Altair Engineering Inc.

Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call

8/4/2022

spk05: You can dial star one one.
spk04: Good day, and thank you for standing by.
spk05: Welcome to the Altair Q2 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Dave Simon, SVP for Investor Relations. You may begin.
spk02: Good afternoon, welcome, and thank you for attending Altair's earnings conference call for the second quarter of 2022 and the June 30th, 2022. I'm Dave Simon, Altair's SVP for investor relations, and with me on the call are Jim Scappa, founder, chairman, and CEO, and Matt Brown, chief financial officer. After market closed today, we issued a press release with details regarding our second quarter performance and guidance for the third quarter and full year 2022, which can be accessed on the investor relations section of our website at investor.altair.com. This call is being recorded, and a replay will be available on the IR section of our website following the conclusion of this call. During today's call, we will make statements related to our business that may be considered forward-looking under federal securities laws. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be considered representative of our views as of any subsequent date. we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or outlook. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. These risks are summarized in the press release that we issued earlier today. For a further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to those contained in our quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC, as well as other documents that we have filed, or may file from time to time. During the course of today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in our press release. Finally, at times in our prepared comments or responses to your questions, we may offer metrics that are incremental to our usual presentation to provide greater insight into the dynamics of our business or our quarterly results. Please be advised that we may or may not continue to provide this additional detail in the future. With that, let me turn the call over to Jim for his prepared remarks. Jim?
spk08: Thank you, Dave, and welcome to everyone on the call. Today, I will discuss our results for the second quarter of 2022, exciting product momentum, including the recent acquisitions of Gen3D and concept engineering, some customer successes, and other news. Altra had a strong second quarter with all our key metrics coming in above our guidance ranges. Total second quarter revenue equals $132.7 million. Software product revenue for the quarter was $116.9 million, up from $99.6 million in Q2 of 2021, reflecting year-on-year growth of 17% or 23% in constant currency. Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 2022 was $16.4 million compared to $9.5 million in Q2 of 2021, an increase of 73% from the second quarter of 2021. Software product revenue in H1 2022 was $257.8 million, up from $229.1 million in H1 2021, reflecting growth of 12.5%. Adjusted EBITDA for H1 2022 was 63 million versus 46.5 million in H1 2021, reflecting growth of 35.7%. Software product revenue for the first half of 2022 continued a strong positive trend at 88% of total revenue, compared to 85% during the first half of 2021. Our recurring software license rate remained high at 93% for the first half of 2022, as compared to 92% for the first half of 2021. Simulation software continued to grow nicely in Q2 2022 across all regions. Data analytics and HBC software had outstanding performance in the quarter and year to date, with notable success outside of the Americas, where these businesses are generally less developed. Our software-related services revenue grew modestly for the first six months of 2022 with 6% growth compared to the first six months of 2021. Client engineering services continues to be down significantly in the first six months of 2022 with a 28% reduction as compared to the first six months of 2021. reflecting market trends and our own strategic shift towards higher gross margin activities. We feel tremendous excitement around the pace of our product development as we accelerate toward the next generation of solutions and technology for the hyper-connected and converging markets we address. Our design, modeling, and visualization products and solutions are moving fast to seamlessly integrate user experiences, share data natively, create easy workflows for difficult problems, and operate in the cloud. Our solver technology is maturing rapidly, and we are beginning to look at multi-physics capabilities for SimSolid, which promise game-changing performance in new markets like electronics. Our HPC solutions are working on exascale performance and highly efficient cloud resource management. And our data analytics offerings are on a path to deliver best in class, enterprise level usability, scalability, and performance in public and private clouds. Altair continues to focus on simulation driven design solutions, rapidly adding new geometry and design features and support for most traditional and additive manufacturing methods. Additive manufacturing has the potential to transform a number of industries, including aerospace, automotive, medical, and energy, by allowing for fewer components and designs and highly efficient shapes not feasible with traditional manufacturing. In June, we acquired GEM3D, a UK startup out of the University of Bath, and a pioneer implementing the implicit geometry method for describing highly complex geometries such as lattice structures in additive manufacturing. Its next generation implicit algorithms and modeling techniques rapidly create complex geometry not practical with traditional modeling approaches. The powerful ability to support lattices to achieve optimum designs for fluid, structure, and thermal requirements is an important and exciting addition to our simulation-driven design portfolio. The current Gen3D products will be available under Altair Unix. Gen3D's underlying technology will be integrated into Altair Inspire, our highly differentiated family of simulation-driven design products. giving customers a complete solution environment to rapidly create complex designs while minimizing the risk of imprint failures during additive manufacturing processes. Another important area of focus for Altair is the convergence of electronics with mechanical designs and the predictive and prescriptive analysis associated with this. Electronic systems and controls are increasing in importance, and semiconductors are evolving toward 3D IC and chiplet topologies to increase speed and design flexibility. New solutions to predict behavior and optimize designs require deep expertise and cutting-edge technology to solve new problems and pursue innovation. Altra is excited about this shift in the electronics landscape. and we are investing significantly to deliver truly disruptive solutions into this market by leveraging our experience and technology in novel ways. We have also been acquiring important expertise in technology electronics over the last 10 years to carefully grow our electronics customer base, knowledge, and our ability to synthesize new solutions together with our very extensive mechanical experience and simulation technology. In June, we acquired Concept Engineering, the leading provider of electronic system visualization software that accelerates the development, manufacture, and service of complex electrical and electronic systems. Its technology includes automatic schematic generation tools, as well as electronic circuit and wire harness visualization platforms that provide visual rendering and electronic design solutions. Concept Engineering's electronic system visualization and semiconductor design verification technology is available as a standalone solution and is also tightly integrated into more than 40 EDA and CAD tools to provide end users with smart debugging functionality while saving months of engineering time and support for computer-aided development teams. Concept engineering addresses three primary markets, semiconductor design, EDA and CAD tool development, and industries with complex electrical systems. We are excited to integrate the technology into Altair's electronic systems design suite. To further capitalize on the acquisition of World Programming, we recently announced the Altair Unlimited Data Analytics Appliance. an all-in-one turnkey solution that gives organizations and users out-of-the-box access to an unprecedented level of data analytics capabilities. Organizations can develop and run multi-language data analytics software solutions, including those written in the SAS language, in an interactive and secure managed production deployment infrastructure. The Altair Unlimited analytics appliance is built on Dell PowerEdge R750 servers and designed to foster enterprise-wide data-driven strategies by giving teams the power to use data analytics and AI to drive next-level business results. Dell Technologies is a longtime partner, and we are pleased to take the Altair Unlimited data analytics appliance to market with them. We look forward to seeing how users maximize this technology and get the most from their data. Simulation continues to be the core growth engine for Altair's business globally. We are proud to have supported the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's successful 15 months of operation of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity. Our software was used to simulate communication over the Martian landscape to help plan flight paths well beyond line of sight from the rover base station. The process employed RF modeling of the rover and helicopter using Altair's FICO and wind prop and the parabolic equation full wave method to account simultaneously and accurately for wave diffraction, refraction, and scattering propagation mechanisms. In less than two weeks, they developed and validated this model using 14 flight cases before integrating the telecom predictions into the ops tool. With the 29th successful flight completed in June, operations are set to resume this month after the Martian dust storms abate. Alther is excited to be part of the JPL effort advancing understanding of our neighboring planet. We continue to build strength in the rail industry with a three-year high seven-figure expansion agreement from a global leader in rail transport systems. The growth in this account is primarily driven by our solvers for structural and electromagnetics applications and a second rail system manufacturer expanded usage of our software with a target of leveraging digital twins and machine learning for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance. Last year's acquisition of S-Frame substantially increased our presence in the civil engineering market. The building construction industry has a growing focus on its carbon footprint, resulting in a movement toward the use of engineered wood products for sustainable building design. We recently published a case study around the application of our S-Timber software by Bush, Bowman, and Partners, Canadian structural engineering firm for the British Columbia Institute of Technology to utilize timber in the construction of a new student plaza, pedestrian walkway, and public transport gateway. We're excited to see these applications where we are not just optimizing for material use reduction, but also enabling the use of fundamentally sustainable materials. And along these lines, earlier this week, we announced the winners of the 10th Annual Enlighten Award. Presented in association with the Center of Automotive Research, the Altair Enlighten Award honors sustainability and lightweighting advancements that successfully reduce carbon footprint, mitigate water and energy consumption, and leverage material reuse and recycling efforts. Congratulations to this year's winners, the Ford Motor Company, NEMAC, Shiloh Industries, McMaster University, BASF, Toyota, and L&L Products. As we celebrate our 10th anniversary and have evaluated hundreds of worthy entries, We have seen this award and the automotive industry evolve from showcasing vehicle lightweighting initiatives to companies now fully embracing sustainability and the commitment to building a net zero environment, particularly as the world transitions to electric vehicles. The Enlighten Award has been an outstanding success in highlighting the incredible achievements made over the years, not just by OEMs, but also suppliers and materials companies collectively taking on the challenge of creating a more energy efficient world. And momentum continues to build for the convergence of simulation and AI at customers. In APAC, a major electronics manufacturer is ramping up use of our data analytics software to apply machine learning on CAE results files in an effort to accelerate its product design process. Also in APAC, a manufacturer of rolled metal products is using Altair predictive analytics technology to improve its coil manufacturing business as it competes in the global market. Its goals include reducing scrap rate, optimizing manufacturing operation, reducing downtime due to inspection holes, and improving predictive maintenance. In the agricultural equipment sector, a significant global player is using Altair's artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to substantially reduce simulation time requirements. We announced a memorandum of understanding with LG for collaborative research and development to promote acceleration of product development digital transformation. This cooperation around AI-based simulation technology is exciting, and we are very appreciative of the opportunity to work so closely with the LG team in this important area. Our customers are doing great work, and I look forward to sharing more of their stories around convergence in the future. At the end of June, we held our Future.AI event. Highlights included presentations on human-centered AI for the enterprise, and taking an AI-first strategy for growth. With record attendance of both manufacturing and banking and financial services customers and prospects alike, we are delighted with the interactive engagement we had with our global attendees. The remainder of 2022 looks solid, even while we're in a period of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, with near-term impact of rapidly changing foreign currency exchange rates. Altair's strong culture, customer relationships, excellent recurring revenue and utilization, high value business model and exceptional technology will help us power through this brief period. Now I will turn the call over to Matt to provide more details on our financial performance and our guidance for the third quarter and full year 2022. Matt,
spk07: Thank you, Jim, and hello to everyone on the call. Thank you for joining us. The strength and momentum we saw in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 continued into our second quarter, marking an impressive first half of 2022. Demand for our products in Q2, particularly our software solution, was very strong. Despite significant currency headwinds, we delivered year-over-year growth in both our top line and profits, Once again, generating results above the high end of the range on every metric we guided to for the quarter. Total billings for the quarter were 125.4 million, an increase of 6.5% compared to Q2 2022, including software billings growth of more than 11%. The strength in billings growth was supported by software growth across all geographies, and was partially offset by a decrease in services and other billing, primarily as a result of declines in our CES business, which was expected heading into the quarter. In total, the strength in our billings resulted in software product and total revenue exceeding our expectations for the second quarter of 2022. Software product revenue was $116.9 million, or an increase of 17.4% compared to Q2 2021. Total revenue, which includes services and other revenue, was 132.7 million, or an increase of 10.6% compared to Q2 2021. A recurring software license rate, which is the percentage of software product billings that are recurring, continues to be strong at approximately 93% for the first half. As a reminder, a significant portion of our revenues are billed in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, and are therefore impacted by changes in FX rates. This is particularly true over the past six months, as you saw the dollar significantly strengthen against other major currencies. Relative to Q2 2021, our software product revenues and total revenues were unfavorably impacted by changes in FX rates of approximately 6 million and 6.6 million, respectively. Therefore, on a constant currency basis, in the second quarter of 2022, we saw year-over-year software product revenue growth and total revenue growth of 23.4% and 16.1%, respectively. Non-GAAP gross margin, which excludes stock-based compensation and restructuring expense, was 79.3% in the second quarter, compared to 74.5% in the prior year, an increase of 480 basis points, as our software revenue mix, which carries higher gross margins, increased as a percentage of total revenue. In addition, our non-GAAP growth margins specific to software product revenue continued to improve, as our support costs as a percentage of revenue trended down. Software revenue was 88.1% of total revenue in Q2 2022, compared to 83.0% in the prior year. Over the long term, we continue to expect a general mixed shift towards software product revenue, as growth there will outpace services and other revenue. Non-GAAP operating expenses, which exclude stock-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets, and restructuring charges were 90.3 million compared to 80.9 million in the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA in Q2 2022 was 16.4 million or 12.4% of total revenue compared to 9.5 million or 7.9% in the prior year quarter. an increase of 73.1%. This increase compared to the prior year quarter, as well as relative to our expectations, was driven by the increase in software revenue combined with our discipline spending. We continued to drive higher adjusted EBITDA as we saw a greater percentage of our incremental revenue growth dropping to the bottom line. Turning to our balance sheet, We ended the second quarter with $416.1 million in cash and cash equivalents, an increase of approximately $10.6 million from the prior quarter. The quarter-over-quarter increase is primarily due to free cash flow generated in the quarter, the net cash increase as a result of our new convertible notes and partial repurchase of our existing convertible notes, and was partially offset by cash outflows for the acquisitions of Gen3D and Concept Engineering. We were extremely pleased to issue $230 million in new convertible notes with a 1.75% coupon and 30% conversion premium, putting the conversion price at $71.68 per share. At the same time, we retired over 64% of our existing convertible notes that have a conversion price of $46.50 per share and were deeply in the money. This was primarily a liability management effort, which allowed us to enter into a new convert with more favorable terms and extend the maturity date, while at the same time adding approximately $30 million of cash to our balance sheet. Turning to guidance for Q3 and full year 2022. We are seeing a significant FX impact relative to prior year and our previous guidance. In just the past several months, the US dollar has strengthened meaningfully against other major currencies, which drives a significant impact on our results in reported currency. With that backdrop, we are expecting software product revenue for Q3 to be in the range of 99 to 104 million. or year-over-year change of minus 3.2 to plus 1.7%, and are now expecting our full year 2022 software product revenue to be in the range of $487 to $498 million, or year-over-year growth of 7.3 to 9.8%. Compared to prior year, our Q3 expected software product revenue is being negatively impacted by approximately $7 million. or 6.5 percent of growth due to changes in foreign exchange rates and on a full year basis compared to prior year our 2022 expected software product revenue is being negatively impacted by approximately 23 million or five percent of growth due to changes in foreign exchange rates We continue to expect services and other revenue to be down in 2022 compared to 2021, consistent with our previous guidance. As a result, we expect total revenue for Q3 2022 in the range of $115 to $120 million, or a year-over-year decrease of 5.2 to 1.1%. And we're now expecting our full year 2022 total revenue to be in the range of 555 to 566 million, or year-over-year growth of 4.3 to 6.4%. Compared to prior year, our Q3 expected total revenue is being negatively impacted by more than 7 million, or 6.5% of growth, due to changes in foreign exchange rates. And on a full year basis compared to prior year, our 2022 expected total revenue is being negatively impacted by more than 25 million, or almost 5% of growth due to changes in foreign exchange rates. For full year 2022 software product and total revenue, our guidance at the midpoint is consistent with the guidance we issued last quarter in constant currency. However, further changes in FX rates have resulted in a reduction to midpoint in reported currency. From a cost perspective, we're seeing some increases in employee-related costs due to inflation-related pressure, but at the same time, we're seeing some offsetting benefits in expense due to changes in FX rates. For Q3 2022, we expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of zero to four million, or 0 to 3.3 percent of total revenue compared to 14.8 million or 12.2 percent of total revenue in the year ago period and for full year 2022 we are now expecting adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of 89 to 99 million or 16.0 to 17.5 percent of total revenue compared to 85.3 million, or 16.0% of total revenue in 2021. The changes in FX rates and their impact to revenue are having a direct impact on adjusted EBITDA, as we're only seeing a partial offset in expense benefits. For the year, FX rates are negatively impacting adjusted EBITDA by more than 6 million. We expect full year 2022 free cash flow in the range of $8 to $16 million, which includes the $65.9 million payment for the existing litigation judgment against WPL that we assumed as part of our acquisition and was paid in January. As a reminder, our cash flow expectations are sensitive to billings and collections patterns, which fluctuate seasonally. In particular, our historical pattern has shown a free cash inflow in the first half of the year, primarily from collections on billings from Q4 and Q1, and a smaller free cash outflow in the second half of the year. We're expecting that pattern to continue this year. We've provided detailed guidance tables in our earnings release, including reconciliations to comparable gap amounts, which was issued after close of market today. While changes in FX rates are having an impact on reported currency results, we are extremely confident in the ever-expanding competitive strength of our products and continued demand from our customers. With that, we'd be happy to take your questions. Operator?
spk05: As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment. And our first question will come from Ahmad Khalil of Oppenheimer. Your line is open.
spk06: Hi, this is Ken Long from Oppenheimer. Just a quick question, Matt, just for clarification. It sounded like the full-year revenue guide is purely due to FX movement. I just wanted to make sure that that was accurate. And then beyond that, any changes in terms of collections or any pressures you're seeing from your customer base in terms of sales cycles?
spk07: Yeah, hey, I appreciate the question. Yeah, so you get that right. Especially when you look at our revenue line for the full year guide, we saw meaningful FX impacts just quarter over quarter. And so as a result, when we sort of map that forward, FX had a negative impact of about $12 million or so on our software product revenue from the last time we gave guidance for a full year. And so actually, at the midpoint on a constant currency basis, actually guiding up slightly on software product revenue and just about flat on total revenue with FX having an impact of $13 to $14 million there on total revenue. uh so yeah you've got that right um now with respect to our uh our customers no we're not seeing any kind of uh elongated collection patterns nothing unusual with dso no difficulties at all there got it and then maybe a quick one for you jim i'm just wondering as far as uh
spk06: M&A, you guys have done quite a lot recently. I guess what are you seeing from integration? Is that going smoothly? And then what's the appetite for potentially do some more given perhaps valuations in this market are a little more, you know, a little lower than we're used to seeing?
spk08: Okay. Thanks, Ahmad. I'm getting used to this new system that we're using here. Appreciate the question. As far as M&A and integration, we really are usually able to integrate most of the companies that we acquire in two to three months, so it's a very, very quick thing for us. Obviously, world programming was a little bit of a larger bite, but even world programming was primarily comprised of development, to be honest with you, and so it's integrated very, very nicely. The culture is very similar. We really generally do that easily, and we continue to have an appetite for M&A, and you are right. Valuations have been exceedingly high for a while, and personally, I kind of look forward to some of that coming down now.
spk06: Okay. Thanks a lot, Jim.
spk08: Sure.
spk05: Thank you. And our next question will come from Blair. Abernathy of Rosenblatt, your line's open.
spk04: Hi, can you hear me? Yes, Blair.
spk01: Hi, sorry, cutting out a little bit. Quick questions. Just first on the data science business, I just wonder if we just walk through sort of where you're at now with the adoption of the Altair units and How is it starting to have an impact in terms of, you know, consumption of your broader analytics data science portfolio?
spk08: So we are making progress. But, you know, the first thing is to sell it internally. And I think we're very successful at that now. So the whole sales organization is really, really supportive, very excited about the model. As we continue to have more capabilities and more solutions, the model really starts to make more and more sense and the sales force gets it. I personally would like it to be going faster and I am planning to make some changes actually. When we moved to the model for simulation, we were sort of at the same moment, if you will. Everyone got it finally because I had to do the same kind of convincing internally. Customers were beginning to understand and I wanted to accelerate it and we essentially just moved 100% of the customers to the model. I am leaning toward doing that here again and doing a couple of things that would accelerate letting that happen. There are a couple of things we need to actually change, looking at the draw for certain products, that sort of thing. And we're doing some analysis on that right now. But I expect to dramatically accelerate the adoption of units in the data analytics business.
spk01: Great. And Jim, just the How is the traction coming on the world programming business?
spk08: So traction is good, actually. We've had some very, very nice wins. There's tremendous interest. The pipeline has really grown pretty strongly. I will say that it's a longer sales cycle, and we're all sort of learning. the process I think it's going to start to get a lot more interesting next year because the pipeline is is getting full and we're doing some things that are going to make it easier to succeed here so yeah that's where we are sorry to the cloud outside of my window it's very interesting to do these things from your home I have a landscaping company so apologize if there's no
spk01: I can't hear them yelling at each other, no. To shift gears for one second, my last question right now is just around the high-performance computing segment. Just wondering what you're seeing there in terms of end markets, you know, still steady demand, you know, any macro disruptions impacting this segment at all, you know, because it's so tied to hardware?
spk08: It's... It's an interesting mix because actually that business is extremely robust, particularly in the technology sector. And we've actually been doing some work to basically grow out the quality of the team overseas in that business. And we're seeing a lot of good things coming as a result of that. At the same time, there is, you know, if a customer doesn't take delivery of hardware and there is some delays on some of that, then they don't need the software. But overall, frankly speaking, that business is exceeding expectations right now. So it's just doing great. Thank you.
spk01: Great. Thanks very much.
spk05: Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question, please press star 11 on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, if you have any questions, please press star 11. And our next question will come from Dylan Becker of William Blair. Your line is open.
spk03: Okay, it's Faith Bruner on for Dylan. Just kind of wanted to touch. I know you mentioned briefly you're not seeing any macro impacts from your customer conversations, but just looking into the near term, how much emphasis are customers kind of placing on your units model and the ability to consolidate spend across your platform to deliver value versus kind of stitching together multiple vendors that don't integrate as well?
spk08: You know, through the years, Altair has become much more of a strategic enterprise partner for customers. I think it's really evolved for us. We were more tactical, I'll say, in certain accounts, but we're becoming more and more strategic. And the model, especially as things start to get a little tighter, becomes more and more interesting to customers, and customers tend to see the value of partnering with Altair both because we're just a very strong customer engagement organization. We actually know what we're talking about technically and the customers value the integrity and expertise. And then the product portfolio is so broad and deep now that they really, really value that and very often will choose us and make decisions not to continue with certain other specialized software.
spk03: All right. Awesome. Thanks for the caller.
spk08: Thank you.
spk05: Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back to Jim Scampa for closing remarks.
spk08: Okay, well, I appreciate everybody's interest in Altair and the support from our investor community. So thank you all to my team that supported me here as well. So I appreciate it. Thank you.
spk05: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.
spk04: You may now disconnect. In shortly, to raise your hand during Q&A, you can dial star 1 1.
Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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