OptimizeRx Corporation

Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call

5/10/2023

spk01: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining OptimizeRx's first quarter fiscal 2023 earnings discussion. With us today is the Chief Executive Officer of OptimizeRx, Will Feble. He is joined by Company Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Ed Stelmack, Chief Commercial Officer, Steve Silvestro, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Marion Odins-Ford, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance, Andrew DeSilva. At the conclusion of today's earnings call, some important cautions regarding the forward-looking statements made by management during today's call will be provided. I would like to remind everyone that today's call is being recorded and will be made available for replay via webcast only. Instructions are included in today's press release and in the investors section of the company's website. In addition, management will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures today that they believe aid in the understanding of the company's financial results. A reconciliation to comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in today's press release. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to OptimizeRx CEO, Will Febo. Sir, please go ahead.
spk07: Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter fiscal 2023 earnings call. Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations and revenue came in at $13 million, which was at the top end of our Q1 revenue guidance range of $11.5 million to $13 million. As a result, we are maintaining our full year revenue outlook, which calls for our top line to increase at least 10% year over year. We believe executing against our guidance will also result in year over year improvements to our KPIs by the end of 2023. While the macro environment hasn't fully normalized, the industry trough appears to be behind us now, and we continue to return to normalcy. This is the case despite the banking crisis that began to emerge at the end of Q1, and while there was some short-term disruption with our customer base as top-down focus moved towards understanding the potential macro overhang, that was short-lived. and by early in the second quarter, pharma gained comfort by the resolutions that were implemented to address the fallout. We are seeing modest improvements to tactical sales, which, if you recall, was the portion of our business that was most impacted by the transitory macro headwinds we've discussed. We expect this part of our business to continue to improve as the macros work themselves out and believe our reach, focus on accessing physicians across multiple landing pads, and ability to efficiently scale while being able to report back data provides us with a significant competitive edge. More importantly, our AI-driven world world data or RWD AI offering continues to gain momentum and we are in late stage discussions for multiple deals and continue to believe revenue from this solution will increase at least 100% year over year and approach 20% of our total revenue for 2023. Our RWD AI pipeline is comprised of dozens of deals with a significant focus on the top 200 brands. We view the progress and the types of discussions we're in as extremely positive for our growth, not just in 2023, but in the coming years as well. We believe this momentum is keeping us ahead of the pack as there are no other AI-driven in-workflow messaging solutions in the market. I'm extremely proud of our RWDAI solutions as it truly showcases our ability to innovate and effectively differentiate ourselves while driving actionable insights and better outcomes for pharma, HCPs, and patients. We are now in our second full year of having RWDAI solution in the market and have seen several examples of significant expansion and growth. For example, one client scaled from pilot to now several live programs, representing our largest multi-year expansion to date of over 5 million. This expansion was unique in that it represented extending our solutions in three dimensions, disease, channel reach, and message type. Very exciting. Operationally, our technology investments, partnerships, and tuck-in acquisitions have created a robust single-shop, omni-channel offering which has the ability to drive communications across multiple landing pads and is resulting in superior ROIs for the brands that we serve. We've also made tremendous progress in building on our industry reputation and expanding awareness of our solutions. Recall, part of what makes our business model special is the fact that we continue to manage the largest in-workflow point-of-care network in the United States, and are able to deliver digital solutions via the connectivity to prescribers. To complement this, we have been expanding service offerings outside of the EHR, which we believe will result in us capturing a greater portion of the available industry white space in the coming quarters and years. Pharma is moving a greater portion of their more than $10 billion digital commercial spend towards omni-channel solutions. While looking for these solutions to deliver more impactful results, by not only identifying patients known to HCPs, but also pinpointing new patients for their therapy. We believe this bodes well for RWDAI, as smarter solutions are what pharma is looking for as they continue to reallocate legacy commercial dollars to digital. We believe early proof of this trend is clearly highlighted by the momentum we are seeing with RWDAI, despite it being a newer offering with a higher price tag. RWDAI has the added benefit of moving us from a tactical player with pharma to a bigger strategic partner where we can benefit from a top-down push by decision makers while obtaining stickier revenue streams with stronger margins and a greater overall growth potential. As we mentioned in our last call, activity and outcome transparency requirements are continuing to gain importance at a rapid clip and is an area in which we will be investing this year. We view pharma's focus on relevant insights very positively, as it shows they are getting more serious within our space and are looking to quickly weed out vendors with limited scale, as well as spray and pray campaigns. In fact, we believe these capabilities will increase our market share and TAM, as we are the only platform that has integrated physician-level engagement data across EHRs, display, and social media. which provides a significant advantage over guiding engagement programs across multiple landing pads. By our estimates, the deeper insights that come from physician-level data reporting will be the new normal for our space. Moreover, the level of insights that can be derived from digital campaigns today is something that was previously unattainable, which is why pharma is embracing reporting in order to quickly catch up with the transformational best practices. And every day, we are witnessing the influence of insights from physician-level data reporting affect additional investment spend of our customers. This new motivation to invest in a clear sign that pharma is taking digital health more and more seriously and is looking to establish standards as they continue to scale up investments in this space. Later this year, we expect to have completed an enhancement of our platform that allows for smart targeting, through the use of AI on all programs, further enabling our customers' ability to effectively and efficiently utilize more landing pads and generate stronger ROIs. This will further strengthen our platform, which, when coupled with our reach, capabilities, and the over 10 to 1 ROI our customers obtain against their marketing spend, creates a significant moat for our business. During the quarter, we closed a multimillion-dollar three-year agreement with a leading hub service company. Thus far, this is the largest deal of its kind for us and is tied to last year's acquisition of EventsMed. The engagement is focused on determining drug eligibility and affordability and will help accelerate access to coverage and affordability information for a pharma-sponsored patient support program. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO and COO, Ed Stalmach, who will walk us through the financial details for Q1.
spk09: Ed?
spk05: Thanks, Will, and good afternoon, everyone. As with all our calls, a press release was issued with results of our first quarter ended March 31, 2023. A copy is available for viewing and may be downloaded from the investor relations section of our website. And additional information can be obtained through our forthcoming 10Q, which will be filed in the coming days. Turning to our financial results for the period, our revenue for the quarter was $13 million, a slight decrease from $13.7 million to recognize during the same period in 2022. The decrease in Q1 year-on-year revenues was due to the macro headwinds we have been communicating since they started to hold in Q2 2022. Meanwhile, our gross margin decreased slightly from 59% in the quarter ended March 31st, 2022, to 57.2% in quarter ended March 31st, 2023, slightly below the lower end of our annual gross margin range. The decrease was due to solution and channel partner mix. We continue to expect gross margin to come in between 58 and 62% in 2023. Our operating expenses increased from 11.9 million for the three months ended March 31st, 2022, to $14.5 million for the same period in 2023, an increase of 22%. Nearly 50% of the increase was tied to higher stock-based compensation, and the remaining increase was primarily due to the full-year impact of a few 2022 hires and the investment acquisition combined with annual merit increases and normalized bonus payouts for the year. We had a net loss of $6.4 million, or $0.37 per basic and fully diluted share. The three months ended March 31, 2023, as compared to a net loss of $3.8 million during the same period in 2022. On a non-GAAP basis, net loss for the first quarter of 2023 was $1.6 million, or $0.09 per basic and fully diluted shares outstanding. As compared to a non-GAAP net loss, of $0.1 million, or $0.01 per basic and fully diluted share, in the same year-ago period. Operating cash flow was virtually breakeven, and an immaterial loss of $86,000 during a quarter, which was largely due to the timing of upfront payments, to fund investments in our growing capabilities and expanded access. Our balance sheet remained strong with cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaling $73.7 million on March 31, 2023, compared to $74.1 million in December 31, 2022. We are well capitalized to execute against our organic growth strategy and believe our balance sheet positions us to further expand our business solution offerings and drive profitable growth. We're also continuously evaluating M&A opportunities that fit within our strategic priorities, at more attractive valuations when compared to last year. In terms of our revenue outlook for the full year 2023, the company continues to expect revenue to increase at least 10% year over year. Now, let's turn to our KPIs for the first quarter of 2023. Our average revenue per top 20 pharmaceutical manufacturer now stands at $2 million as of the first quarter of 2023. and we are working with 18 of the top 20 largest pharma companies in the world and 100% of the top 20 that don't have the majority of their sales tied to COVID-19 vaccines. As a former pharma executive, I believe that this segment of the industry represents the largest opportunity for commercial digital solutions, and we continue to have a solid presence in this space. Our net revenue retention rate declined to 86% due to the macroeconomic factors and the resulting impact of several client programs that we discussed in our prior calls. Revenues per FTE held steady at $605,000 and in line with what we reported last quarter. As a reminder, our KPIs are calculated on a 12-month rolling basis and are impacted by the dynamics of the headwind from the previous year. If these headwinds subside, we expect our KPIs to show improvement. And now with that, I would like to turn the call back over to Will. Will?
spk09: Thanks, Ed.
spk07: Operator, now let's move to Q&A.
spk01: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star, followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift your hands up before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Ryan Daniels with William Blair. Please go ahead.
spk00: Hey, good afternoon. This is Jared Haasen for Ryan. Thanks for taking our questions. The first one from us, we were just hoping to get some color regarding the state of financial assistance programs in pharma. There was a recent report highlighting some of the tension between pharma and payers and maybe some manufacturers starting to pull back these programs, which obviously can have an impact on patient access. So just curious if you could speak a little bit to what you're seeing in the market overall. And then I guess just as a related point, could you maybe tie in sort of what percentage of your revenue comes from these programs today?
spk07: Yeah. Hey, Jared, it's Will. Good to hear your voice. And I'll hand it over to Ed in a second. We don't break out revenue by solution because we're really moving towards that enterprise approach where it's multiple solutions and multiple pieces and they all have a relevant play in the patient journey. So not going to break that out, but it's not a material percentage of our business. It hasn't been. We've spoken to that over the last few years. It's just a piece of the business that's important. And basically making affordability accessible will always be important. I think where it's heading is it's going to become more specific to specialty medications, where it really has the largest impact for the patient and the HCP to have a patient who's adherent. But let me hand it over to Ed, and then maybe Steve can kick into it.
spk05: Yeah, thanks, Will. Jerry, great question. Yeah, so I would agree with what Will just said. Financial messaging has been a declining slice of the overall pie for us for a while. But I think these trends driven by pharma trying to be much more targeted in financial messaging specifically due to the fact that co-pay programs just need to be a lot more, again, a lot more targeted. It really bodes well for our RWE and AI solution mix that really kind of helps us identify the right types of patients at the right time at the point of care. I don't know if, Steve, anything else you want to add to that?
spk10: Yeah, I mean, I would just say it's consistent also with the shift from sort of small molecule drugs in the marketplace to sort of those massive name brands, household brands, to the shift to specialty. You've got that exchange from volume to value occurring. And consistent with that, the financial assistance programs need to evolve. So whether or not there was friction between payers and pharma, that friction has always existed. But just the general dynamics in the marketplace and the ecosystem changing from, you know, small molecule to more biologics and specific, as Ed highlighted, would necessitate the change in copay programs or financial assistance anyway. So it's, as Ed said, I think it's a net benefit to us, given our focus on our technology with RWDAI, we're positioned really well to capitalize on that. So great, great question. Thank you.
spk00: got it yeah that makes sense and yeah i can appreciate the ability to target uh is certainly a differentiator um so i i guess just as a follow-up here will i think you alluded to the sort of tactical sales that being kind of the the area of the business that's been most impacted by these transitory headwinds i'm wondering how quickly can those sales come back i mean do you feel like these budgets are largely set for the year at this point or do you think if we get you know maybe a little bit more stability that those types of things can maybe swing back in the second half of the year?
spk07: Yeah, absolutely. So on the tactical side, it is the one that can be dialed up and down the fastest, right? They're largely going through media companies who are managing those budgets for pharma. Good news is we've worked with, you know, over 50 agencies. We've worked with obviously a lot of brands over the last year. So as the macro does get better, that's the one they will dial up the fastest. So, yeah, we're not calling that call yet, but that is the one that would be dialed up in the second half. The good news is we're just seeing improvement in the first half. And I think that's largely due to some efforts we made last year to really double down on marketing and education of what we're doing with the agencies and really being a partner that helps them differentiate with pharma. And we're seeing very good early signs of that.
spk09: So I'm still hopeful for the second half.
spk08: Okay, great. Appreciate all the color. Thanks. Thank you.
spk01: Your next question comes from Sean Dodge with RBC. Please go ahead.
spk11: Thanks. Maybe we'll just stay on tactical for a moment. Your comments are around that improving. Is there anything you can share to give us a sense of the magnitude of change there? Maybe like pipeline for tactical, I guess, you know, compared to Q4, how much is that? Um, I don't know, progressed or, or, or grown.
spk07: Well, Ed would get mad at me if I stray from our KPIs. So I'm not going to give you a pipeline numbers, you know, be stronger than I am. But, um, but the, um, but we, but we are seeing, you know, mark to mark year over year, a year to date over a year, you're just more active business already. And Sean, you know, we've talked about this. We really doubled down probably August, September last year around training, marketing, holding events, speaking at conferences. And that brought a lot of awareness up for within the agency sector. So I think that, you know, they're all catching up, pharma's catching up to digital. And I think we've supplied a really clear message of what we can enable and and in helping our clients find patients through HCP access and drive, you know, script lift and ROI.
spk11: Okay, great. And then on the guidance, it continues to imply a pretty steep revenue ramp into the back half of the year. Maybe is there any update you can share on visibility you have into that? You know, I guess as we progress deeper into the year, I'd imagine a greater proportion of that's now visible kind of via being under contract. Anything you can kind of share, quantify for us there?
spk05: Sure. Ed, do you want to start? I can take that. Yes, sure. Yeah, so, hey, Sean, how are you? So right now, basically, we would typically see between, I would say, 55% to 70% of our backlog already signed and committed. And we're tracking well within that range. So that gives us a nice kind of view on the back half of the year from what we see today. So, you know, we really feel like it's a pretty healthy backlog and looks pretty solid to at least meet our current guidance.
spk11: Okay. The six RWDD deals you all signed thus far, are those all up and running now, or is there some expectation that those will begin to flow in Q2 and beyond that kind of help when we think about, like, you know, the incremental kind of revenue cadence over the year?
spk07: Yeah, they are all active now. And, you know, I think a key piece of the second half being heavier or at least reliant on growth there is this time last year, we didn't really have a pipeline for RWDAI. And we have a very robust pipeline right now in that. So that's a, you know, we've talked about it as a growth driver, but that's what gives us even more confidence on the second half. Um, And then the seasonality, Sean, as you know, that's a, it's typical that second half is higher anyway, but yeah, this year there's a little bit more reliance on the pop then.
spk09: Okay. Perfect. Thanks again. Thanks, Sean. See you next week.
spk01: Your next question comes from Stephanie Davis with SBB. Please go ahead.
spk04: Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. First, I just, I know we've asked a lot of questions about the market, but one of your peers has called out some pipeline elongation across large pharma clients. So I was hoping we can get your view and your take on why some of this is happening beyond the macro.
spk07: Sure. Well, Steve is in the thick of it. I'll let him talk to sales cycle and elongation.
spk10: Hey, Stephanie. Good to hear from you. Thanks for the question. So, I mean, I think what we saw there was a little bit of this sort of pause with the financial situation that went on a little bit in the first quarter, frankly, sort of waiting to see what was going on. What we've seen post that is actually an acceleration on the pipeline. So we're seeing close time shrink at this point and marketing teams scrambling to try to get programs live faster. And that pause is sort of relinquished. So we're kind of thrilled to see that. We're waiting to see what the actual shakeout will look like here post Q2 in terms of sales cycles again, but we're already back in line with what our typical sales cycle looks like. And so I don't have any reason to believe at this point that there'll be disruption in that. In fact, the sales cycle on some of our more sort of sophisticated targeting products is also starting to shorten as people are kind of scrambling to catch up. A very interesting dynamic. Good, great, good question.
spk04: So if you're seeing the backdrop a little bit better, and you've announced a giant buyback authorization to IntraQuarter, why are we not seeing you buy shares hand over fist?
spk07: Well, there are these things called blackout periods. We have to follow the rules. So we obviously believe in our stock, and we have one authorized, and when we can, we will. But then it's large, right? Yeah, absolutely big believer. Yeah, but we were in a blackout period when we actually announced that. We have five days a quarter, as you know, and that was announced after that. I would just add, Stephanie, that I think the sales cycle for peers, as they also are shifting to bigger enterprise deals, there's just more decision makers. That's one aspect of it. The other thing is When you're doing something that may be close to another company that's claiming they can do it, well, pharma wants to see if that's true. And so sometimes that slows them down to test it. We certainly saw that last year. We talked about it. It's a cluttered market landscape. And as Steve said, and we believe that's going to declutter pretty quickly because if you can't measure it and you can't present it transparently and show effectiveness, you're going to fade pretty quickly.
spk08: Thank you. Sure.
spk01: Your next question comes from David Grossman with Stifel. Please go ahead.
spk06: Thank you. You know, I just wanted to go back to a couple of comments you made in your prepared remarks. And one of those was that you said you were beginning to expand more aggressively outside the EHR. And I'm wondering, could you just elaborate, you know, on what you're doing and strategically what you're trying to accomplish?
spk07: Absolutely. Hey, Dave, it's Will. So when you think about where we are within our client base and how we track to the patient journey and helping them stay connected to that patient journey via HCP access, you know, doctors are not just on their EHR all day, right? They're on their cell phones. They're in, you know, care team technology meetings. There's a lot of different touch points. They're using telehealth depending on the therapeutic area. So from our perspective, because we're a tech company and we know how to API really well, it makes sense to go beyond the EHR as a landing pad. And so when we sit down with our clients, we can show them a much more holistic plan around HCP access. And the key piece to this is you have to do all that while being transparent on position level data. So, Steve, maybe you want to add to that a little bit, but I think that's the rationale, and early signs is it's a pretty good strategy. Clients are responding pretty well to that.
spk10: I mean, hey, David, I think you highlighted it well. I mean, you know, it's essentially meeting the physicians where they're at, and, you know, the key differentiating point for us is the ability to report back physician-level data in terms of those interactions. So, unlike sort of general as endemic website advertisements, the ability to provide back PLD and show at a physician level what's going on, I think is going to be the key differentiator for us. And as you heard from Will, it's not just in the EHR that we can do that, but it's every other platform that we're looking at or making that a focal point. So it's going to give us a key differentiating point from anybody in our peer set, frankly.
spk06: Right. You know, one thing that's come up, I think, in the digital ad space, at least, or, you know, media buying and all those things is the potential impact, you know, of generative AI. And I know this is a big buzzword kind of media thing going on right now. But that being said, I'm just wondering if, you know, how much you've thought about the impact on your business and how it can help you and where it could potentially hurt you, you know, if others, you know, kind of get into it before you.
spk07: Yeah, it's interesting. We obviously, like everyone, is watching that, but the truth is we've been doing machine learning for the last two and a half years. That's RWDAI, right? So we have that implemented active. We have revenue against it in the pipeline. So it's not a dream we're hoping that someday makes our company more efficient. It already has. And And I think you heard in the prepared remarks that we're going to have our platform to a place where we can enable that service for any brand, any size campaign for the entire network. And that's material because if you think of this space, like all marketing, it gets more and more transparent, sophisticated. And to avoid commoditization, you need to make it better. You need to innovate. And so we've really doubled down in that over the last couple of years. And I think that's going to be something that people really remember this company for. I think we're way ahead of the pack. And I spent two days last week with our team of data scientists, and I can tell you it's very much in the DNA of the company already. So I obviously have seen other companies looking at it, using it from anywhere from note, you know, simplifying note taking to, you know, clinical decision support. These things have been in the workflow for a while, and they're going to get better faster. And the reason why we're watching it but not totally paranoid that someone could come in who's faster, smarter, smaller, whatever, is they're not in the workflow. And as we talked about, the EHRs are already full with people there and aren't really looking for more. So I think we're in a good place to be their partner with this. and just deliver great innovative solutions to the doctor and the patient.
spk06: But have the use cases for the RWE products, if you look back to the first couple of deals you signed a year ago or so and what you're doing now, has there been any big change?
spk09: They're unbelievably effective.
spk07: It's like we're finding patients that our clients otherwise wouldn't find who need the medications that are out there. So it's impactful for outcomes, it's impactful for the patient, the doctor, and obviously for our clients. So yeah, there's some, it's really, it's actually really firing us up because it's a smarter message and it's based on some good intel we have, patent pending, we're really focused on building that out And I think we'll have more and more cases to share. But in the prepared remarks, we certainly talk to one.
spk06: Right. And just one financial question, maybe for Ed. It looks like stock-based comps stayed relatively flat, but your gap operating expenses sequentially, I think, went up, you know, quite more than we would have expected. So I'm just trying to think through, given what's going on with the top line, you know, what's going on in the operating expenses. Maybe these are expenses that are just fixed costs, but I was just surprised at how much the expenses went up sequentially.
spk09: Yeah.
spk05: Yeah, so when Apex said, if you just look at the cash comp, a few things at play. First of all, you're right, compensation has gone up, and that's really a product of a couple of things. Merit increases, we made very few hires last year. We also reset our bonuses for this year. You know, as you know, last year we missed our numbers, so we didn't have to pay out full bonuses, but that's just a reset of bonuses for this year, back to 100%. And then secondly, it's really the investment related to expansion of our channel footprint, as well as some of the reporting capabilities that Wolf had mentioned. So I would say if you look at APEX run rate, You can expect a slight increase in subsequent quarters, not in the millions, more in hundreds of thousands of dollars per quarter, just, you know, to continue to capture those points I just made.
spk09: So you would expect sequential increases to balance the year? Yes. I also expect growth in the top line. Right. Very good. All right. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Yep.
spk01: Your next question comes from Neil Chitarji with B. Reilly. Please go ahead.
spk09: Hey, guys. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking the questions. Maybe just first, I'm just curious if you could just give us maybe more color on that, I guess, the smart targeting enhancement you were talking about for the platform.
spk07: Well, so we've been talking about RWDAI for a while. Why don't I let Steve, why don't you give us just a quick overview of, you know, really the simple message to why this works for, you know, doctors, clients, and patients.
spk10: Yeah, happy to. Hey, Neil. I mean, essentially what we're doing is we, that allows us to look at it for individual patient profiles across the ecosystem of patients in the U.S. So we have an intake function for data. a machine learning platform that enables us to clearly interrogate that data and identify potential candidates for a specific therapy. And then we have an execution function to go out and take an action with an HCP regarding the patient panel that they've got. And so I think that's one of the key differentiators for this business deal is you've got businesses out there that are analytics businesses, you've got data businesses. and you have other businesses that execute, but this business is unique in that it's got all three of those components now solely connected together to be able to go out, find, identify, execute, you know, and pull through. And that's the key differentiator. I think that's the simplest way I could really describe it. And that's why it's so effective, right? Because you've just got this linear plugin that's very efficient and can scale.
spk09: Got it. Okay, I might have misinterpreted that. There's not something new for later this year. No, it's just – that's right. Go ahead, Steve.
spk08: No, go ahead, Will.
spk07: I was just going to say it's just expanding it to be available to our entire network for all brands that we work with. So just a more sophisticated trigger mechanism, which gives better targeting and better ROI.
spk09: Great, great. Thanks for that clarification. And then just another just follow-up here, just on the hub service agreement that you got, just curious on the kind of the expected impact on that.
spk07: Yeah, it's about a million a year spread out pretty evenly through each year. And that's one brand, one hub. And so, you know, it's pretty easy to see how that could scale pretty nicely. And we're proud of that. It's a good, it's a good win. The team did a great job. And it's, it's we've got a solution that can really help the hubs and therefore, you know, the patient and those programs are, you know, patient assistance programs around eligibility and affordability. So it's a, it's right place, right time, but you know, we, We got into it early enough to have it ready. So we're very excited about that. We'll keep everyone posted on others that we're able to bring across the line.
spk03: Great. Thanks. That's it for me.
spk09: Thanks, Neil.
spk01: Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star followed by the one. Your next question comes from Max Michaels with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. I know last quarter conference call, you had mentioned that you weren't seeing any major investments in the first half of the year. I'm wondering now that we approach the midpoint of 2023, if that thought process has changed at all.
spk07: That's what do you mean investments from the client's perspective or investments from?
spk02: I mean, with a healthy balance sheet, it could be, technology improvement, M&A, if you're seeing anything out in the market. It's just more broader investment, I guess.
spk07: Yeah, sure. So as Ed said, we're very actively looking at M&A targets. We think, you know, through this year, valuations will be more achievable for someone in our size and situation. Obviously, we'll be highly selective in that process, but have several really great active discussions going on. We're investing in ourselves. We're really good at that. We've got unbelievably good ROI when we invest in ourselves, probably our best ROI to date. So we continue to invest in reporting, in, you know, best-in-class technology, and then obviously solution expansion. And if you think of, you know, Max, our growth drivers, it's land and expand with the client. It's add additional solutions or improve them so we can maintain price or improve price. and then reach more physicians or patients wherever they are. So we're investing in all three of those.
spk09: All right. That's it for me, guys. Thanks. Thank you. Have a good night.
spk01: There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.
spk09: Thanks, operator.
spk07: Once again, thank you, everyone, for joining us on our updated call this afternoon. We continue to work through the opportunities before us with the expectation that growth will come in the coming quarters. We are maintaining our focus on product execution to continue to deliver superior ROIs on behalf of our customers, which has and will continue to pay dividends as we execute against the opportunity within the vast white space that we continue to sell into. Our valuation doesn't effectively represent the current value of our company, and I believe we can provide venture-type returns off our current trading price as we execute against the opportunity at hand. As a result, we intend to set up our trading plan for our recently authorized share repurchase program once our next trading window opens. I want to remind everyone of our key strengths, which we expect will continue to propel OPRX's story in 23 and beyond. We have the largest in-workflow network in the U.S. that reaches more than 60% of the active prescribers. Our landing pads outside the EHR substantially increase our prescriber reach and enables us to build cutting-edge solutions. Finally, our AI enablement, which identifies HCPs whose patients are most in need of our customers' resources and therapies, is catching a toehold and we believe favorably positions us to grow for the foreseeable future. We are firmly positioned to execute against our 23 financial and operational goals and which we believe will be bolstered by our strong balance sheet, which is something I'm very proud of given the current capital markets backdrop. As such, we look forward to making a positive impact across our pharma, prescriber, and patient stakeholder base for years to come. Thanks again for joining us on our call today, and we look forward to everyone joining us at the upcoming conferences and our next earnings call. Operator?
spk01: Thank you, sir. Before we conclude today's call, I would like to provide the company's safe harbor statement that includes important cautions regarding forward-looking statements made during today's call. Statements made by management during today's call may contain forward-looking statements within the definition of Section 27A in the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934 as amended. These forward-looking statements should not be used to make investment decisions. The words anticipate, estimate, expect, possible, and seeking and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. They may speak only to the date that such statements are made. Such forward-looking statements in this call include statements regarding estimation of total addressable market size, market penetration, revenue growth, gross margin, operating expenses, profitability, cash flow, technology investments, growth opportunities, acquisitions, and upcoming announcements. They also include the management expectations for the rest of the year. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. some of which cannot be predicted or quantified. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying these forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties to which forward-looking statements are subject to include, but are not limited to, the effects of government regulation, competition, and other material risks. Risks and uncertainties to which forward-looking statements are subject to could affect business and financial results are included in the company's annual report on the Form 10-K for the quarter ended December 31, 2022. This form is available on the company's website and on the SEC website at sec.gov. Before we end today's conference, I would like to remind everyone that this call will be available for replay via webcast only starting later this evening, running through for a year. Please refer to today's press release for replay instructions available via the company's website at www.optimizerx.com. Thank you for joining us today. This concludes your conference call. You may now disconnect your lines.
spk08: The conference is no longer being recorded
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