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Aviat Networks, Inc. (AVNW)

Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Wed, May 11, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Aviat Networks’ Financial Results Conference Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. And this time I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Glenn Wiener. Please go ahead, sir.

Glenn Wiener

Management

Thank you, operator. And welcome to Aviat Networks’ fiscal 2016 third quarter results conference call. We issued our press release and filed our Form 10-Q today and both documents can be found on our website in the Investor Relation section. Additionally this call is being webcast live over the Internet for all interested parties and the webcast will be archived on the Investor Relations page of our webstie. I’m joined today by Mike Pangia, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ralph Marimon, the Chief Financial Officer. During today’s call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding Aviat’s business, including statements relating to projections of earnings and revenue, business drivers, the timing and capabilities of new products, network expansion by mobile and private network operators and economic activity in different regions. These and other forward-looking statements involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. Please note these forward-looking statements reflect the company’s opinions only as of the date of this call and the company undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision of these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. In addition, during today’s call, management will be referencing both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A copy of the press release and financial tables, which include a GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation and other supplemental financial information, is also available on our website, again, in the Investor Relation section. I want to thank you all for your continued interest and support of Aviat. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike.

Mike Pangia

Management

Thanks, Glenn. And good afternoon to all joining us today. We provided a lot of information on our last quarterly conference call in February regarding our financials, operations, process improvement initiatives and outlook and since the quarter end we've provided further updates on our plans. I'll start by highlighting our fiscal Q3 performance and then focus most of my remarks on the market and what we're doing to position the Company for profitability and, equally important, to stabilize our top line. First, in regards to the fiscal third quarter. Our revenues came in at just over $60 million which is lower than what we had expected. The variances related to project timing in our private network business and slower than forecasted roll-outs with mobile operators. Our book-to-bill was just under one, impacted by ongoing lower mobile operator spending globally and the timing associated with securing some larger private network deals and I'll come back to this shortly. Some of the steps we've taken to enhance margins are beginning to show, primarily in our services operations and as such, we posted a 250 basis point improvement year-over-year and a 70 basis point improvement sequentially on a non-GAAP basis. Consistent with my remarks last quarter, our goal in the near to medium term is to get gross margins back to the high 20s with additionally improvements thereafter. Strong expense controls also yielded improvements as we reported a $3 million or about a 13% decline in non-GAAP operating expenses versus last year's third quarter. Combined with the actions we just announced, our overall spending will be $14 million to $16 million lower when comparing fiscal year '17 to fiscal year '16 and we see opportunities to lower expenses further. We expect sequential improvements in the fiscal fourth quarter with larger gains in the…

Ralph Marimon

Management

Good afternoon, everyone. Mike provided some color around our Q3 results and I'll briefly provide some additional details along with a few remarks around our cash position and balance sheet. I'll highlight our non-GAAP results and similar to prior quarters, you can view our press release for a reconciliation of GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. We reported revenue of over $60 million, down approximately 19% year-over-year, and 14% sequentially. The declines were anticipated, though the top line did come in less than what we had planned on due to the reasons Mike covered earlier. Revenue declined across multiple geographies with the biggest dollar impacts in North America, Africa, and the Middle East. In regard to North America, the year-over-year impact was primarily in the mobile operator segment. And while private network volume was a little lower, we expect this to ramp up in the next fiscal year based on prior awards and current activities. Product revenue is approximately 60% of sales, and services revenue was 40% of sales compared to 63% and 37% respectively in fiscal Q2. Non-GAAP gross margins were 24% as compared to 21.5% in fiscal 2015 third quarter, an increase of approximately 250 basis points and up 70 basis points sequentially. The gross margin percentage improvement was primarily driven by improved services margin and lower supply chain costs. Non-GAAP total operating expenses were $20.8 million, down $3 million year-over-year and down $200,000 sequentially. The annual improvement is due to our strong focus on reducing our overall cost structure. Selling and administrative expenses declined by $1.6 million year-over-year and were essentially flat with Q2. The year-over-year declines were primarily related to lower personnel costs and lower professional service fees. We also had a decline in R&D expenses of $1.4 million year-over-year. While our overall R&D spend has declined,…

Mike Pangia

Management

Thanks, Ralph. To summarize, we entered the year knowing the market would be challenging and it has been. The mobile operator segment even more so than anticipated, and this has impacted our performance. We've outlined our plans to address improved margins, lower expenses and a leaner business structure, which should bring us to profitability next fiscal year while generating positive cash flow from operations. While this quarter will remain challenging from a revenue perspective, bookings will show strong sequential improvements. With all that we're working on, we fully expect by the end of Q2 next fiscal year, we'll be generating break-even to positive adjusted EBITDA and profitability thereafter. Operator, we're now ready to open up the call for questions.

Operator

Operator

Glenn Wiener

Management

Thank you, operator. If anybody does have any follow-ups, by all means please feel free to contact Investor Relations. And once again, we appreciate your continued support.

Mike Pangia

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. We appreciate your participation.