Jana Croom
Analyst · Singular Research. Please go ahead
Thank you. And good morning everyone. As Don highlighted, total net sales on our fourth quarter were $373 million, an all-time quarterly high for our company. For what he didn’t mention was that this level of sales was 1.5% higher than the previous record which was last quarter, so a very encouraging time. The growth margin rates in Q4 was 9.2%, a 50 basis point decrease compared to the same period last year was still a very strong result of facing several headwinds in the quarter with low absorption in our facility in China which was most directly impacted by the lockdown from the zero tolerance policy on COVID-19, the ramp-up of our facility expansion in Mexico as well as general inflation. Adjusted selling and administrative expenses in the first fourth quarter was $14.8 million compared to $13.8 million in Q4 last year with the increase in absolute dollars resulting from higher salary and related payroll cost and stock-based compensation. When measured as a percent of sales however adjusted selling and administrative expenses were 4%, a 20 basis point improvement compared to Q4 last year, was well a bonus cost in fiscal ‘22 primarily accounting for the difference. Adjusted operating income for the fourth quarter as $19.4 million, a 5.2% of net sales which compares to last year’s Q4 adjusted results of $18 million or 5.5% of net sales. Other income and expense was expense of $5.3 million in the quarter versus income of $400,000 in Q4 of fiscal 2021, with a change resulting from higher interest expense this year due to record levels in inventory and the foreign exchange impact that Don noted. This occurred primarily due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar compared to the Euro and China’s Yen. Effective tax rate in Q4 was approximately 35.1% compared to 17.6% in the fourth quarter last year. The increase resulted from foreign exchange re-measurement and non-deductible executive compensation expense associated with Section 162(m). Additionally, the prior year Q4 benefitted from a reversal in sale tax valuation allowance. We’re expecting effective tax rate in fiscal 2023 to be in the mid-20% range similar with our historical trends. Net income in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 was $9.9 million or $0.40 per deluded share compared to adjusted net income in Q4 last year, a $14.7 million or $0.58 per deluded share. With the decline predominantly driven by below the line item such as the higher other income and expense and effective tax rate I just mentioned. Turning now to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalence at June 30, 2022, were $49.9 million in cash flow provided by operating activities in the quarter was $1.5 million. For the full-year, we used $83 million of cash from operations. Cash conversion days in Q4 were 91 days, up from 64 days in the fourth quarter of last year. All three of these results that is cash from operations in the quarter full-year and CCD were driven by an increase in inventory which is up a $195 million from a year ago and $57 million from last quarter. We continue to have a dollar of inventory waiting on a dime, so to speak. Materials that are needed and available today are being purchased so that we can go customer orders when parts impacted by the component shortages are received. We expect inventory levels to normalize as the part shortage situation improved and the backlog of open orders has worked down. This has reflected in our guidance of a fair start fiscal 2023. Capital expenditures in the fourth quarter were $25 million, largely in support of our facilities expansion in Mexico and Poland as well as new business awards. For fiscal year 2022, CapEx totaled $75 million which was at the midpoint of our updated guidance for the year. Borrowings on our credit facilities at June 30, 2022, were a $180.6 million compared to $66 million a year ago and a $137 million at the end of Q3. Our short-term liquidity available represented cash and cash equivalence was the unused amount of our credit facility totaled a $178.6 million at June 30, 2022. During the fourth quarter, we invested $4.2 million to repurchase 225,000 shares at an average price of $18.77. This October 2015, under our board authorized share repurchased program, a total of $88.8 million has been returned to our share owners by purchasing 5.8 million shares of common stock. We have $11.2 million remaining on the repurchase program. So in summary, fiscal 2022 was a good year for our company with record results on the topline and a strong funnel of new business increasing our backlog of open orders. We executed the capital deployment strategy that included investing in future growth with expansions of multiple facility, returning cash to share owners in the form of stock repurchases and supporting our customers with strategic inventory builds to mitigate part shortages. Even though the increases adversely impacted certain financial metrics including cash flow, CCD and ROIC. We fully expect improvement in these areas as conditions normalize in the global supply chain. As Don noted, we are providing guidance for fiscal year 2023 with net sales estimated to be in the range of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion, a 19% to 26% increase year-over-year. Operating margin is expected to be in the range of 4.6% to 5.2% and capital expenditures totaling $80 million to $100 million which includes equipment and the facility expansion in Mexico, the expansion in Poland, and capital deployment to support a healthy funnel of new product introduction and the addition of equipment with leading edge technologies and capabilities. So, with that, I’ll now turn the call back over to Don.