Spok Holdings, Inc.NASDAQ: SPOK

Spok Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results

Strong Q4 Software Operations Bookings Drive More Than 13%Year-Over-Year Growth

Year-End Software Backlog Up Nearly 22% From Prior Year

PLANO, Texas, February 26, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK), a global leader in healthcare communications, today announced results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2024. In addition, the Company’s Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per share, payable on March 31, 2025, to stockholders of record on March 14, 2025.

Recent Highlights:

  • Software operations bookings totaled $7.1 million in the fourth quarter, up 73.2% from the fourth quarter of 2023, driving total 2024 software operations bookings of $34.1 million, up 13.2% from the prior year

  • Fourth quarter software operations bookings included 20 six and seven-figure customer contracts, up from the amount generated in the prior year quarter

  • Software backlog totaled $62.4 million at December 31, 2024, up nearly 22% from the prior year

  • Fourth quarter 2024 Wireless average revenue per unit (ARPU) was $8.16, up more than 4% on a year-over-year basis

  • Capital returned to stockholders in the fourth quarter of 2024 totaled $6.3 million and $26.4 million for the full year 2024

  • Cash and cash equivalents increased by an additional $1.3 million in the fourth quarter, resulting in a total cash and cash equivalents balance of $29.1 million at December 31, 2024

  • Research and development costs totaled $11.5 million in 2024, supporting Spok's investment in the Company's industry-leading solutions to fuel future growth

"I am proud of the very strong finish to 2024 that our team was able to deliver in the fourth quarter and their continued dedication to Spok's mission to grow software revenue, generate cash flow and return capital to stockholders," said Vincent D. Kelly, chief executive officer of Spok Holdings, Inc. "In 2024 we achieved numerous operational and financial milestones as a year-over-year increase in software revenue was coupled with essentially flat year-over-year operating expenses, despite continued growth in our investment in Spok's products and services. In addition, we strengthened our sales, product and development teams while making tremendous progress executing our product roadmap and building a robust product pipeline, both in terms of size and quality. We exited last year with record Software backlog levels, which were up nearly 22% from 2023. Software operations bookings for the year totaled $34.1 million and were up more than 13% from an already strong level of bookings in 2023. Included in this performance were 82 six- and seven-figure customer contracts, which exceeded prior year levels by more than 22%. Additionally, software operations bookings included 40 multi-year engagements, up significantly from the prior year, and the fourth quarter average new contract size increased by more than 50% on a year-over-year basis. Lastly, we were able to generate this growth, while increasing customer satisfaction scores and retention.

"I believe Spok has done an excellent job of balancing the necessary investments required for our products and infrastructure in order to fuel future growth, while continuing to create stockholder value and return capital to our stockholders," continued Kelly. "In 2024, we generated $15.0 million of net income and $29.2 million of adjusted EBITDA, which more than covered the $26.4 million we returned to our stockholders. However, at the same time, we invested more than $11.5 million in our products and services through our R&D efforts. We remain committed to this approach of balancing cash returned to our stockholders with investments in our product offering and believe our extensive experience operating our established and well-regarded communication solutions will create significant value going forward. In short, we believe it is important to make money and regularly return capital to our stockholders as we move forward.

"Based on our performance in 2024, and the numerous financial and operational milestones we achieved during the year, we are providing 2025 guidance estimates for revenue and adjusted EBITDA. This guidance reflects the team's confidence in being able to outpace our last year's performance. At the midpoint of the guidance range, we believe we are on track to again grow consolidated revenue in 2025, on a year-over-year basis, with continued growth in software revenue, partially offset with slight declines in wireless revenue. We also anticipate that the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA guidance will be consistent with last year, with additional growth potential at the high-end of the guidance range. Of course, we will continue to update you on our outlook each quarter when we report our results," concluded Kelly.

Financial Highlights:

For the three months ended December 31,

For the year ended December 31,

(Dollars in thousands)

2024

2023

Change (%)

2024

2023

Change (%)

Revenue

Wireless revenue

Paging revenue

$

17,750

$

18,220

(2.6

)%

$

70,958

$

73,135

(3.0

)%

Product and other revenue

620

871

(28.8

)%

2,565

2,833

(9.5

)%

Total wireless revenue

$

18,370

$

19,091

(3.8

)%

$

73,523

$

75,968

(3.2

)%

Software revenue

License

1,283

998

28.6

%

7,648

8,721

(12.3

)%

Professional services - projects

$

3,503

$

3,340

4.9

%

$

14,616

$

13,305

9.9

%

Professional services - managed services

1,226

445

175.5

%

3,259

1,389

134.6

%

Hardware

269

587

(54.2

)%

1,382

2,675

(48.3

)%

Maintenance

9,241

9,492

(2.6

)%

37,225

36,967

0.7

%

Total software revenue

$

15,522

$

14,862

4.4

%

$

64,130

$

63,057

1.7

%

Total revenue

$

33,892

$

33,953

(0.2

)%

$

137,653

$

139,025

(1.0

)%

For the three months ended December 31,

For the year ended December 31,

(Dollars in thousands)

2024

2023

Change (%)

2024

2023

Change (%)

GAAP

Operating expenses

$

29,254

$

29,871

(2.1

)%

$

118,688

$

117,797

0.8

%

Net income

$

3,644

$

3,365

8.3

%

$

14,965

$

15,666

(4.5

)%

Cash and cash equivalents (as of period end)

$

29,145

$

31,989

(8.9

)%

$

29,145

$

31,989

(8.9

)%

Capital returned to stockholders

$

6,336

$

6,238

1.6

%

$

26,381

$

25,642

2.9

%

Non-GAAP

Adjusted operating expenses

$

28,313

$

28,765

(1.6

)%

$

113,436

$

112,728

0.6

%

Adjusted EBITDA

$

7,055

$

6,509

8.4

%

$

29,173

$

30,342

(3.9

)%

For the three months ended December 31,

For the year ended December 31,

(Dollars in thousands, excluding units in service and ARPU)

2024

2023

Change (%)

2024

2023

Change (%)

Key Statistics

Wireless units in service (000's)

720

765

(5.9

)%

720

765

(5.9

)%

Wireless average revenue per unit (ARPU)

$

8.16

$

7.84

4.1

%

$

7.97

$

7.71

3.4

%

Software operations bookings(1)

$

7,124

$

4,112

73.2

%

$

34,083

$

30,113

13.2

%

Software backlog (as of period end)(2)

$

62,439

$

51,315

21.7

%

$

62,439

$

51,315

21.7

%

(1) Software operations bookings includes net new (i.e., new customers or incremental add-on sales to existing customers) sales of license, professional services, equipment, and first-year maintenance.

(2) Software backlog excludes $5.6 million and $4.9 million of contractual obligations that are deemed cancelable by the customer without significant penalty as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

Financial Outlook:

Regarding financial guidance, the Company expects the following for the full year 2025:

(Unaudited and in millions)

Current Guidance
Full Year 2025

From

To

Revenue

Wireless

$

69.0

$

72.0

Software

$

65.0

$

70.0

Total Revenue

$

134.0

$

142.0

Adjusted EBITDA

$

27.5

$

32.5

2024 Fourth Quarter Call:

Management will host a conference call and webcast to discuss these financial results on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The presentation is open to all interested parties and may include forward-looking information.

Conference Call Details

Date/Time:

Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET

Webcast:

https://www.webcast-eqs.com/register/spok_q4_2024_en/en

U.S. Toll-Free Dial In:

877-407-0890

International Dial In:

1-201-389-0918

To access the call, please dial in approximately ten minutes before the start of the call. For those unable to join the live call, an OnDemand version of the webcast will be available following the call under the URL link and on the investor relations website.

* * * * * * * * *

About Spok

Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK), headquartered in Plano, Texas, is proud to be a global leader in healthcare communications. We deliver clinical information to care teams when and where it matters most to improve patient outcomes. Top hospitals rely on the Spok Care Connect® platform to enhance workflows for clinicians and support administrative compliance. Our customers send over 70 million messages each month through their Spok® solutions. Spok enables smarter, faster clinical communication. For more information, visit spok.com.

Spok is a trademark of Spok Holdings, Inc. Spok Care Connect and Spok Mobile are trademarks of Spok, Inc.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains the following non-GAAP financial measures: adjusted operating expenses and adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted operating expenses excludes depreciation and accretion expense, impairment of intangible assets and severance and restructuring costs. Adjusted EBITDA represents net income/(loss) before interest income/expense, income tax benefit/expense, depreciation and accretion expense, stock-based compensation expense, impairment of intangible assets and severance and restructuring. With respect to our expectations under "Financial Guidance" above, reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net income is not available without unreasonable efforts on a forward-looking basis due to the high variability, complexity and uncertainty with respect to certain items included in net income that are excluded from adjusted EBITDA, in particular, income tax benefit/expense, stock-based compensation expenses, impairment of intangible assets, severance and restructuring and other non-recurring expenses. These items can have unpredictable fluctuations based on unforeseen activity that is out of our control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted.

We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to management and investors regarding certain financial and business trends relating to Spok's financial condition and results of operations. We use these non-GAAP measures for financial, operational, and budgetary decision-making purposes, to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends, and to generate future operating plans. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures permit us to more thoroughly analyze key financial metrics used to make operational decisions and allow us to assess our core operating results. We believe that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures provides an additional tool for investors to use in evaluating ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing our financial measures with other software companies who present similar non-GAAP financial measures. We adjust for certain items because we do not regard these costs as reflective of normal costs related to the ongoing operation of the business in the ordinary course. In general, these items possess one or more of the following characteristics: non-cash expenses, factors outside of our control, items that are non-operational in nature, and unusual items not expected to occur in the normal course of business. We believe it is important to exclude these costs, given that they do not represent future operational costs under this strategic business plan. This allows us to assess the underlying performance of our core business under this new strategic business plan.

We do not consider these non-GAAP measures in isolation or as an alternative to financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP. The principle of these non-GAAP financial measures is that they exclude significant amounts that are required by GAAP to be recorded in the Company's financial statements. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgment by management about which items are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. In order to compensate for these limitations, management presents non-GAAP financial measures in connection with GAAP results. We urge investors to review the reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures, which are included in this press release, and not to rely on any single financial measure to evaluate our business.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

Statements contained herein or in prior press releases which are not historical fact, such as statements regarding our future operating and financial performance, are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to be materially different from the future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expectations include, but are not limited to, our ability to manage wireless network rationalization to lower our costs without causing disruption of service to our customers; our ability to retain key management personnel and to attract and retain talent within the organization; the productivity of our sales organization and our ability to deliver effective customer support; our ability to identify potential acquisitions, finance, consummate and successfully integrate such acquisitions, and achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions; economic conditions, such as recessionary economic cycles, higher interest rates, inflation and higher levels of unemployment; risks related to our overall business strategy, including maximizing revenue and cash generation from our established businesses and returning capital to stockholders through dividends and repurchases of shares of our common stock; competition for our services and products from new technologies or those offered and/or developed from firms that are substantially larger and have much greater financial and human capital resources; continuing decline in the number of paging units we have in service with customers, commensurate with a continuing decline in our wireless revenue; our ability to address changing market conditions with new or revised software solutions; undetected defects, bugs, or security vulnerabilities in our products; our dependence on the United States healthcare industry; long sales cycle of our software solutions and services; our reliance on third-party vendors to supply us with wireless paging equipment; our ability to maintain successful relationships with our channel partners; our ability to protect our rights in intellectual property that we own and develop and the potential for litigation claiming intellectual property infringement by us; our use of open source software, third-party software and other intellectual property; our reliance on data centers and other IT Systems (as defined below) and technologies provided by third parties, and technology systems and electronic networks supplied and managed by third parties; cyberattacks, data breaches, system disruptions or other compromises to our or our critical third parties’ IT Systems (as defined below), data, products or services; our ability to realize the benefits associated with our deferred income tax assets; future impairments of our long-lived assets or goodwill; risks related to data privacy and protection-related laws and regulation; and our ability to manage changes related to regulation, including laws and regulations affecting hospitals and the healthcare industry generally, as well as other risks described from time to time in our periodic reports and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although Spok believes the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. Spok disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Tables to Follow

SPOK HOLDINGS, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(Unaudited and in thousands except share, per share amounts and ARPU)

For the three months ended

For the year ended

12/31/2024

12/31/2023

12/31/2024

12/31/2023

Revenue:

Wireless

$

18,370

$

19,091

$

73,523

$

75,968

Software

15,522

14,862

64,130

63,057

Total revenue

33,892

33,953

137,653

139,025

Operating expenses:

Cost of revenue (exclusive of items shown separately below)

6,995

6,933

28,430

26,818

Research and development

2,590

2,642

11,548

10,549

Technology operations

5,743

6,399

24,306

25,843

Selling and marketing

4,269

4,028

15,851

16,350

General and administrative

8,716

8,763

33,301

33,168

Depreciation and accretion

938

728

4,148

4,496

Severance and restructuring

3

378

1,104

573

Total operating expenses

29,254

29,871

118,688

117,797

% of total revenue

86.3

%

88.0

%

86.2

%

84.7

%

Operating income

4,638

4,082

18,965

21,228

% of total revenue

13.7

%

12.0

%

13.8

%

15.3

%

Interest income

245

233

1,153

1,099

Other income (expense)

5

43

(86

)

(2

)

Income before income taxes

4,888

4,358

20,032

22,325

Provision for income taxes

(1,244

)

(993

)

(5,067

)

(6,659

)

Net income

$

3,644

$

3,365

$

14,965

$

15,666

Basic net income per common share

$

0.18

$

0.17

$

0.74

$

0.79

Diluted net income per common share

$

0.18

$

0.17

$

0.73

$

0.77

Basic weighted average common shares outstanding

20,276,596

19,987,640

20,241,073

19,953,747

Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding

20,577,508

20,367,248

20,565,287

20,343,912

Cash dividends declared per common share

0.3125

0.3125

1.2500

1.2500

SPOK HOLDINGS, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands)

12/31/2024

12/31/2023

ASSETS

(Unaudited)

Current assets:

Cash and cash equivalents

$

29,145

$

31,989

Accounts receivable, net

21,950

23,314

Prepaid expenses

9,362

7,885

Other current assets

840

704

Total current assets

61,297

63,892

Non-current assets:

Property and equipment, net

5,952

7,321

Operating lease right-of-use assets

8,249

10,526

Goodwill

99,175

99,175

Deferred income tax assets, net

41,686

46,260

Other non-current assets

744

510

Total non-current assets

155,806

163,792

Total assets

$

217,103

$

227,684

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

Current liabilities:

Accounts payable

$

5,630

$

5,969

Accrued compensation and benefits

7,363

7,284

Deferred revenue

28,366

26,298

Operating lease liabilities

2,904

4,184

Other current liabilities

4,511

4,273

Total current liabilities

48,774

48,008

Non-current liabilities:

Asset retirement obligations

5,945

7,191

Operating lease liabilities

5,869

6,902

Other non-current liabilities

1,769

1,812

Total non-current liabilities

13,583

15,905

Total liabilities

62,357

63,913

Commitments and contingencies

Stockholders' equity:

Preferred stock

$

—

$

—

Common stock

2

2

Additional paid-in capital

105,736

102,936

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(1,784

)

(1,764

)

Retained earnings

50,792

62,597

Total stockholders' equity

154,746

163,771

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$

217,103

$

227,684

SPOK HOLDINGS, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(Unaudited and in thousands)

For the year ended

12/31/2024

12/31/2023

Operating activities:

Net income

$

14,965

$

15,666

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:

Depreciation and accretion

4,148

4,496

Deferred income tax expense

4,573

6,378

Stock-based compensation

4,956

4,063

Provisions for credit losses, service credits and other

846

950

Changes in assets and liabilities:

Accounts receivable

506

2,580

Prepaid expenses and other assets

(1,845

)

(909

)

Net operating lease liabilities

(36

)

(1,264

)

Accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other

(1,184

)

(5,217

)

Deferred revenue

1,993

(559

)

Net cash provided by operating activities

28,922

26,184

Investing activities:

Purchases of property and equipment

(3,209

)

(3,417

)

Net cash used in investing activities

(3,209

)

(3,417

)

Financing activities:

Cash distributions to stockholders

(26,381

)

(25,642

)

Proceeds from issuance of common stock under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan

272

210

Purchase of common stock for tax withholding on vested equity awards

(2,428

)

(1,245

)

Net cash used in financing activities

(28,537

)

(26,677

)

Effect of exchange rate on cash and cash equivalents

(20

)

145

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

(2,844

)

(3,765

)

Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period

31,989

35,754

Cash and cash equivalents, end of period

$

29,145

$

31,989

Supplemental disclosure:

Income taxes paid

$

571

$

179

SPOK HOLDINGS, INC.

UNITS IN SERVICE, MARKET SEGMENTS,

AND AVERAGE REVENUE PER UNIT (ARPU)

(Unaudited and in thousands)

For the three months ended

12/31/2024

9/30/2024

6/30/2024

3/31/2024

12/31/2023

9/30/2023

6/30/2023

3/31/2023

Account size ending units in service (000's)

1 to 100 units

40

41

42

43

44

46

48

48

101 to 1,000 units

120

125

128

135

142

143

144

149

>1,000 units

560

564

577

575

579

596

614

614

Total

720

730

747

753

765

785

806

811

Market segment as a percent of total ending units in service

Healthcare

85.6

%

85.7

%

85.8

%

86.1

%

85.9

%

86.0

%

86.1

%

85.7

%

Government

4.0

%

4.1

%

4.4

%

4.1

%

4.2

%

4.2

%

4.2

%

4.3

%

Large enterprise

3.9

%

4.0

%

4.0

%

3.9

%

4.1

%

4.1

%

4.0

%

4.1

%

Other(1)

6.5

%

6.2

%

5.8

%

5.9

%

5.8

%

5.7

%

5.7

%

5.9

%

Total

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

Account size ARPU

1 to 100 units

$

13.08

$

12.70

$

12.51

$

12.66

$

12.57

$

12.02

$

11.91

$

12.03

101 to 1,000 units

9.60

9.19

9.06

9.14

9.16

8.75

8.56

8.75

>1,000 units

7.50

7.33

7.21

7.23

7.15

6.97

6.94

6.95

Total

$

8.16

$

7.95

$

7.84

$

7.89

$

7.84

$

7.59

$

7.53

$

7.59

(1) Other includes hospitality, resort and indirect units

RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED OPERATING EXPENSES

(Unaudited and in thousands)

For the three months ended

For the year ended

12/31/2024

12/31/2023

12/31/2024

12/31/2023

Operating expenses

$

29,254

$

29,871

$

118,688

$

117,797

Add back:

Depreciation and accretion

(938

)

(728

)

(4,148

)

(4,496

)

Severance and restructuring

(3

)

(378

)

(1,104

)

(573

)

Adjusted operating expenses

$

28,313

$

28,765

$

113,436

$

112,728

RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED EBITDA

(Unaudited and in thousands)

For the three months ended

For the year ended

12/31/2024

12/31/2023

12/31/2024

12/31/2023

Net income

$

3,644

$

3,365

$

14,965

$

15,666

Add back:

Provision for income taxes

1,244

993

5,067

6,659

Other income (expense)

(5

)

(43

)

86

2

Interest income

(245

)

(233

)

(1,153

)

(1,099

)

Depreciation and accretion

938

728

4,148

4,496

EBITDA

$

5,576

$

4,810

$

23,113

$

25,724

Adjustments:

Stock-based compensation

1,476

1,321

4,956

4,045

Severance and restructuring

3

378

1,104

573

Adjusted EBITDA

$

7,055

$

6,509

$

29,173

$

30,342

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250226387986/en/

Contacts

Al Galgano
952-224-6096
al.galgano@spok.com