SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript March 5, 2024

SmartRent, Inc. beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $-0.02, expectations were $-0.03. SMRT isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good morning. My name is Audra, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the SmartRent Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers remarks there will be question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Brian Ruttenbur, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Brian Ruttenbur: Hello, and thank you for joining us today. My name is Brian Ruttenbur, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations for SmartRent. I’m joined today by Lucas Haldeman, Chairman and CEO; and Daryl Stemm, Chief Financial Officer. They will be taking you through our results for the fourth quarter and full year 2023 as well as discussing guidance for 2024. Before today’s market open, we issued an earnings release and filed our 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, both of which are available on our Investor Relations section of our website, smartrent.com. Before I turn the call over to Lucas, I would like to remind everyone that our discussion today may contain forward-looking statements, including statements relating to our business strategy and our performance, future financial results and guidance.

These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such statements. These factors are discussed in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K. These statements are based on our current assumptions and beliefs and we assume no obligation to update them except as required by law. We recommend that all investors review these reports thoroughly before taking a financial position in SmartRent. Also during today’s call, we refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures and other financial and operating metrics. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure and further information related to guidance, definitions and metrics are included in today’s earnings release.

We’d also like to highlight that a fourth quarter and full year earnings presentation is available on our Investor Relations section of our website. And with that, let me turn the call over to Lucas to review our results.

Lucas Haldeman: Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. This past year has been a pivotal one for SmartRent as we continue our positive momentum as the leading provider of smart communities and smart operation solutions to the rental housing industry. We grew total revenue by 41% in 2023 compared to 2022 and SaaS revenue has a compounded growth rate of 75% since 2020. . SmartRent’s purpose-built technologies are used by 15 of the top 20 largest rental housing operators. And at year-end, we had nearly 600 customers collectively managing over 7 million rental units. With more than 44 million managed rental units in the U.S., we believe the greenfield opportunity continues to be immense. Our team has spent years developing the most comprehensive platform, and the result is that SmartRent now offers the largest breadth of integrated hardware and SaaS solutions in the marketplace.

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Q&A Session

Two years ago, we announced our intent to become adjusted EBITDA profitable by the end of 2023. Since then, we have steadily improved quarterly operating results, consistent revenue growth, expanding margins and tight control of operating expenses. As a result of these efforts, I am pleased to share that in the fourth quarter, we reported adjusted EBITDA profitability. The achievement of this notable financial goal marks a new inflection point in SmartRent’s history. Adjusted EBITDA profitability was accomplished through deliberate strategic actions shaping how we operate and by focusing on our three sustainable competitive advantages, namely purpose-built hardware, open API software and robust end-to-end implementation and support. In previous quarters, we’ve highlighted these unique differentiators that set us apart, but we’d like to provide more detail about how and why they work together to create a holistic unrivaled solution that is deeply embedded in the customer’s property management infrastructure.

First, hardware. Both the open hardware we design under the Alloy Smart Home brand and the third-party hardware we integrate with, are essential to powering our platform and for delivering on the value propositions that are meaningful for customers. Our offerings seamlessly integrate with customers’ existing property management systems and we intentionally design hardware to augment third-party offerings. Our agnostic approach ensures we are able to provide remarkable and repeatable experiences for clients, while continuing to lead the way in innovation. Hardware is core to our business strategy and will remain an essential component of ongoing operations. For example, the recently launched Alloy SmartHome Hub+ is a significant upgrade over previous hubs, combining a thermostat and a hub into one device, which requires less hardware to install and maintain.

In the residential communities where Hub+ has been deployed, customers are seeing higher levels of connectivity due to Hub+ being hardwired into individual units. This creates a better experience for rental operators to maintain community and in-home functionality of smart devices, a smarter living experience for residents and a more efficient implementation process. Additionally, the newest Alloy SmartHome Leak Sensors were designed to have a longer 5- to 7-year battery life. Most customers request sensors to monitor potential leaks, thus significantly lowering maintenance and repair expenses at their properties. If you are a commercial operator managing tens of thousands of rental units, the maintenance logistics are replacing batteries annually can quickly become a drag on NOI.

Longer battery life results in fewer work orders and hundreds of hours saved on sending on-site team members into apartment homes to replace batteries. As with other technology companies that build their own hardware, SmartRent designed hardware is fundamental to operations and enables us to integrate with third-party products. Manufacturing SmartRent-owned hardware also gives us the opportunity to control cost, maintain rigorous quality standards and benefit from increased margins. Next, software. Our open platform not only powers Alloy SmartHome Hardware, but also integrates with third-party hardware and customers’ property management software. In short, the agnostic nature of our software is a core competitive advantage. A common challenge in rental housing is at fatigue with operators having to drive multiple applications to support their operations.

SmartRent addresses this by offering interconnectedness with our single app platform, thereby reducing complexity and simplifying operations. Dedication to streamlining and increasing efficiency for our customers and their residents is a key reason we have historically experienced low churn in our IoT business. For reference, net revenue retention in 2023 was 105%. SMRT software is designed to simplify the rental experience for both operators and residents. Our platform’s capabilities have evolved since our inception, and today, we manage both workflow operations and resident experiences within a single app. For example, residents are able to report maintenance issues and submit work orders automatically. Finally, end-to-end implementation and support.

By managing the entire implementation process from initial site surveys to expert implementation and support, we enable customers and the residents to achieve maximum benefits. The typical implementation process requires customers to have multiple points of contact with limited oversight. We eliminate this and are the single phone call clients make, we have excelled in taking on complex projects in the rental industry with more than 90% of our implementations in retrofit units. We should also note that customers are encouraged to upgrade their installed hubs and other SmartHome technology devices every 5 to 7 years as part of their planning process. Internally, we continue to improve logistics processes and are increasingly shipping new hardware to existing customers to upgrade new hubs and replace end-of-life devices, focusing on client satisfaction and educating them on how best to use their new solutions is key to creating outstanding experiences and smart operations that are sustainable in the long term.

In addition to competitive advantages, our commitment to expense control and reduction while optimizing operations, has established a solid financial foundation, upon which we will aim to continue to build in 2024. We ended the year with a strong balance sheet of $216 million in cash, no debt and an undrawn credit facility of $75 million. During the second half of 2023, we added $18 million of cash to our balance. Our strong balance sheet, coupled with achieving adjusted EBITDA profitability while sustaining a high growth rate, gives us the opportunity to invest in our company to maximize shareholder value. To deliver sustainable growth, while aiming to expand profit margins in 2024 and onward, we intend to make a significant investment to further build out our capabilities to deliver community WiFi at scale by adding new team members and technology.

We estimate the total addressable market for multifamily community WiFi and IoT solutions on existing professionally managed properties in the U.S. could produce annual recurring revenue of $9 billion to $16 billion. We believe investing in community WiFi now will enable us to deliver higher shareholder value while also capturing a sizable market share. Today, we also announced a $50 million stock repurchase program. Our Board and management team are constantly evaluating how to generate enhanced returns for our cash and believe that there is no better investment than in SmartRent. In short, we remain extremely optimistic about prospects for growth in the coming years. I will now turn the call over to Daryl to discuss the specifics of the 2023 results and the outlook for 2024.