Spok Holdings, Inc.NASDAQ: SPOK

Spok Reports Third Quarter 2024 Results

· Issued by Spok Holdings, Inc. via Business Wire

Strong Q3 Software Operations Bookings Up Both Sequentially and Year-Over-Year

Software Backlog Up More Than 19% From Prior Year Quarter

PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK), a global leader in healthcare communications, today announced results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024. In addition, the Company’s Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per share, payable on December 9, 2024, to stockholders of record on November 18, 2024.

Recent Highlights:

  • Software operations bookings totaled $10.4 million in the third quarter, up 64.4% from the third quarter of 2023, and representing the highest third quarter total in the past six years
  • Third quarter software operations bookings included 24 six-figure customer contracts, double the amount generated in the prior year quarter
  • Software backlog totaled $63.6 million at September 30, 2024, up more than 19% from the prior year quarter
  • Third quarter 2024 Wireless average revenue per unit (ARPU) was $7.95, up nearly 5% on a year-over-year basis
  • Capital returned to stockholders in the third quarter of 2024 totaled $6.3 million
  • Cash and cash equivalents increased by nearly $4.0 million in the third quarter, totaling $27.8 million at September 30, 2024
  • Research and development costs totaled $9.0 million in the first nine months of 2024, supporting Spok's investment in the Company's industry-leading solutions to fuel future growth

"I am proud of the performance that our team was able to deliver in the third quarter as we continue to serve our customers at a high level and position Spok for strong growth in the fourth quarter and 2025," said Vincent D. Kelly, chief executive officer. "We continue to achieve our goal to consistently generate cash flow in order to return capital to our loyal stockholders over the long term. I am particularly pleased with our performance in generating both sequential and year-over-year growth in software operations bookings."

"I believe Spok is doing an excellent job of balancing the necessary investments in our products and infrastructure in order to fuel future growth, while continuing to return capital to our stockholders," continued Kelly. "Through the first nine months of this year, Spok has generated more than $11.3 million of net income and over $22.1 million of adjusted EBITDA. More importantly, adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was more than enough to cover our quarterly dividend payment, as well as our capital expenditure requirements. This also resulted in a nearly $4.0 million increase in our cash and cash equivalents balance, which we believe will continue to build through the remainder of the year.

"We were very pleased with our performance in the third quarter and believe that our results in the first nine months of the year provide a solid foundation for the remainder of 2024. As a result, we are reiterating the guidance ranges for revenue and adjusted EBITDA that we had previously outlined," concluded Kelly.

Financial Highlights:

For the three months ended September 30,

For the nine months ended September 30,

(Dollars in thousands)

2024

2023

Change (%)

2024

2023

Change (%)

Revenue

Wireless revenue

Paging revenue

$

17,605

$

18,119

(2.8

)%

$

53,208

$

54,915

(3.1

)%

Product and other revenue

656

853

(23.1

)%

1,945

1,962

(0.9

)%

Total wireless revenue

$

18,261

$

18,972

(3.7

)%

$

55,153

$

56,877

(3.0

)%

Software revenue

License

$

2,042

$

2,413

(15.4

)%

$

6,365

$

7,723

(17.6

)%

Professional services

4,835

3,833

26.1

%

13,146

10,909

20.5

%

Hardware

395

798

(50.5

)%

1,113

2,088

(46.7

)%

Maintenance

9,337

9,412

(0.8

)%

27,984

27,475

1.9

%

Total software revenue

$

16,609

$

16,456

0.9

%

$

48,608

$

48,195

0.9

%

Total revenue

$

34,870

$

35,428

(1.6

)%

$

103,761

$

105,072

(1.2

)%

 
 

For the three months ended September 30,

For the nine months ended September 30,

(Dollars in thousands)

2024

2023

Change (%)

2024

2023

Change (%)

GAAP

Operating expenses

$

29,909

$

29,215

2.4

%

$

89,434

$

87,926

1.7

%

Net income

$

3,660

$

4,451

(17.8

)%

$

11,321

$

12,301

(8.0

)%

Cash and cash equivalents (as of period end)

$

27,830

$

27,301

1.9

%

$

27,830

$

27,301

1.9

%

Capital returned to stockholders

$

6,330

$

6,241

1.4

%

$

20,045

$

19,404

3.3

%

Non-GAAP

Adjusted operating expenses

$

28,509

$

27,871

2.3

%

$

85,123

$

83,963

1.4

%

Adjusted EBITDA

$

7,534

$

8,422

(10.5

)%

$

22,118

$

23,833

(7.2

)%

 
 

For the three months ended September 30,

For the nine months ended September 30,

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

2024

2023

Change (%)

2024

2023

Change (%)

Key Statistics

Wireless units in service (000's)

730

785

(7.0

)%

730

785

(7.0

)%

Wireless average revenue per unit (ARPU)

$

7.95

$

7.59

4.7

%

$

7.91

$

7.62

3.8

%

Software operations bookings(1)

$

10,379

$

6,312

64.4

%

$

26,959

$

26,000

3.7

%

Software backlog (as of period end)(2)

$

63,579

$

53,309

19.3

%

$

63,579

$

53,309

19.3

%

 

(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 $5.3 million and $5.4 million of contractual obligations that are deemed cancellable by the customer without significant penalty as of September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively. 

 
 
 

Financial Outlook:

Regarding financial guidance, the Company reiterated the following expectations for the full year 2024:

(Unaudited and in millions)

Current Guidance

Full Year 2024

From

To

Revenue

Wireless

$

72.0

$

75.0

Software

$

64.0

$

69.0

Total Revenue

$

136.0

$

144.0

Adjusted EBITDA

$

27.5

$

32.5

 

2024 Third Quarter Call:

Management will host a conference call and webcast to discuss these financial results on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 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, October 30, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. ET

Webcast:

     

https://www.webcast-eqs.com/register/spok_q324_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; 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 U.S. healthcare industry; the sales cycle of our software solutions and services can run from six to eighteen months, making it difficult to plan for and meet our sales objectives and bookings on a steady basis quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year; 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; the reliability of our networks and servers and our ability to prevent cyberattacks and other security issues and disruptions; our reliance on data centers and other systems and technologies provided by third parties, and technology systems and electronic networks supplied and managed by third parties; cyberattacks, data breaches or other compromises to our or our critical third parties' systems, 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 nine months ended

9/30/2024

9/30/2023

9/30/2024

9/30/2023

Revenue:

Wireless

$

18,261

$

18,972

$

55,153

$

56,877

Software

16,609

16,456

48,608

48,195

Total revenue

34,870

35,428

103,761

105,072

Operating expenses:

Cost of revenue (exclusive of items shown separately below)

7,133

6,622

21,435

19,885

Research and development

2,831

2,561

8,958

7,907

Technology operations

6,083

6,405

18,563

19,444

Selling and marketing

3,928

4,067

11,582

12,322

General and administrative

8,534

8,216

24,585

24,405

Depreciation and accretion

1,075

1,267

3,210

3,768

Severance and restructuring

325

77

1,101

195

Total operating expenses

29,909

29,215

89,434

87,926

% of total revenue

85.8

%

82.5

%

86.2

%

83.7

%

Operating income

4,961

6,213

14,327

17,146

% of total revenue

14.2

%

17.5

%

13.8

%

16.3

%

Interest income

264

240

908

866

Other (expense) income

(75

)

41

(91

)

(45

)

Income before income taxes

5,150

6,494

15,144

17,967

Provision for income taxes

(1,490

)

(2,043

)

(3,823

)

(5,666

)

Net income

$

3,660

$

4,451

$

11,321

$

12,301

Basic net income per common share

$

0.18

$

0.22

$

0.56

$

0.62

Diluted net income per common share

$

0.18

$

0.22

$

0.55

$

0.61

Basic weighted average common shares outstanding

20,264,055

19,970,936

20,229,146

19,942,325

Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding

20,523,873

20,304,092

20,534,883

20,308,973

Cash dividends declared per common share

0.3125

0.3125

0.9375

0.9375

 
 
 
 

SPOK HOLDINGS, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands)

9/30/2024

12/31/2023

ASSETS

(Unaudited)

Current assets:

Cash and cash equivalents

$

27,830

$

31,989

Accounts receivable, net

21,377

23,314

Prepaid expenses

8,450

7,885

Other current assets

723

704

Total current assets

58,380

63,892

Non-current assets:

Property and equipment, net

6,988

7,321

Operating lease right-of-use assets

8,597

10,526

Goodwill

99,175

99,175

Deferred income tax assets, net

42,635

46,260

Other non-current assets

987

510

Total non-current assets

158,382

163,792

Total assets

$

216,762

$

227,684

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

Current liabilities:

Accounts payable

$

3,944

$

5,969

Accrued compensation and benefits

5,188

7,284

Deferred revenue

28,743

26,298

Operating lease liabilities

2,961

4,184

Other current liabilities

4,796

4,273

Total current liabilities

45,632

48,008

Non-current liabilities:

Asset retirement obligations

7,268

7,191

Operating lease liabilities

6,148

6,902

Other non-current liabilities

1,426

1,812

Total non-current liabilities

14,842

15,905

Total liabilities

60,474

63,913

Commitments and contingencies

Stockholders' equity:

Preferred stock

$

—

$

—

Common stock

2

2

Additional paid-in capital

104,119

102,936

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(1,747

)

(1,764

)

Retained earnings

53,914

62,597

Total stockholders' equity

156,288

163,771

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$

216,762

$

227,684

 
 
 
 

SPOK HOLDINGS, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(Unaudited and in thousands)

For the nine months ended

9/30/2024

9/30/2023

Operating activities:

Net income

$

11,321

$

12,301

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

Depreciation and accretion

3,210

3,768

Deferred income tax expense

3,624

5,605

Stock-based compensation

3,480

2,743

Provisions for credit losses, service credits and other

450

415

Changes in assets and liabilities:

Accounts receivable

1,481

1,305

Prepaid expenses and other assets

(1,061

)

(1,102

)

Net operating lease liabilities

(48

)

(1,243

)

Accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other

(4,284

)

(7,396

)

Deferred revenue

2,342

(2,000

)

Net cash provided by operating activities

20,515

14,396

Investing activities:

Purchases of property and equipment

(2,348

)

(2,419

)

Net cash used in investing activities

(2,348

)

(2,419

)

Financing activities:

Cash distributions to stockholders

(20,045

)

(19,404

)

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

130

90

Purchase of common stock for tax withholding on vested equity awards

(2,428

)

(1,245

)

Net cash used in financing activities

(22,343

)

(20,559

)

Effect of exchange rate on cash and cash equivalents

17

129

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

(4,159

)

(8,453

)

Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period

31,989

35,754

Cash and cash equivalents, end of period

$

27,830

$

27,301

Supplemental disclosure:

Income taxes paid

$

298

$

236

 
 
 
 

SPOK HOLDINGS, INC.

UNITS IN SERVICE, MARKET SEGMENTS,

AND AVERAGE REVENUE PER UNIT (ARPU)

(Unaudited and in thousands)

For the three months ended

9/30/2024

6/30/2024

3/31/2024

12/31/2023

9/30/2023

6/30/2023

3/31/2023

12/31/2022

Account size ending units in service (000's)

1 to 100 units

41

42

43

44

46

48

48

50

101 to 1,000 units

125

128

135

142

143

144

149

147

>1,000 units

564

577

575

579

596

614

614

620

Total

730

747

753

765

785

806

811

817

Market segment as a percent of total ending units in service

Healthcare

85.7

%

85.8

%

86.1

%

85.9

%

86.0

%

86.1

%

85.7

%

85.4

%

Government

4.1

%

4.4

%

4.1

%

4.2

%

4.2

%

4.2

%

4.3

%

4.4

%

Large enterprise

4.0

%

4.0

%

3.9

%

4.1

%

4.1

%

4.0

%

4.1

%

4.0

%

Other(1)

6.2

%

5.8

%

5.9

%

5.8

%

5.7

%

5.7

%

5.9

%

6.2

%

Total

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

100.0

%

Account size ARPU

1 to 100 units

$

12.70

$

12.51

$

12.66

$

12.57

$

12.02

$

11.91

$

12.03

$

11.95

101 to 1,000 units

9.19

9.06

9.14

9.16

8.75

8.56

8.75

8.66

>1,000 units

7.33

7.21

7.23

7.15

6.97

6.94

6.95

6.86

Total

$

7.95

$

7.84

$

7.89

$

7.84

$

7.59

$

7.53

$

7.59

$

7.50

(1) Other includes hospitality, resort and indirect units

 
 
 
 

RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED OPERATING EXPENSES

(Unaudited and in thousands)

For the three months ended

For the nine months ended

9/30/2024

9/30/2023

9/30/2024

9/30/2023

Operating expenses

$

29,909

$

29,215

$

89,434

$

87,926

Add back:

Depreciation and accretion

(1,075

)

(1,267

)

(3,210

)

(3,768

)

Severance and restructuring

(325

)

(77

)

(1,101

)

(195

)

Adjusted operating expenses

$

28,509

$

27,871

$

85,123

$

83,963

 
 
 
 

RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED EBITDA

(Unaudited and in thousands)

For the three months ended

For the nine months ended

9/30/2024

9/30/2023

9/30/2024

9/30/2023

Net income

$

3,660

$

4,451

$

11,321

$

12,301

Add back:

Provision for income taxes

1,490

2,043

3,823

5,666

Other expense (income)

75

(41

)

91

45

Interest income

(264

)

(240

)

(908

)

(866

)

Depreciation and accretion

1,075

1,267

3,210

3,768

EBITDA

$

6,036

$

7,480

$

17,537

$

20,914

Adjustments:

Stock-based compensation

1,173

865

3,480

2,724

Severance and restructuring

325

77

1,101

195

Adjusted EBITDA

$

7,534

$

8,422

$

22,118

$

23,833

 
 

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

Source: Spok Holdings, Inc.