Earnings Labs

Pro-Dex, Inc. (PDEX)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Wed, Sep 25, 2013

$52.04

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Pro-Dex Fiscal 2013 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Hal Hurwitz, Chief Executive Officer. Thank you, Mr. Hurwitz. You may now begin.

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Thank you, Manny, and thank you, all for joining us to review the results for the fourth fiscal quarter and full fiscal year of 2013. On today's call I will provide a synopsis of our operating results as well as some comments. Then as Manny mentioned we will open up the call to your questions. Before beginning however, I ask our participants and listeners to note that the comments made on this call may include statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of securities laws. These forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements related to anticipated industry trends and the company's plans, products, perspectives and strategies, both preliminary and projected. Actual results or trends could differ materially. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly revise the results of any revision to the forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. For more information please refer to the risk factors discussed in the company's Form 10-K, as amended, for the year ended June 30, 2012, and the Form 10-Q related to fiscal 2012, all of which have filed with the SEC over the past year; the Form 10-K for the year-ended June 30, 2013, that we will be filing with the SEC in the next couple of days and the Form 8-K, filed with the SEC today, along with the attached press release issued today, all of which can be obtained from the SEC or by visiting our website at www.pro-dex.com. My discussion of our results for the fiscal 2013 fourth quarter and the full fiscal year of 2013 will relate to our continuing operations, meaning that the results of our former Astromec motor product line, which was sold in February 2012 will be excluded. First let's cover fourth quarter results. Sales for the quarter ended June 30,…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Thank you. The first question is from Paul Andrews, a private investor. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hey guys. First let me just say congrats, the turnaround's looking pretty nice.

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Thank you.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I’ve got a couple of questions. I’m guessing there aren’t too many people in the queue. First, the big build-up of inventory, so it’s contracted sales already, I mean it’s pretty clear that these sales are going to happen and you’re not going to be left holding the bag with all this inventory?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

That’s correct.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, great. And obviously you haven’t booked any of the inventory costs or any of the revenue yet, but it’s just kind of sitting on the balance sheet and we will see the results towards the end of this year?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Towards the end of this year, and I think there is a possibility in the beginning of next year also. I think it will be weighted toward the end of this year and into next year.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Perfect, perfect, okay. So then digging a little deeper, I remember Q2 of this year kind of the old management team said the breakeven point for the business was around $13 million to $14 million in run rate sales. Given the kind of -- you guys have obviously done a great job of bringing operating expenses down even further. I mean would you think breakeven is even lower than that now. Like, I would guess it's probably somewhere around where today’s level of sales is or maybe even a bit lower than that with all the cost cutting, but what do you think?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Yeah, I think that’s a reasonable conclusion to draw. Obviously, I can’t get too specific at this moment and frankly our cost cutting efforts continue to be dynamic. But…

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yeah, yeah. I mean you’ve only been in place for six months, so I am sure there is still a little bit of fat left to trim.

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Well, yeah I certainly I don’t know at this stage of the game, if I’d call it fat, but there are certainly some cost cutting opportunities that we can still do without stunting our growth. I think that in Nick Swenson's quote, he used the term prudent frugality and that's really the name of the game. We are frugal by culture now, but that's prudent nonetheless .

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

And Nick's not on the call, is he?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

No.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, all right. So then, I guess my next question would be Nick obviously, he’s got a hedge fund, the other member of the surplus capital committee has a hedge fund. Nick's the Chairman of another Board where he is also on the capital allocation committee. So, how is he going to work with the allocation of ideas between you guys investing in security, the hedge funds investing in securities all that sort of stuff?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Well, suffice it to say that the Board has approved the structure with appropriate control, and since we haven’t probably disclosed those controls, I don't know if it's appropriate for me to get into it here. So, I guess so – (inaudible) controls surrounding the other mechanism.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

It’s not even the controls, I guess I am wondering, but he comes up -- the two of them have a great idea, how do they decide which funds buy it first ? If the fund buys it first, if you guys buy it first, how is it kind of allocated in terms of that?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Yeah, that boils down to their decision making, and my involvement is solely with respect to Pro-Dex.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay that’s completely fine. And just my last question, I remember a long, long time back, there was a discussion around you guys used to get contracted for products, the customers with kind of own all of the IP. And there was a switch and you guys started earning all of the IP, obviously the customers could use it all within their products. But you guys actually own the IP and could go out and market it to other customers if you wanted to and all that sort of stuff. Is there any value in kind of licensing that IP out or is there anything that can come of that or is it all just kind of -- is it just not much?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Well, I’ll answer the last part specifically, the not much part; in certain of our projects, it certainly would not be not much. In other words, it would be much, we think it would be of value. But how much that value is and who owns the IP is really on a deal-by-deal basis, depends on a product-by-product basis. Because as you might have gleaned from the press release and from my comments here, we have certain projects that involve new technologies and we have other projects that involve contract manufacturing. And so, you can appreciate I hope that the value of IP would be different in the former than it would be in a later.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yeah, great. Well, I am going to hop back in the queue. I just want to let you know I think you are doing a great job, keep up the great work.

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Thank you Paul.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Our next question is from Paul Andrews, a private investor. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hey, I have one follow up since apparently no one else is hopping on. The 365k in marketable securities, I don’t know if you can or will disclose this. Is that all one or two individual stocks that’s what I’m guessing, but...?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. That’s fine.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Tim Brady of D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead. Hello Tim?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Tim, are you there? Tim Brady – D.A. Davidson : Hey, sorry guys, I was on mute. Just wondering if you could expand on Paul’s question with the investment purchases sector, any strategy, obviously kind of a black box at this point for investors.

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

I’m sorry Tim, I got a little bit (inaudible) . I’m going to have to ask you to repeat that question. Tim Brady – D.A. Davidson: Okay. Just in regards to the investments as a follow up to Paul’s question, any insights on sector, strategies, obviously it’s kind of a black box for investors right now, any insights at all you can provide?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Not at present, Tim, and I apologize for not being able to do that, but we really can’t. What I can share is what I already shared in the interchange with Paul and that is that when the structure was set up, it was set up with appropriate controls at the Board and management level. But to test that, we haven’t really gone into the details of the structure itself. So, I really am not at liberty to talk a lot about it in detail right now. Tim Brady – D.A. Davidson : Okay. And then just as I guess also related to surplus capital investment policy, that’s not public, but does that encompass more than just purchase of marketable investments or does that include share buybacks, dividend policies, or is it just the purchase of marketable investments?

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Well, again I can’t get into to those specifics regarding the plan, because as you just noted, it’s not a public document. With the exception of share buyback, you might have noted that in the release and in my comments today, our Board has approved a share repurchase plan. That would be an alternate vehicle or a vehicle I should say that is available to the allocation committee. Tim Brady – D.A. Davidson : Okay. That’s all I've got. I appreciate it.

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Sure.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Mr. Hurwitz, we have no further questions in the queue at this time. So, I will turn it back to you.

Harold A. Hurwitz

Management

Okay. Well, thank you Manny and my thanks to all of you for joining us today. All of us at Pro-Dex appreciate your interest, your time and your support to the company, and we look forward to speaking with you in November when we report our first fiscal 2014 quarter financial results. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.