Earnings Labs

PowerFleet, Inc. (AIOT)

Q3 2012 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 7, 2012

$3.09

-0.32%

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.
Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the I.D. Systems Q3 2012 Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to your host today, Jeffery Jagid, Chairman and CEO. Please begin.

Jeffrey Jagid

Management

Thank you. And thank you for joining us today. I’m Jeffrey Jagid, the Chairman and CEO of I.D. Systems. Joining me are our CFO, Ned Mavrommatis; Darryl Miller, our Chief Operating Officer; and Ken Ehrman, the President of the company. I will provide a brief overview of our results for the quarter and year to date, Ned will detail our financials, Darryl will update you on the performance of our Asset Intelligence subsidiary, and Ken will review the highlights of our vehicle management business. We will then open the call to your questions. Before we begin, let me reiterate the Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the impact of competitive products, product demand and market acceptance risks, fluctuations in operating results and other risks detailed from time to time in I.D. Systems’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risks could cause the company’s actual results for the current fiscal year and beyond to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the company. The third quarter of 2012 met our expectations in every respect. We achieved our highest quarterly revenue to date, 15.5 million and announced our 11th consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth. Revenue was up 37% from the third quarter last year. At the same time we continue to manage costs, actually reducing SG&A expenses by 4% compared to Q3 2011 which supports our conviction that we can sustain solid short term growth with essentially the same overhead costs as we have today. Our growth margin grew to 56% in the third quarter compared to 52% in the same period last year reflecting a healthy…

Ned Mavrommatis

Management

Thank you Jeff and hello to everyone on the call. As Jeff noted, revenue for the third quarter ended September 30th, 2012 increased 37% to a record $15.5 million from $11.3 million in the third quarter of 2011. For the nine months period, revenue was up 24% to $34 million compared to $27.5 million for the same period a year ago. Our strong revenue growth in the quarter was attributable in large part to the expansion of our business with Avis Budget Group. As Jeff noted, our rental fleet management system deployment increased to approximately 30,000 units in Q3 from about 10,000 units at the start of the quarter. Recurring revenue for the quarter and nine months period was $4.3 million and $12.8 million respectively representing 28% and 38% of total revenue in the respective periods. We are confident that our recurring revenue stream will continue to grow primarily for two reasons. Jeff mentioned the strong performance over asset intelligent business which Darryl will also discuss. Each one of the asset intelligence units comes with a long term communication contract which should have a positive effect on our recurring service going forward. In addition, our deferred revenue primarily from our VeriWise transportation management system has grown more than 36% since the end of 2011 to $10.1 million as of September 30, 2012. Further, adding to our base of predictable recurring revenue is the service component of our Avis business. The 30,000 units currently deployed would generate recurring revenue of approximately $270,000 per quarter over the next five years. Our gross margin in the third quarter and first nine months of 2012 were 55.5% and 53.3% respectively compared to 52.5% and 53% in the corresponding period last year. These healthy consistent gross margins reflect the continued marketability of our systems at…

Darryl Miller

Management

Thanks Ned and thanks to everyone for joining us on the call today. Asset intelligence sales remain strong. As the third quarter of 2012 was the fifth consecutive quarter in which unit sales of our VeriWise brand trailer and container management systems exceeded our target volumes. Third quarter sales were up more than 80% sequentially from the second quarter of 2021. For the first nine months of the year, VeriWise unit sales increased more than 47% compared to the same period last year. due primarily to this increase, the company’s deferred revenue has grown by more than $2.7 million or 36% since the end of 2011 to 10.1 million at the end Q3 as Ned noted. This recurring revenue will be recognized over the next five years. Perhaps our most important win in Q3 was National Retail Systems or NRS which is global logistics services company specializing in factory to retail store supply chain management. This is a world class organization. It has been named the top 100 supply chain partner for exemplary customer service and supply chain efficiency and is one of only two US transportation service providers certified for full compliance with the nation’s new tracking security requirements program. NRS executed a contract with us to deploy our VeriWise Track and Trace system on a large fleet of trailers. The contract is valued at 1.7 million over five years. NRS has equipped a fortune of its trailer fleet and VeriWise solutions for more than 10 years. Management chose us for this rollout based on our past performance because they feel VeriWise Trace and Trace is the most reliable, cost effective; easy deploy system available for real time trailer tracking invisibility. NRS projects the 10 to 15% improvement in trailer fleet utilization through our system as well as enhanced…

Ken Ehrman

Management

Thank you Darryl and hello to everyone on the call. I am glad you could join us today. Clearly the most important development of the third quarter of 2012 was as we expected the fulfillment of all outstanding delivery orders to Avis Budget Group under SOW1 of our master agreement. As noted earlier, the 20,000 rental fleet management units we shipped in Q3, increases the total deployed to 30,000 across the North East United States and Canada. The center piece of our Avis program is the development of a patent pending virtual car rental technology called Avis On Location. Built on our wireless intelligent platform, our in-vehicle computers and our software integrated with Avis’ backend corporate systems, Avis On Location does everything from remotely unlocking car doors at the start of a rental to reporting vehicle usage at the end of a rental. Our system enables renters to manage their own experience through a smartphone accessible web interface. Among many advantages that has over other virtual rental solutions like ZipCar, is that you do not need a subscription to access our service or a special car to access the vehicles which results in an easier, more convenient transaction. Installation also takes minutes and does not require a modification at all to the vehicles. Avis On Location has already been deployed at the campuses of Microsoft, United Technologies, Research in Motion and others. ON the industrial vehicle management side of the business, we saw repeat orders in the third quarter of 2012 from many core customers including Caterpillar, Deere, Ford, Kellogg’s, MillerCoors, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Walgreens and Wal-Mart. Notable new customers have indicated for our business in Q3 include Detroit Diesel, the engine manufacturing subsidiary of global automotive leader Daimler AG, which deployed our industry leading power fleet vehicle…

Jeffrey Jagid

Management

Thank you Ken. That concludes our prepared remarks. We are now pleased to open the Q&A segment of the call. Thanks again for participating today and I look forward to your questions.

Operator

Operator

: (Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from Morris Ajzenman with Griffin Securities. Please go ahead with your question. Morris Ajzenman – Griffin Securities: On the service revenues, based on the installment of 30,000 units saved as budget, should we expect to see service revenues stop picking up on a quarterly basis year-over-year. it’s been kind of I guess stuck in flattish trend for a while a year. how should we look at that going forward, starting with the fourth quarter the service revenues?

Ned Mavrommatis

Management

We should definitely start seeing service revenue going up. Avis is one of the reasons now with the 30,000 units currently deployed. They are all going to start generating service revenue in Q4. In addition, as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, our asset intelligence business units sold has been very strong and as we deliver those units, as I mentioned before, each and every one of those units has a long term communication contract associated with it. So that in addition with Avis, as a combination of those two reasons, should allow us to see a pickup in service revenue going forward. Morris Ajzenman – Griffin Securities: Will service revenues increase in a single digit basis or will it increase going towards double digit rates as (inaudible) quarters?

Ned Mavrommatis

Management

Well it’s going to be a steady increase. The Avis obviously, obviously we're going to see the immediate impact and as we start delivering the asset intelligence units, we would see an impact in the service revenue as we turn them on. So as time goes by the growth rate will become even higher. Morris Ajzenman – Griffin Securities: Okay, switching gears, you didn’t say too much about VMS in this quarter. Any color you can give us on that?

Ned Mavrommatis

Management

Well I think I covered a lot of it in the script which is that we are continuing to receive orders from our current customers as well as continuing to add new clients through both direct selling as well as our third parties. Morris Ajzenman – Griffin Securities: And normally you give a breakout of AI and VMS. Do you have that available?

Ned Mavrommatis

Management

Sure. If you look at the revenue, 59.5 million, 4.4 million came from asset intelligence and 11.1 million came from the core business which includes the VMS and rental car. If you’re looking at only VMS, it was approximately 4 million in revenue in the quarter from vehicle management.