Earnings Labs

The Eastern Company (EML)

Q3 2021 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 11, 2021

$22.25

+0.41%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. Welcome to the Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2021 Earnings Call. At this time all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Chris Moulton, Head of Corporate Development. Sir, the floor is yours.

Chris Moulton

Analyst

Good morning and thank you everyone for joining us. Speaking today will be Eastern’s President and CEO, Gus Vlak; and our CFO, John Sullivan. After that, we’ll open the call up for questions. Please note that some of the information we will hear during our discussion today will consist of forward-looking statements about the company’s future financial performance and business prospects, including without limitation statements regarding revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, other income and expense, taxes and business outlook. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or trends to differ significantly from those projected in these forward-looking statements. For more information regarding these risks and uncertainties, please refer to risk factors discussed in our Form 10-Q filed yesterday. In addition, during today’s call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Eastern’s performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. With that, I will turn the call over to Gus for opening remarks.

Gus Vlak

Analyst

Thanks, Chris. And good morning to those of you who have joined us on the phone and also those participating by the web. We released Eastern’s third quarter of 2021 results on our earnings press release and Form 10-Q, which we filed yesterday. Our third quarter results reflect strengthening financial performance across each of our three core businesses. And we’re proud of the tremendous commitment to agility and creativity from everyone at Eastern given the extra effort required to achieve these outstanding results while operating in an unusually complex supply chain environment. Eastern is clearly a stronger and more focused company today as a result of the changes that we’ve made to our portfolio over the last year. Changes that include the consolidation of Eberhard and ILC, which materially reduces our fixed costs and provides a sound platform for growth and innovation. As well as the addition of hailing a strategic bolt-on business to Big 3 Precision that expands our offering to core customers. And of course the divestitures of Canadian Commercial Vehicles, Sesamee Mexicana, and most recently Greenwald Industries. In the third quarter, our performance is driven by continued strong sales and clear improvement in gross margins. Sales from continuing operations were up 15% compared to the third quarter of 2020 and 4% over the second quarter of this year, although demand was strong. Our sales weren’t impacted by the supply chain issues. We are staffing some of our customers production levels. Big 3 Precision, our returnable transport packaging business with significant contributor to sales growth in the third quarter, primarily as a result of the wrap-up of plan new vehicle and truck model launches in 2022 and 2023, including a wide range of electric vehicles. According to IHS market, a market research organization, automotive OEMs will launch 55…

John Sullivan

Analyst

Thank you, Gus. My remarks this morning, we’ll focus on Eastern’s results for third quarter 2021. For the third quarter of 2021 net sales increased 15% to $63.9 million compared to $55.7 million for the third quarter of 2020. Sales increase actually due to demand for truck accessories, automotive, returnable packaging, global tooling and distribution products. Net sales of existing products increased 4% in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2020. Price increases in new products increased net sales by 10% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. New products include various truck mirror assemblies, rotary latches, D-rings and mirror cams. Gross margin as a percent of sales was 24% in the third quarter, compared to 24% in the third quarter of 2020. Product development expenses increased $0.4 million or 73% in the third quarter, compared to the same period in 2020. As a percentage of net sales product development expenses was 1.5%. Selling and administrative expenses increased $0.9 million or 11% in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2020. Primarily due to increase commissions, other selling costs, amortization expense, payroll-related expenses and incentive costs, which were suspended in 2020. Net income from continuing operations for the third quarter was $3.8 million or $0.61 per diluted share compared to net income of $3.2 million or $0.51 per diluted share for the same period in 2020. Adjusted for one-time expenses related to the move of certain operations from Illinois to Mexico earnings per share were $0.64 per diluted share compared to $0.57 for the same period in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the third quarter was $7.1 million compared to $6.8 million for the same period in 2020. And for a quick summary of our cash flow and some balance sheet highlights. To address the various supply chain challenges, which added weeks to our in transit materials and volatile raw material prices. We’ve strategically managed our working capital, including intentionally building up certain inventory item levels to avoid future shortages. In addition, we experienced a very large increase in our accounts receivable due to the rapid acceleration in our sales, both of these impacted our operating cash flow during the third quarter in light of this cash decreased $8.2 million in the third quarter. We expect cash flow to improve in the coming quarters, as we manage down our working capital. As of October 2, 2021, our cash balance was $10 million. And with an untapped $20 million revolving line of credit, we have sufficient liquidity to meet our cash requirements. Our net leverage ratio and our fixed charge coverage ratios were 2.5 times, both of which comfortably comply with the bank covenants of four in a quarter and one in a quarter respectively. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Chris for questions.

Chris Moulton

Analyst

Thanks, John. Operator, I’d like to open the line for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Chris Moulton

Analyst

And I’m not seeing any questions via the webcast.

Operator

Operator

We have no questions from the phone lines at this time.

Chris Moulton

Analyst

Okay. So, with that I’ll turn it to your Gus for closing remarks.

Gus Vlak

Analyst

Thanks, Chris. We remain optimistic that the economic recovery, which we’ve been seeing within our business is sustainable and we’re confident that our performance will continue to improve in the coming quarters. The demand remains strong and the impact of the supply chain challenges on us and our customers abate. Moreover, we believe that the resilience of each of our core businesses will not allow – not only allowing to prevail, but thrive as they continue to insignificant new business. Importantly, our backlog at the end of the third quarter, which $83 million, and that’s an increase of $25 million or 44% over the backlog at the end of the third quarter in 2020. On a separate note, for those of you who may be attending or considering attending this Sidoti Microcap Virtual Conference on December 8 and 9, we will be presenting and conducting one-on-one. We’d be glad to speak with you there. And as always, we welcome any opportunity to speak with you or answer any questions that you may have.

Chris Moulton

Analyst

Thanks, Gus. With that, I’ll hand the call back to the operator.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s event. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

Q -

Analyst