Earnings Labs

Napco Security Technologies, Inc. (NSSC)

Q4 2016 Earnings Call· Tue, Sep 6, 2016

$45.62

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the NAPCO Security Technologies Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2016 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Patrick McKillop, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Patrick McKillop

Analyst

Hello. My name is Patrick McKillop, Director of Investor Relations for NAPCO Security. Good morning and thank you all for joining us for today’s conference call to discuss our financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal 2016. By now, all of you should have had the opportunity to review the press release discussing the results. If you have not, a copy of the release is available on the Investor Relations section of our website, napcosecurity.com. On the call today is Richard Soloway, Chairman and President of NAPCO Security Technologies and Kevin Buchel, Senior VP of Operations and Finance. Before we begin, let me take a moment to read the forward-looking statement. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements that involve numerous risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including those set forth in the company’s filings with the SEC. During the call, we may also present certain non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA and certain ratios that are used with these measures. In the press release and on the financial tables issued earlier today, you will find a definition of these non-GAAP financial measures, a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures with the closest GAAP financial measure, as well as a discussion about why we think these non-GAAP financial measures are relevant to our results. These financial measures are included for the benefit of investors and should not be considered instead of GAAP measures. With that out of the way, let me turn the call over to Richard Soloway, Chairman and President of NAPCO Security technologies. Dick, the floor is yours.

Richard Soloway

Analyst

Thank you, Patrick. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the call and thank you for your interest in NAPCO. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today to discuss the outstanding results that the company produced in fiscal 2016. We achieved record results in the fourth quarter and for the year despite being up against difficult comparisons with a strong performance last year. The fourth quarter was our fifth in a row to have record quarterly revenue performance and produced the highest quarterly net income in our history. Recurring revenue grew 63% last year and while still a relatively small piece of our overall revenue as it grows it will provide greater margin contribution as well as greater consistency and predictability in our financial results. We also demonstrated the operating leverage in our business as the 6% increase in revenue drove a 19% increase in net income. Growth in the internet of things as well improving school security and safety are key industry trends in our business and continues to impact our results favorably. And we expect our business strategies will continue to take advantage of these trends and drive greater growth, profitability and shareholder returns going forward. Before I go into greater detail, I will now turn the call over to our Senior Vice President and CFO, Kevin Buchel. He will provide an overview of our financial results. And then I will be back with more in our strategies and outlook. Kevin?

Kevin Buchel

Analyst

Thank you, Dick and good morning everybody. We had record results for the fourth quarter and the year both in terms of top and bottom line. For the fourth quarter, net sales increased 5% to $24.1 million, which was a quarterly record. And for fiscal 2016, net sales increased 6% to $82.5 million, which was also a record. The increase in sales was primarily related to the strength in our alarm products and electronic door locking systems as well as our growth in our recurring revenue. Recurring monthly revenue from the alarm division increased 68% for the quarter, 63% for the fiscal year and sequentially the increase was 14%. Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 40% of sales, which was slightly below the 40.6% posted last year. For fiscal ‘16, gross profit was 33.4% of sales, which was consistent with the 33.5% posted during the prior year. During fiscal 2016, we continued to reinvest a portion of the incremental margin contribution from the increase in sales in R&D to support the launch of new products and services, which resulted in relatively flat year-over-year margin comparison. The operating leverage in our business was more evident in our operating income line as we were able to produce a 6% increase in sales with minimal incremental investment in the operating expense line. For the quarter, selling, general and administrative expenses were flat at $5.9 million and for fiscal ‘16, SG&A expenses increased by 2% to $21.3 million. As a result, operating margin improved to 15.6% for the quarter and 7.7% for fiscal 2016, which was a 50 basis point improvement for the quarter and a 90 basis point improvement for the year. Demonstrating the operating leverage in our business, the 6% increase in fiscal 2016 sales resulted in a 19% increase in…

Richard Soloway

Analyst

Okay. Thanks, Kevin. The record financial results of this past year are a direct result of our strategies to position NAPCO to benefit from the two key paradigm shifts that are positively affecting the players in our industry. First is the significant growth of the internet of things and second is the significant amount of attention and new spending related to improving school security and safety. I will cover the internet of things paradigm shift first. Alarms, locking and access control are one of the first and fastest growing sets of devices and systems to benefit from and connect to the internet. As a result, there are opportunities for NAPCO to take market share while upgrading installed base of existing technologies as well as benefits from accelerating end market growth as customers realize the benefits of connecting these devices and systems to the internet. To take advantage of this paradigm shift, our strategies are focused on introducing new and innovative products and services that are compelling to the end user customer as well as products and services that help our dealers grow and succeed. This year, we successfully introduced our StarLink fire and commercial communicator. StarLink continues to experience strong market demand as customers look to use 3G and 4G wireless connection to replace traditional dial-up phone line as well as 2G wireless connection. Speaking of which, the phase out or sunset of 2G wireless networks will be taking place at the end of 2016, which we think will continue to drive demand for StarLink through the balance of this calendar year and well into the next. This fall, we will launch the StarLink Connect Controller, which expands our StarLink offering as the universal cellular solution capable of interfacing with the existing installed base. This opens up the market for…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Beth Lilly from GAMCO Investors.

Beth Lilly

Analyst

Good morning.

Richard Soloway

Analyst

Good morning, Beth.

Beth Lilly

Analyst

I wanted to just spend a minute. I mean, you showed good top line growth and you talked about reinvesting the portion of that top line growth back into R&D so that as a result your bottom line was flat. Can you talk about kind of what types of projects you are investing in on the R&D side?

Kevin Buchel

Analyst

Well, we have four divisions. And the integration of locking related to schools, high-rise buildings is a real strong growth area and we are putting additional engineers into that area of design, because the time is now for that. So, we brought in some new software and hardware engineers to develop that product line. So, they are a group, I would say, more than six new products coming out, which we think is going to be major contributors to the top and bottom line with these new engineers. When it comes to the alarm division, internet of things and connectivity which generate lots of recurring revenue, the wind is on our back in that area. Also we have experienced lots of success and we want to leverage that. So, we are going to be introducing a bunch of additional products that we have shown at the last international security show, which have lots of recurring revenue, but also will drive the top line to new heights. Each of the new products in that division we are incorporating recurring revenue type of technology into it. So, now that things are doing very well, we brought additional software and hardware engineers to that group also. So, we think we are at about the right point now, the right balance to capture lots of additional sales and profits with the group we have now.

Beth Lilly

Analyst

Okay. And do you anticipate spending – as we move into 2016, do you anticipate that type of spending as well or are we going to start to see more leverage on the bottom line?

Richard Soloway

Analyst

I think that the – as far as the hiring is concerned, I think we have the right balance now. So, as the top line grows, we are going to see that leverage really start to kick in.

Beth Lilly

Analyst

Okay.

Kevin Buchel

Analyst

Beth, I just want to say that we spent $6.2 million on R&D and that was about $800,000 more than last year and a lot of it is going to go to generate more recurring revenue products. And you know how we feel about recurring revenue. We love it and we want more of it and we want to get to our goals faster. It’s important. The time is now. We want to get to our goals faster. So, we try to balance out how to spend that money to get to our goals and not impact the bottom line. The bottom line did grow by 19% for the year.

Beth Lilly

Analyst

Yes, yes. But my question more pertains to the fourth quarter.

Kevin Buchel

Analyst

Right. Fourth quarter also I will add was a very strong quarter last year. It was a difficult comp. And I was happy to see that we, on the GP line, we are in the same range and on the top line was able to beat it by 5%.

Beth Lilly

Analyst

Okay, great. Alright. That’s all my questions. Thank you.

Richard Soloway

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And if there are no further questions, I would like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing comments.

Richard Soloway

Analyst

Okay. Thank you everyone for participating in today’s conference call. As always, if you have any further questions, please feel free to call Patrick, Three Part Advisors, Kevin or me. We thank you for your interest and support and we look forward to speaking to you all again in a few months to discuss NAPCO’s fiscal Q1 ‘17 results. Bye-bye.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today’s teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.