In the first quarter of 2024, Consensus (CCSI) reported mixed financial results with a record revenue in its corporate business segment, while facing a decline in its SOHO business revenue.
The company's corporate sector reached a new high with $51.4 million in revenue, a 4% increase from the previous year, driven by a 38% year-over-year increase in customer upgrades and strong sales in advanced products like Clarity and Unite.
Yet, the SOHO business experienced a 12.6% drop in revenue, attributed to reduced advertising spend and fewer paid ads. Despite the decrease in overall consolidated revenue, which fell by 3.6% to $88.1 million, the company's adjusted EBITDA margin improved significantly to 54.5%. Consensus also made headway in debt management by repurchasing $63 million of debt in the quarter.
Key Takeaways
- Corporate business revenue hit a record $51.4 million, up 4% year-over-year.
- SOHO business revenue declined by 12.6% to $36.8 million.
- Consolidated revenue decreased by 3.6% to $88.1 million.
- Adjusted EBITDA margin rose by 6 percentage points to 54.5%.
- $63 million of debt repurchased in Q1; $126 million since November 2023.
- Full-year 2024 guidance reaffirmed: revenue of $338-$353 million, adjusted EBITDA of $182-$294 million, adjusted EPS of $5.8 to $5.31.
- Q2 2024 revenue expected to be between $84.5 million and $88.5 million.
- Strong sales in advanced products consistent with margin structure.
- Operating contribution margin reported higher than the 54.5% EBITDA margin.
- Majority of revenue still from fax services, with substantial bookings with AdvancePCS.
- Company does not report bookings numbers but is confident in its sales pipeline and deal closures.
- Partnerships and service rollout in the VA highlighted.
- Free cash flow performance strong; Q1 gains expected to be sustained.
- Potential benefits from a deal with Accenture (NYSE:ACN) in the federal government space.
- Corporate ARPU has been stable for five quarters.
Company Outlook
- Consensus reaffirmed its full-year 2024 revenue guidance, expecting between $338 million and $353 million.
- Adjusted non-GAAP EBITDA anticipated to be between $182 million and $294 million.
- Adjusted non-GAAP EPS projected at $5.8 to $5.31.
- Q2 2024 revenue forecasted to be in the range of $84.5 million to $88.5 million.
- The gains achieved in Q1 are expected to continue throughout the year.
Bearish Highlights
- SOHO business revenue saw a significant decline due to lower advertising spend.
- Overall consolidated revenue dropped by 3.6% compared to the previous year.
Bullish Highlights
- Record revenue in the corporate business sector, driven by customer upgrades and advanced product sales.
- Improved adjusted EBITDA margin, now at 54.5%.
- Strong sales pipeline and confidence in closing deals.
Misses
- The company did not meet its revenue targets due to a decrease in SOHO business performance.
Q&A Highlights
- The partnership with Accenture is expected to enhance opportunities in the public sector, though the deal is still in progress.
- Corporate sector's revenue per user (RPU) increased sequentially due to a mix of factors and has remained stable for the past five quarters.
- The next formal earnings call is scheduled for August to discuss Q2 results.
Consensus continues to navigate the challenges and opportunities of its diverse business segments, maintaining a stable ARPU in its corporate business while strategizing to mitigate the revenue decline in the SOHO segment.
The company's debt repurchase efforts and positive outlook for the remainder of the year reflect a commitment to financial prudence and growth. As Consensus prepares for upcoming investor conferences and the next earnings call, stakeholders will be watching closely to see how the company's strategies unfold in the coming months.
InvestingPro Insights
As Consensus continues to adapt to the shifting dynamics within its corporate and SOHO business segments, a closer look at the company's financial health and market performance through InvestingPro's lens provides additional context for investors.
InvestingPro Data highlights a robust gross profit margin of 81.11% for the last twelve months as of Q1 2024, signaling the company's efficiency in managing its cost of goods sold and maintaining a strong competitive edge in its market. Moreover, Consensus boasts an impressive operating income margin of 42.0%, reflecting its ability to translate sales into profits effectively.
In terms of market valuation, Consensus is currently trading at a low P/E ratio of 2.92, which, when juxtaposed with its near-term earnings growth, suggests that the stock may be undervalued. This is further substantiated by the company's significant return over the last week, with a price total return of 8.0%, hinting at a potential rebound or market correction after previous declines.
InvestingPro Tips for Consensus indicate that the company's management has been aggressively buying back shares, which could be interpreted as a signal of confidence in the company's prospects and a commitment to enhancing shareholder value. Additionally, the absence of dividend payments points to a strategy of reinvesting profits back into the company, which could support future growth and operational expansion.
For readers interested in a deeper dive into Consensus' financials and market position, there are 12 additional InvestingPro Tips available, providing a comprehensive analysis of the company's performance and future outlook. To access these insights and more, visit https://www.investing.com/pro/CCSI and consider using the coupon code PRONEWS24 to get an additional 10% off a yearly or biyearly Pro and Pro+ subscription.
Investors and stakeholders of Consensus can leverage these insights to better understand the company's financial health and market performance as they evaluate its strategies and potential in the evolving business landscape.
Full transcript - Consensus Cloud Solutions (CCSI) Q1 2024:
Operator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to consensus Q1 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Paul, and I will be the operator assisting you today. [Operator Instructions]. On this call from Consensus will be Scott Turicchi, CYO., Jim Malone, CFO, Johnny Hecker, CRO and Executive Vice President of Operations, and Adam Brown, Senior Vice President of Finance. I will now turn the call over to Adam for Ron Senior Vice President of Finance at consensus. Thank you. You may begin.
Adam Varon: Good afternoon and welcome to the consensus investor call to discuss our Q1 2024 financial results, other key information, Q2 2024 guidance and our 2024 guidance full year. Joining me today are Scott Turicchi, CYO., Johnny Hecker, CRO and EVP of Operations, and Jim Malone, CFO. The earnings call will begin with Scott. Providing opening remarks, Jonny will give an update on operational progress since our year end 2023 investor call. And then Jim will discuss our Q1 2024 financial results. Q2 guidance and reaffirmation for our full year 2024 guidance. After we finish our prepared remarks, we will conduct a Q&A session. At that time, the operator will instruct you on the procedures for asking a question. Before we begin our prepared remarks, allow me to direct you to the safe harbor language on Slide 2. As you know, this call and the webcast will include forward-looking statements. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties that would cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results. Some of those risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk factors outlined on slide 3 that we have disclosed in our 10 K SEC filing, as well as a summary of those risk factors that we have included as part of the slide show for the webcast. We refer you to discussions in those documents regarding Safe Harbor language as well as forward looking statements. Now let me turn the call over to Scott.
Scott Turicchi: Thank you, Adam. As noted in the press release, I'm pleased with the results of our first fiscal quarter. As we discussed on the Q4 earnings call. Our goals for this year include the following first eliminating certain costs of the SoHo channel, especially in the area of marketing, allowing us to stabilize the base of revenue over time to continuing to pursue the acquisition of customers primarily in the health care space for our corporate channel, three, reviewing our overall cost structure with the goal of driving EBITDA margins north of 54% and for continuing repurchase of our debt to further reduce our net debt to EBITDA ratio in anticipation of the first tranche maturing in October of 2026. Johnny will provide more detail in his portion of the presentation. However, I'd like to highlight several things before turning the presentation over to him, I'm happy to report that while revenues for the SoHo channel dipped in the quarter, versus Q1 of 2023, it was better than our expectations. We were able to substantially reduce our marketing spend and still generate 63,000 paid ads more than in Q4 and similar to our Q. three productivity that had higher levels of marketing spend. We continue to monitor the various cohorts and look for opportunities to possibly allocate additional marketing dollars to work above our budgeted amount later in the year. In our corporate channel, our new cloud fax product effects protect had strong sign-ups in only its second full quarter of offering we also saw a record number of upgrades from our SoHo channel to corporate. In addition, we saw more facilities come online and a ramping of usage from the VA. All of these contributed to 4% growth, which while not to our desired long-term target, is an improvement over the past three quarters. On the AI front, we saw additional wins for clarity PA and clarity, CD., we maintained our discipline on the cost side with cuts primarily coming from the SOHO marketing mentioned earlier. The result was a six percentage point pickup on our EBITDA margin to 54.5% and near the upper end of our long-term range. The combination of improved EBITDA, strong cash collections and retirement of debt allowed us to improve our free cash flow by more than 20% from Q1 of 2023 to approximately $36 million in Q1 of 2024, which is before our reduction in CapEx that begins this quarter, we were able to repurchase an additional $63.5 million of debt during the quarter. This brings our total repurchases since launching the repurchase program in November of 2023 to $126 million and reducing our outstanding debt to $679 million or 3.6 times our trailing12-month EBITDA on a gross basis and 3.2 times on a net basis. I will turn the call over to Johnny. We'll provide you more operating details.
Johnny Hecker: Thank you, Scott, and hello, everyone. Let's dive into our sales and operations update. Starting with our encouraging performance in the corporate business, Q1 is traditionally an active quarter for us and this year was no exception. We are pleased to report revenue of $51.4 million versus $49.4 million last year for Q1, marking a 4% increase over the same period last year. This solid result demonstrates the continued momentum of our Corporate Solutions and marks another record quarter for our corporate business, underscoring the strength of our offerings within our corporate business. The sell upsell strategy remains a rich source for upsells with roughly 1,500 customers deciding to upgrade in Q1. This represents excellent growth up 24% quarter over quarter and an impressive 38% increase year over year. We expect this initiative to slow down a bit in Q2 due to some operational changes we are making. Furthermore, our advanced products are regaining traction, accounted for 21% of new sales in Q1, driven by demand for clarity and Unite. This figure shows a healthy increase over Q4. Our commitment to innovation is paying off as customers embrace these powerful interoperability and IT-driven solutions. The momentum for FX protect remains strong, and we continue to see growing adoption and positive customer feedback. The Q3 launch of our dedicated e-commerce channel for corporate clients has been instrumental in driving the success. Turning to our SOHO business, Q1 revenue was $36.8 million versus $42 million previous year. Consistent with the marketing changes we announced last year, the total Sohu (NASDAQ:SOHU) account base has decreased from 831,000 to 800 to 8,000. This is slightly ahead of expectations as we introduce new price plans that are net economically beneficial. These 1st month discounted plans are popular among new customers in lieu of our free trial offering. Consequently, we see our PAT declined modestly from $15.12 in Q4 to $14.95 in Q1 while the cancel rate is up slightly at 3.42% compared to 3.34% in the previous quarter. Bear in mind that rate includes the accounts we have upgraded to the corporate PRODUCT basically making up the entirety of the increase in cancels. As discussed in our last earnings call, we have made these adjustments to improve the LTV to cap ratio. I am pleased to say these steps have shown real promise in that area, and Q1 has seen a dramatic improvement, demonstrating the effectiveness of our Smarter ad spend efforts and enhancing the profitability of our customer acquisition efforts. While it's early days, we're encouraged with these results and we'll continue to aggressively manage this key metric. Let's discuss some of the key initiatives and wins. The VA rollout is progressing at the expected pace, and we remain optimistic about its potential. We have successfully adjusted our deployment approach to streamline the process with our partners and remain confident in our ability to achieve a seven digit contribution from the VA in 2024, laying a foundation for further growth in the following years. The uptake of our FX offering continues to gain traction in the extended public sector. We remain in close contact with our existing partner companies, Assante and are excited about their announced merger with Accenture signifies the strength of Cobham S&A and expands the potential opportunity for Equifax (NYSE:EFX) in that growing market segment. In Q1, we were able to form a new partnership with a leading software company specialized in document delivery and data transfer solutions. These strategic collaborations expand our capacities and capabilities to deploy our FX and LPAI. solutions, enabling the consumption of structured data for our customers. The goal of this partnership is to provide a seamless and efficient experience for users, leveraging the expertise of both organizations to deliver innovative solutions. Furthermore, we are in the process of launching a joint go-to-market partnership with one of the largest revenue cycle management and electronic medical records systems in the country. This partnership represents a significant step forward, creating synergies with a major player in the health care technology. At bringing our two leading brands together and combining the strengths and capabilities of both organizations, we aim to deliver comprehensive solutions that meet the evolving needs of the healthcare industry, enhancing patient care and streamlining administrative processes. During Q1, we attended three important industry events, five in Los Angeles and in Orlando and channel partners in Las Vegas. This provided invaluable opportunities to interact with current and potential customers as well as partners underscoring the importance of in-person connections. I'm also happy to announce that we have successfully refreshed the FX.com website. The redesigned site provides an optimized user experience and aligns with our ongoing efforts to attract and retain high value users. Overall, we're on track with the execution of our 2024 initiatives with customers and partners understandably focusing on cost consciousness and ROI. We haven't witnessed any significant changes in the market or customer behavior. There remains a high level of interest in our solutions, but clients continue to be slow in decision making and remain resource constraints. We don't expect this to change anytime soon. Now let's delve into product updates. Our AI powered solution clarity continues to generate a strong pipeline, and we're seeing increased demand for other document types that fax. We're actively onboarding first customers and building the POC backlog. The ongoing interest in clarity remains very encouraging. For our flagship brand FX, we launched the integrated portal, providing an enhanced user experience and laying the foundation for future consolidated offers. Our investment in security, including high trust and FedRAMP efforts, continues to pay off. While the recent cyber attack disruptions in the healthcare industry were horrific. We were pleased that our digital cloud fax solution was a fallback lifeline for some of the impacted parties. This resulted in some increased volume and project triggers. Security is paramount and consensus offers high quality solutions with a strong focus on secure information exchange. In summary, we made solid progress in Q1 2024 with record revenue in the corporate business and significant progress on key initiatives. We are successfully executing our strategy to focus on profitability, cash flow generation and the optimization of our customer base. And now I'll hand the call over to our CFO, Jim Malone, who will provide further details about our financial results and guidance. Jim?
James Malone: Thank you, Johnny. Hello, everyone. In our press release and on this earnings call today, we are discussing Q1 2024 results, Q2 2024 guidance and reaffirming full year 2024 guidance. We expect to file our our 10 Q today. Let's start with our corporate business results. Q1 2024 revenue was a record $51.4 million, an increase of $2 million or 4% over the prior year comparable period and ahead of our expectations. Corporate offer of $316 is up slightly from the prior comparable period. Monthly customer churn was 1.92% for the quarter. Let me remind you that this metric is based upon account councils and the vast majority of customers are biased towards the lower end of our customer continue representing primarily e-commerce to SMB accounts. The trailing 12-month revenue retention was 98%. Moving to Sylvo Q1 2024 revenue of $36.8 million, a decrease of $5.3 million or 12.6% over the prior comparable period and again, better than expectations. The year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by planned reduced advertising spend in the current period and a year over year base reduction due to fewer paid ads. Hopper of photos sorry, of $14.95, decreased 1% primary primarily as a result of shifting to price plans with a discounted 1st month versus a free trial period, resulting in higher paid ads in the quarter. As Johnny mentioned, these plans aren't are net beneficial to us. Churn declined 34 basis points to 3.42% year over year as we accelerate the movement of SOHO customers to corporate. This will have an effect on the solo cancel rate in the quarter. That movement of customers accounted for for about 66 basis points of the churn. Moving to Q1 consolidated results, revenue of $88.1 million, a decrease of $3.3 million or 3.6% over Q1 2023 and better than expectations adjusted EBITDA of $48.1 million and 54.5%. Margin was an increase of $3.8 million or 8.7% over Q1 2023. The main drivers were our focus on cost structure, most notably the reduction in SOHO marketing spend as well as other operating savings. Ebitda margin of 54.5% is near the higher end range of the range presented in our annual 2024 guidance and an increase of six percentage points of the prior year comparable period. Adjusted non-GAAP net income of $29.8 million, so an increase of $7.8 million or 35.6% over the prior year, driven by items I mentioned above I mentioned plus benefits from non-cash foreign exchange on revaluation of inter-company accounts and net interest expense and a modestly lower share count. Adjusted non-GAAP EPS of $1.55 higher than the prior comparable period by 40.9% or $0.45. Q1 2024 non-GAAP tax rate and share count was 21.3% and 19.2 million shares. Moving to our capital allocation strategy. As mentioned in our Q three or 2023 earnings call, we announced a $300 million year bond repurchase program approved by our Board. In Q. one 2024, we purchased $63 million face value for $58 million of cash program. To date, we have purchased $126 million face value for $115 million cash. We have approximately $174 million in bond repurchases remaining on this plan, you'll see in the deck that we have distributed a new slide, debt to EBITDA leverage, as mentioned by as much as I mentioned, and Scott, as we have purchased $126 million of debt program to date. The schedule depicts our gross and net debt to EBITDA leverage from spin to Q1 2024, as we were not able to repurchase any debt until the second anniversary of the spin, which was October 2023 through purchase activity began in Q4 of 2023. As of Q1 2024, our net debt to EBITDA ratio has decreased to 3.23 0.2, solid progress towards a debt burden of less than three times. We ended Q1 2024 with $61.5 million in cash, which is sufficient to fund our operations or repurchase of debt and equity. This decrease from our year-end balance of $89 million, primarily due to the repurchases Q1 2024 free cash flow, $35.8 million or 21.6% versus prior comparable period Q1 2024. Capex of 8.9 that is consistent with the prior comparable period. Moving to guidance, we are reaffirming our full year 2024 guidance. In addition, for assistance with the quarterly spread of our guidance, we are providing guidance for them for the current quarter. For the full year, our guidance revenue between $338 million and $353 million dollars or $345 million at midpoint. Adjusted non-GAAP EBITDA, $182 million, $294 million with $188 million at midpoint, adjusted non-GAAP EPS of $5.8 to $5.31 with $5.20 at midpoint. Our estimated share count and income tax rate on $19.4 million shares at a tax rate of 20.5% to 22.5% . For Q2 24. Guidance revenues are expected between $84.5 million and $88.5 million with a $86.5 billion midpoint. Adjusted non-GAAP EBITDA between $46 million and $49 million EUR with $47.5 million at the midpoint, adjusted non-GAAP EPS of $1.30 to $1.36 with $1.33 at midpoint. Our estimated share count and income tax rate of $19.3 million shares and 20.5% to 22.5% tax rate. This concludes my formal remarks, and I'd like to turn the call back to the operator for QA. Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions]. And the first question today is coming from Jon Tanwanteng from CJS Securities. John, your line is live.
Jon Tanwanteng: Hi, good afternoon and thank you for taking my questions on. I was just wondering, looking at the midpoint of the Q2 guidance, it's a little bit down sequentially on an EBITDA basis. And I'm wondering on what's going on in that number and kind of what the puts and takes are. I know that so you're bleeding off a little bit, but is there increased expenses? My understanding was that, so maybe about a low to no margin business that the customers that you were down, you're running off.
Johnny Hecker: I know, John, remember that revenues are down sequentially from Q1 to Q2, so that puts pressure on as you're going to make up that difference. Customers that cancel can actually are very profitable for member there on the margin. They're paying us something in some prior period, whether it's the last quarter of the last month where there are customers that are less or not profitable is a function of the marketing issue that we discussed both in the call and previously and what type of customers signing up and are they quote-unquote taking advantage of the free trial period and as a result, not making any payment to us. But yet we've expanded marketing dollars or they stay for a very short period of time. And that's a different question, but that's really the shift in introducing a new plan, which has you pay upfront albeit at a discounted amount. But all customers that we lose or substantially all that we lose in Soho are profitable to varying degrees because remember, those marketing costs have already been expensed in some prior period. So we have to make that up. So I actually think that the our midpoint shows an improvement in margin and a similar level of EBITDA.
Jon Tanwanteng: Got it. That's helpful. Tom, if I could sneak another one in there on. I was wondering about the mix changes you mentioned about on that would impact the upsell our amount in Q2 and kind of what's going on?
Scott Turicchi: Well, I think that, yes, yes.
Johnny Hecker: So this is an important program for us as it adds to the number of sales. But as you are for new customers. But as you know, this is on the on the lower end. So we expect the impact to not be dramatic on. We're going through some changes, some prioritizing some of the positioning of the people that we have in that program towards a more lead generation up market so on and then we will be backfilling those positions. But it will lead to a little bit of a of a decline and not be as strong in Q2 as it was in Q1.
Operator: The next question is coming from David Larsen from BTIG. David, your line is live.
Jenny Shen: Hi, this is Jenny Shen, on for Dave Larson. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking my call, and it was taken color to hit here that advanced products made up 20% of new sales. Can you just provide some more color there? What opportunities you're seeing from CLARITY and Unite, how receptive prospective clients have been and also the potential revenue and margin impact there?
Johnny Hecker: Thanks. And yes, thanks for your question, Tom. So what we're seeing is obviously, what we have seen, we've seen we've been strong with unit sales in the past. This is a suite that offers and I'm more than just faxing to mainly smaller physician offices and smaller and clinics on and offer offers a more broader suite of interoperable products than than just track. And we're seeing we're forcing continued interest in this product and we have a very focused our sales initiative on that product line, and that has really paid off in Q1 on strong sales. Secondly, and your question with regards to clarity, as I mentioned in the call, we've won our first customers for the Clarity platform. We are in the process of rolling that out from. So yes, so we bought and the increasing use cases and there's some proof of concepts going on that are beyond the prior proof of concept in certain areas we've talked about in the last couple of quarters. So there is an expanding interest in what clarity can do as a platform. And it's iterating around either a new use cases for it or derivatives of some of our existing UK use cases which would be in clinical documentation prior authorizations. In terms of your question on the margin, I would say certainly in the aggregate clarity you made really almost all the advanced services would in general be consistent with our margin structure. Some depending upon how they're deployed could have a slightly higher contribution margin. Some might be slightly lower. But as a basket, I'd say they're in line with where we operate today. And I when I say that I'm talking about an operating contribution margin, so before things like G&A and whatnot, so higher than the 54.5% EBITDA margin that we reported, which includes all of those G&A costs on the overall revenue mix of the mass injuries and is just based on the large baseline that we have in the fax business, obviously still our FX revenue and it will take some time for those advanced products to to catch up since we're still growing and as well, right. So the vast majority of our revenue mainly maintains and continues to be fax on the new sales side, very excited that we're able to book a substantial part of our of our bookings and with AdvancePCS.
Jenny Shen: Got it. That's very helpful. And in fact, and sneak in a quick follow-up here. I'm not sure if I missed it. But did you guys report a bookings number? And Mark, can you just provide some general comments around and your visibility and the pipeline? Thank you.
Johnny Hecker: So yes, the bookings you're correct. There was never a formal metric in our presentation. It is something that for a number of quarters we would talk about in the operational section. Our view was that it was not terribly helpful because it was not you cannot extrapolate from the booking numbers to a future, say, a quarter or a year worth of revenue. And it's a fairly volatile number so you can have that like with the VA comes in a very big increase, but that may spread over a number of years. So that is not something that we currently book are on track or report and don't intend to. But I think Johnny can give you sort of a feel for in terms of the sales activity and what's going on in terms of both in the core fax business. And I think you've already addressed the advanced interoperable, what we're seeing there.
Scott Turicchi: And yes, maybe to add to that, Scott, right here I think a few quarters back, I presented to continue the customer continuum, right? And it shows very clearly on the on the lower spectrum of that of that customer continuing with the smaller customers. We have a very fast and a ramp time and customers basically, Bill almost immediately no later than the end of the month after we book or close that deal on other customers that can take up to six, eight, sometimes a year, 12 months until they start contributing substantial revenue. And so that's why we were not that was more of a confusing number that was really helpful, which is why we've taken it out on the pipeline where we're doing. We're doing well. We're we continue to build pipeline. We continue to close deals that I mentioned in the call. We don't see a lot of change in behavior in the market, and we're still confronted with slow decision-making in large accounts and but we are confident that we will continue to close, but don't see a lot of change in the pace of that. And you can see that in Johnny's presentation, the driver for the new adds in the corporate channel were primarily from the upgrades from the sole channel, which was good, but they come at obviously in this continuum, a lower RPU and also the relatively good effect to protect.
Operator: [Operator Instructions]. The next question is coming from Anne Samue from JPMorgan and your line is live.
Anne Samue: Great. And congrats on the quarter guys. And I was hoping you could provide a little bit more color on the partnership that you mentioned with the revenue cycle management vendor and what that entails?
Johnny Hecker: Yes. So that is a large provider of a solution, healthcare IT provider in that space. And we jointly go to market to market our product on to their existing customer base and closely connected and then delivering documents into their systems. So and those are many, many thousands of customers that they that they currently serve, and we're going to do joint campaigns and their teams are going to reach out to their existing customers so that this is really an exciting opportunity for us to work with them.
Anne Samue: And that sounds great. And maybe just one follow-up on last quarter. You had noted that the VA partnership had started to contribute to revenue. I was just hoping you could provide an update on the rollout there and contribution in the quarter?
Johnny Hecker: So yes, so it's not that the rollout is continuing at a day. Government pays, let's call it that right. So and it's contributing at the rate that where we were expecting and there's there's ups and downs in that rollout, but it's growing now at a at a steady and continued.
Scott Turicchi: Yes. I mean, we're up to a few hundred facilities in terms of the rollout, but doesn't mean that all the facilities are fully contributory. In fact, they are not, but that's a fairly substantial increase versus where we were two or three quarters ago, which I think was in the neighborhood of 100. And of course, metal facilities in the VA are of equal relevance, prominent size or contribution. And I would say that there's we're still at the at most, I'd say, in the lower quartile to may be slightly above the mid in terms of the size, the big behemoth ones have not come online and so there continues to be a lot of opportunity in terms of how it rolls out, but then also deeper penetration within those for which the wallet has already occurred. And some of this has to do with we've talked about on prior calls, there's many different flavors of how the faxing is done within a given facility. So you have servers, you have in some cases, physical devices, think of multifunction printers. You have embedded applications within software and combinations thereof. And so what would you have inbound and outbound and the inbound is relevant because that requires reporting of telephone numbers. Outbound is not so in order to really capture all of the traffic of a given facility, you need to capture all five of those elements. And I would say most of the facilities, we don't have all five today, and there's various reasons for that. Sometimes porting of numbers of slow. Sometimes there's contracts that haven't expired yet. So it's not in that facility to that region's interest to yet disconnect from a multifunction device. So all of these things will over time roll off and accrue to our benefit as well as continue to roll out. As to your specific question, no, we're not going to give the V a specific contribution.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Fatima Boolani from Citigroup. Fatima, your line is live.
Mark Zhang: This is Mark Zhang for Fatima. You guys in smartphone for 15, but thanks for taking our questions. Maybe just wanted to touch on the SOHO to corporate conversion momentum on seems like there's no upgrade reached 1,500 accounts this quarter, which were essentially higher than your usual cadence of call it around a 1,200 mark on business number one ahead of your internal expectations for this quarter and your any sort of changes you're seeing in momentum there with a more favorable customer, seeing better budget to actually do these upgrades or just seeing recognizing the value of the corporate products? Thanks.
Johnny Hecker: Yes. So on like, like I mentioned, I think we're super excited about the success of this program and being even above the 1,500 mark in Q1. Key success really is here operational excellence. I think we've really learned over time to optimize and identifying the most promising customers in that sell whole base and serve them up to the team that does this upsell program. And it's a question of routine as well. I think it's taken it takes the time it takes reps to ramp and to really get in a rhythm there. And we've been able to accomplish that over the course of about three almost four quarters now. So I think those have been the key drivers, but we are really picking the right accounts to upsell into. And we see we can what patterns there are within our SOHO base of customers that are most interested in this product, it, which is which is why we're now we've learned a lot and we're confident in maintaining this program, which is why we can can make the changes during Q2 that we plan to make.
Mark Zhang: Got it. And that's all very helpful. And then maybe if I could sneak in a quick follow-up too on any sort of just presentation to the free cash flow performance this quarter from fairly no on strong. And then any update to the full year outlook for free cash flow specifically, I know last update was I'll call it low 80s for the year on the network update post the third quarter performance.
Scott Turicchi: Yes, look, you're correct. The strong free cash flow quarter. Obviously, it starts with the EBITDA. So the EBITDA outperforming generally our EBITDA is primarily cash. So the outperformance in EBITDA relative to our expectations and certainly to the prior year is the key driver. Really taxes I don't think came into play in a material way one way or the other. As you can see, the CapEx is relatively flat year over year as those and decelerations really begin now in Q2. So it's primarily that EBITDA generation. I would also say, too, as we bought in that debt, there are less expenses we have associated with the whole capital structure, but that's very much on the margin, certainly in the Q1 free cash flow. I think in terms of the full fiscal year, probably it's fair to say the gains that we banked in Q1 should be sustained through the fiscal year. So it moves us up from the low 80s to probably the mid 80s but there's, you know, there's a lot of volatility that goes into free cash flow. When you look at the four quarters, timing of tax payments is one, obviously, working capital is another. So but I think the success in Q. one and all the things that we are doing, particularly on the operational side, those should be sustainable benefits. So if there's not a surprise in the tax rate or really not much the tax rate, but the timing of our tax payments for the too often have some gap between what we have through as a tax rate and the actual timing of the payments. But there's no material change there and then we should be pretty good. It's sort of the I think, close to the mid 80s for year.
Operator: Thank you. And we did have a follow-up coming from Jon Tanwanteng from CJS Securities. Jon, your line is live.
Jon Tanwanteng: Thanks for the follow-up. I was just wondering if you will, on any early communication with Accenture and if you did, you know, are they committed to a partnership with Monsanto (NYSE:MON) and if or maybe they have other fast partners on their tech stack and you know if they are committed and how does that improve your opportunity over the long run in the public sector?
Johnny Hecker: Yes. So I think it's too early to say or a day. The deal is in progress. It hasn't closed yet on where we're actually excited about and bullish about this deal. I think the footprint that Accenture has in the federal government is far larger, then the know very focused an approach that Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH) they had. So it's really a good addition to the Accenture offering because they complement each other very well and offer us the expansion more broadly. We haven't talked to them yet as it is and isn't closed some But but our I think our offering right now in the in the federal government space at the security level that we're at is fairly exclusive. And so we are confident that that we can actually benefit from this from this merger.
Jon Tanwanteng: Okay, great. And then, Tom, can you just go into the RPU in corporate in Q1, it was up sequentially and I didn't catch why if you could dive into that and tell me what you expect going forward, that would be helpful.
Scott Turicchi: So the arc in the quarter, we had some items last quarter that we mentioned with respect to some cash collections and terminations of customers. So it's a mix, it's a mix of that. And basically the quarter over quarter, you know, increase and number and our own revenue for the for the quarter, when you look at it sequentially versus Q1 two and three of last year, it's very comparable. Yes, I would say the last five quarters have been within a fairly narrow band that are out there. You can move up at 300, some dollar base, a few dollars positive or negative off of that. And I would argue that kind of goes into just things happen throughout a quarter. So I wouldn't I wouldn't make a lot about it other than I would say they are but has been stable within a tight range for five quarters.
Operator: Thank you. There are no other questions from the lines and Scott, over to you for any Internet questions?
Scott Turicchi: Sure. We do. Yes, we do have a couple that have come in by e-mail. One is a really, I think, a guidance question, which is how to think of corporate revenue growth going forward, given the 4% growth in Q1 and the acceleration off the 3% we've seen the last preceding three quarters, I wouldn't have a couple of comments, one one quarter in itself does not make a trend. So I think from a broader guidance standpoint, I would still be guiding people from a revenue and EBITDA towards the midpoint of our ranges on EPS, I would be closer to maybe even above closer to the higher end of the range, as Jim and others mentioned at the bottom line, there are these FX revaluations that are non-cash were positive in the quarter. Of course, in Q4 they were heavily negative. We think we're getting close to mitigating that volatility. But so far on a year-to-date basis, certainly for the three months and I could probably through April now they are definitely to the positive. So that's adding probably $0.15, $0.16 to the bottom line certainly in the quarter, $0.16 is probably $0.15 $0.16 for the year right now. But I wouldn't I wouldn't be breaking out our corporate and extrapolating or the inference the question might be well, plus 4% this quarter can be 5% and 6% to 7%. Now I don't I don't we're not there yet. Let's see how Q2 goes, let's see how the book of business builds some of the things that Jay talked about, how they contribute both in the quarter and the balance of the year. And then we can revisit that on the Q2 call. The second question had to do with the solar business and whether the full impact of the marketing spend strategy has been realized in Q1. And the answer is no in the sense that there was a ramp down. So there wasn't the full quarter benefit, if you will, of the savings because actually back to the earlier question of if you can be down 1.6 in revenue sequentially from Q1 to Q2, how do you have your EBITDA? Not quite but close to flat and that's because there are some marketing dollars come out. The as we went through the first three months of Q1, there was a ramp down. So as you go into Q2, it's at a lower level, should be an average lower level in Q2 than in Q1. Having said that, we found some very good opportunities where to spend money and some very good LTV to cap. So something that we are evaluating and something I mentioned in my opening remarks is, are there opportunities to put a few more dollars to work at some very attractive economics. And if the answer to that question is yes, then there may be some incremental dollars added to the core budget or to the baseline. But in general, I think you should assume somewhat less marketing spend in Q2 than in Q1 based on, you know, sort of that midpoint of the guidance, which would have a little bit of downward pressure on the net adds, but that would be more than offset by the savings from the marketing dollars not spent. And those are all the questions we have via e-mail before we conclude, I would just like to let you all know that we have four upcoming investor conferences tomorrow. Oppenheimer has a virtual conference. There is no formal presentation. It is one one only. So at this point, I think if you have not signed up, it's probably too late on Tuesday of next week. Goldman Sachs has a high-yield conference that will be participating in once again, that's one of the ones only no formal presentation, but on June fifth, we'll be at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference. There will be a presentation and it will be webcast. We will also be available for one-on-ones and then a week later on June the 13th, we'll be at the Goldman Sachs Healthcare field of health care conference Equity Conference. And once again, there will be a presentation that will be webcast and will also be available for one-on-one the next formal call. In terms of discussing Q2 results will be in August. Look for a press release within a few weeks sometime in July to give you the exact date and time, and we appreciate your participation for this call to go over our Q1 results.
Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day and thank you for your participation.
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