The Joint Corp. (NASDAQ:JYNT) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The Joint Corp. (NASDAQ:JYNT) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 4, 2024

The Joint Corp. 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 day, and welcome to The Joint Group Corp. First Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants are in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Barnard with LHA Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

David Barnard: Thank you, Kaley. Good afternoon, everyone. This is David Barnard of LHA Investor Relations. Joining us on the call today are President and CEO, Peter Holt; and CFO, Jake Singleton. Please note, we’re using a slide presentation that can be found at https://ir.thejoint.com under Events. Today, after the close of market, The Joint Corporation issued its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. If you do not already have a copy of the press release, it can be found in the Investor Relations section of the company’s website. As provided on Slide 2, please be advised that today’s discussion includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

All statements other than statements of historical facts may be considered forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that the expectations and assumptions reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can make no assurances that such expectations or assumptions will prove to have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties. As a result, we caution you against placing undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, please review the risk factors detailed in the company’s reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q as well as other reports that the company files from time to time with the SEC.

Finally, any forward-looking statements included in this earnings call are made only as of the date of this call, and we do not take any obligation to revise our results or publicly release any updates to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Management uses EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, which are non-GAAP financial measures. These are presented because they are important measures used by management to assess financial performance. Management believes they provide a more transparent view of the company’s underlying operating performance and operating trends than GAAP measures alone. Reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA is presented in the press release. The company defines EBITDA as net income or loss before net interest, tax expense, depreciation and amortization expenses.

The company defines adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA before acquisition-related expenses, which includes contract termination costs associated with reacquired regional developer rights, stock-based compensation, bargain purchase gain, net gain or loss on disposition or impairment, costs related to restatement filings, restructuring costs and other income related to the employee retention credit. Management also includes commonly discussed performance metrics. System-wide sales include revenues at all clinics, whether operated by the company or by franchisees. While franchise sales are not recorded as revenues by the company, management believes the information is important in understanding the company’s financial performance because these sales are the basis on which the company calculates and records royalty fees and are indicative of the financial health of the franchisee base.

System-wide comp sales include the revenues from both company-owned or managed clinics and franchised clinics that in each case have been open at least 13 full months and exclude any clinics that have closed. Turning to Slide 3. It’s my pleasure to turn the call over to Peter Holt.

Peter Holt: Thank you, David, and I welcome everybody to the call. The Joint is revolutionizing access to chiropractic care by providing affordable concierge-style membership-based services in convenient retail settings. We began 2024 with a vision to be the champions of chiropractic and we focused on increasing new patient counts, improving existing patient engagement and positioning to refranchise the vast majority of our corporate portfolio and we’re making solid progress. Additionally, during the first quarter, we grew revenue, improved the bottom line and tripled our franchise sales sequentially. Turning to Slide 4. I’ll review the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period 2023. System-wide sales grew to $126.3 million, increasing 9%.

System-wide comp sales for clinics that have been opened for at least a full 13 months increased 3%, revenue increased 5%. Adjusted EBITDA was $3.5 million for Q1 2024, up 74% over the same period last year. On March 31, 2024, our unrestricted cash was $18.7 million compared to $18.2 million at December 31, 2023. Turning to Slide 5, I’ll discuss our clinic metrics. We opened 23 franchised clinics and closed 4 in the first quarter of 2024 compared to 29 franchised clinics opened and 1 closed in the first quarter of 2023. At March 31, 2024, our total clinic count reached 954 units, consisting of 819 franchised and 135 corporate, up from 935 opened clinics, 800 of which were franchised at the end of the year 2023. The clinic portfolio mix remains 86% franchised and 14% company-owned or managed and although it’s expected to shift during the year as we execute our refranchising strategy.

Turning to Slide 6. We’re focused on refranchising strategy as our primary initiative in 2024. As discussed, we received over 100 requests for information and have been vetting the opportunities to identify the most effective franchisees. We’re going through a structured process to continue to conduct negotiations with multiple qualified franchisees in with regards to the sales of our corporate clinics. There’s been a strong interest in larger transactions. As these are more complex, we’ve identified an investment bank specializing in refranchising to help us. Working together, we expect to ensure we refranchise to the best of our franchisees, accelerate the process and create value for all of our stakeholders. We are well on our way, generating capital to be reinvested in brand marketing, RD territory acquisitions and/or stock repurchases, among other options.

Turning to Slide 7, I’ll review our franchise license sales. During Q1, we sold 15 franchise licenses compared to 17 in Q1 2023. Of the licenses sold, 87% of the franchisees were new to The Joint. This reflects investment and validation of our franchise content. Q1 2024 tripled sales compared to Q4 2023, a solid increase given us ongoing – given the ongoing high interest rates, inflation and strong employment. I do want to note that franchise sales may also be impacted by our refranchising strategy. On March 31, 2024, we had 166 live franchise licenses in active development as well as 17 regional developers with an aggregate 10-year minimum development schedule for 674 clinics. We do not plan to establish any new additional regional territories and will consider opportunities to require territories as the RD territories mature.

Turning to Slide 8, I’ll review our marketing efforts. In Q1, we conducted our annual patient survey, which provided great insights into our brand perception. We’re proud of the results of the survey and remain committed to doing even better. First, The Joint continues to demonstrate our ability to grow the market with 36% of our patients being new to chiropractic in 2023. Next, patients gave The Joint a strong Net Promoter Score of 64% and an amazing 92% of patients with prior chiropractic experience rated The Joint as better or as equal to the previous care they’d received. Additionally, research led us to redirect some of our marketing resources from older campaigns to new social media influencer efforts. With strong positive perception from consumers new and not new to chiropractic as well as our existing patients, our data indicates that the biggest opportunity is to drive awareness of chiropractic care in general and consideration of The Joint, in particular.

In light of this data, we’ve made a strategic decision to forgo our in-clinic new patient contest this past March to invest in driving consideration in April. We’re doing that through evolving our to-go-markets approach at all levels of the marketing funnel. At top of the funnel, we’ve introduced social media influencers last month. Our lineup features both health and wellness as well as athlete influencers, including Chari Hawkins, U.S. track and field Olympian. We’re partnering with these influencers to reach their broad audiences as well as to showcase the benefits of chiropractic care in a relevant way. In addition, several co-ops will feature regional influencers to support the national campaign, driving consideration in their local market by leveraging relevant personality.

We’re also testing a variety of new promotions, channels and tactics in our co-ops to better optimize our promotions and media mix based upon the market and the patient base. In Q1, we continued testing digital initiatives with our patient experience road map. We’re seeing success in driving new patients in our initial visit bookings test by providing the opportunity for new patients to book an appointment to complete their initial examine visit. Patients who have participated indicated that the booking was a positive experience and important to their choosing The Joint. We’ve also made progress in replacing our patient paper intake forms with an enhanced digital intake process, and are now in the next phase of rollout before – next phase of testing before our rollout.

Finally, the team is hard at work in creating stronger local store marketing tools, working with the development team and leveraging the wealth of data that we have about our patients, we’re implementing a clinic segmentation strategy to provide more effective local store marketing programs. And with that, Jake, I’ll turn it over to you.

Jake Singleton: Thanks, Peter, and let’s turn to Slide 9. I’ll review our clinic comps for Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023. System-wide sales for all clinics opened for any amount of time increased to $126.3 million, up 9%. System-wide comp sales for all clinics opened 13 months increased 3%. System-wide comp sales for mature clinics opened 48 months or more decreased 3%. Revenue was $29.7 million, up $1.4 million or 5%. Revenue from franchised operations increased 9%, contributing $12.2 million. Company-owned or managed clinic revenue increased 2%, contributing $17.5 million. The increases represent continued year-over-year growth in both the franchise base and the corporate portfolio. Cost of revenues were $2.7 million, up 10% over the same period last year reflecting the associated higher regional developer royalties and commissions.

Selling and marketing expenses were $3.9 million, down 7% year-over-year, reflecting the timing of the advertising spend. Depreciation and amortization expenses decreased $811,000, or 37%, compared to the prior year period, reflecting the accounting for corporate clinics that are being held for sale as part of the refranchising efforts. G&A expenses were $20.3 million, up only 1% compared to the same period last year, reflecting the lower rent for corporate clinics held for sale as well as the continued cost control initiatives offsetting the majority of increased expense to support more clinics. Loss on disposition or impairment was $362,000 related to the ongoing quarterly impairment analysis of clinics held for sale as part of the refranchising efforts.

This compared to $65,000 in Q1 2023. Operating income was $1.1 million compared to operating loss of $653,000 in Q1 2023. Other income was $35,000 compared to $3.8 million in Q1 2023, which reflected the receipt of employee retention credits in the year ago period. Income tax expense was $179,000 compared to $841,000 in Q1 2023. Net income was $947,000, or $0.06 per diluted share, compared to net income of $2.3 million, including the aforementioned employee retention credits received in Q1 2023, or $0.16 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA was $3.5 million, up 74% from $2 million in Q1 2023. Franchised clinic adjusted EBITDA was up 15% at $5.6 million. Company-owned or managed clinic adjusted EBITDA, reflecting the aforementioned accounting for rent expense related to the clinics held for sale increased 94% to $3.1 million.

Corporate expense as a component of adjusted EBITDA was $5.1 million, $738,000 higher than Q1 2023 related to higher legal and accounting and greater professional services related to our refranchising efforts and IT maintenance. On to a review of our balance sheet and cash flow, at March 31, 2024, our unrestricted cash was $18.7 million compared to $18.2 million at December 31, 2023. Cash flow from operations was partially offset by the $2 million repayment of the line of credit to JPMorgan Chase. Through this facility, we retained immediate access to $20 million through February 2027. On to Slide 10. We are reiterating all elements of our guidance. System-wide sales are expected to be between $530 million and $545 million compared to $488 million in 2023.

System-wide comp sales for all clinics opened 13 months or more are expected to increase in the mid-single digits compared to an increase of 4% in 2023. New franchised clinic openings, excluding the impact of refranchised clinics, are expected to be between 60 and 75 compared to 104 in 2023, the difference reflecting the impact of our refranchising efforts. And with that, I’ll turn the call back over to you, Peter.

Peter Holt: Thanks, Jake. Turning to Slide 11. At this point, The Joint, we’re committed to continually improving our brand, our people and our performance to truly be the champion of chiropractic care. As I discussed earlier, our revitalized co-ops and digital marketing programs are positioned to drive brand awareness as well as enhance our performance by furthering our objectives to increase new patient counts and improve existing patient engagement. Additionally, we continue to identify potential adjunct products and services that patients want and have a viable business case. Our goal is to build brand equity and generate incremental revenue streams for all of our clinics. Regarding people, one of the ways in which we support our existing team of doctors at chiropractic is by providing continuing education.

We also empower the next-generation of DCs in a variety of ways. As a part of our ongoing effort to educate the chiropractic community about the advantages of The Joint offers patients, we’ve increased our interactions with the chiropractic universities. In addition to participating in job fairs, we support the schools with scholarships and donations to key chiropractic colleges such as Life, Palmer, Parker, Sherman, Texas Chiropractic College and Life West. Additionally, last month, we announced our first endowment, The Joint Chiropractic Endowed Scholarship for Logan University. This is another way to support the profession and the greater community, enhance our relationships with the schools, invest in the future of graduating doctors of chiropractic and fuel the growth of our future pool of DCs. The $0.25 million endowed scholarship will provide much needed tuition assistance for generations of students awarding $10,000 annually to a student who demonstrates academic achievement and a passion for chiropractic and quality patient care.

We also have our preceptorship program. We found that most chiropractic students and new graduates want to learn more about owning and operating the practice. We developed a learning path, which combines real patient and business experience while students are building their clinical skills. The program has two components: patient care completed under the supervision of joints preceptors in the clinics and 18 online training modules covering advanced clinical business, self-development topics such as goal setting, business planning and creating enhanced patient experiences. These classes are presented by joint subject matter experts as well as clinical experts in the chiropractic field. In summary, in 2024, we stay focused on the refranchising of our corporate portfolio, fostering our strong franchise base and improving clinic economics and increasing productivity.

Before I begin questions, I’d like to invite you to meet with us at the B. Riley 24th Annual Institutional Investor Conference later this month and the Oppenheimer 24th Annual Consumer Growth and E-Commerce Conference in June. And with that, Kaley, I’m ready to begin the Q&A.

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Q&A Session

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from George Kelly with ROTH.

George Kelly: Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions.

Peter Holt: Hi, George.

George Kelly: Hi, Peter. So maybe if we could start on comp growth, a couple of questions on that topic. I was curious what youve seen so far in Q2? And then secondly, what gives you confidence that you can achieve a mid-single digit percent on comp growth rate in that year you mentioned as your target for this fiscal year?

Peter Holt: Sure. I think that the answer to the first part of that question is yes, and how the first part of that question was…

Jake Singleton: What do we see in Q2.

Peter Holt: What do we see in Q2.

Jake Singleton: Yes.

Peter Holt: And I would say that you typically would not comment too much on future clinics, but we obviously had a 3% in Q1. We have been talking about that we are cautiously optimistic as we reflect on 2024 performance. And I would say that were seeing a continued improvement in that number, as we think as we look forward, that’s certainly what were expecting. And the second part of that question is why would you expect that? And I think that’s really because were continually focusing on – the biggest challenge, I think, we faced in the last couple years is that new patient count drop. And I think we’ve got some great programs taking place will really help us address that issue to bring those new patients in. Then we would look at those three metrics that – that govern our concept, the new patient counts, the conversion and nutrition, were continually seeing positive results on our conversion and our attrition, our patients are staying with us longer.

If you look at our new patient count for Q1, it was down 3% compared to the same period last period. So I think that was also related to just the challenges of March. March had five Sundays in it, one of those Sundays with Easter. And we also stopped our new patient program or promotion that we ran last year that we did not run this year. So I think that hit that number a little bit for that last month But I think looking at we have, these programs that were putting in place are influencers I feel very good and then we’ll be able to see an improvement in that new patient count, which is so important for us for our comps.

George Kelly: Okay. That’s helpful. And then, Peter, you mentioned in your prepared remarks and that you are sort of assessing different products or services that might potentially work with the model. And in the past youve talked about perhaps taking a little pricing on some of your oldest, legacy members that are in a much lower price points. I’m curious if either of those initiatives are contemplated in that mid-single digit comp guidance? And are there things that if they’re not even still are there things you might do you might put in place later this year?

Peter Holt: The answer is yes, that we could get some of them put in place this year, probably towards end of the year because if we’re talking about any kind of [indiscernible] policy or any price increases, there is going to be some testing involved with that before we were to implement a program like that. But that is possible and the same with our idea of any kind of an ancillary product or services that we would add to the clinics and we certainly are looking for ways to do that. We want to be very thoughtful about that, we want to make sure that what were adding is accretive to the bottom line and not creating complexity in the business model that is not necessary. So we are still in those early stages of identifying the different programs that we can put in place to increase those sales through those additional products and services.

So more to come on that as we are – we’ve designed our kind of a committee that’s looking through that to help us make those good decisions. And the final part of the answer is no, our guidance on the on the comps did not include or take into account any change in the pricing structure or additional products or services that would be sold in the clinic in 2024.

George Kelly: Okay. I appreciate it. Ill hop back in the queue.

Peter Holt: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from Anthony Vendetti with Maxim Group.

Anthony Vendetti: Thank you. So, just a couple of quick questions here. So, the clinics your same-store sales at 13 months, those are up around 3%, but the ones open about four years are down. What do you think that’s attributed to? Is that done sort of a leveling off? And then maybe just a little bit into the reasoning in general for the closures, I mean, this quarter you had four, I guess, quarter last year was one. Do you wait to see how with the ones that are down, are you looking at revenue trends and profitability or just profitability, how do you look at those in terms of in terms of the closures? And then Ill hop. I have a couple of follow-ups.

Jake Singleton: Sure.

Peter Holt: Okay. To specifically speak to the closures, yes, we have four closures this year and that again for a system of our size, nearly 1,000 units, four closures during one quarter still is unbelievably low number of closers. And what’s going to happen is, as your system matures, youve got situations where the market itself is changing. So, they may lose an anchor where they’ve been located or you have demographics of that market fundamentally change, which just does not justify that clinic staying open. From time to time, you also have just some personal issues that come up that force a franchise to close the clinic. So I am not concerned if I compare, okay, one unit closed in Q3 – or Q1 2023 compared to the four closures in Q1 2024, but it’s something that we look at very carefully.

And certainly, the other part of that question is looking at both, what is our concern: is it top line revenue, is it profitability of the clinic. And the answer, of course, is both that we wanted to make sure that we are continually looking at ways to increase that profitability of that unit because what I can tell you, in any system I’ve ever worked with in franchising, unit economics is one of the most important things that you have to stay focused on. And you have a couple of things you can do to influence that: one, increase revenue; and the other is to reduce cost. So, those are the areas that were focusing on right now. Now we know that, and we’ve talked a lot about this in the past, that when we look at the margins of our clinics is that one of the challenges we’ve been facing is the increased cost of our labor and specifically our doctors, and that suppress the margin.