DAKT
#Thank you, operator.
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for participating in our fourth quarter and year-end earnings conference call.
I would like to review our disclosure cautioning investors and participants that in addition to statements of historical facts, we will be discussing forward-looking statements reflecting our expectations and plans about our future financial performance and future business opportunities.
All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may be out of our control and may cause actual results to differ materially.
Such risks include changes in economic conditions, changes in the competitive and market landscape, management of growth, timing and magnitude of future contracts, fluctuations in margin, the introduction of new products and technologies and other important factors as noted and detailed in our 10-K and 10-Q SEC filings.
At this time, I would like to introduce <UNK> <UNK>, our Chairman, President and CEO, for a few comments.
Thank you, <UNK>.
Good morning, everyone.
Overall, we had a successful fiscal 2017 for Daktronics.
We increased in volume in 3 important categories: orders, sales and profits.
Orders included a number of high-profile or spectacular projects and larger sport video projects as well as gains for standardized solutions for businesses and schools.
Sales exceeded $586 million, an increase of 2.9% as compared to fiscal 2016.
The orders and sales volume increases reflect the improved global economic conditions over the year, the health of the digital solutions market and fluctuations caused by a large project-based business.
International business unit orders increased by 30.1% on a year-to-date basis.
This is primarily due to improved global market conditions during fiscal 2016 as compared to 2017, giving confidence for more customers to move forward on projects.
We did well on our account-based out-of-home billboard space and in sports projects like that of Perth Stadium in Australia and Commercial spectacular customers like Piccadilly Circus in London.
We continue to focus on the Transportation segment internationally, too, with new or enhanced offerings for mass transit and intelligent transportation system applications.
Orders increased in High School and Park and Recreation business unit year-over-year, which is primarily due to a strong market demand for large video sporting applications.
We are seeing trends in this market similar to college and professional sports, with increased size and advanced capabilities for these systems, and are beginning to see high schools refer to their displays as the largest in the state.
HSPR also includes on-premise messaging solutions for parents, and those orders were strong this past year.
Commercial business unit annual orders increased 11.6%.
Our on-premise and spectacular niches in Commercial predominantly led the improved order volume year-to-date.
Spectacular niche has seen stronger porting activity and more customers are moving forward this year as compared to last.
On-premise orders have increased related to in-store digital media solutions sold through ADFLOW, the company we acquired last year during the fourth quarter.
While we estimate our market share in the digital billboard segment held in the national operators and expanded with independent billboard operators, overall order activity declined for the year.
Order activity in the billboard niche is impacted by customer capital allocation decisions, replacement cycles, permits and general economic conditions.
Transportation business unit orders increased this year compared to last, mostly due to increased state procurement project activities and variability caused by large order timing.
Demand includes applications for intelligent transportation systems, transit, airport and parking segments.
An example of locations using an ITS system is our multimillion dollar project for Nevada Department of Transportation, Project NEON.
This project will include multiple large, full-color displays that extend across 6 lanes of traffic and include dynamic message capability to show incident and speed information.
Live Events business unit's orders remained strong, reflecting the ongoing trend of professional and college sports arenas increasing the size and capability of their display systems to attract and entertain their fans.
Our profitability improved over the year.
The sales levels and improved productivity in our fulfillment processes increased gross profit, as did the decline in warranty costs as a percentage of sales.
Operating expenses increased as we invested more than our traditional spending in our product development area to accelerate the creation or enhancement of customer solutions, including investments in both display and control technologies.
For more details on the financial results, I will turn it back to <UNK>.
Thank you, <UNK>.
Orders increased 24.4% for the fourth quarter, and for the year, order volume increased 9.4% for the reasons <UNK> highlighted.
As a reminder, orders and net sales fluctuate due to the impact of large project order timing, including display systems for professional sports facilities, colleges and universities, spectacular projects and other account-based business.
Our business also fluctuates based on sports market seasonality and construction cycles.
Sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 increased to $144 million as compared to $138 million last year.
Sales increased in the Live Events and International business units, decreased in the High School Park and Recreation business and remained relatively flat for the Commercial and Transportation business units quarter-over-quarter.
Live Events contributed to the sales increase, as the number of projects for both National Hockey League and other minor league stadiums work was up as compared to last year.
International net sales increased for sports and spectacular projects.
High School Park and Recreation net sales decreased due to the general lag and timing of orders during the quarter.
Sales increased to $587 million as compared to $570 million last year.
Sales increased in the Live Events and High School Park and Recreation business units, decreased in the International business unit and remained relatively flat in the Commercial and Transportation business units.
Live Events contributed to the sales increase for the number of projects for the National Football League was up compared to last year.
We were also successful in our High School Park and Recreation business units due to the increased size of video projects with larger average selling prices and more custom indoor and audio demands compared to last year.
International net sales decrease was due to the timing of the conversion of orders to sales.
Large project orders can include several displays, controllers and subcontracted structure builds, each of which can occur on a varied schedule for the customer's needs, causing timing difference of orders to sales.
Gross profit improved to 23.9% during fiscal 2017 as compared to 21.2% during fiscal 2016.
Gross margin percentages were favorably impacted by lower production costs, lower warranty costs as a percentage of sales, higher sales volume and a favorable mix in sales.
For the fourth quarter, gross profit was 23.5% as compared to 20.2% in the fourth quarter of last year for similar reasons.
Total warranty as a percentage of sales was 2.5% during the year as compared to 4.1% last year.
For the fourth quarter, total warranty as a percentage of sales was 1.7% as compared to 4.6% last year.
We continue to serve customers impacted by the warranty items discussed during fiscal year 2016 and manage for those reserves.
We have approximately $3 million remaining in that specific reserve.
While many of our contractual warranty arrangements are nearing the expiration for the product with this issue, we may experience additional costs to maintain customer relationships for a higher-than-expected failure rate.
Operating expenses increased 6.5% ---+ $6.5 million or 5.5% for the year and remained relatively flat quarter-over-quarter.
Selling expenses increased $2.9 million during the year, primarily due to the addition of ADFLOW's costs in comparison to last year and increases in personnel costs and bad debt expenses in other selling areas.
General and administrative expenses increased $1.4 million during the year due to increases in personnel costs and professional fees.
Product development increased $2.2 million due to additional resources allocated to our product development functions to increase velocity of solution developments.
Our overall tax rate expense was 33.7% as compared to 34.1% last year.
We forecast the forward-looking effective annual rates to be approximately 32% to 34%.
Our effective tax rate can fluctuate depending on changes in tax legislation and geographic mix of taxable income.
Our cash and marketable securities position was $65.6 million at the end of the quarter.
We reported a positive free cash flow of $31 million on the year-to-date basis as compared to a negative free cash flow of $3.3 million for the same period in fiscal 2016.
The increase in free cash flow was primarily due to improved profits for the year, improved operating net inflows this year due to the timing of receivable and project cash receipts, net of payments out for inventory, the decrease in inventory and reduced capital spending.
We constrained capital expenses to $8.7 million for the year as compared to $17.1 million last year.
This spend level is lower than anticipated due to the timing of cash outlays for the capital spend at the end of the year and overall evaluation is not at the level previously estimated.
Primary uses of capital included manufacturing equipment, research and development, testing equipment and facilities, demonstration equipment for new products and information technology infrastructure.
We made no repurchases of stock during the fourth quarter.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2018, we are starting with a strong backlog and order pipeline.
We expect most of the $203 million backlog to be converted to sales over the coming year based on expected delivery needs of the customer.
We estimate our first quarter sales to exceed last year based on current product and delivery schedules.
We continue to focus on improving gross profit levels through customer-targeted solution offerings, offering them more value and in continuing to focus on productivity metrics and continued improvements through all fulfillment of the operations.
While we continue to manage our cost infrastructure carefully, operating expenses are expected to increase for personnel-related costs.
We also expect to invest additional resources in our product development areas for another year to foster product release velocity to the market.
We are projecting capital expenditures for fiscal 2018 to be approximately $28 million for manufacturing equipment, quality and reliability equipment and continued IT infrastructure needs.
We will continue to monitor share repurchase options and other business investment opportunities to utilize cash.
With that, I will turn it back to <UNK> for additional comments and our outlook.
Thanks, <UNK>.
As we enter fiscal 2018, we are confident in the expanding digital marketplace and the opportunities available across the sectors we serve.
We begin the year with a near-record backlog, and while competition remains strong, we expect continued success in our business over the long term for the following reasons: We continue to enhance and develop product lines and comprehensive solutions for our broad market base and specific customer needs.
This allows for success in markets during natural ups and downs of each segment.
In addition to our comprehensive product lines, we are committed to earning customers for life, driving continued investments in quality, reliability and other performance enhancements to meet our customers' needs today and over the long term.
We actively support our customers from initial product check planning throughout the intended use of the system, leading to satisfied customers and repeat business during the natural replacement cycle.
And finally, the market adoption and use of digital continues to grow and is predicted to grow.
While optimistic about our long-term future, various geopolitical, economic and competitive factors may impact order growth.
Our business will continue to be lumpy.
While these areas can affect a specific fiscal period, we continue to pursue profitable growth.
For fiscal 2018, we believe in the following trends in our business units: Our International business unit continues to be poised for growth through expansion of the use of digital systems and increases in market share in our focused segments of sport, out-of-home, Spectacular and Transportation.
We expect continued demand for larger orders due to the adoption of video sporting applications in the High School/Park and Recreation market, allowing for growth.
Transportation has growth opportunities due to continued investment in the U.S. transportation systems and the stability in federal funding.
In our Commercial business unit, we see opportunities for growth because of the number of unique digital opportunities in the Spectacular segment, new customers and replacement cycles for national account-based business, expansion of solutions for indoor applications and improved volumes in the Billboard segment.
We expect Live Events' sales to maintain order levels of prior years.
During fiscal 2017, we made progress on increasing product development velocity and expect to continue this into fiscal 2018.
While these efforts will increase product development expenses, we believe this investment is necessary to drive forward new solutions to meet customer needs and expand our global market share.
Rollouts of products, including display and control solutions, are expected throughout the coming year.
While the path will not always be smooth, the growing market and industry-leading solutions position us to generate long-term profitable growth.
With that, I would ask the operator to please open it up for questions.
We had a good fourth quarter, like you mentioned, and part of it is our lumpy business.
So we had a nice run in our Live Events order for the fourth quarter, continued movements on projects there, and then other businesses continue to remain strong.
<UNK>, this is <UNK>.
I believe that we see the gross margins to be stable to climbing.
Can we achieve our internal goals for gross margin is yet to be seen, but we feel we are in a competitive position in the marketplace and continue to win orders that we believe are good quality orders and will move the company forward.
Thank you.
I appreciate everybody on the call.
I would like to say that we had a solid 2017.
We're optimistic for our 2018.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the employees at Daktronics that helped achieve this success and as well as our suppliers that really helped us out, and I look forward to working with them in 2018.
I hope everyone has a wonderful summer, and we'll talk again near Labor Day.
Bye-bye.
