Zvi Glasman
Analyst · Baird. Please proceed with your question
Thanks Mario. Good afternoon everyone. Today I will focus primarily on our fourth quarter results and review our fiscal 2017 guidance. Sales for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2016 were $111.6 million, an increase of 16.6% versus sales of $95.7 million in the fourth quarter of last year. This increase reflects a 27.5% and 7.8% increase in sales of powered vehicle products and bike products, respectively. The increase in sales of powered vehicle products was primarily due to continued high demand for on and off-road suspension products and increased OEM sales. The increase in sales of bike products primarily reflects favorable model year spec placements with OEMs and new product interventions. Gross margin was 30.5% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016, a 60-basis point increase from of 29.9% in the prior year period. The increase in gross margin was primarily due to lower acquisition related inventory costs as compared to the prior fiscal year period. On a non-GAAP adjusted basis, which excluding acquisition related costs, gross margin decreased 10 basis points to 30.6% as compared to the fourth quarter of last year. The decrease in non-GAAP gross margin is primarily related to unfavorable mix as we had higher OEM sales and related ramp-up cost in our El Cajon operation. Total operating expenses were $20.6 million or 18.4% of sales in the fiscal 2016 fourth quarter compared to $19.2 million or 20% of sales in the fourth quarter of last year. The increase in operating expenses is primarily a result of additional investments to support growth in the business and approximately $800,000 of expense associated with our previously disclosed ongoing patent litigation activities involving a bike industry competitor, partially offset by a reduction in amortization, certain purchased intangibles. We remain confident in our position on these litigation matters. Non-GAAP operating expense was $17.6 million or 15.8% of sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 compared to $15.8 million or 16.5% in the fourth quarter of the prior fiscal year. For the year, our non-GAAP operating expense was 16.8% slightly better than the 17% of sales guided to for the year. Within operating expenses, our sales and marketing expenses increased to $6.3 million, in fiscal fourth quarter of 2016 or 5.7% of sales as compared to $5.8 million or 6% of sales in Q4 of 2015. The increase was largely due to a $300,000 increase in our employee and related expenses including Marzocchi. Research and development expenses of $4.8 million in the fiscal fourth quarter were unchanged from the same period last year, as the percentage of sales declined to 4.3% of sales this fiscal fourth quarter from 5% of sales in Q4 of 2015. The decrease as a percentage of sales was due to timing of expenses as full-year expenses stated as a percentage of sales were 4.6% for both fiscal year 2016 and 2015 respectively. General and administrative expenses in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2016 were $7.5 million compared to $5.6 million in the prior year period. The increase was primarily due to the additional legal expenses I mentioned earlier, $200,000 of stock based compensation with most of the balance coming from additional expenses for our strategic initiatives such as ERT and global tax. In the fiscal fourth quarter of 2016, our tax rate was approximately 24% compared to 26.7% in last year’s fourth quarter. The improvement in the effective tax rate was primarily due to the reorganization of the foreign entities and permanent reinvestment of foreign earnings in jurisdictions with lower tax rate. On a GAAP basis, our net income for the fiscal 2016 fourth quarter was $9.8 million compared to $6.8 million in the prior year period. Earnings per diluted share were $0.26 compared to $0.18 in Q4 of fiscal 2015. Non-GAAP adjusted net income was $12 million, an increase of 25% compared to $9.6 million in the fourth quarter of the prior year period. Non-GAAP adjusted earnings per diluted share for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2016 was $0.32 compared to $0.25 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015. Fourth quarter fiscal 2016 adjusted EBITDA was $19.8 million, compared to $16.1 million in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 80 basis points to 17.7%, as compared to 16.9% in the prior year period. We believe non-GAAP adjusted net income, non-GAAP adjusted gross margin, non-GAAP effective tax rate and adjusted EBITDA are useful metrics that better reflect the performance of our business on an ongoing basis. You can find reconciliation to all GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures in our earnings release issued today. Since Larry reviewed our key financial metrics for the year, I’ll now focus on our balance sheet. As of December 31, 2016, we had cash on hand of $35.3 million. Total debt outstanding was $66.7 million, compared to $47.9 million debt outstanding as of December 31, 2015. Inventory was $71.2 million as of December 31, 2016, compared to $68.2 million as of December 31, 2015. Accounts receivable was $61.6 million as of December 31, 2016 as compared to $43.7 million as of December 31, 2015. Accounts payable was $42.1 million as of December 31, 2016 as compared to $32.1 million as of December 31, 2015. The changes in accounts receivable inventory and accounts payable are primarily attributable to business growth and with the regard to the AR increase, the majority of our sales growth came from OEMs, which typically have longer terms in our aftermarket business. Turning now to our outlook. For the first quarter of 2017, we expect sales in the range of $96 million to $100 million and non-GAAP adjusted earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.24 to $0.28. In addition to our Q1 guidance, we also want to review our fiscal 2017 quarterly cadence. The growth of our powered vehicle business and the transition of our bike manufacturing to Taiwan have changed our expected 2017 business seasonality. As a result, we expect sales to be fairly evenly spread across Q2, Q3 and Q4 with both Q2 and Q3 sales slightly higher than Q4. For fiscal 2017, we expect sales in the range of $430 million to $450 million and non-GAAP adjusted earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.31 to $1.41 on approximately 38.2 million shares outstanding. Included in fiscal 2017 guidance is, our expectations for EBITDA margin improvement of 40 to 50 basis points. Additionally, we’re expecting non-GAAP operating expenses to remain at levels relatively consistent with 2016, stated as a percentage of sales. We also expect to continue to invest in our strategic initiatives. We expect our fiscal 2017 effective tax rate, annual tax rate to increase to approximately 18% to 20% as opposed to the 17.2% we reported for 2016. On a quarterly basis, we expect significant variations in our tax rate as a result of the expected reversal of the Fin48 provision and the effect of stock option exercises. For Q1, we anticipate a tax rate of approximately 5% and for Q3 we expect the tax rate in the mid-teens with Q2 and Q4 tax rate in the low 20s. As many of you know, tax rates are affected by various factors where timing cannot be predicted and so actual results may vary from these projections. Finally, I would like to take note that we are not providing guidance on GAAP EPS as it cannot be provided without unreasonable efforts due to this difficulty of accurately predicting the elements necessary to provide such reconciliation. As a reminder non-GAAP adjusted earnings per diluted share excludes the following items net of applicable tax: amortization of purchased intangibles, contingent consideration valuation adjustments, acquisition related compensation expense including foreign, related foreign currency transactions, gains or losses, litigation expenses, certain acquisition related adjustments and expenses and offering expenses. These adjustments are more fully described in the tables included in our press release which has been posted on our website. And now I’d like to turn the call back over to Larry.