CDLX - Cardlytics Announces Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results

ATLANTA, Nov. 08, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cardlytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDLX), a digital advertising platform, today announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. Supplemental information is available on the Investor Relations section of Cardlytics' website at http://ir.cardlytics.com/.

"We are gathering speed with each passing quarter - our platform is starting to look different and the collective improvements we are making to our product and operations are far exceeding our pace from prior years," said Karim Temsamani, Chief Executive Officer. "Our dedication to product leadership, financial health, and strategic growth is setting us on a promising course, and I am looking forward to the future."

"Cardlytics is positioned to be the leader in providing trusted and intelligent business insights, and there are few other platforms that have the level of data and reach that we do," said Alexis DeSieno, Chief Financial Officer. "We are on a path to sustain positive operating cash flow and adjusted EBITDA on an annual basis, while continuing to focus on profitability and improving our balance sheet and capital structure."

Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results

• Revenue was $79.0 million, an increase of 9% year-over-year, compared to $72.7 million in the third quarter of 2022.
• Billings, a non-GAAP metric, was $116.4 million, an increase of 5% year-over-year, compared to $110.4 million in the third quarter of 2022.
• Gross profit was $35.8 million, an increase of 38% year-over-year, compared to $26.0 million in the third quarter of 2022.
• Adjusted contribution, a non-GAAP metric, was $42.9 million, an increase of 22% year-over-year, compared to $35.1 million in the third quarter of 2022.
• Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $(24.0) million, or $(0.63) per diluted share, based on 38.0 million fully diluted weighted-average common shares, compared to a net income attributable to common stockholders of $6.3 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, based on 33.3 million fully diluted weighted-average common shares in the third quarter of 2022.
• Non-GAAP net loss was $0.3 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, based on 38.0 million fully diluted weighted-average common shares, compared to non-GAAP net loss of $(16.5) million, or $(0.50) per diluted share, based on 33.3 million fully diluted weighted-average common shares in the third quarter of 2022.
• Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric, was a gain of $3.9 million compared to a loss of $(12.7) million in the third quarter of 2022.

Key Metrics

• Cardlytics MAUs were 162.5 million, an increase of 4% year-over-year, compared to 156.2 million in the third quarter of 2022.
• Cardlytics ARPU was $0.49 compared to $0.47 in the third quarter of 2022.

Definitions of MAUs and ARPU are included below under the caption “Non-GAAP Measures and Other Performance Metrics."

Fourth Quarter 2023 Financial Expectations

Cardlytics anticipates billings, revenue, adjusted contribution and adjusted EBITDA to be in the following ranges (in millions):

(1) A reconciliation of billings to GAAP revenue on a forward-looking basis is presented below under the heading "Reconciliation of Forecasted GAAP Revenue to Billings."
(2) A reconciliation of adjusted contribution to GAAP gross profit and a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net loss on a forward-looking basis is not available without unreasonable efforts due to the high variability, complexity and low visibility with respect to the items excluded from this non-GAAP measure.

Earnings Teleconference Information

Cardlytics will discuss its third quarter 2023 financial results during a teleconference today, November 8, 2023, at 5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT. A live dial-in will be available after registering at http://ir.cardlytics.com/. Shortly after the conclusion of the call, a replay of this conference call will be available through 8:00 PM ET on November 16, 2023 on the Cardlytics Investor Relations website at http://ir.cardlytics.com/. Following the completion of the call, a recorded replay of the webcast will be available on Cardlytics’ website.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) is a digital advertising platform. We partner with financial institutions to run their banking rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen banking relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in Menlo Park, New York, Los Angeles, and London. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, our financial guidance for the fourth quarter of 2023. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date they were first issued and were based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "should," "believe," "hope," "target," "project," "goals," "estimate," "potential," "predict," "may," "will," "might," "could," "intend," or variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control.

Our actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to: risks related to unfavorable conditions in the global economy and the industries that we serve; risks related to the fact that our quarterly operating results have fluctuated and may continue to vary from period to period; our ability to sustain our revenue growth and billings; risks related to the integration of Dosh, Bridg and Entertainment with our company; potential payments under the Merger Agreement with Bridg; risks related to our substantial dependence on our Cardlytics platform; risks related to our substantial dependence on JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association (“Chase”), Bank of America, National Association ("Bank of America"), Wells Fargo Bank, National Association (“Wells Fargo”) and a limited number of other financial institution (“FI”) partners; risks related to our ability to maintain relationships with Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America; the amount and timing of budgets by marketers, which are affected by budget cycles, economic conditions and other factors, including the impact of the macroeconomic events; our ability to generate sufficient revenue to offset contractual commitments to FIs; our ability to attract new partners, including FI partners, and maintain relationships with bank processors and digital banking providers; our ability to maintain relationships with marketers; our ability to adapt to changing market conditions, including our ability to adapt to changes in consumer habits, negotiate fee arrangements with new and existing partners and retailers, and develop and launch new services and features; and other risks detailed in the “Risk Factors” section of our Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 8, 2023 and in subsequent periodic reports that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. We undertake no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Non-GAAP Measures and Other Performance Metrics

To supplement the financial measures presented in our press release and related conference call or webcast in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”), we also present the following non-GAAP measures of financial performance: billings, adjusted contribution, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net loss and non-GAAP net loss per share as well as certain other performance metrics, such as monthly active users (“MAUs”) and average revenue per user (“ARPU”).

A “non-GAAP financial measure” refers to a numerical measure of our historical or future financial performance or financial position that is included in (or excluded from) the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP in our financial statements. We provide certain non-GAAP measures as additional information relating to our operating results as a complement to results provided in accordance with GAAP. The non-GAAP financial information presented herein should be considered in conjunction with, and not as a substitute for or superior to, the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered a measure of liquidity. There are significant limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures. Further, these measures may differ from the non-GAAP information, even where similarly titled, used by other companies and therefore should not be used to compare our performance to that of other companies.

We have presented billings, adjusted contribution, adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net loss and non-GAAP net loss per share as non-GAAP financial measures in this press release. Billings represents the gross amount billed to customers and marketers for advertising campaigns in order to generate revenue. Cardlytics platform billings is recognized gross of both Consumer Incentives and Partner Share. Cardlytics platform GAAP revenue is recognized net of Consumer Incentives and gross of Partner Share. Bridg platform billings is the same as Bridg platform GAAP revenue. We define adjusted contribution as a measure by which revenue generated from our marketers exceeds the cost to obtain the purchase data and the digital advertising space from our partners. Adjusted contribution demonstrates how incremental marketing spend on our platforms generates incremental amounts to support our sales and marketing, research and development, delivery costs, general and administration and other investments. Adjusted contribution is calculated by taking our total revenue less our Partner Share and other third-party costs. Adjusted contribution does not take into account all costs associated with generating revenue from advertising campaigns, including sales and marketing expenses, research and development expenses, delivery costs, general and administrative expenses and other expenses, which we do not take into consideration when making decisions on how to manage our advertising campaigns. We define adjusted EBITDA as our net loss before income taxes; interest expense, net; depreciation and amortization expense; stock-based compensation expense; foreign currency gain (loss); acquisition and integration cost (benefit); loss (gain) in fair value of contingent consideration; goodwill impairment and restructuring and reduction of force. We define non-GAAP net loss as our net loss before stock-based compensation expense; foreign currency (gain) loss; acquisition and integration (benefit) cost; amortization of acquired intangibles; and loss (gain) in fair value of contingent consideration. Notably, any impacts related to minimum Partner Share commitments in connection with agreements with certain partners are not added back to net income in order to calculate adjusted EBITDA, adjusted contribution and non-GAAP net loss. We define non-GAAP net loss per share as non-GAAP net loss divided by weighted-average common shares outstanding, diluted.

We believe the use of non-GAAP financial measures, as a supplement to GAAP measures, is useful to investors in that they eliminate items that are either not part of our core operations or do not require a cash outlay, such as stock-based compensation expense. Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures when evaluating operating performance and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures help indicate underlying trends in the business, are important in comparing current results with prior period results and are useful to investors and financial analysts in assessing operating performance.

We define MAUs as targetable customers that have logged in and visited online or mobile applications containing offers, opened an email containing an offer, or redeemed an offer from the Cardlytics platform during a monthly period. We then calculate a monthly average of these MAUs for the periods presented. We believe that MAUs is an indicator of the Cardlytics platform's ability to drive engagement and is reflective of the marketing base that we offer to marketers. As of September 30, 2023, we are reporting only the total number of unique targetable customers within each FI, which we have applied to our reporting for current and prior periods in this Form 10-Q. We define ARPU as the total revenue generated in the applicable period calculated in accordance with GAAP, divided by the average number of MAUs in the applicable period.

(1)   Billings, adjusted contribution and adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are presented below under the headings "Reconciliation of GAAP Revenue to Billings," "Reconciliation of GAAP Gross Profit to Adjusted Contribution" and "Reconciliation of GAAP Net Loss to Adjusted EBITDA."

(1) Stock-based compensation expense recognized in consolidated delivery costs totaled $0.7 million and $0.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

(1) Stock-based compensation expense recognized in consolidated delivery costs totaled $2.4 million and $1.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Contacts:

Public Relations:
Robert Robinson
pr@cardlytics.com

Investor Relations:
Robert Robinson
ir@cardlytics.com