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spk01: Good day and welcome to the Belfuse Incorporated First Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Dan Bernstein, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
spk08: Thank you, Jennifer. Joining me on the call today is Farouk Tawif, our CFO, Greg Brocious, our Vice President of Finance, and Lynn Hutkin, our Director of Financial Reporting. Before we begin the call, I'd like to ask Lynn to go over the Safe Harvest Statement. Lynn.
spk02: Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everybody. Before we start, I'd like to read the following safe harbor statement. Except for historical information contained on this call, the matters discussed on this call, such as statements regarding the anticipated impact of the acquired EOS power business on our results, anticipated higher sales for our magnetic solutions group during the second and third quarters as a result of strong bookings in the first quarter, expectations regarding our scheduled backlog as an indicator of stronger sales in the second and third quarters, expected contributions to net earnings from our RMS and EOS acquisitions, and cost savings from restructuring efforts. And our efforts to continue to optimize our cost structure are all forward-looking statements as described under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involved risks and uncertainties. actual results could differ materially from Bell's projections. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements are the market concerns facing our customers, the continuing viability of sectors that rely on our products, the impact of public health crises such as the governmental, social, and economic effects of COVID-19, the effects of business and economic conditions, difficulties associated with integrating recently acquired companies, capacity and supply constraints or difficulties, product development, commercialization, or technological difficulties, the regulatory and trade environment, risks associated with foreign currencies, uncertainties associated with legal proceedings, the market's acceptance of the company's new products and competitive responses to those new products, the impact of changes to U.S. trade and tariff policies, and the risk factors detailed from time to time in the company's SEC reports. In light of the risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement will in fact prove to be correct. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. We also may discuss non-GAAP results during this call, and reconciliations of our GAAP results to non-GAAP results have been included in our release. I would now like to turn the call back to Dan for a general business update.
spk08: Thank you, Lynn, and thank everybody for joining us on the call today. I hope that you and your families continue to stay safe during these difficult times. First, I'd like to provide an update on COVID-19 and how it impacts our facilities. Overall, I'm pleased to report that all manufacturing sites globally continue to be operational throughout the first quarter. Our most recent acquisition, HEOS, is based in Mumbai, India, where they're going through a very difficult time. The factory continues to be operational as they manufacture essential products and protective measures have been put in place to prize the safety of our new associates. We would like to thank these new associates who are working each day under these difficult conditions. Before getting to our results, while Bell does not normally comment on market activity, we realized there was a substantial amount of trading in Bell's stock on Friday, and the company does not know the reason for this increased trading activity. Turning to our results, We saw 6% improvement in sales as compared to last year's first quarter. Demand in each of our market was strong, with the exception of commercial aerospace. Both e-mobility and circuit protection had exceptional quarters, and demand from our distribution partners was strong, which is a good indicator of general market demand to their broad customer base. Sales within the power solution and production group were up 7.5 million or 21% from the first quarter of 2020. CUI turned in another strong performance this quarter with $2.1 million increased in sales over last year's first quarter. Our products sold into e-mobility applications were up 1.5 million, 100% increase from 2020 first quarter and few sales were up 1.6 million an increase of 60 percent from last year's first quarter. The areas of growth were partially offset by elimination of low-margin products within the group. Within our connectivity segment, sales were down 1 million or 3 percent in the first quarter of 2021 versus the same quarter of 2020. While we continue to be impacted by year-over-year comparison related to the commercial aerospace market, we saw a partial rebound in the end market versus the fourth quarter of 2020. And looking at that trend from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021, commercial aerospace increased by 1.2 million, or 57%, and sales through distribution by 3 million, or 30%. Sales within magnetic solution business were fairly consistent as compared to the first quarter of 2020. We have strong bookings in this segment over the past two quarters, and our production team is working through some challenges on material and labor availability in order to accommodate these increases in demand. Overall, our margins were down in the first quarter of 2021, preliminary driven by the industry-wide material shortages resulting in higher material costs. Labor costs also continue to rise as labor availability in China has been impacted by the lack of traditional workers migrating during Chinese New Year holidays as a result of the pandemic this year. Our cost-saving initiatives from prior years have mitigated a higher cost to a certain extent, and the remaining impact has significantly been addressed through price increases to all our customers. We anticipate price increases, the majority of these increases, to go into effect during the second quarter and third quarter of 2021. On the acquisition front, our first acquisitions of RMS, our first quarter acquisitions of RMS and EOS have both been run smoothly and integrated, has been proceeding planned. It is encouraging to see that RMS was accreted to Bell's results in the first quarter of 2021, and we anticipate EOS to be immediately accreted to our results in the second quarter. Our backlog of orders was 234 million as March 31st, and we reached $264 million by the end of April, a strong indicator of top-line growth for the balance of the year. Our ability to fulfill orders in the books will be dependent on the availability of materials and labor. We will keep a close eye on cost and availability of raw materials and direct labor in order to service our customers as timely as possible. I would like to now turn to Craig to go over the financial update. Craig?
spk09: Thanks, Dan. Sales by product segment for the first quarter of 2021 were as follows. Power solutions and protection sales were $43.6 million, up 20.6% from last year's first quarter. Connectivity solution sales were $38.1 million, a decline of 2.7%. And magnetic solution sales were $28.9 million, largely the same as last year's first quarter. Preliminary gross margin by product segment for the first quarter of 2021 was as follows. Power Solutions and Protection had a gross margin of 24.7% in the first quarter of 2021, up slightly from 24.3% in last year's first quarter. Connectivity Solutions' gross margin was 25.7%, down from 28.6% in the 2020 quarter. And magnetic solutions gross margin was 13.7%, down from 21.2% in last year's first quarter. On a consolidated basis, gross profit margin decreased to 21.9% in the first quarter of 2021, as compared with 24.8% in the first quarter of 2020. Gross margin during the first quarter of 2021 was impacted by industry-wide increases on raw material pricing, and higher labor costs driven by wage increases and an unfavorable foreign exchange fluctuation. Bell implemented price increases to its customers and distribution partners to offset these higher input costs, with many of those price increases taking effect in the second quarter. The margin comparisons were also affected by $2.2 million in COVID-related subsidies received in last year's first quarter that did not repeat. Research and development costs were $5 million during the first quarter of 2021, a decline of $1.1 million from the first quarter of 2020, primarily due to the closure of our Switzerland R&D facility in mid-2020. Our selling general administrative expenses were $21 million, or 19% of sales, up slightly from a dollar perspective from the first quarter last year. SG&A salaries and fringe benefits were $1.4 million higher as compared to the first quarter of 2020. These costs were partially offset by a reduction in commissions and other selling costs of $632,000 and lower travel expenses of $416,000. During the first quarter of 2021, we closed on the sale of a property in Hong Kong. This transaction resulted in a gain of $6.2 million. which is included in our first quarter results. These factors resulted in income from operations of $4.5 million in the first quarter of 2021, as compared to a loss from operations of $1.1 million in the first quarter of 2020. Other income and expense net was an income of $546,000 for the first quarter of 2021, as compared to an expense of $2.1 million during the first quarter of 2020. The expense in the first quarter of 2020 largely related to a $2 million loss on the company's SERP investments, which are included in this line item. Interest expense was $800,000 in the first quarter of 2021, down from $1.4 million in the same quarter last year. As a result, decreases in both LIBOR, the company's spread on its credit facility driven by EBITDA improvements, and the overall reduction in our outstanding debt balance. We had a provision for income taxes of $1 million in the first quarter of 2021 compared to a benefit of $772,000 during last year's first quarter. The benefit in the first quarter of 2020 reflected a reduction in GILTI tax and tax benefits associated with the CARES Act. Earnings per share for Class A common shares was earnings of 24 cents per share in the first quarter of 2021, as compared with a loss of 30 cents per share in the first quarter of 2020. Earnings per share for the Class B common shares was earnings of 26 cents per share in the first quarter of 2021, as compared with a loss of 31 cents per share in the first quarter of 2020. On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes certain unusual and other non-recurring items, EPS for Class A shares was a loss of 23 cents per share in the first quarter of 2021, as compared with a loss of 28 cents per share in the first quarter of 2020. On a non-GAAP basis, EPS for Class B shares was a loss of 23 cents per share in the first quarter of 2021, as compared with a loss of 29 cents per share in the first quarter of 2020. And now I'd like to go through some balance sheet and cash flow items. Our cash and cash equivalence balance at March 31, 2021 was $74 million, a decrease of 10.9 million from December 31, 2020. During the first quarter of 2021, we made net payments of $16 million in connection with the acquisitions of RMS and EOS, 1.5 million towards our outstanding debt balance, and used cash or capital additions of 1.2 million. dividend payments of 815,000 and interest payments of 627,000. These items were partially offset by cash flows generated from operating activities of $3 million and 6.7 million in proceeds received from the sale of property. Accounts receivable were 74.1 million at March 31st, 2020. That's compared with 71.4 million at December 31st, 2020. the primary driver of the increase related to the 2021 acquisitions of RMS and EOS, which added $3.1 million to our receivable balance. Day sales outstanding increased to 60 days at March 31st, 2021, as compared to 57 days at December 31st, 2020. Inventories were 106.7 million at March 31st, 2021, up $6.6 million from December 31, 2020. The increase was seen in raw materials and work in progress and was largely due to the inclusion of $5.3 million from the 2021 acquired companies. Accounts payable were $42.5 million at March 31, 2021, up $2.7 million from its level at December 31, 2020. The 2021 acquired companies accounted for $2.2 million of this increase from the year-end level. Bell's outstanding debt balance was $114.3 million as of March 31, 2021, net of deferred financing costs, a decrease of $1.3 million since the 2020 year-end balance. Book value per share, which is calculated as stockholders' equity divided by our combined A and B classes of common stock outstandings. was $15.09 per share at March 31st, 2021, as compared to $15.04 per share at December 31st, 2020. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Dan.
spk08: Dan? Thank you, Craig. Jennifer, we'd like to open up the call for questions now, if possible.
spk01: Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad If you are using a speaker phone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Once again, that's star one to ask a question. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. And we'll go first to Theodore O'Neill with Litchfield Hills Research.
spk06: My first question is about the e-mobility market, which is getting an awful lot of discussion this quarter. Could you give us an idea about is it scooters, is it bikes, is it both? Do you see any regional differences in the market, and how big do you think the opportunity could be?
spk08: I think, you know, at this time it's too early to measure the opportunity. What our niche is, we're not really focused on the automobile market at all. We do do some good business from a circuit protection business. But the growth that we got from e-mobility we're focusing on now is the business that we do from our power group. And what we're looking at are niche markets. So basically, you know, a post office, school buses, sanitation, mining equipment. So very specific niche markets where they're moving to electric vehicles. Again, we think the opportunity should have substantial growth at least in the next five to six years. Again, that's what the areas we're focusing on, specifically niche markets, also boating charging markets also.
spk06: Okay. It's not scooters and e-bikes?
spk08: No, absolutely not.
spk06: Okay. All right.
spk08: For example, we did do a business with a company called Street Scooter that was building a mailbox deliveries in Europe. So more of a government specific requirement type of situation, but nothing that's mass market.
spk06: Okay. You've mentioned in the prepared remarks that you've seen an uptick in commercial aviation business. I mean, I guess that was probably pretty low, but how much more headroom do you have on the commercial aviation business if we get back to something approaching normal?
spk08: I mean, what's normal? Again, I think if you look, again, from what we understand that you do see with Airbus receiving a big order last week from Delta, I believe. And you see, I can't mention anybody else. So we do see opportunities. But again, if you look at, my hands are kind of tied because of agreements. So basically, it can't get much lower. So we do see consistent improvements. in aerospace for the next three to four years until we get back to normal, from all the research that we read.
spk06: Okay, I like that answer.
spk02: If you want, Dan, I can certainly comment on the broader commercial aerospace end market.
spk08: All right, go ahead.
spk02: Go ahead, Lynn. In the fourth quarter, our total commercial aerospace sales, and this is direct, this is not through distribution, was around 2.1 million. And in the first quarter, we saw that go up to 3.3 million. So definitely some recovery here. But to put it in perspective, last year's first quarter, we were at 5.1 million. So it's definitely a partial recovery at this point, and we anticipate it being a long runway, no pun intended, in getting back to that normal that we had.
spk08: And also, it should be noted that we are picking up the benefit of our new acquisition, RMS, which is dedicated to the aerospace industry also.
spk06: Okay, thank you very much.
spk01: We'll go next to Jim Rucci with Needham & Company.
spk07: Hi, good morning. I just wanted to pursue the increase in backlog. So I think you guys reported in your K, you had a backlog at the end of February of around 180 million. So this is a big increase. And I'm just wondering if you could maybe talk a little bit about which areas, which segments. I mean, you alluded to the demand, I think, in e-mobility. But I wonder if you could talk a little bit more broadly about where you're seeing the business recover so strongly and how does this compare with some other cycles?
spk08: You know, every cycle is kind of unique, but this is truly broad-based if we took out commercial aerospace. Each one of our product groups are seeing some good substantial increases. Now it depends on where the lead times are. Currently, our power group has the longest lead times of any product because they do use semiconductors. So those lead times went from 12 to 14 weeks up to 32 weeks. So we've seen that be stretched out. And so that really helps increase the backlog. Our concern at this point is historically is that double ordering taking place because of the long lead times and material shortages. And that's what we have to monitor. But again, if you look at our customers and the different types of products, Our Q's product line is not our biggest product line by far and away, but it does have the broadest customer base, because it goes into so many different markets, and that's a great sign, and same with our distribution business, that our distributors sell to industrial, commercial, networking, computing, you name it, security, medical, and every one of these markets, we see strength out there. Again, our only concern is that double booking occurring because of the long lead time and people can't get parts from possibly our other suppliers.
spk07: Yeah, I mean, you're anticipating my next question. And yeah, how do you monitor? You've been through so many of these periods like this. And is there any better way to monitor it than, say, in the past when sometimes you guys are caught off guard?
spk08: But historically, you try to do, you know, say there's non-cancel orders, you know, say that you need payment up front, you know, situations like that that you look at and you try to work through depending on your contract agreements that you have with customers. So, again, you just try to, hey, if someone has to pay up, you know, if you really want the parts, you know, are you going to pay a premium for delivery? What, you know, and how much do you want to pay up front to guarantee delivery? Okay. So those are the things that you can look at, and also non-cancellable orders, and that can help also. Sure.
spk07: Got it. Are you guys seeing any signs that the component constraints are potentially a risk factor just for some of your customers because of their own supply chain challenges, which might lead to some disruptions?
spk08: No, we see some slightness of that where why take in all parts if we're not getting all the parts in to build a finished product? So trying to push us off. But the problem you have with that situation is because there's such a man from our other customers, if a customer tries to push back our product, then we'd see if we can send it to another customer and they'd lose it. We're not going to accept push-outs if we have other customers with those products. So basically, if you're an aggressive customer, you're going to take the parts in and wait the extra four to six weeks for the other parts to come in, or you might lose all your parts.
spk07: Got it. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. It does, Sam. Thank you. And one more question, and I'll jump back in the queue. The SG&A was a bit higher than I think you guys were indicating back in the last call. I think you said around 19 to 20 million. So is this a level that we think you're going to see going forward and probably trends up with the growth in sales that you're expecting? Craig, can you answer that?
spk09: Yeah, I think you're right, Jim. I think it'll trend up a little bit just because, you know, maybe the increased activity related to travel and stuff like that, you know, in the future quarters. We'll also have some incremental expense coming from EOS that, you know, basically joined Bell right at the end of the quarter. So we'll have a little bit of an uptick there.
spk07: Okay, and I'll jump back in the queue. I've got a few others.
spk00: Thanks.
spk01: We'll go next to Hindy Sustano of GoodBelly Funds.
spk05: Good morning.
spk03: Good morning, Hindy.
spk05: First question, Dan, so you talk about price increase that will take place in Q2 and Q3. would you be able to pass like 100% of the price increase, or is there some sharing component into your discussion with your customers?
spk08: There's always sharing with our customers, but I think our goal, and I think it's industry-wide, it's not us. So I think we do look at each customer. We do look at what our competitors are doing. But across the board, I think we're trying to implement a 5% to 12% price increase depending on where the product sits on the fence. Again, if it's a new product that's just been introduced, we probably only look for a 5% increase, but a mature product that's been beaten up over many years, we have to increase it probably closer to 8% to 10% to improve the margins. As you know, we have walked away from products that have That's right. We have walked away in the past year on products that do have low margins where the customers do not accept price increases.
spk05: And then in terms of gross margin expectation for this year, last year you did improve gross margin quite significantly. And then with raw material cost increase and price increase, what are the puts and takes on your gross margin for 2021? I think, Craig, I think that's a good question for Salou.
spk08: What did you say, Craig?
spk03: Yeah, yeah, I approve to address that one. Yeah, so, Hindi, good speaking with you here today. So, from a gross margin perspective, obviously, we saw the dip, but as it was alluded to in the open commentary, last year's gross margin was aided by a little bit of kind of one-off government subsidies adjustments. So I think when we look at it at an organic or adjusted basis, the delta is not as wide. With that being said, I think the overarching theme, that's a number we're laser focused on. And to Dan's also comments that he made, we are seeing some of this, you know, we're doing price increases, raw material increases. So we are monitoring that situation closely. Obviously, we're trying to prevent that from dropping to the gross margin line in addition to our other call it organic focus on it.
spk04: Does that answer your question, Hindi?
spk05: Okay, thank you. And then our last question from... Yes, thank you, Farouk. Dan, do you have any insight into IT hardware? Many companies talk about potential recovery in the second half of 2021. And then I'm wondering what your takes and insight into data center or IT hardware market.
spk08: You know, again, the hardware... You know, we still haven't seen much. I mean, that's the only area that we, you know, our backlog is very strong on those products, but we haven't seen, you know, the Cisco's, the Siemens, you know, some of these companies out there. We really haven't, you know, seen, you know, much bullish behavior from them. You know, data has been strong for us. I don't think the, you know, the data farms have cut back at all. So we do have opportunities that we are addressing in certain countries. Again, looking at niche markets, not the Facebooks, the Amazons, the Microsofts of the world, but the second-tier type of customers where we feel that we can offer a benefit with our technology and our service.
spk04: I see. Okay. Thank you.
spk01: And at this time, we have no further questions, and that will terminate this conference call. Thank you for participating.
spk04: Thank you for joining us today.
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