MeridianLink, Inc. (NYSE:MLNK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sean Blitchok: Yeah. Nik, this is Sean. You asked, I believe, about volumes as well. In general, trending at the slight recovery that we thought in particular for mortgage and for auto. Auto is a little bit slower than hoped. I think the dynamic is of pricing coming down in the used auto market, supply recovering in the new auto market is definitely happening. It is just a little slow, but we’re — that will continue in Q4. The rest of consumer is at forecast and so our Q4 total guide will be — will yield approximately mid single digit growth. And so I don’t think we’re in a bad position from a volume perspective all in, but we definitely have a launching pad for a lot of future volumes.

Nik Cremo: Got it. Thanks for all the color. That’s very helpful.

Sean Blitchok: Yeah. Thanks Nik.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Koji Ikeda from Bank of America. Your line is open.

Natalie Howe: Hey, this is Natalie Howe on for Koji. So you guys executed in terms of mortgage lending and you talked about cross-selling, really helping drive that there. Could you dig a little deeper into the Automotive segment? I know you said it’s slower than you hoped, but you’re taking the reacceleration into account for next quarter, so I wanted to see how that was tracking compared to expectations. And along with that — what are reacceleration expectations for account openings and personal loans playing out? Thanks.

Chris Maloof: We continue to see an uptick in, in new vehicle sales as inventories recover. And the incentives that are following that as lender — as automakers are looking to offload those lenders is putting pressure on used auto, which continues to lag. All that being said, we’re starting to see early indications of a recovery specifically around the wholesale used prices are starting to decline month over month, which is an indication of future success in the coming quarters. And then the other element, just keep in mind, new vehicle sales represent about 25% of our lending volumes and also represent an opportunity in the future as all those vehicles come off lease and enter the used auto market, that’s another opportunity for the business in the future of our customers.

Natalie Howe: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Alex Sklar from Raymond James. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi. This is Jessica [ph] on for Alex. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to — like as we’re entering 2024, what’s on the product roadmap for next year and beyond, like what areas are you most excited to invest in and that customers are interested in? And as you’re thinking about the investment, is there any changes or your headcount that you’re expecting for next year? Thanks.

Chris Maloof: Our investment strategy remains unchanged. So it’s all about automation, speed, and personalized decisioning. So all of our roadmap items align to those three categories, all designed to help our customers out — compete for consumers. And it can be a little different by loan type. We’ll have more announcements to come in the coming year on what our new release schedule looks like. But more recently we did a lot — we did announce the launch of our MeridianLink Access product, which enables our customers have more flexibility in how they streamline their process for consumers is as they enter the digital channel.

Sean Blitchok: Yeah. And just quickly on the headcount, what we’re tracking to our headcount number in FY 2023 and we’ll talk more about FFY 2024 headcount in our guide upcoming.

Operator: Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to MeridianLink team for further remarks.