NASDAQ:QNST QuinStreet Q3 2023 Earnings Report $15.66 +0.04 (+0.26%) As of 04/16/2025 04:00 PM Eastern Earnings HistoryForecast QuinStreet EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.01Consensus EPS -$0.06Beat/MissBeat by +$0.05One Year Ago EPSN/AQuinStreet Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$172.67 millionExpected Revenue$161.66 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$11.01 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AQuinStreet Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2023Date5/3/2023TimeN/AConference Call DateWednesday, May 3, 2023Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsQuinStreet's Q3 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by QuinStreet Q3 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 3, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Day, and welcome to QuinStreet's 3rd Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. Following prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Senior Director of Investor Relations and Finance, Robert Amparo. Mr. Operator00:00:34Amparo, you may begin. Speaker 100:00:37Thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining us as we report QuinStreet's Q3 fiscal year 2023 financial results. Joining me on the call today are Chief Executive Officer, Doug Valente and Chief Financial Officer, Greg Wong. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that Following discussion will contain forward looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected by such statements and are not guarantees of future performance. Factors that may cause results to differ from our forward Statements are discussed in our recent SEC filings, including our most recent 8 ks filing made today and our most recent 10 Q filing. Speaker 100:01:19Forward looking statements are based on assumptions as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these statements. Today, We will be discussing both GAAP and non GAAP measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP financial measures is included in today's earnings press release, which is available on our Investor Relations website at investor. Quinstreet.com. With that, I will turn the call over to Doug Valente. Speaker 100:01:42Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 200:01:45Thank you, Rob. Welcome, everyone. Fiscal Q3 results were strong, Exceeding our outlook for revenue and adjusted EBITDA, quarterly revenue was $173,000,000 Growing 15% year over year and setting an all time company record. Adjusted EBITDA jumped to $9,000,000 in the quarter, once again demonstrating the strong operating leverage of our business model. Q3's good results were driven by continued strength in non insurance verticals, where revenue grew 34% year over year and represented 58% of total company revenue. Speaker 200:02:31The good results were also driven By the strong early stages of the re ramp of auto insurance, auto insurance revenue surged 53% in Q3 over Q2. Q3 demonstrated our strong core business, our continued success scaling and broadening our footprint and the financial resilience and leverage of our business model, all on the foundation of sound business and financial fundamentals, As we look ahead, you can continue to expect more of the same. As demonstrated once again, we are definitely And our long term business opportunities and capabilities have never been better. While auto insurance client spending came back strongly last quarter as they and we had forecast, Clients once again reduced marketing spend in late March early April due to recurring mixed results with their combined ratios or profitability. The reductions were significant and unexpected For them and therefore, of course, for us, clearly, the road back to normal for insurance carriers From the challenges of the pandemic, inflation and severe weather events is complicated and difficult to navigate Even for the best companies. Speaker 200:04:20The unexpected break in the re ramp of auto insurance client spending will affect our outlook for the current quarter or fiscal Q4. But The near term insurance carrier spending reductions do not diminish our longer term opportunity, expectations We're enthusiastic that big and important market. The auto insurance re ramp is pausing, not stopping. The long arc of auto insurance spending is still up and to the right. Carriers will continue to adjust and adapt and marketing budgets will continue to shift from offline online. Speaker 200:05:05Most consumers will continue to shop online for everything, including Evermore So For insurance and digital performance marketing like that pioneered and enabled by QuinStreet We'll still be the most efficient marketing spend at scale for advanced marketers. In the meantime, QuinStreet will keep doing what we have been doing. We will continue to make great progress on initiatives to broaden and diversify our revenue footprint and to grow our market opportunity in insurance and in non insurance client verticals. We will focus investments on new technology, product and business expansion areas that offer the best returns and the biggest opportunities for future growth. And we will maintain a strong fundamental financial foundation, including, of course, Of particular note, we will continue to stay spring loaded for strong leverage and rapid margin expansion as revenue grows or returns as demonstrated last quarter. Speaker 200:06:25Turning now to our near term outlook. We expect auto insurance revenue to decline in FY Q4 versus FY Q3 due to the unexpected near term carrier spending reductions. For full fiscal year 2023, which ends in June. We expect revenue of $575,000,000 to $580,000,000 We expect positive adjusted EBITDA in FY Q4 despite the auto insurance challenges and that adjusted EBITDA For full fiscal year 2023 will be between $16,000,000 $17,000,000 We have also begun the detailed planning process for our fiscal year 2024, which begins in July. We expect revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow at double digits in fiscal year 2024 and that we will be strongly cash flow positive. Speaker 200:07:28We will update our outlook and be more precise as the re ramp of auto insurance continues to unfold. Our longer term outlook has never been better. We expect double digit annual revenue growth rates on average in coming years Due to continued strong performance in non insurance businesses alone, we expect auto insurance revenue to be up into the right, Eventually returning to and exceeding FY 2021 peak levels. We expect adjusted EBITDA to grow faster than revenue, eventually exceeding a 10% margin. Our adjusted EBITDA margin in March jumped to 7% just from the early stages of the return of auto insurance revenue, demonstrating the leverage we expect in future quarters and years. Speaker 200:08:30With that, I'll turn the call over to Greg. Speaker 300:08:34Thank you, Doug. Hello and thanks to everyone for joining us today. The continued strength and resilience of our business model and client vertical footprint were on display again in the March quarter, where we delivered strong results including an all time record revenue quarter, a return to double digit year over year revenue growth and even stronger adjusted EBITDA growth. Total revenue was $172,700,000 and grew 15% year over year despite the early stages of the recovery in auto insurance as well as the shifting macroeconomic environment. Our non insurance client verticals represented 58% of total Q3 revenue and grew 34% year over year. Speaker 300:09:23Looking at revenue by client vertical, our Financial Services client vertical represented 70% of Q3 revenue and grew 11% year over year to $120,200,000 This was a result of continued strength in our Our credit driven client verticals of personal loans and credit cards as well as our banking business delivered excellent results in Q3. Combined, these non insurance financial services verticals grew 48% year over year. Within insurance, we did see a significant ramp in revenue in the March quarter, though carriers have since unexpectedly reduced spending to assess and adjust to current market conditions and results. We still expect auto insurance to be up and down right over time and believe that it is a great long term growth business for QuinStreet. The exact case of carrier reramps is unclear. Speaker 300:10:32Revenue in our home services client vertical grew 24% year over year to $50,300,000 or 29% of total revenue. As we've discussed in the past, home services may be our largest addressable market and is run rating to an over $200,000,000 business growing at strong double digits. Our strategy to drive long term growth here is simple. 1, grow our business from our existing dozen or so service offerings, Examples being window replacement, solar system sales and installation and bathroom remodeling, none of which we believe are anywhere close to their full potential. And 2, expanding into new service offerings where we see the opportunity to at least triple the number of these sub verticals we currently serve. Speaker 300:11:27This multi pronged growth strategy is expected to drive double digit organic growth for the foreseeable future. Other revenue was remaining $2,200,000 of Q3 revenue. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal Q3 grew 30% year over year and sequentially from $1,000,000 to $9,000,000 demonstrating the significant operating leverage of our business. Turning to the balance sheet. We closed the quarter with $63,000,000 of cash and equivalents and no bank debt. Speaker 300:12:05Cash in the quarter was impacted by the timing of receivables where we received over $15,000,000 of payments shortly after quarter end. Those payments would have typically been received before quarter end. So a more normalized view of our ending cash would be approximately $78,000,000 Normalized free cash flow in the quarter was $5,200,000 Normalized free cash flow is our primary cash flow metric as it removes the effects of current quarter working capital account fluctuations to drive to the underlying cash flow characteristics of our business model. In closing, we are excited about our business and financial model as we move forward. Our diversified portfolio of client verticals has enabled us to drive double digit revenue growth and expansion of adjusted EBITDA despite being only in the early stages of the recovery in insurance. Speaker 300:13:02We expect to drive even stronger total company revenue growth and further expansion of both adjusted EBITDA and cash flow as insurance revenue renews its path up into the right. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for Q and A. Operator00:13:45One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Jason Kreyer from Craig Hallum. Your line is now open. Speaker 400:13:58Hey, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my questions. Wanted to start out just Seeing if you could give some color on your expectations on just the cadence of auto insurance as we move forward. Obviously, you've given us a guide for Q4. But as we get into 'twenty four, just curious how much visibility you have And really what your thoughts are on auto insurance relative to your statement on double digit growth for next year? Speaker 200:14:26Hey, Jason. Yes, happy to. We don't have a lot of visibility in auto insurance right now. Carriers have indicated That they expect to continue to make progress, that they don't expect to be meaningfully changing their Spending in the channel before July at the earliest, and we assume that it probably could be until January at least before they significantly re increase spending just like they typically do in January with the resetting of loss ratios and Over that same period of time in between, of course, what also happens is the commitments they've made to Spend in other areas that they can't pull out of as quickly as they can pull out digital kind of runoff. So that also creates room for spending. Speaker 200:15:15So Long way of saying, not a lot of visibility in the near term, likely progress and Better opportunity to have for them to increase spending into the fall, late fall and of course January forward. But As far as how that relates to the outlook we gave you, we are assume in the outlook we gave you, we can achieve double digit Revenue and EBITDA growth next year and of course strong cash flows with auto insurance not getting any better from here. We've kind of taken it out of the forecast, if you will. We just don't have enough visibility. I think that's overly conservative. Speaker 200:15:57But just so you know, you can put a 4 under it. We can pull it Down to where we are now and deliver what we described. Speaker 400:16:09Helpful. Thank you. Wanted to also maybe get thoughts from you on personal loans and credit cards. Specifically, we've been hearing that Kind of credit has been tightening or the credit tightening trend has moved out of just subprime and moved into prime, which I think is an area you participate in. And it doesn't seem like you're seeing any pressure kind of baked in the commentary you gave, but Maybe you can just talk a little bit more detail on those two categories. Speaker 200:16:41Yes. As you heard, those Businesses have been very strong for us for a while and were particularly strong this fiscal year and this past quarter. We are seeing some slight tightening, particularly for more risky Credit cards and for more risky loans and that is baked into our forecast As well, we do not expect that personal loans and credit cards will grow nearly as fast in the coming fiscal year as they did last fiscal year, Largely because of that, but we do still expect to have good strong growth there based on the indications we're getting from clients about where they want to focus and the budgets that they're likely to have. So right now, again, we think there has been a little bit of tightening, Not to the point of significantly affecting, of course, our results yet. And we can perform at really strong levels With that tightening at this point, and still but not to the levels we've been performing lately, but still really strong levels to deliver the outlook that we gave you. Speaker 200:18:00Thanks, Doug. Appreciate all the color. Thank you, Jason. Operator00:18:06Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of John Campbell from Stephens Inc. Your line is now open. Speaker 200:18:15Hey guys, it's Jonathan Bass on for John. Probably from a cost and employee headcount standpoint, I know you've been carrying several more quarters, would you look to address insurance support costs? We're pretty tight And our insurance headcount actually, Jonathan, I might say what we're carrying is probably more than the current revenue level would require, But no more than what we expect a reasonable expectation of re ramp to require. We think it'd be foolish on our part to Take out the capabilities to take advantage of the resurgence of spend that we expect. And as you just saw last quarter, You saw last quarter, we were when we were barely into the re ramp, I mean, even though it was up 53% quarter over quarter, we were, I think, half or less Of what we expect the full re rent to represent and the company jumped to 7% EBITDA in the month of March Just with that. Speaker 200:19:25So I think we're well positioned. I think we'll stay tight. I don't think we're going to you're going to see us adding a lot, But I don't think you're going to see us reducing a lot either. I think if we do that, then what we do is When spending and when an ad spending comes back, we're just not positioned to take advantage of it. And worst case, we lose share of that spend. Speaker 200:19:47So I think we've got about the right balance Right now, and mainly because we're always pretty darn cost discipline. We didn't get way out of our skis. We've but we want to maintain enough capacity, as I said, to do well as it comes back and to not have to Takes a few steps back, it will lose share when it does. Okay, thanks. And we haven't Talk much about QRP in recent quarters. Speaker 200:20:16So I'm hoping you can provide the latest state of things with QRP and when you think that could rise Yes, that's a good question. At QRP, we've made continue to make great progress With clients, with the product, with carrier integrations, with the application of the product To the ecosystem, which really represents the next stage, quite frankly, of the insurance channel And the insurance digital channel. We're more excited than ever about it. The product where it is a 7 figure business For us right now, we would like to have been a lot further along than that, but just like the broader market, QRP's Progress is blunted by the fact that the overall market is challenged, as carriers have reduced their spend, reduced their coverage and therefore agencies have had to reduce Their spend in their agent accounts and their activities, the pipelines have really, really bogged down. We have a lot of activity, a lot of conversations. Speaker 200:21:19We feel like that's a coiled spring for sure as the market comes back and that As it comes back, it trickles down into particularly the agency side where as they start adding activity in agents and the ability to spend. But Yes, super excited about where we are. The product is further and better than it's ever been. The support from the industry and And the carriers is better than it's ever been. The uniqueness and defensibility of that product over the long haul and its application to new areas of the channel It's better than it's ever been, but just hard to get a lot of activity in the current insurance Market with the carriers pulling out of coverage in states and spin. Speaker 200:22:06So But yes, I love it. Love the product, love where it's going and excited about it. Okay. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Jonathan. Operator00:22:18Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Eric Martinuzzi from Lake Street. Your line is now open. Speaker 500:22:26Yes. Just curious to know on the Progressive, what percentage of the business was Progressive this quarter? Speaker 300:22:34Hey, Eric. This is Greg. Progressive was about 25% of revenue for the quarter. Speaker 500:22:40Okay. And They're typically kind of a leader as far as both ramping up and pulling back. What was the, I guess the cadence sounds like March was there and then April they pulled the rug. Was it were they kind of The primary driver of that pullback in April or was it across your customer base? Speaker 200:23:06It's been across the customer base, but Progressive was way out further than anybody else to begin with. So the other pullbacks are much, much less material, But to us and to everybody, as you'll see in the numbers going forward. So I mean, they are they do a phenomenal job of getting their product adjusted, get their rates adjusted and doing what they do. And so they were just further out than everybody else, and so they matter when they pull back, it matters more? Speaker 500:23:40I guess the historic pause length, I was kind of surprised to hear You're talking about January of 2024 before we'd be kind of normalized or A return to some sense of normalcy, what are the gating items between here and there? Is it just those auto insurers just needing to get Speaker 200:24:06Yes. And again, I don't have any particular information about the time it's going to take I'm happy to come back. I just think we have to be really cautious about guessing when they haven't told us either. The only information we've got from most of the carriers is that It's not imminent. So our best guess, and some indications have been that they think Some budgets will start loosening up in July. Speaker 200:24:33I think the cadence of what's going to happen, as best we can read it again, The carriers themselves are sorting it out and figuring out what they need and want to do, but they have to continue to make progress on The economic side, both on the rates and on the costs, some of that's in their control, some of it's not. The costs that aren't in their control, they'll Probably trying to fix with more taking more rate, the costs that are in their control and some of them have some costs that they're addressing and working on. They also have costs on the marketing side that they can't reduce like they can marketing spend or at least digital marketing spend. And so they'll work on some of those costs and or some of those costs will run off. When I say run off, I mean particularly commitments they may have made to marketing spend That can't be reduced immediately like digital can't. Speaker 200:25:25And so that will run off. So that those will be gating items over the next number of months. And then of course the big gating item besides the fact just the economics continue to get better and better as they get their they tune their product, tune their rates, tune their costs. The big gating item will be the resetting of combined ratios in January again, Which is always a big gating item for the industry. And as they make more progress, just like this year was better than last year, January through March, Next year, we'll probably go longer and bigger yet and then we'll keep going up into the right from there. Speaker 200:26:01They'll just keep adapting. So I think that's As best we know from what they've told us from industry data, from industry experts and from all the other things we've seen and heard, That's probably how it goes. I would say that our team believes based on conversations with the carriers that January Could be a big surge again. We just we don't want to count on that And the outlook we gave you assumes that that does not happen. But that doesn't mean it won't happen. Speaker 500:26:37Yes. No, that's predictably unpredictable. Yes. The other parts of the business, the non insurance business, terrific growth there, that's 58% of revs and up 34%. Any cracks in the home services side? Speaker 500:26:58I know you talked about, hey, we're growing window and solar and bathroom and we're I would think in a rising interest rate environment, there might be some pressure on ability for homeowners to take on new projects. It doesn't Sound like you're seeing that at all? Speaker 200:27:16No. We're seeing nothing but strength in home services. And we're asking the question constantly. We've been asking the question for a year and a What we have appear to be seeing a main driver appears to be just the opposite with As interest rates have gone up, homeowners are less likely to sell their home because they're in a good rate Mortgage and they don't want to take on a worse rate or higher rate for a new home. And so we're seeing a lot more folks Staying in the homes they're in and choosing to invest in that home rather than buying another home. Speaker 200:27:55And so we're actually seeing a very high activity level and high demand in home services Pretty much across the board because the other factor is that even though rates have gone up, most of these these are homeowners And they have built up a lot of equity in their home over the last number of years. And these folks' balance sheets and frankly their income statements as we all know are actually in really good shape. The folks that are being hurt most in the current environment and are likely to be hurt most if and as there is a greater slowdown We're at the lower end of the income spectrum and tend not to be the kind of homeowners who spend on these projects anyway. Speaker 500:28:37Okay. Well, that's consistent with the answer you gave last quarter. So Just like you're saying on top of it, I want to stay on top of it. Thanks for taking my questions. Speaker 200:28:48You bet. Operator00:28:52Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Jim Goss from Barrington Research. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:29:03Hi. I don't want to beat this to death, but it sounds, Doug, like That there's no magic trigger in terms of combined ratio that will be an on or off switch in terms of Greater marketing expenditure. Historically though, has there been some range around the magic 100% That might make the carriers more inclined to try to advertise For new customers or are they reluctant to go into a negative position even though that might be the right time to Speaker 200:29:43Try to sell their product. No, it's a great question. It really differs by carrier and where they're And their own long term trajectory and strategy, Jim. We some have very firm targets for combined ratios And they will hit that number for the year come hell or high water. And others Have a different strategy and there are times when depending on where they are on the market and where they want to be in terms of Market share and other considerations, they are willing to go negative for longer. Speaker 200:30:19They have the capacity to go negative for longer in order to achieve Other objectives or other goals, so it really does depend on the carriers. So I think what we're going to see is continued kind of gradual progression As different carriers solve different solve for different considerations or objectives, but again, it's Historically and kind of predictably, it's they'll just keep iterating their way up into the right. This is just It's been a very complicated environment for them to have to deal with and for all of us to have to deal with. I mean, this environment is Tough on a whole bunch of different industries and these are very smart companies doing really good things and trying their best. And as we saw, it's just they're finding it Less predictable like we all are and harder to navigate like we all do. Speaker 200:31:09But I'd say that no magic bullet. I think continued progress for sure, because we're all working hard on it. They all want to there are a number of public Companies and a lot of big neutrals and they have constituencies to serve and they want to grow and they want to get paid to and they want to serve their shareholders. So They're working hard on it. I think they'll keep making progress. Speaker 200:31:31But again, it depends on the company. Some are very, very specific and very driven by a particular number. Some are not and then and but in the mix overall, they're all trying to fix as best they can and they'll start getting in the market When they can. We are I can tell you that the activity levels of some of the carriers, even those that are not spending much at all again in the channel yet, We have very high activity levels with a number of them, and they are they have a lot of budget that they will deploy. So they're doing the work to be ready to spend it. Speaker 200:32:03They're just kind of waiting to get to the point where either other costs are where they need them Our loss ratios are where they need them or rates are where they need them to really start ramping quickly. But From our seat working with them, things look like things look really good and like I say we're spring loaded. It's going to come. It's just a question of exactly when. And in all likelihood, we begin to see some progress In the fall, but probably not the inflection type progress until January and then We have a good shot of seeing a lot of it then, but we just given what the ups and downs we've seen over the past couple of years that they tried to navigate this environment, we're reluctant To guide to that. Speaker 200:32:55So we'd rather just say, let's assume it stays challenged for the fiscal year and then what can we do With all the other businesses in that environment, and that's what we gave you. Speaker 600:33:06And when you say next year, just for clarity, You're talking about calendar 2024 or is it fiscal year? Speaker 200:33:16Yes. In terms of and let me clarify that and I apologize, I know that's always confusing. I get confused myself. But the next year, In terms of when they're like we're likely to see when I say next year in terms of when we're likely to see more inflection in progress, I meant as in calendar Year, the January with the change of the loss ratios. When I talk about the guide for the year, the fiscal year from now this coming July through June, That's where we really haven't assumed a progress in insurance in order to give you the outlook we gave you. Speaker 200:33:50So the guide I gave you was for fiscal, But the and we've assumed no real progress during the fiscal in auto insurance to get to the double digit number that I gave you for revenue and EBITDA growth Or not number, but the indication I gave you for revenue and EBITDA growth. But we do expect If everything goes according to oil and the way it's done historically, there probably will be an inflection of spend in January with the new calendar year, Because loss ratios do reset and that gives them another 8 months to keep making progress. And we know another company that reported recently that is in this market indicated that they thought it'd be 8 months to 9 months. And I think that's they're looking at the same calendar. They're saying January is probably when we're going to start seeing a re inflection. Speaker 200:34:42It's not a bad guess given history Not at all. Speaker 600:34:46All right. And one last one for me. I'm just curious what will consumers Interested in new insurance options see now relative to what they might have seen in other times, more costly Options and or fewer options? Speaker 200:35:03Both, yes. Fewer and more cost is exactly what they're going to be seeing. And in fact, we've seen more shopping because of that. But we've seen when they shop, they don't find a lot of options and they find a lot of expensive options. So We think the shopping behavior will continue as more and more consumers get renewed at higher rates. Speaker 200:35:25But for now, their options are much more limited and those that are available are Considerably higher in terms of the rates than they would have seen, say, last year at this time or certainly the year before. Speaker 600:35:39All right. Thank you. Speaker 200:35:41Thank you. Operator00:35:44Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Christa Cai from Singular Research. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:35:53Hi, Doug and Greg. Speaker 200:35:55Hey, Chris. Speaker 700:35:56Just had a question On the car insurance, what drove the fact that it was so unexpected? It seemed like last Quarter, you guys weren't expecting this, you're expecting just more growth. Why was it such a sudden unexpected Decline? Speaker 200:36:18I wish we knew. I mean, I can tell you what the carriers have said and because it was unexpected to them as well, Right. And you've heard that from everybody in that industry and everybody in our industry. But again, that's their business. But what we what they have said is that the loss ratios were higher than they expected when they went to re ramp spend, both because of The repair and claims costs being higher than anticipated and because the rates, while in many cases had they had taken or increased their rates, Those rates were not high enough to offset those costs being higher than they expected. Speaker 200:37:04You and I could both in terms of the details of why that is, it's everything to do With the inflation underlying inflation that everybody else is dealing with It's probably also the nature of the new consumers that they're signing initially. In some cases, there's been It was the nature of the operations to estimate and serve those consumers. And there's even some one off things. There's a law in Florida that got changed That pulled a lot of the litigation forward, because they were I guess more difficult Or at least less lucrative, I guess, to see the insurance companies once the law goes into place and the deadline, I understand. I've been told. Speaker 200:37:52I am not an industry and I'm not that wonkish in the insurance industry, but I'm told that that expiration for submitting those lawsuits was like March 31. So Apparently that created a rat that's got to work its way through the snake. So lots and lots of stuff, but I'd summarize it and better asked of The actual insurance carriers themselves are folks that follow that industry in a more rigorous research way, but The gist of it is, they've taken rates, it looked like things were good. They started to ramp, they ramped hard. The results started coming in, the results were a lot worse than they expected and here we go again. Speaker 200:38:33But they had every indication and they've given us every indication and given the markets every That they were going to be pedal to the metal and they were for 3 months or so and then Results started coming in. And this isn't just one client. We're seeing this. We're seeing that we've seen this type of behavior across the industry. It's just that One client tends to when a particular client happens to with us, it has more of an impact on us. Speaker 200:39:04But This is not isolated to one client. This is a whole bunch of carriers working through a very complicated environment and they will work through it. It's a mandated product, They're for profit and or constituency serving institutions. They work through other challenging stuff. This one just Has been a bit more complicated and difficult, obviously. Speaker 700:39:29Okay. Thanks for that. And then What are some of the other service offerings that Greg mentioned? Can you shed some light there? Speaker 200:39:38Service offerings, Owen, in terms of trades in home services, I mean, we probably don't want to talk about what new trades we're targeting because that's a competitive A question, but when we talk about service offerings in home services or trades in home services, Greg gave you some examples of what we mean by a service offering on a trade and that would be like window replacement, solar installations, kitchen or bathroom remodels. But there are dozens and dozens and dozens of those specific sub verticals or trades or service areas in the home services market With large, we're in about we're in a little over a dozen of them right now in a meaningful way. Most of them are pretty early in their development, And we think we can be in and we can serve clients in about 3 times that over time and maybe even more, Certainly, we think about 3 times that. So, mainly he was given that making sure that everybody understood that we're really early We're in a very big market in home services and we have a couple of big vectors for growth. 1, we can we'll grow the Service areas that we're in today by adding more clients, more media and doing more, getting more budget from those clients as we optimize performance for them. Speaker 200:40:55That's one leg, the other or one vector. The other vector is we'll get into more service areas. We'll add more Areas of or sub verticals, if you will. So a lot of expansion opportunity and potential and long term growth baked into our strategy and to our approach in Home Services. Speaker 700:41:20Okay. Thanks for that. Speaker 200:41:22Thank you, Chris. Operator00:41:25Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. Thank you everyone for taking the time to join Queen Street's Earnings Call. The replay information is available in the earnings press release issued this afternoon. You mayRead moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallQuinStreet Q3 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) QuinStreet Earnings HeadlinesB. Riley Has Positive Outlook for QuinStreet FY2026 EarningsApril 15 at 1:35 AM | americanbankingnews.comQ4 Advertising & Marketing Services Earnings Review: First Prize Goes to Liberty Broadband (NASDAQ:LBRDK)April 9, 2025 | finance.yahoo.comNow I look stupid. Real stupid... I thought what happened 25 years ago was a once- in-a-lifetime event… but how wrong I was. Because here we are, a quarter of a century later, almost to the exact day, and it’s happening again. April 17, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)Investors in QuinStreet (NASDAQ:QNST) have seen stellar returns of 127% over the past five yearsApril 3, 2025 | uk.finance.yahoo.comQ4 Earnings Highlights: Magnite (NASDAQ:MGNI) Vs The Rest Of The Advertising & Marketing Services StocksApril 3, 2025 | msn.com1QNST : QuinStreet Stock: A Deep Dive Into Analyst Perspectives (4 Ratings)March 26, 2025 | benzinga.comSee More QuinStreet Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like QuinStreet? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on QuinStreet and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About QuinStreetQuinStreet (NASDAQ:QNST), an online performance marketing company, provides customer acquisition services for its clients in the United States and internationally. The company offers online marketing services, such as qualified clicks, leads, calls, applications, and customers through its websites or third-party publishers. It serves financial and home services industries. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.View QuinStreet ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Tesla Stock Eyes Breakout With Earnings on DeckJohnson & Johnson Earnings Were More Good Than Bad—Time to Buy? 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There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Day, and welcome to QuinStreet's 3rd Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. Following prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Senior Director of Investor Relations and Finance, Robert Amparo. Mr. Operator00:00:34Amparo, you may begin. Speaker 100:00:37Thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining us as we report QuinStreet's Q3 fiscal year 2023 financial results. Joining me on the call today are Chief Executive Officer, Doug Valente and Chief Financial Officer, Greg Wong. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that Following discussion will contain forward looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected by such statements and are not guarantees of future performance. Factors that may cause results to differ from our forward Statements are discussed in our recent SEC filings, including our most recent 8 ks filing made today and our most recent 10 Q filing. Speaker 100:01:19Forward looking statements are based on assumptions as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these statements. Today, We will be discussing both GAAP and non GAAP measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP financial measures is included in today's earnings press release, which is available on our Investor Relations website at investor. Quinstreet.com. With that, I will turn the call over to Doug Valente. Speaker 100:01:42Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 200:01:45Thank you, Rob. Welcome, everyone. Fiscal Q3 results were strong, Exceeding our outlook for revenue and adjusted EBITDA, quarterly revenue was $173,000,000 Growing 15% year over year and setting an all time company record. Adjusted EBITDA jumped to $9,000,000 in the quarter, once again demonstrating the strong operating leverage of our business model. Q3's good results were driven by continued strength in non insurance verticals, where revenue grew 34% year over year and represented 58% of total company revenue. Speaker 200:02:31The good results were also driven By the strong early stages of the re ramp of auto insurance, auto insurance revenue surged 53% in Q3 over Q2. Q3 demonstrated our strong core business, our continued success scaling and broadening our footprint and the financial resilience and leverage of our business model, all on the foundation of sound business and financial fundamentals, As we look ahead, you can continue to expect more of the same. As demonstrated once again, we are definitely And our long term business opportunities and capabilities have never been better. While auto insurance client spending came back strongly last quarter as they and we had forecast, Clients once again reduced marketing spend in late March early April due to recurring mixed results with their combined ratios or profitability. The reductions were significant and unexpected For them and therefore, of course, for us, clearly, the road back to normal for insurance carriers From the challenges of the pandemic, inflation and severe weather events is complicated and difficult to navigate Even for the best companies. Speaker 200:04:20The unexpected break in the re ramp of auto insurance client spending will affect our outlook for the current quarter or fiscal Q4. But The near term insurance carrier spending reductions do not diminish our longer term opportunity, expectations We're enthusiastic that big and important market. The auto insurance re ramp is pausing, not stopping. The long arc of auto insurance spending is still up and to the right. Carriers will continue to adjust and adapt and marketing budgets will continue to shift from offline online. Speaker 200:05:05Most consumers will continue to shop online for everything, including Evermore So For insurance and digital performance marketing like that pioneered and enabled by QuinStreet We'll still be the most efficient marketing spend at scale for advanced marketers. In the meantime, QuinStreet will keep doing what we have been doing. We will continue to make great progress on initiatives to broaden and diversify our revenue footprint and to grow our market opportunity in insurance and in non insurance client verticals. We will focus investments on new technology, product and business expansion areas that offer the best returns and the biggest opportunities for future growth. And we will maintain a strong fundamental financial foundation, including, of course, Of particular note, we will continue to stay spring loaded for strong leverage and rapid margin expansion as revenue grows or returns as demonstrated last quarter. Speaker 200:06:25Turning now to our near term outlook. We expect auto insurance revenue to decline in FY Q4 versus FY Q3 due to the unexpected near term carrier spending reductions. For full fiscal year 2023, which ends in June. We expect revenue of $575,000,000 to $580,000,000 We expect positive adjusted EBITDA in FY Q4 despite the auto insurance challenges and that adjusted EBITDA For full fiscal year 2023 will be between $16,000,000 $17,000,000 We have also begun the detailed planning process for our fiscal year 2024, which begins in July. We expect revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow at double digits in fiscal year 2024 and that we will be strongly cash flow positive. Speaker 200:07:28We will update our outlook and be more precise as the re ramp of auto insurance continues to unfold. Our longer term outlook has never been better. We expect double digit annual revenue growth rates on average in coming years Due to continued strong performance in non insurance businesses alone, we expect auto insurance revenue to be up into the right, Eventually returning to and exceeding FY 2021 peak levels. We expect adjusted EBITDA to grow faster than revenue, eventually exceeding a 10% margin. Our adjusted EBITDA margin in March jumped to 7% just from the early stages of the return of auto insurance revenue, demonstrating the leverage we expect in future quarters and years. Speaker 200:08:30With that, I'll turn the call over to Greg. Speaker 300:08:34Thank you, Doug. Hello and thanks to everyone for joining us today. The continued strength and resilience of our business model and client vertical footprint were on display again in the March quarter, where we delivered strong results including an all time record revenue quarter, a return to double digit year over year revenue growth and even stronger adjusted EBITDA growth. Total revenue was $172,700,000 and grew 15% year over year despite the early stages of the recovery in auto insurance as well as the shifting macroeconomic environment. Our non insurance client verticals represented 58% of total Q3 revenue and grew 34% year over year. Speaker 300:09:23Looking at revenue by client vertical, our Financial Services client vertical represented 70% of Q3 revenue and grew 11% year over year to $120,200,000 This was a result of continued strength in our Our credit driven client verticals of personal loans and credit cards as well as our banking business delivered excellent results in Q3. Combined, these non insurance financial services verticals grew 48% year over year. Within insurance, we did see a significant ramp in revenue in the March quarter, though carriers have since unexpectedly reduced spending to assess and adjust to current market conditions and results. We still expect auto insurance to be up and down right over time and believe that it is a great long term growth business for QuinStreet. The exact case of carrier reramps is unclear. Speaker 300:10:32Revenue in our home services client vertical grew 24% year over year to $50,300,000 or 29% of total revenue. As we've discussed in the past, home services may be our largest addressable market and is run rating to an over $200,000,000 business growing at strong double digits. Our strategy to drive long term growth here is simple. 1, grow our business from our existing dozen or so service offerings, Examples being window replacement, solar system sales and installation and bathroom remodeling, none of which we believe are anywhere close to their full potential. And 2, expanding into new service offerings where we see the opportunity to at least triple the number of these sub verticals we currently serve. Speaker 300:11:27This multi pronged growth strategy is expected to drive double digit organic growth for the foreseeable future. Other revenue was remaining $2,200,000 of Q3 revenue. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal Q3 grew 30% year over year and sequentially from $1,000,000 to $9,000,000 demonstrating the significant operating leverage of our business. Turning to the balance sheet. We closed the quarter with $63,000,000 of cash and equivalents and no bank debt. Speaker 300:12:05Cash in the quarter was impacted by the timing of receivables where we received over $15,000,000 of payments shortly after quarter end. Those payments would have typically been received before quarter end. So a more normalized view of our ending cash would be approximately $78,000,000 Normalized free cash flow in the quarter was $5,200,000 Normalized free cash flow is our primary cash flow metric as it removes the effects of current quarter working capital account fluctuations to drive to the underlying cash flow characteristics of our business model. In closing, we are excited about our business and financial model as we move forward. Our diversified portfolio of client verticals has enabled us to drive double digit revenue growth and expansion of adjusted EBITDA despite being only in the early stages of the recovery in insurance. Speaker 300:13:02We expect to drive even stronger total company revenue growth and further expansion of both adjusted EBITDA and cash flow as insurance revenue renews its path up into the right. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for Q and A. Operator00:13:45One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Jason Kreyer from Craig Hallum. Your line is now open. Speaker 400:13:58Hey, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my questions. Wanted to start out just Seeing if you could give some color on your expectations on just the cadence of auto insurance as we move forward. Obviously, you've given us a guide for Q4. But as we get into 'twenty four, just curious how much visibility you have And really what your thoughts are on auto insurance relative to your statement on double digit growth for next year? Speaker 200:14:26Hey, Jason. Yes, happy to. We don't have a lot of visibility in auto insurance right now. Carriers have indicated That they expect to continue to make progress, that they don't expect to be meaningfully changing their Spending in the channel before July at the earliest, and we assume that it probably could be until January at least before they significantly re increase spending just like they typically do in January with the resetting of loss ratios and Over that same period of time in between, of course, what also happens is the commitments they've made to Spend in other areas that they can't pull out of as quickly as they can pull out digital kind of runoff. So that also creates room for spending. Speaker 200:15:15So Long way of saying, not a lot of visibility in the near term, likely progress and Better opportunity to have for them to increase spending into the fall, late fall and of course January forward. But As far as how that relates to the outlook we gave you, we are assume in the outlook we gave you, we can achieve double digit Revenue and EBITDA growth next year and of course strong cash flows with auto insurance not getting any better from here. We've kind of taken it out of the forecast, if you will. We just don't have enough visibility. I think that's overly conservative. Speaker 200:15:57But just so you know, you can put a 4 under it. We can pull it Down to where we are now and deliver what we described. Speaker 400:16:09Helpful. Thank you. Wanted to also maybe get thoughts from you on personal loans and credit cards. Specifically, we've been hearing that Kind of credit has been tightening or the credit tightening trend has moved out of just subprime and moved into prime, which I think is an area you participate in. And it doesn't seem like you're seeing any pressure kind of baked in the commentary you gave, but Maybe you can just talk a little bit more detail on those two categories. Speaker 200:16:41Yes. As you heard, those Businesses have been very strong for us for a while and were particularly strong this fiscal year and this past quarter. We are seeing some slight tightening, particularly for more risky Credit cards and for more risky loans and that is baked into our forecast As well, we do not expect that personal loans and credit cards will grow nearly as fast in the coming fiscal year as they did last fiscal year, Largely because of that, but we do still expect to have good strong growth there based on the indications we're getting from clients about where they want to focus and the budgets that they're likely to have. So right now, again, we think there has been a little bit of tightening, Not to the point of significantly affecting, of course, our results yet. And we can perform at really strong levels With that tightening at this point, and still but not to the levels we've been performing lately, but still really strong levels to deliver the outlook that we gave you. Speaker 200:18:00Thanks, Doug. Appreciate all the color. Thank you, Jason. Operator00:18:06Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of John Campbell from Stephens Inc. Your line is now open. Speaker 200:18:15Hey guys, it's Jonathan Bass on for John. Probably from a cost and employee headcount standpoint, I know you've been carrying several more quarters, would you look to address insurance support costs? We're pretty tight And our insurance headcount actually, Jonathan, I might say what we're carrying is probably more than the current revenue level would require, But no more than what we expect a reasonable expectation of re ramp to require. We think it'd be foolish on our part to Take out the capabilities to take advantage of the resurgence of spend that we expect. And as you just saw last quarter, You saw last quarter, we were when we were barely into the re ramp, I mean, even though it was up 53% quarter over quarter, we were, I think, half or less Of what we expect the full re rent to represent and the company jumped to 7% EBITDA in the month of March Just with that. Speaker 200:19:25So I think we're well positioned. I think we'll stay tight. I don't think we're going to you're going to see us adding a lot, But I don't think you're going to see us reducing a lot either. I think if we do that, then what we do is When spending and when an ad spending comes back, we're just not positioned to take advantage of it. And worst case, we lose share of that spend. Speaker 200:19:47So I think we've got about the right balance Right now, and mainly because we're always pretty darn cost discipline. We didn't get way out of our skis. We've but we want to maintain enough capacity, as I said, to do well as it comes back and to not have to Takes a few steps back, it will lose share when it does. Okay, thanks. And we haven't Talk much about QRP in recent quarters. Speaker 200:20:16So I'm hoping you can provide the latest state of things with QRP and when you think that could rise Yes, that's a good question. At QRP, we've made continue to make great progress With clients, with the product, with carrier integrations, with the application of the product To the ecosystem, which really represents the next stage, quite frankly, of the insurance channel And the insurance digital channel. We're more excited than ever about it. The product where it is a 7 figure business For us right now, we would like to have been a lot further along than that, but just like the broader market, QRP's Progress is blunted by the fact that the overall market is challenged, as carriers have reduced their spend, reduced their coverage and therefore agencies have had to reduce Their spend in their agent accounts and their activities, the pipelines have really, really bogged down. We have a lot of activity, a lot of conversations. Speaker 200:21:19We feel like that's a coiled spring for sure as the market comes back and that As it comes back, it trickles down into particularly the agency side where as they start adding activity in agents and the ability to spend. But Yes, super excited about where we are. The product is further and better than it's ever been. The support from the industry and And the carriers is better than it's ever been. The uniqueness and defensibility of that product over the long haul and its application to new areas of the channel It's better than it's ever been, but just hard to get a lot of activity in the current insurance Market with the carriers pulling out of coverage in states and spin. Speaker 200:22:06So But yes, I love it. Love the product, love where it's going and excited about it. Okay. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Jonathan. Operator00:22:18Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Eric Martinuzzi from Lake Street. Your line is now open. Speaker 500:22:26Yes. Just curious to know on the Progressive, what percentage of the business was Progressive this quarter? Speaker 300:22:34Hey, Eric. This is Greg. Progressive was about 25% of revenue for the quarter. Speaker 500:22:40Okay. And They're typically kind of a leader as far as both ramping up and pulling back. What was the, I guess the cadence sounds like March was there and then April they pulled the rug. Was it were they kind of The primary driver of that pullback in April or was it across your customer base? Speaker 200:23:06It's been across the customer base, but Progressive was way out further than anybody else to begin with. So the other pullbacks are much, much less material, But to us and to everybody, as you'll see in the numbers going forward. So I mean, they are they do a phenomenal job of getting their product adjusted, get their rates adjusted and doing what they do. And so they were just further out than everybody else, and so they matter when they pull back, it matters more? Speaker 500:23:40I guess the historic pause length, I was kind of surprised to hear You're talking about January of 2024 before we'd be kind of normalized or A return to some sense of normalcy, what are the gating items between here and there? Is it just those auto insurers just needing to get Speaker 200:24:06Yes. And again, I don't have any particular information about the time it's going to take I'm happy to come back. I just think we have to be really cautious about guessing when they haven't told us either. The only information we've got from most of the carriers is that It's not imminent. So our best guess, and some indications have been that they think Some budgets will start loosening up in July. Speaker 200:24:33I think the cadence of what's going to happen, as best we can read it again, The carriers themselves are sorting it out and figuring out what they need and want to do, but they have to continue to make progress on The economic side, both on the rates and on the costs, some of that's in their control, some of it's not. The costs that aren't in their control, they'll Probably trying to fix with more taking more rate, the costs that are in their control and some of them have some costs that they're addressing and working on. They also have costs on the marketing side that they can't reduce like they can marketing spend or at least digital marketing spend. And so they'll work on some of those costs and or some of those costs will run off. When I say run off, I mean particularly commitments they may have made to marketing spend That can't be reduced immediately like digital can't. Speaker 200:25:25And so that will run off. So that those will be gating items over the next number of months. And then of course the big gating item besides the fact just the economics continue to get better and better as they get their they tune their product, tune their rates, tune their costs. The big gating item will be the resetting of combined ratios in January again, Which is always a big gating item for the industry. And as they make more progress, just like this year was better than last year, January through March, Next year, we'll probably go longer and bigger yet and then we'll keep going up into the right from there. Speaker 200:26:01They'll just keep adapting. So I think that's As best we know from what they've told us from industry data, from industry experts and from all the other things we've seen and heard, That's probably how it goes. I would say that our team believes based on conversations with the carriers that January Could be a big surge again. We just we don't want to count on that And the outlook we gave you assumes that that does not happen. But that doesn't mean it won't happen. Speaker 500:26:37Yes. No, that's predictably unpredictable. Yes. The other parts of the business, the non insurance business, terrific growth there, that's 58% of revs and up 34%. Any cracks in the home services side? Speaker 500:26:58I know you talked about, hey, we're growing window and solar and bathroom and we're I would think in a rising interest rate environment, there might be some pressure on ability for homeowners to take on new projects. It doesn't Sound like you're seeing that at all? Speaker 200:27:16No. We're seeing nothing but strength in home services. And we're asking the question constantly. We've been asking the question for a year and a What we have appear to be seeing a main driver appears to be just the opposite with As interest rates have gone up, homeowners are less likely to sell their home because they're in a good rate Mortgage and they don't want to take on a worse rate or higher rate for a new home. And so we're seeing a lot more folks Staying in the homes they're in and choosing to invest in that home rather than buying another home. Speaker 200:27:55And so we're actually seeing a very high activity level and high demand in home services Pretty much across the board because the other factor is that even though rates have gone up, most of these these are homeowners And they have built up a lot of equity in their home over the last number of years. And these folks' balance sheets and frankly their income statements as we all know are actually in really good shape. The folks that are being hurt most in the current environment and are likely to be hurt most if and as there is a greater slowdown We're at the lower end of the income spectrum and tend not to be the kind of homeowners who spend on these projects anyway. Speaker 500:28:37Okay. Well, that's consistent with the answer you gave last quarter. So Just like you're saying on top of it, I want to stay on top of it. Thanks for taking my questions. Speaker 200:28:48You bet. Operator00:28:52Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Jim Goss from Barrington Research. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:29:03Hi. I don't want to beat this to death, but it sounds, Doug, like That there's no magic trigger in terms of combined ratio that will be an on or off switch in terms of Greater marketing expenditure. Historically though, has there been some range around the magic 100% That might make the carriers more inclined to try to advertise For new customers or are they reluctant to go into a negative position even though that might be the right time to Speaker 200:29:43Try to sell their product. No, it's a great question. It really differs by carrier and where they're And their own long term trajectory and strategy, Jim. We some have very firm targets for combined ratios And they will hit that number for the year come hell or high water. And others Have a different strategy and there are times when depending on where they are on the market and where they want to be in terms of Market share and other considerations, they are willing to go negative for longer. Speaker 200:30:19They have the capacity to go negative for longer in order to achieve Other objectives or other goals, so it really does depend on the carriers. So I think what we're going to see is continued kind of gradual progression As different carriers solve different solve for different considerations or objectives, but again, it's Historically and kind of predictably, it's they'll just keep iterating their way up into the right. This is just It's been a very complicated environment for them to have to deal with and for all of us to have to deal with. I mean, this environment is Tough on a whole bunch of different industries and these are very smart companies doing really good things and trying their best. And as we saw, it's just they're finding it Less predictable like we all are and harder to navigate like we all do. Speaker 200:31:09But I'd say that no magic bullet. I think continued progress for sure, because we're all working hard on it. They all want to there are a number of public Companies and a lot of big neutrals and they have constituencies to serve and they want to grow and they want to get paid to and they want to serve their shareholders. So They're working hard on it. I think they'll keep making progress. Speaker 200:31:31But again, it depends on the company. Some are very, very specific and very driven by a particular number. Some are not and then and but in the mix overall, they're all trying to fix as best they can and they'll start getting in the market When they can. We are I can tell you that the activity levels of some of the carriers, even those that are not spending much at all again in the channel yet, We have very high activity levels with a number of them, and they are they have a lot of budget that they will deploy. So they're doing the work to be ready to spend it. Speaker 200:32:03They're just kind of waiting to get to the point where either other costs are where they need them Our loss ratios are where they need them or rates are where they need them to really start ramping quickly. But From our seat working with them, things look like things look really good and like I say we're spring loaded. It's going to come. It's just a question of exactly when. And in all likelihood, we begin to see some progress In the fall, but probably not the inflection type progress until January and then We have a good shot of seeing a lot of it then, but we just given what the ups and downs we've seen over the past couple of years that they tried to navigate this environment, we're reluctant To guide to that. Speaker 200:32:55So we'd rather just say, let's assume it stays challenged for the fiscal year and then what can we do With all the other businesses in that environment, and that's what we gave you. Speaker 600:33:06And when you say next year, just for clarity, You're talking about calendar 2024 or is it fiscal year? Speaker 200:33:16Yes. In terms of and let me clarify that and I apologize, I know that's always confusing. I get confused myself. But the next year, In terms of when they're like we're likely to see when I say next year in terms of when we're likely to see more inflection in progress, I meant as in calendar Year, the January with the change of the loss ratios. When I talk about the guide for the year, the fiscal year from now this coming July through June, That's where we really haven't assumed a progress in insurance in order to give you the outlook we gave you. Speaker 200:33:50So the guide I gave you was for fiscal, But the and we've assumed no real progress during the fiscal in auto insurance to get to the double digit number that I gave you for revenue and EBITDA growth Or not number, but the indication I gave you for revenue and EBITDA growth. But we do expect If everything goes according to oil and the way it's done historically, there probably will be an inflection of spend in January with the new calendar year, Because loss ratios do reset and that gives them another 8 months to keep making progress. And we know another company that reported recently that is in this market indicated that they thought it'd be 8 months to 9 months. And I think that's they're looking at the same calendar. They're saying January is probably when we're going to start seeing a re inflection. Speaker 200:34:42It's not a bad guess given history Not at all. Speaker 600:34:46All right. And one last one for me. I'm just curious what will consumers Interested in new insurance options see now relative to what they might have seen in other times, more costly Options and or fewer options? Speaker 200:35:03Both, yes. Fewer and more cost is exactly what they're going to be seeing. And in fact, we've seen more shopping because of that. But we've seen when they shop, they don't find a lot of options and they find a lot of expensive options. So We think the shopping behavior will continue as more and more consumers get renewed at higher rates. Speaker 200:35:25But for now, their options are much more limited and those that are available are Considerably higher in terms of the rates than they would have seen, say, last year at this time or certainly the year before. Speaker 600:35:39All right. Thank you. Speaker 200:35:41Thank you. Operator00:35:44Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Christa Cai from Singular Research. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:35:53Hi, Doug and Greg. Speaker 200:35:55Hey, Chris. Speaker 700:35:56Just had a question On the car insurance, what drove the fact that it was so unexpected? It seemed like last Quarter, you guys weren't expecting this, you're expecting just more growth. Why was it such a sudden unexpected Decline? Speaker 200:36:18I wish we knew. I mean, I can tell you what the carriers have said and because it was unexpected to them as well, Right. And you've heard that from everybody in that industry and everybody in our industry. But again, that's their business. But what we what they have said is that the loss ratios were higher than they expected when they went to re ramp spend, both because of The repair and claims costs being higher than anticipated and because the rates, while in many cases had they had taken or increased their rates, Those rates were not high enough to offset those costs being higher than they expected. Speaker 200:37:04You and I could both in terms of the details of why that is, it's everything to do With the inflation underlying inflation that everybody else is dealing with It's probably also the nature of the new consumers that they're signing initially. In some cases, there's been It was the nature of the operations to estimate and serve those consumers. And there's even some one off things. There's a law in Florida that got changed That pulled a lot of the litigation forward, because they were I guess more difficult Or at least less lucrative, I guess, to see the insurance companies once the law goes into place and the deadline, I understand. I've been told. Speaker 200:37:52I am not an industry and I'm not that wonkish in the insurance industry, but I'm told that that expiration for submitting those lawsuits was like March 31. So Apparently that created a rat that's got to work its way through the snake. So lots and lots of stuff, but I'd summarize it and better asked of The actual insurance carriers themselves are folks that follow that industry in a more rigorous research way, but The gist of it is, they've taken rates, it looked like things were good. They started to ramp, they ramped hard. The results started coming in, the results were a lot worse than they expected and here we go again. Speaker 200:38:33But they had every indication and they've given us every indication and given the markets every That they were going to be pedal to the metal and they were for 3 months or so and then Results started coming in. And this isn't just one client. We're seeing this. We're seeing that we've seen this type of behavior across the industry. It's just that One client tends to when a particular client happens to with us, it has more of an impact on us. Speaker 200:39:04But This is not isolated to one client. This is a whole bunch of carriers working through a very complicated environment and they will work through it. It's a mandated product, They're for profit and or constituency serving institutions. They work through other challenging stuff. This one just Has been a bit more complicated and difficult, obviously. Speaker 700:39:29Okay. Thanks for that. And then What are some of the other service offerings that Greg mentioned? Can you shed some light there? Speaker 200:39:38Service offerings, Owen, in terms of trades in home services, I mean, we probably don't want to talk about what new trades we're targeting because that's a competitive A question, but when we talk about service offerings in home services or trades in home services, Greg gave you some examples of what we mean by a service offering on a trade and that would be like window replacement, solar installations, kitchen or bathroom remodels. But there are dozens and dozens and dozens of those specific sub verticals or trades or service areas in the home services market With large, we're in about we're in a little over a dozen of them right now in a meaningful way. Most of them are pretty early in their development, And we think we can be in and we can serve clients in about 3 times that over time and maybe even more, Certainly, we think about 3 times that. So, mainly he was given that making sure that everybody understood that we're really early We're in a very big market in home services and we have a couple of big vectors for growth. 1, we can we'll grow the Service areas that we're in today by adding more clients, more media and doing more, getting more budget from those clients as we optimize performance for them. Speaker 200:40:55That's one leg, the other or one vector. The other vector is we'll get into more service areas. We'll add more Areas of or sub verticals, if you will. So a lot of expansion opportunity and potential and long term growth baked into our strategy and to our approach in Home Services. Speaker 700:41:20Okay. Thanks for that. Speaker 200:41:22Thank you, Chris. Operator00:41:25Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. Thank you everyone for taking the time to join Queen Street's Earnings Call. The replay information is available in the earnings press release issued this afternoon. 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