Oct 28, 2026 earnings call — Strategic review closed; focus on DSSP and AI
Raised full-year revenue outlook to $530.5 million to $532 million and adjusted EBITDA to $98 million to $99 million.
Revenue $0.1B (est $0.1B) · EPS $-0.06 (est $0.20)
Key quotes
"There are 3 agents in beta inside our onboarding and account opening platform built for the people who run the institution."
"The results of that review was a unanimous decision by the Alkami Board that executing our long-range plan as an independent public company was the best path to maximize shareholder value."
"For the fourth quarter of 2026, we expect revenue of $139.7 million to $141.2 million, representing growth of 15.6% to 16.9% and adjusted EBITDA of $30 million to $31 million or a 21.7% margin at the midpoint."
Analyst Q&A 7
pipeline and new customer wins
Q (Cristopher Kennedy · William Blair): Analyst asked why strategic uncertainty pressured new logo wins and wanted more color on the pipeline.
A: Management said the overall pipeline looks normal compared with prior years. They explained customers delay multiyear platform decisions when they perceive uncertainty about a vendor's future, and that influenced some selections.
pipeline clarity and 2027 revenue
Q (Cristopher Kennedy · William Blair): Analyst repeated request for clarity on the pipeline and also asked if management can bracket revenue growth for 2027.
A: Management reiterated that the pipeline is consistent with prior years but customers delayed some decisions due to perceived company uncertainty. They are not ready to give 2027 guidance yet, but noted 19% ARR growth this quarter, about $56 million of backlog likely to go live over the next 12 months, and continued ARPU growth — they expect these drivers to hold into 2027.
"We have 19% growth in ARR this quarter, which was really strong." — Cassandra Hudson (CFO)
executive departures and product progress
Q (Aaron Kimson · Citizens): Analyst asked whether recent executive departures affected day-to-day operations, and asked how treasury management features are progressing and competitiveness with larger banks.
A: Management said the departures were unrelated and that combining the CTO and CPO organizations was an intentional design decision to better align customer delivery, with Ben taking over the combined role. They also said they benchmarked treasury management in mid-2024, identified somewhere between 24 and 28 features to build, developed most with customers, had the majority in usage by Q3, about 6 in beta, and expect to be largely complete by year-end for their community-bank customers ($500 million to $10 billion in assets).
"What I decided to do is combine those 2 organizations so that we could be more fully aligned in terms of customer delivery." — Alex Shootman (CEO)
third-party costs and capital allocation
Q (Jacob Stephan · Lake Street): Analyst asked which third-party costs pressured gross margins and whether those costs will continue; and asked about buybacks versus delevering or M&A.
A: Management said the margin pressure came from mix shifts across about 35 third-party products they integrate and sell, and they forecast that mix effect to continue into Q4; timing of some revenue also shifted earlier into Q3 related to core conversions. On capital allocation, they described M&A as opportunistic while focused on integrating MANTL, and said share buybacks will be opportunistic, funded by excess cash flow and used when prudent under their authorization.
"I mean those costs are related to about 35 different products that we fully integrate into the Alkami platform and sell to our customers." — Cassandra Hudson (CFO)
ARPU drivers and impact of strategic review
Q (Jeff Van Rhee · Craig-Hallum): Analyst asked what could accelerate or slow ARPU growth in 2027, and pressed on when prospects started pausing during the strategic review and whether affected deals were lost or delayed; also asked size and cause of one-time items.
A: Management said ARPU can accelerate if new customers go live at high ARPU and through steady ARPU gains from existing-customer cross-sell; it can slow if mix shifts toward credit unions or if cross-sell pace slows. They said public commentary beginning in December weighed on some multiyear customer decisions, and while some prospects selected other providers, the board's press release resolving uncertainty should remove that headwind; they declined to forecast new-logo timing. They also sized the one-time revenue at about $800,000, mostly tied to core conversion projects whose dates can vary.
"It was about $800,000 or so and most of it was tied to core conversion revenue." — Cassandra Hudson (CFO)
database conversion and buyback policy
Q (Eleanor Smith · JPMorgan): Analyst asked whether the database conversion moved into 2027 will cause duplicative costs or change margin targets, and asked the philosophy behind buybacks.
A: Management said the database conversion timing is still under review and they prioritized PCI 4.0 and PII architectural enhancements this year, so they are not committing to doing the conversion in 2027. On buybacks, they said the approach is both opportunistic and intended to offset dilution, while being mindful of having less than $100 million of cash and managing cash flow carefully.
"In addition to it, the nice benefit of buybacks is that it does offset dilution." — Cassandra Hudson (CFO)
gross margin outlook, win rates, fraud products
Q (Andrew Schmidt · KeyBanc): Analyst asked about gross margin visibility and exit rate, whether gross margin will stabilize or improve, plus recent changes in win rates after the strategic review, and ambitions beyond ACH Alert for fraud products.
A: Management said Q3 saw a small gross-margin impact from third-party product mix which they factored into Q4; over the long term they expect gross margin expansion driven by stable third-party mix, hosting-cost efficiency, and improved support/implementation productivity using AI. They noted win-rate improvement in the bank market where targets were hit, and described interest in building AI-based fraud solutions that combine analytics and dynamic workflow, to be explored with a small set of build customers.
"Over the long term, we do expect to continue to drive gross margin expansion." — Cassandra Hudson (CFO)