• GAAP Revenue (Q4 2024): $309 million.
• Adjusted Operating Income (Q4 2024): $116 million, a margin of 37%.
• Operations Business Growth (Q4 2024): Increased 27% year over year.
• Net Revenue Retention (Q4 2024): Increased to 87%.
• Copilot ACV: Over $150 million.
• Share Repurchases (Full Year 2024): 46.8 million shares at an average cost of $12.
• Operating Cash Flow (Q4 2024): $109 million.
• Unlevered Free Cash Flow (Q4 2024): $94 million, a margin of 30%.
• Unlevered Free Cash Flow (Full Year 2024): $447 million, a margin of 37%.
• Cash and Cash Equivalents (End of 2024): $140 million.
• Gross Debt (End of 2024): $1.24 billion.
• Net Leverage Ratio: 2.4 times trailing 12-months adjusted EBITDA.
• Guidance for Q1 2025 Revenue: $294 million to $297 million.
• Guidance for Q1 2025 Adjusted Operating Income: $96 million to $99 million.
• Guidance for Full Year 2025 Revenue: $1.185 billion to $1.205 billion.
• Guidance for Full Year 2025 Adjusted Operating Income: $426 million to $436 million, a 36% margin.
• Guidance for Full Year 2025 Unlevered Free Cash Flow: $420 million to $440 million.

• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Signs with ZI.

Release Date: February 25, 2025

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

Positive Points

• ZoomInfo Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ZI) reported GAAP revenue of $309 million for Q4, exceeding expectations.
• The company's adjusted operating income was $116 million, with a margin of 37%, surpassing guidance.
• Copilot, a key product, exceeded expectations with over $150 million in Annual Contract Value (ACV).
• Operations, the fastest-growing area of the business, saw a 27% year-over-year increase in Q4.
• The company added 58 new customers with more than $100,000 in ACV, indicating strong upmarket growth.

Negative Points

• The downmarket segment, comprising less than one-third of the business, declined by 9% in 2024.
• Net revenue retention was 87%, which, although improved, indicates room for further enhancement.
• The company is discounting downmarket contributions to guidance due to its declining share.
• GAAP revenue guidance for 2025 indicates a negative 1.6% annual growth at the midpoint.
• The company faces challenges in maintaining pricing discipline while migrating customers to Copilot.

Q & A Highlights

Q: Can you provide insights into the trends in both the SMB and enterprise segments as we exit the year, and how should we think about the growth rates of these segments in the coming year? A: We are seeing strength in the upmarket, particularly with our Operations and Copilot products. The SMB segment is stabilizing and becoming a healthier, albeit smaller, portion of our business. We expect upside in our execution in the upmarket, where there is good demand and product-market fit. For 2025, we are modeling mid-single-digit growth in the upmarket, while the downmarket, which declined 9% in 2024, is expected to perform slightly worse in 2025.

Q: How is the migration of customers to Copilot progressing, and what is the strategy for transitioning the installed base? A: We are migrating customers to Copilot both off-cycle and at renewal times, maintaining pricing discipline. We released a customer impact report showing strong ROI for Copilot users, which supports our strategy of allowing customers to trial Copilot and then monetizing the value either at renewal or through off-cycle upsells.

Q: What are the drivers behind the improvement in net revenue retention (NRR) to 87%? A: The improvement in NRR is due to a shift from defensive downsell opportunities to upsell opportunities in the upmarket. In the downmarket, retention stabilized in Q3 and Q4. Overall, we are seeing more upsell opportunities and less downsell exposure than previously.

Q: Can you elaborate on the characteristics of the $100,000 customer cohort and the factors driving its growth? A: The $100,000 cohort is heavily upmarket. Growth is driven by successful upselling of existing customers, acquiring new upmarket customers, and reducing downsell exposure. We have opportunities to expand into account executives, account managers, and customer success managers, which increases the potential for seat expansion.

Q: How does the competitive landscape look as you move further upmarket, particularly with Copilot-first deals? A: Our product-market fit and differentiation are stronger upmarket, where we have the right resources and products. Our competitive advantage is driven by the breadth, depth, and accuracy of our data, our regulatory and compliance posture, and our pace of innovation around AI and go-to-market strategies.

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