• Revenue: $79.4 million in Q4, 7% growth year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA: $33.4 million, 42% adjusted EBITDA margin.
• Free Cash Flow: $12.1 million, 15% of revenue.
• Cash and Cash Equivalents: $92.8 million at the end of Q4.
• Subscription Revenue: Grew 5% year-over-year, 82% of total revenue.
• Services Revenue: Grew 6% year-over-year.
• Other Revenue: Grew 40% year-over-year.
• Consumer Lending Revenue Growth: 9% year-over-year.
• Mortgage Lending Software Solutions: Declined 7% year-over-year.
• Data Verification Software Solutions Revenue: Increased 4% year-over-year.
• R&D Expense: $7 million, 9% of revenue, declined 22% year-over-year.
• Sales and Marketing Expense: $8.6 million, 11% of revenue, up 2% year-over-year.
• G&A Expense: $11.1 million, 14% of revenue, increased 36% year-over-year.
• Full Year Revenue: $316.3 million, 4% growth year-over-year.
• Adjusted Gross Profit: $232 million, 73% adjusted gross margin.
• Full Year Adjusted EBITDA: $130.7 million, 41% adjusted EBITDA margin.
• Full Year Free Cash Flow: $70.3 million, 22% of revenue.
• Total Debt: $472.7 million, net debt $375.8 million.
• 2025 Revenue Guidance: $326 million to $334 million, 3% to 6% growth year-over-year.
• 2025 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance: $131.5 million to $137.5 million, 41% margin at midpoint.

• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Sign with MLNK.

Release Date: March 06, 2025

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Positive Points

• MeridianLink Inc (NYSE:MLNK) achieved a strong fourth quarter with revenue exceeding $79 million, marking a 7% growth year-over-year.
• The company reported an adjusted EBITDA of over $33 million, representing a 42% adjusted EBITDA margin.
• MeridianLink Inc (NYSE:MLNK) recorded a second consecutive year of record bookings, driven by strong sales execution.
• The company significantly improved its operating efficiency, delivering over 400 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion.
• MeridianLink Inc (NYSE:MLNK) launched new products and partnerships, such as the Share-of-Wallet add-on and a partnership with ScoreNavigator, enhancing its platform capabilities.

Negative Points

• MeridianLink Inc (NYSE:MLNK) is facing economic uncertainty and challenges in consumer confidence, impacting its growth outlook.
• The company experienced a downsell with a large data verification customer, reducing annual revenue by approximately $6 million.
• Mortgage lending software solutions declined 7% year-over-year, attributed to customer downsell and churn.
• The company anticipates a low single-digit drag on revenue growth due to volumes and a customer renewal.
• MeridianLink Inc (NYSE:MLNK) will no longer provide quarterly guidance, which may reduce transparency for investors.

Q & A Highlights

Q: Can you provide insights into the sensitivity of the non-mortgage component of your business? A: Elias Olmeta, CFO: While we have improved our disclosures, we are not providing further details on the consumer side at this time. However, we will consider this for future calls.

Q: How sustainable is your 41% EBITDA margin target as you continue to invest in sales and marketing? A: Elias Olmeta, CFO: We feel confident about the 41% margin. The 40% guidance is the anchor, and as we ramp up investments in the second half of the year, margins may see slight pressure. However, we maintain good cost control and disciplined capital deployment.

Q: Can you elaborate on the investments planned for 2025, particularly outside of sales and marketing? A: Nicolaas Vlok, CEO: Our focus is on digital interfaces, partner infrastructure, and expanding our mortgage business. We are also investing in data engineering and scaling our systems to support future growth.

Q: What is the outlook for your pipeline and new logo momentum? A: Nicolaas Vlok, CEO: We ended the year with a strong pipeline and expect momentum to continue into 2025. We are seeing success with cross-sell initiatives, particularly in the mortgage sector, and anticipate continued growth in new customer acquisitions.

Q: How do you view the growth drivers in your core consumer LOS business, and can this growth be sustained? A: Nicolaas Vlok, CEO: We are proud of the 9% growth in consumer lending, driven by solid ACV release. Despite a challenging macro environment, we believe demand for our platform will sustain this growth, supported by our sales and cross-sell strategies.

Q: Can you provide an update on the composition of consumer loan types within your LOS business? A: Elias Olmeta, CFO: Auto loans make up roughly half of our consumer LOS, with two-thirds being used cars. Non-asset-backed products like credit cards and personal loans account for about a quarter. These proportions have remained stable.

Q: What does your recent partnership with Zest AI bring to the table, and what are your thoughts on the fraud product lineup for 2025? A: Nicolaas Vlok, CEO: Zest AI enhances our decisioning engine with AI capabilities, offering customers advanced automated decisioning. In fraud, we continue to see high interest and are expanding partnerships with industry leaders to address both lending and account onboarding fraud.

Q: What areas are you considering for M&A to strengthen your business? A: Nicolaas Vlok, CEO: We focus on tuck-in acquisitions to expand platform breadth and depth, responding to customer demand for fewer vendors. We are also exploring adjacent opportunities and have built capacity for M&A under Elias' leadership.

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.