Stuart Miller
Analyst · Stifel. Your line is open
Thanks, Marty. I'll start by reviewing our third quarter results, which featured a substantial improvement in Workiva's operating margin. Thereafter, I'll comment on our fourth quarter guidance and then provide a preliminary viewpoint on what we expect next year 2019. One reminder on accounting. As discussed on our calls earlier this year, we adopted the new revenue recognition standard, ASC 606, using the modified retrospective method. Our Form 10-Q provides a reconciliation of the impact to the adoption of ASC 606 on our third quarter and year-to-date financial results. Now to our revenue. We outperformed our revenue guidance for the quarter. We generated total revenue in the third quarter of $60.9 million, an increase of 16.9% from Q3 2017. Breaking out revenue by reporting line item. Subscription and support revenue was $51.3 million, up 18.7% from Q3 2017. 51.7% of the S&S revenue increase in Q3 came from a deeper penetration of our existing customer base. The remainder of the increase came from new customers added in the last 12 months. A broad set of use cases showed strength. Professional services revenue was $9.6 million in Q3 2018, an increase of 8.1% from the same quarter in 2017. Turning to our supplemental metrics. We finished Q3 with 3,289 customers, a net increase of 298 customers from Q3 2017, and a net increase of 67 customers from Q2 2018. Our retention rates continue to be strong. Our subscription and support revenue retention rate was 95.9% for the month of September 2018. Customers being acquired or otherwise ceasing to file SEC reports accounted for a majority of revenue attrition, consistent with our experience to date. With add-ons, our subscription and support revenue retention was 104.7% for the month of September 2018. This metric can be lumpy because it annualizes just 1 month of data and can be affected by true-ups and other factors. Going forward, we expect this metric to be affected by some capital markets customers, renewing at a lower contract value the year after their initial filing. On the other hand, we expect implementing solution-based licensing will have a positive impact on this metric over the next few years. As a reminder, we currently calculate revenue retention rates using monthly ASC 605 revenue under the legacy accounting standard. We'll start reporting revenue retention rates using quarterly ASC 606 revenue under the new accounting standard when we have comparable data next year. We expect the new quarterly measurement to reduce the variability of this metric that, to date, we have been calculating monthly. Our progress with larger contracts is encouraging for annual contract value of $100,000 plus. We had 398 customers in the third quarter, up 32% from Q3 last year for ACV of 150k plus. We had 173 customers in the third quarter, also up 32% from Q3 last year. Moving down the income statement, I'll talk about our results before stock-based compensation or a non-GAAP basis. Please refer to our press release for a reconciliation of non-GAAP and GAAP results. Gross profit was $45.5 million in Q3, up 23.9% from the same quarter a year ago. Gross margin was 74.8% in the latest quarter compared to a gross margin of 70.6% in Q3 2017. Breaking out gross profit. Subscription and support gross profit was $43.3 million, equating to a gross margin of 84.5% on S&S revenue, up from a gross margin of 80.9% in Q3 2017, due to a higher utilization rate and better pricing. Professional services gross profit in the third quarter was $2.2 million, equating to a 23% gross margin, up from 20.4% gross margin in the same period last year, due to a higher utilization rate. Both our customer success and professional services teams ran lean in Q3. We don't expect to run as lean in Q4 because we are investing in international markets, new use cases and the transition to our new platform. Moving down the P&L, research and development expense in Q3 was $18.4 million, an increase of 8.5% from Q3 last year, due to higher compensation. R&D expense, as a percentage of revenue, improved this quarter to 30.2% compared to 32.5% in Q3 last year. Sales and marketing expense for the quarter decreased 1.1% from Q3 last year to 22.7%. Sales and marketing expense, as a percentage of revenue this quarter, improved 680 basis points from Q3 last year to 37.2%. The improvement was due mainly to lower marketing cost and the capitalization of sales commissions as required under ASC 606. Adopting ASC 606 accounted for 250 basis points of the improvement. For those of you looking at quarterly sequential data, please recall that the third quarter is our seasonal high point for marketing spend due to our Annual User Conference. General and administrative expenses were $8.3 million in Q3, up $2.2 million compared to Q3 2017, due to higher headcount, higher compensation in the executive ranks and investments in leadership in EMEA and APAC. Operating loss was $3.8 million in Q3 2018 compared to an operating loss of $9.1 million in Q3 2017. Workiva's operating margin improved 1,130 basis points in Q3 2018 versus Q3 last year, primarily because revenue growth exceeded growth in compensation expense. Headcount grew less than 1% year-over-year. Investing in new talent will be necessary to pursue the attractive growth opportunities that we see. However, we intend to continue to manage headcount growth carefully. Net loss was $4 million for Q3 2018 compared to the net loss of $9.4 million in Q3 2017. We posted a net loss per share of $0.09 in Q3 2018 compared to a net loss per share of $0.23 in the same quarter a year ago. Turning to our statement of cash flows and balance sheet. In Q3 2018, net cash provided by operating activities was $7.6 million compared with cash provided of $5.2 million in the same quarter a year ago. At September 30, 2018, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $97 million, an increase of $16.3 million compared with the balance at June 30, 2018. Short-term subscription and support deferred revenue increased almost $10 million due to bookings growth and conversion of customer contracts from quarterly to annual payment. Long-term subscription support deferred revenue decreased by just over $1 million in the quarter. Short-term customer deposits, which represent prepayment of professional services, increased modestly in Q3. So turning to our guidance for the rest of 2018. Our guidance on a non-GAAP loss from operations and non-GAAP loss per share excludes the impact of stock-based compensation. Please refer to our press release for a reconciliation of non-GAAP and GAAP guidance. We are providing our fourth quarter guidance and raising our full-year guidance. In the fourth quarter of 2018, we now expect total revenue to range from $62.4 million to $62.8 million. We expect GAAP operating loss to range from $11.5 million to $11.9 million. Non-GAAP operating loss is expected to be in the range of $4.3 million to $4.7 million. We expect to post operating cash flow gains in Q4 and the full-year 2018. We expect GAAP net loss per share in Q4 to range from $0.26 to $0.27. Non-GAAP net loss per share is expected to be in the range of $0.10 to $0.11. Our loss per share guidance assumes 44.6 million basic and diluted shares outstanding. Our full-year 2018 guidance is as follows: we expect our full year total revenue to range from $242.3 million to $242.7 million. We expect GAAP operating loss to range from $53.5 million to $53.9 million. Non-GAAP operating loss is expected to be in the range of $17.1 million to $17.5 million. We expect GAAP net loss per share to range from $1.24 to $1.25. Finally, non-GAAP net loss per share is expected to be in the range of $0.40 to $0.41. Our loss per share guidance for the full-year assumes 43.7 million basic and diluted shares outstanding. Now turning to 2019. So on a preliminary basis, we expect to post total revenue in 2019 of $278 million to $280 million. We expect the growth rate of subscription and support revenue to continue to outpace the growth rate of professional services revenue. We expect to show a single-digit margin on non-GAAP operating loss in 2019, building on and consolidating the progress we have made in 2018. In addition, we expect to report higher operating cash flow in 2019. Finally, some housekeeping. You'll see disclosure in our Form 8-K regarding Rule 10b5-1 plans adopted by Marty Vanderploeg and Jeff Trom. Marty and Jeff are selling shares to repay debt and for tax and financial planning purposes. The shares to be sold under each of their plans represent less than 10% of their respective current beneficial ownership. So we are now ready to take your questions. Operator, you're ready to begin the Q&A session.