Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Dan Perlin: Yes. It’s been pretty consistent on that message so. Just a quick follow-up in terms of this one-time impact on the early departure incentive program. I certainly appreciate the charge. Can you talk about what the run-rate cost-savings are associated from or expected to be associated from the, I guess, the group of individuals going to take that package and how much is that influencing the margin expansion on the core base of 20 basis points and 25 basis points? Thank you.

Mimi Carsley: Thanks, Dan. Appreciate the question. Unfortunately, as we said, we just signed some final agreements. It’s still early days. We’re working with our managers to be diligent to be thoughtful about those positions. We do expect a small amount of net savings, but we’re not doing this just as the savings program. As Dave said, this is part of our culture and this is a great way to just retain talent, grow talent. And so it is not part of our guidance in terms of in-year savings. We’re being conservative at this point.

Dan Perlin: Okay, that’s super helpful. Thank you, Mimi.

Mimi Carsley: You’re welcome.

Operator: Our next question will come from Vasu Govil with KBW. You may now go ahead.

Vasu Govil: Hi, thank you for taking my questions and great results. Mimi, first question for you, I guess just on the long-term margin expansion, which you said we should think of normalized year as 20 basis points to 40 basis points of the expansion. I think historically we’ve been accustomed to thinking about that being more in the 50 basis points plus range. So, I was wondering if you could help us think through what’s changed there and the trajectory.

Mimi Carsley: Thank you, Vasu, for the question. I think, a part of it is what is normal, and the last several years have been, some ups and downs. We got great benefits from really the COVID-related lack of travel, some – then we saw some of the great recession, now we’ve seen inflation, so some of that is really modeling out what is to be expected from just the ongoing engine of the business. We’re continuing to see, even though CPI and inflation is subsiding, we’re continuing to see wage-related, employee-related, benefits cost, insurance costs, third-party renewal costs, continued investment in fiber, and so. You know, I think there is continued opportunity for margin expansion through the migration to cloud from on-prem hopefully through continued exciting products that we have, including our tech modernization. But at this point, probably safer to say 20 basis points to 40 basis points in the very near term.

Vasu Govil: That’s helpful. And then, David, I have a longer-term question for you on AI. It’d be great if you could share your thoughts on where you are seeing the community banks are in terms of thinking about adopting AI and what role do you think Jack Henry could play as that starts to become a bigger reality.

David Foss: Yes, Vasu, I’m happy to talk about it although Greg is sitting here. I’ll ask Greg to chime in. So first off, I think for most community regional banks and credit unions, for most of them, they are talking about it, thinking about trying to figure out how does this play into what they do. But, I don’t know of many that have a defined strategy today. They’re still trying to figure out, is this a good thing or a – or potentially risks their environment. As for Jack Henry, so if you think about AI, it’s important, I think, to include in that broader conversation, the idea of machine learning and robotic process automation, which Jack Henry – all three of those areas, Jack Henry has been in that business for a long-time.

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