Brian Miller
Analyst · Roth Capital
Thanks, John. Yesterday afternoon Tyler Technologies reported its results for the first quarter ended March 31st. You’ve seen the press release and our 10-Q has also been filed, so I’m going to comment on some of the key factors in the quarter and then move on to John’s comments on the current quarter, and update our outlook for the remainder of 2012.
Revenues for the first quarter were $82.7 million, a new quarterly high, and up 12.7%, compared to $73.4 million for the first quarter of 2011. Organic revenue growth was 8.3% this quarter, led by increases in our recurring revenues for maintenance and subscriptions, as well as growth in our software license revenue for the second consecutive quarter.
Our acquisitions of Windsor Management Group in the fourth quarter of 2011 and UniFund in early March accounted for revenues of $3.3 million in the first quarter, or 4.4 percentage points of gross.
Software license revenues grew 9.1% from last year’s first quarter, of which organic growth accounted for 4.1% of the increase. Subscriptions continued to be our fastest-growing revenue line and grew to 43.1%. Organic growth was 38.2% in the quarter and the impact of acquisitions was 4.9%.
In the first quarter we added 11 new subscription-based arrangements and converted 17 existing installed clients, compared to a total of 13 new subscription arrangements and 1 conversion in the first quarter of 2011.
During the first quarter, approximately 19% of our new software customers chose the SaaS arrangement, while 81% bought our software with a deployed solution and perpetual license.
The subscriptions line also includes the growing revenue stream from transaction-based revenues, such as e-filing in the courts and online payments. In the first quarter of 2012 these revenues totaled $2.2 million, up from $1.4 million in the first quarter of last year.
Software services revenues increased 10.5%, of which 6.8% was organic and 3.7% resulted from acquisitions. Organic growth was primarily driven by higher software license revenue arrangements and services associated with recent large court system contracts.
Maintenance revenue growth was 12.2%, of which 6.7% was from organic growth due to a combination of new revenues associated with license sales in the past year and annual rate increases for existing clients.
Our maintenance revenue growth rate continues to be reduced somewhat by the offset -- by the effect of existing installed clients converting to our hosted offerings, which results in a loss of maintenance revenue offset by a larger increase in subscription revenue. The acquisitions of Windsor and UniFund contributed 5.5% of the maintenance growth in the first quarter.
Together recurring revenues from subscriptions and maintenance comprised approximately 60% of our total revenues for the first quarter and grew 17.3% year-over-year.
Appraisal services revenue decreased 8.3% in the first quarter, primarily due to the completion of a major revaluation project in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. We were in the startup stages of several smaller new projects, including several in Ohio.
Other revenue for the first quarter includes a $121,000 of royalties on sales of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 by other Microsoft partners. These royalties were paid in the quarter for sales in the fourth quarter of 2011.
For the first quarter of 2011, our blended gross margin was 45.2%, compared to 44.4% in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin for our software licenses increased 290 basis points, with the higher level of licensed revenues and a mix with less third-party software.
The blended software services, maintenance and subscriptions margin increased to 110 basis points, reflecting the leverage in the incremental recurring revenues. Also the hardware and other margin increased 210 basis points from the year-ago quarter.
These were offset by a decrease in our appraisal services margin from 38.3% last year to 33.2% this year, reflecting the lower level of appraisal services revenue combined with the shift towards projects that are generally at normal margins compared to the higher margins we achieved on certain larger projects in the last 2 years.
SG&A expense was 25.8% of total revenue, compared to 23.6% in last year’s first quarter. The increase in SG&A expense is attributable to a variety of factors, some of which are non-recurring. First quarter 2012 SG&A reflects increased headcounts in sales and some internal support functions, as well as costs associated with new office facilities.
Onetime costs included increased payroll taxes associated with higher incentive compensation payments in the quarter and expenses associated with acquisitions.
We also recorded higher stock compensation expense, which reflects the increase in our stock price and higher commissions related to the increase in sales over last year. In addition, the newly acquired companies added approximately $620,000 of SG&A expense for the quarter.
Non-cash stock compensation expense was $1.8 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to $1.4 million in the first quarter of 2011. $248,000 was included in cost of revenues and $1.6 million was included in SG&A expense for the current quarter.
Net research and development expense increased 12%, to $5.1 million for the first quarter of 2012, compared to $4.5 million for the same period last year. We did not have any R&D expense reimbursement recognized under our agreement with Microsoft in the first quarter of 2012, while R&D expense was offset by $415,000 in the first quarter of 2011.
We currently expect additional R&D reimbursement offsets of approximately $1 million in 2012. Although the timing of the reimbursement is subject to change, we currently expect it to all be recorded in the third quarter of 2012.
Operating income for the first quarter was $10 million and was flat with the first quarter of 2011. Net income for the quarter was $5.7 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, compared to net income of $5.7 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2011.
The fully diluted share count declined in the first quarter by approximately 1.2 million shares compared to last year’s first quarter, primarily as a result of our stock repurchases in 2011. Our effective tax rate for the first quarter was 39.2%.
We did not repurchase any shares during the first quarter. As of March 31, 2012, we had approximately 30 million common stock shares outstanding and authorizations to repurchase up to a total of 1.7 million additional shares.
Free cash flow for the first quarter was $17.0 million, compared to $9.7 million for the same period in 2011. Excluding real estate CapEx, our free cash flow was $17.1 million versus $16.3 million for the year ago quarter.
Receivables continued to perform well. Day sales outstanding and accounts receivable were 64 days at March 31, 2012, an improvement of 17 days, compared to 81 days at March 31, 2011.
We collected a significant receivable which had been outstanding for an extended period of time in connection with wind down of a large contract. Our backlog at March 31, 2012, was $332.1 million, up 26.7%, compared to $262.1 million at March 31, 2011.
Backlog related to our software business which excludes backlog from our appraisal services contracts, was $307.8 million in the current quarter, a 32% increase compared to $233.2 million a year ago.
Appraisal services backlog was $24.3 million at March 31, 2012, compared to $29.0 million at March 31, 2011. Backlog at March 31, 2012, included approximately $98.5 million of maintenance, compared to about $81.6 million a year ago.
Our first quarter bookings, which are calculated from the change in backlog plus revenues, were up almost 39% over the first quarter of 2011. Excluding acquired backlog bookings were up approximately 35%.
For the 12 months ended March 31st, bookings were up approximately 16% over the prior 12-month period. Excluding the effect of acquisitions bookings rose approximately 14% in the last 12 months.
During the first quarter of 2012, we signed 12 new contracts that included software licenses greater than $100,000 and those contracts had an average license of $503,000. In the first quarter of 2011, we signed 15 contracts with software licenses greater than $100,000 and those contracts had an average license of $232,000.
With more of our backlog comprised of multi-year subscription agreements, as well as certain software contracts that will be multi-year implementations, the timing of the back -- the recognition of backlog has lengthened.
On the balance sheet, we ended the first quarter of 2012 with $11.9 million in cash and investments, and $56 million in outstanding borrowings under our $150 million revolving credit facility. At March 31, we had $88.1 million of availability under the agreement. The average interest rate on our borrowings in the quarter was 3.3%.
During the first quarter, we completed the acquisitions of Akanda and UniFund for a total of $5.8 million in cash. The purchase price of Akanda excluding liabilities assumed was $2.1 million of which $900,000 was paid in prior periods, and the net cash purchase price of UniFund was $4.6 million.
We did not expect these acquisitions to have material impact on earnings for 2012. Also subsequent to the end of the first quarter, we completed the acquisition of CSA, for a cash purchase price of $9.8 million.
Our total headcount grew by 21 to 2,112 employees at the end of the quarter, compared to 2,091 at the end of the fourth quarter. The quarter end headcount includes 44 people added with the 2 acquisitions.
Now, I’d like to turn the call back over to John for his further comments.