BK Technologies Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BK Technologies Corporation conference call for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. This call is being recorded. All participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. Following the management's remarks, the call will be open for questions. There is a slide presentation that accompanies today's remarks, which can be accessed via the webcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host for today, John Nesbitt of IMS Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to our conference call to discuss BK Technologies results for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. On the call today are John Suzuki, Chief Executive Officer, and Scott Malmager, Chief Financial Officer. I'll take a moment to read the safe harbor statement. Statements made during this conference call presented in the presentation that are not based on historical facts are forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, projections or statements of future goals and targets regarding the company's revenue and profits. These statements are subject to known and unknown factors and risks. The company's actual results, performance, or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. And some of the factors and risks that could cause or contribute to such material differences have been described in the company's press release and in BK's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information and understandings that are believed to be accurate as of today, and we do not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements. Okay, I'll now turn the call over to John Suzuki, Chief Executive Officer at BK Technologies. Please go ahead, John. Thank you, John.

Thank you everyone for joining today. I'll start by reviewing some of the highlights of our operations and financial results during the quarter and fiscal year. Then I'll turn it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Malmanger, for a deeper dive into our financial results. We'll conclude by opening up the call for a brief Q&A. Turning to slide three. Our 2023 fiscal year was highlighted by strong revenue growth and margin improvement. 2023 marks our second consecutive year of revenue growth with full-year revenue increasing 45% to $74 million. And we capped off the year with a profitable fourth quarter that included earnings of $0.08. Driving this growth was the performance of our BKR series radios. We shipped 34,500 radios in 2023, a 37% increase over 2022. Our BKR 5000 single-band radio is enjoying strong market demand as federal, state, and local customers upgrade their portable communications technologies. And likewise, our newly launched BKR 9000 multiband radio continues to gain recognition and traction. While the multiband capabilities of the BKR 9000 drive a higher price point, there is only a nominally higher cost to manufacture the 9000 as compared to the BKR 5000. So we believe the 9,000 can significantly enhance our margin as it continues to gain popularity among our customer audiences. The fourth quarter of 2023 marked our sixth consecutive quarter of sequential gross margin improvement to 35.1%, a return to historical levels. And we achieved full-year gross margin of 30% compared to 19.3% in 2022. As announced last year, we are in the process of shifting the manufacturing of our radios to east-west manufacturing. We believe that outsourcing our manufacturing and transition to a more asset-light model will improve our margins in the long term by simplifying our supply chain management and reducing production expenses and end product costs. EastWest is an existing reliable partner and this transition is an important strategic step for a business that we believe will help us to ensure efficient fulfillment of purchase orders and strengthen our margins over time. The move to EastWest is underway and will take place in planned stages with no expected interruptions in production or shipping capabilities. Under the terms of the agreement, EastWest has also made an aggregate $2 million investment in BK Technologies that consists of the purchase of 77,520 shares of the company's common stock at a price of $12.90 per share, as well as warrants to purchase 135,500 shares of common stock at an excise price of $15 per share. The East-West investment closed in the fourth quarter of 2023, and we appreciate their vote of confidence in our company. Turning to slide four. We continue to grow the amount of radio units shipped annually, and as a result of increased shipments, we recognized strong revenue growth in 2023. As I mentioned before, we saw 37% in radio units shipped in the full year 2023 compared to the full year of 2022 and revenue growth of 45% compared to the prior year driven by a combination of increased radio shipments as we work through the backlog that accumulated during the supply chain constraints in 2022 and significant order activity related to the BKR product line. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, we received a purchase order for our BKR 9000 from the State of Hawaii Department of Health as they battled the wildfires. Another large purchase order from Sandoval County valued at $963,000, which, as I said last quarter, we defined as a Tier 3 county in terms of population density. Also in the fourth quarter, we received a $315,000 purchase order from the United States Department of Defense representing the BKR 9000's growing recognition among federal and military agencies. This order activity has continued in 2024. In January, we received a purchase order from the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and Forestry Division for 87 BKR 9000 radios, which are compatible with the Arkansas P25 system allowing the forest division to standardize on a single radio model across all operations. I'm pleased to say that we've already completed shipment of this order, and the customer subsequently increased their order to more than triple the initial amount. We also received an order for 315 BKR 9000s from Boulder County, Colorado. As part of an upgrade program, to replace a variety of Boulder radios for 26 fire agencies throughout the county. This order is especially exciting because Boulder County is a Tier 2 county with over 300,000 residents, showcasing the 9,000's ability to penetrate larger markets. Turning to slide five. 2023 was characterized by a consistent gross margin improvement and a return to the lower end of our historical margin levels as we closed out the year with the fourth quarter gross margin at 35.1%. This was our sixth consecutive quarter of gross margin improvement dating back to the second quarter of 2022 when supply constraints severely impacted our margin profile. We continue to advance our cost reduction initiatives and believe that our transition to contract manufacturing, coupled with the higher margin BKR 9000 radio, becoming an increasingly larger part of our product mix, positions us well to continue improving margins in fiscal 2024. Now I'll turn over to Scott Mallmanager, CFO, to take you through the financials. Scott?

Thanks, John. On slide six, you'll see a summary of our financial and operating results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023. Sales for the fourth quarter total approximately $16.3 million, compared with $20.3 million for the same quarter last year, primarily due to the record radio unit shipments in the fourth quarter of 2022. Last year's fourth quarter revenue performance was significantly impacted by improved electronic component availability, which allowed the company to work through substantial backlog developed during the first nine months of 2022. Full year 2023 revenue increased 45%, to $74.1 million compared to $51 million for the full year of 2022. Gross profit margin in the fourth quarter of 2023 was 35.1 percent, which as John mentioned represents a return to historical levels, compared with 21.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. For the full year of 2023, Gross margin increased to 30% compared to 19.3% for the full year of 2022, primarily related to decreased material, component, and freight costs due to improving supply chain factors. Settling general and administrative expenses, or SG&A, totaled approximately $5.3 million for the fourth quarter. compared to 6 million for the same quarter last year. SG&A for the full year of 2023 totaled 23 million compared to 20.9 million in 2022. SG&A costs were higher on an annual basis due to engineering and product development expenses related to the continued design and development of the BKR series and the introduction of the BKR 9000 product to the market. We expect SG&A expenses to decrease as a percentage of sales going forward. Operating income totaled $400,000 in the fourth quarter compared with an operating loss of $1.6 million in the fourth quarter of last year. We recognized an operating loss of $777,000 for the full year of 2023, compared with an operating loss of $11.1 million for the full year of 2022. In the fourth quarter of 2023, we recorded net income of $290,000, or $0.08 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $961,000, or $0.28 per basic and diluted share in the prior year. For the full year, we recognized a net loss of $2.2 million, or $0.65 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $11.6 million, or $3.44 per basic and diluted share in 2022. On a non-GAAP basis, we also provided in our earnings release tables for adjusted EPS, which adds back net realized and unrealized gain or loss on investments, stock-based compensation expenses, severance, and a new product introduction inventory write-off. Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $650,000, or 19 cents per basic and diluted share compared with a loss of 603,000 or 18 cents per basic and diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full year of 2023, adjusted net loss of 52,000 or two cents per basic and diluted share compared to a loss of 9.6 million or $2.85 per basic and diluted share for the full year of 2022. We reported adjusted EBITDA of $892,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to adjusted EBITDA of $436,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full year of 2023, we reported an adjusted EBITDA of $130,000 compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $9.1 million for the full year of 2022. Finally, as of December 31st, 2023, we have approximately $3.5 million of cash and cash equivalents and no long-term debt. Working capital at December 31st, 2023 was 16.8 million compared with approximately 13.2 million at the year end 2022. From a liquidity standpoint, we believe that our current cash position combined with the anticipated gas cash generated primarily by radio sales and borrowing availability under our credit facility provide us with the working capital that we need to grow our business. I will now turn the call back over to John.

Thanks, Scott. Turning to slide seven, we want to take some time on this call to provide our outlook for 2024 based on the visibility that we have today. With our backlog now normalizing at 16 million from the peak of 42 million in September of 22, We expect 2024 revenue to be consistent with 2023 levels, but with an improved margin profile. Our cost down programs are continuing and should contribute to incremental margin improvement through 2024, especially as we transition our manufacturing to east-west. Moreover, the higher margin BCARE 9000 is expected to have a positive impact on our gross margin as this product continues to gain market recognition and becomes a more prominent part of our product mix. Overall, we are optimistic about the upcoming year, which should be characterized by expanding gross margins, lower operating costs, and significantly improved profitability and free cash flow. With the visibility we're seeing today, we believe that we will be able to achieve earnings per share of at least $1.50 for the full year 2024. Turning to slide eight. When I joined the company in July of 2021, I stated that BK is on a path to grow revenue from the low 40s to $100 million by 2025. My statement was based on our investment strategy to develop a new generation of radios, the BKR series. First introduced in the fall of 2020, The BKR5000 single-band portable radio quickly established sales growth momentum and was the primary driver fueling our ability to achieve full-year 2024 revenue of $74 million. Last summer, BK launched its first multi-band portable radio, the BKR9000. Initial market response has been positive, with first responders testing the BKR9000 in their most difficult operating conditions. Radio performance is meeting the high standards of first responders, while the look, feel, and audio quality are exceeding expectations. For years, the public safety market has been calling for an affordable multiband radio. We believe that the BKR 9000 answers that call and will fuel BK's next stage of growth to support our goal of $100 million in revenue by 2025. Looking beyond 2025, we're also focused on establishing products and services that will open up additional verticals that we can leverage and enhance our offerings beyond traditional communications technologies. Our SAS Business Unit has demonstrated promising early results through its Interop 1 offering, and we believe that this part of our business represents an attractive long-term opportunity that will complement our traditional hardware model. BK Technologies has established a reputation as a premier provider of communications technology to the public safety and critical communication markets, and that reputation continues to grow. With a steady improving margin profile and an innovative product line that has demonstrated the ability to capture market share across a wide range of customers in public safety communication space, we believe that we are well positioned with momentum to continue driving results in 2024 and beyond. Before I open the call for questions, I would like to remind everyone that we will be attending the 36th Annual Roth Conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, California, March 17th through the 19th. If you're attending the conference, please feel free to reach out to us via the contact information at the bottom of today's press release, or sign up to the conference for one-on-one meetings with Scott and myself. With that, we'll now open up the call for questions. Jen?

Thank you very much. At this time, we are opening the floor for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For anyone using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before you press the keys. Please hold a moment while we poll for any questions. Okay, our first question is coming from Brett Reese of Jenny Montgomery Scott. Brett, your line is live.

Hi, John. Hi, Scott. Congrats on, you know, good continued results. Thank you. I don't know if you can answer this, but I'll ask it. The guidance of $1.50 earnings per share, you know, for calendar year 2024, what range of EBITDA and free cash flow would that translate into?

I'll try to answer that and John can fill in the blanks. Basically, our gross margins are trending in the right direction and have been for several quarters. We are also continuing with our cost down programs and the higher margin BKR 9000 is becoming a larger part of our product mix and will further enhance the margins. If you just take the math of 35% gross margins on the revenues in the 70s, and use existing SG&A as a percentage of sales, you should get close to the $1.50.

All right. So I take $1.50 times the amount of outstanding shares, and that's my EBITDA number?

Yeah, that's going to be in the range, yes.

Okay. Okay. And okay. With respect to the cadence and the handoff in manufacturing to, from us to East West, is it, you know, it seems like it's going along very well and smoothly. Do you see a continuation of that or. Can there be any hiccups? Does anything keep you up at night with respect to that relationship?

Hi, Rhys. Thanks for the question. I'll answer that. So first, I will say on our last call, we said that the transition will take place between the first quarter and the third quarter of this year. We're well into the first quarter, and I would say the transition is going very well. That being said, what keeps me at night is what you don't know. So the team has done a lot of work to mitigate risk. Part of that was building up our inventory. I don't know if you noticed, we had a fairly high inventory at the end of the year, especially in the finished products and the WIP. The purpose of that was to ensure that we would be able to continue to make our deliveries in the first quarter in the event that there were any hiccups. So far, as we close out the first quarter, the transition project is actually ahead of plan for the products that we had planned a transition in the first quarter. But I'll talk about that more when we get to our first quarter call.

Great. Thank you for taking my questions. I will drop back in queue. But good results. Thank you. Thank you, Rhys. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Just as a reminder, if anyone does have any questions, please press star 1 on your phone keypad now. Our next question is coming from Aaron Martin of AIGH Investment Partners.

Good morning. Congratulations on the progress, especially on the gross margin. Can you give us basically quality statements around the gross margin and improvement? Can you give us more quantitative statements about where there is more gross margin improvement as we go into the next calendar year?

Well, yeah, I think I'll try to answer that Basically, the margin improvement was incremental over 2023, and that's kind of our baseline. We've returned back to historical levels, and we've got a number of initiatives, cost reduction initiatives on the different product lines that will continue through 2024. And then the mixed profile with the BKR 9000 will continue to improve the margins incrementally throughout 24 and 25 as the BKR 9000 is a larger percentage of our revenue base.

When I look at the 2024, you know, as a percentage of the overall shipments, what percentage should we assume the 9000 will be?

We're not providing that. Aaron, we're not providing that information. When we launched the 9000, I had said that we were not going to give details on mix for competitive reasons. And again, I'll reiterate, we have enjoyed with the 5,000 and our previous generation products, a market that has been very loyal to BK, where we enjoyed 95% market share. The market that we're now entering is heavily contested with a number of competitors, and we're taking market share, right? So I don't need to spotlight that more than what I'm doing in our press releases, but to say that the market is very large is a correct statement, and I believe that we are taking market share.

Got it. Okay. And then on the guide for $1.15 EPS, that's GAAP EPS? Or, I mean, you started this quarter giving off non-GAAP numbers. What guide is which?

The guide is on GAAP EPS, yes.

Got it. And then this is the first quarter where you started reporting non-GAAP. Can you go into a little bit of the differential there?

Well, yeah, I think the inclusion of non-GAAP measures is going to help the investors better understand their strategic and operational factors associated with the company's financial performance. You know, we want to provide this information, and we believe that adjusted EBITDA free cash flow, and non-GAAP EPS are the best representations of the business. So that's the reason that we started to use non-GAAP measures.

Got it. And what was the non-GAAP EPS number in this quarter? 19 cents. Got it. So if I were to try to extrapolate that on the guide, $1.50 of GAAP EPS would be what in non-GAAP EPS?

I don't think we'll, you know, provide guidance on that.

Okay, so let's go in this Q4 in terms of the, I assume you have a reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP EPS. What was the difference there, the depreciation?

Yeah, it's going to be depreciation and that, well, that's for the EBITDA. For the GAAP measure, the stock comp severance and inventory write-down or the adjustments for EPS.

Aaron, it's detailed in that table in the press release. Sorry, we actually don't have it in front of us, so Scott's going by memory here.

Okay. And then in terms of Interop One, what can you tell us in terms of the number of agencies using it? You kind of give us some qualitative stuff, but what can you tell us about where it's being used and are we seeing any sort of cross-selling between that and your existing hardware business?

Yeah, so that's actually the area I would definitely highlight, right? I think if you looked at the existing customer base with the 5,000, there's definitely interest in Interop 1. We had some trials. U.S. Forestry and Bureau of Land Management, the federal level, had some trials. And they do see this capability having value. That being said, for where they operate, they tend to have no cell phone coverage. And so they're really looking for that low Earth orbit satellite system that's going to be put out where you have satellite direct-to-cell phone service, and that we're still a little bit early in that market. But for those types of customers, they're really looking for that service to be available to provide coverage, obviously in areas where there's no coverage today. In terms of where we're seeing the most traction is really with the BKR 9000 customers. So pretty much every customer who has purchased the 9000, we've talked to them about Interop One, and all of them find that service as an added value to their business. So most recently, the larger ones that we got, Sandoval County in the Q4 timeframe when we went to make the deliveries for the 9000, we had our team there. It's over 200 radios I think we delivered to them, and we did We took the opportunity to introduce them to Interop One, and immediately they saw the value of that service, and they've been in field trials since then. More recently, Boulder County, same story. So pretty much every customer we talk to around the 9000, there's a tie-in with Interop One. And again, it's a little bit different operation. They tend to be more around the cities and the suburbs and the need for broadband. is something that they're using today so that a lot of their officers already have smart phones deployed. So that was very encouraging for us as we see that. And we do believe that these are complementary services. They don't replace each other, but having both services, the 9000 and Interop One, certainly adds to our story of why you should choose the 9000.

Got it. Now, going back to the gross margin, is it fair to say that, I mean, some of the stuff in the gross margin improvement in the earlier quarters or six quarters of improvement was really just getting rid of some of the supply chain, you know, higher cost stuff when you were expediting stuff and all that. Is it fair to say all that is finished and now it's a question of cost downs?

Yes.

Okay.

And then... I will expand on that a little bit, Aaron. Some of these cost ends, as we go forward with East-West, we're more able to vertically integrate the sub-assemblies into the East-West manufacturing operations, avoiding that two-stepping. As they take more control of the full product, the cost of the product will go down over time.

Got it. Though, as you did mention, you do have very high inventory going into the year. Do you still have some of the high-cost inventory sitting there on your balance sheet, which will keep the gross margin slightly lower while it's running through the balance sheet?

Aaron, I would say there's some, but I would say it's minimal. I would say it's not material or not significant.

Yeah, especially from the 22 timeframe.

Right.

Got it. So lastly, though, I think, Scott, you said before, in regards to the question about the guidance, if you just take the current revenue run rates, mid-70s, put a 35% gross margin on it, you essentially get, and the same operating expense levels, you essentially get $1.50 in EPS. So I'm trying to reconcile that with, you know, the call for continued gross margin improvement. And, you know, so even let's say revenue does not grow, which, you know, put that as it is, shouldn't we, if 35% of the baseline going into the quarter, going into the year, and I don't know how much improvement we're talking about, but $1.50 seems conservative if there's going to be gross margin improvement. Is that accurate?

Yeah, I like a conservative measure.

Okay, but my math is correct?

Yes, your math is correct.

Okay, thank you very much. Congratulations on the progress.

Thank you, Aaron.

Thank you very much. Well, we don't appear to have any further questions in the queue. I'm now going to hand back over to the management for their closing remarks.

Thank you, Jen. Thank you all for participating in today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again as we report our Q1 results. All the best to all of you and have a great day.

Thank you very much, John. This does conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your