SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (SSNC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SS&C Technologies First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand today's call over to Chand Madaka, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Welcome, and thank you for joining us for our Q1 2025 earnings call. I'm Chand Madaka, Investor Relations for SS&C. With me today is Bill Stone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Rahul Kanwar, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Brian Schell, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, we need to review the safe harbor statement. Please note that various remarks we make today about future expectations, plans and prospects, including the financial outlook we provide, constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the Risk Factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, which is on file with the SEC and can also be accessed on our website. These forward-looking statements represent our expectations only as of today, April 24, 2025. While the company may elect to update these forward-looking statements, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. During today's call, we will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP financial measures is included in today's earnings release. which is located in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.ssctech.com. I will now turn over the call to Bill.

Thanks, Chand, and welcome, everyone. Our first quarter results are adjusted revenue $1,514,800,000, up 5.5% and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.44, an 8.3% increase. Adjusted consolidated EBITDA was $591.9 million, up 6.3%, resulting in quarterly adjusted consolidated EBITDA margin of 39.1%. Our first quarter adjusted organic revenue growth was 5.1%. Performance was driven by our GlobeOp, Wealth and Investment Technologies and Global Investor and Distribution Services business. GlobeOp posted strong results with organic growth of 10.3% and positive trends in private market and retail alternatives. Wealth and Investment Technologies saw continued strength in the Wealth segment, and GIDS met its client wins and volume targets. We continue to feel good about our health business, which finished the quarter approximately flat. Our recurring revenue growth rate for Financial Services was 5.9% in Q1, which includes all software-enabled services and maintenance revenues. For the 3 months ended March 31, 2025, cash from operating activities were $272.2 million, up 50.8% from Q1 '24. We bought back 2.4 million shares for $206.9 million at an average price of $87.21. Consistent with our historical capital allocation practices, we will continue to buy shares opportunistically. SS&C continues to see success internationally across several of our businesses. During the quarter, we signed our strategic lift-out agreement with Insignia Financial and have since won additional Australia mandates. In March, we hosted one SS&C event in Sydney, which has led to an increased profile, and we met with a number of our largest clients, and we remain bullish on Australia. Geneva had one of its best quarters in EMEA history, winning 3 major deals in the region. We are outpacing our competitors and discriminating functional depth and breadth globally. Private markets has also enjoyed the fruits of international expansion growing 14% in Q1. We are currently focusing efforts on the Middle East with flagship clients driving regional growth. We've strengthened our presence in the Middle East by opening a new office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in addition to our offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I'll now turn the call over to Rahul to discuss the quarter in more detail.

Thanks, Bill. We had a strong first quarter with organic revenue growth of 5.1%. GlobeOp started 2025 on a high note, posting 10.3% organic growth. The integration of Battea is also progressing well, and we've already won 10 cross-sell customers. In addition to these results, we're seeing healthy activity in key areas, particularly in retail alternatives in private markets. Our Wealth and Investment Technologies business delivered strong results driven by ALPS Advisors and the Black Diamond Wealth platform. Our strategic alliance with Morningstar is expanding the opportunity set. We're also advancing customer transitions to the Genesis platform with solid engagement across our prospects. Global Investor and Distribution Solutions business saw steady growth supported by key customer renewals and new retirement mandates. We continue to see a healthy flow of opportunities across global markets. Demand for AI-driven automation remains high. Earlier this month, we launched our global governance first AI platform at Blue Prism Live in London. As part of the launch, we introduced a unified trust layer designed to help regulated customers adopt advanced technologies with confidence using embedded guardrails and policy-based execution. This positions Blue Prism as a trusted partner in enterprise transformation. We also continue to deploy Blue Prism and other automation technologies internally, and we've achieved a cumulative benefit of more than 3,300 full-time equivalents since we launched this effort in early 2023. We recently introduced 20 new AI agents capable of handling complex unstructured content, including vendor contracts and limited partner capital statements. These innovations are central to efforts to support customers on their own AI journeys. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian to talk through the financials.

Thanks, Rahul, and good day, everyone. As noted in our press release, our Q1 '25 GAAP results reflect revenues of $1.514 billion, net income of $213 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.84. Our adjusted non-GAAP results include revenues of $1.51 billion, an increase of 5.5% over Q1 '24 and adjusted diluted EPS of $1.44, an 8.3% increase over Q1 '24. The adjusted revenue increase of $79 million over Q1 '24 was primarily driven by incremental organic revenue contributions from GlobeOp of $34 million with a $14 million and GIDS of $9 million, offset by an unfavorable impact from foreign exchange of $7 million. As a result, adjusted organic revenue growth was 5.1% and our core expenses also increased 5.1% or $45 million, which excludes acquisitions and on a constant currency basis. Adjusted consolidated EBITDA was $592 million, reflecting an increase of $35 million or 6.3% from Q1 '24 and a margin of 39.1%, a 30 basis point expansion. Net interest expense for the quarter was $105 million, a decrease of $11 million from Q1 '24, primarily reflecting lower short-term interest rates. Adjusted net income was $366 million, up 9%, resulting in adjusted diluted EPS of $1.44, an increase of 8.3%. Our effective non-GAAP tax rate was 24%. Note for comparison purposes, we have recast the 2024 adjusted net income quarterly results to reflect the full year effective tax rate of 23.1%. An increase in the average share price drove the diluted share count up from 254.9 million from 253.3 million year-over-year. Cash flow from operating activities grew 51%, which was driven by growth in earnings as well as improved working capital utilization. Our quarterly cash flow conversion was 74%, up from 54% last year. SS&C ended the first quarter with $515 million in cash and cash equivalents and $6.9 billion in gross debt. SS&C's net debt was $6.4 billion and our LTM consolidated EBITDA was $2.3 billion. The resulting net leverage ratio is 2.74x. We look forward to the second quarter and the remainder of the year with respect to guidance. We will continue to focus on client service and assume retention rates will continue to be in the range of our most recent results. We will continue to manage our expense by controlling and aligning variable expenses, increasing productivity to improve our operating margins and effectively investing in the business through marketing, sales and R&D. Specifically, we have assumed foreign currency exchange will be at current levels, interest rates to remain at current levels and effective tax rate of approximately 24% on an adjusted basis, capital expenditures to be 4% to 4.4% of revenues, which is a slight reduction from prior guidance and a stronger weighting to share repurchases versus debt reduction. For the second quarter of '25, we expect revenue to be in the range of $1.489 billion to $1.529 billion and 2.5% organic revenue growth at the midpoint, adjusted net income in the range of $343 million to $359 million, interest expense, excluding amortization of deferred financing costs and original issue discount in the range of $102 million to $104 million, diluted shares in the range of $254 million to $255 million, and adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $1.35 to $1.41. For the full year 2025, we are modestly raising our top line guidance by $13 million at the midpoint, and now expect revenue to be in the range of $6.11 billion to $6.238 billion. Bearing in mind recent macro uncertainty, geopolitical conditions and market volatility, we note FX translation has influenced our organic growth rate guide for the year. Current FX rates provide a potential top line benefit, though we remain appropriately conservative in the current environment. We now expect 4.4% organic revenue growth at the midpoint. We continue to expect organic growth to ramp up in the second half of the year based on our current view of the pipeline, expected contribution from already sold deals and Battea turning organic. For the full year 2025, we are slightly raising our earnings guidance. Specifically, we expect adjusted net income in the range of $1.441 billion to $1.541 billion, diluted shares in the range of $253.7 million to $256.7 million, adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $5.68 to $6, up $0.04 at the midpoint, and cash from operating activities to be in the range of $1.458 billion to $1.558 billion. Our 2025 guidance reflects our solid results in Q1 with a continued positive outlook for the remainder of the year. We are also positioning ourselves to better support our growth, acquisitions and integration plans with the conversion of our multiple general ledger systems into a single platform by the end of the third quarter this year. And now back to Bill.

Thanks, Brian. We also added Francesco Vanni d’'Archirafi to our Board in March, and we welcome him. He had a very impressive career at Citibank, and he currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Euroclear Holdings and as a member of the Board of Mapfre. We are excited about the extensive experience he brings in operational management and corporate transactions. We are operating in an environment of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, leading to volatility in the global markets. SS&C has a long history of resilient performance during challenging operating environments, and we are confident in our business model. We closed out a solid first quarter and continue to execute against our plan. I will now open it up to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is from the line of Jeff Schmitt with William Blair.

On health care, was it just a seasonally weak quarter for that business? And how does your pipeline look currently?

I think health care continues to build its pipeline. We're selling into large scale health insurance companies and others. So some of it is lumpy but we have a lot of -- I think we first rolled out DomaniRx in January '24. And I think in '25, we're expecting to process several hundred million claims. And so we have a lot of interest, they're very large prospects for us, and we remain optimistic.

Okay. And then your organic growth guide for the second quarter, I think it's 2.5%. Is that assuming a slowdown or pause in new business, just given all the economic uncertainty? I may have missed that. And if so, could you kind of quantify what you're assuming there?

I would say, basically, we're just putting a measure of conservatism into the second quarter given everything that's happening in the world right now. So we're a global business and while we don't believe tariffs are really going to be a big impact on us from a financial standpoint, its opportunity to slow down deals is certainly possible. So I think we have a good pipeline. We've got a lot of deals we've sold that the revenue has not started flowing in yet. So we're optimistic that we can hopefully surprise you positively.

Your next question is from the line of Peter Heckmann with D.A. Davidson & Co.

Hopefully, you can hear me. It's a little choppy on this end. But congratulations on finalizing the Insignia deal. Now that it's closed, do you think you can give us a little bit more in terms of your expectations for its contribution to revenue and how much it might ramp up and whether or not we would be able to see the impact of that ramp on margins in the second half or the first half of 2026?

Well, the -- we're going to re-badge about 1,400 people from Insignia to us, and then that will happen like July 1, I believe. So most -- obviously, the ramp is going to be in the third and fourth quarter. So we'll get about half a year, and that can range anywhere from $35 million to $70 million. And so we're optimistic that we can really do a great job for them and really take care of their members. And that's what we're focusing on, and we've got a great team that's really getting this thing very well planned.

Okay. All right. That's helpful. And then just as a follow-up on your decision or the announcement to dissolve another one of the joint ventures with State Street. As that is dissolved, do you expect to pick up any additional revenue? Like what would you say would be the kind of the net effect to revenue over -- some additional revenue recognized at the corporate level? And what would you expect the impact to be on the EBITDA line?

As of right now, we're not expecting much impact as a result of that. Most of that is operational. The processing is done within SS&C and in effect, what we're doing is simplifying the entity structure. There may be some reduction in costs because it simplifies it, but we're not expecting that to be very significant.

Okay. And then just last thing, where do you expect that to actually finalize and occur?

We're working through it right now. We don't have a definitive time line as yet.

Your next question is from the line of Dan Perlin with RBC Capital Markets.

So just at a high level, again, Bill, on the demand environment. I know we've heard from other players in the financial services market banks, in particular, have talked about some of their clients pausing. Doesn't sound like you're seeing that yet, but I just want to kind of make a finer point that what are those conversations like? Do you get the sense that they feel like there might be an air pocket in the business and decision-making so they might want to hold off? I heard your comment on the organic growth being measured as conservative. So I get that, but obviously, you talked a lot of these businesses. So I'm just curious what those conversations are like.

Well, I think you know, Dan, that there's an awful lot of change happening, in particular, in wealth and asset management, and there are sea changes that are being caused by things like AI and Quantum and all kinds of new technologies, probably the biggest set of new technologies since, say, the Internet. So I think that there's going to be an awful lot of change. And I think that I read a note that said 2/3 of all CEOs are afraid that if they don't get AI right, they're going to lose their job. So I think there's a lot of trepidation about what's going to happen in the technological world, and SS&C is well positioned to help our prospects and our clients get through this in a really pretty good fashion. We spend lots of money on this. We have all kinds of different tools and techniques that are very valuable to our clients and we get lots of inquiries from them to help them.

Yes. Excellent. Can I just ask just another quick question in particular around Insignia in Australia, maybe the market in general? I think I heard you say you signed several new mandates since kind of the announcement. And I'm just wondering like, obviously, the demand environment there seems high. I feel like almost -- you guys sound giddy about the opportunity. So I'm just trying to make sure we kind of ring-fence like what kind of cadence you expect in terms of how that can potentially ramp?

Well, Dan, when you get to be my age, being giddy is one of the pleasures in life. Other than that, you got to push up daisies, I think. So giddy sounds better to me. But it really is -- they call the superannuation business in Australia the wall of money. So everyone is required to participate, but it's their own accounts. As you know, here in the U.S. saying that you have your own account in social security, you have more analysis than me. So I think that the services companies in Australia have maybe not kept up quite as well on the technology like we have. So we're coming in there as an at-scale company that has technology that they want and a whole cadre of talented people that can help them. And that's the feeling we're getting embraced. Now I hope we still get embraced because the geopolitical things, but I don't think so. I mean we're really doing well. We're investing and they know it. So I think that's going to be a really great market for us.

Your next question is from the line of Surinder Thind with Jefferies.

Bill, just a few questions on some of the segments here. When we think about Intralinks and we look at everything that went right last year in terms of the introduction of the new platform, how are we thinking about the performance of Intralinks in kind of the current environment? How much of a headwind do you think it's going to be? Or how should we characterize what the current growth rate looks like and how it might evolve over the coming quarters?

At the -- in sort of appropriately conservative is kind of the way I describe us looking at it. And so we think Intralinks right now probably grows mid-single digits, and that's in effect, what's implied in our forecast. We do have a number of things that we have rolled out in terms of new platforms and some AI-enabled technologies that allow us to grow despite kind of the turmoil in the markets. And then if we start to see things turn around in the second half of the year, that ought to be really pretty positive for that business.

Got it. And then, Rahul, can you maybe provide a similar update on kind of Blue Prism and all the enhancements and the rollout strategy there? And how you're thinking about that over the course of the year?

I think our primary opportunity or the thing that we're most excited about is there's a lot of -- as you know, around the world, enterprises are trying to figure out how to use AI. And so they need to have some controls, particularly in regulated industries on how people go out and use the various AI tools. And a big part of what we have invested in is building in, as I mentioned in my comments, the trust layers and the guardrails and things like that, which we think are extremely valuable to us, but they're also really valuable to positioning Blue Prism as that trusted partner. So our opportunity set is really strong, and we feel good about it. And in particular, using agents and agentic AI is a big part of what we expect to do over the next couple of quarters.

Got it. And then I guess turning that question internally in terms of the digital workers, just any color on the complexity of the use cases you're now able to address and how you're thinking about that on a go-forward basis? It sounds like you're using it to solve bigger problems at this point or...

Well, that's exactly right. I think that the -- we've got some momentum. We've now been at this since the start of 2023. We are, as you said, getting deeper and richer into our own processing and just as important as the internal efficiencies we're getting, those applications then become really good proof points for our customers and prospects. So they look at what we've been able to achieve. And we had recently had a customer tell us that they got a number of demos from our competitors, but not a single work and use case. And while within SS&C, they could see it already operating at scale. So that's pretty powerful.

And then what does that mean for margins? Do you feel like there's a structural tailwind that you have at this point that, that will continue? Or how should we think about that, not necessarily this year, but as we kind of conceptually think about this or maybe even this year?

So Surinder, that's really great question, and we appreciate it because you get 1 question and then apparently 4 follow-ups, but...

I thought I was the last person in the queue. That's okay, Bill. We can take it off.

That's okay. I'm just kidding you. But I think that we still think that what's allowed us to do is maintain margins. I think the adjusted EBITDA margin this quarter was 39.1%, up about 30, 40 basis points. And we're investing heavily, right? So there's a lot of expenses that we're running through and still driving margins up. And I think we would attribute a nice portion of that to the ability of our different business units to deploy Blue Prism's technologies into their businesses. And as you said, it's getting to be increasingly complex processes that allow us to be able to even take some really experienced people and give them capabilities that really extend their ability to help our prospects and our customers.

The next question is from the line of James Faucette with Morgan Stanley.

It's Mike Infante on for James. I just wanted to ask on the GlobeOp business, obviously, really impressive results again. I think that business has accelerated sequentially every quarter for more than a year now. Like can you just unpack what's driving that? Is that net new momentum? Is that pricing? What are you sort of seeing just in terms of the complexion of the growth drivers within that business?

The great thing that we have with GlobeOp is that it's a global business. So as we start talking about what we're doing in the Middle East, we're getting large scale customers that are investing increasingly in alternative assets, and they want the best technology supported by the best firm. And that's what we believe we have proven quarter after quarter after quarter. And I think that shows up in how we explain what we're going to do, how we're going to train them, what asset classes that they can invest in, whether it's real estate or private credit or whatever, and we bring real expertise that really helps them get up to speed in short order. And that is the big secret of our success on GlobeOp.

Makes sense. Maybe just on the competitive front, Bill. Obviously, a lot of acquisition activity in the space, particularly in the hedge fund and investment accounting space. I know some of these acquisitions are quite small relative to the totality of your business. But any just high-level thoughts on that deal and sort of how you're thinking about your ability to sort of continue to gain share in the start-up hedge fund environment, particularly just given some of this integration activity that's obviously coming?

Well, I think what's happening in that startup is that it's kind of being led by very seasoned investors, and they're starting with larger pools of money, right? So they're already sophisticated, and they want to hit the ground running. So as they're doing their fundraising, they're also planning out what technologies they're going to use. And often, they turn to us. And we have an awful lot of the global macro firms use us and an awful lot of the assets that have been going into alternatives go into the global macro funds. And so we're in a very nice position, and we're not resting on our laurels as we continue to bring out additional feature, additional functionality and really to the delight of our customers.

Your next question is from the line of Andrew Schmidt with Citi.

I wanted to go back to this conversation on the demand environment. I totally understand the setup for the second quarter in terms of comments on conservatism and the mission-critical nature of what you guys do. But I'm just curious if you could give us a sense of whether conversations and sales cycles have changed meaningfully, March and April. Obviously, it wouldn't be surprising a huge amount of distraction out there. But I'm just curious, just put a finer point in terms of your conversations with the clients and decision-making.

I mean we still see a pretty good demand environment. We were with a prospect this afternoon, and they're anxious to deploy new technology to get better processes to close their books faster to get information in their hands that help them run their business. I think that's the key to our business is being aware and then moving quickly to give our prospects and our clients information that they want it for a long time, and they don't get it in a month, they get it in the day. And I think it's that focus on process it, slice it and dice it and deliver it and I think that's something that we do with a lot of accuracy, and that gives our clients a lot of confidence.

Got it. And then maybe just on the back half ramp, I know you articulated a few things that are drivers there. Part of that seems like it's Insignia and other signed deals but maybe just give more detail on the confidence in the back half ramp, what's signed versus go get? I know there's always a level of go get. You got to get it there and sell and close deals. But just maybe more details on the drivers and confidence in that ramp would be helpful.

Yes. Andrew, obviously, and you pointed this out, there's always a an element of go get. I'd say we feel pretty good. Obviously, there's a fair amount of execution left to do and some deals left to close and implementations left to go live and all those things. So by no means certain, right? But we feel pretty good. We have a lot of visibility into some of the big pockets of revenue coming online in Q3 and Q4, and that helps with that.

Your next question is from the line of Alexei Gogolev with JPMorgan.

This is Ella Smith on for Alexei Gogolev. So first, we want to double down about the strength in GlobeOp. You called out the strength in the private markets of retail alternatives. How are you thinking about the forward organic growth of those markets in particular? Do you expect them to maintain their strength or taper off somewhat? And if you could remind us what is driving that strength, that would be great.

Well, I think when you look at why our private credit and other private markets, I think it's because they can structure things in ways that allow them to get additional yield on those assets and some of the brightest people in the business are saying they can structure things in the private markets where they can get a couple of hundred more basis points than they can get in the public markets. A couple of hundred basis points on the kinds of billions that our clients manage is worth a ton of money. And I think that's the biggest thing. And then I also think in the structuring, what they are able to do is it is really identify where the risk points are and then structure these investments to be able to minimize those risk points.

Great. That makes a lot of sense. And for my follow-up, I hear enthusiasm about agentic AI and bringing that to customers. Do you expect those offerings to begin to show up in organic growth in the near term? Or do you think that there's going to be an investment building out phase that needs to transpire and finish first?

I mean it's not going to be snap your fingers and we get 400 basis points of organic growth. But it's going to make what is already a very sticky business. What is already a highly profitable business, which is already a high cash flow generation business. And right now, like someone had asked about acquisitions and even what you see in the market, it's continuation funds and additional investments in companies that they already own. So I think that the robustness of the M&A market might pick up in like the fourth quarter because I think increasingly, the private equity funds are feeling like that they need to get some stuff out into the marketplace so that they can give cash back to their LPs and then the LPs can reinvest it with them.

Your next question is from the line of Kevin McVeigh with UBS.

Congratulations on the results, and it's obviously a choppy environment. Bill, if I got this question, once intra-quarter, I got it 30 times about hedge funds de-grossing and what that means and obviously, your AUA continues to increase year-on-year and increased sequentially. Can you maybe just help remind us, because again, we got the question a lot why the AUA and we even analyzed in COVID, it just continues to grow. And it's just, I think, one of the really underappreciated parts of the story, but just maybe help dimensionalize that, just given, obviously, some of the volatility in the market we've seen.

Well, Kevin, as you know, when you see volatility, people are looking for like safe havens. And what they've seen over the last 30, 40 years that the risk-adjusted returns in the hedge fund industry are pretty noncorrelated to these different markets, and that's why money moves to them. And I think that hasn't changed, and I don't think it's going to change in the near term. If anything, I mean, we've seen the hedge fund industry moved to cash or more cash. And I think that they're just waiting to pounce again. And I think that's the nature of the brightest investors, and I think that, that will continue.

That's helpful. And then, Bill, with Insignia, does that -- from a business segment perspective, does that all fit within GlobeOp or GIDS? Or where would that sit across kind of the segments or is it multiple?

GIDS, it's primarily in GIDSs.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question is from the line of Patrick O'Shaughnessy with Raymond James.

So Battea seems to be trending well below the revenue that it had in 2023 when you guys acquired it. Is that just a function of the lumpiness of the -- just the nature of the business? Or is there something else going on?

No, I think that's it. We're obviously taking some time to make sure we understand properly from an accounting standpoint, what the flows are and in some ways, I think there's some degree of being conservative reflected in that too. But as we get more comfortable, we do expect that some of those accounting rules will get relaxed a little. But the underlying strength of that business and our ability to cross-sell that to our customers and how the sales force feels like they're being really well supported has us pretty optimistic.

What sort of forward-looking view do you have into that business? Like at this point into the second quarter, do you have a pretty good sense for what 2Q revenue is going to look like? Or does stuff kind of come in relatively quickly?

Well, I think we have a pretty good view right now of the cases that we're in and the settlements that have already been announced and are kind of our portion of those. So looking out a couple of years, we have a pretty good sense of what the aggregate amount is that is already baked. But we don't have as good a sense of is which quarter it shows up in, and that's a part of this.

Got it. That's helpful. And then maybe just a quick housekeeping question. What is the FX impact on the revenue that's embedded into the full year guidance at this point?

Well, it's essentially the net difference. The kind of one of the metrics that you would use to look at the overall financials, and I think we put this in the -- either it's in the K or the Q, but about 21% of the revenues are non-U.S. dollar. So obviously, any impact to that will have the corresponding adjustment, right? So if it's up by 1%, it has a whatever, roughly 20 bps impact change on the overall growth rate. And so we try to be conservative and kind of look at where current rates are today.

At this time, there are no further questions. I will now hand today's presentation back over to our presenters for any closing remarks.

Well, we really appreciate all of you taking time to sit in on our call, and we're excited about our business, and we'll continue to work hard for our shareholders. Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.