ARR Growth of 15% year over year Driven by Strong Enterprise and Government ARR Growth of 18% year over year
VANCOUVER, British Columbia and SAN JOSE, Calif. – February 14, 2023 – Absolute Software Corporation (Nasdaq: ABST) (TSX: ABST) (the “Company”), the only provider of self-healing, intelligent security solutions, today announced its financial results for its second quarter fiscal 2023 ended December 31, 2022. All dollar figures are stated in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated.
“We posted a solid performance this quarter against a challenging macro backdrop,” said Christy Wyatt, President and CEO of Absolute Software. “We continue to drive market penetration of our self-healing, intelligent security solutions as we build awareness of the critical role Absolute’s platform plays in making businesses more resilient. We are confident in our long-term plan to deliver balanced growth and profitability consistent with our Rule of 40 framework.”
“One of the company’s hallmarks is our ability to provide attractive growth with strong margins,” said Jim Lejeal, Chief Financial Officer. “While we are not immune to the macro environment, we remain confident in our ARR growth outlook, and are taking measures to ensure that we maintain strong margins while continuing to invest in our go-to-market initiatives that position the company for long-term success.”
SECOND QUARTER FISCAL 2023 (“Q2 F2023”) OVERVIEW
Key Financial Metrics:
- Revenue was $57.2 million for Q2 F2023, an increase of 17% compared to Q2 of fiscal year 2022 (“Q2 F2022”).
- Adjusted Revenue(1) was $57.7 million for Q2 F2023, an increase of 9% compared to Q2 F2022.
- Net loss was $7.0 million for Q2 F2023, an increase of 37% compared to Q2 F2022.
- Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $12.8 million or 22% of Adjusted Revenue(1) for Q2 F2023, a decrease from $13.8 million or 26% of Adjusted Revenue for Q2 F2022.
- Total ARR(2) at December 31, 2022 was $225.0 million, an increase of 15% compared to Q2 F2022.
- Enterprise & Government Total ARR increased by 18% year over year, and represented 79% of Total ARR at December 31, 2022.
- Education Total ARR increased by 6% year over year, and represented 21% of Total ARR at December 31, 2022.
- New Logo ARR(2) was $4.1 million for Q2 F2023, an increase from $3.7 million for Q2 F2022.
- Net Dollar Retention(2) was 107% for Q2 F2023, consistent with Q2 F2022.
- Cash from operating activities was $0.9 million for Q2 F2023, a decrease of 94% from $14.7 million for Q2 F2022.
- A quarterly dividend of CAD$0.08 per outstanding common share was paid during Q2 F2023.
Notes:
- Adjusted Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS measures. Refer to the “Use of non-IFRS measures and key metrics” section of the Q2 F2023 MD&A for further discussion of these measures and the “Results of Operations” section of this MD&A for reconciliation to the nearest IFRS measure.
- Total ARR, New Logo ARR and Net Dollar Retention are key metrics. Refer to the “Use of non-IFRS measures and key metrics” section of the Q2 F2023 MD&A for further discussion of these measures.
Financial Highlights
USD millions, except percentages, number of shares, and per share amounts
Notes:
- Recurring revenue represents revenue derived from cloud services, term-based subscription licenses, maintenance services and recurring managed professional services. Other revenue represents revenue derived from perpetual software licenses, non-recurring professional services and ancillary product lines, including consumer products.
- Adjusted Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of Adjusted Revenue are non-IFRS measures. Refer to the “Use of non-IFRS measures and key metrics” section of the Q2 F2023 MD&A for further discussion of these measures and the “Results of Operations” section of the Q2 F2023 MD&A for reconciliation to the nearest IFRS measure.
- Total ARR is a key metric. Refer to the “Use of non-IFRS measures and key metrics” section of the Q2 F2023 MD&A for further discussion of this measure.
- Deferred revenue includes current and non-current amounts.
- Total non-current financial liabilities include non-current portion of lease liabilities and long-term debt.
Q2 F2023 Business Highlights
- Added nearly 2,000 new customers in Q2 for a total of almost 20,000 as of December 31, 2022.
- Bolstered our Application Resilience™ ecosystem by adding eight mission-critical applications, including Dell™ Trusted Device, Deep Instinct™, and Norton 360™ – enabling joint Absolute Resilience® customers to ensure these apps remain healthy and undeletable.
- Expanded partnership with Lenovo to add Absolute Secure Access solution to their Thinkshield suite of products, reflecting growing customer interest for always-on, self-healing network connections.
Q2 Industry Awareness
- Named a Leader for the twelfth consecutive quarter in the G2 Winter 2022 Grid® Report for Endpoint Management and as a Leader for the second consecutive quarter in the G2 Grid Report for Zero Trust Networking.
- Recognized by IDC as a Leader in "European End User Experience Management," citing our strength in ensuring resilient network and access performance.
- Highlighted by Omdia as an Endpoint Security ‘Vendor to Watch’ for our unique product capabilities and ability to ensure resilience for millions of remote endpoints.
F2023 Financial Outlook
The Company updated its financial outlook for fiscal 2023 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023) as follows(1):
- Adjusted Revenue(2) for F2023 is now expected to be in the range of $231.0 million to $235.0 million, equating to full-year growth of approximately 10% to 12%.
- Tightened range, increasing midpoint of full-year F2023 Adjusted EBITDA(2), with Adjusted EBITDA margin on Adjusted Revenue now expected to be to be in the range of 23% to 25%.
Notes:
- The Company does not provide a reconciliation of forward-looking non-IFRS financial measures to the most directly comparable IFRS financial measure because it is unable to predict certain items contained in the IFRS measures without unreasonable efforts.
- Adjusted Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS measures. Please refer to “Use of non-IFRS measures and key metrics” section in this earnings release or our most recent MD&A for further discussion of these measures.
Quarterly Dividend
On January 18, 2023, we declared a quarterly dividend of CAD$0.08 per share on our common shares, payable in cash on February 23, 2023 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 9, 2023.
Quarterly Filings and Related Quarterly Financial Information
Management’s Discussion and Analysis (“MD&A”) and Consolidated Financial Statements and the notes thereto for the fiscal period ended December 31, 2022 can be obtained today from Absolute’s corporate website at www.absolute.com. The documents will also be available under Absolute’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Additionally, the Company today will publish on the Investor Relations section of its website (www.absolute.com/company/investors/) a Q2 F2023 Earnings Presentation and a dashboard of Selected Operating and Financial Metrics.
Conference Call
Absolute Software will host a conference call on Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 p.m. Pacific Time) to discuss its results and business outlook. The call will be accessible by dialing 1-844-282-4856 or 1-412-317-5627; participants should ask to join the Absolute Software call. A live audio webcast of the conference call will also be available via the Absolute Investor Relations website.
The conference call will be archived for replay until Tuesday, February 21, 2023. To access the archived conference call, please dial 855-669-9658 or 1-877-344-7529 and enter the reservation code 8089698. To access using an international dial-in number, please use this link. An archived replay of the audio webcast will be available for one year.
Use of non-IFRS measures and key metrics
Throughout this press release we refer to a number of measures and metrics which we believe are meaningful in the assessment of the Company’s performance. Many of these measures and metrics do not have any standardized meaning under International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board and are unlikely to be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Readers are cautioned that the disclosure of these items is meant to add to, and not replace, the discussion of financial results or cash flows from operations as determined in accordance with IFRS.
The purpose of these non-IFRS measures and key metrics is to provide supplemental information that may prove useful to readers who wish to consider the impact of certain non-cash or non-recurring items on the Company’s operating performance, and assist in comparison of our operating results over historical periods. Supplementing IFRS disclosures with non-IFRS measures outlined below provides management with an additional view of operational performance by excluding expenses that are not directly related to performance in any particular period. Management uses both IFRS and non-IFRS measures when planning, monitoring and evaluating the Company’s performance.
These measures and metrics are as follows:
Key Metrics
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Total ARR, Net Dollar Retention, and New Logo ARR
As the majority of our customer contracts are sold under prepaid multi-year term licenses, there is typically a significant lag between the timing of the invoice and the associated revenue recognition. As a result, we focus on the annualized recurring value of all active contracts, measured by ARR, as an indicator of our future recurring revenues. ARR includes multi-year and short-term subscriptions for cloud-based services, as well as managed professional services and professional services with terms greater than one year. Both multi-year contracts and contracts with terms less than one year are annualized by dividing the total committed contract value by the number of months in the subscription term and then multiplying by twelve. We believe that increases in the amount of New Logo ARR, and improvement in our Net Dollar Retention, will accelerate the growth of Total ARR and, in turn, our future revenues. We provide these metrics as they are used to manage the business. We believe there is no similar measure under IFRS to which these measures can be reconciled.
Total ARR is a key metric and measures the aggregate annualized recurring revenues of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period. This measure has historically been a good indicator of our future revenue streams. Total ARR will change over a period through the retention, attrition and expansion of existing customers and the acquisition of new customers.
Net Dollar Retention is a key metric and measures the percentage increase or decrease in Total ARR at the end of a year for customers that comprised Total ARR at the beginning of the year. We believe this metric provides useful insight into the effectiveness of our activities to retain and expand the ARR of our existing customers.
New Logo ARR is a key metric and measures the addition to Total ARR from sales to new customers during a period. We believe this metric provides useful insight into the effectiveness of our efforts to secure revenue from new customers.
Non-IFRS Measures
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Adjusted Revenue
Adjusted Revenue is a non-IFRS measure that we define as revenue, excluding fair value adjustments relating to acquired deferred revenue. In connection with the acquisition of NetMotion, NetMotion’s deferred revenue was written down to its fair value at the acquisition date. As a result, related revenue in the post-acquisition period does not reflect the full amount of revenue that would otherwise be recognized. We believe excluding fair value adjustments relating to deferred revenue provides a useful measure of the Company’s performance as it allows for comparability across future periods, where revenue recognized would reflect the transaction price, without acquisition-related fair value adjustments.
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Adjusted Gross Margin and Gross Margin %
Adjusted Gross Margin is defined as gross margin, adjusted for depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation expense, fair value adjustments relating to acquired deferred revenue, acquisition and integration costs, and non-recurring items. Adjusted Gross Margin % is defined as Adjusted Gross Margin as a percentage of Adjusted Revenue.
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Adjusted Operating Expenses
Adjusted Operating Expenses is defined as sales and marketing expense, research and development expense, and general and administrative expense, excluding depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation expense, fair value adjustments relating to acquired deferred commission expense, restructuring or reorganization charges and post-retirement benefits, acquisition and integration costs, litigation costs, impairment losses, and non-recurring items.
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Adjusted Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (“Adjusted EBITDA”)
Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure that we define as net income before interest income or expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, foreign exchange gains or losses, share-based compensation expense, fair value adjustments relating to acquired deferred revenue, fair value adjustments relating to acquired deferred commission expense, restructuring or reorganization charges and post-retirement benefits, acquisition and integration costs, litigation costs, impairment losses, and non-recurring items.
Reconciliation of non-IFRS measures from IFRS measures are presented below.
Adjusted Revenue
Adjusted Gross Margin
Adjusted Operating Expenses
Notes:
- Depreciation and amortization includes depreciation of property and equipment, amortization of right-of-use assets, and amortization of acquired intangible assets.
Adjusted EBITDA
Notes:
- Depreciation and amortization includes depreciation of property and equipment, amortization of right-of-use assets, and amortization of acquired intangible assets.