-over-year?

46:21 Sequential.

46:22 Okay. Great. And just one last one is just -- and maybe I missed this on the diluted share count. With the Dutch tender and the Zenefits shares that were issued, can you just give us maybe a little clear guidance. And I'm sorry if I missed this, if you said about what the share count, we should use going forward just given that we have some pretty significant moving pieces that transpired in the quarter.

46:51 We don't guide the share count, but what I would say is it's pretty easy to back into it based on our reconciliations in the back of our press release. So I don't want to guide to share count. Because there will be variability, it's going to change. The diluted numbers will change obviously depending on the stock price, but you can absolutely back into at least what our current expectations are.

47:16 Okay. And you said that you -- the share repos -- or the $192 million was the share dollar value issued for Zenefits. Is that correct?

47:30 No, $192 million was the cash that we paid for Zenefits, excluding the shares, the shares were, I want to say, around $16 million of TriNet stock. But in general, when we look at all of that net of the repurchase activity, there's definitely going to be an ongoing benefit going forward. We repurchased a little over 3.6 million shares at $86.50.

48:02 Right. Okay, I think we can do it from there. Got it. Okay. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

48:07 Thanks, David.

48:11 Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude our question-and-answer session, also concluding today's call. We'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. And at this time, you may now disconnect.