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Blackbaud Announces 2017 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results

  • Feb 06, 2018

Fourth Quarter Recurring Revenue Grows 15% representing 84% of total revenue;
Achieves 2017 Financial Guidance Topping Free Cash Flow Estimate; Announces 2018 Financial Guidance

Charleston, S.C. (February 6, 2018) – Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good, today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2017.

“This was a big year for Blackbaud; we furthered our strategic growth objectives, were named to Fortune’s 56 ‘Companies Changing the World’ list, climbed IDC’s ranking to the world’s 24th largest cloud software vendor, and most importantly, accelerated the pace of innovation and drove outcomes for our growing base of over 40,000 customers,” said Mike Gianoni, Blackbaud’s president and CEO. “The business has never been stronger and our revenue is more predictable than ever with over 80% of revenue now recurring and growing in the double-digits annually. With the combined success of our results last year, our outlook for 2018, and the recent change in the federal tax law, we are awarding an equity grant of approximately $2,000 for each Blackbaud employee not currently receiving equity so that all employees are owners and can participate in the company’s success.”

Fourth Quarter 2017 Results Compared to Fourth Quarter 2016 Results:

  • Total GAAP revenue was $217.0 million, up 9.4%, with $181.9 million in GAAP recurring revenue, representing 83.8% of total GAAP revenue, and $151.9 million in GAAP subscription revenue, representing 70.0% of total GAAP revenue.
  • Total non-GAAP revenue was $218.8 million, up 10.3%, with $183.7 million in non-GAAP recurring revenue, representing 84.0% of total non-GAAP revenue, and $153.7 million in non-GAAP subscription revenue, representing 70.3% of total non-GAAP revenue.
  • Non-GAAP organic revenue increased 4.4%, non-GAAP organic recurring revenue increased 8.8%, and non-GAAP organic subscription revenue increased 16.2%.
  • GAAP income from operations decreased 22.0% to $18.7 million, with GAAP operating margin decreasing 350 basis points to 8.6%.
  • Non-GAAP income from operations increased 5.0% to $46.0 million, with non-GAAP operating margin decreasing 110 basis points to 21.0%.
  • GAAP net income increased 77.7% to $30.7 million, with GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.64, up $0.28.
  • Non-GAAP net income increased 5.1% to $29.4 million, with non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.61, up $0.02.
  • Non-GAAP free cash flow was $43.4 million, a decrease of $0.6 million.

“We achieved our 2017 full-year financial guidance, exceeding the mid-point of our estimates and topping the high-end of our free cash flow range, executed against our long-term aspirational goals, and as our 2018 full-year financial guidance shows, we’re optimistic about the year ahead,” said Tony Boor, Blackbaud’s executive vice president and CFO. “Our free cash flow improvement is particularly strong for a second consecutive year. We’re updating our non-GAAP tax rate to correlate with our GAAP estimate, reducing our full-year tax rate from 32% in 2017 to 20% in 2018, which is primarily driven by the U.S. federal rate change. We’re also adopting ASC606 in 2018 and expect the largest financial effect to be associated with the deferral of commissions expense, which will positively impact our profitability.”

An explanation of all non-GAAP financial measures referenced in this press release, including Blackbaud’s definition of non-GAAP free cash flow, is included below under the heading “Non-GAAP Financial Measures.” A reconciliation of the company’s non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures has been provided in the financial statement tables included below in this press release.

Recent Company Highlights:

Visit www.blackbaud.com/press-room for more information about Blackbaud’s recent highlights.

Full-Year 2017 Results Compared to Full-Year 2016 Results:

  • Total GAAP revenue was $788.3 million, up 7.9%, with $651.0 million in GAAP recurring revenue, representing 82.6% of total GAAP revenue, and $522.9 million in GAAP subscription revenue, representing 66.3% of total GAAP revenue.
  • Total non-GAAP revenue was $790.8 million, up 7.7%, with $653.4 million in non-GAAP recurring revenue, representing 82.6% of total non-GAAP revenue, and $525.2 million in non-GAAP subscription revenue, representing 66.4% of total non-GAAP revenue.
  • Non-GAAP organic revenue increased 5.4% and non-GAAP organic recurring revenue increased 10.1%, and non-GAAP organic subscription revenue increased 17.9%.
  • GAAP income from operations increased 3.6% to $64.0 million, with GAAP operating margin decreasing 40 basis points to 8.1%.
  • Non-GAAP income from operations increased 12.7% to $162.5 million, with non-GAAP operating margin increasing 100 basis points to 20.6%.
  • GAAP net income increased 58.8% to $65.9 million, with GAAP diluted earnings per share up $0.50 to $1.38.
  • Non-GAAP net income increased 14.4% to $103.7 million, with non-GAAP diluted earnings per share up $0.25 to $2.17.
  • Non-GAAP free cash flow was $137.7 million, an increase of $28.2 million.

Dividend
Blackbaud announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a first quarter 2018 dividend of $0.12 per share payable on March 15, 2018 to stockholders of record on February 28, 2018. 

Financial Outlook
Blackbaud today announced its 2018 full year financial guidance, which includes anticipated impacts from adopting ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), in the first quarter of 2018:

  • Non-GAAP revenue of $870 million to $890 million
  • Non-GAAP operating margin of 20.6% to 21.0%
  • Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $2.75 to $2.88
  • Non-GAAP free cash flow of $165 million to $175 million

Blackbaud has not reconciled forward-looking full-year non-GAAP financial measures contained in this news release to their most directly comparable GAAP measures, as permitted by Item 10(e)(1)(i)(B) of Regulation S-K. Such reconciliations would require unreasonable efforts at this time to estimate and quantify with a reasonable degree of certainty various necessary GAAP components, including for example those related to compensation, acquisition transactions and integration, tax items or others that may arise during the year. These components and other factors could materially impact the amount of the future directly comparable GAAP measures, which may differ significantly from their non-GAAP counterparts.

Adoption of Statement of Cash Flow Presentation Accounting Standard
During the three months ended December 31, 2017 we early adopted ASU 2016-18, Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230) – Restricted Cash, which requires entities to show the changes in the total of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents in the statement of cash flows. We retrospectively applied the changes in presentation to the statements of cash flows and no longer classify changes in restricted cash due to customers and due to customers as operating activities. Instead, changes in due to customers are now classified as financing activities. The impacts of adoption are reflected in the financial information herein. Future financial information presented in accordance with ASU 2016-18 will also include immaterial adjustments to reflect certain prior period errors. We will provide more detailed information regarding the impact of the early adoption of ASU 2016-18 in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. 

Conference Call Details
What:           Blackbaud’s 2017 Fourth Quarter Conference Call
When:          February 7, 2018
Time:           8:00 a.m. (Eastern Time)
Live Call:    800-289-0462 (US/Canada); passcode 492095.
Webcast:     Blackbaud’s Investor Relations Webpage

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good. Serving the entire social good community—nonprofits, foundations, corporations, education institutions, healthcare institutions and individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers organizations to increase their impact through software, services, expertise, and data intelligence. The Blackbaud portfolio is tailored to the unique needs of vertical markets, with solutions for fundraising and CRM, marketing, advocacy, peer-to-peer fundraising, corporate social responsibility, school management, ticketing, grantmaking, financial management, payment processing, and analytics. Serving the industry for more than three decades, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.

Investor Contact: Media Contact:
Mark Furlong Nicole McGougan
Director of Investor Relations Public Relations Manager
843-654-2097 843-654-3307
mark.furlong@blackbaud.com nicole.mcgougan@blackbaud.com

Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this news release are forward-looking statements which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding: the predictability of our financial results, expectations that our revenue will continue to grow, and expectations that we will achieve our projected 2018 full-year financial guidance. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors that could cause results to differ materially include the following: management of integration of acquired companies; uncertainty regarding increased business and renewals from existing customers; a shifting revenue mix that may impact gross margin; continued success in sales growth; risks related to our dividend policy and stock repurchase program, including the possibility that we might discontinue payment of dividends; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud’s investor relations department. Blackbaud assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Trademarks
All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Blackbaud has provided in this release financial information that has not been prepared in accordance with GAAP. This information includes non-GAAP revenue, non-GAAP recurring revenue, non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. Blackbaud has acquired businesses whose net tangible assets include deferred revenue. In accordance with GAAP reporting requirements, Blackbaud recorded write-downs of deferred revenue to fair value, which resulted in lower recognized revenue. Both on a quarterly and year-to-date basis, the revenue for the acquired businesses is deferred and typically recognized over a one-year period, so Blackbaud’s GAAP revenues for the one-year period after the acquisitions will not reflect the full amount of revenues that would have been reported if the acquired deferred revenue was not written down to fair value. The non-GAAP measures described above reverse the acquisition-related deferred revenue write-downs so that the full amount of revenue booked by the acquired companies is included, which Blackbaud believes provides a more accurate representation of a revenue run-rate in a given period. In addition to reversing write-downs of acquisition-related deferred revenue, non-GAAP financial measures discussed above exclude the impact of certain items that Blackbaud believes are not directly related to its performance in any particular period, but are for its long-term benefit over multiple periods.

In addition, Blackbaud uses non-GAAP organic revenue growth, non-GAAP organic revenue growth on a constant currency basis, non-GAAP organic subscriptions revenue growth and non-GAAP organic recurring revenue growth, in analyzing its operating performance. Blackbaud believes that these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors, as a supplement to GAAP measures, for evaluating the periodic growth of its business on a consistent basis. Each of these measures excludes incremental acquisition-related revenue attributable to companies acquired in the current fiscal year. For companies acquired in the immediately preceding fiscal year, each of these measures reflects presentation of full-year incremental non-GAAP revenue derived from such companies as if they were combined throughout the prior period, and it includes the non-GAAP revenue attributable to those companies, as if there were no acquisition-related write-downs of acquired deferred revenue to fair value as required by GAAP. In addition, each of these measures excludes prior period revenue associated with divested businesses. The exclusion of the prior period revenue is to present the results of the divested businesses within the results of the combined company for the same period of time in both the prior and current periods. Blackbaud believes this presentation provides a more comparable representation of its current business’ organic revenue growth and revenue run-rate.

Non-GAAP free cash flow is defined as operating cash flow less capital expenditures, including costs required to be capitalized for software development, and capital expenditures for property and equipment.

Beginning in 2018, Blackbaud intends to update the non-GAAP tax rate it applies when calculating non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share in future periods. Since the first quarter of 2016, for the purposes of determining non-GAAP net income, Blackbaud has utilized a non-GAAP tax rate of 32.0% in its calculation of the tax impact related to non-GAAP adjustments. Blackbaud intends to adjust this rate to 20.0% to better reflect its periodic effective tax rate calculated in accordance with GAAP and its current expectations related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was enacted into law on December 22, 2017 and, among other items, reduces the federal tax rate for corporations from 35.0% to 21.0% beginning in 2018. The non-GAAP tax rate utilized in future periods will be reviewed annually to determine whether it remains appropriate in consideration of Blackbaud’s financial results including its periodic effective tax rate calculated in accordance with GAAP, its operating environment and related tax legislation in effect and other factors deemed necessary. All fourth quarter and full year 2017 measures of the tax impact related to non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share included in this news release are calculated under Blackbaud’s historical methodology.

Blackbaud uses these non-GAAP financial measures internally in analyzing its financial results and believes they are useful to investors, as a supplement to GAAP measures, in evaluating Blackbaud’s ongoing operational performance. Blackbaud believes that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect the Blackbaud’s ongoing business in a manner that allows for meaningful period-to-period comparison and analysis of trends in its business. In addition, Blackbaud believes that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures provides additional information for investors to use in evaluating ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing its financial results from period-to-period with other companies in Blackbaud’s industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures to investors. However, these non-GAAP financial measures may not be completely comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies due to differences in the exact method of calculation between companies. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.