Earnings Sentiment

Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.

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Sentiment Distribution

   

Earnings Call Transcript Word Cloud

     

Bullish Statements during Earnings call

Statement
So, we feel good about our ability to respond to demand
The other thing that we are continuing to do and I think you would see it in the mix of our commercials is that you're seeing more fixed fee engagements, where there's a more -- not only is it more sort of consulting led, but also there's a little bit more opportunity for us to take responsibility for delivery, and that gives us an opportunity to improve profitability as well
Jason Peterson If we do all right, definitely stronger new logo activity, stronger new customer revenues
At the same time, we're feeling that a lot of unknowns ahead of us and some trends, which were driving the market and our performance in 2023, still actually critical for 2024, but, yeah, we feel much better after showing that we can stabilize the revenue, the client base, and even little but some growth versus continuous decline, which was happening in previous four quarters
About 2024 outlook: Because of our ability to adapt to new client demands and market conditions, we are optimistic about the opportunities ahead of us towards the end of 2024
I think you'll see an improvement in gross margin in the second half of 2024, hopefully setting us up for more better profitability in 2025
So, good result in the 4Q AOM
From a customer standpoint, we are seeing good strong traction in life sciences
This will have some effect on our profitability in 2024, but we believe these are the right actions to ensure long-term growth and stronger market positions
Revenues in Q4 were higher than we expected when we said Q4 guidance, due to both stronger client demand and significant benefit from favorable foreign exchange
My thanks to all the EPAMers who made 2023 a successful year, and will help us drive growth throughout 2024
EPAM leadership and strengths were specifically highlighted in leveraging generative AI, pioneering DevOps and providing superior customer support and unique user experience
And if you remember 2021 and it was very quickly become hot market, we were performing pretty well
While this trend continues, and in some cases to our benefit, we are seeing encouraging signals of a general rebound for build-based solutions and for traditionally strong [indiscernible] capabilities in advanced tech, data experience, consulting, and AI
Gross margin in Q4 2022 was positively impacted by the timing of year-end revenue recognition
We have been pleased with the progress we are making on demand generation, and we'll continue to prioritize revenue growth into 2024, which, in some pursuits, include some degree of discounting
But we're pretty confident that we would be able to accelerate when needed, especially with the softness of the market
Our Q1 income from operations guide reflects the impact of the resetting of social security caps, normalized variable compensation and somewhat higher bench levels, where we expect to see improvement throughout the year
You sounded incrementally confident, I think, that the demand environment might pivot into a positive direction at that point
Demand to build postponed during the last two years should rebound, driven by long-term pressures for legacy modernizations, by needs for advanced customer-centric solutions, and by the massive interest to understand how to apply GenAI and general AI capabilities to build new platforms and solutions
Like, if you remember our original guide, one year ago, at the beginning of 2023, so it was a way kind of optimistic and revenue was higher than we guided today for 2024
We are encouraged by seeing a high level of interest from our clients expressed in over 60 pursuits with 15 active projects in progress right now
We clearly are seeing a lot of opportunities and energy, and I expect that we'll probably return to sequential growth in a number of our industry verticals here in Q1
While we have made significant progress on involving our operations and despite the challenges we have faced in 2023, our work with clients have been increasingly recognized by leading analysts and provide in turn some independent support for the stories we shared
Our growing cash reserves are generating interest income, and EPAM is receiving governmental incentives from several countries in which we established delivery operations
Congrats on strong execution
In 2023, it was also evident that we brought new clients at a rate higher than in previous years, and we plan to do it again in 2024
To capitalize on potential new demand, we are expanding our new business initiative by enhancing our sales strategies and go-to-market partnerships, dedicating resources to create new accelerators, establishing new engagement models and innovating our customer interaction method
All those efforts should make it possible for us to become the most geographically diverse and broadly AI-assisted delivery talent platforms in the industry
Our 2023 results reflect EPAM's ability to manage the business through challenging macro conditions, while positioning the company for the return to a more normalized demand environment
       

Bearish Statements during earnings call

Statement
In Q4, revenues from our top 20 clients declined 5% year-over-year, while revenues from clients outside our top 20 contracted 7%
From a geographic perspective, the Americas, our largest region representing 58% of our Q4 revenues, declined 7.6% year-over-year or 7.7% in constant currency
Revenues for the year were $4.69 billion, producing a decline of 2.8% reported, and a decline of 3.4% in constant currency terms compared to 2022
Revenues in the quarter continued to be impacted primarily by a reduction in spend across a number of large clients, due to uncertainty in their end markets, particularly in the mortgage data space
The reduction in Russian customer revenues, resulting from our decision to exit the market, had a 70 basis point negative impact on year-over-year revenue growth
In the fourth quarter, EPAM generated revenues of $1.16 billion, a year-over-year decrease of 6% on a reported basis and a 7.3% decrease in constant currency terms, reflecting a positive foreign exchange impact of 130 basis points
This higher level of compensation, combined with the limited ability to improve client pricing in the near term, will continue to put pressures on margins in 2024
The year-over-year growth rate was negatively impacted by the reduction in revenue from our former top 20 client we mentioned during our previous earnings calls and generally slower growth in revenues across the range of customers in the vertical
Business information and media declined 14.8% in the quarter
We ended Q4 with more than 47,350 consultants, designers, engineers, trainers and architects, a decline of 10.4% compared to Q4 2022
Software and hi-tech declined 16.8% in the quarter
We do expect that the incremental growth in India is going to put some pressure on revenue per headcount
Excluding the impact of the exit of our Russian operations, revenue on a year-over-year basis declined 5.5%
EMEA, representing 39% of our Q4 revenues, was flat year-over-year and declined 3.5% in constant currency
GAAP income from operations was $501 million, a decrease of 12.5% year-over-year and represented 10.7% of revenue
Excluding the impact of exiting our Russian operations, revenue declined 1.8%
Our non-GAAP diluted EPS was $2.75, reflecting a decrease of $0.18 or 6.1% compared to the same quarter in 2022
Non-GAAP EPS, which excludes adjustments for stock-based compensation, acquisition-related costs and certain other one-time items, including costs associated with our cost optimization program, was $10.59, reflecting a 2.8% decrease over fiscal 2022
Excluding Russia revenues, the reported year-over-year growth rate would have been negative 1.8% reported and negative 2.4% in constant currency terms
Our non-GAAP income from operations was $765 million, a decrease of 6.5% compared to the prior year and represented 16.3% of revenue
   

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