Senstar Technologies Corp (SNT) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Senstar Technologies fourth quarter and full year 2024 results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Kim Rogers of Hayden IR. Thank you, you may begin.

Thank you, [Sherry]. Welcome and thank you for joining us today. I want to thank the management of Senstar Technologies for hosting today's call. With us on the call today from the company are Mr. Fabien Haubert, CEO, and Ms. Alicia Kelly, CFO.

Before we start, I'd like to point out that this conference call may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the company's future performance. These statements are only predictions, and Senstar cannot guarantee that they will in fact occur.

Senstar does not assume any obligation to update that information. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected, including, as a result of changing market trends, reduced demand, and the competitive nature of the security systems industry, as well as other risks identified in the documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In addition, during the course of the conference call, we will describe certain non-GAAP financial measures, which should be considered in addition to, and not in lieu of, comparable GAAP financial measures. Please note that in our press release we have reconciled our non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with Reg-G requirements.

You can also refer to our website at www.senstartechnologies.com for the most directly comparable financial measures and related reconciliations. With that, I will now hand the call over to Senstar Technologies CEO, Fabien Haubert. Fabien, please go ahead.

Thank you, Kim. Thank you for joining us today to review our fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results. Starting with an overview of this quarter's performance, our revenue increased by 14.5% compared to Q4 2023, driven by solid growth across our core geographies, with the USA and EMEA markets expanding by 43% and 44% respectively.

During the quarter, we also achieved major wins across the telecom data centers, airports, and corrections verticals, which served as important tailwinds for the business heading into 2025. Similar to the prior quarter, growth margin was strong at 64.5%, representing a 7.9 percentage point increase versus Q4 2023.

The improvement in the quarter was [primarily] driven, but the combination of a balanced solution mixed pricing adjustments, our continued streamlining of cost saving initiatives, and normalization supply chain of the components markets.

As previously communicated, our gross margin levels are aligned with our expectation to deliver a growth margin of 60% or better. While we remain focused on diligent expense management, operating expenses increased by 7% compared to Q4 2023, primarily due to higher cost driven by recent headcount additions in both the general and administrative and sales and marketing functions.

The combination of revenue growth and growth margin expansions, in tandem with diligent investments to drive sales, led to a significant increase in our profitability. Accordingly, EBITDA in the quarter reached $1.6 million versus the $0.5 million in the year ago quarter, while net income improved from $0.4 million to $1.6 million.

We continue to experience strong growth in the US and EMEA and our core verticals have remained a significant growth contributors on the company overall. Our performance this quarter reflects both the successful execution of our strategic focus on high potential sectors and the continued customer adoptions of our tailored solutions.

Turning to our fiscal year of 2024 results,. Total revenue increased by 9% to $35.8 million, driven by strong performance in our USA, EMEA, and APEC markets. We experience a healthy growth rates from our targeted verticals, with notable strength in the corrections, utility, and transportation verticals, along with a great performance in data centers and renewable energy.

We continue to focus our efforts on data centers among globally recognized names, which supported an over 30% growth in the utility verticals in 2024. Growth margin for 2024 expanded for 6.6 percentage points to 64.1% from 57.5% in 2023. The increasing gross margin was driven by price adjustment, streamlining initiatives, and the stabilization of supply chain following a period of constraints related to COVID.

Based on streamlining initiatives that we began in 2023, we're continuing to optimize our cost structure and deliver the 5% decline in the operating expenses for the year of 2024. As a result of this powerful combination of revenue growth margin expansion and lower operating expenses, our profit trajectory shows a meaningful improvement.

For the full year of 2024, EBITDA reached $4.6 million compared to EBITDA loss of $0.3 million in 2023. And net income improved by $3.9 million to $2.6 million versus net loss of $1.3 million in 2023. Our capital structure remains healthy, with a cash balance of $20.5 million along with no debt as of December 31, 2024.

Now turning to vertical sales. Correctional facilities. We achieved important wins in the correction verticals, driven by steady demand for our advanced security technologies that ensure public safety, mainly in the USA.

Our customer and the broader market see value in reliable intelligent threat detections that adapts to complex environments. Leveraging on the power of AI, our multi-sensor product is an example of our advanced perimeter solutions, and is uniquely suited to address the modern needs of complex facilities such as correctional institutions. Our offering has helped strengthen our competitive position in a trusted partner, leading to an increase in contract wins, particularly in the US markets.

Utilities. The growth trajectory of this verticals remains one of our strongest. And we experience a significant breakthrough with data centers across all our core markets in 2024. The EMEA, US, and APAC regions showed notable strength with broad-based demand across data centers, telecom infrastructure, solar farms, and energy generation.

As the utility sector accelerates investments in securing critical infrastructure, we are strategically positioned to capture a growing share of the markets. Our technology is showing increased adoption by operators of these high-value assets, which demonstrates the scalability and ingenuity of our solutions.

Transport. In Q4 2024, we accomplished major wins in the transport sector with a steady flow of demand for upgraded airport infrastructure across a variety of our core markets. The EMEA and APEC region, in particular, are expanding rapid development in transport infrastructure.

And our technology is uniquely positioned to address these markets, increasing needs for securing monitoring systems. In addition to EMEA and APAC, we're continuing to prioritize a broad base of geographics where modern transportation security initiatives are aligned with our innovative and secure solutions.

Energy. The vertical was pressured under the 2024 with the revenue declining versus 2023. However, our energy offering remains in a competitive position as it enables companies to unlock operational efficiencies while protecting critical assets.

The EMEA market for the strongest performing region, with this vertical in 2024, while North America showed encouraging trends as well. We're optimistic about the trend in the energy industry and we remain focused on capturing opportunities that will have a positive contribution in the quarters ahead.

In terms of product updates, I'm pleased to share that MultiSensor is experiencing positive initial indicators with continued sales in Q4 2024. This has become the cornerstone of our perimeter technology solution, and initial customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly for those in critical infrastructure and high security sectors. As demand grows for comprehensive real-time situational awareness, MultiSensor positions us well for continued growth in both domestic and international markets.

Our strategy remains focused on business development to expand global market share across key verticals. We're pleased to report a growing share of our sales is being driven by new customers, reflecting successful outreach and acquisition efforts.

We recently hired a new business development team that is already well established on three major continents to sustain this progression. The business development team has a proven track record and their incentives are in full alignment with the company to improve the revenue ratio of new customers.

We aim to bring a new end users in existing markets while also acquiring customers in new regions. Likewise, our investments in key territories are coming to fruition, as evidenced by the double-digit growth in the USA and EMEA models.

In conclusion, we're anchoraged by our performance in 2024, marked by strong revenue growth, material improvement in profitability, and market share gains across our three verticals.

The Senstar team remains dedicated to successfully executing our growth strategy, capturing market share, and delivering value to our customers. We're committed to expanding upon these wins as we continue delivering value for our shareholders and generating sustainable long-term growth.

Now, I will pass the call to our CFO, Alicia Kelly. Alicia, please go ahead and review the financial results.

Thank you, Fabien. I'll begin with the results for the quarter. Our revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024 was $10.2 million, an increase of 14.5% compared with $8.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. We saw robust sales growth in the US of 43%.

Growth was experienced in all four of our key verticals, but the most significant growth was reported from utility sales driven by a large breakthrough in data centers across all regions. EMEA also reported an increase in sales of 44% in Q4 versus the same period last year.

Incremental sales were reported in the correction, renewable energy, and the transportation segments. The geographical breakdown as a percentage of revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the year ago quarter is as follows: North America, 42% versus 36%; EMEA, 46% versus 36%; APAC, 11% versus 14%; Latin America, 2% versus 11%, and all other regions were immaterial for Q4 of 2024 and less than 3% in Q4 of 2023.

Fourth quarter growth margin was 64.5%, up compared to 56.6% in a year ago quarter. The increase in gross margin was primarily due to product mix and price increases. Our operating expenses were $5.1 million up, 7% compared to $4.8 million in the prior year fourth quarter. The increase was driven by headcount investments in G&A, marketing, as well as sales.

Strong revenue and a sizable increase in gross margin drove an increase in our operating income for the fourth quarter to $1.5 million, a significant increase compared to $262,000 in a year ago period. Financial income was $463,000 in the fourth quarter of the year compared to $34,000 in the fourth quarter of last year.

This is mainly a non-cash accounting effect; we regularly report due to the adjustments to the valuation of our monetary assets and liabilities, denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of our operating entities in the group in accordance with GAAP.

Net income attributable to Senstar Technologies shareholders in the fourth quarter was $1.6 million or $0.07 per share compared to $433,000 or $0.02 per share in the fourth quarter of last year. The company's EBITDA up for the fourth quarter was $1.6 million compared to $450,000 in the fourth quarter of last year.

Added to Senstar's operational contribution are the public platform expenses and amortization of intangible assets from historical acquisitions. The corporate expenses for the fourth quarter were approximately $700,000.

Turning now to the results for the full year, revenue for the full year 2024 was $35.8 million, an increase of 9% compared with $32.8 million in 2023. Sales grew 15% in the US compared to 2023, and EMEA also reported an increase in sales of 11% in 2024 compared to last year.

The geographical breakdown of the percentage of revenue for 2024 compared to 2023 is as follows: North America, 45% in each period; EMEA, 36% versus 35%; APAC, 15% versus 12%; Latin America, 3% versus 7%; and all other regions, less than 1% in both periods.

2024 gross margin was 64.1%, up compared with 57.5% in 2023. An improvement in gross margin was largely attributed to balanced product mix, the positive impact of organizational streamlining initiative, and carefully implemented pricing adjustments.

Our operating expenses were $19 million, down 5% compared to 2023. The decrease is the result of streamlining our corporate structure and realigning of resources that we implemented in 2023. The top line growth, strong growth margin, and reduced operating expenses collectively drove an increase in our operating income for 2024 to $3.9 million, compared to an operating loss of $1.3 million in 2023.

Financial income was $731,000 in 2024, compared to financial expense of $64,000 in 2023. Net income attributable to Senstar Technology shareholders in 2024 was $2.6 million or $0.11 per share compared to a net loss attributable to Senstar Technology shareholders of $1.3 million or $0.06 per share in 2023.

The company's EBITDA for 2024 was $4.6 million compared to a negative $348,000 in 2023. Added to Senstar's operational contributions are the public platform expenses and amortization of intangible assets from historical acquisitions, the corporate expenses for 2024 were $2.2 million.

Cash and cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits as of December 31, 2024 were $20.6 million or $0.88 per share. That concludes my prepared remark. Operator, we'd like to open the call to questions now.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) There are no questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Haubert. Oh, we do have a question. I'm sorry.

Ken Liddy, Oppenheimer and Company. Please proceed. Mr. Liddy, your line is live.

Hi. Just wanted to know what growth drivers for 2024 look positive for 2025?

Sorry, I didn't hear you.

What growth drivers look positive for 2025 from 2024?

So unfortunately, we're not providing forward-looking statements, but we only can report that we've been showing growth on three of the fourth quarter last year. So we believe to be based on something structural and not basically accidental.

So basically the global trend, the needs for security, and to secure critical infrastructure, the complexity of those operations and of the requirements and security make us believe that we're in a very positive trend, which is to be continuous.

But it's only an assumption and we try our utmost to keep on the same trend.

Is there any reason that you're any more encouraged than not encouraged?

I only -- we're going to say what we have experienced in 2024. We're very happy to have seen a growth in our three main regions, which are basically North America, EMEA, and APAC. And we hope and strive that the growth will remain in those three main regions.

Can you comment on anything in the future as far as optimism, anything to that effect?

I fully -- I totally understand. Unfortunately, we're not providing forward-looking statements. We just, we keep doing our very best to make sure we can keep on the same trend, which we currently are. And we will work hard to even do better than that.

I guess one last question. Is there any new opportunities in the United States that do not exist in 2024. That could possibly be a future pipeline?

So I'm trying to understand the background of your question, in the sense of --

With the political turmoil in the United States regarding immigration, does that present any opportunities for your company?

So the rates of -- okay, I understand the question. The rates of insecurity in worldwide, and in the United States as well intends to -- is a strong driver to securing better.

I'm not in a position to make any link between basically the insecurity and immigration is not what we're aiming for. We know that the need for security is remain high and we're putting all our effort to keep securing basically the -- our targeted verticals against this feeling of insecurity.

Understood. Thanks for taking my questions.

With no further questions, I would like to turn the conference back over Mr. Haubert for closing remarks.

So on behalf of management of Senstar, I would like to thank you for your continued interest and long term support of our business. We look forward to sharing more of this with you in the coming quarters. Have a good day.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.