The Tip Desk

NRC Health Contract Value Climbs as GAAP Loss Widens

Revenue rose 4% to $35.4 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin narrowed.

NRC Health (NRC), a healthcare experience-management company, increased second-quarter recurring contract value 11% from a year earlier to $151.9 million.

Revenue rose 4% to $35.4 million, but the GAAP net loss widened to $3.3 million, or $0.15 a diluted share, from $106,000, or $0.01 a share, a year earlier. Net margin fell to negative 9% from approximately breakeven.

Adjusted results followed a different trajectory. Adjusted net income increased 7% to $6.9 million, and adjusted diluted earnings rose to $0.31 a share from $0.28. Adjusted EBITDA declined 8% to $9.4 million despite the revenue growth, compressing its margin to 27% from 30%.

The gap coincided with a jump in noncash stock compensation to $7.4 million from $307,000. Management-transition costs declined to $3.2 million from $6.6 million, while NRC recorded about $270,000 of severance costs tied to team restructurings implemented by newly appointed executives.

Operating cash flow improved to $1.4 million from an outflow of $1.1 million a year earlier. Free cash flow reached $62,000 after a negative $4.1 million in the year-earlier period, even as the latest quarter included about $2.9 million of payments related to adjustment items.

Lower investment spending supported that cash-flow improvement, with capital expenditures falling to $1.3 million from $3.0 million. For the first half, free cash flow increased to $5.4 million, or 8% of revenue, from negative $489,000.

Profitability remained under pressure across the six-month period. Adjusted EBITDA fell 9% to $18.8 million, narrowing its margin to 27% from 31%, while adjusted net income declined 7% to $11.4 million and adjusted earnings slipped to $0.52 a share from $0.54.