Brian K. Miller
Analyst · Northland Capital Markets
Thanks, John. Yesterday, Tyler Technologies reported its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014. Since our press release and 10-Q are both available, I'm going to add color around some of the key factors in the quarter and review our guidance for 2014. Then we'll move on to John's comments on the current quarter and our outlook for the remainder of 2014. In our earnings release, we have included non-GAAP measures that we believe facilitate understanding of our results and comparisons with peers in the software industry. Our non-GAAP earnings exclude share-based compensation expense, the employer portion of payroll taxes on employee stock transactions and amortization of acquired intangibles. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is provided in our earnings release. Revenues for the first quarter were $112.6 million, a new quarterly high, up 17.6%, and all of our growth was organic. Software license and royalty revenues increased 27.2%. In Q1, we received $659,000 of royalties on public sector sales of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 by other Microsoft partners, down from $891,000 a year ago, but up sequentially from $473,000 in Q4. In addition, we had approximately $1.3 million of revenues related to Tyler's direct sales of dynamics, which are included across our various revenue lines. In Q1, 2013, revenues from our direct sales of dynamics were $272,000. Subscriptions continues to be our fastest growing revenue line, and increased 52.2%. We added 32 new subscription-based arrangements and converted 15 existing on-premise clients, compared to 22 new arrangements and 19 conversions in the first quarter of last year. Approximately 27% of our new software clients opted for one of our cloud-based solutions, compared to 33% of new clients in the first quarter of 2013. The subscription line also includes a fast-growing revenue stream from e-filing for courts and online payments. These revenues rose approximately 150% to $7.5 million from $3.0 million last year. Included in subscriptions revenue this quarter was approximately $3.9 million related to our Texas e-filing contract, which accounted for a little more than half of our subscription revenue growth. We expect to continue to see long-term growth in the these revenues as both current courts clients and new clients like Texas and Massachusetts adopt our Odyssey File & Serve solution, and more of them move towards mandatory e-filing. Our blended gross margin for the quarter rose 80 basis points to 46.6%. The increase reflects the higher level of license and royalty revenues, as well as margin leverage from the incremental recurring revenues, offset somewhat by startup costs from new staff and e-filing implementations. Our non-GAAP gross margin also expanded by 80 basis points to 47.5%. SG&A expense increased 12% in the quarter and was 22.5% of total revenues, a decrease of 110 basis points from last year's first quarter. Noncash share-based compensation expense was $3.5 million compared to $2.6 million. $513,000 was included in cost of revenues and $3.0 million was included in SG&A expense. Excluding share-based compensation, SG&A expense increased 9.9%. Operating income was $19.9 million compared to $14.5 million, an increase of 37.3%. Non-GAAP operating income was $25.0 million, up 33.3%. The non-GAAP operating margin improved 270 basis points to 22.2%, as leverage in both SG&A and R&D expenses enabled us to grow operating income at a much greater rate than gross margin. Net income was $11.9 million or $0.33 per diluted share, compared to $8.5 million or $0.25 per diluted share. The fully diluted share count increased by approximately 1.6 million shares as a result of stock option exercises in the last year. Our effective tax rate in Q1 was 39.4%. Non-GAAP net income was $15.4 million or $0.43 per diluted share, up 34.6% compared to $11.5 million or $0.34 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2013. Adjusted EBITDA, which is EBITDA plus noncash share-based compensation expense, was $26.9 million or $0.76 per diluted share, an increase of 32.7% compared to $20.2 million or $0.60 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2013. Free cash flow was $12.9 million compared to $12.0 million in last year's first quarter. Excluding real estate CapEx, our free cash flow was $13.4 million versus $14.9 million. Cash flow in the first quarter of last year benefited from the early payment of a portion of incentive compensation, which moved into Q4 of 2012 approximately $4.6 million of incentive payments that would have been made in Q1 of last year. We did not repurchase any stock during the first quarter, but have repurchased some stock in April, which represents our first stock repurchases executed since the fourth quarter of 2011. Day sales outstanding and accounts receivables improved to 66 days at March 31, 2014, compared to 72 days at March 31, 2013. DSOs decreased sequentially from 87 days at December 31, 2013, which is our normal seasonal trend related to the timing of maintenance billings. Our backlog at the end of the quarter was $540.3 million, up 39.8% from last year's Q1. Backlog related to our software business, which excludes backlog from appraisal services contracts, was $508.8 million, a 41% increase. Backlog included $117.0 million of maintenance, compared to $111.9 million a year ago. Subscription backlog was $183.2 million, compared to $97.3 million last year, and included approximately $64.5 million related to the Texas e-filing contract. Our bookings for the quarter, which are calculated from the change in backlog plus revenues, were $101.0 million, down 1.1% from last year's first quarter. It should be noted that bookings in Q1 of last year included an unusually high number of multiyear staff contract renewals and conversions from on-premise clients, as well as the statewide courts contract with Rhode Island. For the 12 months ended March 31, bookings were up approximately 36% over the prior 12-month period, including the Texas e-filing contract. Excluding the effects of Texas e-filing agreement, bookings in Q1 were up 2.7% over Q1 of last year. As a reminder, bookings will not reflect the true value of new transaction-based contracts for e-filing or online payments, such as the one we signed with Massachusetts in Q1. Revenue from these arrangements is recorded on a per filing or per transaction basis, and even though the volumes in future revenue streams maybe very predictable, we do not include future revenues and bookings, because they're dependent on those transactions occurring. Only the current quarter revenues from those arrangements hit bookings as they are recorded. Therefore, current bookings and backlog did not capture the future revenue stream from those arrangements. The e-file Texas contract differs from our other e-filing contracts in that it is a 4-year contract that was converted to a fixed revenue arrangement from its original per filing structure. As a result, we included the total value of that contract of $71.5 million in bookings in the third quarter of 2013, and the backlog related to it will work down as revenues are recognized over its term. Had that remained a transaction-based arrangement, as it was originally structured, there would be nothing in backlog related to that contract, and we would record in bookings each quarter's billings as they occur. Conversely, with the Massachusetts e-filing contracts we signed in Q1, nothing has bookings or backlogs in the current quarter. And when the system is implemented and begins processing filings, each quarter's revenues will hit bookings as they are earned. We signed 22 new contracts in the first quarter that included software licenses greater than $100,000, and those contracts had an average license of $451,000, compared to 11 new contracts with an average license value of $418,000 in the first quarter of 2013. Our total headcount grew to -- grew by 35 to 2,608 employees at the end of first quarter, compared to 2,573 at the end of the fourth quarter. Based on our first quarter results and our current outlook for the balance of the year, we have revised upward our revenue and earnings guidance for the year. Our revised 2014 annual guidance is as follows. We currently expect 2014 revenues will be between $470 million and $478 million. We expect 2014 diluted GAAP EPS will be approximately $1.39 to $1.46, and fully diluted shares for the year are expected to be approximately 36 million to 37 million shares. We expect 2014 non-GAAP diluted EPS will be approximately $1.83 to $1.90. For the year, estimated noncash share-based compensation expense is expected to be approximately $15 million. We expect an estimated -- we estimate an effective tax rate for 2014 between 39% and 41%. The tax rate may be somewhat volatile based on the effects of the timing and volume of stock option transactions throughout the year. We expect our total capital expenditures will be approximately $12 million to $13 million for the year. Total depreciation and amortization is expected to be between approximately $15 million and $15.5 million, including approximately $6.5 million of amortization of acquired intangibles. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to John for his further comments.