HealthEquity, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQY) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Tyson Murdock: Yes. I mean we have some deposits that occur in the middle of the year, which are smaller, Alan. So we make adjustments there. And as we feed money into enhanced rates as well, kind of operating we’ve got to make sure we operate between the mid and the MAX on the deposits on the FDIC side, but we could start to continue to feed dollars into the enhanced rate program. You see that start to accelerate as well. And so as Jon said, we’re a little ahead of schedule on our goals there, too. So that’s part of the steroid story. We’ve also continued to do a little bit better on how we monetize client-held funds against the rate environment that’s currently available to us. And so we make a little bit of improvement there.

And I give credit. We got a new — we got a new treasurer in there. He’s making improvements and looking for ways to squeeze more times and nickels out of this, and clearly, he’s doing a good job. And so it’s kind of all those things amalgamated together.

Jon Kessler: One thing, if you’re doing a year-on-year comparison, this is what I’m doing, Richard’s bidding, and I expect to be I expect that to be noted since I don’t mostly do what Richard tells me to — but good for a compliment. I’m just looking for acknowledge that occasional positive importance is that in last year, 2 things happened that I think are — you’re not going to see this year, and they happened in tandem. One is, obviously, rates took off, variable rates took off from 0. So the variable component was — in percentage terms was a big boost that we didn’t see coming at the beginning of the year. and where I should say, certainly wasn’t there. And then second, and tied to that, we began this effort that the Tyson referenced about generating custodial income from the CDB side of the business.

And that was a lot of work over the course of a couple of years since the WageWorks transaction because that’s where most of that CD CDB funds come from. And yet there wasn’t a real sorry to start it up because marginal rates were roughly 0. And so you won’t have that same ramp this year. So if someone’s doing a year-on-year comparison, I think the better way to do that is to look at — you just — you can look at where things are now, you can add whatever cash you think you can add to the current pile and take our rate guidance for what it is, and you’ll have a pretty good view of what things are going to be for — the rate guidance obviously implies about 10 basis points higher in the second half. And so the math is not that arcade.

Allen Lutz: Very well done, Jon. Thank you. Finally, now I can dive in one quick one — one quick last one. So Jon, you talked about new logo growth and expanded network partner footprint as kind of supporting the growth for HealthEquity? And then you talked about a 10% market growth rate. I guess as you think about some of the wins you’re seeing this year, new logo growth, if I’m a prospective customer, what is the impetus to change or to switch vendors this year? Is there something different that’s driving more customers to switch? Or is it just kind of more of the same?

Jon Kessler: I think — and now we’re getting into the realm of like speculation informed by data, which is the most dangerous kind. But I think there’s 2 things that are happening. And I would invite Steve to comment on this as well. The first is that I do think it’s probably fair to say that there are some HR departments that are coming out of the pandemic, and in particular, coming out in a period where they’ve already now seen 1 year of inflation and its impact on the wage side, but they didn’t see it much of an impact on the benefit side until this year, and now they’re seeing it. So there’s a little more attention being paid to benefit design and do I have the right vendor mix to optimize what I’m trying to do on the benefit side.

And I think we’re a great partner in that environment. And then I think the second factor is that it’s becoming somewhat clear who’s in this thing to win it. And I think there’s — the number of firms that are really there to do that is somewhat smaller than it was. But maybe, Steve, you — as I say, Steve spends Healthcare. He spends more time in airplanes than I do almost doing anything. So you’re as qualified as I speak to what’s going on out there.

Steve Neeleman: Jon nailed that, Alan, if you just go back to the history, right, we did the wage deal right before Covid and Covet hit everyone. And look, we — it took us a while to get everything lined up and integrated and getting the teams working together and regaining frankly trust from brokers and consultants and large employers and things like that, that we could execute with the much bigger company going from 900 HealthEquity teammates to 3,500 as after the acquisition to really be able to nail it. And I think we’ve regained a lot of that trust back candidly. And whether it’s the trust of an HR professional that knows that to make a big — it’s a big deal, right, to move 5,000, 10,000 or even 50,000 or 0 or 1,000 of their folks over they have to close the accounts, that’s reopen new ones, everything.

They have to be pretty sure that they’re going to the right solution. And so I mean, I think the great thing about HealthEquity is, is that our service has always been highly regarded. We were able to do a lot of these integrations and things like that. And now I think if you really talk to the market, you talk to the consultants, talk to large employers, small employers, midsized — and of course, all of our health and partners, they really believe that we’re hitting our stride from a service perspective, which makes it a lot easier to make those kind of changes when you don’t need to worry about just systems not working and things like that. So I think we’re very well positioned. And then more macro Jane spoke to the fact that when you’re just trying to hire people and you’re dealing with red resignation and a great transfer and all the other stuff, and now it’s a little more of a rhythm to people’s benefits.

Now is a good time to kind of say, all right, tend to start looking at where we can really drive some deeper adoption of health savings accounts and things like that. And they know that we’re the proven leader in that space of really helping their workforce embrace health savings accounts.

Jon Kessler: Thanks, Allen.

Operator: And our next question today comes from George Hill of Deutsche Bank.

George Hill: Tyson, I’ll echo the positive settlement has been great working with you. I guess, Jon, 2 quick ones for me, and I’ll try to keep it brief. First, as you talked about the enterprise pipeline being robust. I don’t know if there’s any way you can quantify that or throw some numbers around it? And kind of what’s the strategy to gain share as we go through the upcoming selling season? And then I’ll pause and come back for the second one.

Jon Kessler: Yes. I got out of the game of giving sales pipeline numbers, and I’m not going to get back into it — two in one day. But let me say, from a strategy perspective briefly, this isn’t rocket science. We are the market leader across this bundle. And we’re good people, and we have — if you were — we’re not going to like throw up NPS numbers and the like. But if you look — were to look at that data, you would see that where I think others have been a little more challenged over the last year or two, particularly this last year, the team just busted its but and delivered — and I’m not using this word likely a remarkable open enrollment season. And if you think about the way enterprise works, a lot of those enterprise deals start during — they kind of start — the sales cycle starts at the end of the prior year, and people can do things like they can call your call center in January and see how long the wait is and see whether people are harried or not and all those kind of things.