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Climb Global Solutions, Inc. (CLMB)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Fri, Oct 30, 2015

$21.26

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and Welcome to the Wayside Technology Group Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Callers please note that you are limited to one question each. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder ladies and gentlemen this conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce our host of today’s conference, Ms. Melanie Caponigro, you may begin your conference at this time.

Melanie Caponigro

Analyst

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Wayside Technology’s third quarter 2015 earnings call. Before turning the call over to Simon Nynens, the Company’s Chairman and CEO, I’ll dispense with the customary cautionary language and comment about the webcast for this earnings call. We released earnings for the third quarter at approximately 5:00 PM Eastern Time, Thursday, October 29, 2015. The earnings release is available at the Company’s Investor Relations Website at waysidetechnology.com. Today’s call including all questions and answers is being webcast live and a rebroadcast will be available at www.waysidetechnology.com/earnings-call. This conference call and the associated webcast contain time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of today, October 30, 2015. A detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties are discussed in our Forms 10-Q and also in greater detail in our Forms 10-K. Wayside Technology Group Inc. sees no obligation to update and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Simon Nynens.

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Thank you, Melanie and good morning to everybody, good results, passion and execution. We are different and we are different exceedingly well. Good results, where as our much larger peers reported anemic growth [ph] or declining sales, our revenue increased 8% to $98 million. Gross profit increased 11% to $6.9 million, an income from operations increased 20% to $2.3 million. Our next income per share on a fully diluted basis increased 14% from $0.29 of share to $0.33 of share and these are GAAP numbers. Cash and long-term receivables amounted to $25.7 million, representing 68% of equity as of the end of the quarter. Working capital amounted to $31.3 million or 82% of equity as of the end of the quarter. We started paying dividend in 2003 more than 12 years ago. We started at $0.10 per quarter and we’ve steadily increased our dividend, it now stands at $0.17 per quarter. This dividend is subject to board approval on a quarterly basis. The last increase was in the third quarter of 2013, from $0.16 to $0.17 per share. In the last five years, we’ve paid out more than $15 million. We also bought back 235,000 shares this year for a total of $3.9 million. Cash and execution we are excited about the prospect of more software publishers joining us. We continue to invest in our team in the third quarter and we can expect to continue to do so, all in order to manage the expected growth of our company. Our new sales office in Arizona is working well. And in addition on September 2014, we announced the appointment of Jacqui Nyborg as Vice President of Marketing. Mrs. Nyborg report to our Executive Vice President, Bill Botti. She joins us with 20 years of sales and channel experience. Most recently,…

Bill Botti

Analyst

Thank you, Simon. As noted in our release, we had a quarter overall with revenue up 8% and gross profit up 11% year-over-year. Our Lifeboat business saw a [ph] 11% in Q3 to $86.1 million, compared to $77.4 million in Q3 of 2014. Our TechXtend segment retracted 12% to $11.6 million, when compared to the same period last year, which was $13.1 million, due to a continued decrease in our extended payment term transactions. Gross profit for Lifeboats segment – excuse me – in the third quarter was up 16% to $5.5 million versus $4.7 million for the same period last year, due to an increase in sales volume and deeper comp penetration into its strategic accounts. The TechXtend segment had higher percentage of GP compared to last year, and declined only 3% to $1.4 million due to the sales volume but with higher margins. Gross profit margin for Q3 for Lifeboat was 6.4%, compared to 6.1% for the third quarter of 2014, which was caused by different product mix and marketing events. TechXtend profit margin for Q3 2015 was 12%, compared to 10.9%, due to the decline in extended payment terms transaction and a different product mix. Our Phoenix office expansion is complete and fully staffed to current staff plan levels, with room for expansion is needed in 2016. The addition of Brian Gilbertson in Q2, is providing a return as we made a lot of progress in expanding our product portfolio during Q3 and have already announced a major new vendor relationship with Super Micro. This agreement is with their Integrated Solutions Group and provides us access to both traditional server and storage products for the first time at Lifeboat. It also provides us with Integrated Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL, VMware VSAN and extended store products among others. Also announced this week was a new integrated product from Lifeboat where we are using a custom supermicro configuration and integrating in our back-up vendors like Veeam into the box, adding installation services and providing our resellers an integrated appliance which we call CBUS, standing for Converged Backup Solution. There are several additional vendor announcements coming over the next few weeks, as we prepare to bring them to market in 2016. We continue to manage our expenses and build our product portfolio to help achieve our growth targets. Thank you. Simon, back to you.

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Thank you, Bill. Kevin Scull, will now report on the financial numbers. Kevin?

Kevin Scull

Analyst

Thank you, Simon. And good morning to our investors, and analysts, and employees. I will discuss our third quarter financial results both on a consolidated basis as well as by segment. Net sales for the third quarter of 2015 were $97.7 million. This is compared to $90.5 million in the prior year, representing an 8% increase on a consolidated basis. Sales for our Lifeboat segment were $86.1 million and represent 88% of our total revenue. Lifeboat sales reflecting an 11% increase compared to the prior year. The increase in sales in the Lifeboat segment was mainly the result of addition of several key product lines and our ongoing strategy of strengthening our account penetration. Sales for our TechXtend segment were $11.6 million compared to $13.1 million in the prior year, representing a 12% decrease. The decrease in net sales in the TechXtend segment was primarily due to a decrease in extended payments, term sales transactions, and larger sales transactions as compared to the prior year. On consolidated basis, our gross profit was $6.9 million compared to $6.2 million in the third quarter of 2014, representing an 11% increase. Our gross profit margin for the quarter was 7% compared to 6.8% in the prior year. Lifeboats’ gross profit for the quarter was $5.5 million is compared to $4.7 million in the prior year, and represents an 11% increase. This increase in gross profit was primarily due to higher sales volume in the current year. Our TechXtend segment gross profit was $1.4 million and decreased by 3% compared to the prior year. Total selling, general and administrative expenses were $4.6 million compared to $4.3 million. This increase is primarily the result of an increase in sales related expenses and employee related expenses, salaries commissions, bonus accruals and benefits in 2015 compared to…

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Thank you, Kevin. Before starting the Q&A session, I would just like to say it again we remain focused on adding new publishers, providing our customers with excellent customer service and providing our ample use for the great and rewarding working environment. With a price earnings multiple of just over 14 times, our current dividend yield of about 3.8% and over $26 million or almost a fifth of our market cap – cash and long-term receivables, we are confident in the performance of our stock price. Thank you operator, we can now start the Q&A session.

Operator

Operator

Certainly [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Peter Locks, your line is open, Peter.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Good morning, guys, how are you doing?

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Good morning, Peter.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Although, I’m not around the corner anymore, I still keep an eye on you, guys. So good quarter, so I wanted to ask you to characterize your company, would you can say yourself, a value company or a growth company?

Simon Nynens

Analyst

I say, we would – we are growing to provide more value. I would not grow for growth sake, I would only grow in the areas that we are growing in such as adding field sales reps, Director of Professional Services, Jacqui Nyborg in marketing, we make those moves in order to provide value to our customers. We are not a volume player. Again, look at our peer competitors, they are all doing billions of dollars. That will be foolish trying to compete with them on volume. We are competing on value and we do so exceedingly well.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

And just further question, follow-up on that. As a value company, was it – time, I mean, you expressed that the last time you raised your dividend was 2013, has it – was it on the table that perhaps it was time given the earnings momentum to increase the dividend at all?

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Yes, something we discussed on a quarterly basis again with hardcore investments this year, significant investments in the growth of our company. And the significant stock buyback of 3.9 million this year. We've also been a value player as you know as a long-term investor in our company. We are a conservative company and I think we’ve done quite well over the last 12 years. Again, we paid out over $15 million in five years. We are not fly-by dividend declaring company, that declares a large dividend from one quarter to get a spike in PR. We are all long-term investors and we are conservative. And we expect to increase the dividend as we grow our company.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Just one more question. I’ll let you go. If you do go ahead with the Fort Mon [ph] is the purchase is that going to be outright cash or you going to take a mortgage back?

Simon Nynens

Analyst

That is on the consideration. We do have to see while the numbers add up and what the mortgage rates are going to be et cetera.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Good luck. Thanks.

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Richard Graham [ph]. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yes, so dividend related question. Are you going to be offering a dividend reinvestment program?

Kevin Scull

Analyst

We’ve looked into that. It’s something on the consideration with our broker. It seems to be of slight interest only with received unit interest in that program. So – and that is something that we’ve recently heard that that was of interest. So Kevin Scull will look into that.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Jeff Geygan. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning nice quarter. Simon, I'm a little curious, you hired Bill Botti and then Brian Gilbertson, and now Jacqui Nyborg, if I’m saying that right. And clearly Bill and Brian have had noticeable impacts on the business. But what should we expect from Jacqui and do you have other potential recruits in line, of course, without mentioning names, but just to gives us a little color in terms of how the personnel side of your business might change.

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Okay, I’ll let Bill to handle in terms of the addition of Jacqui, she reports to Bill. On an overall basis, we’ve gone through a significant transition in terms of our internal [indiscernible]. We are transitioning the company to even add more value and to really focus on that value add play. And I think achieve this announcement is a perfect example of that the converged backup solution. One device, plug and play kind of setup for our customers’ significant margins to them, higher margins for us. And these are products that are not switch a turnover. We could switch, take market share from our competitors, and the millions flow in next week. These are higher margin lines and there is a high demand for that. So we focus on that. Brian has done very well so far. He’s bringing on – he’s our Senior Director of Business Development. He is really focused on bringing on new publishers. There is always churn in publishers, some say good bye to us, some margins are getting – starting to come on the pressure as more – as broad line is takeover. And so, we have to continue to keep that pipeline up and healthy, and he has done, so I’m extremely happy with that and so as the board as well as Bill. In terms of Jacqui Nyborg, in terms of marketing, we really want to focus on adding value in terms of a website and the interaction with our customers and I’ll let Bill to expand on it.

Bill Botti

Analyst

Thanks, Simon. Hello, Jeff. Good morning. And one of the key elements in driving new publishers and providing a demonstrable ROI to existing publishers, which helps retention and their integrated margins, is by having very effective marketing programs, being able to provide them through the marketing efforts a pipeline and forecast. Using all the infrastructure tools, we already have in place more, more campaigns with multiple vendors simultaneously around the solution discussion that we’ve been talking about now for a few quarters. And so that dynamic change over the marking direction required a new leader and that’s what we’ve accomplished. And so, we’re looking forward to both improving our web presence, our social media presence, and providing radio ROI to our publishers through this process.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Thanks. And if I can follow-up on that with regard to Brian’s work in the marketplace, you’ve announced a few new publishers. And I thought I heard you say you had several announcements to make forthcoming. Can you put a little color on what makes a good publisher or what those qualities are? And during that can you also discuss margin – potential margin expansion on the Lifeboat side of the business as the TechXtend business becomes less and less relevant?

Bill Botti

Analyst

So a couple of answers to that question, one, of course, without giving you forward-looking statements around the publishers we’re bringing aboard. We have already signed four existing agreements with publishers to bring them to market, some during Q4, some during Q1 with an additional, probably four or five agreements will get signed between now and the end of the year for launch into early next year. That those margins because several leading technology companies vary from low to medium to high because – but we’re focusing on are where do they fit in our solution stack, how do we put product A, B, and C together to present solution D to our resellers and provide additional margin in the GP on a per transaction basis. That ties back in engineering that ties back into the field sales that ties back into marketing. So what Brian is putting together is how do these things all go together to fill out voids in that parameter. And so it’s an exciting time as we bring those on. Relevant to TechXtend, a lot of the decline on the TechXtend has been around the large flexible payment option transactions, which tend to be lower margin. As you know, Jeff, last year, we’ve talked about realigning TechXtend to focus in New Jersey and the Northeast. Our New Jersey revenues, from the team, are up 27% over last year. In this marketplace, the margins are going up. So it’s a slow process that change the selling cycles and the selling process of the team, but they are still contributing very significantly to our overall growth strategies. And we continue to realign and invest in TechXtend with staffs. When you make these kinds of changes, some people don’t want to embrace change, and have that – who we might chase kind of mentality and they decide to leave and we then bring on new people, who are excited about the opportunity. So we are all very personally excited about how that is evolving, so it is a slow process.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Guys, thank you, I appreciate it, and I will ask Simon a little more question if I may and then hop off here. Simon, you have a fair amount of cash, I view that as a positive. I think you’ve done an outstanding job over the years of managing your balance sheet. With the notion that of TechXtend is more of a regional player, would it makes sense to try and acquire some bolt-on acquisitions that could increase the TechXtend footprint in a targeted area.

Bill Botti

Analyst

So in terms of acquisitions – and I’ll address bulk size of our company, in terms of acquisitions, the reason – the main reason that we’ve realigned TechXtend is the fact that – again and it comes back to Peter’s question in terms of do we have volume or value. And what we have done, we were a volume player as Programmer's Paradise and over the years that catalog business went away. And we try to continue to play that volume gain with the larger players in that area. That did not work. So in terms of acquisitions for TechXtend, one-on-one would be – maybe two, not necessarily though because people will be anxious. A lot of our customers compete with TechXtend, the smaller VARs compete with TechXtend – some of the smaller local VARs compete with TechXtend. I’m excited about the growth opportunities for TechXtend. One thing it really does for us also on the Lifeboat side is A) we have motivated team, a very motivated team, a good structure currently on TechXtend that is ready to expand. And what it does for us, it kind of – these are the early adopters. This is the new technology so to say. So if we see that happening on the TechXtend side, we know that will translate into little down the road into larger volume with a larger place. And those are the guys that we have along the Lifeboat distribution. So for us it’s a perfect feeding machine in terms of Lifeboat. What is the new technology that is out there in a couple of months, quarters or years? So that’s the reason we remain excited about TechXtend and it’s a great team. If you talk about Lifeboat distribution, yes, we are looking at acquisitions there. And fortunately, there…

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I appreciate your thoughts Nynens. So just to clarify has you company owned a publisher in the past?

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Way, way in the past we have, yes that was part of Dan Bricklin’s demo-it! this was in late 80’s early 90’s, I believe, before my time and before we went public.

Bill Botti

Analyst

Yes just for quick, the CBUS is kind of an integrated solution using two of our suppliers. And if there are products that don’t compete with existing suppliers, that are software companies that can be a part of an integrated solution that we can take software publisher margins on, that’s one avenue. If it’s very small and it’s a great technology, and again we don’t have a major competitive product in our portfolio and their only struggle is their relative [ph] market. Then there is a couple of ways for that to occur, one, is for them to pay a lot of margins, try to get the other ways, to partner with somebody who is an emerging technology, value-added distributor to take them there more quickly and that also improves us. So it’s a just a matter of finding the right guys and change that dynamic. And also in that point if we did find somebody who would have a very positive impact on our margins.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I appreciate that as a shareholder it’s been a pleasure to watch you execute on your business plan. I know it hasn’t really been reflected that well in the share price, but this will follow my only thought again as a shareholder is to encourage you to stick with a new circle of confidence. And obviously, you do what you do very, very well. And I want why you do distress for margin and potentially disrupt the great business that you have. Thank you for your time today and good luck.

Simon Nynens

Analyst

Thank you, Jeff. I really appreciate those words.

Operator

Operator

At this time, there are no further questions. Please continue with any closing remarks.

Simon Nynens

Analyst

I’d like to thank our employees for their hard work this quarter. We look forward to Q4 and I would like to thank our shareholders for their interest in our company. And we look forward to reporting our Q4 and full-year results early February of next year. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect at this time and thank you for your participation.