Earnings Labs

Daktronics, Inc. (DAKT)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 20, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Daktronics Fiscal Year 2018 Third Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Tuesday, February 20, 2018, and is available on the Company’s website at www.daktronics.com. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Sheila Anderson, Chief Financial Officer for Daktronics, for some introductory remarks. Please go ahead, Sheila.

Sheila Anderson

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating in our third quarter earnings conference call. I would like to review our disclosures cautioning investors and participants that in addition to the 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 condition, changes in the competitive and market landscape, management of growth, timing and magnitude of future contracts, fluctuations of margins, the introduction of new products and technology and other important factors, as noted and detailed in our 10-K and 10-Q SEC filings. With that, let me highlight some of the financials for the quarter. Orders for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 were $126 million as compared to last year’s third quarter of a $143 million. Most of the order fluctuation this quarter is attributable to the timing volatility of large projects and account based business in the Commercial, Live Events, Transportation and International business units. As a reminder, both orders and net sales fluctuate due to the impact of our large project and account-based business. Large projects include multimillion dollar orders of display systems for professional sports facilities, colleges and universities, and spectacular projects. Account-based orders can also be multimillion dollars in size for national or global customers, most in the out-of-home advertising space. Our business also fluctuates seasonally, based on the sports market and construction cycles and is dependent on various schedules based on our customers’ needs. Sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 were $130 million as compared to $116 [ph] million last year. Sales increased in Live Events, Transportation and International…

Reece Kurtenbach

Analyst

Thank you, Sheila. Good morning, everyone. We had a positive financial performance for the first nine months of fiscal 2018 reflected in increases in sales, gross profit and operating income. Order bookings on a year-to-date basis was $421 million overall for Daktronics as compared to $425 million last year. This is not unusual due to the lumpy nature of our businesses. Looking deeper into the business units, order bookings on a year-to-date basis were up in the Live Events business unit for continued demand for upgraded or new installations throughout professional sports including the MLB and NBA. We continued to see demand in the marketplace from facility operators using our solutions to enhance the fan experience or the entertainment factor using increasing amounts of high resolution display products. We are seeing this both in upgrades or refurbishment for a existing facilities as well as planning for new venues. Orders increased in our International business unit year-over-year, primarily due to an increase in out-of-home sales as compared to last year where we had more sports projects. This inherent variability can affect both orders and sales. Commercial business unit orders increased this year as compared to the same timeframe last year. The major factors contributing to this difference were the competitive environment and the on-premise niche, fewer national account-based on-premise opportunities in the market during this time period, and the competitive environment and fluctuation caused by the volatility of large custom projects in the spectacular niche. Digital billboard orders were down slightly year-over-year. While orders remained soft through the first nine months, the marketplace continues to adopt digital technology for on-premise and third-party advertising applications, and we see this continuing in the future. The pipeline of opportunities is active in the national account on-premise business and spectacular area of our business as…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Greg Pendy with Sidoti, your line is now open.

Greg Pendy

Analyst

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Just two quick questions. One, just on the tax going down, I think you said to 21%, is that just the federal and will it be sort of -- will it be a little bit higher due to state on top of that?

Sheila Anderson

Analyst

We expect that will be all-in rates that include state. We also continue -- we’ll continue to get R&D tax credit as well. So, we’re optimistic about our overall effective tax rate that’s all-in.

Greg Pendy

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. And I guess, the second question, I can see where your gross margins, I guess, you mentioned the higher volumes helped inefficiencies on a year-over-year basis. I didn’t hear -- did you give us a warranty expense number, or can you at least tell us was that within your targeted range, which I think has been 1.5, maybe 2% of sales?

Sheila Anderson

Analyst

We were actually a bit over, we were at 2.9% of sales in Q3 as compared to last year, but we have a same amount as a percent of sales during the quarter.

Greg Pendy

Analyst

So, it’s basically flat year-over-year, the warranty expense, as a percentage of sales. Did I catch that right?

Sheila Anderson

Analyst

As a percent of sales, we’re up just a little bit on a year-to-date basis, 3.3% as compared to 2.8% last year.

Greg Pendy

Analyst

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And I’m showing no further questions in queue at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Reece Kurtenbach for closing remarks.

Reece Kurtenbach

Analyst

We appreciate everybody attending our call this morning. Hope you’ve had a nice winter, and look forward to talking to you again in June.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This concludes today’s program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.