NAPCO Security Technologies Inc (NSSC) 2018 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the NAPCO Security Technologies, Inc. First Fiscal Quarter 2018 Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Patrick McKillop, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you Mr. McKillop, you may begin.

Thank you, Doug. Hello, my name is Patrick McKillop and I'm the Director of Investor Relations here at Napco Security. Good morning and thank you all for joining us for today's conference call to discuss our financial results for our fiscal first quarter 2018. 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 in the Investor Relations section of our website, www.napcosecurity.com.

On the call today is Richard Soloway, President and CEO of Napco Security Technologies; and Kevin Buchel, Senior Vice President and CFO.

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'll find the 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.

I will turn the call over to Dick in a moment. Before I do, I just wanted to mention a few things on the IR front. First of all, I invite you all to go and see our newly redesigned website, which was recently launched and we are really excited about it. This new website has a modern look and features, which allow for investors, dealers and distributors to more easily find the information they are seeking. In terms of upcoming investor outreach, we are attending the LD Micro Conference as well as the Benchmark Conference, which are both being held during the month of December. We expect to meet lots of new investors during these events and share the bright future we see ahead with them. Investor outreach is crucial, especially for small cap companies such as Napco and I would like to thank all of those folks that assist us in these conferences and marketing trips.

Lastly, I would like to mention that Napco will be exhibiting its products at the upcoming trade show ISC East in New York this month on the 15th and 16th at the Javits Center. If you're interested in coming to the show and checking out our booth, please contact me.

With that out of the way, let me turn the call over to Richard Soloway, President and CEO of Napco Security Technologies. Dick, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Patrick. Good morning, everyone and welcome to our conference call. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our results. The first quarter of fiscal 2018 marked another record revenue performance for Napco. This quarter marks the 13th consecutive quarter of increased sales growth for the company. Our SaaS revenue continue to grow at a rapid pace. The annual run rate is now $10.6 million as of September. StarLink Connect, our latest addition to the Communicator series started its commercial launch this past April is performing well in the early months of the launch. Our investments in R&D, selling and marketing expenses did not increase significantly during the quarter versus the year-ago period. We believe that the current levels of investment are now appropriate.

Our growing sales momentum is evidenced by the $21.2 million record-breaking revenue for the first quarter demonstrates our investments are having a positive impact on our sales. Our balance sheet remains very healthy and our cash position is growing. We continue to capitalize on key industry trends that are impacting our results favorably. Included in these trends are recurring revenue growth in cellular alarm communications, the creation of products for the Internet of Things, the connected home, and the development of products for improving school security and safety.

We continue to execute on our business strategy and take advantages of these trends. Driving growth, profits, and returns on equity are important for us and our shareholders. Our senior management owns 38% of the equity, thus our interests are aligned with our shareholders.

Before I go into greater detail, I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Kevin Buchel. He will provide an overview of our financial results and then I'll be back with more of our strategies and outlook. Kevin?

Thank you, Dick and good morning, everybody. For the first quarter, net sales increased 5% to $21.2 million, which was a record first quarter performance. The increase in sales for the 3 months ended September 30, 2017 was due primarily to increased intrusion sales driven by the aforementioned 56% increase in SaaS recurring revenues, as well as an increase in sales of products from the Access Control division. As Dick stated before, SaaS recurring revenue now has an annual run rate of $10.6 million based on September 2017 recurring revenue.

Gross margin for the first quarter was 32.5% of sales, which was a 50 basis points increase versus the first quarter last year. The increase in margin for the quarter versus a year ago was primarily due to the aforementioned increase in sales.

As Dick mentioned, our R&D and SG&A expense levels did not increase significantly versus a year ago. And we now believe that we are at the appropriate levels. SG&A cost for Q1 increased $84,000 or 1% over the year to $5.8 million, and as a percentage of sales, decreased to 27.5% from 28.4% last year. Operating income for the first quarter increased 48% to $1.1 million as compared to $716,000 last year.

Income before taxes for the quarter increased 49% to $1,033,000 compared to $692,000 for the comparable period last year. And income tax expense for the quarter increased by $19,000 to $143,000. The company's effective tax rate was 14% for the 3 months ended September 30, 2017, and that compares to 18% for the same period last year.

During the quarter, net income increased 57% to $890,000 or $0.05 per diluted share as compared to $568,000 or $0.03 per diluted share last year. The increase in net income was primarily due to the items we previously mentioned. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter, as outlined in the schedule included in today's press release, increased 33% to $1.4 million or $0.08 per diluted share compared to $1.1 million or $0.06 per diluted share last year.

Moving on to the balance sheet, the cash balance at September 30th, 2017 was $4.5 million as compared to $3.5 million at June 30, 2017. Our working capital as of September 30, 2017 was $41.2 million as compared to $40.8 million at June, 30.

Current ratio is 5.9:1 at September 30th as compared to 4.9:1 at June 30th. And debt net of cash remains at zero as of September 30th. CapEx was $514,000 during the quarter. For the quarter, CapEx levels were higher than our normal range, and as we stated before, the increased levels of CapEx are for the expansion of our NOC or network operating center and other projects to help facilitate the increased levels of business, we are now processing.

That concludes my formal remarks. And I would now like to return the call back to Dick.

Kevin, thank you. The two key themes for Napco's business, which continue to play out in a positive way are the addition of SaaS recurring revenue and school security. SaaS recurring revenue for the company continues to grow at a very strong rate. Demand for alarm communications and the Internet of Things, which includes the connected home category are driving the growth of our SaaS recurring revenues. In school security, an area which has a large addressable market and constantly receives significant attention, the market remains vibrant and we expect new spending by schools and universities to continue at a strong rate.

The U.S. alarm market is a multi-billion dollar market and Napco has a long history and great reputation in the security business. The design of our new products by our engineers has the goal of being appealing and feature-packed for a great end user experience. We are executing on our strategy to develop new innovative products and services, which will help our channel partners grow and succeed.

The connected home products and services market continues to grow, and our StarLink Connect is participating in this exciting growth vertical. A recent report from Parks Associates stated that 42% of all new security systems and stores include a smart home device. Furthermore, 70% of new security installs included interactive services, which has the ability to control the alarm system, lighting, door locks, thermostats and see live video remotely. The StarLink Connect communicator replaces the need for traditional phone lines in order to send the alarm signals to the central station. In addition, StarLink Connect can be used in tandem with our iBridge smartphone tablet app, which gives customers the interactive services I previously mentioned. We have 10,000 plus dealers in network and the unique features of StarLink Conect makes it an attractive product for them to install. A few other features that dealers love, include the ability of the Connect to be compatible with many of our competitors' alarm systems and save some time and money doing installs. They also are attracted to the ability of remote troubleshooting, would save them from potentially sending a truck to a customer's home or small business. In the U.S. there are approximately 133 million homes, of which 22 million have alarms installed. We believe the market opportunity of the Connect can be large as it includes both the retrofit and new in-store business.

We also continue to be excited about our opportunities for the StarLink Dual Path Fire, our CA4K and our ArchiTech Series Network Locks. All of these products are relatively new in their launches and we see a bright future ahead for all of them. The Architech Network Series Locks are an ideal access control solution which blend advanced wireless access control convenience within any decor in a choice of trims and finishes. These locks have the capability to control, access one door at a time or across a wireless network. Battery life is unsurpassed over the multiple years of use even in high traffic areas. ArchiTech Locks are the perfect solution for existing system upgrades or new installs. Across the U.S., we are seeing the construction of many luxury high rise buildings and these buildings are the type where the ArchiTech locks are being used. We are experiencing cross-selling opportunities as well, for every ArchiTech Lock on the front door of condominium high rise residences, it generates the need for matching mechanical interior hardware throughout the residence.

The StarLink Dual Path-Fire Communicator is also contributing to the growth of our SaaS revenue line, which as you know is growing at a healthy rate for us. StarLink Dual Path is a second version of the original Single Path Fire Communicator and is able to be used in cities like New York and LA where the local codes require a dual path, both cellular and IP form of alarm communication. According to our internal research, there are millions of commercial buildings across the U.S., which will need to be upgraded from the plain existing old telephone lines they are currently using as many of the major carriers are no longer supporting these lines. A great opportunity exist for the StarLink Dual Path with these buildings and it gives our dealers an easy solution to the problem.

The StarLink series now offers the most extensive line of communicators in the industry. Star's recurring revenue is something that has contributed to our success in the last few years and we are focused on developing new products which can bring more of this type of revenue to us.

Access control as a service is an area that we are expanding into with the recently launched CA4K product. CA4K product will enable the company and its integrators to offer cloud-based access control services. These services will enable customers to eliminate the need for a in-house staff to perform tasks such as security badge creation, compiling attendance reports, removing ex-employees in the system. These services will now be outsourced and the integrators and Napco will share in the recurring revenue generated from those services.

Moving on to a discussion of other major paradigm shift that is driving our business, that is the growth of security and safety in schools. Here at Napco, we are focused on providing solutions for schools, colleges and universities helps stop the intruders. It's unfortunate to report, but in the month of September, we had 2 more schools shooting incidents, one at high school in Spokane, Washington area and one at Central Illinois area. These are truly horrific events and here at Napco, we are doing our part in trying to help prevent these tragedies. We remain focused on addressing the urgent need for better security solutions in our nation's schools.

Our last financial results call, we discussed the recent letter that was sent to President Trump regarding the need for funding this critical issue. While we can't predict what will happen with this initiative and others that are being worked on, we can say that we continue to win the school security job. Our solutions are currently being used in thousands of schools across the USA. We make announcements when we can and get approval from the schools and continue to build our pipeline of projects.

We will begin our Q&A session portion of this call in a few minutes, but I first would like to give a brief summary. Napco is in a very strong position to continue its growth in sales and profits going forward. We believe that our investments in R&D, sales and marketing are beginning to show returns, which will increase throughout the fiscal year 2018. Napco's senior management maintains a high level of ownership in our equity, approximately 38% and I would like to thank everyone for their support and for joining us in the exciting future we have.

Our formal remarks are now concluded. We would now like to open the call for Q&A session. Operator, please proceed.

(Operator Instructions)

Our first question comes from the line of Gary Mobley from Benchmark.

Want to start by asking about product revenue. And I am looking at the product revenue category, just sort of backing out your commentary from the RMR contribution, it looks like we've been trending flattish on a year-over-year basis in product revenue now for majority of maybe the last 6 quarters and I'm just curious to know what the puts and takes there in the product revenue, can it grow, you mentioned access control continues to grow. So therefore what is failing to grow? Where would you like to bolster market share and what particular products and whatnot?

Gary, we have a lot of products which we sell, which generate the recurring revenue and as we've said, we're kind of in the early stages of introduction of a lot of these. So they take a while for them to become embedded in the dealers' repertoire of his offerings. The signs are that we are getting good signs of positive interest in this. We are very well known in the different fields that we're in, access control, locking and alarms and we expect to get nice growth for years and years in the future out of all of these (inaudible). So all I can say is just hang in and stay tight because this is our 13th consecutive quarter of growth and we expect many, many more to come.

Was there any impact from the hurricanes in the third quarter in productivity done in the Dominican Republic?

Not really, the only thing it was a little bit more costly because we -- the seas were rough, so we flew product in. As you know, the factory there is built for, it was custom built for us and it's really a concrete bunker, a very large one and -- but we kept rolling along. The storm's actually went to the north of the island, the island is the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island together, so that went to the north side, just a little wind and rain on south side where we are.

And focusing again on the product revenue and gross margin contribution. If I do the math and correct me if I'm doing the math wrong, are the product gross margins, did they trend down about 200 basis points year-over-year and what can you attribute that to?

I guess if you are carving out recurring, you're right. And it's mix, when we win some big school jobs, we have a very high margin. So this quarter didn't have a very big school job, had a lot of K through 12 type jobs. The universities tend to be higher margin and the K through 12, so that's all it takes to have a shift ever so slightly on the good side of the gross margin. Our R&D, which is included in cost of sales was at the same level, you guys haven't seen it yet, you'll see -- when you see the Q, it's virtually the same dollar amount as it was last year at this time. And that's what we had said was going to happen, so we're pleased with that because while the spend level was the same, we're going to be coming out with a lot more stuff as this fiscal year progresses, some of which you'll see at the ISE show next week. So for us quarter-to-quarter, sometimes one division is up, but another one is not so up. In the big picture, we see great things ahead, more RMR, more hardware sales, to help us get the leverage that we've talked to many of you about.

Last question from me. On the StarLink control panels and the communicator products, what is your roadmap to evolve with some of the emerging LTE, IoT standards such as Cat M1 and Bi-2]. I know you're not in the business of creating cellular modems, but is that a key focal point in terms of product roadmap for the panels and then as well positioning in the marketplace?

Well, yes, I mean the communications formats are changing and we made our products such that you can change it, for instance LTE, and Cat 1 and formerly CDMA, all these formats that the carriers are changing to, we're going along with because the towers are equipped that way. We designed our products such that each of these formats are on a circuit board that plugs into the main board of the units, so that as the carriers notify the industry, the machine-to-machine industry, security industry, there's going to be a change in the format of communications. We can plug in a board and that change the product, so this product can stay as it is, it's a great thing for the dealers, because he doesn't have to rip out the products, and we're the only company that does that. So you just plug in the new board and it's ready to go. So we're staying up with all the trends and every 2, 3 years, the things change, the next trend probably will last to 5 years, which is Cat, the Cat trend, like -- so that's our positioning in the market.

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Mike Walkley from Canaccord Genuity.

This is Josh for Mike. Just starting off on the $10.6 million run rate for recurring revenue. Just one quick clarification on that. the -- when you say September, that means that the month of September had that $10.6 million run rate and you shouldn't infer that you can just take $10.6 million divided by 4 and that's what the total recurring revenue was for the quarter, is that correct?

Right. You take September, basically multiply it by 12, that's how we've been referring to it as we've gone along on this journey and it's gotten to be a very exciting journey. So yes, September --.

And then we already touched on this a little bit, but I was hoping to get some more color on the seasonality of the hardware business, I know everybody knows that the June quarter is the strongest quarter, but how should we think about the other quarters in terms of product hardware revenue?

Each of the quarters grow as the year progresses, obviously the September quarter, historically has always been the weakest. We're so much encouraged for those of you that have been with us for years, that now September, the weakest quarter is now at 21.1 quarter. A lot of the heavy lifting is done by the recurring, but the hardware sales have been doing well. They probably would have done even better, the part of the country was battered by hurricanes, we talked about the [Dr] hurricane, part of the country was battered, really didn't affect us that much, but it may have affected our hardware sales a little bit, it's hard to say exactly, you got a lot of SKUs, you got a lot of dealers, you got a lot of distributors. So the way we look at it, is the quarters are going to get stronger as the year progresses, ending like it typically does with that big fourth quarter.

And then you mentioned this a little bit already, the StarLink Connect product, how many of your 10,000 dealers would you estimate are selling that at this point?

For comparative purposes, we don't talk about how many dealers but we're shipping -- increases -- in large numbers to our various distributors and the dealers are pulling it through and the signs are at the trade shows and dealers coming up to us. It's very exciting, they're putting it in and it now modernizes the alarm systems that are out there, that they've installed over the years, including our competitors' alarm systems because in order to get connected home, you have to traditionally rip out the old alarm, put this in -- put in a new modern alarm with connected home, with this you don't have to do that, this is a half-hour, one-hour install and now you have app control of your existing alarm. So as I said, it's a very, very early on aspect of our business, it takes a while, but all the signs are it's going to very, very positive, generate more and more recurring revenue and hardware growth for us.

And then you mentioned that R&D spend was flat year-over-year, with all these new products that you've invested in recently that seem to be off to strong start, how should we think about R&D spend going forward? Is it going to grow throughout the year or do you expect it to be flat now for few quarters or --?

We think that the spend level that we had for fiscal '17 is going to the similar level in '18 and the guys are working really hard to produce a lot more products, as I said you're going to see more coming out, you'll see some of that at the show next week. So we believe the spend level is right where we want it to be and this quarter was an indication of that because it was flat. We do spend a little more in other quarters but when you add it all up at the end of June, it should be at a similar level than it was in '17.

And then last question from me, you mentioned just briefly already that you're working on some legislative matters regarding school security, is there -- are there any developments that we should be looking for, monitoring going forward that might hint at success in that?

Well, it's a big problem all over the country. It's not just with schools, any public places, you have problems with active shooters coming in, it's not a world that we had known in the past, it's a new world. So there are a number of associations which sent letters to the President and asking him to incorporate monies and its infrastructure build. So with all of this increased problems that we're seeing around the country, shootings, major shootings every couple of weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see some things that are happening in the news, so just keep your eyes peeled. Right now everybody is focused on getting the tax aspect of Americas straightened out, change in the tax laws, but I know this infrastructure build, that's going to be traveling through and that will be up next. So just watch newspapers. We will ride along with the success of that, but we're not 100% counting on that. We were out there marketing all the time to schools and we're also marketing to other public forums. And having locking and access control and alarms, where you call for panic and help right away, it's a very important part of protecting society, and we're doing our part.

There are no other questions in the queue, I'd like to hand the call back over to management for closing comments.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone for participating in today's conference call. As always, should you have any further questions, please feel free to call Patrick, Kevin, or myself for further information. We thank you for your interest and support. I would look forward to speaking to you all again in a few months to discuss Napco's fiscal Q2 2018 results. Bye-bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.