Earnings Labs

Aviat Networks, Inc. (AVNW)

Q4 2019 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 27, 2019

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Transcript

Glenn Wiener

Management

Thank you and welcome to Aviat Networks Fiscal 2019 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Conference Call. We just filed our Form 10-K and issued our press release and our updated investor presentation has been posted to the Investor Relations section of our Web site. Speaking from management today will be Michael Pangia, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Stan Gallagher, Chief Operating Officer. Shaun McFall, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development is also with us and will be available during the Q&A portion of this call. With respect to Safe Harbor. During today’s call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding Aviat's business, including, but not limited to, statements relating to projected 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 or these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Additionally, during today's call management will reference both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our press release and financial tables therein, which include a GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation and other supplemental financial information. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask during the Q&A portion of the call following management’s remarks. And as always, should you have any follow-up questions, you can reach the Investor Relations department at 212-786-6011. The company has a lot of momentum moving into fiscal 2020 and we intend to get more active on the IR front with the next event, The MicroCap Rodeo Conference co-sponsored by Northland and Lake Street in Austin, Texas on October 15 and 16. At this time, I’d like to turn the call over to Mike.

Michael Pangia

Management

Thanks, Glenn. Fiscal 2019 was a very good year for our company as we added several new accounts, enhanced our technology position bringing innovative and differentiated solutions to market, we established partnerships with market leaders, we further strengthened our position in North America, and we continue to institutionalize operational excellence to further optimize our overall cost structure. Revenue for fiscal 2019 was up slightly year-over-year, and we generated our third consecutive year of profitability. Bookings were the best we’ve seen since 2016 with exceptionally strong performance in North America. With a solid backlog of high-quality business heading into fiscal 2020, we are in a stronger position to deliver better margins and much improved bottom line results. The one major market that fell well short of our expectations in fiscal 2019 was Africa, where network investments did not happen at the level we anticipated with a consequent effect on our topline growth aspirations for the fiscal year. We reported fiscal 2019 revenue of 243.9 million, up 1.4 million year-over-year. North America revenue grew by approximately 1.8 million and international revenue declined modestly. Revenue in Africa and the Middle East was down over $10 million compared with fiscal 2018 but offset by strong growth in the APAC region and with Globe in particular. Our book to bill for the fiscal year was well above 1, and bookings in North America were up over 27% with an exceptionally strong fourth quarter, one of the strongest in our company’s history. Stan will cover our financial performance in his remarks, so I’d like to shift to some of the key fiscal 2019 highlights. While servicing our customers will always remain our top priority, we also set out to expand our reach across new verticals and with new accounts. This was accomplished in fiscal year '19…

Stan Gallagher

Management

Thanks, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. Fiscal 2019 fourth quarter revenue of 64.2 million was up 1.7 million year-over-year and full year revenue of 243.9 million increased 1.4 million compared to fiscal 2018. While top line results fell a little short of our prior expectations, as Mike noted, the vast majority of the shortfall both for the quarter and year was due to lower revenue in Africa. To put this in better context, as we group regions in our financial report, the Q4 revenue decline in Africa was 4.6 million and for the full fiscal year was down 5.1 million. Excluding Africa, our business performed in line with our expectations. North America revenue in Q4 was up over 25% and up 1.4% for the fiscal year. Even more encouraging, our Q4 bookings performance in North America was exceptionally strong and as a result will be a strong source of revenue growth in the coming year. International revenue in Q4 was down approximately 20% year-over-year, mostly attributable to Africa. While the APAC region was also down in Q4, on a full year basis APAC revenue was up over 46% compared to fiscal 2018. Mike addressed our bookings earlier in his comments, but I will add a few comments. Our book to bill for both the fourth quarter and full year was well above 1 and North America was the number one contributor to this. For the full year comparisons, North America bookings were up over 27% and Africa bookings were down approximately 37%. On a dollar basis, the North America growth was far more substantial and this bodes well for margin performance in future profitability. As for gross margins, GAAP gross margin in Q4 was 35.2%, down 190 basis points compared to Q4 in fiscal 2018. And for the full fiscal…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from the line of Steve Busch from Everglades Resources. Your line is now open.

Steve Busch

Analyst

Good afternoon, guys. Excellent quarter.

Michael Pangia

Management

Hi. Thanks.

Stan Gallagher

Management

Thank you.

Steve Busch

Analyst

So, yes, it is amazing that you guys don’t get a lot of respect yet from other investors given the bottom line numbers are improving so well. You covered a couple of my questions, but maybe I’ll just follow up a little more. Can you go into more depth kind of with revenue opportunity, whether it will cannibalize our own products on the NEC deal?

Michael Pangia

Management

Yes. So it’s Mike here. We see the NEC opportunity as being completely incremental. From a product perspective, we are going to continue to service our customers with the solutions that they’re looking for in terms of evolving from the products they have. But the services will be Aviat services, so we don’t see any cannibalization but incremental growth on both fronts.

Steve Busch

Analyst

That’s awesome. Is there any kind of number you can wrap around it?

Michael Pangia

Management

I think at this point, we’re probably – it’s probably not significant enough for it to be material this fiscal year. It will be part of the other components where we do expect growth in North America pretty significant this year, and it will be part of that and I would expect the business to continue to grow as we move forward.

Steve Busch

Analyst

Okay. Is there an opportunity to get any other parts of their business or is it just this?

Michael Pangia

Management

Well, NEC as we all understand is a massive company that has operations in several elements of their portfolio beyond microwave. Clearly, this partnership and the opportunity starting in the U.S. allows us to explore other opportunities with them either globally or in adjacent product areas.

Steve Busch

Analyst

Okay. Good to know. I’ll hop off for now. Excellent job.

Michael Pangia

Management

Thank you.

Stan Gallagher

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Next question coming from the line of Tim Savageaux from Northland Securities, your line is now open.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

This is actually Steven [ph] on for Tim. Congrats on the quarter, guys.

Michael Pangia

Management

Thanks.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I was wondering if you guys can give us a little bit more update on Africa. Is the downturn trend all due to MTN or is there something else going on there?

Michael Pangia

Management

I think the biggest driver is MTN as it relates to their spending profile. The rest of Africa has also been slower than we expected but not to the same extent as the shortfalls that we’ve seen with our largest customer. Having said that, as we look at our first half, we’re factoring in our outlook basically, a similar run rate that we’re currently experiencing and we would expect as we’re looking at all options to improve how we operate in Africa, we would expect to see – likely to see some improvement in the second half of the year.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks for that. And then I guess my last question going to be the Ooredoo deal that you have, I’m probably mispronouncing that name, but I thought it’s a five-year contract with them. Can you give us any color around that, when you expect to start receiving orders from them or anything like that? Thanks.

Michael Pangia

Management

Yes, so Ooredoo has got operations across several different areas as I went through in my prepared remarks. Our agreement allows us the ability to go after all opportunities in all of their op-cos, and we do have a couple of their op-cos that we’re focused on as it relates to building out our 5G – part of our 5G aspirations and also leveraging some of the new products that we introduced, including our multi-band and 4000 solutions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Next question is coming from the line of Richard Greulich from REG Capital Advisors, your line is now open.

Richard Greulich

Analyst

Thank you. Could you tell me what the company policy is regarding share buybacks going forward?

Michael Pangia

Management

So the Board approved a couple of years ago obviously a maximum of $7.5 million of share buybacks. We have been executing that since the approval. I would say that our policy is for continued buybacks throughout the fiscal year. So it’s part of our budget going forward.

Richard Greulich

Analyst

Thank you very much.

Michael Pangia

Management

Sure.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. Now concludes today’s call. Thank you. You may now disconnect.

Michael Pangia

Management

Thank you.

Stan Gallagher

Management

Thanks very much.