Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Clarke Jeffries: Just a finer point on guidance, and I really appreciate that you’re giving a split between how the revenue impact flow through. But specifically on the ACV, if DGM and SSE are still on track to 4 points of contribution of growth, then thinking about Heritage as the sort of difference there. I wanted to specifically ask how much of it is describable by the chemical end market? You said the word predominantly, but I just wanted to be clear about is MSC coming down, but CapEx engineering is going up. And so you’re still within the range, but is there any way you could maybe further clarify chemicals contribution to the ACV movement given that we’re still on track for 4 points with the DGM and SSE. And then I have one follow-up.

Antonio Pietri: Yes. Look, so we said it in the prepared remarks, the chemicals owner operators are one of the primary contributors to growth in the MSC suite because that’s where the is really used. In Heritage AspenTech chemicals, represent, I believe, about 28% of the total annual spend. I believe today on an ACV basis is about 23% of the total ACV. And as such, a slowdown in — with our chemicals customers, those have an impact on the rate of growth of MSC. If you go back to the previous guidance, the initial guidance for the year, we were guiding MSC from 7.5 to 9.5 point of growth. We’ve adjusted that guidance to 7 to 8. So we still think, and we still believe that there’s — MSC will still materially contribute. On a stand-alone basis, on an ACV basis.

We believe that MSC, if you compare it to annual spend to its previous baseline, it’ll still be assuming that we perform we expect to perform in Q4. MSC will probably still be a double-digit growth business by the end of the fiscal year. So there’s been an impact, no doubt about it. But nonetheless, that business is still performing well. I believe that, that business will find ways to also accelerate into fiscal ’24, and we’ll continue to execute.

Clarke Jeffries: Really appreciate it. Yes, that’s the color that I was certainly looking for. And then just maybe stepping back, I mean, you had mentioned input costs as well as supply chain disruptions as maybe some of the things that were affecting those customers. But for us, maybe outside or looking in, is there anything that you particularly point to as maybe the main touch point with customers in terms of why they’re they’re considering a conservative outlook. Anything that we should be monitoring in terms of the main input to their confidence or their business looking forward?

Antonio Pietri: Yes. Well, one of the main drivers the drop in demand has been destocking in this customer’s customers’ businesses. You have to put it and you have to go back to COVID — the COVID years where a lot of companies have stopped up on on supplies, considering the environment, and now with, of course, an uncertain macro environment, interest rates and other things, these customers have pulled back and purchasing and are consuming their inventory that the destocking part of it. What I hear from chemical customers as we attend a conference and meet with them. That I believe that this token is coming to an end, probably most likely toward the middle of this year, and they expect to start seeing a growth in demand toward the middle of this calendar year.

Operator: And our final question for today comes from the line of Mark Schappel from Loop Capital.

Mark Schappel : Chantelle question for you. I was wondering if you could just review the factors impacting free cash flow that you mentioned in your prepared remarks once again?