QuinStreet Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 9, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Day, and welcome to QuinStreet's Fiscal 4th Quarter and Full 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.

Operator

Amparo, you may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us as we report QuinStreet's fiscal 4th quarter and full 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 the 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 looking 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 1

Forward 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 1

Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Rob. Welcome, everyone. QuinStreet had a very successful fiscal Q4. We continue to make great progress against our big non insurance market Those 9 figure revenue client verticals grew at strong double digit rates year over year in the quarter and represented 75% of total revenue. We expect to grow those businesses at double digit rates for years.

Speaker 2

We also continue to invest smartly and effectively in our next generation products And capabilities, including in insurance, where we are positioned to take maximum advantage of the re inflection of carrier marketing budgets. We expect that re inflection to begin in January. Lastly, regarding Q4, we continued to demonstrate operational And financial excellence as well as resilience in our business model. We delivered better than expected revenue, profits and cash flow, improving our already strong balance sheet, All while navigating the auto insurance market and while maintaining high levels of investment Moving to our outlook. First, for the new full fiscal year 2024, which began on July 1.

Speaker 2

We continue to expect that revenue and adjusted EBITDA We'll grow at double digit rates year over year this fiscal year, driven mainly by continued momentum and scale in non insurance client verticals. We also expect a significant positive inflection In auto insurance client spending to begin in January or the second half at our fiscal 2024. We will also, of course, continue to maintain Regarding our outlook for fiscal Q1 or the September quarter, we expect revenue to be between 120 And $125,000,000 and adjusted EBITDA to be approximately breakeven. Finally, our longer term outlook has never been better. We expect to deliver double digit Annual revenue growth rates.

Speaker 2

We could do so just based on continued strong performance in non insurance businesses. Revenue from non insurance businesses is now running at almost $400,000,000 per year. It grew 26% in fiscal 2023 and has grown organically at a compound annual rate of 19% over the past 3 years. We also expect insurance revenue to be up into the right over the longer term, eventually returning to and exceeding prior peak levels As carriers benefit from compound rate increases, product changes, cooling inflation and improving supply chains, and allowing the shift to digital and performance marketing to reassert itself as the dominant long term trend. We expect adjusted EBITDA to grow faster than revenue as we scale the top line faster than expenses, With that, I'll turn the call over to Greg.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Doug. Hello and thanks to everyone for joining us today. For the June quarter, total revenue was $130,300,000 Adjusted debt loss was $514,000 or $0.01 per share. Adjusted EBITDA was $1,800,000 Non insurance revenue was $97,100,000 or 75 percent of Q4 revenue and grew 18% year over year. Looking at revenue by client vertical, Our Financial Services client vertical represented 58% of Q4 revenue and was $75,200,000 Our Home Services client vertical represented 41 percent of Q4 revenue and was $53,100,000 Other revenue was the remaining $2,000,000,000 of Q4 revenue.

Speaker 3

Turning to our full fiscal year 2023 performance, We reported revenue of $580,600,000 roughly flat year over year as strong performance in non insurance businesses Offset insurance results. Revenue from non insurance businesses were 367 point $4,000,000 in fiscal year 2023, an increase of 26% year over year. Our Financial Services client vertical represented 65% of full fiscal year revenue and was $379,700,000 Our Home Services client vertical represented 33% of full fiscal year revenue and $193,100,000 Other revenue represented the remaining $7,800,000 of full fiscal year revenue. Adjusted EBITDA for full fiscal year 2023 was $16,700,000 Turning to the balance sheet. We closed the year with $73,700,000 of cash and equivalents and no bank debt.

Speaker 3

GAAP net income this quarter included a onetime non cash charge of $51,900,000 To establish a valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets. Establishing the valuation allowance was required by GAAP. But to be clear, our deferred tax assets have expiration dates many years out, and we do expect to be able to utilize them in the future to offset tax liabilities. In summary, let me emphasize the same three main points Doug made. 1, our non insurance businesses are big market opportunities.

Speaker 3

2, we expect a significant positive inflection in auto insurance client spending to begin in January for the second half of our fiscal twenty twenty four. And 3, we continue to maintain a strong financial foundation and to demonstrate the resilience and cash generating capabilities of our business model. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator for Q and A.

Operator

And thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct a question and answer And our first question comes from John Campbell from Stephens. Go ahead, John.

Speaker 4

Hey, this is A. J. Hayes stepping on for John. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking our questions. So obviously the fiscal year 2024 guidance commentary is Calling for growing revenue and EBITDA double digits.

Speaker 4

So if I just assume 10% growth for both revenue and EBITDA, you Come out ahead of where consensus stood on revenue, so congrats on that. But this would imply adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 2.9%. So with that said, my question is, does this 2.9% EBITDA margin, roughly 3% put us in the right ballpark for how you're thinking about EBITDA margins Would you consider this maybe the floor given that you expect EBITDA to outgrow revenue as part of your long term outlook? And then maybe if this This is kind of like the base margin assumption here. Could you maybe give some more color on how you're thinking about margins this year?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks, A. J. I don't think we want to be overly specific at this point about the margin, but I would say that We would consider 10% to be the bottom end of the improvement Year over year, so I guess that's a long way of saying, yes, we would probably expect to be better than that In terms of how it comes out, it's going to be driven let me give you some parameters around it. Insurance can be down this year, This fiscal year over last fiscal year, which wasn't a very good fiscal year for insurance obviously, and we'll still grow at double digits on the revenue line and the EBITDA line this fiscal year.

Speaker 2

We do expect though that there'll be a Pretty significant positive inflection insurance beginning in January and hopefully sustained and off to the races we go from there for a lot of periods to come. If and as that does happen, that's quite additive to those numbers. So Hopefully that gives you that brackets it for you as much as I think we'd like to bracket at this point. I think until we see How insurance does in the back half and how fast it does come, what rate it comes and how sustained it is, It's hard for us to be too precise about the number other than to say again, we can deliver what we've guided, Even if insurance is down this year over last fiscal year.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks for And then one more on guidance and kind of running with 10% rev growth assumption here again and we're still working through the math here. But If I just assume that 10% rev growth in 2024 and then you hit your midpoint of your 1Q guide and revenue largely holds flat until we kind of flip into the Calendar year. I'm kind of getting in the ballpark of mid teens year over year growth in 3Q and then a sizable year over year jump In 4Q in terms of revenue, somewhere in the range of maybe 50%. Is this revamp somewhat in the ballpark of how you're thinking about things?

Speaker 4

And maybe you kind of alluded to this in your How you're thinking about things and maybe you kind of alluded to this in your prior commentary, but you're kind of thinking is that the right way to conceptually thinking about the rev ramp this year?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think we're not again getting Yes. Yes. Go ahead. Greg, you want to go ahead?

Speaker 3

That's exactly what I was going to say. I We're trying not to get over precise with that A. J. Just because we don't know the exact curve of what that inflection looks like. We expect Significant positive inflection in auto insurance spending to begin in January, but without fully knowing what the shape of that curve is, It's hard for us to get over precise on that.

Speaker 2

Yes. That's exactly right. And A. J, the only thing I would add is that generally speaking, The kind of curve shape you're talking about is accurate, because what you get, of course, in the back half, We believe is the effects of not only continued success in growing our non insurance businesses throughout the year, but also auto insurance, beginning its positive inflection. So Generally speaking, I think the shape you talked about is accurate.

Speaker 2

It's but to Greg's point and the same thing I was going to say is Just hard to be overly precise about it at this point until we know what that auto insurance curve looks like. We feel good about it coming. It's consistent with what we're hearing from the carriers. It's consistent with what we're hearing from industry analysts. It's consistent with what we're hearing from banking analysts that cover the insurance industry, and it's obvious why, right?

Speaker 2

You've got now Several years of, in some cases, double digit rate increases. You have consumers renewing at those higher rates. You have the carriers adjusting their products in terms of where they're covering and what they're going to cover and how much they're going to cover To reflect the environment, you have a cooling inflation environment, you have dramatically improved supply chains on the auto and auto parts side, Everything adds up to things getting a lot better. The CEOs or the carriers themselves have talked about most of these same things. So we feel very good, particularly given that January was strong 2 years ago, January through March was really strong last year And things have only gotten better from there, going into calendar 2024.

Speaker 2

And of course, the reason the calendar year beginning of the calendar year is always magical is because the combined ratio is reset combined ratio targets reset for some of the most important carriers in the channel. So we've everything adds up to it's probably going to be what we described. It's going to be a significant positive inflection and it's going to begin in January. We just don't know exactly how much And how fast, because nobody does.

Speaker 4

That's very helpful. Thank you, guys.

Speaker 2

Thank you, A. J.

Operator

And our next question comes from Jason Kreyer from Craig Hallum. Go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, this is Cal Bardezol on here for Jason. Just a couple from me, I guess, to start going back to Otto, can you just talk about maybe any differences in performance you saw on agent channels versus digital channels?

Speaker 2

Agent versus digital?

Speaker 5

Yes. Just any differences in any performances you're seeing between those channels?

Speaker 2

Yes, I'll speak generally about it. But first, in terms of overlay, we're mostly leveraged to the direct channel, to the direct digital channel. We serve primarily direct carriers, and we certainly have some business on the agent side, but it is not It's the small minority of what we do. It's unlike a couple of the other folks, in particular, say, on LendingTree's insurance business For EverQuote, who are much more highly exposed and or concentrated on the agent and read side, we're much More concentrated on clicks and the direct side of the market. But we do serve and we do have insights into the agent side, both because we do sell to some of them, leads and calls in particular And because of QRP, we're quite engaged with agencies.

Speaker 2

And I would say that the agent side, there's it's the agent side in some ways is doing better On the direct side, because the big carriers that have captive or dedicated agent networks Those agents and those carriers are continuing to spend to keep the agencies Healthy, if they were to completely cut off their spending, then those agencies would dry up and their whole distribution channel would dry up. So what you usually find is that while spending can drops in the agent channel when there's a hard market like there is now, it doesn't drop as precipitously Or as deeply as it does in the direct channel because they need to keep that channel at least breathing until the market comes back Because if they don't, then they risk losing to state overstate it, their entire distribution channel, Unlike with direct carriers who can just cut off advertising spend and when they want to come back, they just turn it back on and There are all the time, whether they're spending in it or not. So generally speaking, the agent channel Has gone down, but not as much and it doesn't have as deep a bottom for those reasons.

Speaker 2

The other thing I would say about The agent channel, I guess, is that they are also hurting depending on which part of the agent channel you're looking at, because those carriers are also having hard have had a hard time with combined or loss ratios, Particularly on the independent agent side, because independent agencies, some of the largest carriers in the independent agency channel are more the direct spenders or the direct carriers who have cut back and have other ways, Other forms of distribution, and share that channel with other carriers, so they don't have to worry as much about killing their distribution for the long term. And because generally speaking, there's just less coverage from carriers to write to, the carriers just So, that would be from our from where we sit, that's what we're seeing, Agent versus digital or direct.

Speaker 5

Perfect. Thanks for that. And then just last one from me. Just talking About personal loans and credit cards, it seems like that's still performing for you guys pretty well. Just maybe any call outs you'd have there and kind of what you're seeing?

Speaker 5

Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes. Now those businesses have done great. All of our non insurance businesses Grew strong double digit rates this past fiscal year. We expect all to grow this fiscal year at strong double digit rates. We are seeing great strength and good gains in credit cards where we are most almost exclusively leveraged to prime consumers, And that's a good thing in the credit card market.

Speaker 2

And then in personal loans, we've seen A lot of strength and we're having a record we had a record month in June in personal loans. So despite the fact that there has been some credit tightening On the lender side, we continue to expand our client base, have more options for consumers, And we have a pretty vibrant component of our business that helps consumers get connected to folks that can help them with their credit and can help them with their debt situations. And we've seen the balance shift, not surprisingly, Given inflation and other factors, a little bit more to that side of the business, but we're early in a very big market in And continue and have a real balanced set of services for consumers That are really serving the market now despite some of the credit tightening, but we have personal loans, as I said, And credit cards, both strong double digit rates. We expect it again this year and both have a great outlook. And as I said, personal loans even had a record month Just in June, so this business is doing very well for us.

Speaker 5

Perfect. Thanks. That's helpful.

Operator

And our next question is from Jim Goss from Barrington. Go ahead, Jim.

Speaker 6

All right, thanks. You were pretty emphatic about expecting Turn in January, and I know you talked about the resetting of the combined ratios. But it's been Sort of a challenge to make that turn over the past year or so anyway. And I was just wondering, Is that really the source of your confidence because of the resetting of the combined ratios? And Are there things we should be watching as observers to monitor whether that turn

Speaker 2

Jim, I can't believe you don't want to just rely on what I tell you. But no, the

Speaker 6

I always rely on that, Doug. Okay.

Speaker 2

Hey, as I said before, and I think it's a great question by the way. We have had false starts. The industry, auto insurance engine has had false starts the last 2 years Going into the New Year. So completely understand the question and is a completely valid question and we are asking it from every direction we know how for the exact same reasons. All I can do is let me tell you what we're seeing, what we're hearing.

Speaker 2

And on the question about what else you should watch, Let me jump to that and then I'll jump back in terms of what we're seeing and hearing and why we think it. I would encourage you to read any industry analyst reports you can get your hands on. I shared Some of those with our Board this past Board meeting. I would look to the analysts that cover the big carriers, In particular, the big direct carriers, including GEICO and Progressive and what they're saying and hearing about the economics of those folks. I would watch Progressive's reporting, which is monthly, on their combined ratio and And see if in fact their combined ratio for the remainder of this calendar year improves Significantly over what it has been over the past the first half of the calendar year, because that will imply that they're getting to not just that they've cut costs, but they may be getting to rate adequacy And that they have the rates and the economics to be more aggressive in the January forward period, which we do believe It's probably happening based on everything that we're hearing, not from Progressive, but in the market.

Speaker 2

And as we Here in Reed Industry and Stock Analysts, you might note that when Progressive reported their quarter, the stock initially traded down and it popped right back up again, because I think several of the analysts, the sell side analysts came out and talked about those exact I would want to, I think, and I would invite you to, and again, I completely understand. But I would remind you that 2 years ago, January was a record For us in auto insurance, last year, the January, February, March quarter was, I think, Greg, Perhaps another record if not very close in terms of quarter for auto insurance.

Speaker 3

It wasn't a record, but it was a very strong quarter.

Speaker 2

Thank you. And since then, again, what we've had in the market is carriers successfully getting rate increases And getting compounded rate increases over several years now and having now consumers who renew about every 6 months renew under those increased rates. We've had carriers adjust their products and their coverage to better reflect where they think they can make money in the market And to reflect the current economics in the market, we obviously have dramatically cooling inflation from where it was 2 years ago and a year ago. And supply chains, as you can tell, just by watching your television, seeing all the car ads, the automobile ads are back. We're back because we have cars to sell again.

Speaker 2

And so you've seen a supply chain improvement for automobiles, you've seen a softening of used car pricing And you've seen some an improvement in supply chains for automobile parts, all of which matter To a carrier who has to pay for all that. So everything adds up to when combined ratios reset in January, The environment being a lot more conducive to carriers getting back into growth mode and the CEOs of these companies have come out and said, We want to grow. And by the way, they're rewarded for growing. So they will have had 3 years to adjust and adapt, And they've had price increases, as I said, and the environment getting better. So it's just hard for us to imagine, and we haven't found an industry Anywhere that disagrees with the notion that 24 is going to be the count of 24 is going to be better than 23, the big question is at exactly what rate.

Speaker 2

So we would characterize it as what I think is pretty safe ground, pretty significant positive inflection in January from where we are right now The carriers are down so much as they look to finish out this calendar year against a pretty bad first half. But exactly how big and exactly how fast, here's the good news. Our insurance business could be down year over year this fiscal year, and we were still delivering double digit growth.

Speaker 6

Okay. Well, one more on this, Ari, and then I have one other thought. But there's a clear difference homeowners and automotive insurance that some of the carriers are getting out of Florida and California in the homeowners area. So it can be very unpredictable. And I'm wondering if you get squeezed between the cautious carriers and the sort of the Concerned consumers who don't really have other good options as their pricing goes up.

Speaker 6

So even if they Look through the options as they don't really find anything better, which can seem to extend the process of that transition.

Speaker 2

Well, the more they shop, the more business we get. So and the places where carriers have put out of markets Are really kind of immaterial to our auto insurance business getting a heck of a lot bigger. In fact, getting back to the size it was before, as the market normalizes. So those are certainly factors, but I don't think the factors that in any way changes the answer for us if the market in fact It comes back and begins its comeback as we think it will beginning in January. So the only other 2 things I'd throw in there and I don't Pile on because, hey, John knows we've all had way too much of a frustrating time trying to figure out what's going on in the auto and home insurance markets, Including the carriers by the way, it's not like these guys are trying.

Speaker 2

These are great companies, giving us their best shot in an incredibly complicated and difficult environment. So this is I don't think there's blame to be laid anywhere, but it has been awfully difficult. But I would say that the With inflation, with a softening economy, God forbid a recession, what we have always seen is a shopping for auto insurance Increases. On top of that, consumers are getting or as they renew, their rates are getting increased. In some cases, the rates are getting increased strong at strong double digit rates, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, That causes shopping.

Speaker 2

When consumers shop more for insurance, we get more traffic and our business gets goes up. Our business is driven by 2 things: Traffic and budgets. Right now traffic is up because rates have gone up And budgets are down, so it's really hard to produce revenue. We expect from January forward that we'll still have Very strong traffic for all the reasons I just talked about and the budgets will begin to come back and that adds up to and that should mean Significant positive inflection spending should be significant positive inflection in our auto home insurance revenue.

Speaker 6

Okay. Well, my last thought was it seems that this is your big opportunity to put the pedal to the metal on The huge non financial verticals, the home services area, as you did back when education hit a wall and you sort of transitioned your The theme of your business basically. I'm wondering if there are challenges that are stopping you from going even faster there, whether Financial issues in the homeowners or anything else? Or is it just a matter of Defining which areas you want to get into, serve as an added incremental area.

Speaker 2

No, it's a great observation and a great Point and question. I would say that we're investing as aggressively as we think we can to good effect. I don't think that we're missing anything big in terms of how what we're investing in. We're investing, of course, for the long term. So what we're doing, we think we're building we want to build in a big sustainable way, which I think we're doing that.

Speaker 2

If we wanted to push further out on the kind of probability or risk curve in terms of our investments, I think we could, if we were not more constrained by Wanting to make sure we maintain a pretty safe profile, while we wait for insurance to come back. So you think about it, what are we balancing? We want to maintain our infrastructure and insurance and in fact continue to invest in that infrastructure so that when insurance comes back, we get maximum advantage. We're doing that without much insurance revenue. So that's pretty hard on profits and cash flow.

Speaker 2

We're investing very aggressively on our non insurance business To your point, and we're doing that with great effect. We measure our performance on that. We measure our margins on it. This year, we expect about a 30% margin on those incremental investments and to deliver strong double digit growth rates again in those businesses. We think we're doing it very effectively.

Speaker 2

We think we're doing it in the right places and We think we're doing it in a way that's going to give us sustainability. And so you take those two things and you balance them against the business and you say, but Because we want to continue to control our own destiny and maintain a very safe profile, we want to be cash flow positive. So those are kind of the things we're balancing. I think I would argue, and nobody is more biased than I am, that we're doing it awfully well, If you look at the results.

Speaker 6

Well, I appreciate your thoughts and thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jim.

Operator

And up next, we have Chris Sakai from Singular. Go ahead, Chris.

Speaker 7

Yes. Hi, Greg and Doug. Just I had a question on Q1's guidance of what $120,000,000 to $125,000,000 Can you provide a breakdown as far as What percentage of that would be financial and what percentage of services?

Speaker 2

Greg, I don't know if you have that in front of you or if you want to provide the guide at that A level of detail, we typically provide the guide by vertical like that, Chris. But I would say that The general way to think about it is auto insurance is running along the bottom of where it's been for the last several years. And so you what you should expect and but our other non insurance businesses are doing extraordinarily well. So the bulk just like this quarter, 75% of our revenue was non insurance. I would expect that it would be that or more this quarter because auto insurance is actually as low as it's been in a very long time and it dropped down to that level in the May June timeframes.

Speaker 2

So it will be lower this quarter than it was last quarter as again the carriers Try to offset a very bad first half and get ready, we hope, to be able to Influct in January. Greg, I'm sorry, I'd make sure I covered that right for you.

Speaker 3

Yes. No, that's exactly it. I think we'll see a full quarter effect from auto insurance of depressed spending in the September quarter offset by double digit growth in non insurance businesses. So there is similar dynamic to what we saw in the June quarter.

Speaker 7

Okay. Sounds good. And then let's see.

Speaker 6

Yes. I think

Speaker 7

can you talk about actually Providing guidance for the year, how when would you provide that?

Speaker 2

No, it's a great question, Chris. I think as soon as we have Any kind of reasonable clarity on auto insurance? We'll be able to get more precise. I know it's kind of frustrating when we get something as Generic as double digits, but what we can do with that is we can make a broad range of assumptions and we know what our forecasts are For non insurance businesses, we've been quite accurate. In fact, I think beat those that budget last year quite handily.

Speaker 2

But what we don't have a handle on, as I said before, is the exact shape of the auto insurance curve from January forward. We believe, of course, for all the reasons I've talked about that there's going to be a significant positive inflection. We don't know exactly how big or how what rate. We've run a lot of different models. And again, I think the best news to give you is that we can be down year over year in auto insurance this fiscal year and still deliver double digit growth Over fiscal 2023, that's about as precise as we can be.

Speaker 2

And hopefully, that's a good bracket to at least give you Until we begin to get budgets, probably in the December, we'll get indications maybe in late November, we'll get hopefully budget numbers in December and then we'll know where we'll have a much better feel for where we are. So I would hope that the answer to that is when we report our fiscal Q2 or for the December quarter, It will be able to be we'll be able to tighten that range quite a bit for you.

Speaker 7

Okay. Sounds good. And then last one for me. So you expect adjusted EBITDA to be Even the 10% margin range, can you give any time frame on that?

Speaker 2

I can't because it depends on auto insurance. I can tell you that If we do an auto insurance, what we think we could do in auto insurance, Which is not to the levels, that it was anywhere near to the levels of the peak, Then we could be pretty close to that as soon as the fiscal Q4. Now we don't expect that and we're not guiding to that. But that gives you a sense for how rapidly EBITDA margin will come back as we get a return of any kind of top line leverage from auto insurance. Greg, is that do you want to give any you want to make sure I'm giving that accurately and or

Speaker 3

No, no, that's correct. That is correct.

Speaker 7

Okay. Sounds good. Thanks for the

Speaker 2

answers. Thank you,

Operator

Chris. And up next, we have Max Michalis. Go ahead, Max from Lake Street Capital.

Speaker 8

Hey, guys. Congrats on the quarter. I won't keep beating the dead horse on the guidance. I'll shift gears here. Just going back to Your commentary on investments in the quarter and going forward.

Speaker 8

Can you just get into a little bit more specifics on What kind of investments you're going to be directing some of this cash towards? Thank you.

Speaker 2

You bet, Max. So when I say investments, I don't just mean capital Investments, oftentimes when I talk about investment, I mean like people and or working on a new media That might result in some losses for a while until we optimize it up into the right. So again, I use the term investments Pretty generically, I know that can be confusing, I apologize for that. But mostly, it's going to be several buckets. One is, We have a lot of opportunities to continue to press our growth in non insurance client verticals because those are big markets.

Speaker 2

They don't have the structural headwinds of auto insurance. We have the development and application of our core optimization technologies to those verticals, As they get to the scale that justifies that and we're a scale that requires that in order for us to really be as efficient as we need to be. So it's investment in all of those areas, whether it be people or trial and error Or other forms of ramping, all those kinds of things. So that's probably the bulk of the investment. In fact, it has been the bulk of the investment this past year, will likely be the bulk of the investment, this coming year.

Speaker 2

We're also investing in, as you know, new products. We continue to invest aggressively in QRP. We continue to see great opportunity in QRP. We have made Great progress with QRP, but for the bad market. And that product is just continuing to get better as we get feedback From carriers and from agencies and as we work with some of the big agencies to get that implemented.

Speaker 2

So that and another product that we talked about For lending and home services, we'll continue to invest in that product. Neither of those products have big revenue yet through RP because of the insurance market, The other lending product, because it's earlier stage, but we're putting a lot of money into those products. So we think they both represent Tens to 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars of very high margin opportunity for the company that are very contiguous to you and very complementary to our core business. So we're continuing those investments and have continued those investments, including in insurance, as I said, not just QRP, but also in Media and all the other things we need to do in insurance to be ready for that for the business to come back on the other side. Those are the big buckets, and we have been doing that.

Speaker 2

We will continue to do that. And the reason you see the reduction in EBITDA this past year is because we've done that while losing from the peak 2 $200,000,000 a year in insurance revenue. So that's kind of the things we think are important to keep investing in while Maintain a great balance sheet and while staying cash flow and adjusted EBITDA positive.

Speaker 8

No, that's great color. And then actually I do want to ask something about the quarter here with the insurance vertical. I know the rug was kind of pulled out from underneath you back in April unexpectedly. Did it get materially worse throughout the quarter in May June?

Speaker 2

It did. Yes. It did. I think we're and we've been told by the carriers that we're kind of at the bottom. Hopefully, they're right.

Speaker 2

But yes, they are going to I think what we're seeing is carriers cutting Costs dramatically in order to offset a bad first half and get to their combined ratio targets and hopefully, Fingers crossed to be ready to spring out and inflect very positively come January.

Speaker 8

Okay. And then last one for me. What was Progressive In the quarter as a percentage of revenue. 6%.

Speaker 3

Hey Max, this is Greg. Progressive was 6%. Yes, 6%.

Speaker 8

Thank you. That's it for me guys.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Max.

Operator

And our final question

Speaker 6

This is A. J.

Speaker 4

Hayes on again for John. Just Wanted to follow-up on the Home Services segment. You've been putting up impressive year over year growth numbers there despite lapping Tough comps. So you've had a handful of really strong quarters and maybe even a handful of really strong years going on here in this segment. So Question is, what is driving this growth of late?

Speaker 4

Is it new product driven? Is it new customers? Is it getting deeper share of wallet? Or is there maybe anything else worth calling out there?

Speaker 2

Yes. We have had several great years in Home Services A. J. We just had another great quarter. We expect yet another great year.

Speaker 2

There A lot of momentum in that business, a lot of dimensions to the growth. We are getting deeper And the trades we call them, a trade is kind of a subvertical in home services. A trade might be roofing, for example, or Windows or HVAC. So we are getting deeper into the trades we're in, getting more clients, more budgets from existing clients And more media access because of those stronger budgets. That's one dimension.

Speaker 2

The other dimension is we're adding new trades. We're getting into more Trades, and we expect to continue to get into more trades, as we go forward. And then we're just executing Well, when we merged our home services business with the modernized home services business, They were very complementary and we thought 1 on 1 would be 2.5, 101 has been about 4, as those Teams have executed. So just good basic execution on all the dimensions that matter to our business, whether it be more media, Better results from media, more budgets, better results for our clients, so we get even more budgets or the application of our the QuinStreet Core optimization technologies, which are really our secret sauce, that's our magic into home services as we've gotten further along the integration curve. All of those things have been additive and have contributed to strong growth, which we just had again another You've heard us say and Greg has said, maybe our biggest addressable market and quite possibly so.

Speaker 2

Great for QuinStreet. And we got a great team and they're executing extraordinarily well.

Speaker 4

That's great. Thanks for the color there, Doug.

Speaker 2

Thank you, A. J.

Operator

And we have no further questions at this time. Thank you everyone for taking the time to join QuinStreet Earnings Call. Replay information is available on the earnings press release issued this afternoon. This concludes today's call. Thank you.

Operator

You may all disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
QuinStreet Q4 2023
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