Troy Anderson
Analyst · Lake Street. Please go ahead
Thank you, Jerome. I want to echo Jerome's comments and welcome the Concorde team to the company. We have great respect for their business and are extremely excited about being in the healthcare education space and the many opportunities that now affords us. We finished fiscal 2022 in line or above our most recent expectations and overall delivered strong financial and operational performance during the fourth quarter and fiscal year. Full year revenue increased 25% to $418.8 million, which was at the higher end of our guidance range. The increase was primarily due to higher average undergraduate full time active students, including the addition of MIAT, and higher revenue earned per student. Total revenue for the quarter increased 13.5% compared to the prior year to $110.6 million. Revenue per student for the quarter was approximately 8,700 and for the year 32,600 and is now essentially fully normalized to pre-COVID levels adjusting for annual price increases. We saw meaningful growth on the bottom line for the full year with $25.8 million in net income, representing a 77% increase from 2021 and includes the impact from the valuation allowance reversal. Net income in the fourth quarter was $2.8 million compared to $12 million. Fully diluted earnings per share for the full year was $0.38 versus $0.17 in the prior year. Shares outstanding at the end of the quarter were $33.8 million. Adjusted net income for the full year came in at $35.5 million above the high end of our guidance range. Adjusted net income in the fourth quarter was $8 million compared to $13.9 million. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $55.9 million versus $32.5 million in 2021, representing 72% year-over-year growth and above the high end of our guidance range. The growth in full year adjusted EBITDA was driven primarily by the normalization of revenue per student as well as our continued focus on operating efficiencies and facility rationalization. The full year adjusted EBITDA margin was 13.3%. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $14 million compared to $18.3 million in the prior year. The EBITDA net income adjustments are consistent with what we have reported throughout the year. As we noted last quarter, we are not immune to inflationary pressures, but we were largely able to offset them this year through cost efficiencies and revenue growth. For the year, new student starts increased 2.7% which was in the middle of the updated guidance range we set in August. Average active students in the fourth quarter increased 4.5%, while new student starts decreased 3.2% from the prior year quarter. Recall, we discussed last quarter the success we had starting more high school students in June shortly after graduating versus them waiting until August or September to start their career training. This was reflected in the 25% year-over-year growth rate last quarter. However, that negatively impacted growth in the fourth quarter. Given this dynamic, it's more meaningful to look at the first half of the year versus the second half. We clearly gained momentum in the second half with a 5% year-over-year growth rate versus down 2% in the first half. Looking at our admissions channels. As we noted previously, we saw significant pressure in adult during the year, given the macroeconomic challenges these prospective students faced as the year progressed. While we ultimately did not achieve our initial overall new student start expectations for the year, our flexible business model allowed us to adapt in strategically invest in areas that we feel will maximize our results. In addition to continuing to optimize adult performance, we have opportunities in both high school and military and have already made investments to drive growth in both of these channels in 2023. Next, I will give a quick update on our balance sheet as well as our financing activity. As we recently announced, in November, we established a $100 million revolving credit facility with Fifth Third Bank. This increases our financial flexibility and bolsters our capital structure to be more consistent with our peers and to align more closely with companies of our size and growth prospects. In short, we view it as good corporate hygiene and as a beneficial resource to support both working capital needs and future opportunistic growth initiatives, organic or inorganic. Proceeding the close of the Concorde acquisition, which was for a purchase price of $50 million, we drew $90 million from the revolving credit facility to ensure sufficient balance sheet flexibility and cash liquidity. Also for reference, Concorde had approximately $30 million of cash on their balance sheet at the closing. In short, we have a very strong balance sheet with significant total available liquidity. Moving to the reported balance sheet. We ended the year with total liquidity of $95.4 million. Full year capital expenditures were $79.5 million, including $28.7 million for the Lisle, Illinois campus purchase. Excluding Lisle, we spent less than our originally anticipated CapEx range for the year. Approximately 60% of the spend was tied to growth initiatives, namely the two new campuses and the two new welding programs, approximately 25% of the CapEx supported our now completed facility consolidation projects in Avondale, Arizona and Orlando, Florida and the remaining 15% supported to various other initiatives as well as maintenance CapEx. We generated strong cash flow from operations for the year of $46 million, while adjusted free cash flow in the year was $34.9 million, which was in line with our full year guidance and down slightly on a year-over-year basis. Our low leverage ratio and high cash flow generation will serve as integral components in fueling the continued expansion of our business and provide us with flexibility as we pursue future growth initiatives. Next, I'll spend a few minutes discussing the Concorde acquisition and the expected contribution to UTI. For reference, during the 12 months ended September 30, 2022, the Concorde generated unaudited results of approximately $200 million of revenue and $17 million of adjusted EBITDA, both showing healthy year-over-year growth. Also as of September 30, it had approximately 8,000 students. Starting in 2023, we expect to report in two segments. UTI, which will include the current transportation, skilled trades and energy offerings, and Concorde which will be the acquired Concorde Healthcare Education business. We also expect to report unallocated corporate costs. Operationally, the segments we managed independently with the primary integration in 2023 focused on critical items like financial reporting, implementation of Sarbanes Oxley and Audit requirements, IT security and limited others. We will proceed cautiously with integration activity with an emphasis on operational efficiency, student experience and clear financial benefits. As we move into fiscal 2023, we believe that the initiatives that have been put in place paired with targeted investments we are making across the business, will drive continued growth. Our 2023 guidance includes the 10 months of Concorde contribution from December 1, through September 30, with any year-over-year impacts represented on an as reported basis. With that said, our outlook for 2023 is as follows: for new student starts, we expect a range of 22,000 to 23,500, roughly 14,500 to 15,500 will be delivered by UTI, while 7,500 to 8,000 will be delivered by Concorde. As far as pacing through the year, we expect UTI to be heavily influenced by the additional investment in the high school channel, the ramping of the two campuses launched in 2022, and the program expansions primarily in the fourth quarter. Given that, growth will be measurably skewed towards Q3 and Q4. Concorde starts will also have a Q4 bias with a little more than half of the starts across Q2 and Q3 and the remainder in Q4 and a minimal impact in December. We expect revenue ranging from $595 million to $610 million. From a segment perspective, we expect UTI to show low-single digit year-over-year growth, while we expect Concorde to contribute approximately $170 million to $175 million for the year. The lower than initially anticipated UTI new student starts in 2022 along with the timing of the new campus launches, increasing contribution from the high school channel and 2023 program expansion all impact the pacing of UTI revenue throughout the year, with growth skewing towards the second half. Similarly, Concorde's revenue will be skewed more toward the second half given the partial Q1 and seasonality of their business. We anticipate total adjusted EBITDA within a range of $58 million to $62 million. We are still working through the mechanics of our segment reporting structure, thus are not ready to provide target margins by segment at this time. However, I will offer that on a like-for-like basis, we expect to see some margin compression in 2023 on the historical UTI business given the lower revenue flow through from 2022, new campus and program expansion ramps, ongoing investments to support our growth and diversification strategy and in our emissions channels and pockets of inflationary pressure. We will not see the full benefit of the addition of Concorde in 2023 adjusted EBITDA for a few reasons. First, due to seasonality, December is not a profitable month, while the pre-close months of October and November are very profitable. Additionally, we will have certain run rate cost impacts from bringing them into the UTI and public company environment before we have the opportunity to realize any meaningful operating synergies. The combination of these factors means their contribution for fiscal 2023 will be well below their September 30, trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA. For pacing, we expect total adjusted EBITDA will be down year-over-year measurably in Q1 and overall in the first three quarters and significantly higher year-over-year in the fourth quarter with roughly half of the full year adjusted EBITDA being delivered in the fourth quarter. As far as our non-GAAP adjustments, in 2023, we will begin including stock-based compensation expense as an adjustment. As you can see with our 2022 results, this has become a more material expense for us as we have been maturing our stock compensation program with the company's return to sustain profitability. Note this is also a consistent practice with our peers and many other companies. Otherwise, we expect similar adjustments in fiscal 2023 to what we had in 2022 with the addition of Concorde related acquisition, integration and program expansion costs. Note, we included non-GAAP guidance reconciliation tables in our press release and investor presentation. For adjusted net income, we expect $14 million to $18 million. Note, we expect both a GAAP and non-GAAP tax rate of 25%, which is a significant increase over 2022 reflective of the valuation allowance reversal. And finally, we expect adjusted free cash flow between $40 million and $45 million, which assumes total CapEx within a range of $36 million to $40 million before adjustments. CapEx includes residual investments for the Austin and Miramar campuses, UTI and Concorde planned program expansion and a consistent level of annual maintenance CapEx. We will adjust out about half of the expected 2023 CapEx as one-time growth investments. As far as pacing, we expect a heavy skew to second and third quarters as we prepare for the fourth quarter program expansion launches. Last, we do not expect to be a cash federal taxpayer in fiscal 2023 as we continue to utilize accumulated net operating loss carryforwards. Please be sure to review our press release, financial supplement and investor presentation, which have all been updated for the most current details about our actual results and our guidance. Reiterating Jerome's comments with our fiscal 2023 plan, we should carry tremendous momentum heading into 2024 and beyond. Our confidence in this plan along with the timely execution of the Concorde acquisition allows us to pull forward the timing of our previously provided longer term outlook. As such, with our currently announced and in flight initiatives, we now expect to deliver an excess $700 million of revenue and adjusted EBITDA approaching $100 million in fiscal 2024 with additional revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth in 2025 in subsequent years both from our existing business and initiatives and potential future growth opportunities. We continue to make significant progress as we execute on our growth and diversification strategy and are building for the future of UTI. We believe we have set ourselves up well to drive shareholder value 2023 and beyond. With that, I want to thank the UTI team, our students and our partners for their efforts and ongoing support and again welcome the Concorde team to the company. I'll now turn the call over to Jerome for closing remarks.