Bentley Systems, Incorporated (NASDAQ:BSY) Q3 2023 Results Conference Call November 7, 2023 8:15 AM ET
Company Participants
Eric Boyer - Investor Relations
Greg Bentley - Chief Executive Officer
Nicholas Cumins - Chief Operating Officer
Werner Andre - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Matthew Hedberg - RBC
Joe Vruwink - Robert Baird
Kristen Owen - Oppenheimer
Jason Celino - KeyBanc
Michael Funk - Bank of America
Matthew Broome - Mizuho
Joshua Tilton - Wolfe Research
Warren Meyers - Griffin Securities
Blair Abernethy - Rosenblatt Securities
Clarke Jeffries - Piper Sandler
Eric Boyer
Good morning and thank you for joining Bentley Systems' Q3 2023 Operating Results. I'm Eric Boyer, Bentley's Investor Relations Officer. On the webcast today, we have Bentley Systems' Chief Executive Officer, Greg Bentley; Chief Operating Officer, Nicholas Cummins; and Chief Financial Officer, Werner Andre.
This webcast includes forward-looking statements made as of November 7, 2023, regarding the future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans and objectives for the future operations of Bentley Systems, Incorporated.
All such statements made in or contained during this webcast other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. This webcast will be available for replay on Bentley Systems Investor Relations website at investors.bentley.com on November 8, 2023. After our presentation, we'll conclude with Q&A.
And with that, let me introduce the CEO of Bentley Systems, Greg Bentley.
Greg Bentley
Good morning, and of course, thanks to each of you for your interest and investment in BSY. In our agenda, I start by interpreting directions within our quarterly operating results. Each quarter, a natural KPI headline is our ARR growth year-over-year business performance. While in '23 Q3, that nominally ticked down to the 12.5% midpoint of our financial outlook for the year, this nonetheless, represents continuity in our strong growth momentum given puts and takes specific to this quarter, which I will explain, and we are likewise steadily tracking to our planned annual gains in operating margins and cash flows.
Leading the way, even among more broadly strong market conditions this quarter is the public works/utilities infrastructure sector in the U.S. With almost half of our ARR here, this mainstay in effect serves as the governor on our underlying flywheel. U.S. public works/utilities continues to benefit from the fundamental expansion emerging finally beyond transportation both infrastructure investment and Jobs Act funding. This quarter's ACEC survey of U.S. engineering firms across all sectors, reports a medium current backlog of 11 months, reflecting an engineering resource capacity gap.