Q1 2024 CRA International Inc Earnings Call

Participants

Daniel Mahoney; Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Treasurer; CRA International Inc

Paul Maleh; President & Chief Executive Officer; CRA International Inc

Chad Holmes; Chief Corporate Development Officer; CRA International Inc

Andrew Nicholas; Analyst; William Blair

Marc Riddick; Analyst; Sidoti & Company

Kevin Steinke; Analyst; Barrington Research Associates

Presentation

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to Charles River Associates first quarter 2024 conference call. Please note that today's call is being recorded company's earnings release and prepared remarks from CRA's Chief Financial Officer are posted on the Investor Relations section of CRA's website at CRAI. dot com. With us today are CRA's President and Chief Executive Officer, Paul O'Malley, Chief Financial Officer, Dan Mahoney, and Chief Corporate Development Officer, Chad Holmes. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Mahoney for opening remarks. Dan, please go ahead.

Daniel Mahoney

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Please note that the statements made during this conference call including guidance on future revenue and non-GAAP EBITDA margin and any other statements concerning the future business operating results or financial condition of CRA, including those statements using the terms, expect outlook or similar terms are forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21 of the Exchange Act. Information contained in these forward-looking statements is based on management's current expectations and is inherently uncertain, and actual performance and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements due to many important factors, including the level of demand for our services as a result of changes in general and industry-specific economic conditions. Additional information regarding these factors is included in today's release and in CRA's periodic reports, including our most recently filed annual report on Form 10 K and quarterly reports on Form 10 Q filed with the SEC. Cra undertakes no obligation to update any forward looking statements after the date of this call.
Additionally, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures and certain measures presented on a constant currency basis on this call, Everyone is encouraged to refer to today's release and related CFO remarks for reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their GAAP comparable measures and descriptions of the calculation of EBITDA and measures presented on a constant currency basis.
I will now turn it over to Paul for his report.
Paul?

Paul Maleh

Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.
Building on the momentum we gained at the end of last year. Sierra carried its strong performance into the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and delivered record financial results during the first quarter, revenue increased by 12.4% to 171.8 million, which represents the highest quarterly revenue in the Company's history. Profits grew at an even faster rate with non-GAAP net income earnings per diluted share and EBITDA increasing year over year by 48%, 52% and 34%, respectively. Each profit metric also set a new quarterly record for CRA. Broad-based contributions drove this strong base drove this strong performance with eight of 11 practices growing year over year. Cyries Legal & Regulatory Services led the way with a 16% increase in revenue relative to the first quarter of fiscal 2023 for the Company as a whole, we continue to replenish our sales pipeline. Our project lead flow increased in the third quarter by 3% year over year. This growth is in line with the broader legal market, which saw total case filings and total court judgments each increased 2% year over year. Cra's conversion rates remained strong and consistent with historical norms, with new project originations growing by more than 10% relative to the first quarter of 2023. During the first quarter, six practices posted double-digit revenue growth, antitrust and competition, economics, Energy Financial Economics, forensic services, labor and employment and risk investigations and analytics.
I would now like to spend a few minutes highlighting some of the projects delivered by these practices during the first quarter, capitalizing on continued demand for antitrust services and ongoing merger related activity. Our Antitrust & Competition Economics practice established a new high for quarterly revenue during the quarter. The practice continued to support clients on high-profile mergers for example, CRA experts were retained by Cisco to provide economic analyses across worldwide jurisdictions in support of its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk, a leader in cyber security with CRA's assistance. Cisco received unconditional clearance from the European Commission, while the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division declined to issue a second request elsewhere, CRA advised NEOs in its acquisition of certain assets of Total Energies. The CRA team conducted extensive economic analysis tools to assess the vertical effects of the transaction, focusing on the overlap between the targets, upstream activities and the production of ethylene and any LCs downstream polyvinyl chloride business. Consistent with results of CRA's analysis, the European Commission concluded the merged entity would have neither the ability nor the incentive to pursue any foreclosure strategy.
Cra's Antitrust & Competition Economics practice also continued to support clients in legal disputes. During the first quarter, CRA consultants prepared and delivered expert reports and testimony and antitrust class actions, international disputes and other matters arising from competition claims. The matters span various industries, including technology, healthcare, retail and commercial goods, among others. In addition to client projects, CRA's competition team was recently recognized for its outstanding performance in support of the high-profile acquisition of Activision by Microsoft at the 2024 global competition review awards in April, CRA was part of the winning team in the categories of overall matter of the year matter of the year in the United States and matter of the year in Europe. Additionally, Broadcom's acquisition of VM ware attritions, a transaction for which CRA advised VM where globally was named matter of the Year in Asia Pacific.
Last but not least, for an article that she co authored on the topic of private equity investment and its effect on competition. Isabelle tech who have principal in the practice one in the category of Best Business article general economics at the 2024 and our trust writing awards hosted by concurrent and an independent legal publisher dedicated to antitrust slower Law & Competition Economics. Congratulation to Isabel and the entire Antitrust & Competition Economics practice for these well earned accolades.
Turning to the energy sector. In the first quarter, Cyries Energy practice had continued success with utilities large any energy consumers and government agencies. The utility work included developing integrated resource plans for companies like Nesco, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company and Alliant Energy, as they continue their journey of transitioning away from fossil fuels. The practice also has been asked by multiple utility clients to evaluate reliability risks to avoid the types of rolling blackouts experienced during severe winter storms. The challenge of keeping the lights on is common in an industry that is facing significant load growth, while at the same time retiring fossil plants and placing greater reliance on renewables. Reacting to these industry changes challenges. The energy practice has been supporting several large companies that develop own and operate datacenters around the world. As clients see rapidly growing demand for data processing services, they have turned to CRA for assistance with market modeling, energy, procurement rate design and utility negotiation. During the first quarter, experts and CRA's Financial Economics practice continue to assist multiple banks and their counsel and responding to regulatory inquiries on overdraft, non sufficient funds and related fees charged on deposit account activity. Implementing these consumer remediations requires extensive analysis and reconstruction of account leveled daily transaction history and a detailed understanding of the policies embedded in the bank's core processing systems elsewhere, the practice prepared a range of fair lending analyses for a large national bank covering credit card auto mortgage and small business lending and advise the bank on the development of its internal fair lending compliance monitoring procedures.
Cra's Forensic Services practice continues to experience strong demand from clients who seek help preparing for responding to and emerging from allegations of fraud and misconduct. For example, as two technology companies sought to resolve multi-year theft of trade secret litigation, our digital forensic experts were retained to search the defendants computer systems in order to identify and purge any remaining files that had originated from the plaintiffs business. Our forensic practice also continues to help companies respond to a broad range of cyber incidents. For example, we were retained by a national law firm to investigate suspicious activity involving its network. We determined that certain systems had indeed been accessed by a threat actor over a three week period and that certain files had been appeal traded. We undertook a thorough review of these files to identify what specific information was present and to whom it relates. Ultimately, we helped the law firm notify affected parties in a timely and compliant manner while assisting the client bolster its information security environment and reduce the risk of future cyber incidents.
Cra's labor and employment practice continues to assist clients in navigating critical employment issues. During the first quarter, merit review cycle multiple clients, including businesses in the health care, telecommunications, information, technology, pharmaceuticals and legal. Our sectors engaged CRA experts to assist in the proactive assessment of compensation and promotion decisions. In addition, during the first quarter, a CRA team, a team of CRA consultants, assisted building supply, manufacture exam and the exposure associated with the miscalculation of the regular rate of pay for nonexempt employees. As it considers a possible ownership change. Also, during the first quarter, the risk investigations and analytics practice executed several large multidisciplinary investigative and expert assignments. The team was retained to investigate inconsistencies for a US-based software company with respect to revenue and receivables reporting for certain divisions of its business, a team of forensic accountants, investigative staff and data ANALYST conducted employee interviews performed investigative research into certain individuals and entities, collected relevant documents and analyzed relevant accounting and financial data to assess whether the revenue and related receivable transactions were recorded in accordance with relevant revenue recognition guidance. The team reported our results to the Board of Directors, external auditors and regulators. Additionally, during the quarter, members of the practice, including a former federal prosecutor and Risk and Financial Compliance specialists provided expert support to a banking institution and its external counsel related to accusations that the bank failed to perform adequate due diligence and transaction money and transaction monitoring for corporate accounts use in a fraud overall, I'm grateful to all of my colleagues for their hard work during the first quarter as we help their clients address their most important challenges. We are encouraged by the strong start to the year, but are mindful of macroeconomic uncertainties that can affect our business. We are trending towards the top half of our revenue and profit ranges, but we'll wait for another quarter of performance before providing any updated thoughts on our full year guidance. As such, we are reef, we are reaffirming our full year, our financial guidance.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Chad and then Dan for a few additional comments. Chad?

Chad Holmes

Thanks, Paul, and hello, everyone. I wanted to update you on our capital deployment during the quarter, we concluded the quarter with 37.1 million of cash and 70 million of borrowings under our revolving credit facility, resulting in net debt of 32.9 million. The borrowings during the first quarter were primarily to fund bonus payments, which is consistent with our practice in prior years, bonuses will be paid largely by the end of the second quarter. In addition to the normal bonus cycle, the first quarters of 2024 also saw cash outlays for talent investments of $5.3 million and $700,000 on capital expenditures. We returned a total of $12.3 million to our shareholders during the first quarter, consisting of 3.1 million of dividend payments and $9.2 million for share repurchases of approximately 66,000 shares at an average price of $140 per share. We currently have 37.2 million available under our share repurchase program.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to Dan for a few final comments.

Daniel Mahoney

Thanks, Jack.
As a reminder, more expansive commentary on our financial results is available on the Investor Relations section of our website under prepared CFO remarks.
Before we get to questions, let me provide a few additional metrics related to our performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2024.
In terms of consultant headcount, we ended the quarter at 997 consisting of 158 officers, 544 other senior staff and 295 junior staff. This represents a 2.6% increase compared with the 972 consultant headcount reported at the end of Q1 fiscal 2023. Non-gaap selling, general and administrative expenses, excluding the 2.1% attributable to commissions to nonemployee experts was 15.6% of revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 compared with 16.2% a year ago. This quarter's ratio was positively impacted by the growth in revenue and lower than expected non-reimbursed practice expenses.
The effective tax rate for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 on a non-GAAP basis was 28% compared with 29% on a non-GAAP basis for the first quarter of fiscal 2023. The lower rate in the first quarter of 2024 was largely attributable to higher profitability and a valuation allowance in the prior year that was subsequently released.
Turning to the balance sheet, DSO, at the end of the first quarter was 106 days compared with 105 days at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Dso in the first quarter consisted of 69 days of billed and 37 days of unbilled. We concluded the first quarter of fiscal 2024 with $37.1 million in cash and cash equivalents and a further 175.5 million of available capacity on our line of credit for total liquidity of 212.6 million.
That concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the call for questions. Rob, please go ahead.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Andrew Nicholas with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning.

Andrew Nicholas

Thanks for taking my questions and really strong quarter.
I wanted to talk a little bit about guidance and kind of decision to maintain. You alluded to it a little bit, Paul, in your prepared remarks, but it would seem like maintaining it after such a strong quarter implies some kind of decel as we move through the year. How much of that is conservatism versus something that you're seeing in the market versus maybe some concerns about impacts from the upcoming election. Any any other kind of thoughts on the cadence of growth as the year progresses would be helpful.

Paul Maleh

Sure.
Good morning, Andrew.
There's a number of factors that went into our decision to maintain guidance at this stage. One was the performance that we observed during fiscal 2023, which was a bit of a sawtooth pattern, our E&O, and we felt that that sawtooth pattern wasn't really related to any of CRA attributes, but more related to the broader market as a whole. We are excited that we have had two strong quarters that have been consistent with our expectations being Q4 of fiscal 2023 and Q1 of fiscal 2024. But those same kind of broader market uncertainties are prevalent in the market today. The same ones that we were experiencing in 2023 are still prevalent in the first half year of fiscal 2024. There is nothing that we have experienced internal to CRA. We haven't seen any kind of slide in demand, any kind of softening of our practices as we went through Q1. It's more just the broader uncertainty that we observe in the marketplace.

Andrew Nicholas

Makes sense. Thank you. I wanted to also ask about antitrust and maybe M&A related antitrust specifically. I mean, it sounds like things are going well in terms of large projects, but is there a sense within your organization that things are getting better on that side? It sounds like that's the case and not M&A remains really strong from what we can tell.
But any kind of color on what you're seeing on the ground on the M&A side would be great.

Paul Maleh

The Antitrust & Competition Economics practice had another excellent quarter. The majority of the growth during the quarter was driven by continued expansion of non merger anti-trust related services that we were providing we are retained on a number of large high-profile merger matters, but the number of those matters, we haven't seen any kind of discernible change than what we were experiencing throughout 2023.
There's all guesses as to when that surge is coming in the broader market.
But right now, it is still antitrust services that is driving a good portion of the practice.

Andrew Nicholas

Great.
Thank you very much.

Paul Maleh

Thank you, Andrew.

Operator

Our next question is from Marc Riddick with Sidoti & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Marc Riddick

Yes, hey, good morning.
Good morning, Mark.
So I wanted to start with you, given the strong start to the year, I was wondering sort of bring us up to speed on what we're thinking about as far as adding talent and potential headcount additions for the year on as far as the I think you're finishing the year just below 1,000. So sort of curious as to sort of how those thoughts have evolved during the course of is the strong start to the year or if that's changed from what you were thinking earlier?

Paul Maleh

Sure.
The strong start of the year or the strong ending to fiscal 23 and the strong start to the year here, but definitely help in our outlook. But I don't want to lose sight that we ended fiscal 2023 with an overall Company utilization of 70%, which was significantly lower than our targeted range of mid 70s. So we are cautiously adding headcount to areas that can support the additional capacity. So that targeting won't necessarily translate into overall headcount growth in the firm as we're trying to raise the utilization closer to our historical norms.
But by no means am I starving are the practices that are demonstrating strong performance right now.

Marc Riddick

Excellent. And then you mentioned as far as the on the conversion rates are more consistent with the norms that you've seen versus where you were at the middle or late last year, sort of can you sort of talk about maybe sort of how that pacing kind of evolved through the first quarter and sort of whether it's a monthly cadence thing or whatever was it sort of consistent through the quarter?

Paul Maleh

I'm sure you know, when we were looking back.
I know I'm supposed to be talking about Q1 of fiscal 24, but the experiences that we had during 2023 definitely influence the way we look at our information in fiscal 2023, the lead flow that was coming in was basically in line with our expectations.
Okay? So we are very happy with the success. Our consultants were having in the marketplace getting calls on these opportunities. What we were disappointed in was the conversion of those leads to revenue generating projects. As I said, during fiscal 2023. I did not believe that our failure to convert was indicative of us losing market share. And I've had now about six months of data from Q4 all the way through Q1, where my conversion, my lead flow is still roughly about what we would expect. But the conversion rate over the six months, it has been one consistent with historical norms.
And to a pretty consistent intra-quarter.
So I'm not seeing huge swings of performance month to month during that period of time. So that's good news, and we just hope that those trends continue as we move through fiscal 24.
Great.
And then certainly you've been mentioning as far as eight of the 11 practices showing showing growth. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the the demand drivers that you're seeing now is sort of how that plays into your views on visibility maybe relative to company norms historically are the trends that you're seeing that the things that are driving demand, providing an average level of visibility, maybe a little bit more or less, how should we think about that yes, that's a little difficult question for me, right.
And it goes into a bit of why one, another quarter of data before I provide any kind of update on my thoughts on annual guidance are what I'm observing inside of CRA is consistent with our expectations. I haven't seen any kind of deterioration of the demand drivers across our practices. Now there's always a bit of a a tightening of the belt may be in some of the pharmaceutical companies. But that's really it in terms of things that are directly impacting CRA, what we just can't lose sight of is everything else in the broader marketplace from the geopolitical risks to the macroeconomic risks that are happening here in the States and not a lot of uncertainty has been resolved. So shift and the broader market can, of course, impact CRA. I'm not seeing that impact to date, but we are just closely observing of those drivers.

Marc Riddick

Great.
And then the last one for me, just to maybe an update as to potential acquisition pipeline, maybe what you're seeing as far as the what the what may or may not be available out there, how that's changed maybe during the course of the year, if you're seeing a little better opportunities than maybe you were three or six months ago or and how you're feeling about the valuations that are out there as well?

Paul Maleh

Sure.
I mean, I'll let Chad Holmes address that question. I think you could give a little more color than I can.

Chad Holmes

Hey, good morning, Mark. This is Chad mantra and I hate it and the answer to the question echoes some of our past calls, the flow of opportunities that we are seeing continues to be very, very healthy, built on a backdrop of our strong performance that has been observed and recognized by some of our competitors and their practitioners who are thinking about making changes. Cra is seen as a very attractive destination for those top talent providers in our areas of expertise. So we continue to see a consistent flow of high-quality individuals in some ways, not terribly different from what it was six or 12 months ago. And we have been able to announce some hires in the talent acquisition department, but that has not depleted the pipeline. It continues to be replenished and we are evaluating them. We're not dipping our standards. We're keeping them quite high and we are pleased with what we are seeing and hopefully in the months ahead, we'll have more to announce.

Marc Riddick

Appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Paul Maleh

Thank you, Mark.

Operator

Our next question comes from Kevin Steinke with Barrington Research.
Please proceed with your question.

Kevin Steinke

Things I wanted to ask about the higher than normal retention. The consultant base that you have discussed in the recent past. Is that continuing to be the case where you're seeing less turnover than historically? And if so, how does that factor into your hiring plans as you move throughout 2024?

Paul Maleh

Sure.
Good morning, Kevin.
There's a couple of aspects to how I want to answer that. First is that attrition rates are approaching what I would consider more normal levels at CRA, but still below. So we're still, you know, keeping more staff relative to normal attrition rates that we've experienced in the past, where we are taking a bit more of a conservative approach on the labor market in terms of not hiring too far ahead of the anticipated needs right now, namely because we're still having success in the latter university hiring market and the secondary market for talent we haven't experienced any squeeze where we are fearful of being left without in our top-level talent to deliver our services.

Kevin Steinke

Okay, that's helpful. And circling back on the the rebound and conversion rate you've seen here. And obviously, as you said, a lot of the uncertainties that existed before are still out there in terms of that.

Paul Maleh

Yes, macroeconomic picture, but I mean, any sense as to and what you're hearing or seeing from your client base that there's this obviously it's indicated in the numbers, but there is more of an acceptance or comfort level with it for an environment that, you know, that's leading that or more clients moving forward, kind of despite them, despite the macro environment, they've just become more comfortable with operating in this this type of environment.
I can't point to any kind of particular evidence that I can share that allows me to say clients have shifted their outlook and willingness to begin matters. And that's what's been so frustrating over the last 15 months or so, is that there's a lot of things that are going exactly as planned. And when we are getting lower conversion rates. It's a bit of a surprise. So we're doing our best to trying to make up good economic decisions in an environment of what I still consider to be increased uncertainty, which just speaks even more to what my colleagues have delivered over the past six months here. It's really exceptional and so far so good.

Kevin Steinke

Okay, thanks.
That makes sense. Congratulations on the very strong first quarter results here.
I will turn it back over.

Paul Maleh

Great. Thank you, Kevin.

Operator

We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to from Ali for any closing or additional room.

Paul Maleh

Again, thanks to everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your time and interest in CRA. We'll be participating in meetings with investors in the coming months and look forward to updating you on our progress on our second quarter call.

Operator

With that, that concludes today's call.
Thank you.
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.