Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh Q3 2026 của AppFolio (APPF): Doanh thu tăng 19%, nâng dự báo triển vọng

Điểm tin chính

• AppFolio đã công bố doanh thu quý 3/2026 đạt 296 triệu USD, tăng 19% so với cùng kỳ năm trước, nhờ doanh thu dịch vụ đăng ký và dịch vụ giá trị gia tăng lần lượt tăng 14% và 21%.
• Lợi nhuận hoạt động theo GAAP tăng 64% lên 57 triệu USD, tương ứng với biên lợi nhuận 19,4%. Lợi nhuận hoạt động phi GAAP tăng 38% lên 81 triệu USD, chiếm 27,3% doanh thu.
• Số lượng đơn vị quản lý trên nền tảng đạt 9,8 triệu, tăng 8%, trong khi số lượng khách hàng tăng 6% lên 23.121. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết việc thu hút và giữ chân đơn vị khách hàng mới vẫn duy trì tích cực, nhưng mức mở rộng đơn vị từ khách hàng hiện tại chậm hơn so với năm ngoái.
• Dòng tiền từ hoạt động kinh doanh đạt tổng cộng 97 triệu USD. Kết thúc quý, AppFolio sở hữu 307 triệu USD tiền mặt, các khoản tương đương tiền và chứng khoán đầu tư ngắn hạn.
• Ban lãnh đạo đã nâng dự báo doanh thu cả năm 2026 lên mức 1,122 tỷ - 1,127 tỷ USD và dự báo biên lợi nhuận hoạt động phi GAAP đạt 26,5%-27,5%.
• Theo ban lãnh đạo, các sản phẩm liên quan đến AI, bao gồm Realm-X và Performers, đang đóng góp nhiều hơn vào doanh thu dịch vụ giá trị gia tăng, đồng thời cải thiện năng suất kỹ thuật nội bộ và hiệu quả hoạt động.

Dữ liệu tài chính chính

Kết quả kinh doanh và hoạt động

Dịch vụ giá trị gia tăng tiếp tục là động lực tăng trưởng chính của AppFolio. Dịch vụ giảm thiểu rủi ro FolioGuard, FolioScreen và thanh toán trực tuyến dẫn dắt mức tăng trưởng 21% của phân khúc này. Resident Onboarding Lift, Resident Concierge và Realm-X Performers cũng gia tăng đóng góp.

Tăng trưởng dịch vụ đăng ký phản ánh việc thu hút khách hàng mới, gia tăng đơn vị quản lý và nâng cấp lên các gói cao cấp. AppFolio cho biết khách hàng mới và khách hàng gia hạn tiếp tục ký hợp đồng nhiều năm, giúp mở rộng cơ sở doanh thu đăng ký theo hợp đồng.

AI đang ngày càng được tích hợp sâu rộng trên toàn nền tảng. Ban lãnh đạo nhấn mạnh đến Realm-X, Maintenance Performer, Resident Messenger Performer, Accounting Performer và Leasing Performer. Khách hàng sử dụng bản Beta cho biết Resident Messenger Performer đã xử lý hơn 30% cuộc trò chuyện mà không cần chuyển cấp xử lý, trong khi Accounting Performer tiết kiệm trung bình 17 giờ mỗi tháng. Leasing Performer giúp tăng lượt dẫn khách xem nhà lên tới 35%.

Chợ ứng dụng tích hợp AppFolio Stack hiện kết nối 5,6 triệu đơn vị quản lý với gần 100 đối tác. Ban lãnh đạo cũng nhấn mạnh các tính năng tích hợp ngân hàng được thiết kế để tự động hóa đối soát giao dịch và hỗ trợ quy trình khóa sổ tài chính tự động hơn.

Giá vốn hàng bán phi GAAP giảm xuống 35% doanh thu từ mức 36%. Chi phí R&D giảm xuống 15% từ 18%, và chi phí G&A giảm xuống 6% từ 8%, nhờ lợi thế quy mô, chi phí nhân sự thấp hơn và năng suất nhờ ứng dụng AI. Chi phí bán hàng và tiếp thị tăng lên 15% từ 13% do mở rộng năng lực bán hàng, tăng chi tiêu cho quảng cáo, khuyến mại và thời điểm tổ chức hội nghị FUTURE.

Dự báo của ban lãnh đạo

Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng việc thu hút và giữ chân khách hàng mới trong quý 4 tiếp tục duy trì tích cực. Mức mở rộng đơn vị từ khách hàng hiện tại dự kiến vẫn thấp hơn so với cùng kỳ năm trước và tương đương với quý 3/2026.

Tính chất mùa vụ của dịch vụ đăng ký và dịch vụ giá trị gia tăng dự kiến duy trì nhất quán với năm 2025. Ban lãnh đạo dự báo chi phí hoạt động tính theo tỷ lệ phần trăm doanh thu cả năm sẽ giảm nhẹ khi công ty mở rộng quy mô và ứng dụng AI nội bộ. Giá vốn hàng bán, không bao gồm khấu hao và phân bổ, dự kiến sẽ giữ ở mức tương đối ổn định tính theo tỷ lệ phần trăm doanh thu so với năm 2025.

Rủi ro và điểm cần theo dõi

• Mức mở rộng đơn vị từ khách hàng hiện tại đang chậm hơn tốc độ năm ngoái, và ban lãnh đạo dự kiến xu hướng này sẽ tiếp diễn trong quý 4.
• Quý 4/2025 bao gồm doanh thu phát sinh một lần từ quan hệ đối tác Stack mà ban lãnh đạo dự kiến sẽ không lặp lại, tạo ra mức so sánh thách thức hơn cho doanh thu khác.
• Cơ cấu sản phẩm thanh toán và việc bổ sung công suất trung tâm dữ liệu cho Realm-X cùng Performers đã bù trừ một phần hiệu quả chi phí giá vốn hàng bán trong quý 3.
• Việc so sánh biên lợi nhuận so với cùng kỳ năm trước được hưởng lợi nhờ không phát sinh khoản dồn tích tiền thưởng doanh nghiệp bổ sung như quý 3/2025. Ngược lại, hội nghị FUTURE diễn ra vào quý 3/2026 thay vì quý 4, khiến các chi phí liên quan chuyển sang thời điểm sớm hơn.

Toàn văn biên bản cuộc họp kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Good afternoon. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to AppFolio, Inc.'s Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded, and the replay will be available on AppFolio's Investor Relations website.

I would now like to hand the conference over to Lori Barker, Investor Relations.

Lori Barker

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Lori Barker, Investor Relations for AppFolio, and we thank you for joining us today as we report AppFolio's Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results. With me on the call today are Shane Trigg, AppFolio's Chairman and CEO; and Tim Eaton, AppFolio's CFO.

This call is being simultaneously webcast on the Investor Relations section of our website at appfolioinc.com. Additionally, an audio replay of the call and a transcript of the prepared comments will be posted to the website.

Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone of AppFolio's safe harbor policy. Comments made during this conference call and webcast contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Any statement that refers to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events, including financial projections, future market conditions, business performance or future product enhancements or development is a forward-looking statement. AppFolio's actual future results could differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements for any reason, including those issued in our SEC filings.

AppFolio assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements, except as required by law. For greater detail about risks and uncertainties, please see our SEC filings, including our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, which was filed with the SEC on February 5, 2026.

In addition, this call includes non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures with the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our third quarter earnings release posted on the Investor Relations section of our website.

With that, I turn the call over to Shane Trigg. Shane, please go ahead.

Shane Trigg

Thanks, Lori, and welcome to everyone joining us today. Q3 was another quarter of strong, consistent performance for AppFolio. Revenue reached $296 million, a 19% year-over-year increase. Non-GAAP operating income was 27.3% of revenue and GAAP operating income was 19.4% of revenue. Units on platform grew to 9.8 million.

Along with our strong consistent financial results, one of the biggest highlights this quarter was FUTURE, our annual industry event, where we hosted 2,500 real estate operators and innovators united by our shared ambition to build a future of winning. Across 4 days, 130 sessions, 19 expert-led performance labs and our biggest ever EXPLORE floor, our marketplace spanning the AppFolio Performance Platform and the partners across our Stack ecosystem, attendees left with tangible ways to deliver performance for their residents, investors, teams and communities.

I felt tremendous pride and gratitude watching 60-plus of our customers taking the stage as FUTURE speakers, educating their peers on the ways they've achieved meaningful performance in their own businesses. It was truly a privilege to share our vision with the industry and to watch our customers shape it alongside us.

The key theme at FUTURE this year was that the future won't be won by organizations that simply keep up. It will be won by organizations that continuously level up. As one attendee told us: "We're never done striving to get better because the moment we think we're the best is the moment we get left behind."

Achieving a sustained competitive advantage requires two things: first, interconnected systems built with performance in mind, a system of record that securely stores data while reflecting the operator's business, a system of action where AI does the work with and for them and a system of growth that turns exceptional experiences for their residents and owners into growth for their business.

Second is behaviors, what a team does with the capacity the systems create, applying judgment, building relationships and anticipating rather than reacting, meeting a resident's need before they ask and bringing an owner a plan, not a problem. Combine systems built for performance with these behaviors and customers achieve real performance. That is Real Estate Performance Management, or what we call RPM.

Eucalyptus Real Estate shows how rapid transformation is possible when an operator picks a platform that has the right systems built in and makes the right behaviors easy to adopt. This family-owned operator manages nearly 14,000 units and 106 separate tax entities across Oklahoma City, Wichita and Topeka. Before switching to AppFolio in 2025, they ran their 3 cities independently on paper checks, paper work orders, scanned applications and fax machines. Less than a year later, 85% of receivables are paid online. Leasing runs digitally from application to signature. A single automated flow delivers move-in disclosures consistently across every property. And 53% of maintenance requests now resolve without a work order ever being created. As Megan McGinnis, President of Eucalyptus, put it: "We didn't move to AppFolio just to change tools. We moved to change how we run this business. Three cities now work the same way on the same platform with one source of truth."

Customers like Eucalyptus show how real estate performance management works in practice, combining systems and behaviors to realize performance. Our goal is to enable this type of transformation for any operator in our industry because when customers reach new levels of performance, they start asking, what can we do now that we couldn't do before? They get better experiences for residents and owners, more value for their business and new versions of what their business can become.

Empowering our customers to find those answers is why we differentiate to win, the first of our 3 strategic pillars. Our performance platform is purpose-built for Real Estate Performance Management because customers operate on a single system of record that understands the rules of real estate, their business and permissions, every workflow, insight and action compounds on the same data rather than fragmenting across disconnected point solutions.

While operators outside our platform can buy isolated AI features, a point solution cannot provide the connected foundation, governance and economic alignment that allows performance to compound month after month, creating an engine for competitive advantage. Within our system of record, expanded entity accounting capabilities are designed to serve multi-entity operators, bringing corporate portfolio and credit card accounting into the same data model for a more unified accounting experience.

At the same time, we're bringing more of our customers' financial data, balances, statements, transfers and controls directly into AppFolio through Stack banking partnerships with Enterprise Bank & Trust and our featured banking partner, Column.

Through our Column partnership, bank data flows straight into AppFolio. Transactions are matched automatically as they come in, not just at month-end, so teams only touch the exceptions. That's what makes a truly automated close possible. MAXX Property Management, an AppFolio customer managing 3,500 units across Utah, Idaho and Arizona, is seeing the benefit. As Corey Bohner, Principal Broker and Owner, put it: "This integration with Column brings our banking and property operations into a more connected process. It gives our accounting team cleaner information and greater confidence in the numbers so we can scale while keeping operations smooth for our team."

In the system of action, which includes our AI suite of Realm-X, Performers, Flows and the Connector for Claude, the new Realm-X remembers context across conversations, draws on a knowledge base where customers store their own documents and policies and builds custom workflows and dashboards directly from a prompt. With AI-native capabilities available across every plan, every customer can move beyond task efficiency to real performance.

Realm-X runs alongside a growing suite of Performers, agents that each work from the same platform, data and governance. Maintenance Performer responds to resident requests in seconds, including after hours. Beta customers reported that Resident Messenger Performer resolved over 30% of conversations without escalation, and Accounting Performer saved an average of 17 hours per month. And Leasing Performer boosts showings up to 35%.

A customer transforming their leasing operations through the Leasing Performer is Merge Urban Development, a 750-unit portfolio in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Since moving off a stand-alone tool and onto Leasing Performer, Merge has converted automated prospect engagement into move-ins, averaging nearly 45 leases a month with a pipeline that's the largest it's ever been. As Joy Brenner, Co-Founder and Operations Partner, put it: "AppFolio has moved us from reactive to proactive."

We're extending the Performer suite with Receptionist Performer, unveiled at FUTURE, which will answer incoming calls, handle simple questions on the spot and route everything else to the right Performer or person at any hour. And our Connector for Claude is now available to every customer, making sure that every agent action, whether it runs through a Performer or a third-party model like Claude, operates within the permissions and guardrails defined within AppFolio.

With full visibility into their business and key workflows completed on their behalf, operators can turn capacity into opportunity. This is the system of growth.

Resident Onboarding Lift continues to scale and deliver exceptional resident value across the move-in moment, activating renters insurance, group rate internet and other essential services in one seamless flow. Certified Funds at Move-In lets residents pay move-in costs digitally with guaranteed funds, replacing certified checks from the bank. For operators, it reduces move-in friction and payment risk while bringing another part of the financial life cycle onto AppFolio.

Our system of growth benefits owners, too. Redesigned owner packets gives owners a clearer view of portfolio performance with stronger data visualization and cash flow reporting so they can see exactly what's happening with their investment. That visibility builds trust, and it's one more way operators who fully leverage our differentiated platform are pulling ahead.

Our second strategic pillar is deliver performance efficiently, which shows up in how operators choose AppFolio and how much more they get from the platform once they've adopted its capabilities. Take RENOSY by Renters Warehouse. They recently brought 8,000 units across 25 locations under one corporate entity. Once their leadership had a unified view of the business, they discovered properties running on AppFolio performed better and at a lower cost than the fragmented legacy setup they had inherited. So they standardized on AppFolio and last quarter went live with a portfolio of nearly 6,000 units with the remainder in migration, including Maintenance Performer and Resident Messenger Performer.

That same connected approach extends to our partner ecosystem. The AppFolio Stack integration marketplace now connects 5.6 million units across nearly 100 partners, spanning categories from marketing to accounting. Apartment List is one of our newest partners, offering a pay-per-lease billing model built to attract qualified renters through AI matching and support occupancy goals.

Each new integration creates more value within the unified experience of AppFolio. This momentum is showing up in how the industry recognizes us. AppFolio has ranked #1 on the G2 Grid for 5 consecutive quarters, confirming AppFolio as the platform of choice for real estate operators. In G2's fall 2026 rankings, covering more than 28,000 reports, AppFolio ranked #5 among companies by G2 score.

None of this happens without the right team behind it, which brings me to our third and final strategic pillar, great people and culture. Since the quarter closed, AppFolio was named to Fortune's 2026 Best Workplaces in Technology list, a recognition of the culture our people build every day where we show up as one team connected by our values. We were also named to Fortune's 2026 Future 120 list, which recognizes the companies best positioned for future growth. Together, they reflect something we deeply believe. The customer-obsessed culture we build and the results we deliver are directly connected.

Turning efficiency into capacity, capacity into opportunity, opportunity into performance and performance into competitive advantage that compounds over time. That's the promise of Real Estate Performance Management. It's the future we're helping our customers to create and the reason for our strong consistent performance.

With that, I'll turn it over to Tim to share more about AppFolio's Q3 financial results.

Timothy Eaton

Thank you, Shane. Our third quarter results reflect the consistency of our business, 19% revenue growth, continued strength in new customer acquisition and GAAP operating margin of 19.4%. By combining our growing scale with AI, we are continuing to add value for our customers while driving operational efficiencies.

In the third quarter, we delivered revenue of $296 million, growing 19% year-over-year, compared to $249 million in Q3 2025. Subscription services revenue grew 14% year-over-year to $62 million, compared to $54 million in the third quarter of 2025. This growth was driven by winning new customers, growth in units under management and customers continuing to upgrade to our premium tiers. New and renewing customers continue to commit to multiyear agreements, which extends the contracted base of revenue underlying subscription services.

Value-added services revenue grew 21% year-over-year to $232 million, led by our FolioGuard risk mitigation services, FolioScreen offerings and online payments alongside continued growth in units under management. Resident Onboarding Lift, Resident Concierge move-in services and Realm-X Performers are continuing to increase their contribution to value-added services revenue.

We ended the quarter managing approximately 9.8 million units, an 8% increase from 9.1 million units a year ago. Customers grew to 23,121, up 6% from 21,759. Unit acquisition from new customers remained strong and retention was healthy and consistent with historical averages. While existing customers continue to add units to our platform, unit expansion is pacing slower than last year, a trend we highlighted during our second quarter call.

Turning to margin. In the third quarter, GAAP operating income, which includes stock-based compensation expense, grew 64% year-over-year to $57 million or 19.4% of revenue compared to $35 million or 14.1% of revenue a year ago. Non-GAAP operating income grew 38% to $81 million or 27.3% of revenue, compared to $59 million or 23.5% of revenue in the third quarter of 2025.

Two items are worth noting when comparing margins to the prior year. First, as we discussed a year ago, the third quarter of 2025 included an incremental year-to-date accrual across cost of revenue in each of our operating expense lines for overachievement of our annual corporate bonus plan, which lowered that quarter's margin. We did not have a comparable item this quarter. Second, our annual industry event, FUTURE, took place in the third quarter this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, which moved that expense earlier in the year.

With that context and continuing with non-GAAP measures, cost of revenue, exclusive of depreciation and amortization, was 35% of revenue, down from 36% a year ago. Beyond the prior year bonus accrual, we saw the benefits of scale across both our third-party service costs and our customer support and operations teams, partially offset by our payments product mix and by incremental data center capacity as more of our customers' work runs through Realm-X and Performers.

Sales and marketing was 15% of revenue, up from 13% last year. The increase reflects higher advertising and promotion expense, including our largest FUTURE conference to date. It also reflects added sales capacity to drive new unit acquisition, premium tier upgrades and value-added services adoption.

Research and development declined to 15% of revenue from 18% in the prior year, reflecting the prior year bonus accrual and lower personnel costs as AI tools and systems continue to increase the productivity of our engineering teams and the velocity of our innovation. G&A expense declined to 6% of revenue from 8% in the prior-year quarter. Beyond the prior year bonus accrual, the decline reflects the benefits of scale and continued operational efficiency.

We exited the quarter with 1,744 employees, an increase of 2% from the third quarter of 2025 as we continue to scale revenue ahead of head count.

We generated $97 million in operating cash flow during the quarter and ended the period with $307 million in cash, cash equivalents and current investment securities. Our capital allocation approach remains unchanged. We invest first in the business, and our share repurchase program remains opportunistic. Our balance sheet flexibility allows us to keep investing where it best advances our mission to build the platform where real estate comes to do business.

Now turning to our 2026 outlook. We are raising our full year revenue guidance to a range of $1.122 billion to $1.127 billion, lifting the midpoint growth rate to 18.3%. For the fourth quarter, we anticipate new customer acquisition and retention will remain healthy, while the pace of unit expansion among existing customers is expected to stay below last year's fourth quarter and be comparable to the third quarter. We continue to expect subscription services and value-added services seasonality to be broadly consistent with 2025. Other revenue can vary from quarter-to-quarter, and the fourth quarter of 2025 included one-time revenue from a Stack partnership that we do not expect to recur.

Our full year non-GAAP operating margin guidance is now 26.5% to 27.5%, compared to 24.7% in 2025. This range reflects a deliberate decision to accelerate our sales and marketing investment this year, including additional sales capacity, our FUTURE conference and other industry events and targeted go-to-market programs, which are visible in our year-to-date results.

While we are investing more in sales and marketing, we expect full year operating expenses as a percentage of revenue to decline modestly as we continue to scale and apply AI across our internal operations. We expect cost of revenue, exclusive of depreciation and amortization, to be relatively flat as a percentage of revenue compared to 2025. We anticipate diluted weighted average shares outstanding of approximately 36 million for the full year.

In closing, the third quarter is another example of what consistency looks like at AppFolio: strong revenue growth, expanding profitability, healthy cash generation and disciplined capital allocation. We remain focused on delivering performance for our customers efficiently so that the value they realize on our platform continues to translate into our results.

Thanks to all of you for your support and interest in AppFolio. Operator, this concludes today's call.

Operator

Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.