CRA International, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAI) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call May 5, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Paul Maleh - President and Chief Executive Officer

Dan Mahoney - Chief Financial Officer

Chad Holmes - Chief Corporate Development Officer

Conference Call Participants

Andrew Nicholas - William Blair

Kevin Steinke - Barrington Research

Marc Riddick - Sidoti & Company

Operator

Good day, everyone and welcome to Charles River Associates First Quarter 2022 Conference Call. Please note that today’s call is being recorded. The company’s earnings release and prepared remarks from CRA’s Chief Financial Officer are posted on the Investor Relation section of CRA’s website at crai.com.

With us today are CRA’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Paul Maleh; Chief Financial Officer, Dan Mahoney; and Chief Corporate Development Officer, Chad Holmes.

At this time, I’d like to turn the call over to Mr. Mahoney for opening remarks. Dan, please go ahead.

Dan Mahoney

Thank you, Rob and good morning everyone. Please note that the statements made during this conference call, including guidance on future revenue and non-GAAP EBITDA margin and any other statements concerning the future business, operating results or financial condition of CRA, including those statements using the terms expect, outlook or similar terms are forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21 of the Exchange Act. Information contained in these forward-looking statements is based on management’s current expectations and is inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements due to many important factors, including the extent and duration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our financial condition and results of operations.

Additional information regarding these factors is included in today’s release and in CRA’s periodic reports, including our most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. CRA undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this call. Additionally, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures and certain measures presented on a constant currency basis on this call. Everyone is encouraged to refer to today’s release and related CFO remarks for reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their GAAP comparable measures and descriptions of the calculation of EBITDA and measures presented on a constant currency basis.

I will now turn it over to Paul for his report. Paul?

Paul Maleh

Thanks, Dan and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today. During the first quarter CRA continued to build momentum in the business and demand for our services. Revenue increased to $148.4 million, which represents the highest quarterly revenue in the company’s history. Our performance was brought based with 5 practices and I trust in competition economics, auctions and competitive betting, intellectual property, labor and employment and risk investigations and analytics delivering double digit revenue growth year-over-year. CRA continues to expand its margins as profits grew faster than revenue. Specifically, non-GAAP net income increased 7%, earnings per diluted share increased 12% and EBITDA grew 6% year-over-year.