eXp World Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Whiteside: So, I think that if — as we kind of went through it, when we get challenged on the revenue side, and as long as we continue to do the right thing for the agents, we think that the gross margin percentage stay up in the levels that we’re kind of seeing in the fourth quarter range, all right? As the market picks back up again, we expect that to come down. So, you’ve seen this over the last few years, John. So, as we predicted, as the market will start to come down, the gross margin percentage will go up. So we can — so, I guess, to answer the question, if we continue to see challenges in the first half of the year, we’ll probably have a stronger percentage gross margin, and as the business picks up again, which it will over time, that percentage will lower as the volume comes through the system.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. That’s helpful. And then I think that’s probably upside, a lot of investors models as far as the gross margin, but on the OpEx side, it sounds like you will continue to invest pretty heavily here, I guess consistently about $93 million to $96 million is what you’ve seen on each quarter last three quarters of total G&A and marketing spend. How should we think about that going forward? Is that a pretty good quarterly run rate?

Jeff Whiteside: It is in that range. So we don’t have a plan to blow out expenses at all on the SG&A side. What we’re going to be doing is, we’re working on productivity in a big way. So, the same kind of range that we saw this year is kind of the — at this point in time, that kind of range that we’re looking at for 2023.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. That’s helpful. I appreciate the time, guys. Sorry, Glenn.

Glenn Sanford: The one thing that I’m coaching the team on, and also I guess investors on, is that we don’t want to be boxed into a number, we see opportunities. So, for us, when we are looking at improving the agent experience, say in the U.K. or Australia or France or wherever, we’re going to be making more strategic investments, more rapidly than maybe we have in the past. But we also — we’re just more, we’re not — I don’t want the team to feel boxed into numbers that they may have provided you in a Q&A in a public setting. So, I — just leaving that out there as well.

Unidentified Analyst: Yes. That’s good clarification. I appreciate that. Thank you, Glenn.

Denise Garcia: All right. We’ll move to Tom. Tom, if you’re ready.

Tom White: Great. Thanks guys. Nice to be back in the eXp campus here. A couple if I could. Maybe Glenn, first off, or for Jeff. I was hoping you guys could just parse out the net agent addition trends kind of in the U.S. versus international a bit, both in the fourth quarter and kind of maybe so far this year. Are you confident that you’re maintaining or gaining agent share in the U.S.?

Glenn Sanford: Percentage agent share for sure, actual agent count is pretty flat the last — the end of Q4 and the beginning of Q1 in North America. I haven’t verified the numbers yet. But I’ve heard that they are roster-dropped quite considerably since the beginning of the year. And — but we — so, we feel that our percentage share of the market continues to increase even if our numbers are flattish, slightly up, slightly down from flat at the moment. So, we’ve got, I think December, we were down a few agents; January, maybe the same; February, I think we might be up, but we haven’t got into the numbers super detail, but it’s very flat for the most part. And the churn, as we’ve talked about in the past, four times the zero to two agent transaction range agents, four times as many of those agents are churning out as the agents who are icon top producers.