Stuart M. Huizinga
Analyst · Janney Capital
Thanks, Gary, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll start by reviewing our financial results for the fourth quarter and calendar year 2011. Our fourth quarter revenue was $43.1 million and our 2011 annual revenue was $151.6 million.
Commission revenue for the fourth quarter, which includes commissions we generated in our Medicare business, was $31.3 million. Other revenue, which includes sponsorship, eCommerce On-Demand, Government Systems and Medicare lead revenue, was $11.8 million.
For the quarter, our total other revenue plus Medicare commissions represented over 36% of total revenue compared to approximately 22% of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Fourth quarter 2011 Medicare revenue was approximately $12.5 million. I'd like to note that our fourth quarter revenue declined 4% compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 revenue of $44.7 million as adjusted for a onetime revenue item in Q4 2010. As a reminder, in 2010, our fourth quarter and full year results included a onetime revenue item of approximately $6 million or $0.15 on an earnings per share basis, reflecting a commission prepayment that we received from one of our carrier partners on a number of existing policies and members. The 4% year-over-year decline in fourth quarter revenues was attributed primarily to a $2.9 million decrease in commission revenues resulting from the impact of the reduction in our Individual & Family Plan commission rates, which became effective in January of 2011.
This reduction in IFP commissions however was partially offset by our strong results in our emerging Medicare business, including growth in our Medicare commission and referral-based revenues. In the fourth quarter, our individual and family major medical plans submitted applications declined 7% year-over-year, which was a marked improvement from the 3 prior quarters. And as Gary mentioned, in 2012, our submitted application growth rates are expected to further improve. In fact, we are currently planning flat to low single-digit growth in IFP submitted applications for the full year 2012 compared to 2011.
Our total estimated membership at the end of the quarter was approximately 815,500 members, which represents 5% growth of our estimated membership reported at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010. The number of revenue-generating Individual & Family Plan members declined 1%, while the number of other members increased 44%, driven by growth in Medicare enrollments and certain ancillary products.
We expect the uninterrupted year-over-year total membership growth to continue into 2012.
And now I'd like to review our operating expenses for the quarter.
Excluding stock-based compensation and the amortization of acquired intangibles, our non-GAAP operating expenses increased relative to the comparable period a year ago. This increase is driven mainly by our investment in the Medicare business, which is primarily focused in the areas of marketing and advertising and customer care and enrollment. The impact of this investment was partially offset by our initiatives to reduce the acquisition and customer care cost in the individual business and by lower Individual & Family Plan application volume during the quarter relative to Q4 2010.
Fourth quarter 2011 non-GAAP marketing and advertising expense, which excludes stock-based compensation expense, was 42% of revenue. This represented an increase compared to 34% of revenue in Q4 2010 excluding stock-based compensation and the onetime revenue item of $6 million, which I described earlier. Higher marketing and advertising expense during the quarter reflected strong annual growth and demand generated by our Medicare platforms.
Similar to our individual business, in Medicare, we expense our costs related to member acquisition upfront, but recognize revenues over the lifetime of that member. As Gary mentioned, demand for our Medicare products grew significantly on an annual basis during the quarter, driving an increase in Medicare-related marketing and advertising spend of over $5 million versus Q4 2010.
In the individual business, we continue to reduce our marketing spend, both on an aggregate and on a per unit basis relative to 2010. On a per unit basis, our cost of acquisition excluding Medicare costs, measured as our total marketing and advertising expense per individual on an Individual & Family Plan submitted application, declined to its lowest level since the second quarter of 2008. This represents a 12% decline from the fourth quarter a year ago.
For the full year 2011, our GAAP marketing and advertising expense as a percent of revenue was 37.5% within the target range of 37% to 39% that we set at the beginning of the year.
Our non-GAAP customer care and enrollment cost as a percentage of revenue, excluding stock-based compensation and the $6 million onetime revenue item in 2010, increased from 12% in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 15% in the fourth quarter of 2011, reflecting an expansion of our customer care team and related expenses in the Medicare space.
Excluding Medicare, our customer care and enrollment costs would have declined versus Q4 2010. Going forward, we expect that our customer care and enrollment costs will peak in the fourth quarter during which Medicare Annual Enrollment takes place and moderate in Q1 as we pare down our customer care staff.
Fourth quarter non-GAAP operating income, excluding stock-based compensation and the amortization of acquired intangibles, was 15% of revenue or $6.6 million, down from 27% of revenue or $12.2 million in the fourth quarter a year ago, excluding the onetime revenue item I described earlier.
EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2011 was $7.2 million as compared to EBITDA of $12.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2010 excluding the onetime item.
In 2011, we continued to benefit from past net operating loss carryforwards, which reduced the cash taxes we paid relative to what we record as expense in our GAAP income statement. In 2012, we expect to pay higher cash taxes and become a full cash taxpayer by 2013.
For 2012, we expect our GAAP tax rate to be in the range of 45% to 48%, while we expect to pay cash taxes of just over 40%. This compares to a cash tax rate of 13% in 2011.
Fourth quarter 2011 GAAP earnings per share were $0.11 and full year 2011 GAAP EPS was $0.31, on the low end of our guidance range of $0.31 to $0.40 due primarily to our decision to invest more aggressively in Medicare starting in the third quarter and to fulfill more Medicare demand directly in-house. We chose to do this because direct in-house fulfillment represents a significantly higher revenue stream compared to the monetization of leads.
Our cash flow from operations was $2.5 million compared to $3.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. For the year, our cash flow was $22.5 million, up from $20.5 million in 2010. Capital expenditures for the fourth quarter of 2011 were proximally $500,000 and were approximately $2.4 million for the full year.
I would now like to comment on the balance sheet. Our cash balance was approximately $123.6 million at December 31, 2011, reflecting $25 million of stock repurchased during 2011 under stock repurchase programs.
In January 2012, we completed our most recent $30 million share repurchase program at an average per share price of $13.78. We have now accumulatively acquired $90 million worth or 6.4 million shares of our stock pursuant to 3 share repurchase programs.
Our guidance for 2012 is as follows. We're forecasting revenues for 2012 to be in the range of $150 million to $156 million. We expect 2012 EBITDA to be in the range of $21 million to $26 million. We calculate EBITDA by adding stock-based compensation and depreciation and amortization, including the amortization of acquired intangibles to our GAAP operating income.
Starting with 2012, we are providing EPS guidance on a non-GAAP basis, excluding stock-based compensation, amortization of intangibles and the estimated tax benefit to both, to align our guidance closer with the underlying operating performance and practices of our peers.
Non-GAAP diluted EPS for 2012 calculated on this basis is expected to be in the range of $0.56 to $0.66 per share compared to 2011 non-GAAP EPS of $0.59.
For the full year 2012, stock-based compensation is expected to be approximately $6.5 million to $8 million and the amortization of intangibles is expected to be approximately $1.7 million in 2012.
The effective tax rate for these items is approximately 34% to 36%. In addition to guidance, I would like to make some further comments regarding our outlook. We're pleased to be able to project a return to revenue and EPS growth this year. However, we do not expect this growth to be linear, and it's important to understand the new seasonal patterns emerging in our business.
Because of the changes in the commission structure in the individual business and our fast-growing Medicare business, the seasonality of our revenues and earnings is changing. For example, we expect that our revenues will decline in the first and second quarters in mid to high single-digit percentage ranges compared to the same quarters in 2011. We expect that we will grow revenues on an annual basis in the third and fourth quarters and also for the full year 2012 as indicated by the midpoint of our guidance. Also, because of revenue and expense timing to our Medicare business, we expect that earnings will be back-end loaded towards the fourth quarter and be slightly better than breakeven in the first quarter of 2012.
I want to remind you that these comments on our guidance are based on current indications for our business, which may change at any time. We undertake no obligation to update these comments or our guidance.
And now we'd like to open up the call for questions. Operator?