BK Technologies Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BK Technologies Corporation conference call for the second quarter of 2024. This call is being recorded. All participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. Following 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 BTEC Technologies results for the second quarter of 2024. On the call today are John Suzuki, Chief Executive Officer, and Scott Malmanger, Chief Financial Officer. I'll take a moment to read the Safe Harbor Statement. Statements made during this conference call and presented in the presentation that are based on historical facts are forward-looking statements. Such statements include but are not limited to projections or statements of future goals, targets, 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 this morning'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'm going to turn the call over to John Suzuki, CEO of 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, then I'll turn it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Malmanger, for a deeper dive into our financial results. will conclude by opening the call for a brief Q&A. Our second quarter results reflect strong operational progress demonstrated by record new order activity, revenue growth, improved gross margins, and lower operating expenses. All help to drive our fourth consecutive quarter of profitability with gap net income of $1.7 million or 47 cents per share, and non-GAAP earnings of 55 cents per diluted share. The transition of our product lines to east-west manufacturing continues with the BQR 5000 and KNG mobile lines now fully transferred, and the transition of our BQR 9000 product line expected to be complete by the end of Q3. As a result of our outsourcing activities to date, we started to realize lower manufacturing costs in the second quarter, and we anticipate additional cost savings once the transition is fully complete. The BKR 9000 continued to gain traction in the market this quarter, especially among our wildland fire customer base. Customers that already use our KNG or BKR 5000 radios recognize the benefits of a multiband BKR 9000, with many beginning to integrate the new radio into their fleets and utilize its multiband capabilities in their broader missions. We received several purchase orders for both the BKR 5000 and 9000 in the second quarter from state and local agencies, including the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE, totaling $15 million, as well as $1.1 million order from the Mississippi Forestry Commission. Slide four. Second quarter gross margins improved to 37.3%, surpassing our target margin levels of 35%. Our cost reduction initiatives have been a key driver of this recent improvement, spearheaded by the transition of our manufacturing to east-west. which has allowed us to realize lower product costs. We expect gross margins to continue to improve through 2024 and 2025 as we work towards achieving gross margins of 50%. As you can see in the graph on slide five, we've achieved improved earnings per share each quarter since the second quarter of 2023, as well as four consecutive quarters of profitability. In the second quarter, we achieved net income of $1.7 million compared to a net income loss of $1.3 million in the second quarter of 2023. As a result of our ongoing cost reduction initiatives and shifting product mix that includes the higher margin BKR 9000 multiband radio, we've been able to derive enhanced profitability and revenue over the past several quarters. We're encouraged by our improved performance and we believe we are well positioned for continued improvement as we target full year 2024 GAAP earnings per share in excess of $1.50 or non-GAAP adjusted EPS in excess of $1.77. Slide six. Our BKR 5000 and BKR 9000 radios throw record new order booking activity in the second quarter. As I mentioned a moment ago, CAL FIRE, a long-standing customer of BK Technologies, placed purchase orders in the quarter totaling over $15 million for our KNG mobile radio, BKR 5000 portable radio, and BKR 9000 multiband portable radio. Additionally, we received orders from the Bureau of Land Management and the Portland Oregon Fire and Rescue demonstrating the BQR series radios popularity among federal, state, and local agencies as wildland fire activity increases demand for reliable communications technology. We're very pleased with the traction that the multiband BQR 9000 has been gaining in the market, both with our existing customers and new ones that are recognizing the value multiband capabilities can add to their fleet. In the second quarter, we also received purchase orders for the BKR 9000 from the Mississippi Forestry Commission, the City of Ventura, California Fire Department, and the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Overall, market interest in our BKR series radios is increasing. Our radios serve as a critical communications equipment particularly for first responders in rugged and remote terrains. Right now, over 6,500 firefighters and support staff are fighting one of California's largest wildfires on record, the Park Fire, which has burned over 400,000 acres and is only 34% contained. And our radios are on the front line with the first responders. Fires like these are becoming more and more prevalent throughout the United States, quadrupling in frequency in the last 30 years, and we anticipate that demand from agencies tasked with fighting these fires will continue to increase as a result. Slide seven. Our transition to east-west manufacturing and adoption of an asset-light model for our business is going well. I'm pleased to report that the majority of the BKR 5000 radios shipped in the quarter were manufactured by EastWest. Also during the second quarter, we transferred our K&G mobiles to the EastWest manufacturing facility in Juarez, Mexico. Our focus is now on the transfer of the BKR 9000 production by the end of the third quarter, at which point all manufacturing will reside at EastWest. The asset-light model is a key focus and major initiative for our business and has already resulted in lower inventory and lower product costs with a positive impact on our margin performance. Additionally, the outsourced manufacturing model allows us to focus our internal resources on product development, engineering, and marketing of our products. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Malmanger, to go over our financial results for the quarter. Scott?

Thank you, John. Sales for the second quarter totaled approximately $20.3 million compared to $19 million for the same quarter last year, but increased sequentially by approximately 11%, which is in line with our expectation that 2024 revenue will be consistent with 2023 results. Gross profit margin in the second quarter was 37.3%, which, as John mentioned, surpasses our target margin levels of 35% for 2024, and we expect to continue realizing incremental margin improvement as we drive our cost reduction initiatives. Selling general and administrative expenses, or SG&A, for the second quarter totaled approximately $5.5 million compared to $6 million for the same quarter last year. Operating income totaled $2 million compared with an operating loss of $784,000 in the second quarter of 2023. We recorded net income of 1.7 million or 47 cents per basic and diluted share in the second quarter of 2024, compared with a net loss of 1.3 million or 39 cents per basic and diluted share in the prior year period. We reported adjusted EBITDA of $2.5 million in the second quarter of 24, compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $786,000 in the second quarter of 2023. Non-GAAP adjusted net income, which adds back net realized and unrealized gain or loss on investments, stock-based compensation expenses, and severance expenses was $2 million for an adjusted EPS of $56,000. cents per basic share or 55 cents per diluted share compared with a loss of $840,000 or 25 cents per basic and diluted share in the second quarter of 2023. We expect enhanced profitability as we continue to reduce costs and improve our gross margin and remain confident in our target of full-year GAAP EPS exceeding $1.50, and full-year adjusted EPS target exceeding $1.77 per share. Turning now to the company's liquidity, we have been able to significantly enhance our balance sheet through the first six months of the year. As of June 30, 2024, we have approximately $3 million of cash and cash equivalent and no long-term debt. Working capital improved to approximately $20.3 million at June 30th, 2024, compared to $16.3 million at December 31st, 2023. Driven by increases in accounts receivable, that was somewhat offset by inventory reductions as we continue to transition radial manufacturing lines to east-west. With our visibility today, we believe that we are well positioned to continue improving our balance sheet through the balance of 2024. We believe that our current cash position combined with anticipated cash generated primarily by radio sales and borrowing availability under our credit facility provides us with the working capital that we need to grow our business. I will now turn the call back over to John.

Thank you, Scott. Launched in the fall of 2020, the BKR 5000 remains a strong and consistent driver for our business. The BKR 9000, launched just one year ago, is proving to be successful with both our wildland fire customers, as well as structure fire, law enforcement, and ambulance services. We continue to focus on further accelerating market adoption of the BKR 9000 as we lay the groundwork for growth in 2025 and beyond. We're pleased with the progress we're seeing with regard to our margin profile, which continues to improve thanks to our focus on cost reduction and the diversification of our product mix. The outsourcing of our manufacturing has also benefited our margin performance over this last quarter. and we expect to see further margin improvement as we move through the balance of the year. And finally, the new order activity for both our BKR 5000 and BKR 9000 have driven a record-breaking first half in terms of new orders booked. As we move through the balance of the year, we believe that we are well positioned to continue driving improved performance for our shareholders and remain confident in our ability to exceed full-year GAAP EPS of $1.50 and non-GAAP adjusted EPS of $1.77. With that, I will now open the call for questions. John?

Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Once again, please press star 1 if you have a question or a comment. The first question comes from Brett Rice with Jani. Please proceed.

Hi, John. Hi, Scott. Can you guys hear me? Because I'm working from home. Hey, Brett. Good morning. We can hear you. Great, great, great. I actually have a question on the software that you have, you know, that helps first responders link your radio systems with their cell phone. You know, in view of the technology, The tragedy with the attempted assassination of former President Trump, is your software a solution to different governmental bodies on scene having maybe better coordination to prevent these type of events?

Thanks for the question, Brent. The short answer to that question is yes. Interop One was a solution that was envisioned to provide an interoperability solution between different agencies at the local, state, and federal. As you can see what happened at the tragic incidents in Pennsylvania from the reporting that we've seen to date, it appears that the state and local government had established a unified command center with excellent communications, but the Secret Service had a separate command center, and it seems as if they failed to cross-communicate between this. This is obviously not a best practice for these types of agencies. Normally, they would do much better in the pre-planning side, and they would establish a common communication platform where all agencies, local, state, and federal, can communicate together. Interop One was designed really to address this. And it does it in a very simplified manner over cellular. And it allows for these different agencies that don't normally communicate together, a mechanism or a communications platform where they can establish a unified command for communications. So, again, the answer is yes. This was the purpose of Interop 1, was to provide solutions to these types of events.

John, have you, in the light of this tragedy, have you gotten a greater degree of understanding questions and inquiries and possibly, you know, using the interrupt one?

Yeah, since that day, we've been at two major shows. And what I can say to you is when we are presenting our solution to the various public safety agencies, pretty much everyone commented on the fact that this would have been a useful tool in the situation in Pennsylvania. So that was totally unprompted. I think the agencies that get a demonstration of this capability understand the power of it and understand the application. So that, you know, again, it's a tragic situation that happened, but certainly it's highlighted the need for a product like Interop One to be generally used amongst the different public safety agencies.

Great. Thank you. I'll drop back to you. Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Thank you, Brad.

Once again, if you have a question or a comment, please indicate so by pressing star one on your touchtone phone. The next question is from John Old with Longmeadow Investors. Please proceed.

John and Scott, good morning. Thanks again for the call and congrats on the great results. It looks like obviously things are improving by the quarter. Cash growing, credit facility lower. I'm just sort of trying to tease out, as you look forward over the next year or so, sort of priorities on use of cash and capital allocation, specifically wondering whether a stock buyback program is something that's being considered given where the stock has been trading. Thank you.

Thanks for the question, John. This is John Suzuki. So our priority right now is to rebuild our balance sheet, but given the recent decline in our share price, there has been a dialogue at the board level that we should be looking at reactivating our buyback program. So we agree. We feel that the share prices at this level is certainly deserving of consideration for the company to take some of its new cash flow and purchase shares back.

We would agree with that. Okay. I should know this, but is there one in place? Or does no one have to be authorized? I should know that, but I don't. I'm sorry.

Yeah, that's fair. The authorization we have is a few years old, and we would probably best, it would be best for us to reauthorize that if we were going to go ahead and do that. And so that's something that the board will be considering.

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

The next question comes from Aaron Martin with AIGH Investment Partners. Please proceed.

Hi, good morning, John and Scott. Congratulations on the strong quarter, particularly on the gross margin. And I think this is the first time you've put out there a new target of 50%. Can you, I guess, elaborate on that in terms of, I know you want to be out there to make sure that people realize that just because you passed your 35% target doesn't mean you're done. But, you know, in terms of the trajectory on the gross margin in the shorter term and, you know, maybe the medium term, how we should be thinking about it.

Yeah, thanks for the question, Aaron. So we had actually set a vision 2025 where we had set some ambitious goals of achieving $100 million in revenue and 50% gross margins. I just wanted to kind of restep it that we are still tracking towards that. Now, whether we're going to achieve 50% gross margin in 2025 for the full year, you know, we'll have to go through our budgeting process and we'll provide guidance on that in the fourth quarter call. But what I can say to you is that based on the plan that we have in place, we believe that a gross margin of 50% is achievable for this business. And It's just a matter of getting some of the work completed, and then you'll start seeing those margins on a quarterly basis.

Got it. And that's entirely based upon a hardware business. That's even without a software business, so that's including a software business.

The software component is still relatively small, Aaron, so obviously it includes it, but it's not a material number when you're dealing with the type of revenues that we have.

Got it. And then in terms of the Interop One and the software business, is it at a point yet where we're seeing the cross-selling in terms of driving, you know, the PKR 9000 or the PKR 9000 driving Interop One interest? What can you tell us about that?

Yeah, I think I've mentioned on previous calls, right, definitely from an interest standpoint, right, every customer that we talk to with the 9000 or Interop One, they go hand-in-hand together. In terms of actual sales, the key part of that is the tethering capability, which we had anticipated to be complete by now. That's still under development. And so until we get that tethering capability where we can connect these devices together seamlessly and get that out into the marketplace, I think it's going to be, you know, customers are just waiting to test that out. And I think once we have that ability, then you'll see the sales pull through either way.

Got it. And what was the bookings number for the quarter?

I'm sorry, Aaron, I missed that question.

What was the bookings number for the quarter? I saw the rise in backlog. What was the bookings number?

Yeah, the bookings number was... Go ahead, John.

Yeah, I was just going to mention the first half was $50 million, right? I'm not sure what the breakout was. Maybe Scott knows. But the first half was $50 million in new orders, bookings.

Correct. Second quarter was $28.2 million, and the six months was $50.5. That's correct.

Okay. And I know on the revenue number, the $9,000 is still a relatively small number. But if I look at the bookings, obviously, which is forward-looking, is 9,000 starting to become more material in the percentage of the bookings? Yes. It's still the vast majority of the 5,000?

Yes.

Okay. Going back to the tethering capability, do you have an updated timeline on when that's going to be available and complete?

It's development errands. Um, so to be clear, right, we're connecting these two devices via Bluetooth, right? And it is in a public safety application. And so the thing has to be rock solid and easy to, to, to establish. And, um, and we're just not there yet and we're not comfortable yet. Um, once the team gets it to that point, then we will do our field trials and, and then we'll be promoting it. The interest level is, is off the charts. I will say, um, Customers really like the approach that we're taking on this. We just need to get it to work reliably for public safety. Got it.

Jumping around again, last quarter I asked you on inventories about getting it down, and you took it down about another million dollars this quarter. with this quarter being the transition of the final step in manufacturing to east-west. I guess, would we expect another step down in Q3 and then more dramatic afterwards once all manufacturing has been transferred over? Yes. What do you think about that?

You're correct.

Okay.

Congratulations on the progress. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you.

Thank you. We have reached the end of the question and answer session, and I will now turn the call over to management for closing remarks.

Thank you, John. Thank you all for participating in today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again when we report our Q3 results.

All the best to all of you, and have a great day.

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.