HealthEquity, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jon Kessler: Yeah, and maybe I’ll invite Tyson to correct me if I’m being imprecise or if I’m going in the wrong direction here, but this is going to level out and it’s levelling out as a percentage of revenue because really because expenses that, we’re really, if you look at it, we’re integration expenses are now are either not necessarily or being used for innovation. And so, there are some things that muck around with it. Like, as you well know, as we’re now well into cloud world you get less D&A, which the good news is you get more free CLO free cash flow conversion, right? But the bad news is that from an EBITDA perspective, it doesn’t, doesn’t look as good, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. But, I your intuition, which is that this is levelling out is correct and it’s and then it’s really about what’s really important is not just that it levels out, but rather, and then I think ultimately, begins to decline as a percentage of revenue.

But that it’s what we’re spending it on because in real dollars, this number’s going up and what’s important is the shift in that expenditure from the process of integration, which was really important for us to get us to where we are today to now, shifting those dollars towards really focused on our core growth platforms and our innovation on those core growth platforms. And if you look anyone who looks at, LinkedIn or any of these things that they can see exactly what’s happening and that is what’s happening. I just want to give Tyson a chance. Did I answer that in the way you would have?

Tyson Murdock: You did great. I guess the only thing I would ask, I’d just say the way we build plans is we try to get leverage off those P&L items, P&L items, even when you think about stock comp and things like that. So that’s a priority for us as a business to make sure that we’re for all of our leaders. So, that’s my mention.

Operator: The next question is from Stephanie Davis with SVB Securities. Please go ahead,

UnidentifiedAnalyst: Hey guys. This is Anna. Thank you.

Jon Kessler: Oh, I don’t like the sound of that, Anna. Go ahead,

UnidentifiedAnalyst: So first I actually wanted to go back to the more elevated R&D spend on the platform. You did mention that should start to level out, but curious if you could give any sort of outline on how you’re working to modernize the platform?

Jon Kessler: Yeah. You want to give your second part too, and we’ll try and hit both together.

UnidentifiedAnalyst:

M:

A:

Jon Kessler: Yeah, awesome. That’s perfect. So what we’re really focused on, and I expect for those who, I don’t mean to like build it up crazy, but for those who attend our investor day, we’ll talk a little more about this and, and we’ll bring some more people to talk about it. But, we’re really focused on the view that within, broadly defined the world that we operate, which is, is, ultimately about helping people, we say connect health and wealth, a longer version of that is to help people manage the financial aspects of their healthcare. There’s the evolution of technology, the, the incremental use of APIs, obviously some of the AI stuff it creates some new opportunities that I think did not, we think didn’t exist four or five years ago.

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