Latest news with #MeridianLink
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
HELOC rates today, June 9, 2025: Interest rates on home equity lines of credit are unchanged
HELOC interest rates paused Monday after moving substantially higher yesterday. According to a recent survey by MeridianLink, more than one-quarter (28%) of Americans are considering a home equity line of credit or home equity loan to tap their home's value. Of those likely to borrow against their equity, 45% said home renovations were at the top of their list, followed by investing in new properties (16%) and debt consolidation (16%). That shows the versatility of HELOCs and HELs. Now, let's check the latest HELOC rates. Dig deeper: HELOC vs. home equity loan: Tapping your equity without refinancing According to Zillow, rates on 10-year HELOCs are unchanged today at 6.85% following yesterday's sharp increase. The same rate is also available on 15- and 20-year HELOCS. However, VA-backed HELOCs are up six basis points at 6.48%. Homeowners have a staggering amount of value tied up in their houses — more than $34 trillion at the end of 2024, according to the Federal Reserve. That's the third-largest amount of home equity on record. With mortgage rates lingering in the high 6% range, homeowners are not likely to let go of their primary mortgage anytime soon, so selling the house may not be an option. Why let go of your 5%, 4% — or even 3% mortgage? Accessing some of the value locked into your house with a use-it-as-you-need-it HELOC can be an excellent alternative. HELOC interest rates are different from primary mortgage rates. Second mortgage rates are based on an index rate plus a margin. That index is often the prime rate, which today is 7.50%. If a lender added 1% as a margin, the HELOC would have a rate of 8.50%. However, you will find reported HELOC rates are much lower than that. That's because lenders have flexibility with pricing on a second mortgage product, such as a HELOC or home equity loan. Your rate will depend on your credit score, the amount of debt you carry, and the amount of your credit line compared to the value of your home. And average national HELOC rates can include "introductory" rates that may only last for six months or one year. After that, your interest rate will become adjustable, likely beginning at a substantially higher rate. You don't have to give up your low-rate mortgage to access the equity in your home. Keep your primary mortgage and consider a second mortgage, such as a home equity line of credit. The best HELOC lenders offer low fees, a fixed-rate option, and generous credit lines. A HELOC allows you to easily use your home equity in any way and in any amount you choose, up to your credit line limit. Pull some out; pay it back. Repeat. Meanwhile, you're paying down your low-interest-rate primary mortgage like the wealth-building machine you are. Today, FourLeaf Credit Union is offering a HELOC rate of 6.49% for 12 months on lines up to $500,000. That's an introductory rate that will convert to a variable rate later. When shopping lenders, be aware of both rates. And as always, compare fees, repayment terms, and the minimum draw amount. The draw is the amount of money a lender requires you to initially take from your equity. The power of a HELOC is tapping only what you need and leaving some of your line of credit available for future needs. You don't pay interest on what you don't borrow. Rates vary so much from one lender to the next that it's hard to pin down a magic number. You may see rates from nearly 7% to as much as 18%. It really depends on your creditworthiness and how diligent a shopper you are. For homeowners with low primary mortgage rates and a chunk of equity in their house, it's probably one of the best times to get a HELOC. You don't give up that great mortgage rate, and you can use the cash drawn from your equity for things like home improvements, repairs, and upgrades. Of course, you can use a HELOC for fun things too, like a vacation — if you have the discipline to pay it off promptly. A vacation is likely not worth taking on long-term debt. If you take out the full $50,000 from a line of credit on a $400,000 home, your payment may be around $395 per month with a variable interest rate beginning at 8.75%. That's for a HELOC with a 10-year draw period and a 20-year repayment period. That sounds good, but remember, it winds up being a 30-year loan. HELOCs are best if you borrow and pay back the balance in a much shorter period of time.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
HELOC rates today, June 2, 2025: Interest rates on home equity lines of credit nudge higher as consumer demand grows
HELOC interest rates nudged fractionally higher today. According to a recent survey by MeridianLink, more than one-quarter (28%) of Americans are considering a home equity line of credit or home equity loan to tap their home's value. Of those likely to borrow against their equity, 45% said home renovations were at the top of their list, followed by investing in new properties (16%) and debt consolidation (16%). That shows the versatility of HELOCs and HELs. Now, let's check the latest HELOC rates. Dig deeper: HELOC vs. home equity loan: Tapping your equity without refinancing According to Zillow, rates on 10-year HELOCs are up four basis points to 6.81% today. The same rate is also available on 15- and 20-year HELOCS. VA-backed HELOCs moved up by two basis points to 6.36%. Homeowners have a staggering amount of value tied up in their houses — more than $34 trillion at the end of 2024, according to the Federal Reserve. That's the third-largest amount of home equity on record. With mortgage rates lingering in the high 6% range, homeowners are not likely to let go of their primary mortgage anytime soon, so selling the house may not be an option. Why let go of your 5%, 4% — or even 3% mortgage? Accessing some of the value locked into your house with a use-it-as-you-need-it HELOC can be an excellent alternative. HELOC interest rates are different from primary mortgage rates. Second mortgage rates are based on an index rate plus a margin. That index is often the prime rate, which today is 7.50%. If a lender added 1% as a margin, the HELOC would have a rate of 8.50%. However, you will find reported HELOC rates are much lower than that. That's because lenders have flexibility with pricing on a second mortgage product, such as a HELOC or home equity loan. Your rate will depend on your credit score, the amount of debt you carry, and the amount of your credit line compared to the value of your home. And average national HELOC rates can include "introductory" rates that may only last for six months or one year. After that, your interest rate will become adjustable, likely beginning at a substantially higher rate. You don't have to give up your low-rate mortgage to access the equity in your home. Keep your primary mortgage and consider a second mortgage, such as a home equity line of credit. The best HELOC lenders offer low fees, a fixed-rate option, and generous credit lines. A HELOC allows you to easily use your home equity in any way and in any amount you choose, up to your credit line limit. Pull some out; pay it back. Repeat. Meanwhile, you're paying down your low-interest-rate primary mortgage like the wealth-building machine you are. Today, FourLeaf Credit Union is offering a HELOC rate of 6.49% for 12 months on lines up to $500,000. That's an introductory rate that will convert to a variable rate later. When shopping lenders, be aware of both rates. And as always, compare fees, repayment terms, and the minimum draw amount. The draw is the amount of money a lender requires you to initially take from your equity. The power of a HELOC is tapping only what you need and leaving some of your line of credit available for future needs. You don't pay interest on what you don't borrow. Rates vary so much from one lender to the next that it's hard to pin down a magic number. You may see rates from nearly 7% to as much as 18%. It really depends on your creditworthiness and how diligent a shopper you are. For homeowners with low primary mortgage rates and a chunk of equity in their house, it's probably one of the best times to get a HELOC. You don't give up that great mortgage rate, and you can use the cash drawn from your equity for things like home improvements, repairs, and upgrades. Of course, you can use a HELOC for fun things too, like a vacation — if you have the discipline to pay it off promptly. A vacation is likely not worth taking on long-term debt. If you take out the full $50,000 from a line of credit on a $400,000 home, your payment may be around $395 per month with a variable interest rate beginning at 8.75%. That's for a HELOC with a 10-year draw period and a 20-year repayment period. That sounds good, but remember, it winds up being a 30-year loan. HELOCs are best if you borrow and pay back the balance in a much shorter period of time.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How soon can you pull equity out of your home?
How soon you can pull equity out of your home is not so much about time as it is about the size of your ownership stake. Most lenders typically require homeowners to have a minimum of 20% equity, and you'll qualify for the best interest rates if you own around half of your home outright. After buying a home, there's usually no waiting period to apply for HELOCs or home equity loans, but there are six- to 12-month restrictions in place for most cash-out refinances. The best time to take out home equity is when you have a small mortgage balance, a strong credit score and a low debt-to-income ratio. If you're contemplating tapping your home equity, you're not alone: Almost 30 percent of homeowners say they would consider borrowing against their residence's value, according to a new survey from MeridianLink, a loan-origination software provider. But nearly a quarter of them (23%) also admit to an incomplete understanding of home equity loans and lines of credit. For example, when can they get approved for a loan? Do they have to own the home for a certain amount of time? In short, how soon can they tap their home equity for cash? Actually, when you can pull equity out of your home is not so much a matter of dates as it is about the size of your ownership stake. Here's all you need to know to time it right. There isn't a specific date on the calendar that dictates when you're going to be able to access your home equity. Taking out a home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC) is not so much about 'how soon' as about 'how much' – as in, how much equity you have managed to accumulate. Lenders usually demand you have amassed an ownership ownership stake of a certain size. At a minimum, 'lenders typically want borrowers to have 20 percent of equity in their home,' Wendy Morrell, head of relationship retail at U.S. Bank, says. That means, you own that percentage of the home's worth outright: It's equivalent to the amount you paid for with cash, as opposed to borrowed funds. For example, if you bought a home with a 20 percent down payment, and financed the remaining 80 percent, you'd start off with a 20 percent equity stake right off. If you put down 50 percent of the purchase price, you'd have a 50 percent stake. While 20 percent is the usual standard, some lenders will accept a smaller amount of equity – just 15 or 10 percent; some HELOC lenders even accept 5 percent – if you're a very creditworthy applicant. ('In addition to the amount of equity you have in your home, your credit score and history, debt-to-income ratio and income history all are factors to the terms and rates,' Morrell notes.) Usually, there isn't a mandatory waiting period for accessing your home equity via a second mortgage, which is what HELOCs and home equity loans are. But different lenders do have different rules. 'Some banks may want to see how you pay on the first mortgage before allowing you to take out another,' says Darren Tooley, senior loan officer at wealth management firm Southfield, Mich.-based Cornerstone Financial Services, 'while some lenders will do an equity loan or HELOC immediately after purchasing a home, as long as you meet their requirements.' While second mortgages might be available right away, there generally is a mandatory waiting period for a cash-out refinance, which replaces your original mortgage with a new, larger one. This is known as a seasoning requirement, and it ranges from six to 12 months for conventional and FHA loans, Tooley says. Ultimately, the best time to consider a home equity loan is when you have a lot of equity – ideally, equal to about half of your home's worth. Or, put another way, when the outstanding amount on your mortgage represents a relatively small chunk of your home's value. That's because, when calculating how much to give you, lenders look at all your home-based debt: both the outstanding primary mortgage and the new amount you want to borrow, something called the combined loan-to-value ratio. 'A borrower with a 95 percent total loan-to-value ratio will typically face a higher interest rate than someone with a 70 percent total loan-to-value ratio, since lower equity increases the lender's risk,' says Denya Macaluso, vice president of residential lending at Michigan State University Federal Credit Union. In short, the bigger your mortgage balance is, the less home equity you have to tap – and the more expensive tapping it will be.'The more equity you have in the house, the better interest rates you will usually have,' Tooley says, 'with most lenders offering their best rates when there is 40 percent equity remaining in the home, after the loan closes.' Keep in mind: Good timing for tapping home equity also involves your finances in general. Even if you've amassed a large ownership stake, you still need a solid credit score, a relatively low debt-to-income ratio, and a steady income to get approved for a loan or credit line. Determining your current level of home equity is pretty simple: First, estimate the market value of your home. Then, subtract the outstanding principal balance on your most recent mortgage statement. So, let's say your home is worth $500,000, and you currently owe $300,000 on your mortgage: You have $200,000 in total equity. Remember you can't borrow that full $200,000, though. Lenders usually require you to maintain a certain equity stake in the home. For example, if your lender requires you keep 20 percent equity untouched – financing up to 80 percent of the home's value, in other words – you may be able to borrow up to $100,000. Try using: Home Equity Line of Credit Calculator There are three main ways to tap into your home equity, all of which have nuances that can make them better or worse fits for your finances: Home equity loan: These are fixed-rate loans that will offer a lump sum of money to be repaid over a set term, usually between five and 30 years. In many cases, you pay upfront closing costs, as with your original mortgage. HELOC: These are variable-rate lines of credit that feel more like a credit card, letting you withdraw funds up to a certain amount. You can spend for a set period, usually 10 years, then repay over an additional 10 to 20 years. Closing costs tend to be less, but many HELOCs come with annual fees and prepayment penalties. Cash-out refinance: A cash-out refinance will replace your existing mortgage with a new bigger one, as it includes a sum of ready money based on your available equity. It's the most involved process of these three options, and it comes with a key question: Do you want to replace your current mortgage and interest rate with a new loan with entirely new terms? Generally, you can tap your home equity fairly soon, applying for a HELOC or home equity loan even if you are a relatively new homeowner. You will, however, need to have enough equity – generally 15 to 20 percent of the home's overall value — to satisfy the lender's requirements. And frankly, if you financed most of the purchase, you won't have much money to play with. To qualify for a sizable loan, and for the lowest rates, you ideally should have an equity stake of 50 percent or more, a threshold that often takes at least a decade of on-time mortgage payments to hit. And in addition to your equity level, get your financial house in order prior to applying. A high credit score and a low debt-to-income ratio will increase your odds of getting approved — and the best terms possible. 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Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q1 2025 MeridianLink Inc Earnings Call
Gianna Rotellini; Investor Relations; MeridianLink Inc Nicolaas Vlok; Chief Executive Officer, Director; MeridianLink Inc Larry Katz; President, Director; MeridianLink Inc Elias Olmeta; Chief Financial Officer; MeridianLink Inc Alex Sklar; Analyst; Raymond James Saket Kalia; Analyst; Barclays Nikolai Cremo; Analyst; UBS Natalie Howe; Analyst; BofA Securities Scott Wurtzel; Analyst; Wolfe Research Matthew Kikkert; Analyst; Stifel Nicolaus and Company, Incorporated Marc Feldman; Analyst; William Blair & Company Operator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to MeridianLink's first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to join the conference over to your first speaker today, Gianna Rotellini. Gianna, please go ahead. Gianna Rotellini Good afternoon, and welcome to MeridianLink's first quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call. We will be discussing the results announced in our press release issued after the market closed today. With me today are MeridianLink's Chief Executive Officer, Nicolaas Vlok; President, Larry Katz; and Chief Financial Officer, Elias Olmeta. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's conference call will include forward-looking statements based on the company's current expectations. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties, and our actual results may differ materially. For a discussion of the risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could affect our future financial results and business, please refer to the disclosure in today's earnings release and the periodic reports and filings we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of our statements are made based on information available to us as of today, and except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update any such statements. Please note that other than revenue, cash and cash equivalents, and cash flow from operations, all numbers in our remarks are on a non-GAAP basis unless otherwise stated. A reconciliation to comparable GAAP metrics can be found in today's earnings presentation, which is available on our Investor Relations website and as an exhibit to the Form 8-K furnished with the SEC just before this call. Our earnings presentation is available for you to download and reference throughout our prepared remarks. With that, let me turn the call over to Nicolaas. Nicolaas Vlok Thank you, Gianna. Good afternoon and thanks for joining us today. We are pleased with our first-quarter results. MeridianLink achieved $81.5 million in total revenue, or a 5% growth year over year; and adjusted EBITDA of $34.8 million, a 43% adjusted EBITDA margin. Our quarterly results highlight our focus and success operating the business in an increasingly uncertain macroeconomic environment. Earlier today we announced that Larry Katz, our President, will assume the role of CEO effective October 1. After six rewarding years at the helm of MeridianLink and multiple prior CEO roles, I intend to focus my time on private company Boards and investment activities. This transition has been carefully planned, and I look forward to continuing to work alongside Larry and the entire MeridianLink team over the next 4.5 months. I have enjoyed every moment of leading this great organization since I took the helm from Tim Nguyen, our Co-Founder, back in late 2019. As part of these changes, Tim has transitioned to a strategic advisor role and will continue to provide Larry with a strategic insight from which I greatly benefited. Together, we have expanded the business meaningfully, growing revenue from approximately $150 million in 2019 to $330 million at the midpoint of our guidance for 2025. We migrated our solutions from on-premise to the cloud and established our platform, MeridianLink One, as the market leader and we grew our customer base to nearly 2,000 financial institutions and CRAs. We have built our partner marketplace to be one of the most robust in the market, and today, over 600 partners are part of our growing ecosystem. We continue to innovate across both consumer and mortgage to automate more aspects of the lending process, helping our customers drive deposit growth, speed decisioning, fuel efficiency, and ultimately enable their workforce to focus on their core differentiator, fostering long-term relationships with their consumers. And we've made significant investments to transform and scale our go-to-market organization to deliver more value at greater speed. We've accomplished a lot over the years, but I firmly believe that MeridianLink's best days are ahead. Now, Larry will lead us into the next chapter for MeridianLink. He's an operator with deep experience in both consumer finance and SaaS and at companies that have operated at scale. He's a great cultural fit for our organization and highly aligned with our mission and values. In the last year, he had a big impact on several critical aspects of the business. First, he's brought up operational rigor to many parts of our business, driving the development and prioritization of our objectives for 2025. He has improved our financial discipline and transparency and he has further clarified our build-buy partner strategy. Second, he's invested the time and established strong relationships with all of our stakeholders, including customers, partners, shareholders, and the team. Over the last year, he's met with many of our customers across the country and reaffirmed our commitment to both customer success and making it easier to do business with us. Just last week, Larry successfully led the company through our annual user conference, MeridianLink LIVE!, welcoming over 1,300 customers, prospects, partners, and teammates in attendance. He hosted our first-ever Customer Advisory Board, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Throughout the week, our customers shared our excitement regarding our platform and ecosystem growth, our product roadmap, and Larry's laser focus on driving better outcomes for our community banks, credit unions, and credit reporting agencies alike. And third, Larry is a recognized leader in our organization. Among other successes, he has helped bring greater focus and leadership to the commercial team, which became evident through our record annual bookings and new logo momentum we achieved closing out 2024. He has also been focused on the development of our talent. He's brought in key leadership that can scale and accelerate the business to meet the opportunities ahead, including outstanding hires like Elias and our new Chief Strategy Officer, Troy Coggiola. I wouldn't have made this decision now if I didn't have the confidence that Larry is the right person to lead the next chapter. He is ready now, and I know our employees will join me in my excitement for Larry to take on this role. I'm thrilled for him to start his journey as CEO, and I'll be there for the transition, just as Tim was for me. To close, I would like to thank you, our investors and analysts. I have enjoyed getting to know so many of you throughout my tenure. I've learned from you, and I'm working hard to use your input to make myself and our company significantly stronger and better. I'm excited to stay involved with the company as a Board member and significant shareholder. With that, I will turn it over to Larry. Larry Katz Thank you, Nicolaas. First, on behalf of the Board and our nearly 700 colleagues, I'd like to take a minute to applaud Nicolaas for everything this company has accomplished over the past six years under your leadership. MeridianLink is a very different business than it was when you became CEO. You transformed MeridianLink from a collection of on-premise solutions into a leading, cloud native loan origination platform for community financial institutions. You did a terrific job of building out our go-to-market team, expanding our customer base, growing our partner marketplace, and extending our product portfolio. Most importantly, you established a strong foundation to deliver long-term value to our customers, partners, and shareholders. I have tremendous respect for you, Nicolaas, both for what you have built and your capabilities as a leader. You have led with genuine care and appreciation for all stakeholders and created a powerful culture and an enduring legacy. Your impact on MeridianLink will be lasting, and I will miss your wisdom on a day-to-day basis. I'm grateful for your trust in me and I look forward to working alongside you during your transition, and then after October 1, in your continuing role as a MeridianLink Board member. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to lead this company, and I'd like to share my perspective on where MeridianLink stands today and where we're headed. Today, MeridianLink is a growing and durable business of scale with many compelling strengths. These attributes drew me to MeridianLink one year ago and continue to inspire me today. MeridianLink delivers real value to our customers. We enable community banks and credit unions to support their communities by making lending more accessible and more efficient. We're the leading digital lending platform for community financial institutions. In 2024, we processed 28 million consumer loan applications and nearly $700 billion in application volume. We also served 50 million background checks and more than 40 million credit reports. At the core of our offering is Meridian Link One, our unified cloud native platform. It stands out in the market for three key reasons. One, our platform is the most comprehensive and scalable consumer lending platform in the market today, with the deepest partner network supporting a full range of loan products across the consumer debt wallet. Two, our platform's extensible multi-tenant architecture gives our customers the ability to compete with universal banks, challenger banks, and fintechs. And three, our platform has a proven track record of delivering results for customers, including loan and deposit growth, consumer acquisition growth, share of wallet expansion, and workflow efficiencies. Beyond our platform and product capabilities, we built a powerful, scalable, and effective go-to-market motion. As a vertical SaaS company, our land-and-expand model continues to prove itself effective, with significant opportunities for both new logo acquisition and cross sell across our product modules. We also have something that is harder to measure but just as important, and that's a strong culture rooted in customer success. Our Co-Founder, Tim Nguyen, made it clear from the beginning we only succeed when our customers succeed. That commitment is still core to who we are today. With this foundation, I'm excited to shape MeridianLink's next chapter. Today, we compete in a world that is changing quickly, in which the pace of innovation has accelerated, investment has increased, and opportunities abound. We will pursue initiatives over the next several years to build on our successes as well as pursue others that represent new, forward-looking initiatives that will be natural evolutions and extensions of our strategy. We've defined three strategic pillars that will guide us going forward: one, increasing our product portfolio; two, making it easier to do business with us; and three, strengthening our talent. First, we're focused on increasing the breadth and depth of our product portfolio and getting to market faster. We are committed to extending the range of our platform to meet our customers' needs through product delivery and innovation, partnerships, and acquisitions. To help lead this charge, I'm pleased to welcome Troy Coggiola as our new Chief Strategy Officer. Troy joined us in April and brings decades of experience, including 13 years at Ellie Mae, where he served as Senior Vice President of Product. I'm confident in Troy's ability to take us to the next level in product execution and innovation. Two, we will make it easier for customers to do business with us. Whether our customers interact with MeridianLink through our sales, services, support, or customer success teams, the experience should be simple, seamless, and consistent. Some parts of our customer experience today are where they need to be. Others are more complex than they need to be, and we're actively working to simplify these areas. Over time, we believe this focus on customer experience will drive strong product activation, higher renewals, and ultimately increased ARR. Three, we will strengthen our talent. The marketplace is competitive, and there is increasing pressure across the industry to attract and retain talent. As a company at the forefront of digital transformation in financial services, we believe we're well-positioned to attract top talent and intend to make investments to achieve our near- and long-term objectives. I want to highlight that while we are focused on delivering results in 2025, most of our efforts this year are about building a business that can deliver in 2026, 2027, and beyond. We are proud of the consistency of our execution, and our strategy and investments are intentionally formulated with a long-term horizon in mind. Let me close by offering a few final thoughts. MeridianLink is a great business. We have a platform our customers trust, a team that delivers in a market full of opportunity. I'm incredibly excited about what's ahead. It's an honor to lead this company alongside its executive team and nearly 700 talented colleagues. With that, let me turn the call over to Elias to talk about our first-quarter business and financial highlights. Elias Olmeta Thanks, Larry, and good afternoon, everyone, and congrats on your impending promotion. Let me also take a moment to recognize Nicolaas for his distinguished career and the exceptional leadership he displayed at MeridianLink. I, too, will miss you on a day-to-day basis. Turning to our results. MeridianLink achieved $81.5 million in total revenue, or 5% growth year over year; and adjusted EBITDA of $34.8 million, a 43% adjusted EBITDA margin. Our quarterly results underscore our ability to manage the business amidst the progressively unpredictable macro environment. Before reviewing our financials, I'd like to provide some business updates that showcase the demand for our platform, our commitment to product innovation, and our focus on customer success. In Q1, we benefited from a favorable demand environment as customers relied on MeridianLink for solutions that enhance their competitive edge. This resulted in continued healthy demand with an increased mix of larger deals, sustained cross-sell momentum, and increased demand for mortgage lending. Total bookings increased this quarter compared to the previous quarter and the same quarter of last year. Cross-sell and upsell continue to represent the majority of our bookings and significantly accelerated year over year. In Q1, an existing MeridianLink consumer Credit Union with nearly $600 million in assets expanded its relationship with us by purchasing MeridianLink Mortgage, our Socure marketplace integration, and MeridianLink Access. With a total of six modules on the MeridianLink One platform, this customer will achieve cross-sell benefits from covering more of the consumer's debt wallet and improving workflow efficiencies by lending through one seamless platform. Combining Socure with Access improves the digital experience for consumers, increases application volume, and reduces fraud risk. We also continue to see accelerated demand for our mortgage lending solutions in Q1. We completed 15 mortgage lending deals, up nearly 90% year over year and the highest count in over two years. Our continued momentum in mortgage highlights our fit-for-purpose lending capabilities for mid-market financial institutions and demonstrates our right to win in this market segment. On the new logo front, we secured a bank customer with $8 billion in assets. They will utilize MeridianLink Mortgage and Mortgage Access, which supports our M&A strategy by enabling more efficient vendor consolidation through one platform. The customer recognized our platform's ability to quickly onboard new users as they continue to acquire competitors, in turn, closing more loans faster. Our customers, in many cases, are gaining market share, benefiting us as well. As Larry mentioned, customers choose MeridianLink because we are the most comprehensive and scalable digital lending platform in the market today, and we drive a notable return on investment. By way of example, take Solarity Credit Union. We recently announced that Solarity, an existing MeridianLink consumer customer with around 50,000 members, selected MeridianLink Mortgage for its ability to streamline and centralize lending. They were able to consolidate 13 different mortgage products under MeridianLink One. As of Q1, Solarity had streamlined the application to funding process, reducing processing time by approximately a third and increasing operational efficiency. With respect to product updates, we are committed to prioritizing our customers' needs in our road map. In Q1, we enhanced MeridianLink One to streamline deposit account applications for consumers returning to their bank or credit union. Secondary account applications make up more than 75% of deposit application volumes at many financial institutions. By streamlining the workflow and auto-filling necessary data from the core, we reduced the total time for consumers to open a secondary account by approximately 70%. Our product capabilities were on full display for approximately 1,300 attendees at MeridianLink Live, our annual user conference held in Orlando last week. Customers had a great reaction to the continued progress we've made on MeridianLink Access. At the user conference, we spoke about the increased depth of our product over the last year, including six new partner integrations across fraud, identity verification, and credit verification to make it easy for customers to leverage value-added partner capabilities to create a more seamless digital account opening process for consumers. We also added over 10 new application flows, including business account opening, home equity, and bundled loan and account opening transactions. As part of our roadmap efforts, we will continue to invest in our point-of-sale and account opening capabilities. Overall, we are energized by the success of the conference, having achieved record attendance, generated a substantial pipeline, and built stronger customer relationships. In summary, we are heartened by the momentum and progress we have achieved starting off this year. Now on to the financials. In Q1, revenue growth accelerated, notably in our lending software solutions, profitability expanded, and we achieved solid free cash flow conversion. Reported GAAP revenue was $81.5 million, a 5% growth year over year, and adjusted EBITDA was $34.8 million, or a 43% adjusted EBITDA margin. We generated $40.6 million of free cash flow, or 50% of revenue, and ended the quarter with $128.9 million in cash and cash equivalents. Our Q1 total year-over-year revenue performance of 5% growth in terms of the revenue algorithm was as follows: one, ACV release contributed mid-single digits; two, price and churn were in the low single digits each and essentially offset each other; and three, volumes and one-time customer downsells combined were a low single-digit drag. Excluding the one-time customer downsells, volumes were a roughly neutral contributor to revenue growth. Moving to our total revenue performance of 5% growth by source, subscription revenue, which was 84% of our total revenue, grew 4% year over year. This growth was driven by the successful activation and recognition of subscription revenue from our implemented software solutions for both new and existing customers, which we refer to as ACV release. Services revenue declined 4% year over year, primarily driven by a one-time core upgrade program that spanned 2024 and Q1 of 2025. Excluding this one-time program, services revenue growth was flat year over year. Other revenue grew 41% year over year, driven by nonrecurring items that amount to approximately $600,000. Now, looking at our 5% total revenue growth by solution type. Total lending software revenue growth was 10% year over year and accounted for approximately 82% of revenue. Consumer lending revenue growth was 11% year over year and accounted for 90% of lending software revenue. We are encouraged by the acceleration in our core franchise and the fact that the primary driver continues to be one of our controllables, ACV release. In addition, consumer volumes grew year over year in Q1, driven by strength in auto and a one-time benefit from what we believe has been a partial pull forward in demand driven by consumers purchasing vehicles before tariffs became effective. Mortgage lending revenue growth was 7% year over year and accounted for the remaining 10% of our lending software revenue. This is the first quarter in a year that we have seen acceleration driven by improving churn and volume uplift, primarily from refinancing. I also want to highlight a few KPIs for our lending business that demonstrate its resilience and acceleration in Q1. Total lending ARR was $204.7 million and grew 7% year over year, driven by growth in both consumer and mortgage lending solutions. NRR was 106%, our highest rate since the second quarter of 2023, and a great proof point of the stickiness of our customers through a difficult operating environment. We also achieved 10% year-over-year growth in the average lending software ARR per customer, which has reached an all-time high of $135,000. This is the fourth quarter in a row of acceleration as lower-value customers churn, and we continue to find success with larger platform deals across both consumer and mortgage. Turning to data verification software solutions. Revenue declined 15% year over year and accounted for 18% of total revenue. This decline was driven by a 28% decrease in our mortgage-related revenue, which is nearly half of DBS and was primarily impacted by the large customer downsell. As we noted in Q4, the annual impact of that renewal will be approximately $6 million. Moving on to our profitability. Adjusted gross profit was $60.4 million, representing a 74% margin and a 54-basis-point improvement in operating leverage year over year. Our total operating expenses were $26.7 million, or 33% of revenue, and increased 1% year over year. R&D expense was $7.8 million, or 10% of revenue and declined 1% year over year. Sales and marketing expense was $9.4 million or 11% of revenue, up 2% year over year. G&A increased 1% year over year to $9.6 million or 12% of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was $34.8 million, a 43% adjusted EBITDA margin. This is nearly 200 basis points of improvement in operating leverage year over year and demonstrates our continued cost discipline as we work towards our longer-term investments that will start in Q2 and increase in the second half of the year. Finishing with our capital position. Cash flow from operations was $42.4 million or 52% of revenue, and free cash flow was $40.6 million or 50% of revenue. We ended the first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $128.9 million, an increase of $36.1 million from Q4. I'll now turn to guidance for 2025. We do not anticipate that our Q1 volumes are purely indicative of the longer-term trend, in particular as it relates to auto. We are of the view that what we likely experienced was some pull forward of demand as selected consumers sought to get ahead of the potential impact of tariffs on auto prices. We expect the net impact of this pull forward on the year to be neutral because with tariff-related price increases, prices should temper demand in future quarters. Ongoing conversations with our customers, recent economic data, and the potential impact of tariffs point to an increasingly uncertain environment for the consumer in 2025. As a result of that uncertainty, our 2025 outlook remains unchanged at this time. Once we are through the second quarter and assuming greater clarity on the impacts of tariffs and the macroeconomic environment, we may provide an update at that point. Total GAAP revenue is expected to be between $326 million and $334 million for 2025, compared to $316.3 million for the full-year 2024. This represents an estimated increase of 3% to 6% year over year. To provide more color on how revenue will trend by solution type at the midpoint of our guidance, we expect consumer lending will grow approximately 7% in 2025, driven by releasing ACV at a steady pace. In a higher for longer environment, consumer volumes are expected to be broadly flat year over year. We expect the mortgage market to contribute approximately 18.5% of revenue for the full-year 2025. On the non-mortgage side, we expect modest growth year over year in data verification revenue. I will now describe our 4% total revenue growth at the midpoint of our guidance in terms of the revenue algorithm. In this uncertain market, we are staying focused on the controllables. We have solid visibility into the drivers of our revenue, such as ACV release, churn, and price. As I mentioned, volume growth is less certain, and we are expecting a modest deceleration in the back half of the year. With that, one, we expect ACV release to continue contributing mid-single digits and to be the single largest driver of our revenue growth in 2025. Two, we expect the price to continue to offset churn for the full year. Three, we expect that volumes and the DBS customer renewal combined will be a low single-digit headwind. Excluding the customer downsell, total volumes across all of our products will be slightly positive year over year and a broadly neutral contribution to revenue growth. Now turning to the adjusted EBITDA guide. Costs are another factor we are focused on controlling. We are strategically reinvesting in our product road map and go-to-market team this year to drive future growth. For the full-year 2025, the adjusted EBITDA range is expected to be between $131.5 million and $137.5 million, representing adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 41% at the midpoint. While the midpoint of our guidance implies a 41% margin, we are not changing our longer-term target of 40%. This is an instance where the timing of long-term investments can fluctuate. Nonetheless, we remain committed to such investments as the current environment presents an excellent opportunity to ready the business for what we see as an attractive growth runway ahead, as cyclical headwinds shift to tailwinds. To provide more clarity on the shape of the year, we anticipate seasonality in our total revenue throughout 2025 to be broadly in line with the seasonal pattern we saw in 2024. MeridianLink's high percentage of subscription revenue and strong quarterly ACV release give us confidence in our annual growth expectations. We continue to expect our expenses to be impacted by the timing of investments that will start in Q2. These will ramp up in the second half, and there will be a modest contraction in margins. We expect both R&D and sales and marketing as a percentage of revenue will increase approximately 100 bps for 2025 compared to 2024 as we invest in our product road map and go-to-market capabilities. We view these incremental investments as preparing the company for growth in the years ahead. As a result, we expect adjusted EBITDA margins to be highest in the first quarter before slightly declining in the second half of the year, exiting Q4 at a run rate margin slightly below 40%. We continue to manage the business to eventually become a Rule of 50 company and are investing appropriately. I would note that based on Q1 results, we are a Rule of 48 company. Finally, I'd like to reiterate how resilient the company has been through another quarter, all thanks to the outstanding effort of our team. Moving forward, we are remaining focused on strategically investing in and building a business for scale in 2026 and beyond. With that, Nicolaas, Larry, and I are happy to take any of your questions, and I'll turn it over to the operator. Thank you. Operator (Operator Instructions) Alex Sklar, Raymond James. Alex Sklar Larry, congratulations on the promotion and new role. Maybe just starting with you, you laid out some changes you're going to be embarking on as part of this next chapter. And I just wanted to get some more color. Is this more of an evolution on some of the things you've already been working on over the last couple of years? Are these brand-new initiatives that you're going to put into focus over the next couple of years? How meaningful are these changes in aggregate? Larry Katz Alex, it's Larry. Look, first of all, I'm excited to take on the role. And I view this as a continuation of our strategy, no real change. But there is a bit of focus that I'm bringing to my comments. Look, we've got a really strong and durable business. And over the past year that I've been here working with Nicolaas and the team, I've been focused on bringing discipline to the business and accelerating growth in the business. And this is what I'm highlighting are really strategies to drive acceleration and progress and momentum in the business around how we sell, how we go to market, how we deliver product, and how we deliver our services. And so, I mentioned a few of the areas that I'm focused on around products and breadth and depth of our product portfolio and product execution, and we have been working on that over the past year as well, and we'll continue to be focused on that around making it easier to do business with us. I've talked about the customer journey in the past, and we'll continue to bring focus to how we show up with the customer and listen to the customer voice. A good example of that was the cab that we talked about just hosting this last week. And then strengthening our talent, you've seen some of the additions that we brought to the team, Elias, and now Troy. But it's not just about bringing in new talent. It's also around supporting our existing talent and helping them develop their own skills and experiences to operate at this larger scale that we have today. So, continue to invest in our own team. So these are all strategies that I think are super important to our ability to scale and compete going forward, and we've been working on them for the past year, and we'll continue to. Alex Sklar And maybe a follow-up either for you, Larry, or for Elias. Just in terms of the backlog, you called out 1Q bookings that exceeded Q1 of last year and Q4 of last year. I know you've got high visibility on the ACV release. But just given some of the increased macro variability, how are you thinking about the demand backdrop and the ability to replace that mid-single-digit ACV release that you laid out for this year? Larry Katz This is Larry again. Our pipeline continues to be strong and healthy, and we feel really good about that. The demand environment continues to be robust, and demand across the platform, which we talked about, includes both cross-sell demand, new logo demand, and mortgage demand, which we highlighted. So we do feel good about it. When I think about the macro environment that we're operating in, we are seeing a bit of softness at the top end of the funnel. Hard to know if that's macro-related or not, but we're watching that carefully. And we have not yet seen any real changes in our sales cycles. As we talk to our sales leaders, we don't hear about that directly. But it's reasonable to expect that that could happen given the uncertainty and these investments that our customers are making. I think it's reasonable to expect that we could see a little more softness in the new logo because switching platforms is a bigger lift than cross-selling. So we're watching that carefully as well, but we haven't seen any changes as of yet. Operator Saket Kalia, Barclays. Saket Kalia Congrats, Nicolaas and Larry, on your new respective roles. Nicolaas and Larry, maybe for either of you, I'd love to dig into the consumer lending business specifically, a little bit, just given the growth, the acceleration there. And maybe zoom in a little bit on new business. And Larry, you touched on this a little bit in your prior response, but just to ask it specifically for consumer lending. Can we just talk a little bit about the new business environment there a little bit? And maybe zooming out, do you think the profile of the customer there is changing at all, whether it's banks versus credit unions or big versus small? Any color on whether that profile was changing as you continue to gain share? Larry Katz Sure. Saket, it's Larry again. Thanks for the congratulations. So, on the consumer side, first of all, Elias can build on this, but a lot of the growth is being driven by the ACV release. That's really what's showing up there. And that's both cross-selling and a new logo. To your question around new logo demand, look, it continues to be solid in the consumer space. We continue to have what we think is the most comprehensive and the most complete solution out there as a platform. And as I was talking to customers last week at live, it is recognized to be the leader in the space and to really be mission-critical. And so I feel good about our position there and the demand for consumer. I think in terms of the size of the clients that what I'd point to is that the average ARR, as Elias talked about, is going up. And I think that's really just demonstrates the power of the platform and how the value that we're delivering and what customers are willing to pay for that. So I think that's a part of it. We are seeing some additional success in larger AUM clients, and we talked about some of those on the call as well. And I think that just speaks to the scalability of the platform as well. So yes. So, anything you want to add, either Nicolaas or Elias? Elias Olmeta No. Well, let me just add that, of course, it was a tremendous quarter for the consumer, hitting 11% year over year. And just to echo, we're having success in all the areas that Larry mentioned. We're seeing that really in ACV release being the leader in driving that growth, but also on the back of some of the volumes that we saw, particularly in automotive, we benefited from some volume improvement as part of our revenue algorithm. So really, really nice quarter, in particular for the consumer, but for our lending business in general. Saket Kalia And actually, Elias, maybe for you just to follow up on that and in a similar vein, just on the consumer business specifically, I guess, how do you think about disaggregating this quarter's 11% growth in terms of, I don't know, maybe like a same-store sales metric, like volume growth from existing customers versus new customer contribution/ACV release? Is there a way that you have us think about that to map back to that 11%? Elias Olmeta Yes. I mean, the single ACV release it's one of two things. It's either new customers, new logos that we are bringing on board, or existing customers who are expanding their relationship with us. So that is what's driving the ACV release, which was the majority of what we were able to achieve in the quarter. So that I would consider -- if you want to think about that as new versus old, that's the way to think about new. And that's not all volume-driven. It's mostly driven by minimums, but nonetheless, that's new customers. And then, as I alluded to earlier, we had an uptick in volumes, and that's primarily our existing customers and volume that's being driven from their operations that is flowing through for revenue from us. And think of that really as volume that is piercing the minimums, and that we are getting some upside on. Operator Nik Cremo, UBS. Nikolai Cremo Congrats on the promotion, Larry. And Nicolaas, congrats on everything that you accomplished at MeridianLink as CEO over the last six, seven years. Larry, first question for you. So now that you've been with the company for a little over a year, just looking out over the next few years, can you just put a finer point on where you see the most opportunity to invest in the business organically, just in terms of the breadth and depth of MeridianLink's product portfolio? Larry Katz Yes, absolutely. Thanks, Nik. Look, as I talked about, let me talk about our buy, build, partner strategy here. One of the changes that we've made with Troy coming in is really pulling together buy, build, and partner under one leader. And I start there because that's really the continuum of capital allocation. So it's not just organic, but it's also partnership and it's also M&A that we're thinking about. And look, I think there are a number of areas where we're going to continue to invest. We're going to continue to invest in digital interfaces, both directly and via partnership. So that means digital point of sale, that means workflow digital interfaces. And we spent a lot of time talking about access, which is our organic point-of-sale at Access last week, and that will continue to be an area of investment, which we think is well-suited for a lot of our customers. We will continue to invest in automation in the platform. And we talked about areas last week, around things like rapid account opening, 90-second account opening, and Elias talked about the secondary account pickup. We talk about things like touchless credit card lending. Those kinds of initiatives that drive automation and efficiency and ultimately, conversion for our customers are areas of focus. We will continue to invest in partnerships and ease of integration with the platform. We've got a large portfolio of partnerships, and we'll continue to invest in those partners because, look, we don't intend to do everything ourselves. Some we will do ourselves, and some we will do through partnership. So the ease of integration and monetization of the partnerships is critical. And then the last one I'd highlight is AI. We're excited about the opportunities across the business in AI. From a product perspective, we think it's going to be a real enabler both for consumers as well as for the workforce. We can see opportunities ranging from AI powering dock capture in a much simpler way, demand generation strategies, decisioning and underwriting, collections, et cetera. All of those, we think, are going to be meaningfully changed with AI, and that's going to drive efficiency for our customers. It's going to drive velocity for our customers, meaning from conversion from the front of the applications through funding, which ultimately creates revenue for the customers. And it's going to deliver just better customer experiences and customer outcomes, which allows our clients, our customers, to compete with universal banks and challenger banks, and fintechs, and that competition is growing every day. So those are the areas that we're focused on, and we'll share more as Troy gets in the seat and he develops his buy-build partner strategy. Nikolai Cremo And for my follow-up, I had a question for Elias. I was hoping that you could just put a finer point on what your expectations are for the auto lending vertical in 2025, just given the uncertainty that part of the business is facing from any potential tariffs. So, are you assuming that business grows in line with the rest of consumer lending for the year? And what did it grow in Q1? Elias Olmeta Yes. We don't break out the individual components of the consumer. But as I mentioned, consumer growth was 11% in the quarter. And as we're not changing our guide for the year, I would point you to the fact that we're assuming 7% year-over-year growth. I acknowledge the uncertainty on the auto front. We did see some improvement there in terms of volumes. But again, we're assuming that, that is mostly a pull forward of stuff that we would have seen in Q2 and Q3. And so we are being, I think, prudent in the face of the significant uncertainty. And since we just provided guidance, which I think remains relevant, just eight weeks ago, we're going to hold. And if we have something more to give you, we'll look forward to doing so in Q2. Operator Koji Ikeda, Bank of America. Natalie Howe This is Natalie on for Koji. Larry, congrats on the promotion. You guys talked about improving churn in the mortgage business for the first time in a few quarters, which is great to hear. What would it take for you to say that retention has stabilized or inflected positively? And in the current environment, could you see that being a trend soon? Or would it be a little premature? Larry Katz Yes. Thanks for the question. I mean, we have seen retention improve. Whether that's a trend or not, I'm not going to venture a guess at this point. What I would say, which is in line with what we have said in prior quarters, is that the customers that we are losing tend to be very much at the small end of the scale. Similar to what I said last month, we classify them within buckets, and the average of all of the customers we lost was about 40,000, but over half of those had an ARR of less than [$10]. So as you can see, these aren't materially sized customers. These are just institutions that we don't think are able to either take advantage of the full benefits that the platform brings, or have just decided to drop for one reason or another. I guess what I would say is it's part of the reason why we're seeing ARR grow, and we feel good about where the business is trending and where churn is trending in the quarter. Operator Scott Wurtzel, Wolfe Research. Scott Wurtzel I wanted to go back to the comments you made about the mortgage demand being a little bit elevated. I'm wondering if you can maybe unpack that a little more and talk about the drivers of the increased demand. And with the number of mortgage wins up 90% year over year, how much of that is due to higher demand versus better internal sales execution also? Larry Katz Scott, it's Larry. I'll start, and Elias can follow on. Look, we have a really strong mortgage offering, and we believe we've got the right to win in the mid-market community banking and credit union space. We've got a terrific price value equation there, and I think that's showing up in our win rate. We have also invested in our sales team. And I think we're really having strong success across the board on mortgage win rates because of the strength of that team. So I think it's both of them. I think that there's also a macro here and a competitive dynamic. And the macro is that at some point, we're at lows in the mortgage market, but we know that at some point, that will turn. The smart players out there are looking ahead and saying this is the right time to invest. It's hard to invest when you're going 100 miles an hour. So this is the right time to make some of those transitions, and I think we're seeing the impact of that. I think we're also seeing some dislocation in the competitive set as well, whether it's the changes that others are making or just aging platforms. And so there's a real interest in our platform, and that's why you're seeing the positive trend. Elias Olmeta Yes. I would just add to that that in the quarter, we grew nicely in the quarter and again, mostly driven by ACV release, but there was some really nice impact from volumes in the mortgage market, primarily from refi. And we've been able to really take advantage of that. And if the market continues to perform and we're able to continue to be successful in the marketplace, I'm hoping that this is the beginning of a good trend, but too early to specifically call that out. Scott Wurtzel Then just as a follow-up, I wanted to see if you could talk about your appetite for M&A in this environment right now. You built a nice cash position on the balance sheet, leverage, I think, at around 2.5 turns now. So, just wondering if you can talk about M&A appetite at these levels here. Larry Katz I'll start again, it's Larry, and Elias can pick up. Look, since I joined, we've been talking about the opportunity in M&A, and it's core to our strategy. We've done a number of deals in the past, but we have to find the right deals at the right price. And of course, they have to be willing to sell as well. So we have to be patient and disciplined around it, which we are. But when we think about the M&A strategy, and I think we've talked about this in prior calls, there are three concentric circles around our business. One would be just tuck-ins to the platform, and that would likely be fishing within our partnership pool or businesses that we know well because we work with them, and they enhance the core LOS. The second would be near adjacencies, related to the LOS business, but maybe a circle out from just plug-ins. And then the third would really be transformational deals, and we look at them all the time. And I think we do have firepower, but I'll let Elias talk to the balance sheet. Elias Olmeta Yes. I mean, as you well point out, we have a strong balance sheet. I mean, we have almost $130 million in cash. We have all of our capacity under our revolver. You can see from the quarter, we had a very strong quarter from a free cash flow perspective. And so there's lots of room for us to do deals without having to go tap external capital that could reach possibly up to $200 million. That being said, if we were to do something larger, which I'm not handicapping that, I'm merely providing some color. We're in a good position to obtain leverage and foreign capital. So there's lots of activity. We continue to look at things. We continue to look at things in a very disciplined manner. We think prices are high. For the right deal, we may reach but we are being disciplined and thoughtful about how we approach this as we evaluate every opportunity that comes our way, and there are many. Operator Parker Lane, Stifel. Matthew Kikkert This is Matthew Kikkert on for Parker. First, congratulations to Nicolaas on the long tenure as CEO and also to Larry for the promotion. My first question, I'm curious as the non-mortgage lending improves, are there dynamics that would delay the revenue recognition at all, similarly to mortgage, the volume minimums there? Or would you see revenue bounce back more quickly in the non-mortgage segments in a better lending environment? Elias Olmeta Yes. I guess I would say a couple of comments. On the consumer side, there are two items that work to, at times, limit our ability to recognize all of the revenue associated with volumes, and I've talked about these in the past. So one is just simply global minimums. So our customers are subject on the consumer side to global minimums related to all of their products. So even though you might have a particular product do well in the quarter, their total product stack needs to do well for them to pierce their minimums. So if one product goes down, that offsets the improvement in a particular product. So you have to keep that in mind. The second is that as we are having success with ACV release and as we are having success cross-selling into our customer base, there is a slight drift in our minimums upward. So all of that is to say that the rate at which our consumer business needs to grow has increased for us to recognize some of that revenue. That doesn't mean we don't. We recognized a few points in the quarter. But that is different and distinct from our mortgage business, where it is just one minimum, one product. And as those customers pierce that, we recognize that revenue. Matthew Kikkert And then secondly, I know you're focused on investing in both the go-to-market and the product throughout the remainder of this year. I'm wondering if you could detail specific areas of the go-to-market that you're looking to invest in more? And if you're seeing any initial impact from these changes so far in 2Q? Larry Katz Sure. It's Larry. I think we talked about this a bit last quarter as well. We feel good about the size of our quota-carrying sales force. On sales and marketing, we've been investing in a couple of things. One is sales engineering and sales consulting. So helping existing and new customers really understand the value of the platform, understand how they can get the most out of the platform, and architect that from the beginning of the sales process. And so we've invested there and are starting to really get some great positive feedback there. Probably a little early to call wins there, but building momentum there, and I saw that and felt that at live. The second is in some of our demand generation investments and strategies to find top of the funnel, and we're swimming upstream there a little bit against a more challenging macro, but I expect that we will see benefits there, and it's certainly a worthwhile investment. That's about being in front of our customers and prospects when they are in market and when they're looking at opportunities, and we've identified a number of strategies to be more present and current with them. And I'm optimistic about the opportunities there. Operator Marc Feldman, William Blair. Marc Feldman I'm for Chris today. I just wanted to extend the congratulations on all the leadership changes going on. And I guess my first question is, you talked about the deposit account opening application and all the upgrades you're making there. Could you just put a finer point on the opportunities associated with that and how that can help you win, having a differentiated offering with your customer base? Larry Katz Yes, sure. Look, account opening has always been core to the offering. So it's always been very close to lending. And when you open a loan account, opening a deposit account at the same time, which ultimately strategically is important to our customers, because that's how they build their customer base and cross-sell around it. With the generational changes that we're seeing in the larger market, where we're shifting to Gen X and millennials and Gen Y, who are all very digitally savvy and digitally native customers, the digital applications and omnichannel account opening are really core to their success. And so our investment around access is about a more modern digital omnichannel set of capabilities that supports them. And we think that we've had account opening capabilities. We're just investing to improve those and accelerate those, and make those more seamless and elegant and efficient, and customer-friendly. And that's really what our investment strategy is. We also open our we believe that access is going to be very relevant to the majority of our customer base. For the more complex implementations, there are a number of other point of sales that we integrate to as well, and those are always options, and we want to be there to support our customers for whatever choices they need to make. But we think the seamless integration of our account opening with our LOS is really differentiated, and both from an implementation perspective, a data perspective, a security perspective, and also just ease of use for the customer. So we think it's important and will continue to be important. Marc Feldman I guess the second question here is, I appreciate the expectations given around churn. I just wanted to see if there's any way to break out the components of churn that are related to industry M&A, just given consolidation, a lot of what we're hearing is increases in industry consolidation, given the potentially softer regulatory landscape? Elias Olmeta Yes. We don't break that out. We may consider that. But at this point, we don't break that out or provide any further detail on that. Larry Katz And maybe beyond that, just the numbers as is talking to just from a regulatory perspective, I think you're also asking about what's going on in the macro, and how does the regulatory environment impact us. I would expect that there will continue to be consolidation in the space. And in a more accommodated regulatory stance, consolidation, I would expect, will accelerate. Our experience is that a lot of the acquirers are customers of ours, and that actually is a tailwind for us because it's no surprise that the larger institutions, who are the acquirers, also have invested in technology, and they're more able to scale via acquisition. And so we tend to win in those deals. So we're watching it carefully, but I'd expect it to be a positive for our business. Operator There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Nicolaas for closing remarks. Please go ahead. Nicolaas Vlok Thank you, operator. As we wrap up, I know you'll join me in congratulating Larry as our incoming CEO. I know that he will continue to lead and accelerate our growth strategy and build on the trust placed in us by our customers, partners, and the team. Speaking of the team, I want to thank everyone at MeridianLink for a solid Q1 performance. I'm consistently impressed by our employees' dedication to innovation and customer success. I'm sure that the consistency and creativity we have demonstrated will undoubtedly continue in the years to come. Thank you. Operator Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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13-05-2025
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MeridianLink Inc (MLNK) Q1 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Revenue Growth Amid Market ...
Release Date: May 12, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. MeridianLink Inc (NYSE:MLNK) achieved a total revenue of $81.5 million, marking a 5% growth year over year. The company reported an adjusted EBITDA of $34.8 million, reflecting a strong 43% adjusted EBITDA margin. MeridianLink Inc (NYSE:MLNK) has successfully transitioned its solutions from on-premise to the cloud, establishing its platform, MeridianLink 1, as a market leader. The company has expanded its customer base to nearly 2,000 financial institutions and credit reporting agencies. MeridianLink Inc (NYSE:MLNK) has built a robust partner marketplace with over 600 partners, enhancing its ecosystem. The macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, which could impact future financial performance. Services revenue declined by 4% year over year, primarily due to a one-time core upgrade program. Data verification software solutions revenue declined by 15% year over year, impacted by a large customer downsell. The company anticipates a modest deceleration in revenue growth in the second half of the year. There is a potential headwind from tariffs affecting the auto lending vertical, which could impact future demand. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with MLNK. Q: Larry, could you provide more color on the strategic changes you're planning as the new CEO? Are these new initiatives or a continuation of existing strategies? A: Larry Katz, President: It's a continuation of our strategy with a focus on accelerating growth. We're emphasizing product breadth and depth, making it easier to do business with us, and strengthening our talent. These strategies are crucial for scaling and competing effectively. Q: How are you managing the demand backdrop given the macroeconomic variability, especially regarding ACV release? A: Larry Katz, President: Our pipeline remains strong and healthy. While we see some softness at the top of the funnel, we haven't noticed changes in sales cycles. We expect potential softness in new logos due to the uncertainty, but cross-sells remain robust. Q: Can you discuss the growth and customer profile changes in the consumer lending business? A: Larry Katz, President: Growth is driven by ACV release, both from cross-sell and new logos. Our platform is recognized as a leader, and we're seeing success with larger AUM clients, demonstrating the platform's scalability and value. Q: What are your expectations for the auto lending vertical in 2025, considering potential tariffs? A: Elias Olmeda, CFO: We anticipate 7% year-over-year growth in consumer lending, acknowledging uncertainty in auto lending. We saw some volume improvement, but we're cautious about potential pull-forward effects due to tariffs. Q: What is your approach to M&A given your current cash position and market conditions? A: Larry Katz, President: M&A is core to our strategy, focusing on tuck-ins, near adjacencies, and transformational deals. We have a strong balance sheet and are disciplined in evaluating opportunities, looking for the right deals at the right price. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
