Frontdoor (FTDR) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chairman and CEO — William Cobb
• Senior Vice President and CFO — Jason Bailey

TAKEAWAYS

• Revenue -- $451 million, up 6%, with approximately 5% of this increase from higher realized price and 1% from higher volume, primarily due to the HVAC upgrade program.
• Gross Profit Margin -- 55%, supported by disciplined cost management and 5% higher price realization, with low single digit cost inflation and a minor $1 million weather impact.
• Net Income -- $41 million, representing 11% growth.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $104 million, rising 3%, with margin stable at 23% amid higher SG&A for growth initiatives.
• Adjusted Diluted EPS -- $0.73, increasing 14%, reflecting earnings growth and share repurchases.
• Free Cash Flow -- $114 million, aligning with the target to convert over 60% of adjusted EBITDA to free cash flow for the year.
• Share Repurchases -- $60 million returned to shareholders during the quarter, with plans to complete the repurchase authorization by early 2027.
• Liquidity -- $698 million at quarter end, with a low net leverage ratio.
• Member Count Guidance -- Anticipated growth of approximately 1% for the year, marking the first expected annual organic growth since 2020.
• Direct-to-Consumer Channel -- Ending member count up 3%, now at six consecutive quarters of growth; key brand metrics up (unaided awareness 28%, purchase consideration 35%, likelihood to recommend 63%).
• First-Year Real Estate Channel -- Attach rate reached nearly 6% in March, with member count up 3%, the first organic growth in several years.
• Renewal Channel -- Renewal rates near record highs, enhanced by improved member experience and reduced cancellations; prior year saw a 200 basis point improvement.
• Non-Warranty and Other Revenue -- $41 million, rising 23%, primarily driven by the scaling HVAC upgrade program and both higher price and volume.
• First-Year Direct-to-Consumer Revenue -- Down 5%, attributed to promotional pricing for member count growth, offset by higher volume.
• Q2 2026 Revenue Outlook -- Guidance in the $635 million to $650 million range, with mid-20% increase expected in non-warranty and other revenue.
• Q2 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Outlook -- Projected to be $198 million to $208 million, influenced by higher marketing investments and mix shift toward non-warranty offerings.
• Full-Year 2026 Guidance -- Reaffirmed with 53%-54% of adjusted EBITDA anticipated in the first half, and assumed low single digit inflation, stable incident rates, and expanding non-warranty mix.
• Operational Integration -- HSA, AHS, and 2-10 now consolidated on a single platform, allowing company-wide application of dynamic pricing and contractor optimization tools.
• Retention Rates -- Slight decline in Q1 due to 2-10 integration, expected to be flat by year-end as platform benefits accrue.
• Promotional Pricing Results -- Promotional cohorts’ renewal rates "consistently exceeding those of non-discounted member cohorts," according to Cobb.

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com

RISKS

• Integration of the 2-10 acquisition caused a "slight" decrease in customer retention rates during Q1, with the company expecting this mix effect to normalize by year-end.
• CFO Bailey said, "We haven't seen a huge impact from fuel costs." but acknowledged ongoing monitoring of macroeconomic conditions and potential contractor cost inflation as factors affecting margins.

SUMMARY

Frontdoor (NASDAQ:FTDR) reported 6% revenue growth, driven mainly by pricing and the expansion of its HVAC upgrade program, while gross margin remained firm at 55%. The company expects approximately 1% total member count growth for the year, breaking its multi-year trend of contraction, and highlighted the successful integration of the 2-10 acquisition as a catalyst for platform-wide efficiencies. Management reaffirmed full-year guidance and expects more than half of 2026’s adjusted EBITDA to be generated in the first half, maintaining a focus on returning capital to shareholders and disciplined cost control despite slower growth in the direct-to-consumer revenue segment.

• The ending member count in the direct-to-consumer channel has grown for six consecutive quarters, with direct-to-consumer brand metrics all showing sequential improvement.
• First-year real estate channel attach rates improved to nearly 6% in March, supported by steady local-level investment and targeted promotions.
• Integration of HSA, AHS, and 2-10 into a single operating platform has supported dynamic pricing deployment, with more granular and rapid price adjustments now possible.
• The HVAC upgrade program continues to drive non-warranty revenue growth, while marketing spend is expected to remain elevated to capitalize on positive member acquisition trends.
• Management confirmed ongoing monitoring of macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions, indicating readiness to deploy multiple cost-control levers to preserve margin targets.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Attach Rate: The percentage of existing home sales where a home warranty is sold, indicating the penetration of warranty products in the real estate channel.
• HVAC Upgrade Program: An offering enabling members to enhance their covered heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, driving higher value and increased non-warranty revenue.
• 2-10: Refers to the acquired home warranty business, now integrated onto Frontdoor’s unified operating platform.
• Dynamic Pricing: Pricing model that leverages real-time data to adjust customer pricing frequently and individually, enhancing revenue optimization and renewal performance.
• Promotional Cohort: A group of new members acquired through discounted first-year pricing offers, whose renewal performance is measured separately from standard cohorts.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Matt Davis: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Frontdoor's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are Bill Cobb, Chairman and CEO; and Jason Bailey, Senior Vice President and CFO. The press release and slide presentation that will be used during today's call can be found on the Investor Relations section of Frontdoor's website, which is located at www.investors.frontdoorhome.com. As stated on Slide 3 of the presentation, I'd like to remind you that this call and webcast may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed here today.

These risk factors are explained in detail in the company's filings with the SEC. Please refer to the Risk Factors section in our filings for a more detailed discussion of our forward-looking statements and the risks and uncertainties related to such statements. All forward-looking statements are made as of today, April 30, and except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures throughout today's call.

We have included definitions of these terms and reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures for the most comparable GAAP financial measures in our press release and the appendix to the presentation in order to better assist you in understanding our financial performance. I will now turn the call over to Bill Cobb for opening comments. Bill?

William Cobb: Thanks, Matt Davis. Coming into 2026, we laid out an ambitious plan, grow the member base, deliver structurally higher margins and maintain a disciplined capital allocation framework to create shareholder value. I am happy to report that we are off to a fast start in 2026 and executing on each of these. Turning to Slide 5. Revenue grew 6% to $451 million. Gross profit margin remained strong at 55%. Net income grew 11% to $41 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 3% to $104 million and we bought back $60 million worth of shares. Operationally, our member count trend continues to move in the right direction with growth in our first-year channels accelerating to 3%.

Combining this with our strong execution in the renewal channel, we now anticipate total member count will grow approximately 1% for the year. This would be a major milestone and would mark the first-year of organic member count growth since 2020. Complementing our core business, our HVAC upgrade program continues to be a significant driver of growth and adds meaningful value for our home warranty members. Let's now turn to Slide 6 to take a deeper look at channel performance. Starting with the direct-to-consumer channel, where ending member count grew 3% versus the prior year period, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year member growth, proof that our strategy is working.

Our approach to DTC is anchored in 3 key areas, strengthening brand leadership, growing demand and improving conversion. First, strengthening brand leadership. We continue to benefit from strong brand awareness, which we further reinforced in March with the launch of our latest Warrantina campaign. Campaign results continue to be terrific, with improvements across key brand metrics, including unaided awareness up 6% to 28%, purchase consideration up 5 points to 35% and likelihood to recommend up 8 points to 63%. Second, we are growing demand through an optimized value proposition, a more refined targeting approach and enhanced performance marketing. These efforts are allowing us to drive higher intent to purchase traffic while maintaining discipline around our marketing investments.

In short, we are improving both the quality and quantity of demand entering the funnel. Additionally, we have started to see increased demand from the integration of 2-10 onto our platform with better SEO performance and an improved user experience. And third, we are improving conversion. We continue to refine our sales funnel through optimized marketing content for LLMs, AI tools to improve sales performance and promotional pricing, all to drive stronger conversion. The beauty of our promotional pricing strategy is that we are able to deliver member count growth without compromising long-term renewal performance. Most importantly, the renewal rates for our promotional cohorts are consistently exceeding those of non-discounted member cohorts.

Now moving on to the first-year real estate channel. While existing home sales remain near 30-year lows, home inventory continues to rise. This improvement in inventory is creating a more favorable selling environment for home warranties. To capitalize on this, we have been deliberately investing at the local level and leveraging targeted promotions to position our brands for success. Here's a great metric. Our attach rate has improved now for 8 consecutive months and was at nearly 6% of existing home sales in March. As a result, ending member count for first-year real estate grew 3%, the first time we have organically grown this channel in years. This is a very big deal.

Now turning to renewals, where our performance has been nothing short of amazing. Renewal rates remain near record highs, supported by a combination of factors, continuous improvement in the end-to-end member experience and reduced cancellations driven by engaging with members at the right time with the right message. Now moving to non-warranty and other, we continue to scale during the quarter with revenue growth of 23% year-over-year to $41 million. HVAC upgrades remain the primary driver and we continue to optimize how we run the program. By routing a greater share of HVAC claims to higher converting contractors, we have seen significant improvements in both quote rates and orders.

Let me now turn to Slide 7 to discuss our strategic priorities driving value creation. Last quarter, we were clear about the priorities that matter most for our business. First, member growth. Improving first-year acquisition trends, combined with strong renewal rates, gives us confidence that we expect to deliver approximately 1% member count growth this year. Second, we continue to scale non-warranty revenue in a disciplined manner. We have proven our ability to expand share of wallet while deepening engagement with our member base. Third, deliver structurally higher margins. Last quarter, we increased our long-term margin targets, underpinned by dynamic pricing and cost discipline.

This margin performance translates into strong cash generation, which brings us to our final priority, disciplined capital allocation to drive long-term value creation. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. First, we invest to accelerate growth through organic initiatives and selective M&A. Second, we maintain a strong balance sheet and financial profile. And finally, we return excess cash to shareholders and we are on track to complete our current share repurchase authorization by early 2027. Execution across all of these long-term goals is clearly reflected in our financial performance. With that, let me turn it over to Jason to walk through the financials and our outlook in more detail. Jason?

Jason Bailey: Thanks, Bill. Good morning, everyone. Let's start on Slide 9, where I will quickly cover some of the financial highlights for the quarter. We are off to an excellent start in 2026. Our first quarter results reflect focused execution and consistency across the business. Versus the prior year period, revenue grew 6% to $451 million. Gross margins remained strong at 55%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 3% to $104 million. And lastly, adjusted diluted EPS grew 14% to $0.73 per share, reflecting strong earnings growth and the positive impact of our share repurchase program. Now let's turn to Slide 10 for a deeper look at our revenue performance. As I just highlighted, total revenue grew 6% to $451 million.

This was driven by approximately 5% from higher realized price and 1% from higher volume, primarily due to the HVAC upgrade program. From a channel perspective, compared to the prior year period, renewal revenue grew 6%, driven by higher price. First-year real estate revenue increased by 3% as higher volume was partially offset by slightly lower pricing. First-year direct-to-consumer revenue decreased 5%, driven by our promotional pricing strategy aimed at increasing member count growth. This lower pricing reflects a higher mix of discounted first-year members from the past 12 months of new member acquisition, which was partially offset by higher volume as we added more new members.

Lastly, non-warranty and other revenue increased 23% due to both higher price and volume driven by our HVAC upgrade program. Now moving down the P&L to gross profit and gross margin on Slide 11. Gross profit increased 5% versus the prior year period to $248 million, while gross profit margin held strong at 55%. For the first quarter, our gross profit margin reflects higher price realization of 5% or $19 million, disciplined cost management leading to low single digit cost inflation, slightly higher incidence or service requests per member, which includes approximately $1 million from unfavorable weather in the quarter.

This gross profit margin also reflects the ongoing expected revenue mix shift as non-warranty and other revenue continue to scale within the portfolio. Turning to Slide 12 to review our net income and adjusted EBITDA. For the first quarter, net income grew 11% to $41 million versus the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA grew 3% to $104 million. As planned, SG&A increased during the quarter to capitalize on the strong momentum from 2025 in the direct-to-consumer channel. Adjusted EBITDA margin remained strong at 23%, reflecting disciplined cost management and solid operational execution despite the higher levels of marketing investments. Let's now turn to Slide 13 to discuss our free cash flow and capital deployment.

Our recurring revenue and capital-light business model continued to generate excellent free cash flow of $114 million in the quarter. As a reminder, we expect to convert adjusted EBITDA to free cash flow at a rate of over 60% in 2026. In the quarter, we returned $60 million to shareholders through share repurchases. We ended the quarter with a strong liquidity position of $698 million and a low net leverage ratio. More broadly, this financial strength supports the capital allocation strategy Bill outlined earlier, providing the capacity to invest in long-term growth, maintaining balance sheet strength and returning excess cash to shareholders. When stepping back, Q1 was another proof point of what our business model is built to do.

We continue to deliver strong earnings, generate significant free cash flow and return substantial capital to shareholders while accelerating growth investments. Let's now turn to our second quarter outlook on Slide 14. For the second quarter of 2026, we expect revenue to be in the range of $635 million to $650 million. This outlook reflects a low single digit increase in renewal revenue, a mid-single digit increase in first-year real estate revenue, a low single digit decrease in first-year direct-to-consumer revenue and a mid-20% increase in non-warranty and other revenue. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $198 million to $208 million.

This reflects higher gross profit from revenue conversion, low single digit inflation, continued revenue mix shift to non-warranty and our strategic decision to increase sales and marketing spend with the strong momentum we are seeing in the first-year channels. Turning to our full year 2026 outlook on Slide 15. We are reaffirming our full year 2026 outlook with key assumptions remaining essentially unchanged, as detailed in our earnings release and shown on the slide. As a reminder, and for those of you that are new to our story, I want to take a moment to discuss how seasonality impacts our financial results.

With our first quarter results and second quarter guide, we anticipate that 53% to 54% of our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA will be generated in the first half of the year. This is similar to the split in 2025. This is a normal part of our business and the reason why I encourage our investors to focus on our full year performance and guidance as the true measure of how we are delivering results. While the geopolitical environment has become more complex, our execution across the business, combined with multiple levers we can deploy to offset inflation, give us confidence in our ability to deliver on our expected revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth for the year.

With that, back to you, Bill.

William Cobb: Thank you, Jason. Our first quarter results reflect a continuation of the strong execution you've come to expect from Frontdoor. I'd like to highlight 3 things as we wrap up. First, our member count growth. Our member count is now growing. The team is doing great work and we're seeing that translate into measurable progress. And as a result, we now expect our total member count to increase approximately 1% for 2026, a major milestone for our business. Second, we are continuing to deliver strong margins in line with our long-term targets. The operating model we have been strengthening over the past several years is allowing us to deliver consistent results.

And finally, our business model is doing what it was designed to do, generate a lot of cash and return that to shareholders through share repurchases. We love the position we're in and we remain focused on executing with discipline as the year progresses. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Mark Hughes of Truist Securities.

Mark Hughes: Can you talk about the real estate channel? It seems like you're having good success there. I wonder if you might touch on the attachment rates. You said they've been improving in recent months. Was it 8% in March? Where did they bottom out at? Where historically have they gotten up to in a stronger market?

William Cobb: Yes. If you recall, many years ago, and I'm talking 6 or 7 years ago, attach rates in the industry were around 30%. That has fallen through COVID and the real estate sluggishness into the mid-teens. What has happened is we have steadily seen improvements in our attach rate, which is a measure of our warranties divided by existing home sales. So in March, we hit 6% on that measure. And I think it reflects some really good work by our real estate team, some work we're doing on shifting our focus away from large MSAs to focusing really on the local real estate agent. We have added some promotional pricing there.

It's not at the level of 50% off, but it enables us to basically get the attention of real estate agents. And we've seen -- we've spent a lot of time talking about the improvements we've made to our members with the app, our experts, et cetera. So it's a combination of factors and we're steadily moving up. And like I said, I watch that measure very closely, the attach rate and our team with 8 consecutive quarters of improvement. That's a lot of what we think is driving the better performance.

Mark Hughes: Yes. And will the strategy be on renewal, you'll move that up pretty expeditiously like you've been doing in the direct-to-consumer channel?

William Cobb: Yes, it continues to be around 30%. It's a big initiative for our teams to try to -- we tick up into the 31% level, but we've been kind of stuck at 30%. But if we can unlock that, that would be great. It used to be in the mid-20s. So we have made a lot of progress there. And as you saw in our 10-K, our renewal rates improved by 200 basis points in 2025. So I think that the combination of efforts is why we feel so good about where the renewal book is coming.

And if we can continue to grow the first-year channels, the renewal book is catching up and that's why we are now at 1% ending member count growth, what we're forecasting for '26.

Mark Hughes: And then one more, if I can. You talked about the 2-10 that you're integrating onto the platform, you're seeing some momentum as a result of that. Could you expand on that point?

William Cobb: Yes. We now run it as one, and this was always the plan. We thought that the synergies we could start to drive in revenue. So we run HSA, AHS and now 2-10, all of our DTC actions, all of our real estate transactions, all of our renewal transactions are all on one platform. This gives our teams an ability to do specific initiatives. So for example, now 2-10 can do 50% off on the DTC channel. Now we can do the same kind of tactics that we've used to help drive the renewal channel. So that's why it makes it a lot easier for us to execute 2-10 as being part of the platform.

Jason Bailey: Yes, I'd add, Bill, to the other good examples would be our dynamic pricing tools can be applied, our contractor algorithms. It's just a great...

William Cobb: Yes. So we now have one integrated contractor relations team, one integrated customer support team, et cetera.

Operator: And our next question is coming from Eric Sheridan of Goldman Sachs.

Eric Sheridan: I want to go a little bit deeper in how you continue to get message around scaling marketing investments around your brands, around driving customer acknowledgment of the product set and customer adoption of products broadly. And how are you thinking also about applying marketing to the balance you want to strike between the warranty business and the non-warranty business over the long term in terms of the messaging you want to put in front of consumers?

William Cobb: Yes. Our primary focus is on the warranty business because the non-warranty business is primarily, at this point, a B2B2C business where we work very closely with our contractors. But there's a halo effect on the brands that come from talking about American Home Shield and what that does for our members. So the way we operate is we talk about our marketing funnel. It starts at the top with our broad advertising message. We use the warranty as our main message. But that's a portion of our marketing investment because there are all the elements of search marketing, direct mail, social media. There's a variety of tactics that we use in our overall marketing.

Then what we do with non-warranty is that we're really marketing to our members directly. So with a 2.1 million member base, we find that very efficient for us. That's why we call it relatively CAC-free when we talk about non-warranty. So -- and we have such a good relationship with our contractors. They're very excited about this additional piece of business that they can put in new equipment. And frankly, it has a downstream effect of less truck rolls because the equipment is so new. So we think it's a virtuous cycle working together.

Like I said, the primary focus is on American Home Shield, but we have a number of techniques that we're using, including some of the AI tools I referenced in my remarks. And it's really come together. The marketing team's done a terrific job.

Operator: And our next question is coming from Jeff Schmitt of William Blair.

Jeffrey Schmitt: So the new promotional strategy in real estate seems to be off to a good start. Are you seeing competitors respond to that? Are some starting to do the same thing? Or do you anticipate that happening?

William Cobb: We haven't gotten much intelligence that others have done that. Now we believe that they probably are taking a look at that. But right now we're trying to -- we're very focused on the local real estate agents. So that's where our focus is. But we haven't picked up a lot of noise around others trying to do that.

Jason Bailey: Yes. I think I'd add, too, our focus there in that strategy is more, as Bill said in his remarks, about engagement. And so I think in addition to the promotional pricing, we can drive engagement by highlighting the app, our experts and kind of our overall improvements to customer experience. And so I think this is just another tool in our kit that allows our field sales team to really succeed.

William Cobb: I think that's right, Jason, because I think what we try to think about is we need to keep bringing the agent new news, whether that happens to be during a promotional pricing period or the other elements that we've added to our arsenal.

Jeffrey Schmitt: Okay. And then, so there's 5% of realized pricing in the quarter, that was better than we had expected. Did you push through another round of pricing increases in December? And at what level? Or was that more from your dynamic pricing?

Jason Bailey: It's no incremental pricing since our last update. I think it's just the effectiveness of our dynamic pricing tools. We're pretty much in line with where we were expecting or where we are expecting the year to land.

William Cobb: Yes. I think, Jeff, when we talk dynamic pricing, what we're really saying is we're constantly looking at, frankly, increasing our prices. But some members get a price decrease and that's the advantage of dynamic pricing. We're really priced to the person. So it really was a continuation of what we're trying to do with our [ 1/12 ] at a time recognized revenue base. We're able to -- while there's a disadvantage that it takes 12 months for it to be fully realized, there's an advantage that we can act very quickly and enact pricing changes and that's really what we've done. But I think we're pleased with that effort.

I think it also ties back to the strong renewal rates we've had, which also enables us to show a nice increase in pricing.

Jason Bailey: Yes. I think there's probably a little bit of timing in there in the compare to the Q1 versus Q1 of the prior year. We're still targeting that kind of low 2% to 3% full-year realized price impact.

Operator: And our next question is coming from Ian Zaffino of Oppenheimer.

Isaac Sellhausen: This is Isaac Sellhausen on for Ian. So the question would just be on the customer retention for the quarter. It looks like that was just down slightly compared to last year. Not sure if that is a timing thing, but maybe you could just touch on that piece of it, maybe in relation to the renewals channel specifically and then kind of your expectations for retention as you move through the year.

Jason Bailey: Yes. It's down slightly in Q1. That's just timing of 2-10 rolling into the book. I think we mentioned at acquisition, their retention rates were lower than ours. Now that they're fully in our book, I'd say that's just a minor impact in the quarter. By year-end, we expect retention to be relatively flat. The other thing I'd kind of point to is our renewal rates continue to be strong. I think Bill mentioned earlier, we were up almost 200 basis points year-over-year at the end of '25.

And now with 2-10 on our platform, that's one of the upsides we see just as we put our tools and techniques on the base, we'll see that their rates come up to higher.

William Cobb: Yes. So Jason is right. It's a mix issue, but AHS retention rates continue to be very strong.

Isaac Sellhausen: Okay. Understood. And then just as a follow-up, as far as the gross margin outlook for the year, you guys reaffirmed that. Maybe if you could just touch on the cost side, whether it be parts or equipment or labor, maybe just how things have trended in the first quarter and then the confidence you have in that as you move through the year to reach that margin target?

Jason Bailey: Yes. We're at low -- I'd say low single digit inflation in Q1. Our contractor relations team has done a great job working with our contractor network. We feel good about our outlook for the year. I would obviously say Bill and I are monitoring macro conditions daily and working with the team. So we're pretty confident that we'll be right in line with our guide. The outlook is pricing flowing through, similar incidence rates to prior year and then low single digit inflation for the full year. Pretty normal weather is our expectation. And then we've obviously considered the mix of non-warranty as it grows all in that guide.

Operator: And our next question is coming from Sergio Segura of KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Sergio Segura: First question I just had was on the full year outlook. So can you maintain that? I guess last year, you had a pretty steady cadence of beating and raising. So you beat this quarter in 1Q. So maybe just walk us through why you chose to keep the annual outlook unchanged despite the stronger-than-expected performance.

Jason Bailey: Yes, Sergio. I'd say the Q1 is just a little bit of timing on the beat. We're very confident in how we're operating. We just -- since we just gave the guidance and obviously watching all the macro news, we felt really good about reaffirming where we are. We think the team, both top line and bottom line, are operating very, very well. So that's just kind of how we ended up on reaffirming where we are.

William Cobb: Yes. It's a little bit of an anomaly because we report Q4 so late. It's like 2 months into the year and then we come right back only a month into Q2 to report Q1. So -- but giving the guidance 60 days ago and we felt like we did beat. It wasn't a large beat, but we're very proud of it. And so we felt like let's stay, let's reaffirm guidance at this point, and then we'll see -- we'll take another look at midyear.

Sergio Segura: Understood. And then the second one I had, which is somewhat related, has to do with just the geopolitical tensions we're seeing and the macro uncertainty that you mentioned. Any comments you can provide on how the higher and volatile oil prices might be impacting your input costs and how much of a swing factor that could be to margins for this year?

Jason Bailey: Yes. Like I said a minute ago, Bill and I monitor this really probably almost hour to hour, day to day, Sergio. But the team is operating very, very well. In Q1, we were really successful. We haven't seen a huge impact from fuel costs. It's definitely an input for our contractors. But remember, we manage cost overall on a total cost per job. And the levers as we think about there are probably 4 or 5 key tools we use to kind of manage that cost base. One, I'd start with, we're always thinking about our mix of preferred contractors and how much business we have with them and trying to optimize that mix.

Two, Bill and I continue to remain laser-focused on SG&A and how we control costs there and what levers we have. Three, we are in a great position with our supply chain and being able to manage among multiple vendors and suppliers as we think about where we want to put our volume. And then the last two would be probably the more normal things you think of, but that's how we manage our trade service fees and how we manage dynamic pricing if we need to go to that level.

So I think we've got a lot of tools in our toolkit to help us manage through this as we think about kind of the big macro picture right now.

Operator: Our next question is coming from Cory Carpenter of JPMorgan.

Cory Carpenter: I wanted, Bill, to go back to a comment you made in the prepared remarks. I think you said renewal rates for the promotional cohorts are exceeding those for the non-promotional cohorts. Can you just expand a bit on that? Obviously, that's a bit counterintuitive. And then does that make you want to lean more perhaps even into that discounting strategy?

William Cobb: Yes. It is counterintuitive, Cory. And we talk about this all the time and I press the team multiple times, but these numbers, right, I think it has to do with consumer behavior beyond just home warranties. This is a tactic that a lot of consumer services companies are using where you really discount your first year and then there's almost an expectation among consumers that I got a great deal in the first year, I'm going to have to absorb an increase in pricing. As we've said, however, we believe or we've proven, we've been at this for about 3 years now.

So we've been able to see that we're able to climb back up to the, if you will, normalized pricing level within 18 to 24 months. So we test this all the time, but I think what has happened is that it just proves out that people and it has to do with what kind of service they get, do they have the right contractors, a lot of factors. The moment of truth is really the most important piece there. So I know it's counterintuitive, but we've been testing this and proving it out continuously. To your point about would this indicate that we would do more, I think that's something we pulse.

We stay very close to this every month in terms of how we want to pull the trigger on promotions. We are now moving into early days of dynamic discounting so that it isn't just the broad brush. We'll continue to do broad brush promotions like 50% off. But we're encouraged about what is potentially going to happen with dynamic discounting. So I think we're very active in this field. Like I said, we've been at it for about 3 years and we feel good about it. And obviously, the important point is to make sure that those renewal rates continue to stay high.

Cory Carpenter: And I wanted to ask one more question on macro. I know you touched on kind of the cost side question earlier, but I wanted to ask it more on the demand side. And there's been a lot of -- the potential for higher inflation and more stress on the lower end consumer. Are you seeing any change at all in consumer behavior? And maybe if you could just remind us of what your kind of mix of consumers demographically looks like?

William Cobb: Yes. So let me take that. So the mix of consumers is about 50% below $100,000, 50% above that. The piece that we have not seen, no impact on demand, is because with the budget protection that our core value proposition brings, I think it actually kind of plays to our advantage. It may hurt us a little bit in the real estate sector with the real estate market continuing to be sluggish. But I think the core value proposition, which we try to hit very hard and we try to do this on a targeted basis, we talked in the past about targeting more millennials, targeting our Hispanic markets. So I think that has worked to our advantage.

So to date, we haven't seen a softness in consumer demand. You can see that from some of our numbers. So -- and I think that speaks to the value proposition of a home warranty.

Operator: And our next question is coming from Michael Rindos of Benchmark.

Cory Carpenter: Can you talk a little bit about your relationship with SkySlope, how that works and how much business is coming through them?

William Cobb: Yes. Jason has been very close to that relationship. So I am going to let him take that. I may add something. But go ahead, Jason.

Jason Bailey: Yes, Mike. SkySlope, we have an ongoing relationship with them, and the announcement you saw was an expansion of that relationship. I think we were originally in 4 or 5 states and now we are expanding to over 40 states. It is -- the easiest way to describe it is think of SkySlope as a platform that makes things easier for real estate agents. And then for us, the way that translates is we're in that workflow. So it's easier to attach a home warranty. We're pleased with the relationship. And again, it's just another tool for our field sales team to be successful and kind of build on the momentum they already have.

Cory Carpenter: Okay. And just as a follow-up, is that an exclusive situation that you have there? And also, as far as the growth in the real estate channel, where are you seeing the most growth on a regional basis? And how many competitors do you see in some of those markets?

Jason Bailey: Yes. I will take that in 2 parts. The SkySlope relationship is not exclusive, but we're really comfortable with our position there and how well we work together. And then on a regional basis, we're seeing success.

William Cobb: I think it is pretty consistent with our overall business, what we call the Smile states. And our biggest markets are Texas and California, Georgia, et cetera. I think as far as competitors go, in the real estate part of the DTC, we have a larger share, smaller share, about 1/3 in real estate because we have many more competitors. But from a geographic perspective, it's pretty consistent with the way our overall business plays out.

Operator: Well, we appear to have reached the end of our question-and-answer session and indeed the end of the conference call. This does conclude today's conference, and you may disconnect your phone lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.

William Cobb: Thanks, Jenny.

Operator: Thank you so much.

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. Parts of this article were created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool's insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.