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LZ

LegalZoom.comD
Nasdaq / Commercial & Professional Services
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2026-06-02
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2026-05-16
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Earnings documents stored for LZ.

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Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-16

5 Must-Read Analyst Questions From LegalZoom’s Q1 Earnings Call

StockStory

LegalZoom’s first quarter results were shaped by a combination of strong revenue growth and margin pressures, leading to a negative market reaction. Management pointed to the ongoing shift toward higher-value, human-in-the-loop subscription offerings as a key driver of the quarter, with CEO Jeffrey Stibel noting the company is “building a subscription-led AI-enabled platform” to serve small businesses. However, higher operating expenses and increased marketing investment weighed on profitability, and the company’s operating margin declined compared to last year. Is now the time to buy LZ? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $206.8 million vs analyst estimates of $201.8 million (12.9% year-on-year growth, 2.5% beat) Adjusted EPS: $0.12 vs analyst expectations of $0.13 (8.1% miss) Adjusted EBITDA: $36.46 million vs analyst estimates of $36.25 million (17.6% margin, 0.6% beat) The company slightly lifted its revenue guidance for the full year to $820 million at the midpoint from $815 million EBITDA guidance for the full year is $195 million at the midpoint, in line with analyst expectations Operating Margin: 1.3%, down from 4.9% in the same quarter last year Subscription Units: 1.92 million, in line with the same quarter last year Billings: $226.4 million at quarter end, up 3.1% year on year Market Capitalization: $1.06 billion While we enjoy listening to the management's commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls are the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Eleanor Smith (JPMorgan) asked about the impact of AI-powered partnerships on customer acquisition. CEO Jeffrey Stibel explained that while AI integrations are strategically important, direct traffic from these sources remains limited and is expected to grow over time as the technology matures. Eleanor Smith (JPMorgan) inquired how ARPU will drive growth this year. Stibel and CFO Noel Watson emphasized that higher-value offerings and improved retention from products like concierge are sustaining ARPU growth, which is expected to be a key revenue lever. Patrick McIlwee (William Blair) questioned the materiality of AI and partnership channels, especially regarding recent traffic gains. Stibel clarified that while AI traffic rem...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-07

LegalZoom (LZ) Q1 Earnings: Taking a Look at Key Metrics Versus Estimates

Zacks

LegalZoom (LZ) reported $206.78 million in revenue for the quarter ended March 2026, representing a year-over-year increase of 12.9%. EPS of $0.12 for the same period compares to $0.13 a year ago. The reported revenue represents a surprise of +2.17% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $202.39 million. With the consensus EPS estimate being $0.13, the EPS surprise was -10.45%. While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health. Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance. Here is how LegalZoom performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts: Average revenue per subscription unit (ARPU) at period end: $0.26 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $0.26 million. Subscription units at period end: 1,920 versus the three-analyst average estimate of 1,952. Average order value (AOV): $205.00 compared to the $206.59 average estimate based on three analysts. Transaction units: 375 compared to the 336 average estimate based on three analysts. Business formations: 142 versus 146 estimated by two analysts on average. Revenue- Subscription: $130.16 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $130.15 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +12%. Revenue- Transaction: $76.62 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $72.03 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +14.6%. View all Key Company Metrics for LegalZoom here>>> Shares of LegalZoom have returned +12% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +10.3% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report LegalZoom.com, Inc. (LZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Re...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-07

LegalZoom (LZ) Q1 Earnings Lag Estimates

Zacks

LegalZoom (LZ) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.12 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.13 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.13 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -10.45%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this online platform for legal services would post earnings of $0.18 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.17, delivering a surprise of -5.56%. Over the last four quarters, the company has not been able to surpass consensus EPS estimates. LegalZoom, which belongs to the Zacks Industrial Services industry, posted revenues of $206.78 million for the quarter ended March 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.17%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $183.11 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. LegalZoom shares have lost about 32.4% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 6%. While LegalZoom has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for LegalZoom was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 R...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-07

LegalZoom Reports First Quarter Financial Results Ahead of Expectations; Raises Full-Year Revenue Outlook

GlobeNewswire

Revenue of $206.8 million, up 13% year-over-year; reflecting continued growth in higher-value subscriptions and contributions from compliance product enhancements Subscription revenue of $130.2 million up 12% year-over-year, driven by growth in differentiated human-in-the-loop service offerings Net income of $1.1 million and net income margin of 1% Adjusted EBITDA of $36.5 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin of 18% Commitment to shareholder returns; completed $43.5 million of share repurchases in the quarter Ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $183.2 million, delivered $47.3 million in cash from operating activities and $41.0 million in free cash flow with no debt outstanding as of March 31, 2026 MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LegalZoom (Nasdaq: LZ), America’s #1 online legal services company, today announced results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2026. “LegalZoom delivered another strong quarter, clearly illustrating that our strategy is working,” said Jeff Stibel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LegalZoom. “In an AI-driven world, we win by getting customers to the finish line, combining technology with real human expertise to complete the last mile.” Noel Watson, LegalZoom’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, added, “We delivered strong first quarter results, with 13% revenue growth ahead of expectations. Our performance was driven by momentum in higher-value subscriptions and increased seasonal strength in annual report filings from our enhanced compliance offering. Importantly, our core growth drivers continue to build and will scale through the back half of the year, supporting our increased full-year revenue outlook.” First Quarter 2026 Highlights Revenue was $206.8 million for the quarter, up 13% year-over-year. Transaction revenue of $76.6 million increased 15% year-over-year. Subscription revenue of $130.2 million grew 12% year-over-year. Net income was $1.1 million for the quarter, or 1% of revenue, compared to $5.1 million, or 3% of revenue, in the same period in 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was $36.5 million for the quarter, or 18% of revenue, compared to $37.0 million, or 20% of revenue, in the same period in 2025. Non-GAAP net income was $22.1 million for the quarter compared to $23.8 million in the same period in 2025. Cash and cash equivalents were $183.2 million as of March 31...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-07

LegalZoom: Q1 Earnings Snapshot

Associated Press

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — LegalZoom.com Inc. (LZ) on Wednesday reported first-quarter profit of $1.1 million. The Mountain View, California-based company said it had net income of 1 cent per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 12 cents per share. The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 13 cents per share. The online platform for legal services posted revenue of $206.8 million in the period, exceeding Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $202.4 million. For the current quarter ending in June, LegalZoom said it expects revenue in the range of $203 million to $207 million. The company expects full-year revenue in the range of $810 million to $830 million. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on LZ at https://www.zacks.com/ap/LZ

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-07

LegalZoom (LZ) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Motley Fool

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Chairman and Chief Executive Officer — Jeffrey Stibel Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer — Noel Watson Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] Jeff Stibel, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Noel Watson, our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, we will be making forward-looking statements on this call. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as believe, expect, plan, anticipate, will, intend and similar expressions and are not and should not be relied upon as a guarantee of future performance or results. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's assumptions and expectations and information available to us as of today's date. These forward-looking statements are also subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. These risks and uncertainties are referred to in the press release we issued today and in the Risk Factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. We use non-GAAP measures in making decisions regarding our business, and we believe these measures provide helpful information to investors. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of all non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are set forth in our investor presentation, which can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.legalzoom.com. I will now turn the call over to Jeff. Jeffrey Stibel: Thank you, Madeline, and thank you all for joining our call. LegalZoom is a different company than it was 2 years ago, more focused, better positioned and increasingly differentiated. We are building a subscription-led AI-enabled platform that serves small businesses across their entire life cycle. Our results this quarter show that the strategy is working. Total revenue growth of 13%...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-07

LegalZoom.com Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat

LegalZoom reported Q1 revenue of $207 million (up 13% YoY) and adjusted EBITDA of over $36 million; subscription revenue rose 12% to $130 million and the company raised its full-year revenue guide to $810–$830 million while maintaining adjusted EBITDA guidance of $190–$200 million. Management emphasized a human-in-the-loop strategy and momentum in expert-led offerings, with Concierge Suite now generating over three times average ARPU and expert-led revenue growing more than twice the overall business year‑over‑year, though Concierge is still early in its lifecycle. LegalZoom is pursuing AI-driven efficiencies (e.g., trademark search time down 55%, patent drafting 30% faster, ~40% of chat inquiries resolved end-to-end) while returning capital via ~$43 million of share repurchases and finishing the quarter debt-free with $183 million in cash. Interested in LegalZoom.com, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. LegalZoom.com (NASDAQ:LZ) reported first-quarter 2026 results that management said reflected continued progress in repositioning the company around a “subscription-led, AI-enabled platform” for small businesses. Chairman and CEO Jeff Stibel said LegalZoom has become “a different company than it was two years ago,” pointing to revenue growth and profitability that exceeded internal expectations. Total revenue increased 13% year over year to $207 million, while adjusted EBITDA exceeded $36 million, according to Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Noel Watson. “Our results this quarter reflect continued progress in shifting the business toward higher value, subscription-driven revenue,” Watson said, adding that the company is also “quickly scaling efficiencies across the business” using AI. → The Real SpaceX Play: 5 Chip Stocks Powering the IPO Before It Launches Stibel emphasized LegalZoom’s focus on combining automation with professional guidance, describing AI as reshaping the “first mile” of the customer journey while arguing that expert judgment remains critical at the “last mile” for high-stakes decisions. He said the company’s “human-in-the-loop strategy remains central” to differentiation, spanning both a service layer (including registered agent and virtual mail) and an expert layer (including legal plans, IP services, and Concierge Suite). In prepared remarks, Stibel said revenue across expert-led offerings grew “more than two t...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-07

LegalZoom.com, Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings Call Summary

Moby

Transitioned to a subscription-led, AI-enabled platform focusing on the entire small business life cycle rather than just initial formation. Performance beat driven by the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit subscription growth, specifically led by 'human-in-the-loop' premium offerings. Expert-led revenue grew more than 2x faster than the overall business, with the concierge suite achieving over 3x the average ARPU. Strategic focus on the 'last mile' of business decisions where expert judgment and accountability provide a competitive moat against pure AI automation. Diversified customer acquisition by increasing partnership order volume to 10% of total orders, up from 4% a year ago, through deals with GoDaddy, Chase, and LinkedIn. Front-loaded marketing investments during peak formation seasonality to drive a 19% increase in unaided brand awareness and 13% growth in direct traffic. Internal AI integration is driving operational leverage by automating workflows, such as reducing trademark classification search time by 55% within law firm workflows. Full-year revenue guidance increased to $810M-$830M, assuming continued momentum in high-value subscription roll-forwards and ARPU expansion. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to build throughout the year, driven by improved gross margins and back-half efficiencies from AI-native workflow transformations. Management expects ARPU to be the primary driver of subscription growth as the mix shifts away from lower-value legacy bundles. Strategic positioning as the 'execution layer' for AI ecosystems, with plans to deepen integrations with platforms like ChatGPT and Claude to capture high-intent demand. Q2 guidance of $203M-$207M accounts for the full lapping of the Formation Nation acquisition and typical seasonal declines in annual report filings. Experienced a decline in lower-value subscription units previously bundled in formation packages, though this is viewed as a deliberate shift toward higher-quality revenue. Repurchased 5.3 million shares for $43 million in Q1, reflecting management's view that the current valuation does not capture long-term business value. Completed a $13 million payment for deferred consideration related to the Formation Nation acquisition. Identified a significant market opportunity in compliance, noting that nearly 1/3 of U.S. small businesses are currently in bad standing or at risk. Ou...

TranscriptFY2026 Q12026-05-06

FY2026 Q1 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 75 paragraphs
Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to LegalZoom's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. You'll hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Madeleine Crane, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Madeleine Crane

Thank you, operator. Welcome to LegalZoom's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me today is Jeff Stibel, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Noel Watson, our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, we will be making forward-looking statements on this call. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as believe, expect, plan, anticipate, will, intend, and similar expressions, and are not and should not be relied upon as a guarantee of future performance or results. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's assumptions and expectations and information available to us as of today's date. These forward-looking statements are also subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements.

Madeleine Crane

These risks and uncertainties are referred to in the press release we issued today and in the Risk Factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of any new information, future events, or otherwise. In addition, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. We use non-GAAP measures in making decisions regarding our business, and we believe these measures provide helpful information to investors. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Madeleine Crane

Reconciliations of all non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are set forth in our investor presentation, which can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.legalzoom.com. I will now turn the call over to Jeff.

Jeff Stibel

Thank you, Madeleine, and thank you all for joining our call. LegalZoom is a different company than it was two years ago. We're focused, better positioned, and increasingly differentiated. We are building a subscription-led, AI-enabled platform that serves small businesses across their entire life cycle. Our results this quarter show that the strategy is working. Total revenue growth of 13% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA of over $36 million both exceeded our expectations. In 2026, we are focused on three core growth levers. One, driving high-quality subscription growth through premium human-in-the-loop offerings. Two, scaling customer acquisition through partnerships and AI channels. And three, leveraging AI to enhance the customer experience and to drive efficiency. We are seeing clear traction across each of these areas. Q1 marked our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit subscription growth, led by strong momentum in our human-in-the-loop offerings.

Jeff Stibel

Through these personalized, higher-value services, we are strengthening our customer relationships and increasing lifetime value. This is how we've repositioned LegalZoom for more durable growth in an AI-driven market. AI is reshaping the first mile of the customer journey, expanding access and bringing more customers into the market. But at the last mile, where high-stake decisions are made, expert judgment, execution, and accountability still matter. That's where LegalZoom is differentiated. Our human-in-the-loop strategy remains central to how we differentiate and where we see some of our most attractive growth opportunities. At a high level, this includes both our service layer, products like registered agent and virtual mail, and our expert layer, which now includes legal plans, IP services, and Concierge Suite. Together, these solutions address higher-value customer needs through a combination of automation and professional guidance, supporting stronger ARPU and lifetime value.

Jeff Stibel

In Q1, revenue across our expert-led offerings grew more than two times faster than our overall business year-over-year and continues to accelerate. The standout performer is our Concierge Suite, now at over three times average ARPU. We are tapping into an underserved market. For example, we estimate that nearly 1/3 of U.S. small businesses are in bad standing or at risk of falling out of compliance each year. LegalZoom is the only provider offering a fully managed, do-it-for-me, reinstatement and compliance solution. Demand has consistently exceeded our expectations since launch. We are extending this strategy through curated high-value formation and concierge bundles sold exclusively through our sales team. These packages combine entity formation with ongoing compliance and advisory services, bringing customers directly into higher-value subscription relationships from day one.

Jeff Stibel

We are excited to see the robust rate of adoption, with customers increasingly opting for higher-tier bundles. These packages support higher ARPU, are driving more durable customer relationships, and reinforce the value of expert-led support. As a result, we are using Concierge not just as a product, but as a strategic entry point to engage more established small business customers, a key long-term growth opportunity for LegalZoom. Moving to our second growth lever, we are continuing to diversify our go-to-market model to make customer acquisition broader and more efficient over time. We've accelerated both the number of partners and the velocity of growth within this channel. In Q1, our expanded partner portfolio drove order volume from partnerships to 10% of total orders, up from 4% a year ago, reflecting both increased scale and higher intent customers.

Jeff Stibel

New partnerships include LinkedIn, Chase, and our strategic partnership this year with GoDaddy, where LegalZoom is now the sole legal services provider across their ecosystem. We have a strong pipeline of diversified partnership opportunities and expect these to fuel a greater share of high-value customer acquisition in 2026 as we work to diversify our top of funnel. This quarter, we made a deliberate decision to front-load our marketing investment, aligning spend with peak business formation seasonality. That investment delivered. Unaided brand awareness increased 19% year-over-year. Direct traffic to legalzoom.com grew 13%, and conversion remains strong. These are important signals that our brand investments are driving both awareness and higher value customer acquisition. Our goal is straightforward: meet customers where they are, bring them into the LegalZoom ecosystem, and introduce them to higher value services over time.

Jeff Stibel

Importantly, this approach extends to how we are positioning LegalZoom within AI ecosystems. We've long described LegalZoom as the last mile solution in an AI-driven world. In this quarter, we continued to embed ourselves into the platforms where customers are asking questions and making decisions. That includes the LegalZoom connector for Claude and the LegalZoom ChatGPT formations app, both launched in Q1. While still early, these integrations are strategically important, allowing us to be present at the moment of intent when a small business owner is ready to act. Over time, we believe this will position LegalZoom to capture more high intent demand and further strengthen our role as the trusted partner to help customers complete their journey. Finally, we are embedding AI across our workflows and reimagining our organization to increase speed, improve quality, and drive efficiency. As Noel will detail, we are already seeing tangible impact.

Jeff Stibel

Our AI-powered tools are empowering our experts, improving sales effectiveness, increasing customer satisfaction, and allowing us to scale output without proportional increases in headcount. This is translating into real operating leverage and will be an increasingly important driver of our planned margin expansion throughout the year. Stepping back, these initiatives reflect a business that is becoming more durable, more efficient, and better positioned for long-term growth. As we move through 2026, we are executing with clarity and building momentum across each of our growth levers. AI is changing how businesses start, but starting is the easy part. Getting to the finish line is what matters, and that's where we win. We combine technology with real human expertise to solve the last mile, deliver outcomes, and help our customers move forward with confidence.

Jeff Stibel

That combination is difficult to replicate, and it is what we believe will continue to set LegalZoom apart. Thank you. I'll now turn it over to Noel.

Noel Watson

Thanks, Jeff. Good afternoon, everyone. Let me connect our growth levers to what you're seeing in the numbers. Our results this quarter reflect continued progress in shifting the business toward higher value, subscription-driven revenue. While a portion of our growth benefited from factors I'll discuss shortly, the underlying performance of the business continues to be strong. At the same time, leveraging AI, we are quickly scaling efficiencies across the business and improving execution through our core workflows, which we expect to be an increasing contributor to margin expansion. With that context, I'll turn to our first quarter financial results. Unless otherwise stated, all comparisons will be on a year-over-year basis. Total revenue was $207 million, ahead of our expectations, reflecting growth of 13%. Subscription revenue increased 12% to $130 million, marking our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

Noel Watson

Performance was led by the human-in-the-loop services Jeff highlighted, including strength in registered agent services, benefiting from our pricing initiatives implemented last year. Higher revenue from legal plans bundled into certain formation offerings and contributions from virtual mail and our Concierge Suite. We also saw strength in our compliance offering, driven by strong retention from experience improvements rolled out over the past year, including Annual Report Auto-filing. ARPU increased 4% year-over-year, reflecting our strategy to grow higher-value human-in-the-loop offerings. These services drive ARPU expansion and improve overall revenue quality as we aim to increase customer lifetime value. We expect ARPU to be the primary driver of subscription growth throughout the year. As we execute this strategy, we are seeing a decline in lower-value subscriptions previously bundled within the formation package.

Noel Watson

As a result, we ended the quarter with approximately 1.92 million subscription units, stable year-over-year, reflecting the continued shift in mix toward higher value offerings. Turning to transactions, revenue increased 15% to $77 million. Transaction revenue benefited from the higher than expected annual report filing activity within our compliance offering. As a reminder, these filing fees are seasonal in nature, with more activity heavily weighted in Q1. Transaction revenue was also driven by strength in trademark and IP offerings as well as a full quarter of contribution from Formation Nation. Growth was partially offset by the expected decline in BOIR revenue. AOV was $205, up 5%, reflecting packaging changes in our formation bundles and the lapping of low value BOIR transactions in prior year.

Noel Watson

Transaction units increased 10% to 375,000, reflecting higher annual report volumes as well as growth in business formation volume. We processed 142,000 business formations in the quarter, up 8%, driven by a full quarter contribution from Formation Nation and increased business formation volume from partnerships. Finally, deferred revenue increased $20 million sequentially, reflecting normal seasonality. Turning to profitability, where all metrics are on a non-GAAP basis. Gross margin was 67%, flat year-over-year, driven by more efficient service delivery offset by higher filing fees. Sales and marketing costs were $72 million, or 35% of revenue, up 29%. Customer acquisition marketing increased 25%, reflecting a shift in the timing of investments to align with peak business formation seasonality and diversification of investments in brand and partnerships.

Noel Watson

Non-CAM sales and marketing expenses increased $5 million, or 45%, largely reflecting a full quarter of Formation Nation and targeted investments in our sales team, both of which are directly supporting the higher value revenue growth you're seeing in these results. Technology and development costs were $14 million, down 6%. General and administrative expenses were $15 million, an increase of 2%. Across the organization, we are actively managing cost structure and productivity to ensure investments are aligned with higher value growth. This includes leveraging AI, which is fundamentally changing how we operate the business. We are rapidly transitioning to a fully AI-native organization with tools deployed broadly across the company, backed by ongoing training to drive real workflow transformation. We've launched targeted initiatives to redesign workflows and drive efficiencies through year-end and into 2027.

Noel Watson

In product and software development, AI is now integrated across the lifecycle, improving engineering velocity and enabling increased output without proportional increases in headcount. We are already seeing tangible results. Across our law firm workflows, AI is driving efficiency gains, reducing trademark classification search time by 55%, accelerating patent drafting by 30%, and automating key processes, resulting in faster turnaround and more efficient use of attorney capacity. Further, AI-powered coaching has reduced missed sales opportunities by roughly a third, enabling our teams to offer more solutions and cross-sell our products. Agentic AI is also handling thousands of customer care chat interactions, fully resolving approximately 40% of inquiries end-to-end. Our operational execution drove adjusted EBITDA of $36 million, representing a margin of 18%. Moving now to our balance sheet and capital allocation. Free cash flow was $41 million, flat year-over-year.

Noel Watson

We continue to generate strong free cash flow, maintain a debt-free balance sheet, and our $100 million revolving credit facility is fully undrawn. We ended the quarter with $183 million in cash and cash equivalents, down $20 million from Q four. The sequential change reflects share repurchases and a $13 million payment of deferred consideration related to the Formation Nation acquisition, partially offset by solid free cash flow generation. During Q1, we repurchased approximately 5.3 million shares of our common stock for $43 million. As of March 31, 2026, we had approximately $126 million remaining under our authorization. We have remained active in the market in Q two, a direct reflection of our confidence in the long-term value of the business relative to current valuation. Now turning to our outlook.

Noel Watson

For the full year, we are increasing our revenue outlook to a range of $810 million-$830 million, representing approximately 8% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. We continue to expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $190 million-$200 million, or approximately 13% growth at the midpoint. For the second quarter, we expect revenue in the range of $203 million-$207 million, representing approximately 6% growth at the midpoint. Relative to the first quarter, this reflects the full lapping of our Formation Nation acquisition as well as a reduced volume of annual report filings due to seasonality. We expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $40 million-$42 million.

Noel Watson

In terms of quarterly cadence, we expect adjusted EBITDA to build throughout the year from improved gross margin, disciplined cost management, and AI-driven efficiencies realized in the back half of the year. To wrap up, our first quarter results reflect continued execution against our business strategy, and we look forward to building on our momentum. We have the foundation in place to leverage our differentiated market positioning to drive higher quality revenue growth and margin expansion in 2026 and beyond. With that, we'll open the call for questions. Operator?

Operator

Yes, thank you. At this time, we'll conduct the question and answer. To ask a question, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone and wait to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Ella Smith with JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Ella Smith

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question, Jeff and Noel. First, you framed AI as a tailwind and have seen some major partnerships in the past few months. How are you seeing the customer acquisition funnel change, and what kind of conversion are you seeing from that kind of customer?

Jeff Stibel

Yeah. Thanks, Ella. Good to hear from you. Look, we're incredibly excited about what's happening with AI for a couple of reasons. You know, in effect, we're becoming the execution layer that AI can't replace. We've now launched products into ChatGPT and Claude, both of those launched in Q1. We've started expanding our partnerships with them and the reach that we're driving to address and attack the additional incremental traffic that's coming from these AI engines. What we're not seeing, I don't think anyone is seeing right now, is traffic coming directly, you know, in significant volumes. In large part, it's too early, both because they're trying to figure out how that works, as are we.

Jeff Stibel

What we're doing is we're embedding products, we're embedding their AI intelligence into what we're doing, and that's helping to drive, you know, the throughput that we're seeing into our business. You know, the thing that's encouraging for us is what that's allowing us to do is drive incremental formation volume that is coming from higher value customers and lifting ARPU up.

Ella Smith

Very clear. Thank you, Jeff.

Jeff Stibel

Yes.

Ella Smith

For my follow-up, how do you see ARPU contributing to growth in 2026? You've said that it's going to be an important driver. I was curious if you or Noel could walk us through the customer trends and sentiment that you're seeing that gives you more confidence to realize ARPU expansion 2026 and beyond.

Jeff Stibel

Sure. I mean, I can start and then let Noel finish. I mean, if you look, we've had now two sequential quarters of ARPU growth. 1% in Q4 accelerated to 4% in this past quarter, and we expect that to continue from a trend perspective. You know, that drives through the entire business. You know, historically, what we've seen both at LegalZoom and across the ecosystem of SMBs is when you increase value alongside driving higher priced better products, you ultimately reduce churn. You know, that's a virtuous cycle for lifetime value. You know, we've already seen the benefits of that.

Jeff Stibel

We've, you know, we've spoken, I think, over the last couple of quarters in particular about how our compliance products have, you know, have seen decreases in churn despite the fact that, you know, that we're seeing improvement in ARPU. We're pleased to, you know, just start the lapping of Concierge right now, given, you know, given that launched about one year ago. We're pleased with the trends there on retention as well.

Noel Watson

Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head. You know, some of it is driven by some of the pricing initiatives that we took last year. We're matching kinda price to value. But importantly, we're also seeing, you know, a shift in customer mix as we drive more customers towards our higher value human-in-the-loop offerings like Concierge. So it's the combination of those two things that's really driving ARPU, and we see it as a sustainable driver of revenue growth throughout the rest of this year and beyond.

Jeff Stibel

Yeah. The only thing I'll add is it's what gives us confidence in our raised revenue guide because this, you know, this is a roll forward exercise. You can see those improvements compounding in the, you know, in the organic business.

Ella Smith

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Jeff Stibel

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Patrick McIlwee with William Blair. Your line is now open.

Patrick McIlwee

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. My first, just following up on Ella's question on the Claude, OpenAI, and Perplexity partnerships. It sounded like, Jeff, you said those were not driving a material amount of your traffic at this point. Can you just confirm that first of all? Because, you know, initially, I was curious if those represented a material portion of that 10% of volumes you talked about coming through your partnership channels.

Jeff Stibel

Yeah. It's too early for it to be material at this point. You know, this is still test and learn. We are seeing material increase in our partnership channel broadly, and you know, we talked about that in the prepared remarks. You know, that 10% growth is disproportionately coming from the partnerships around GoDaddy, Chase, LinkedIn, and others, and we're gonna continue to accelerate that. You know, with these new traffic channels through AI, it really is just too early for it to be a significant driver.

Noel Watson

What's important there is that strategically, we positioned ourselves as the brand and the player that these AI companies are looking to work with when they're looking to work with somebody in the legal services space. It's strategically important for us to be there, and obviously, we all expect that this will evolve and become much more significant over time.

Jeff Stibel

It's probably the most important point, so I'm glad you brought that up, Noel. I mean, we are effectively the de facto choice for legal services across AI. You know, we're pretty excited about that, and I think it's in part because of our brand, it's in part because of our product, and it's in part because of our 25-year history.

Patrick McIlwee

Okay. Understood. Last quarter you talked about leaning into the positive formation environment early this year with some incremental CAM and, you know, we definitely saw that come through this quarter. Obviously seems like that yielded the intended results with the top line performance and also some implied share gains on the formation front. My question is, can you talk about how you evaluate the ROI on that CAM as we look further into the year? You know, what channels you're leaning into and how your spending plans have evolved, if at all, since last quarter?

Noel Watson

Yeah. We clearly and intentionally spent up into a stronger environment, but also to get our brand messaging across in Q1. We're expecting that to continue, but to a lesser extent. You know, year over year, we expect spend to be up for the rest of the year, but to a lesser extent than in Q1. We measure it in several different ways. You know, we're heavily performance marketing oriented, so we're measuring ROAS on a daily basis and making tweaks and adjustments to our bidding strategies. We're also measuring it in intangible ways, things like unaided brand awareness, which we mentioned in our prepared remarks, where we saw a marked improvement in unaided brand awareness in the quarter as we surveyed it.

Noel Watson

As we know that this will, you know, lend itself to supporting our efforts around channel diversification. Things like how we show up in AIO and how, you know, how we do in terms of our partner channel, where we're seeing strong momentum. The brand strength really supports our all of those initiatives as well.

Jeff Stibel

Make no mistake, the point we're making, the positioning we're making is we are the choice. There shouldn't be alternatives. You know, that's one of the reasons why, you know, we're pushing towards these exclusive relationships with other small business channels that have great existing and established small businesses.

Noel Watson

I guess one other thing to mention is, you know, as our partners, you know, we think that's just a great strategic opportunity for us. It does take some investment upfront to onboard them and start to scale them up. We have clear plans that we engage in to optimize those over time. It gives us not only the opportunity to drive customer acquisition that's new formation, but for us to start to roll out initiatives that target established businesses within those partner bases. You know, there's a lot more flexibility when you're working with a partner on your go-to-market in approaching acquisition as a whole, much more so than we see in traditional search.

Patrick McIlwee

Thanks, Noel, and thanks, Jeff. Another nice quarter here.

Jeff Stibel

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes to the line of Kishan Patel with Raymond James. Your line is now open.

Kishan Patel

Hi, this is Kishan Patel. I'm for Josh Beck. How are you thinking about utilizing AI internally as a way to grow number of SMBs managed per expert or concierge manager while maintaining your service levels? What areas of the business are furthest along today?

Jeff Stibel

Great question. We're not thinking, we're doing, and we've seen tremendous progress here. At the risk of overstating the answer is all areas from, you know, from the office of the CEO down to, you know, anyone taking out the trash, including me. You know, the reality is we've seen greater throughput, you know, almost across the board. We mentioned a handful of things on, you know, on the side of customer service. We've talked in the past about what we're able to do with concierge reps and expanding throughput there. Legal services, we're having, you know, a great deal of success with our owned and operated law firm, and we're starting to push that out to our network in terms of understanding there.

Jeff Stibel

Just the ability to use AI as a true partner here is probably more valuable within LegalZoom than it is with most customers with most companies, because our expertise has to be right. There is no sense of good enough. You know, we hinted at, you know, the progress we expect to be making on the margin side in the back half of the year. Much of that is because of our ability to scale our AI investment and push that down throughout the organization and do it effectively and aggressively. You know, the final point that I'll bring up is you know, this requires an organizational sea change as well, and we've embraced that pretty deeply.

Jeff Stibel

Because of it, we feel pretty excited, you know, and downright confident in our ability to execute.

Noel Watson

It's moving real metrics in the business. I'll reiterate maybe a couple of them that we called out in our prepared remarks. For example, on the legal side, in terms of servicing our customers, we saw a 55% reduction in trademark search classification time and a 30% increase in efficiency around drafting patents. On our customer care side, AI is now handling 40, approximately 40% of our chat volume end-to-end and doing it at a, you know, a tNPS that's on par with our human agents.

Noel Watson

When it does transfer chats, it's increasing the efficiency with which the human agents can bring that to closure. On the sales side, we're using it in terms of onboarding sales reps more quickly and providing on-call guidance that's helping to identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities. As Jeff said, we're really using it cross-functionally and in a way that's directly impacting the customer experience.

Kishan Patel

Thanks very much.

Jeff Stibel

Thank you.

Noel Watson

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes on the line of Matt Condon with Citizens Bank. Your line is now open.

Matt Condon

Great. Thank you for taking my questions. My first one is just on the Concierge Suite. Great to see that it's, you know, doing very well. Just when you think about 2026 and the product roadmap, like how does that really, you know, form where you're gonna go next with the products and what could we see coming down the pike here? My second question is just on partnerships. Getting to that 10% in volume, how big can this be over time, and what types of partners are you finding that are working really well? Thank you so much.

Jeff Stibel

Right. Both great questions. I'll take them, and Noel, feel free to fill in on anything I miss. Concierge has been a great success. Obviously it's early. It's a recurring revenue product, typically annual, so we're just getting through the, you know, the first set of renewal cycles. But you know, the most important thing to understand is it's roughly three times the ARPU of our average product. When you look forward, where are we headed? To drive ARPU higher and higher, so that we have enough margin to add greater and greater value to ultimately reduce churn and extend lifetime value.

Jeff Stibel

This has been a tremendous success, and we're now leveraging some of that success to go back into our other products like our legal plan products, business advisory, as an example and, you know, and learn from that and integrate some of those learnings. Our expectation is that is going, you know, that is going to grow. We're gonna leverage other human-in-the-loop products to, you know, to push on that motion. And, you know, we're gonna leverage more and more experts at greater and greater scale as we integrate both human and artificial expertise using AI to give us both a margin boost but also drive ARPU further up the curve while adding value for our customers so that we keep them longer. It's, you know, it really is a virtuous circle.

Jeff Stibel

Switching to the partnership side, you know, the partner channel I think is an area of missed opportunity in the past and something we have spent a huge amount of time investing in. You know, the leaders of that channel, Kathy and Liz, have been laser-focused on this for the last six to nine months. You've seen, you know, a marked increase in a very short period of time, mark our words, there's more to come. You know, this is under-penetrated because anyone who has access to, has built relationships with, has a trusted relationship with a small business audience, we should be working with them. We can help them. We can help them if they haven't formed, form their business.

Jeff Stibel

More importantly, if they have, through Concierge products, through legal plans, through compliance offerings, and these are all things that are native to what we do, but that we haven't offered outside of our platform. Even Concierge, we're still in that test phase such that we've been selling only to our customers. Opening that up to other partners is a really exciting avenue. I think you should expect more to come from us, and you know, and we want that pressure.

Matt Condon

Thank you.

Jeff Stibel

You bet.

Operator

Thank you. Your last question comes to the line of John Byun with Jefferies. Your line is now open.

John Byun

Hi, thank you. This is John Byun for Brent Thill at Jefferies. Actually, another question regarding Concierge Suite. I mean, I'm looking at your slide deck, and it looks like, you know, the list prices are between $1,000 and $1,400 compared to your ARPU is on your $260, so obviously it can be a very big contributor. Just wondering, you know, if you can kind of size up the percentage contribution maybe either as overall business or for the subscription business. Also wondering where are you getting, you know, the lead gen sources?

John Byun

I mean, I guess you just mentioned it's your base itself, but, a follow-up would be in terms of Formation Nation sales rep productivity, wondering if you can talk about that and whether the number of reps is growing at all. Thank you.

Jeff Stibel

Sure. Yeah, I'll take the Concierge question. It is a continuation. We haven't disclosed the size and scale in part for two reasons, both of which we think warrant a bit more time. The first is we are only using leads from our base. You know, to your specific question, John, that means we're looking at that base of customers. We're checking whether they're in compliance or not in compliance, whether they need to be reinstated and what the direct needs from LegalZoom's perspective are.

Jeff Stibel

You can imagine over time, once we perfect this, the ability to go out to partners and direct marketing because we'll, you know, we'll be able to help people get banking relationships, get insurance they might not have been able to get otherwise, get off personal guarantees by helping them, you know, become and maintain compliance over the long run with these Concierge products. The second is we haven't perfected the product itself yet. We're still looking at pricing. We think that there's huge inelasticity, and we've tested it, but we won't pressure test that until we have the product right. Do we wanna include lawyers in that product? Do we wanna include accountants in that product? How far up the chain do we wanna go?

Jeff Stibel

Because we know that the more we can offer a customer, the longer they're gonna stay, and they are willing to pay for that value, if we're providing a strong service for them. We continue to tease apart what the different variables of Concierge are currently and should be. You know, so far we're incredibly pleased. We're seeing, you know, incredible growth from that. You know, when you look at it is the predominant driver of our human-in-the-loop, you know, growth here. We expect it to continue to be. You know, we're excited, but we think it's premature to discuss the, you know, the overall contribution. Noel, I'll let you take that question.

Noel Watson

Yeah. Just on the sales question. For Formation Nation specifically, I think the call-out is that this quarter represents a full quarter of Formation Nation sales costs relative to a partial quarter last year, because we acquired them partway through the calendar quarter. With that said, we are investing in sales both across both of the brands, Formation Nation and LegalZoom, in part to support the growth that we're seeing on Concierge, on the LegalZoom side, and then on the Formation Nation side as we see greater demand, and we're very much tying any incremental hires on the Formation Nation side to an ROI equation and ensuring that there's enough demand to support the incremental hire. That's how we're determining when to add sales reps there.

John Byun

Okay. Thank you very much.

Noel Watson

Thank you, John.

Jeff Stibel

You bet.

Operator

Thank you.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-04

Assessing LegalZoom (LZ) Valuation After AI Impersonation Support Offer And Rising Earnings Optimism

Simply Wall St.

Make better investment decisions with Simply Wall St's easy, visual tools that give you a competitive edge. LegalZoom.com (LZ) is back in focus after offering free trademark legal support to Taylor Swift and other public figures to combat AI driven impersonations, alongside rising optimism ahead of its upcoming earnings release. See our latest analysis for LegalZoom.com. Recent attention around its AI impersonation support and optimism before earnings has coincided with a 15.61% 30 day share price return from a last close of US$6.74, although the 1 year total shareholder return of 8.67% decline and 3 year total shareholder return of 14.03% decline show longer term momentum has been fading. If this kind of legal tech story has you thinking more broadly about opportunities in tech related services, it could be a good time to scan 17 top founder-led companies Short term excitement, improving annual revenue and profit growth, and a market cap of about US$1.17b all meet at a share price under US$7. This raises the question of whether LegalZoom.com is quietly undervalued or already pricing in its next leg of growth. Against a last close of $6.74, the most followed narrative pegs LegalZoom.com’s fair value at $9.88, suggesting a sizeable gap between price and expectations. Read the complete narrative. Curious what has to happen for that valuation to stack up? The narrative leans on faster profit growth, steadier subscription revenue, and a richer future earnings multiple. Result: Fair Value of $9.88 (UNDERVALUED) Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what's behind the forecasts. However, this hinges on subscription growth offsetting weaker business formations, as well as on execution of the AI and CEO transition without earnings or revenue surprises. Find out about the key risks to this LegalZoom.com narrative. The user narrative leans on a fair value of $9.88, yet the current P/E of 75.5x is far higher than the Professional Services industry at 19.6x, peers at 17.1x, and even the fair ratio of 34.1x. That gap points to valuation risk rather than an obvious mispricing, so how much optimism are you really paying for? For a closer look at how this pricing stacks up against fundamentals and peers, check the full valuation breakdown, including the fair ratio context, in the See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. M...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-30

Distribution Solutions Group (DSGR) Misses Q1 Earnings Estimates

Zacks

Distribution Solutions Group (DSGR) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.24 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.26 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.31 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -7.69%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this industrial products and tools maker would post earnings of $0.32 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.18, delivering a surprise of -43.75%. Over the last four quarters, the company has not been able to surpass consensus EPS estimates. Distribution Solutions, which belongs to the Zacks Industrial Services industry, posted revenues of $496 million for the quarter ended March 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.23%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $478.03 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Distribution Solutions shares have lost about 1.6% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 4.2%. While Distribution Solutions has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Distribution Solutions was unfavorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to underperform the...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-29

LegalZoom (LZ) Expected to Beat Earnings Estimates: Should You Buy?

Zacks

The market expects LegalZoom (LZ) to deliver flat earnings compared to the year-ago quarter on higher revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended March 2026. This widely-known consensus outlook is important in assessing the company's earnings picture, but a powerful factor that might influence its near-term stock price is how the actual results compare to these estimates. The earnings report, which is expected to be released on May 6, might help the stock move higher if these key numbers are better than expectations. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower. While the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call, it's worth handicapping the probability of a positive EPS surprise. This online platform for legal services is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.13 per share in its upcoming report, which represents no change from the year-ago quarter. Revenues are expected to be $202.39 million, up 10.5% from the year-ago quarter. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 13.33% higher over the last 30 days to the current level. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period. Investors should keep in mind that the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts may not always get reflected in the aggregate change. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Estimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. Our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) -- has this insight at its core. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. Howev...

As of 2026-05-30 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook