Spok Holdings (NASDAQ: SPOK) reported Q4 EPS of $0.01, versus ($1.03) reported last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $46.26 million, versus $42.26 million reported last year.

• Software bookings in the fourth quarter increased to $23.1 million, from $19.2 million in the prior year quarter. Fourth quarter bookings included $12.1 million of operations bookings and $11.0 million of maintenance renewals. For 2018, software bookings totaled $81.3 million, up nearly 4.6 percent from $77.7 million in 2017. Software backlog totaled $40.4 million at December 31, 2018, compared to $42.3 million at the end of 2017.
• Of the $20.2 million in software revenue for the fourth quarter, $10.2 million was operations revenue and $10.0 million was maintenance revenue, compared to $9.4 million and $9.8 million, respectively, of the $19.2 million in software revenue for the fourth quarter of 2017.
• The renewal rate for software maintenance revenue in 2018 continued to exceed 99 percent.
• The quarterly rate of paging unit erosion was 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to 2.4 percent in the prior quarter and 1.3 percent in the year-earlier period. Net paging unit losses were 7,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018, down from 25,000 in the prior quarter and 14,000 in the fourth quarter of 2017. Annual unit erosion totaled 57,000 units, or 5.4 percent, in 2018, down from the prior year level of unit erosion of 62,000 units. Paging units in service at December 31, 2018, totaled 992,000, compared to 1,049,000 at the end of the prior year.
• The quarterly rate of wireless revenue erosion was 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, less than half of the erosion in the prior quarter and down substantially from 2.1 percent in the year-earlier quarter, while the annual rate of wireless revenue erosion in 2018 slowed to 6.8 percent versus 7.7 percent in 2017.
• Total paging ARPU (average revenue per unit) was $7.36 in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to $7.46 in the year-earlier quarter and $7.40 in the prior quarter. For the year, ARPU totaled $7.39, compared to $7.51 in 2017.
• Consolidated operating expenses (excluding depreciation, amortization and accretion) totaled $40.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to $37.4 million in the year-earlier quarter. In 2018, consolidated operating expenses totaled $161.9 million, compared to $148.8 million in 2017.
• Capital expenses were $0.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to $2.2 million in the year-earlier quarter. For 2018, capital expenses totaled $5.9 million, compared to $9.2 million in 2017.
• The number of full-time equivalent employees at December 31, 2018, totaled 596, the same as year-end 2017.
• Capital returned to stockholders in 2018 totaled $23.6 million. This came in the form of approximately $10.1 million from the regular quarterly dividend and approximately $13.5 million from share repurchases.
• The Company’s cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance at December 31, 2018, was $87.3, compared to $107.2 million at December 31, 2017.

GUIDANCE:

Spok Holdings sees FY2019 revenue of $156-174 million.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Spok Holdings (SPOK) click here.