Roper(ROP) - 2025 Q4 - Earnings Call Transcript

Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - Revenue for Q4 was $2.06 billion, up 10% year-over-year, with acquisitions contributing 5% and organic growth of 4% [10] - EBITDA reached $818 million, also up 10% year-over-year, with core EBITDA margin expanding 60 basis points to 54% incremental margin [10] - For the full year 2025, revenue was $7.9 billion, up 12% from the previous year, with acquisitions contributing nearly 7% growth [14] - Free cash flow for 2025 was nearly $2.5 billion, up 8%, representing 31% of revenue [15] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - Application software revenue grew 10% in Q4, with organic growth of 4% and margins expanding 70 basis points to 42.2% [11] - Network software revenue grew 14% in Q4, with organic growth of 5% and margins at 52.8% [12] - Tech segment revenue grew 6% in Q4, with organic growth of 5% and margins holding flat at 34.8% [13] - For the full year, application software revenue grew 16% in total, with organic revenue growth of 5% [18] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - The government contracting (GovCon) market remains challenging, impacting Deltek's performance, particularly in perpetual license revenue [20] - The freight market has been in a recession, affecting DAT's performance, although the company is evolving into a more automated marketplace [24] Company Strategy and Development Direction - The company is focused on long-term sustainable growth, with a commitment to investing in AI product development and capital deployment [9][32] - A robust M&A pipeline is anticipated, with over $6 billion in capacity for potential acquisitions and share repurchases [9][16] - The company aims to balance acquisitions with opportunistic buybacks to maximize durable cash flow per share compounding [33] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management expressed cautious optimism for 2026, expecting organic growth to be in the higher end of the mid-singles range, with a conservative posture on GovCon until improvements are seen [23][30] - The company does not anticipate a significant uplift from AI development in the near term but views it as a long-term growth driver [30][56] Other Important Information - The company deployed $3.3 billion towards high-quality vertical software acquisitions in 2025, including CentralReach and Subsplash [9] - The company repurchased 1.1 million shares for $500 million in Q4, with a remaining authorization of $2.5 billion [17] Q&A Session Summary Question: What is the outlook for Deltek in 2026? - Management is not assuming an improvement in the GovCon market for 2026, citing lower organic growth due to perpetual license revenue issues [38] Question: What needs to happen for ProCare to meet expectations? - Management indicated that the implementation speed of software and payments needs improvement, which is a fixable issue [40][41] Question: What segments of government appropriations would impact Deltek the most? - Management highlighted that defense-related appropriations would have a larger impact on contractor spending, which is beneficial for Deltek's customers [45] Question: How much capital might be deployed in 2026? - Management stated that while there is a $6 billion capacity for capital deployment, the focus will be on high-quality acquisitions at appropriate prices [47][48] Question: When will AI's impact be quantifiable? - Management aims to report AI-related revenue but emphasizes that AI will be monetized in various ways beyond just direct sales [54][56]