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Maximus, Inc. (MMS)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, May 8, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the MAXIMUS, 2014, second quarter conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Lisa Miles, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations for MAXIMUS. Thank you. You may now begin.

Lisa Miles

Management

Good morning. Thank you for joining us on today’s conference call. I would like to point out that we’ve posted a presentation on our website under the Investor Relations page to assist you in following along with the call. With me today is Rich Montoni, Chief Executive Officer; David Walker, Chief Financial Officer, and Bruce Caswell, President and General Manager of the Health Services Segment. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that a number of statements being made today will be forward-looking in nature. Please remember that such statements are only predictions and actual events and results may differ materially as a result of risks we face, including those discussed in Exhibit 99.1 of our SEC filings. We encourage you to review the summary of these risks in our most recent 10-K filed with the SEC. The company does not assume any obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Today’s presentation may contain non-GAAP financial information. Management uses this information in its internal analysis of results and believes that this information maybe informative to investors in gauging the quality of our financial performance, identifying trends in our results and providing meaningful period-to-period comparisons. For a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures presented in this document, please see the company’s most recent quarterly earnings press release. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Dave.

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

Thanks Lisa. This morning MAXIMUS reported second quarter revenue of $439 million. This compares to $326.4 million reported for the same period last year. As a reminder, last year’s second quarter results included the effect of a one time revenue benefit of $16 million and $10.9 million in pretax income related to the termination of a contract acquired with PSI in 2012. The nature of this termination is such, that it is unlikely to be repeated and does not reflect the underlying nature of the business. Accordingly as in prior years, we will provide comparatives that exclude the effect of this contract termination. A Press Release includes reconciliations from our GAAP results to non-GAAP numbers, showing our results excluding this contract. On a GAAP basis, revenue increased 35% compared to the same period last year and organic growth was 30%. Excluding the $16 million of revenue from the terminated contract, second quarter revenue grew 41% compared to the same period last year and organic growth was 36%. We experienced some currency headwinds in the quarter and as a result on a constant currency basis revenue growth would have been better at 37% or 44% excluding the terminated contract. Top and bottom line increases for the quarter were attributable primarily to the growth in our domestic health business, much of which was tied to contracts related to the Affordable Care Act. As expected consolidated operating income was strong and totaled $65.5 million in the second fiscal quarter and operating margin was 14.9%. For the second quarter, income from continuing operations net of taxes increased to $41.2 million or $0.59 per diluted share. This included a $0.01 tax benefit that was offset by $0.01 of legal and settlement expense. Normalizing for these items, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 64% to $0.59…

Richard Montoni

Management

Good morning and thank you David. Our solid results in the quarter reflect our success in responding to our clients needs, especially during the first year of such a high profile reform effort as the Affordable Care Act. As a trusted partner to governments, we see many opportunities to provide them with innovative, flexible and scalable ways to reform their social programs. However, it often takes years for these new programs to move forward from concept to launch, to a normalized steady state. What we are seeing payout today are the long-term growth strategies from MAXIMUS. As a reminder, these include enhancing our U.S. operations by supporting clients through the next phase of the Affordable Care Act, expanding our international operations through health and human services opportunities in multiple geographies, and growing our federal business as evidence by several years of robust growth in this business line. I’d like to walk you through each of these drivers and provide you updates and details on how they continue to server as growth platforms. Lets start off with our U.S. operations and the largest growth driver to fiscal ’14, supporting our clients’ efforts to meet the requirements under ACA. We mentioned on last quarters call that our clients faced some significant technology challenges during the first open enrolment period. In response, MAXIMUS provided enhanced consumer assistance through our customer contact centers. In many cases we helped the consumers complete applications over the phone in order to finish the enrolment processes. This led to a high spike in volumes in many of our HIX contact centers. In fact, our customer service representatives across all or our centers handled a total of approximately five million calls from October through March. We were able to react to the volume increases quickly. Our operational model is…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Charlie Strauzer from CJS Securities.

Charlie Strauzer - CJS Securities

Analyst · CJS Securities

Hi, good morning.

Richard Montoni

Management

Good morning Charlie. How are you?

Charlie Strauzer - CJS Securities

Analyst · CJS Securities

Good. I was hoping Richard or David, you know if you could give us a little bit more color on how we should think about the breakdown between quarters and the guidance from both a segment perspective and a margin perspective, to help us kind of plan out models. There’s a shift that sounds like a little bit more on the back half.

Richard Montoni

Management

All right Charlie, I would be glad to do that. I’m going to ask Dave Walker to take the lead on it.

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

Hi Charlie. Yes, from a consolidated perspective, we have additional work coming through that uplifts our guidance for the year as you know and compared to the second quarter, the third quarter maybe seasonally lower and the fourth quarter may come on a bit stronger and this is due to some of the larger HIX contact centers winding down after the first open enrollment and then ramping back up for the next open enrollment period. In addition, historically we’ve seen seasonality in the fourth quarter at the end of the government fiscal. In Human Services, our guidance for Human Services remains unchanged. However we’ve had some currency headwinds, which mostly impact Human Services, so we expect revenue for the remainder of the year to be fairly consistent with Q2 and we still expect that operating margin for the remainder of the year will run towards the lower half of our 10% to 15% range. In Health, our guidance rate is principally driven by health segment and this work is expected to come in a bit stronger in Q4 as we prepare for the next open enrollment period. So overall, we still expect that that segment would deliver full year operating margin towards the higher end of our 10% to 15% range.

Charlie Strauzer - CJS Securities

Analyst · CJS Securities

Great. And then Rich maybe you can talk a little bit more about JobPath, Ireland. I know that’s a relatively new opportunity for you.

Richard Montoni

Management

Glad to do that Charlie and there’s a number of opportunities that we have out there and over in the European geography. I’m not going to get into any particular one that’s in progress, but there are a number of countries as we’ve talked about over the years that we think will be right for opportunities and we’ll sort through them, we’ll submit proposals where its appropriate and keep our fingers crossed that we’ll be successful.

Charlie Strauzer - CJS Securities

Analyst · CJS Securities

Great. Thank you very much.

Lisa Miles

Management

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Carl McDonald from Citigroup.

Carl McDonald - Citigroup

Analyst · Citigroup

Great, thank you. I had a question on the Australia rebid. Point well taken on them preferring the performance measures over price. I think you’ve also talked about the Australia contract being above the high end of the margin target range. So is it right to think about it as part of a rebid process that margins probably would come back more towards the target level?

Richard Montoni

Management

Carl, I think that’s a fair question and generally we see performance based contracts towards the higher end of the range and in a rebid environment its always possible that government will come back and change the terms, the conditions, the pay points that give you some adjustment, but in my mind I haven’t really put this one on the table as one where I expect a degree of uncertainty. I have not felt that this is one where we’d expect a dramatic change in margins.

Carl McDonald - Citigroup

Analyst · Citigroup

Okay. And then just on the timing of that, if the rebid comes out at the end of this year, the projected timeline for when that new contract would start.

Richard Montoni

Management

That would be for July 1, 2015 in terms of a handover if that happens.

Carl McDonald - Citigroup

Analyst · Citigroup

Got it. Thank you very much.

Richard Montoni

Management

You bet.

Lisa Miles

Management

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Dave Styblo from Jefferies.

Dave Styblo - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions guys. Staying on the Australia topic here, could you help us understand a little bit more of the additional work that you won. It sounds like some of the DMS revenue is going to fall in this year, but most of the JSA would happen next year. Can you maybe quantify the impact that that’s having on guidance for this year.

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

No, it doesn’t impact it greatly and its included in the guidance this year and it has a much more dramatic impact next year obviously.

Dave Styblo - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Okay, and then I guess before I had thought the government’s approach and frequency of reallocating work would happen more around the rebid. So is there an opportunity for you guys to win even more as they go through a rebid or was this reallocation something about a one-off event that they decided to do at this time.

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

We don’t do it as a one-off event. I think its pretty much a recurring element of their process and they are quite proud of it and I think it’s a good feature. They do a quarterly star ratings program and they use that as a driver to reallocate work and I think it’s a very important mechanism for them to drive best value in the program. So in sum, I don’t think it is a one-off type situation and I had not thought of it as something tied closely to the rebid situation. And interestingly enough, when you think it through, given that methodology it almost sets up a rebid situation where all things considered equal, there’s likely to be less turnover during a rebid than other types of models.

Dave Styblo - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Okay, and if I could ask my follow-up on the appeals, I know the last quarter you talked about the RAC appeals and some of the volumes easing for next year. You knew you had lot of spike for this year for stabilization, but the offsets to that, but you had mentioned the California Workers Comp. I’m curious, is the margin profile on that business similar to perhaps the decline that you may observe in RAC?

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

The margin on those businesses are very comparable, so in fact the margin backfills quite nicely for any down term we may see in other areas and it really does manage like a portfolio; some are up, some are down with very similar margin features. It tends to be transaction based and run on a very careful basis across the U.S.

Dave Styblo - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Okay, thanks.

Richard Montoni

Management

You bet. Thank you.

Lisa Miles

Management

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Brian Kinstlinger from Sidoti & Co. Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Co.: Great, thanks. Good morning guys.

Richard Montoni

Management

Good morning Brian. Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Co.: In your result to date, can you confirm you haven’t received meaningful revenue from appeals? I think you said the DOE also is launching in August and then when do you expect these two programs to be in a serious ramp?

Lisa Miles

Management

Brian, I just want to ask you a clarifying question. Do you mean the eligibility appeals tied to the federal marketplace contract? Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Co.: That’s right, thank you.

Lisa Miles

Management

Okay.

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

You know Brian that contract is ramping up nicely and it’s running consistent with our expectations.

Richard Montoni

Management

And the DOE contract as you know is early stages and as well as ramping up and I think the handout susceptive is scheduled to be effective August timeframe.

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

August, yes, fourth quarter.

Richard Montoni

Management

So then I think the key takeaway is there are very early ramp stages moving forward according to our plan and obviously given they are early start ups, we watch them very, very closely.

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

And DOE will not be material this year. Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Co.: And in Australia, the volumes that your expecting on caseloads are up 33%, 75,000 to 100,000, yet you only expect 10% to 15% more revenue. Maybe you can talk about the disconnect between those two numbers.

Richard Montoni

Management

Sure, I’ll be glad to do that. I think that the major factor and keep in mind, these are very, very early estimates. I know you still have to sit down with the client and negotiate the particulars, so all that’s subject to change. But that being said, these early estimates, the difference really is a function of mix and as you know you get paid different, meaningfully different pay points for different types of cases that we handle, so the difference would really be in the mix category. Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Co.: Thank you.

Richard Montoni

Management

Sure.

Lisa Miles

Management

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Richard Close from Avondale Partners.

Richard Close - Avondale Partners

Analyst · Avondale Partners

Yes, thank you for allowing me to ask the questions. With respect to the long-term growth, you highlighted the 10% and then you commented ’15 is expected to be a good growth year. So is a good growth year somewhere between the 10% and what we’re achieving in the current fiscal year.

Richard Montoni

Management

I think it’s a great question Richard and my sense on this is, again, its really too early to put a percentage or even a range if you will on what does a good growth year mean. I don’t think it’s a simple yes or no answer and I think it’s too early to handicap, because we’ve got so many pieces that are moving. I think a good growth year in my mind is a growth year that supports our long term, not meaning single year 10% metric, but a long term view that we can grow our business 10% and if we have confirming evidence in any year that that’s a very reasonable expectation, then I put that in the good category.

Richard Close - Avondale Partners

Analyst · Avondale Partners

With respect to the pending new opportunities I think that your talking in terms of long term, growth in ’15 and beyond, as you think about those opportunities, as you sit here today and obviously you guys give us a six month pipeline and you can see things out farther than that – I guess as pleased with the opportunities today as we were a year ago or how do you see the overall business? Is it improving or is it normalizing?

Richard Montoni

Management

I think that’s a good question as well Richard. I this, again I think long term. I think the nature of our business model, the nature of our industry is that it’s a multiyear process to generate long term growth, and given the long term nature of some of these opportunities that can take several years to go from thought to final contract. We really do have to look at things over a long-term period and that’s why we always refer to the long term growth drivers that we think are decades long in nature. And I do think that you’ll have years and certainly this year is one of those years where we have a hyper growth rate. Given 30% plus type growth rates, those don’t sustain forever. I think clearly this year we’ve benefited from perhaps the most significant piece of legislation in the United States history in the social programs and we’ve had a front row seat in that regard. So the Affordable Care Act will not repeat in fiscal ’15. So we’ll see some abatement. That being said, I’m very pleased to see that there are other programs in health and human services, not only in the U.S., but in other countries that are stepping up in carrying us forward into future years. Whether all of that adds up to be 15% plus in fiscal ‘15 or not I think is one metric, but I also look at how does it shape up in years beyond ’15 and again, I fall back to that long-term 10% plus growth rate.

Richard Close - Avondale Partners

Analyst · Avondale Partners

All right. Thank you very much.

Richard Montoni

Management

You’re welcome.

Lisa Miles

Management

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Frank Sparacino from First Analysis. Frank Sparacino – First Analysis: Hi guys. I was just wondering if you could maybe give some additional color on Medicaid expansion particularly. I’m not sure if there’s any way to quantify what the impact has been thus far, but almost more curious, just relative to your expectations, how do you see that this year and next year.

Richard Montoni

Management

Good morning Frank. Also with us here is Bruce Caswell and I think most of you know Bruce. Bruce is the General Manager and President of our Health Segment and we are going to ask Bruce to talk a little bit about that.

Bruce Caswell

Analyst · First Analysis

Sure and good morning Frank, it’s a great question. One way to address this is I would really look at it at a top level from the enrolment numbers that have come out recently. And when you look at the sources, overall about 13.5 million newly eligible individuals have been determined eligible to enroll, and that breaks out into about 8.7 million who are ABTC or tax credit eligible, of which the numbers suggest that about 8 million of them have already paid, selected their plan and paid their premium. The remainder is new Medicaid CHIP lives. So that’s about 6.7 million nationally. Of which about 2.25 million are attributable to woodwork effects. So these are individuals that would have previously eligible under program rules, who because of the outreach efforts of the program obviously came into Medicaid. So if you net the 2.25 from the 6.7, I think you get actually at an aggregate scale the Medicaid expansion effect and there is some data that’s been published out there that breaks that out by state; obviously with the 25 states that are participating Medicaid expansion and those that are not. Our view has been and continues to be that Medicaid expansion is a long-term trend. There will be states that over time will expand Medicaid because of obviously the pressures related to the loss of disproportionate share payments, to the hospitals. We’ve seen pressurization during the state legislative season. Just this year it remains the number one issue; for example, as Virginia tries to get to a budget. In addition to that, CMS is very much indicated flexibility to states that seek waivers to expand Medicaid on their own terms. And a core element of that is doing an expansion that has a component of personal responsibility, whether its financial participation, something as simple as a $2 co-pay every time you go see a physician, to some element of personal responsibility and engaging in active and healthy lifestyle behavior. So we see states now that are crafting expansion programs. Arkansas was kind of the poster child for this originally, but there are a number of others; Pennsylvania, Michigan and others that are looking at doing expansion on their terms and we feel that we are in an excellent position as an incumbent providing with existing infrastructures. With this it goes back several years. We said we’ve got programs and technology that can be, if you will, pivoted to support those expansion initiatives. So we feel very strongly about our position in assisting those states as this in a multiyear basis continues to roll out. Next question please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question is a follow up from Brian Kinstlinger from Sidoti & Co. Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Co.: Great, thanks. In the U.K. work program you said you were eligible to bid and that vendors can pick any new region. I’m curious, is every vendor that’s there eligible to bid or did you have to meet certain standards and can you only add one new region, is that what you meant to say?

Richard Montoni

Management

I think that’s why we meant to say Brian. I don’t believe that all vendors are eligible, but the government does have certain criteria in order for vendors to be eligible to bid. I don’t know how many of the vendors are eligible, but it’s a subset of all of them and I believe there’s one region that we are particularly interested in.

Lisa Miles

Management

That’s correct. Brian it goes back to the original framework and what vendors were allowed to bid in that specific region when they did the initial work program bidding and so I’m more than happy to circle back with you, but the statistics are also on the department for Work and Pensions website in terms of what vendors are eligible to bid on the specific region. Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Company: Great, that’s helpful. And then the last question; I was surprised that gross margin in Health Services was higher in the June quarter versus the March quarter given the higher mix of cost plus work I assume from the federal programs that you are running related to ACA. So can you go over may be Dave, the puts and the takes for this line item.

Lisa Miles

Management

Do you mean the March quarter versus the December quarter? Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Company: Yes, I do, that’s the second time you had to correct me. Thank you, I do.

Richard Montoni

Management

Why don’t you just repeat the question for the other folks on the call David?

David Walker

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I mean the question is surprise about the high margins essentially this quarter on a sequential basis for Health. And we talked about the size of the change orders in the call that happened in Q2 and those were primary in Health. So we just look at the ACA and Medicaid related change orders for work performed prior to this quarter in which we got the change order portion this quarter, so its highly accretive; its $5.2 million. We’re about $4, $4.5 a share, which falls right to the bottom line. And when you talk about Dual’s and Medicaid expansion, that’s what lot of this work is. So we have been seeing expansion of Medicaid, we’ve been seeing Dual’s and other mandates under the Affordable Care Act. So again, there is a lot of change out there and that’s opportunity for us. Brian Kinstlinger - Sidoti & Company: Thank you.

Lisa Miles

Management

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time we have no further questions. I would like to thank our participants for joining. You may now disconnect.