Better business coming in than going out: management describes the quality of new intake visibly exceeding what it is re
The model's full reasoning — Q1 2023 call → NOWe need to determine if management conveys that the business being taken in right now is of visibly higher quality than the business it is finishing, replacing, or letting run off. The key is a contrast between incoming and outgoing business, with the turnover real and current, and results improving as the old rolls off. In the transcript, management discusses various things. They mention that the traditional segment (wholesale and brick-and-mortar) saw a 49% decrease, while online channels (direct-to-consumer) grew to 66% of revenue. They emphasize their strategic focus on direct-to-consumer. They say: "our strategic focus is to continue to drive and elevate our direct-to-consumer presence and brand strategy, which we believe will better position us for long-term growth and help bolster against the current macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical unrest as we strive to reduce our dependencies on others." They also mention that the wholesale business faced headwinds, and they are shifting to direct-to-consumer. They say: "If we stayed the course of where we were, which was a wholesale business if you just look at our numbers right now the wholesale business definitely faced strong headwinds. And really the most exciting thing that we have is our direct-to-consumer approach which is now 66% of the business." Is there a contrast in quality? They don't explicitly say that the direct-to-consumer business is higher quality in terms of margins or economics. They mention that gross margin was 45% vs 51% last year, but that was due to shipping costs and inflation. They don't say that the incoming business has better margins. They talk about shifting to direct-to-consumer as a strategy, but they don't contrast the economics of the new business vs the old. They also mention that the traditional segment (wholesale) is declining, but they don't say that the new business is better priced or better margined. They do say that they are making strategic investments in direct-to-consumer, but that doesn't necessarily mean the incoming business is higher quality. They also mention that they are expanding product categories, like lab-grown diamonds, which are growing. But again, they don't contrast the quality of that business vs the old.
| Ticker | Company | Call | Date | Call grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASB | Associated Banc-Corp | Q1 2024 | 2024-04-25 | A |
| GIII | G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. | Q4 2024 | 2024-03-14 | C |
| ALL | The Allstate Corporation | Q3 2023 | 2023-11-02 | C+ |
| SPT | Sprout Social, Inc. | Q2 2023 | 2023-08-04 | B+ |
| BRX | Brixmor Property Group Inc. | Q1 2023 | 2023-05-02 | A |
| OEC | Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. | Q4 2022 | 2023-02-17 | B+ |
| BBD | Banco Bradesco S.A. | Q3 2022 | 2022-11-09 | D |
| GFS | GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. | Q3 2021 | 2021-11-30 | A |
| KTB | Kontoor Brands, Inc. | Q3 2021 | 2021-11-04 | A |
| CYBR | CyberArk Software Ltd. | Q3 2021 | 2021-11-04 | B+ |
| EHTH | eHealth, Inc. | Q2 2021 | 2021-07-29 | F |
| ADSK | Autodesk, Inc. | Q3 2019 | 2018-11-20 | A |
| GECC | Great Elm Capital Corporation | Q3 2018 | 2018-11-13 | B |
| CUBI | Customers Bancorp, Inc. | Q3 2018 | 2018-10-26 | C+ |
| T | AT&T Inc. | Q3 2018 | 2018-10-24 | C+ |
| ESS | Essex Property Trust, Inc. | Q2 2018 | 2018-08-03 | B+ |
| MKC | McCormick & Company, Incorporated | Q2 2018 | 2018-06-28 | C+ |
| ALLY | Ally Financial Inc. | Q1 2018 | 2018-04-26 | B+ |
| ATI | Allegheny Technologies Incorporated | Q1 2018 | 2018-04-24 | B |
| HSTM | HealthStream, Inc. | Q3 2017 | 2017-10-24 | C |
| MTG | MGIC Investment Corporation | Q3 2017 | 2017-10-18 | B+ |
| BLKB | Blackbaud, Inc. | Q1 2017 | 2017-05-02 | B+ |
HSTM · Q3 2017 → YESThe question is about whether management conveys that the business they're taking in right now is of visibly higher quality than the business they're finishing or letting run off. YES The transcript shows management explicitly contrasting incoming business against outgoing: - Patient Experience: "Existing clients also continue to convert from a phone modality to email and SMS text surveying modality... This conversion trend to continue... expected to have a positive impact... on patient experience margins." (lower price, higher margin shift already happening) - Provider Solutions: "the move from installed software sales to software as service sales... challenge revenue growth... but not profitability growth" and "backlog of unimplemented customers... significantly reduced" - Laerdal/HeartCode: "the new product we believe is right now based on contracts.
GFS · Q3 2021 → YESThe question is about whether management conveys that the business they're taking in right now is of visibly higher quality than the business they're finishing or letting run off. YES The transcript shows management explicitly contrasting the incoming business with the outgoing: compute revenue is declining "as expected" due to customers shifting to smaller nodes, while "newer high-margin customer designs" are ramping in 2H 2022 to offset it. They tie this directly to mix improvement from "d differentiated solutions become a larger portion" and "feature-rich" platforms (FDX, RF SOI, silicon photonics) growing while feature-rich CMOS is flat or down. LTAs signed now carry "pricing improvements" baked in for 2022+, with new agreements committing future capacity at those better terms.
CYBR · Q3 2021 → YESThe question is about whether management conveys that the new business they're taking in is of higher quality than the old business they're replacing, and that as the old rolls off, results will impro...YES Management explicitly contrasts the incoming subscription business (new logos, SaaS bookings, Privileged Cloud, EPM) as higher-quality than the outgoing perpetual license business it is replacing. They describe it as delivering “faster type of value,” “higher lifetime value over time,” and “more users and more products faster ,” while noting that the current revenue and profitability headwind from the mix shift is “obscuring the P&L” and that results will improve once the transition completes.