NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Beth Gaspich: Yes. Thanks, Rishi. When we look at our EPS and the operating income for next year, I highlighted on the call that our operating income is expected to continue growing double-digits as we’ve seen for the last many, many quarters. So we’ll continue to keep that sharp eye and keen eye around driving profitability from our operations. With respect to EPS, of course, we expect that to likewise to continue to grow in double-digits. And what you can generally expect below-the-line and as I kind of highlighted in my remarks, was that we have a healthy amount of cash on our balance sheet, and we have a nice interest income stream coming from that. However, in the fourth quarter, in particular, it was kind of at a higher point than what we would typically expect to see as a result of the strong gain that we had from exchange rates.

So you should keep that in mind when you’re looking at 2023, but really, the main focus is that we continue to really drive and manage our business, driving that double-digit growth in profitability, and that’s what we expect to see continue coming from our operations.

Rishi Jaluria: Wonderful. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Michael Funk with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Funk: Hey. Thank you for the question this morning. A couple if I could. So we’ve heard from others this quarter about pressure in specific verticals, weaker demand. Would love to hear you maybe compare and contrast your own experience given the relatively strong cloud guidance that you gave for 2023?

Barak Eilam: Yes. We don’t see any significant change that I can provide with a certain or to associate a certain vertical. And as I mentioned before, our net retention rate in Q4 actually went up percentage-wise. And I’ll mention again the sequential growth and also the guidance is such that we don’t expect or don’t see a weakness in a particular vertical. Obviously, we are cautious, and we’re all watching the economy, but we believe we are taking market share and it gives us strength. Also, for our business we are well diversified across roughly 11 to 12 different verticals, so as we’ve seen in the past, even if there is a certain weakness in a certain vertical, it’s balance itself on another vertical. So we are not necessarily concerned on a particular vertical that is kind of significant for our business.

Michael Funk: And then on returns to shareholders, go to see the commitment to returning incremental capital this year, given your relatively strong net cash position and cash flow generation, how should we think about target leverage, target cash and potential incremental returns to shareholders going forward?

Beth Gaspich: Yes. Thank you. We highlighted today earlier that we just recently announced a new buyback program of $250 million last quarter. And today, we mentioned that it’s our intent that we’ll actually fully execute against that $250 million buyback during the course of 2023. So it continues to be a priority for us to return to our shareholders. And as you mentioned, we’re generating roughly about $500 million of cash from our operations each and every year. So that represents about half of that amount generated from our operations is of course, that means we continue to have a lot of ample powder also to look at acquisition opportunity position.

Barak Eilam: Maybe I’ll add to that also that if you look at our €“ and this is not new, but you look at our difference between our non-GAAP and GAAP and the main component is stock-based compensation. We are very effective or efficient if you’d like in that vis-a-vis some other companies out there, and it’s not a big component, which, again, goes back to the €“ we don’t dilute further like some other companies are doing with respect to the total fully diluted shares.