Mastech Digital, Inc. Q3 FY2023 Earnings Call

Greetings, and welcome to the Mastech Digital Q3 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jennifer Ford Lacey, Manager of Legal Affairs for Mastech Digital. Thank you, Ms. Lacey Ford. You may begin.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to Mastech Digital's Third Quarter 2023 Conference Call. If you have not yet received a copy of our earnings announcement, it can be obtained from our website at www.mastechdigital.com. With me on the call today are Vivek Gupta, Mastech Digital's Chief Executive Officer; Jack Cronin, our Chief Financial Officer; and Michael Fleishman, our Chief Executive Officer of the company's Data and Analytics Services business segment. I would like to remind everyone that statements made during this call that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include our financial growth and liquidity projections as well as statements about our plans, strategies, intentions, and beliefs concerning the business, cash flows, costs, and the markets in which we operate. Without limiting the foregoing, the words believes, anticipates, plans, expects, and similar expressions are intended to identify certain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on information currently available to us, and we assume no obligation to update these statements as circumstances change. There are risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including those listed in the company's 2022 annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website at www.sec.gov. Additionally, management has elected to provide certain non-GAAP financial measures to supplement our financial results presented on a GAAP basis. Specifically, we will provide non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share data, which we believe will provide greater transparency with respect to the key metrics used by management in operating the business. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings announcement, which can be obtained from our website at www.mastechdigital.com. As a reminder, we will not be providing guidance during this call nor will we provide guidance in any subsequent one-on-one meetings or calls. I will now turn the call over to Jack for a review of our third quarter 2023 results.

Thanks, Jen, and good morning, everyone. Our third quarter 2023 financial results continued to be impacted by economic uncertainty and our current and prospective clients' responses to these challenging market conditions. Third quarter revenues totaled $47.8 million, representing a 24% year-over-year revenue decline. Both of our business segments contributed to this decline. Our Data and Analytics Services segment reported revenues of $8 million in Q3 2023 compared to $10.1 million in the 2022 third quarter as customers continued to reduce resources on existing projects and order bookings experienced delays in signing new projects during the quarter. Q3 2023 revenues in our IT Staffing Services segment totaled $39.8 million compared to $53.1 million in the third quarter of 2022. Demand continued to be soft in Q3 2023 as our global consultants declined during the quarter, albeit at a slower rate than experienced in the previous two quarters. Consolidated gross profit as a percent of revenues in Q3 2023 improved to 26.3% compared to 25.8% in the third quarter of 2022, resulting in our best gross profit performance over the last five quarters. In our Data and Analytics Services segment, gross profit as a percent of revenue improved significantly over Q3 of 2022. This improvement reflected higher utilization in the 2023 quarter and the impact of a $300,000 project cost overrun in the third quarter of 2022. In our IT Staffing Services segment, gross margins were down 80 basis points compared to the third quarter of 2022, largely due to year-over-year reductions in our direct hire revenues. Generally, contract gross margins held up well when compared to last year despite challenging market conditions. GAAP net income for Q3 2023 was $125,000 or $0.01 per diluted share compared to $2.4 million or $0.20 per diluted share in Q3 2022. Non-GAAP net income for the third quarter of 2023 was $1.3 million or $0.11 per diluted share compared to $4 million or $0.33 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2022. Our third quarter non-GAAP 2023 net income and earnings per diluted share results were in line with last quarter's numbers despite lower revenues. SG&A expense items not included in Q3 2023 non-GAAP financial measures, net of tax benefits or stock-based compensation and the amortization of acquired intangible assets. A description of non-GAAP items for all periods presented is included in our third quarter 2023 earnings release, which is available on our website. Addressing our financial position, on September 30, 2023, we had approximately $16 million of cash balances on hand, no bank debt outstanding and borrowing availability of $25 million under our revolving credit facility. Our days sales outstanding measurement was 55 days at quarter-end, which is much better than our targeted range of 60 to 65 days and one day better than our DSO measurement a quarter ago. I'll now turn the call over to Vivek for his comments.

Thank you, Jack. Good morning, everyone. The same macroeconomic headwinds that we experienced during the first half of 2023 continued to impact our client spending dynamics in the third quarter, resulting in a lower demand for our services. Our IT staffing services segment continued to see clients taking a more conservative approach with respect to spending on new projects and new initiatives. Our Data and Analytics Services segment was also impacted by clients reducing resources on existing projects and delaying project starts on new orders. Michael will discuss our order booking performance and prospects in his prepared remarks. While recent growth in domestic GDP is a positive data point for the US economy, the recent conflict in the Middle East is yet another geopolitical event that has created additional uncertainty in the global economy. We are continuing to aggressively pursue steps to reduce our SG&A expenses as a mitigating action in these uncertain economic conditions. Our operating expenses totaled $12.6 million in the third quarter of 2023, which is a reduction of approximately $800,000 from the previous quarter. Let me reiterate that we believe that our company remains on a sound financial footing with a solid balance sheet, access to $25 million of capital under our credit facility and long-standing relationships with several top companies in the world. I'm confident that both of our businesses will strongly recover when the market conditions improve. Let me now turn the call over to Michael for his comments related to our Data and Analytics Services segment. Over to you, Michael.

Thanks, Vivek, and good morning, everybody. As Vivek mentioned, uncertain economic conditions are clearly impacting our clients' spending behavior as we continue to see clients reducing resources on existing projects. While activity levels in our pipeline of opportunities remained elevated during the third quarter, project award delays resulted in a disappointing bookings performance of $5.1 million in the third quarter as clients and prospects implemented tighter expense controls. There is a bit of good news, however, since two sizable projects that were scheduled to commence in Q3 2023 as well as various additional smaller Q3 projects, all of which total approximately $3.5 million have been awarded in October of 2023. Behind our financial numbers, we believe we are making good progress in transforming our organization from a master data management firm to a much broader data and analytics company with capabilities around the entire suite of data modernization services. In this regard, our pipeline of opportunities continues to broaden with data modernization assignments constituting a higher percentage of our 2023 bookings and pipeline versus master data management when compared year-over-year. Also, in the third quarter of 2023, we continued to expand our gross margins to 45.8%, which increased 620 basis points over Q3 2022 gross margins. We believe a predictable utilization rate is a key component to our gross margin improvement in 2023 and is a point of emphasis by our delivery teams. This emphasis, coupled with tighter execution processes on our delivery are giving rise to increased margins year-over-year. In closing, I would like to say that I agree 100% with Vivek's belief that our financial foundation is strong and that both of our business segments are poised for growth once more clarity in the global economy occurs. I'll now turn the call back over to Vivek.

Thank you, Michael. Operator, this concludes our prepared remarks. We can take questions now.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Lisa Thompson with Zacks Investment Research. Please proceed with your question.

Good morning.

Hi, Lisa.

So I have a few questions. First off, did you buy back any stock this quarter?

We did not. Jack, can you comment on this?

Sure. We extended our blackout period for the third quarter because we had an outstanding employment claim that was settled during that time, and we did not buy shares while the negotiation was ongoing. However, we believe our share price represents a great value compared to the business's intrinsic potential, and you can expect us to buy shares in the fourth quarter.

All right. Sounds good. Which leads to the second question. What happened with the claim? Why is it still on the balance sheet? Will you receive payment for that? How is that working?

The claim has been settled through a confidential agreement with the economic terms and conditions we reported in the second quarter. If you check the balance sheet, you'll notice we still anticipate receiving $2.2 million in insurance recovery within the next 30 days, which will provide additional cash flow for us. The agreement is finalized and settled.

Okay. Good. What expenses did you incur in the quarter related to that, aside from the actual payment, such as legal fees?

For the claim, we were fully reserved in the second quarter. We did have a couple of hundred thousand dollars of legal expense. But as far as the claim that was all reserved in Q2 of 2023.

Okay. So that maybe I could take $200,000 off next quarter's expenses because of the lawyers.

Yes. Yes.

Okay. Okay. All right. That's good stuff. And then as far as the contracts that you signed in Data and Analytics, you said $3.5 million, I guess that's a one-year contract. Is that additional revenue going to just replace what you're losing or is that going to be adding to revenue sequentially?

Vivek, if that's okay with you, I'll take that one.

Yeah, I was going to pass it on to you anyway. Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you, Lisa, for the great questions. The $3.5 million includes a mix of one-year contracts and a few multiyear agreements. There are several contracts contributing to that total, with two of them being significant, each over $1 million. One of these larger contracts was a new logo, which I can't name, but it generated over $1 million and is for one year, meaning we will recognize all that revenue in 2024. Since it's a new logo, it represents net new revenue, rather than just continued revenue. Additionally, one of the other large contracts was a multiyear renewal, and while that revenue will continue, we believe there is growth potential with that account. The remaining contracts are either completely new or expansions on existing accounts. Does that answer your question?

Except for the part where I asked, would that mean that you'll have sequentially increasing revenues, netting all that out?

With all of them except for one, for those deals that closed because one of them was a linear renewal. So the revenue will be flat year-on-year for that one opportunity that closed. All of the other opportunities that closed in October were sequential growth for 2024 or for 2023.

Okay. And they would compensate for anything you might have lost? Right?

Yes. Yes. That is correct. Yes, that is a correct statement.

Okay. All right. Good. That’s a great sign. Thank you. That’s all the questions I have.

Thank you, Lisa.

Our next question comes from Marc Riddick with Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead with your question.

Hey, good morning everyone. I wanted to just start maybe if you can bring us up to date on just a couple of things to fill in on. Where did we finish on the quarter on headcount and maybe you could give us a utilization update?

Sure. Sure, Mark. Again, for that number, I'll ask Jack to answer the headcount?

Yeah. The staffing billable consultant and that's a number that we publish in the Q every quarter, it was 992 billable consultants. And that was down 49 consultants from the previous quarter. Well, I don't want to say the previous quarter. From the beginning of the third quarter. But that loss was materially better than what we experienced in Q1 and Q2 of 2023. So there is some hope and improvement in that number.

Okay. And then could you share anything on utilization and maybe bill rates as well?

Our bill rate in staffing has remained relatively stable compared to the last quarter, just above $80 per hour, and it is nearly unchanged from the second quarter. Utilization is crucial for data and analytics. In staffing, the model is generally to pay per hour and bill per hour, making utilization less significant in that sector. However, our margins in the data and analytics business have significantly improved, largely due to better utilization. I believe we reached nearly 80% utilization in the third quarter of 2023.

So yes, that is correct. Our utilization has continued to be a very heavy focus for us in 2023. Our utilization has improved right around 17% since January of this year through October end. We have a forecast target for the year of about 75% utilization for the year is our current target with a pretty decent level of confidence.

That's helpful. Thank you. I would like you to elaborate on the efforts to reduce SG&A and provide more details on these initiatives, including any potential timing for when we might see them. Thank you.

Sure Marc. So actually, controlling the SG&A is really back to the basics. And looking at every line item in the SG&A to see if we can eliminate or defer spend and the obvious target is the discretionary spend in this. So we've looked at that and we've been doing this every quarter. In fact, this is probably the third quarter in a row that we've been looking at that and seeing how we can sharpen it. And we have done a pretty decent job there. We've deferred merit increases; we had frozen almost all hiring, barring the exceptional one, which is needed from time to time. We have actually eliminated a lot of our non-performers or low performers, controlled travel, renegotiated contracts with some of our suppliers, eliminated internal company events. And then bonus and commission accruals have also come down. So it's a lot of that and diligently looking at every element on a continuous basis, and we've come to this point as a result of that focus.

Okay. Thank you. And I was wondering if you could share if you had any thoughts on any particular call-outs among your customer base, whether there's any particular industry verticals that are maybe showing better signs of improvement than others? Or are there any particular things that we should be thinking about as far as like any differentiated behavior among customer bases? Thank you.

That's a great question, Marc. We continuously examine all industry sectors to identify any emerging trends. Our main goal is to see how we can take advantage of any opportunities. However, at this moment, most industry sectors appear to be quite balanced. The Financial Services sector, in particular, has been more affected than others, leading to a slight reduction in our revenue concentration from that area. While it's unfortunate when any sector declines, it has the benefit of diversifying our revenue sources. Currently, the only positive indicator I can share is that after 15 months of continual loss in our billable headcount, we experienced a stable October. For the first time, we did not experience any net loss of billable consultants, and we even saw a small increase. While one month doesn't establish a trend, we are encouraged by this positive development and the slight rise in demand, and we will see how the rest of the quarter unfolds.

In the third quarter, we saw a positive trend compared to the first half of the year, where we experienced significant declines in our global headcount, particularly in financial services. Many of our clients in that sector were either ending projects or delaying the start of new ones, likely due to some banking issues earlier in the year. However, during the third quarter, while there was still a net decline in financial services headcount, it was not as severe as before. This improvement contributed to a noteworthy reduction in our overall headcount loss compared to the previous two quarters.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you, Marc.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ross Davison with Battenton Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, good morning. I have a question for Michael. The bookings in Q3 were significantly lower than in Q2. Even with the $3.5 million booked after the quarter ended, it seems you're still down sequentially. Could you share your insights on this decline and what gives you confidence about the future?

Sure. Thanks, Ross. As we're making this transformation this year and to focusing on more data modernization services versus a very siloed MDM business, which is traditionally what we've been focusing on we are building and creating pipeline almost from scratch. And in our business with a nine-month sales cycle, it takes average 9 to 12 months to build up that pipeline. The weakness that we saw in our bookings was for two primary reasons. One, as I mentioned before, due to some increased economic constraints that customers have applied to their approval processes internally on contract signatures on deals that are in excess of $500,000 we had several deals slip, not all of which closed in October. The other reason is, to be perfectly blunt with you, is we didn't have enough pipeline because we're still building that pipeline from a data modernization perspective, which is why when the deal slipped out, we had weakness or you saw weakness in our Q3 bookings performance. The good news is, as I mentioned before, approximately $3.5 million have already closed in October. That does not represent all of the deals that slipped into Q4 from Q3. And we continue to see growth in our pipeline around data modernization services, as I also mentioned in my prepared remarks. Does that answer your question?

It's very helpful. Regarding MDM, is that business experiencing a decline? I understand that you are expanding your focus, which makes sense. With your existing business, is it decreasing at a more significant rate? Do you think this is mainly due to the current economic situation, or is there another factor at play?

I don’t believe it’s declining at a rapid pace at all. In fact, I don’t see it falling off. The challenge with concentrating solely on MDM is that the overall digital transformation market is much larger, expected to exceed $3 trillion by 2026, and MDM makes up a very small portion of that spending. While MDM isn’t decreasing, we’ve pretty much reached saturation in that market with our current customers. Additionally, we are expanding our partnerships within the MDM space. While we have a strong partnership with IBM, we are also forging new relationships with companies like Informatica and Reltio, among others, and enhancing our capabilities in data modernization. We’re not abandoning MDM; we are also committed to growing that area.

Got it. Okay. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it.

No worries.

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Gupta for closing comments.

Thank you, operator. So if there are no further questions, I would like to thank you for joining our call today, and we look forward to sharing our fourth quarter 2023 results with you in early February. Thank you.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.