Bright Horizons Family Solutions Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Bright Horizons Family Solutions EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.77
• Consensus EPS: $0.63
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.14
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.51

Bright Horizons Family Solutions Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $665.53 million
• Expected Revenue: $664.34 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$1.19 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +6.90%

Bright Horizons Family Solutions Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/5/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Monday, May 5, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE:BFAM) provides early education and childcare, back-up care, educational advisory, and other workplace solutions services for employers and families in the United States, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, and India. The company operates in three segments: Full Service Center-Based Child Care, Back-Up Care, and Educational Advisory and Other Services. The Full Service Center-Based Child Care segment offers traditional center-based child care and early education, preschool, and elementary education services. The Back-Up Care segment provides center-based back-up child care, in-home child and adult/elder dependent care, school-age camps, virtual tutoring, and self-sourced reimbursed care services through child care centers, school-age campuses, and in-home caregivers, as well as the back-up care network. The Educational Advisory and Other Services segment offers tuition assistance and student loan repayment program administration, workforce education, and related educational consulting services, as well as college admissions and college financial advisory services. The company was formerly known as Bright Horizons Solutions Corp. and changed its name to Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. in July 2012. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Bright Horizons reported 7% revenue growth to $666 million and 51% adjusted EPS growth to $0.77 in Q1 2025.
• Full-service child care revenue rose 6% to $511 million with operating margins expanding 210 basis points to 6.5%, driven by six new center openings, 4–5% tuition increases and mid-60s occupancy.
• Backup care revenue grew 12% to $129 million with 95% client retention and strong early summer bookings, prompting an upward revision to 12–14% growth guidance for 2025.
• Education advisory delivered 8% revenue growth to $26 million and a 10% operating margin, supported by new client wins and ongoing long-term investments.
• The company raised 2025 revenue guidance to 6.5%–8.5% growth (reflecting favorable FX) and reaffirmed adjusted EPS guidance of $3.95–$4.15.

Presentation

[Operator]

Greetings.

[Operator]

Welcome to Bright Horizons Family Solutions First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Release Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Michael Flanagan, Vice President, Investor Relations for the Bright Horizons Family Solutions.

[Operator]

Thank you. You may begin.

[Michael Flanagan, Vice President, Investor Relations at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thank you, Cherry, and welcome to Bright Horizons first quarter earnings call. Before we begin, please note that today's call is being webcast. A recording will be available under the Investor Relations section of our website, investors.brighthorizons.com. As a reminder to participants, any forward looking statements made on this call, including those regarding future business, financial performance and outlook, are subject to the Safe Harbor statement included in our earnings release. Forward looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual operating and financial results to differ materially and should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements that are described in detail in our earnings release, our 2024 Form 10 ks and other SEC filings.

[Michael Flanagan, Vice President, Investor Relations at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Any forward looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and we undertake no obligation to update any forward looking statements. Today we also refer to non GAAP financial measures which are detailed and reconciled to the GAAP counterparts in our earnings release, which is available under the IR section of our website at investors.brighthorizons.com. Joining me on today's call is our Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Kramer, and our Chief Financial Officer, Elizabeth Bolan. Stephen will start by reviewing our results and provide an update on the business. Elizabeth will then follow with a more detailed review of the numbers before we open it up to your questions.

[Michael Flanagan, Vice President, Investor Relations at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

So with that, let me turn the call over to Steven.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thanks Mike, and good evening to everyone on the call. We are pleased to report a strong start to 2025 with revenue growth in line and earnings growth well ahead of our expectations. These results reflect the successful execution of our strategy across all segments. From growing enrollment and expanding our backup business to efficient service delivery, I am encouraged by our continued progress and remain confident in our ability to effectively serve the working families and employer clients that count on us each and every day. So to get into some of the specifics, revenue in the quarter increased 7% to $666,000,000 and adjusted EPS grew 51% to $0.77 per share.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

At a segment level, our full service child care business grew 6% to $511,000,000 and operating margins expanded two ten basis points to 6.5%. We added six centers in the first quarter, '4 of which were client sponsored, including centers for Royal Caribbean and Arthrex. Overall tuition increases average 4% to 5% and enrollment in centers open more than one year increased at a low single digit rate, with average occupancy percentage in the mid 60s, a sequential step up from the fourth quarter. In terms of enrollment trends in The US, we have continued to see encouraging enrollment dynamics in certain underperforming centers located in business districts, where return to office policies have been gaining traction. At the same time, we have also seen a somewhat slower velocity in the pace of commitments across some other US markets, as families consider longer term spending decisions, including for childcare in the context of ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

In response, we are sharpening our focus, working to create urgency, improve follow-up, and streamlining the path from inquiry to enrollment, all while reinforcing the value and quality of our services. Even considering this current dynamic, we remain confident in the opportunity to drive continued margin improvement through enrollment growth and maintaining price to cost differential and operating discipline. Outside The US, The UK continues to demonstrate strong progress on enrollment and margin recovery. In addition to steady enrollment growth, we have made meaningful improvements in recruiting and staff retention. As a result, we continue to see a clear path to earnings breakeven in The UK in 2025.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Let me now turn to backup care. Revenue increased 12% to 129,000,000, which was in line with our expectations. Traditional use remains strong across all network types in the first quarter. In addition, early reservations for school age programs during the peak summer months are quite encouraging. Likewise, employers continue to prioritize family support benefits.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

We started the year strong with 95% client retention and many new client launches, including the University of Michigan, Sherwin Williams and LabCorp among others. With our growing client base and increasing engagement among eligible employees, we remain on track to achieve our 2025 objectives. Our education advisory business grew 8% this past quarter to $26,000,000 ahead of our expectations. We saw encouraging growth in participant engagement within our Edisys service and CollegeCo to continue to deliver solid operating performance. We also added new clients to the portfolio, including Tower Health and Tiffany's.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

As we have shared over the last several quarters, this is a segment where we are investing with a long term view, and we remain confident that these investments will drive meaningful value over time. Before I wrap up, I want to share some highlights from our recent annual senior leadership forum, an event that brings together our top 100 leaders from across the globe to collaborate on longer term growth strategies. A key area of focus at this year's forum continued to be our One Bright Horizon strategy, focused on extending the value and impact of our offerings at the client and user level. For existing clients, we continue to develop initiatives to gain expanded adoption of our broad suite of services. In the first quarter, we drove several examples.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Current backup client Phillips sixty six expanded their services to include Ezys. Similarly, current College Coach client Vertex and current full service client Aflac both added backup care to their portfolio. These results underscore the value of our increasingly integrated offering and the strength of our strategy to drive deeper, more enduring partnerships with the employers, family and learners we serve. So to close, I am proud of the team's execution in Q1 and their continued dedication to delivering outstanding education and care. We remain confident in our long term strategy and are encouraged by the results we are delivering.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

We are raising our revenue growth guidance to a range of 6.5% to 8.5%, largely reflecting the recent changes in foreign exchange rates, while reaffirming our adjusted EPS in the range of $3.95 to $4.15 With that, I'll turn the call over to Elizabeth, who'll dive into the quarterly numbers and share more details around our outlook.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thank you, Stephen, and thanks to everyone for joining the call tonight. To recap, the first quarter overall revenue increased 7% to $666,000,000 Adjusted operating income of $62,000,000 or 9.4 percent of revenue increased 56% over Q1 of twenty twenty four, while adjusted EBITDA of $92,000,000 or 13.9% of revenue increased 23% over the prior year. We ended the quarter with ten twenty three centers with six additions and two closures in the first quarter. To break this down a bit further, our full service revenue of $511,000,000 was up 6% in Q1 on pricing increases and low single digit enrollment growth, offset by just under 100 basis points of FX headwinds. Enrollment in our centers open for more than one year increased low single digits across the portfolio.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

As Stephen mentioned, occupancy levels averaged in the mid-60s for Q1, stepping up from the prior year, as well as sequentially from last quarter, given the typical enrollment seasonality. In the center cohorts we have discussed on prior calls, we continued to see improvement across the center cohorts over the prior year period. Our top performing cohort, defined as above 70% occupancy, improved from 44% of these centers in Q1 of twenty four to 47% of centers in Q1 of twenty twenty five. As a reminder, this cohort continues to sustain strong average occupancy levels, in fact above 80%, which inherently limits the additional enrollment expansion opportunity. Conversely, in our middle and bottom groups, defined as 40 to 70% enrolled and below 40% enrolled respectively, the enrollment has increased at a mid single digit rate in the first quarter.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Q1, centers in the middle cohort now represent 40% of the total of that portfolio and the bottom cohort represents 13% of these centers. Adjusted operating income of $33,000,000 in the full service segment increased $12,000,000 over the prior year and represents 6.5% of revenue in the quarter. Higher enrollment and improved operating leverage, notably in our UK and US operations, helped drive the growth in earnings. Turning to backup care, revenue grew 12% in the first quarter to $129,000,000 with adjusted operating income at 21% of revenue or $26,000,000 Lastly, educational advisory revenue increased 8% to $26,000,000 and delivered operating margin of 10%. Operating margins were consistent with the prior year, reflecting the ongoing investments that we are making in the product suite and customer experience.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Turning to a couple of other items on the P and L, interest expense decreased $3,000,000 to $10,000,000 in Q1, largely due to lower overall borrowings and the incremental interest income that we earn on invested cash. The structural effective tax rate on adjusted net income was 27.5%, consistent with Q1 of twenty four. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow, we generated $86,000,000 in cash from operations in the first quarter. We made fixed asset investments of 15,000,000 and repurchased $20,000,000 of stock in the quarter. We ended Q1 with $112,000,000 of cash and reduced our leverage ratio to 1.8 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Now I'll turn to our 2025 outlook. In terms of the top line, we are modestly raising the midpoint of our reported revenue outlook by $15,000,000 to a range of $2,865,000,000 to $2,915,000,000 This updated revenue range reflects a roughly $30,000,000 favorable change in FX as compared to our original guidance, partially offset by roughly $15,000,000 which largely reflects our more conservative assumption around the pace of enrollments over the remainder of the year. This results in a projected reported and constant currency revenue growth rate of 6.5% to 8.5%. Breaking that down a bit further at the segment level, in full service, we now expect revenue and, sorry, reported and constant currency revenue for the year to grow in the range of 5% to 7%. In backup care we now expect reported revenue to increase 12% to 14%, up 100 basis points from our prior outlook.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And in Ed Advisory, we continue to expect to grow in the low to mid single digits. In terms of earnings, as Stephen previewed, we continue to expect 2025 adjusted EPS to be in the range of $3.95 to $4.15 a share. As we look specifically to Q2, our outlook is for top line of $720,000,000 to $730,000,000 or growth in the range of 7.5% to 9% on a reported basis. This reflects roughly 100 basis points of tailwind from FX over the prior year. We expect full service to grow reported revenue 6% to 7%, or 5% to 6% in constant currency.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

We also expect backup to grow 13% to 15% and Ed advisory to grow in the mid single digits. In terms of earnings per share, we expect Q2 adjusted EPS to be in the range of $0.99 to $1.04 And so with that, Sherry, we are ready to go to Q and A.

[Operator]

Thank Our first question is from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

[Andrew Steinerman, Equity Research Analyst - Business & Info Services at JP Morgan]

Hi. Focusing on the mid-60s utilization for full service in the first quarter, could you just give us a sense of how you think that will go through the year? I know there's seasonality, particularly in the summer. And then also talk to us about your journey to eventually get back to pre COVID levels.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Sure. Thanks, Andrew. So the reported enrollment utilization in the first quarter, we would expect it to step up a bit in the second quarter as we continue to sort of crest the enrollment seasonality in Q2. So it would improve a bit in Q2 and then taper in the second half of the year, but averaging roughly in the same reported where we are in Q1 for the full year. So, that mid-60s would be the trend up in Q2 and then tapering back into Q3 and relatively flat Q4.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

As it relates to continued progress to the sort of pre COVID utilization levels, at this pace, we're talking, you know, a couple two to three percent or so of enrollment growth for the year. And so at that pace, I think we will have better insight next year as we continue to play out this year. But it would be at that pace, we'd be taking another couple years to fully get back to a pre COVID overall seventy percent threshold. And I think that the components of that are both growing enrollments in the cohorts that we have and continuing to pair the underperformers that just are not ultimately recovering.

[Andrew Steinerman, Equity Research Analyst - Business & Info Services at JP Morgan]

Well said, thank you.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Our next question is from George Tong with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

[George Tong, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Hi, thanks. Good afternoon. You talked about seeing a little bit of a slower velocity and commitments in some of your markets given macro uncertainty. Can you talk a little bit more about that and whether some of those changes could be structural in nature or if they're purely cyclical?

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thanks for the question, George. So I think first we would start that by saying we think that those are more in line with cyclical. We don't see a structural change. At the end of the day, when we think about childcare and working families think about childcare, they really don't think about it in the sense of being a sort of discretionary item in the way that you might see vacations or other kinds of purchases. And so with that in mind, our existing families continue to persist really well within our centers.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And so we're seeing good retention. And it's really on the new family side that in certain pockets here in The US, we are seeing some families choose to push out their start dates, perhaps some taking a little bit longer to commit. But overall, as we suggested in the guidance, it's really around the edges. We're still seeing enrollment growth. It's really just not as at the velocity that we had originally thought.

[George Tong, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Got it. That's helpful. And then as a follow-up, in your bottom cohort of enrollment centers, so those with less than 40% occupancy, are you taking any initiatives that are different from before in addressing those lower occupancy rates? Or is it a similar playbook to earlier quarters?

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Yeah, I mean, we are still approaching it in the same way, George. So we continue to be very disciplined about looking at centers, trying to think about their lease end dates, thinking about other actions that we can take. But ultimately, continue to try to improve. And as we shared in the prepared remarks this quarter and last quarter, that discipline is starting to pay off, especially in places that were returned to office dependent. And so again, those would have been potentially actions that we could have taken last year, decided to take a more patient approach.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And as those centers have started to come back, I think, again, it sort of reaffirms that we're making really good decisions in terms of making that bottom cohort try to work and once it can't ultimately pairing those over time.

[George Tong, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our

[Operator]

next question is from Manvik Patnaik with Barclays. Please proceed.

[Princy Thomas, Analyst at Barclays Capital]

Hi, this is Princie Thomas on for Mana. Thanks for taking my question. Saw that the full center margins were roughly 7% in 1Q. Wanted to just ask you what the sustainability around that looks like and what are your segment margin expectations for 2Q?

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Yeah, thanks, Princie. So we were about 6.5% in the quarter and up just over 200 basis points from the first quarter of last year. So pleased with that progress. I think that the view as we look out for the rest of the year is that with the contribution, particularly from our UK business to the first quarter, where the improvement there was measurable, we're also starting to comp against more challenging, and they're not challenging. The UK had good improvement last year the full over the course of the year.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And so we're just lapping some of that effect. So we would expect the overall for the year that we'd be up maybe 125 basis points for 2025 in total. So that two ten or so basis points in Q1 would taper some as we lap some of those effects from last year and also just with the slightly pulled back expectation around enrollment 50 basis points or so.

[Princy Thomas, Analyst at Barclays Capital]

Got it. And could you just help us quantify how much of a drag The UK was in Q1? I know that you mentioned that you see a clear breakeven point for this year. And also, what is your net new center openings outlook?

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Sure. So a couple of questions in there. So The UK, as we are trying to convey a couple of positive things and also temper that with the fact that The UK is not at the same level of performance yet as The US. So there is a headwind there in the neighborhood of 100 basis points or so on the full service margins coming from The UK business, even though it's contributing. We do see a pathway to it breaking even this year, and that will be certainly a good threshold, but we will continue to make progress then in 2026 on beyond that.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And so overall, The UK is contributing to the improvement, but it's still a headwind to the overall reported margin performance. As it relates to openings, we are still looking at net plusminus neutral openings. Call it 25 center openings and plusminus 25 closures for the year. And so we would expect the unit growth to be neutral, even though the, you know, when a new center opens, the timing of that and the timing of the closings can have, you know, not an exact revenue offset for those two components.

[Princy Thomas, Analyst at Barclays Capital]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our

[Operator]

next question is from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Please proceed.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

Good afternoon. Thank you.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

Wanted first is just a follow-up question, and maybe I just misheard. So was the original assumption kind of low single digits, so call it 2% to 3% enrollment growth for the year? And then what is the new underlying assumption?

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

The original assumption was about 2.5% to 3.5%. And now we've drawn that back to 2% to 3%, so about 50 basis points of trim on that.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

Okay, great. No, I appreciate it. And then, as you noted, where you're starting to see a bit of a macro uncertainty driving a reduction in that kind of new enrollment, Is there you kind of called out that you would be kind of sharpening your pencils and kind of doubling down on how to address that. Could you kind of remind us what the playbook would be in a slightly weaker macro environment to continue to drive healthy enrollment growth? Thank you.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Sure. So I mean, I think that in a healthy macro environment as well as a less healthy, I think our playbook is quite similar, actually. We really are looking first and foremost to make sure that we're able to differentiate the quality of a Bright Horizons experience for a child and family as compared to other options in the community or at the work site. So first and foremost, making sure that we're able to articulate the value, and then making sure that that experience from initial inquiry all the way down through the start date is a flawless one. And so making sure that each step of the way, that family feels well accommodated, is having their questions answered and making sure that we're really focusing on making sure they have a great experience while they're in the pipeline for enrollment, all the way through ensuring that we continue to retain families because of that great experience that they're having.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

So again, in all kinds of environments, our playbook is the same, and we feel like we continue to refine that over time. But ultimately, that's the focus.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

And is there anything in terms of a discounting or promotional schedule that might be pulled out in this environment to also kind of attract new customers? I don't know if that's any kind of what that could be, but anything from a discounting or promotional standpoint that we could see as well in this environment? Thank you.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Absolutely. So we tend not to do broad scale promotions at retail, if you will. That said, as we shared in the prepared remarks, we are spending a lot of time and effort thinking about how we can cross pollinate across our services and really taking this One Bright Horizons approach down to the user level. And so you might see, for example, if you were an employee of one of our clients, you might see special incentives to help you to move from, let's say, being a backup customer to becoming a full service customer. So that I think is something that we are doing and testing in order to really try to effectuate that strategy at the consumer level and bring value to our clients and at the same time, making sure that we are getting the maximum value from those who we serve.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Toni Kaplan with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

[Toni Kaplan, Executive Director, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Thanks so much. Steven, I was wondering if you could help us out with maybe the what you're seeing as the rationale for the slower enrollment trends within the industry. And it's not just that BFM, it seems to be more industry wide. Do you think that there's a pricing element to it? Like, you've gone through a couple of years of above trend pricing and now, like some consumers might be being priced out.

[Toni Kaplan, Executive Director, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Just wanted to understand if you think that's reasonable or if you think there are other factors that really don't have anything to do with pricing.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Sure. So I mean, pricing is something that we always are focused on and want to make sure that families are seeing value for money. And I'm sure that everyone within the sector is looking to accomplish that regardless of sort of the quality level at which they sit. What I would say is that, again, there is a little bit of an after effect, right, from COVID, where there are certain families, especially with older children, who had never invested in childcare because they ultimately were at home, they were staying at home with their children, and ultimately didn't have that experience, nor did they have that cost as part of their sort of family budget. I think in addition to that, as we think about where we are and looking forward, there are families that may feel uncertainty in their own sort of job situation, in which case if they haven't started in formal care, they may want to feel more secure before they ultimately step up and start making that investment.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

But look, I think the best indicator is what we're seeing on the existing family side, which is really good retention. So it's not like people who are involved in our care are making different decisions than they had made in the past. Those folks who understand the value of what we're delivering continue to have both parents employed continue to persist with that care. And so it's really trying to adjudicate what's happening for new families as opposed to for those families that have already made that selection, have already gotten involved with a Bright Horizons experience.

[Toni Kaplan, Executive Director, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Makes sense. And then Elizabeth, really good margins on the backup care side this quarter as well. I know the question was asked already on full service sustainability, but wanted to ask your thoughts on sort of the real drivers for why the 1Q margins were so good and backup care, they tend to usually be the low point in 1Q and any timing elements or things like that? Because I did notice you didn't raise the guide for the year, and maybe that's uncertainty, but just wanted to get thoughts there. Thanks.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Yeah, I think our thanks for the question. The performance in the quarter is really down to the mix of the type of use we're providing and what we can deliver in center care versus other components. And so we have had good cost management, good pricing on the provider network that we have. And so we've been able to sustain a little bit better margin performance in Q1. Nothing unusual in the quarter.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

For the full year, I think the view there is as we look at the mix of where use will come as we get into the high season of use, we do have a variety of partners in our network. And so we're looking at a mix that's very similar to how we have been able to perform in the past. So that's why we've, I think, sustained the margins in a similar range to where we've been able to keep them the last couple of years. It's very much a use driven business, and we want to have choice, and we want to have the matching of the services across both The US and The UK where we're providing care. So it's quite a complex algorithm.

[Toni Kaplan, Executive Director, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Thank you.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Jeff Muller with Baird. Please proceed.

[Jeffrey Meuler, Analyst at Robert W. Baird]

Yeah, thank you. As Tony mentioned, you're not the only one in the industry seeing a slower intake right now. But from the experience and your data, does the weakness appear noticeably more pronounced at employer sponsors that are maybe being more directly impacted by tariffs and trade war risk or federal government agency layoffs? Or does it just look fairly broad across industries and geographies?

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Yeah, Jeff, we are not seeing that at our client supported centers in particular. So I would say, first and foremost, no. We're not seeing a degradation from the perspective of our client centers. So I would say that when we think about where that is, ultimately, in the lower and middle cohort, we continue to grow at a mid single digit rate. And it's actually the highest enrolled, the above 70%, where, again, one of the facets of that is those are in our world structurally full, right?

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Once you get past 80% occupied, we think of those as relatively full. And therefore, it's really the cycling of those who are leaving and then trying to have sort of an equal amount of backfill. But it's obviously more difficult to create that perfect match in timing at a more full center. And so some of the friction that happens in the more full centers is part of algorithm here. But in terms of clients and tariffs and things like that, that is certainly not what the data is showing us.

[Jeffrey Meuler, Analyst at Robert W. Baird]

Okay, and then the, I guess earnings growth well ahead of guidance on in line revenue yet largely holding the full year adjusted for FX. Was there any specific timing factor that drove that upside in Q1? Or is there something that specifically doesn't repeat? Or is it just a hold for, I guess, the macro uncertainty or the full service enrollment intake trends or something like that?

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Well, the way I'd characterize it, Jeff, is not that the performance doesn't hold. But as an example, much of the close to half the performance outperformance came from better than we had expected performance in our full service business in The UK. And that is coming from solid enrollment, continued good both cost management, labor management, and effective protocols on recruiting retention there. And we're now getting to a place where we're lapping the effect in The UK had introduced expanded funding to parents as of April first of last year. And so that contributed to some of the enrollment velocity.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

So enrollment is very strong. It's been strong the last few quarters, and it will continue to be solid through the rest of the year, but not quite as much velocity as we saw in Q1 in the last couple of quarters. So that's beginning to bake itself through the comparisons. And, know, I think from an overall performance standpoint, we just have stronger performance in the first half than the second half, and we'll be lapping the strong, the rest of the overall performance in UK. So that's, it's not worse performance as much as it is just where we will be comping and what we're growing off of in terms of the base.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

The rest of the backup, I think I mentioned before, had really solid usage and effective cost management service delivery and a good portion of that use in our own network and being able to manage those components and it was somewhat favorable to our outlook. So those were drivers there. I think the forward view is certainly reflective of what I just said and then wanting to take into account that the environment is certainly still settling and uncertain from a macro economic standpoint. And in backup in particular, we have a disproportionate amount of the business that comes over the course of the late spring and summer period, and that is still to be delivered.

[Jeffrey Meuler, Analyst at Robert W. Baird]

Got it. Thank you.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Josh Chan with UBS. Please proceed.

[Josh Chan, Executive Director - Equity Research Analyst at UBS Group]

Hi, good afternoon, Steven and Elizabeth. On back of care, hi. You gave a very strong guidance for the second quarter for backup care. Just wondering what you saw in terms of Q1 usage that kind of gives you that conviction of that strong growth in the second quarter? Thanks.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

So we look to estimate, we've got a very wide client base. We look to estimate where the use patterns will be for the year and the way that use persists through the year end cycle. Many of our clients do cycle into a new calendar year arrangement. So we see sometimes we see use cycling in the same way for those users. So the fact that we have good insight into those who are repeat users, those who are unique users, and the variety of use cases that we're seeing taken up is one indicator.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And then as we look to the summer bookings, we do have with the camp programs that we operate both for our own account with Stephen Kate's camps and also through our third party providers, we have insight into early bookings for summer camp, is solid as well. So that's some of the components that give us the sort of conviction on use continuing to be strong and at the upper end, it allowed us to step that guidance up slightly for the year.

[Josh Chan, Executive Director - Equity Research Analyst at UBS Group]

Excellent. That's good to hear. And on the full service enrollment dynamic that you talked about, you mentioned mainly a slower decision making process, but I'm wondering if you're seeing prospective visits also decline because I guess if if the macro is the concern, you may expect to see that phenomenon as well.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Yeah. So we actually the metric that we watch really carefully, Josh, is actual visits.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Right? So it's one thing to make an inquiry, it's another thing to schedule a visit, but where the rubber generally meets the road for us is when a family actually comes and visits. And at that statistic, again, we are looking reasonably strong as it relates to that forward look. So when we think about where in the pipe, we're really focused on making sure that we're getting real precision. It's getting people not only to get to yes, which is confirming their interest, but it also is ensuring that they start.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And so we have seen some families make the decision to delay that start date. And so we're working really hard to make sure that we continue to keep those start dates as close to their original anticipation as possible. But again, back to your point, I would say that visits for us is a really critical metric that we watch and feel good about where that's coming in.

[Josh Chan, Executive Director - Equity Research Analyst at UBS Group]

Thanks for the time and the insights.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thank you.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Faiza Alwai with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

[Faiza Alwy, Managing Director, US Company Research at Deutsche Bank]

Yes, hi, thank you. I wanted to ask a bit more about the One Bright Horizon strategy that you mentioned. I think you said some of your clients that were full service client had also added on to the backup program. So I'm curious if you could help us with just the long term opportunity here, And maybe how many of your clients are full service clients where they don't have a backup arrangement with you? Sort of just frame that opportunity for us.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Sure. So if we think about our full client base, we enjoy partnership with more than 1,400 employer clients. And only a third of those clients buy more than one service. And for those that buy more than one, they typically are buying two. And so as we think about One Bright Horizons, we're really trying to first and foremost educate our client base around the opportunities to invest in more than one service.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And then at the same time, we're trying to find ways to make a much more seamless experience between our different service lines to allow both employers to see the benefit of buying from a single provider. And then at the same time, make it much easier for an end user to work seamlessly across our different services. And so ultimately, we see great opportunity in moving our client base to add more services. And then at the same time, working with what we know about the end users to have them cross pollinate across services as well. So again, we really look at 1BH as an opportunity to really go in multiple directions, not just our childcare center clients become backup clients, but our backup clients become college coach clients, our college coach clients become Edicist clients, etcetera.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And likewise, have our US multinational clients become clients of ours in The UK. So it's both across services and across geographies that we are focused.

[Faiza Alwy, Managing Director, US Company Research at Deutsche Bank]

Thank you for that. And then just to follow-up on the guidance, just around Jeff's line of questioning. You did beat the guide quite significantly in terms of EPS, and just want to ask again, is the maintenance of the guide just out of an abundance of caution, or, you know, is there something that you're seeing in the business? Because you do also have, you know, more of a favorable FX environment now than you did, you know, a couple months ago. So, just help us a little bit more with just your approach to guidance.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Yeah, so I mean, I can start and I think just hitting the FX question initially, I think the key thing to consider, it does have a lot of impact on the top line because of the elements of where we are operating, particularly in The UK. But as we've mentioned, that business is not contributing in a significant way. So the movement in the FX is not really contributing. It's at the margin a little bit, but it's not really contributing to upside even as we're revising the top line because of the movement. So just wanted to maybe put that out first.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

As it relates to the rest of the earnings, I think our view is that we have an environment where the business has become more seasonal, cyclical, particularly the back of business, and we have ambitious goals for that business to deliver over the course of the summer. We've started off the year with some good momentum, but it is the sort of smallest contributing quarter and backup for the full year and therefore a lot of road to get down to deliver on that performance. So maintaining a reasonable posture against that so that we can perform against it in an environment that is, we're not hearing many changes with clients, but certainly client conversations can occur at any time of the year. And if there are questions or concerns, we'd want to be able to pivot and adjust to those. So I think that the enrollment cycle is also one that we've said we've tapered that a little bit, and it has a modest effect on where the earnings would contribute there.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

But the positive performance in backup offsets that performance in full service, and that's what leads us to a a pretty consistent view on what we would guide to for the rest of the year.

[Faiza Alwy, Managing Director, US Company Research at Deutsche Bank]

Great, thank you very much.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our final question is from Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed.

[Jeffrey Silber, Senior Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Thanks so much for squeezing me in. I wanted to focus on the cost side of the equation, specifically on the labor environment. Can you talk about what you're seeing there in terms of your ability to find staff and wage inflation trends, etcetera?

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Sure. Happy to, Jeff. So I think that we are in quite a different place than we have been over the last several years. We feel good about where we are in terms of wage relative to the market and then relative to other options that teachers within our classrooms might otherwise choose. So we feel good about where our wages are.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

We feel wage inflation continues to persist at the rates that we talk about and are well prepared to continue to be sort of a percent ahead of that as it relates to tuitions. And then finally, in terms of actual ability to attract staff, would say that the combination of being able to retain at least as well as we were in 2019 is a great accomplishment for us to be at. And so we feel good about our retention. And therefore, the pressure on recruiting is quite a bit less than it has been, because again, as we have fewer people leaving, the need to add staff also is diminished. So overall, feel like we are in a good spot as it relates to being able to attract and retain staff, and feel good about where our wages are relative to the market.

[Jeffrey Silber, Senior Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

All right, great. And if I could shift gears to capital allocation, I noted that accelerated some of your debt pay down and continue to buy back stock. I think you're at the lowest leverage ratios that we've seen in a while. Can you just talk about your capital allocation philosophy? Why specifically did you make those two moves?

[Jeffrey Silber, Senior Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

What you're looking to do going forward? Thanks.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Sure. Thanks, Jeff. We have been active in our repurchase program now the last couple of quarters, and so see that as an opportunity for us to deploy some capital return to shareholders in a way that is both measurable and also flexible for us. Measurable meaning it's a meaningful return, but also one that we can be flexible about when we see opportunities on the near or longer term horizon for alternative investments. Our first priority is to invest in the business and that can be in M and A and it can be in new centers, it can be in other businesses, the other businesses besides centers is what I mean in terms of technology and driving customer acquisition, etcetera.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

So those investments can take many forms and we are investing in the business and growing, but we all have a long arc of that vision and we generate a lot of cash. So we are trying to maintain both the flexible posture on our debt, we have balancing out the cost of interest and the ability to access the credit markets, we were able do some additional things in the market to give us the flexibility that we need and upsizing the revolver gives us a bit more capacity, gives us with the pay down, we have all the access to debt that we need. So I think our view is that we will continue to be opportunistic in the share repurchase program. We have an authorization available to us and support from the board on that. And we will also continue to look, first and foremost, growth investments that we can make.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

And that's where we see the best opportunity going forward.

[Jeffrey Silber, Senior Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

All right. Thanks so

[Jeffrey Silber, Senior Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

much for the color.

[Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Sure. Excellent. Well, thank you very much for joining the call. I really appreciate the continued interest and support.

[Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer at Bright Horizons Family Solutions]

Thanks, everybody. Talk to you soon.

[Operator]

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Michael Flanagan, Vice President, Investor Relations
• Stephen Kramer, CEO, President & Director
• Elizabeth Boland, Chief Financial Officer

Analysts

• Andrew Steinerman, Equity Research Analyst - Business & Info Services at JP Morgan
• George Tong, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
• Princy Thomas, Analyst at Barclays Capital
• Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies
• Toni Kaplan, Executive Director, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley
• Jeffrey Meuler, Analyst at Robert W. Baird
• Josh Chan, Executive Director - Equity Research Analyst at UBS Group
• Faiza Alwy, Managing Director, US Company Research at Deutsche Bank
• Jeffrey Silber, Senior Analyst at BMO Capital Markets