Earnings Labs

DSS, Inc. (DSS)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 13, 2014

$0.51

-6.07%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+47.57%

1 Week

+7.18%

1 Month

-2.91%

vs S&P

+0.16%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. Welcome to Document Security Systems’ Third Quarter 2014 Conference Call. My name is Donna and I will be your operator today. Joining us for today’s call is the company’s CEO, Jeff Ronaldi; CFO, Phil Jones; COO, Peter Hardigan; and President, Robert Bzdick. Following management's prepared remarks, we will open up the call for your questions. Then, before we conclude today’s call, I’ll provide the necessary cautions regarding the forward-looking statements made by management during this call as well as information about the company’s use of non-GAAP financial information. I would like to remind everyone that this call will be available for replay starting later this evening. A webcast replay will also be available via the link provided in the earnings press release as well as available on the company’s website. Now, I would like to turn the call over to the company’s CEO, Jeff Ronaldi. Sir, please proceed.

Jeff Ronaldi

Management

Thank you and welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. About 30 minutes ago, we issued our third quarter 2014 results in a press release. A copy of the release is available in the Investor Relations section of our website. Our third quarter and first nine months of 2014 marked strong revenue period for our company. These achievements were driven by continued strong demand for our printed products as well as growth in our anti-counterfeiting and authentication solutions. This technology is trusted and are relied upon by major corporations, governments and financial institutions. In our printed products division, our continued focus on top-line growth and cost controls during the third quarter resulted in a 22% increase in revenue and an impressive 160% increase in adjusted EBITDA profitability. In our high-tech division, which includes our anti-counterfeiting and authentication solutions as well as IP monetization, our results reflect operational scalability and diversification as we continue to invest in AuthentiGuard and IP assets. And despite the many adverse changes that have occurred in IP landscape this year, as well as setbacks in some of our own cases, we have recently achieved other important milestones. These include the resumption of our Bascom Research case following a lengthy stay, as well as the scheduling of Markman hearings in three of our IP disputes. As many of you know, a Markman hearing is a critical step at a patent case as it addresses the language and interpretation of patents that are at issue. Such hearings typically provide an indication as to which side is likely to prevail a trial, which usually creates a greater willingness of the party to sell. These recent operational and financial highlights demonstrate our continued progress towards building a more diversified, higher-growth and adjusted EBITDA profitable organization. I would like to turn the call over to our CFO, Phil Jones, to take us through a more detailed discussion of our financials. I’ll return to talk about our operational activities and outlook and then open the call to your questions. Phil?

Philip L. Jones

Management

Thank you, Jeff. Turning to our results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2014, total revenue increased 17% to $5 million. As Jeff mentioned, our printed product revenue increased an impressive 22% to $4.5 million. This was driven by increases in plastic product sales and packaging sales, which more than offset a decrease in commercial printing related sales. Our technology sales services and licensing revenues decreased $103,000 to $475,000 due to the absence of settlements during the third quarter of 2014. Turning to our expenses, our cost of goods and expenses totaled $18.7 million. This was up from $6.9 million in the same year-ago period. The increase was primarily due to a non-recurring and non-cash impairment charge of $11.8 million, which I will talk about more shortly. Excluding this charge, our cost of goods and expenses for the quarter were $6.9 million or essentially flat compared to last year. Excluding depreciation and amortization, our cost of goods sold increased 24% to $3.1 million from Q3 of last year. The increase was driven by a higher portion of packaging sales as a percentage of total printed product sales. Our adjusted EBITDA loss, a non-GAAP metric and proxy for operating cash flow totaled $362,000. This was a significant improvement from an adjusted EBITDA loss of $556,000 in the same year-ago quarter. The improvement reflected the 17% increase in revenue as well as our ongoing cost control initiatives. Along those lines, we continue to target cost savings throughout our operations. The process includes rationalizing our headcount and G&A expenses company-wide, while maintaining our current levels of sales and marketing expenses in order to capitalize on the significant opportunities we’re pursuing in our digital division. Looking at our adjusted EBITDA by division for Q3 2014, in our printed products division, adjusted EBITDA increased…

Jeffrey Ronaldi

Management

Thanks, Phil. During the third quarter, we continue to execute on our long-term growth strategy. This was demonstrated by our ability to drive top-line growth, reduced expenses and improved adjusted EBITDA results. In our core printed products division, which is a foundation of our company, we are encouraged by the strong sequential and year-over-year increase in revenue and adjusted EBITDA profitability. This division is positioned to deliver continued revenue and EBITDA growth in the fourth quarter and 2015. Our improving results have been driven in part by our decision to consolidate our print and packaging plants into one facility earlier this year. We’ve also been able to secure long-term contracts with new and existing customers. These types of arrangements provide us with good visibility through 2015. We’ve also seen improvement in performance of our plastics division where we continue to emphasize our idea in security technology. We have placed a significant attention on process improvement as well as in forming strategic partnerships with organizations in the growing secure credential and ID market. As Phil mentioned, our long-term target financial model for our printed products division is to cover our corporate operating costs as well as fund a portion of our IP investment monetization initiatives. In addition, our operating division is important from a litigation perspective where the success rate is historically 10% higher than non-practicing entities. We believe the structure and financial model neutralizes our corporate operating risk, it also provides shareholders with significant upside opportunities with IP licensing activity. This strategy and specification [ph] is truly unique among IP-centric companies, companies that have concentrated IP portfolios that generate little or no revenue yet trade at higher multiples. As we continue to execute on our long-term growth strategy, we believe that stock market will better appreciate our business model, achievements,…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Chuck Warden of Mid Atlantic. Please proceed with your question. Charles A. Warden – The Mid Atlantic Capital Group: Yeah. Hey, thank you for taking my question, guys. So I’ve been an investor for quite some times, well before the Lexington merger and I – over that time seen a pretty significant share price decrease. So my question is, what steps is the DSS have planned or think they could do to have the most direct impact on the share price, is sort of the first part. And then the second part is I’m curious to assess management’s view of the reason the depressed valuation of the stock, right now.

Jeffrey Ronaldi

Management

First of all Chuck, thanks for the question and thanks for being a shareholder over this trying period. The first question about the share price, what are we doing to change the shares price is a constant evaluation of our products and services and the people involved with it. It’s a reflection on everything that we’re doing and even if things are doing well, we still going to assessing whether we’re doing it correctly or how we are going to improve. We’ve set out a number of goals. We have achieved those goals such as increased EBITDA profitability. We have increased the number of – our patent portfolio without a cash requirement and we will continue to execute on this until we believe that this strategy is fraud [ph]. As far as your second question, that is the assessment of management of where we are today. It’s hard to rationalize the current stock price. We’ve had a couple of setbacks on our cases, but the amount that we invest in those cases does not reflect – does not correspond well with the total collapse of our stock price. It feels like the swings are just too strong for justification and hopefully when people see that we’re performing on the goal that we’ve set out, that will start going back in the other direction. Charles A. Warden – The Mid Atlantic Capital Group: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] our next question is coming from [indiscernible] of Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi guys. Good afternoon, congratulations on your record revenues of the quarter, my question also focuses on the low stock price. I mean it seems like there was a fire sale going on and I was wondering why or if you could tell us why you along with others on the board or in management haven’t demonstrated more confidence in the company’s future by stepping up and making meaningful stock purchases at these presumably fire sale prices. I think something like that would really go a long way toward maybe having others considered doing the same. Thank you.

Jeffrey Ronaldi

Management

Thanks, Eric. I’ve heard this question a lot and the main answer is, our window has been closed for quite some time and will be opening shortly, I think within the next week or so. It’s an individual decision whether to buy or not and I believe most of the management has bought in the past and as they bought in the past at higher prices, I imagine that they might do so in the future. Can’t really talk about specifics of when, where and how, but this could be an interesting time for us.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Gentlemen, do you have any closing comments today?

Jeffrey Ronaldi

Management

Yeah. Thank you for joining us on our call today. I want to thank you for your continued support and patience as we continue to build DSS into a leading technology innovator. Lastly, if we weren’t able to address all your question on today’s call, please feel free to contact us directly or contact our Investor Relations firm of ALS Group and we will be happy to answer them. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Operator

Operator

Before we conclude I would like to provide DSS’s Safe Harbor statement with important cautions regarding forward-looking statements made during this call as well as the statements regarding the company’s use of non-GAAP financial information. Forward-looking statements on this call including without limitations statement related to the company’s plans, strategies, objectives, expectations, potential value, intentions and the adequacy of resources are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and contain words such as believers, anticipates, expects, plans, intends, and similar words and phrases. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results projected. The factors, risks and uncertainties that could result in those differences include, but are not limited to, those disclosed in the risk factors section of the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements made as part of this call are being made as of today November 13, 2014 and the company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in forward-looking statements. During the call today, management discussed adjusted EBITDA. In the company’s press release issued today, you will find additional disclosures regarding this non-GAAP financial measure and reconciliations of net loss to adjusted EBITDA. Thank you for joining us for today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.