AstroNova, Inc.

Good day and welcome to Astronova's fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2022 financial results conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. To ask a question on today's call, press start one. I would now like to turn the conference over to Scott Solomon of the company's investor relations firm, Sharon Merrill Associates. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Diana. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Hosting this morning's call are Greg Woods, Astronova's president and CEO, and David Smith, vice president and chief financial officer. Greg will discuss the company's operating highlights. David will take you through the financials at a high level. Greg will make concluding comments, and then management will be happy to take your questions. By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings release that was issued today. If you don't have a copy, please go to the investor's page of the Astronova website, www.astronovainc.com. Please note that statements made during today's call that are not statements of historical fact are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions that could involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, actual results could differ materially except as required by law. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of today, April 14, 2022. The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. For further information regarding the forward-looking statements and the factors that may cause differences, Please see the risk factors in Astronova's annual report on Form 10-K and other filings the company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On today's call, management will be referring to non-GAAP financial measures. Astronova believes that the inclusion of these measures helps investors gain a meaningful understanding of changes in the company's cooperating results. It can also help investors who wish to make comparisons between Astronova and other companies on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in today's earnings release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Greg.

Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us to review our fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial results. I want to start today by acknowledging the outstanding work of our more than 360 team members around the world. In what was an extremely challenging year, they worked tirelessly to keep themselves and those around them safe while continuing to provide outstanding service to our customers. While COVID-19 has gradually receded into the background in certain regions over the past several months, the economic consequences of the pandemic, including supply chain disruptions, price increases, and rising transportation costs, continue to have a pronounced effect on our business in the fourth quarter. In round numbers, we estimate that we would have shipped an additional $2 million in product during the quarter, but for delays in receiving the parts necessary to fill those orders. The backlog in our supplies business, which normally is about five days, has recently been running in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 days. And that's despite significantly beefing up our supplies inventory, in an effort to help mitigate any potential delays. We're also seeing steep increases in transportation costs. To put those increases into context, freight in-charges were up more than $600,000 on a sequential basis in Q4, and more than $700,000 year over year. We are taking steps to address these cost dynamics in a number of ways. including leveraging our pricing power to mitigate the impact of inflation and the increase in transportation costs. We expect to begin realizing benefits of these actions as we move into the second half of our fiscal year. With that as a backdrop, let me briefly review our results, which included higher total revenues for the quarter and full year periods, despite the macroeconomic challenges. Total revenue, was up approximately $260,000 for the fourth quarter to $29.7 million. As a 20% increase in test and measurement revenue more than offset a 4% decline in product identification. Total revenue for the year increased 1% to $117.5 million. Increases in supplies and service revenue were key drivers in both periods. In both the quarter and full year, we continued to deliver robust recurring revenue streams. Supplies accounted for approximately 62% of revenue for the fourth quarter and the full year. Hardware comprised 28 and 27% of revenue for the quarter and full year periods respectively, while our service slash other accounted for 10% of revenue for the quarter and 11% for the year. Bookings were strong at $32.9 million in the fourth quarter, up 12.4% from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. Bookings for the fiscal 22 came in at $128.6 million, up 13.2% year-over-year. Turning now to our segment, fiscal 2022 marks the product identification segment's ninth consecutive year of revenue growth. We continue to be very pleased with the strong performance of our direct-to-package printing solutions, such as the T3-OPX, which had a record year in fiscal 2022. Exponential growth of the e-commerce channel over the past two years plays directly into the strengths of the T3-OPX. With more and more goods being delivered to customers' doorsteps, the demand has increased for the use of secondary packaging, both to protect the goods during transport and to provide another branding opportunity for the retailer. The T3 OPX is a best-in-class system designed for overprinting or post-printing on a wide variety of materials and packaging substrates. By using renewable substrates, the T3 OPX also enables packaged printers to meet the customer's sustainable packaging preferences. Sustainability is a megatrend that is driving a sea change in the packaging industry. Trivium Packaging's 2021 Buying Green report found that 67% of consumers find recyclability of packaging important, while 73% are actually willing to pay more for eco-friendly packaging. Our T3 OPX system also plays directly into another megatrend influencing the direct-to-package printing market, and that is brand experience. Westrock's Pulse Packaging Survey shows that for a majority of consumers, packaging influences product satisfaction. The survey also demonstrates the importance of key sustainability features, such as environmentally friendly design and the ease of recycling. So there's a clear link between sustainability and brand experience. The third packaging megatrend that is relevant to our business is supply chain agility. Manufacturers want a package design that is not only e-commerce friendly, but also cost effective and rapidly adaptable to the changing regulatory environment and the rapid shifting in consumer preferences. Supply chain agility also requires packaging that is digitalization ready by enabling automation, real-time tracking, and other benefits that boost consumer confidence. We believe that the value proposition of our direct-to-package printing technology creates a sustainable competitive advantage for Astronova. Looking ahead in the PI segment, we expect to release two new products that build on our leadership in the label printing and direct-to-package printing markets in the next few months. We believe that these new products will make it even easier for our customers to develop full-color, high-quality labels and packaging that distinguishes their brands. Stay tuned for more. Pushing now to our test and measurement segment, with an ongoing rebound in the commercial air travel in the US, Europe, and other regions, the segment delivered improved results. Revenue increased 20% in the fourth quarter and 3% in the full year versus the same periods of fiscal 2021. T&M segment operating margins also were up nicely. particularly in light of the higher manufacturing and transportation costs that we've experienced. One need only look at the daily TSA checkpoint travel numbers to see the significant improvement in passenger traffic from calendar 2021. And while domestic passenger traffic has rebounded faster than other routes, the airline industry expects to see a return to pre-pandemic level in 2023 and 2024. Consistent with the ramp-up in air traffic, we are seeing an increase in both printer supply sales as well as repair services. At the same time, the multi-year backlogs for the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320 aircraft are growing, which both pretend well for the sales of our aerospace products in the future. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.

Thank you, Greg. Good morning, everybody. I'll launch right in. Our fourth quarter cost of goods sold and gross margins were adversely affected by the supply chain and inflationary headwinds that have impacted us as well as so many other industries over the past year. While total revenue was up slightly in the quarter, gross margin in Q4 was down 450 basis points to 32.8% from 37.2% in the prior year quarter. And gross margin was down 320 basis points from the third quarter this year. The decrease was due to both higher cost of goods and, to a lesser degree, unfavorable mix. For the full year, gross margin improved 160 basis points to 37.2%. driven primarily by our favorable gross margin comparisons to the prior year in the first nine months. In the fourth quarter comparisons to the prior year, we've been hit by higher labor costs, higher material costs, and significantly higher freight costs, which spiked significantly in the fourth quarter as we're forced to pay for expedited shipping to get parts on time, sometimes even by air freighting them over the top of the same goods being shipped And the rates we're paying are a lot higher as well. In the quarterly comparisons to the third quarter of the FY22 year, all of the same factors were apparent. Again, the freight cost spike was dramatically higher in the fourth quarter. Looking at revenue by type, we continue to have good, robust recurring revenue. Hardware accounted for 28% of revenue in the quarter compared to 31% in the quarter last year. Supplies accounted for 62% of revenue in the quarter versus 60% last year. Service and other revenue was 10% in the quarter. Approximately flat in percentage terms, but up about a quarter of a million dollars compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 21. For the full year, hardware accounted for 27% of total revenue compared with 29 in fiscal 21. Supplies revenue was 62% of revenue for both fiscal 22 and fiscal 21. And our service business accounted for 11% of revenue in fiscal 22 versus 9% of revenue in the prior year. As Greg suggested, this reflects the rebound in the aerospace portion of our TNM segment. Turning to revenue by geography, domestic revenue comprised 57.3% of the total for the quarter compared to 55.9 in the fourth quarter a year ago. International revenue was 42.7% for the quarter, down from 44.1% a year earlier. For the full year, domestic revenue accounted for 58% for fiscal 22 versus 60.1% in fiscal 2021. International revenue came in at 42% for the year, up from 38.9 in fiscal 21. Revenue from Europe, Canada, and Asia was up double digits, while the U.S. revenue declined 4% for the year. Operating expenses increased 1.5% in the quarterly comparison, or approximately $145,000 to 10 million, reflecting higher R&D expenses related to the new product development that Greg mentioned, partly offset by modest reductions in the SG&A and selling and marketing areas. On a full year basis, OPEX was up 1.4%, or $557,000 to $39.5 million, which again, primarily reflected our higher R&D. This year, operating expenses did increase from last year's COVID-induced sales and marketing expense cutback period, but I should note, not very much. Adjusted debit DA, which is earnings before interest taxes, depreciation, amortization, and share based comp was $773,000 for the fourth quarter this year and $13.2 million for the full year periods this year. This compares with $3.1 million and $10.9 million for the same periods in fiscal 21. On the bottom line, this quarter we reported a net loss of $758,000 or 10 cents a share compared to net income of $837,000 or 12 cents per diluted share in fiscal 21. For a full year on a gap basis, 2022, we generated net income of $6.4 million or $88 cents per diluted share compared with net income of 1.3 million or 18 cents per diluted share in fiscal 2021. This year's net income included about 4.4 million or 60 cents of diluted earnings per share from the PPP loan forgiveness. Looking at segment results, product identification reported a fourth quarter segment operating profit of 1.5 million or 6.5% of revenue. This compares to 3.1 million or 13.2% of revenue in the prior year fourth quarter. Again, reflecting higher manufacturing and procurement costs. On a full year basis, product identification segment operating profit was 10.4 million or 11.5% of revenue versus 12.9 million or 14.3% in fiscal 2021. Tested measurement segment operating profit improved in the quarter, coming in at almost half a million dollars or 6.8% of revenue compared with 282,000 or 4.6% of revenue a year earlier. The improvement underscores the accelerating level of activity within the aerospace business that Greg noted. On a full year basis, the T&M segment had an operating profit of 3.4 million or 12.8% of revenue in fiscal 2022 compared to an operating loss of a million dollars in fiscal 2021. As Greg noted, the order momentum exiting fiscal 2022 is strong with full year bookings in the T&M segment running 50% ahead of fiscal 2021. Turning to the balance sheet, Cash and equivalents at year end totaled $5.3 million compared to $11.4 million at the end of fiscal 21. The decline is directly linked to uses to support operations, in particular inventory. Inventory is up $4.5 million over last year, largely to counteract shortages and procurement delays. But our financial position remains very strong. Before I hand it back to Greg, I'll just mention that the new ERP system for domestic operations went live successfully at the beginning of the fourth quarter. This would be a major undertaking and accomplishment for a company of any size, and particularly for us during the COVID era. The ERP investment has consumed substantial resources over the last two years, both people and capital. It's working effectively, though we've experienced some natural adjustment pains As with any ERP technology, it will take a bit of time for us to perfectly harmonize the entire system, but certainly the heaviest lifting is out of the way. We remain extremely enthusiastic that this will enable efficient growth as we scale the company over time. Now, I guess I'll turn the call back to you, Greg, for closing comments.

Great. Thanks, David. We enter fiscal 2023 in strong shape financially and operationally. We continue to execute on our strategy to grow organically through the development of new products and through complementary M&A that enables us to build on our leadership positions. Next month, we will be presenting and hosting one-on-ones at the Sedoti Microcap Virtual Conference. Please check the events and presentation section of our investors page for the presentation times. Now, David and I will be happy to take your questions. Operator?

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. Once again, that is star 1 to ask a question. And we will take our first question from Samir Patel from Ascladon Capital.

Hey, good morning, guys. Morning.

So I guess let's start on the inflation piece. So I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you were expecting to kind of see some benefit from your actions there in the second half of the fiscal year. I was curious. I was curious kind of why you think it'll take that long. Is it because of you're still using some of that expedited freight? You know, you mentioned kind of like fuel surcharges and things that some of your suppliers had put on. I guess I'm wondering why it's taking longer to pass those along to year-end consumers.

So, yeah, we're being a little conservative on that, Samir, but a couple of things. So, you know, price increases, it depends on what kind of agreements we have with our customers, right? So sometimes there's blanket agreements, so it isn't like we can raise the price today and tomorrow they pay a higher price. That is true for a number of our products, but some of them are restricted that way. So we have to wait for timeouts of those existing agreements. So that's one part of it. And the other is there's other kind of operational things we're doing that would mitigate that. You know, we have things that are coming by sea, but also in the meantime, we're flying them by air because sea is taking much longer than it used to. So we expect to be on mainly a sea delivery schedule for some of our heavier and larger purchases from different parts of the world by the end of Q2. So that kind of all plays into that.

Okay. That makes sense.

And I think, you know, you talked about $2 million worth of orders that you didn't manage to ship in a quarter. Did you break out, were those mostly product identification or test and measurement?

It was kind of a mix. I didn't break out which ones were which, but it really affected both groups. And, you know, sometimes it's, you know, some minor things like solid-state drives that we expected a month before the end of the quarter, and they came in, you know, basically a month after the end of the quarter. But, you know, it affected PI, too. You might be aware that in Finland there's a strike, which a lot of the paper materials there are used for, you know, our supplies, So we found alternate supplies for that, but there's a lot of jumping around you have to do if the supply chain gets broken. So we do have alternatives for that now, but that did impact us as well. Okay.

All right. We'll have a few more, but I'll get back in the queue, and I'll ask them if no one else has anything.

Okay. Great.

Once again, to ask a question, press start once. We will now take the question from John Dacia from Cineco.

Good morning. I just have a couple of quick questions. Is there any inventory left on the 737 MAX that has to be worked through before they can start producing new ones?

They're actually doing that in parallel. So the production line with Boeing continues to ramp up for new aircraft. And in parallel, I don't know exactly where they are on the units that they have parked as far as those deliveries, but that is kind of a parallel function. They don't have to be one before the other, in other words.

Right, but do you know what the inventory is of the existing 737 MAX at this point?

I don't know that exactly right now. I know they've been ahead of their schedule on those, but I don't know exactly what the remainder is.

Okay, fair enough.

And as we mentioned before, those already have our printers on them, of course.

Right, I was just going to say. Right, okay. The other question is, I think a lot of plane manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus specifically, rely on Russia for a fair amount of their titanium. And I'm just wondering with the situation there, whether there's any, talk of titanium shortages or bottlenecks or anything like that?

I haven't heard that. I'm actually in Europe right now. I was at Airbus yesterday and there was no concern that they had, the team I was with anyway. It was more of they were really talking to us about can you ramp up fast enough to meet their schedule and they have pretty aggressive schedules. So there wasn't any discussion at all about them having issues with deliveries. It's more a matter of can you guys, us being suppliers, deliver to us as fast as we want you to grow.

Okay. All right. That's my questions. Thank you. Sure.

And once again, as a reminder, to ask a question, press Start 1. We will now take the next question from Tom Spiro from Spiro Capital.

Tom Spiro, Spiro Capital. Good morning.

Hi, Tom. Good to hear from you.

Good morning. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. Good to be on the call. On product identification, I see that for the year, sales were up $600,000. You mentioned that the T3 OPX had a record year. That's wonderful news. I wondered, given that the segment sales were modestly, I wondered how the other printers are doing, all the other stuff we sell.

Yeah, so it's a mix. They're all kind of moving in the right direction, but not fast enough. We've had a little bit of overlap on some of the products. We see a little bit faster movement in the tabletop in the last couple of quarters, to be honest with you, as opposed to some of the larger ones. I think in the Trojan line, the T3 OPX has kind of really run out there ahead. We've got more people interested in that and placing multiple orders. We also landed a number of nice OEM deals for the T3 OPX, which helps accelerate those sales as well. One thing that's kind of still slowing down, it's a bit of a drag on the PI business in general still, is in Asia, obviously, there's a lot of issues in terms of just getting out and doing any kind of sales activities, much less trade shows. But just, you know, near the end of the year, we got, well, there was an uptick and then they shut down and they're back up again in terms of the trade shows, so. That's one of our biggest sources for leads. So that did impact kind of a good chunk of the year. But they seem to be back pretty well right now. The last several months we've done a number of shows, all with good results, good turnout. And the one thing I would say about those is that the people that are attending the shows now are really more active buyers, people who really have strong interests as opposed to people who are just kind of looking around to see what's there. I see it.

And I know from the press release, the unusually high warranty charges and PI. What's that all about?

So we had a couple issues with some of the – I won't name who the suppliers are, but they had delivered poor quality product to us. And it got into the supply chain, and we had to essentially go back and retrofit or repair or replace, depending on what the item was. to get those units, um, back up and running, you know, in full production mode. So it was, you know, certainly an unplanned event and it did take a fair amount of, uh, you know, time and a bit of cost to actually address that. But, uh, you know, the solution has been put in place and, uh, you know, kind of putting that behind us. There's a few, maybe, uh, I'd say done a hundred percent of the, uh, repairs out there, but, uh, It's a known solution. We did get to the bottom line there in terms of what the root cause was. We were able to trace it back, and in some cases, we did preemptive upgrades or replacements. The main thing we want to do is make sure our customers always have a great product experience. We kind of jumped on that right away, but it's a bit costly to do.

I see. I see. And when you say that $2 million in sales were pushed from Q4 into next year, is that hardware, I would guess, or is it supplies or a little of everything? What is that?

Yeah, it's hardware and supplies. Supplies mainly on the media side. I mean, there were some kind of, you know, some ink and toner bits to that. Some people want complete shipments, so you can't do one without the other. But our media group, it was just, you know, the, what's the nice part obviously is the orders are ramping up. Uh, it's just a matter of keeping up with it. And, uh, even in Q4, we did have some of these, um, I guess, you know, we call it the COVID quarantine, uh, you know, lockouts where one person in a work group, for example, you know, test positive. Uh, then our, our rule internally is that, you know, anyone who has contact, uh, with that individual, uh, and the Rhode Island rule, it's mainly in Rhode Island. Uh, they have to stay out for five days, then be retested before they can come back. Um, So we had some manpower issues on the media side as well. That's why I think I mentioned my comments here. We're kind of in that 15 to 20 day range right now. Normally we like to deliver our media in five days or less.

And when you speak of supply chain difficulties, is that principally on the hardware side or the supply side? Or again, it's both.

It's actually, yeah, it's both. You know, the transportation costs are a killer. Some of the toughest things, though, to get a quick replacement for would be ICs, right? So some of these complicated circuits, FPGAs and things like that. What we really have to do is kind of go out to... Sometimes the supplier doesn't have it or our main wholesaler doesn't have it. We have to go through third-party sources. In most cases, we're successful in getting those products, but not using the time we want. And usually we have to pay these guys... where we end up finding the parts. We're not the only ones looking for them. We have to pay a lot to get them.

I see.

And then lastly, a while back... Relatively a lot.

I see. I see. And lastly, a while back, you suspended the dividend. Your balance sheet's in pretty good shape now. What are your thoughts about reinstating a dividend of some size?

It's something that comes up at the board meetings. As a matter of fact, we have a board meeting later on today, so it's always a topic that we cover. And, you know, the board will take a look at that and decide what's the best allocation of capital. So stay tuned if there's something like that. We had a preliminary board meeting already. We have a follow-up one today. And then if they decide to do it, it'll be obviously 8K and we'll announce it.

Okay. Well, thanks much. Good luck.

All right. Thanks, Tom.

Once again, to ask a question, press start 1. We will now take the follow-up questions from Samir Patel from Ask Levin Capital.

Hey, so in the close of your comments, you mentioned M&A, and I was wondering if that was something you were closer to than you had been at any point over the past few years.

Well, Samir, yes, with respect to we were kind of out of the ballgame because for banking reasons and whatnot. Right. So we did restart kind of filling the funnel and engaging in conversations again really in the fourth quarter. So what I can say is we have some things in the funnel. Some look good. Some we've already washed out. I think I mentioned before is that really more than 90% of the things we take a close look at, we end up not going forward for one reason or another. But, yeah, the activity level is definitely up in terms of our – that does take a look at these acquisition opportunities. And, you know, I can say we have quite a few that look interesting. So, you know, ideally we can close one or more of those this year.

And would you be focused more on product ID or TNM?

It really kind of depends which one surfaces first with the right numbers, to be honest with you. We have good opportunities with both. It's a matter of what deal can we move first, and depending on the size, we may be able to do both depending on what the deals are and what the timing is and size and so forth. There's things that we're looking at that would be great to add in both camps.

Understood. That sounds fairly concrete, so I guess it sounds like it's more a matter of price or diligence as opposed to whether or not it's an interesting acquisition.

Yeah, that's, you know, that's how we do it. We're relatively conservative about it. So, you know, we want to make sure that, you know, it's, you know, a creative, relatively fast and that it's a good fit and that we, you know, it gels well with what we're doing. So, you know, it needs to be directly in one of those three product groups that we currently have or, you know, kind of a close agency that uses similar technology. We're not looking to go too far afield. I mean, we get things, you know, over the transom from, you know, high bankers all the time, but, we're not going to go very far afield from where we're already playing.

That makes sense. And then following up on the previous caller's question about plane production, so obviously MAX production is ramping up pretty nicely, as you mentioned, with Airbus. They have a pretty aggressive ramp schedule for the 320neo family. I know I've asked you this before, but I just want to confirm kind of if anything's changed based on the current environment. Like the orders you shipped in Q4, like how does that relate to kind of Airbus or Boeing production rates in Q4? Are you kind of ahead of them, behind them, just trying to figure out kind of, you know, how we should think about those revenues ramping over the course of this fiscal year?

Yeah, so depending on that particular program and whether it's SFB or BFB, you know, where the airlines purchase it and then ship it to the manufacturer, It depends on which plane we're talking about. But typically, we're looking at three to six months ahead of time that we would be shipping product that's going to go onto a plane. Obviously, I don't want to cut it too close. So that's typically the range that you look at. So we probably lag maybe on average three to four months if you look at the production numbers.

So you lag or you lead those by three to four months?

Uh, we lead in the other words, the production numbers that come out, you know, we would have shipped those, uh, three months before probably maybe four months before. Okay. So you should, you should start to benefit. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

I was just going to say, you should start to benefit pretty materially over the next quarter or two from the ramp up. That's going to happen kind of, you know, towards the end of this year.

Yeah, it looks, I mean, from in both camps on those two aircrafts, you mentioned, you know, we do have their production schedules and, um, They've been bumping them up and not back. Like I said, my Airbus meeting yesterday was very aggressive. But, you know, we're a small part of the plane, but we get to enjoy that ramp up.

Got it. Okay. I appreciate it. That's all I had. Thank you. Sure. Thanks.

And is there no further questions at the moment? I will turn the call back to Greg Woods for the closing comments.

Thank you. All right. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us here this morning. And we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. Have a good weekend. Bye now.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.