Alan Edrick
Analyst · Drexel Hamilton
Thank you, Deepak. So let's review the financial results for the third quarter in greater detail. As mentioned previously, our revenues in Q3 of fiscal '17 increased by 16% on a year-over-year basis. Revenues in the Security Division increased by 31%, primarily as a result of the inclusion of $28 million of revenues generated by AS&E and continued strong growth in sales of our RTT checked baggage systems to international customers. Revenues in our Healthcare Division increased 7% on an organic basis, led by stronger performance in the U.S. market and improved year-over-year international sales. Opto external revenues were comparable with the prior year, while intercompany Opto sales were down in part due to continued rightsizing of inventory in the other 2 divisions. The Q3 gross margin was 35.1%, up from 33.3% in the prior year due to increased margins in our turnkey screening services, due to cost efficiencies in the strength in dollar, a favorable product mix within the Opto division and a strong quarter by AS&E, which carries higher margins than those of our businesses generally. As mentioned on previous calls, our gross margin will fluctuate from period to period based on product mix among other factors. Moving to operating expenses. In Q3 of fiscal '17, selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales increased to 20.2% compared to 18.6% in Q3 of fiscal '16. In absolute dollars, SG&A spending was $49.4 million, which was up by $10 million over the same prior year period. The increase was primarily driven by the impact of acquisitions as well as increased costs to support the growth in our Security Division. As noted on previous calls, we remain focused in all of our divisions on increasing efficiencies and prudently managing our cost structure. R&D expenses in Q3 were $14.4 million compared to $13.0 million in the prior year. As a percentage of sales, such expenses were 5.9% in Q3 of fiscal '17 as compared to 6.2% in the same prior year period. The year-over-year increase in expenses was mainly due to the impact of acquisitions. We continue to make significant investments in research and development in both our Security and our Healthcare divisions to enhance our product portfolios. We remain focused on growth platforms and innovative product development, which we view as vital to the long-term success of our business. We previously announced a goal of $18 million of cost synergies related to the AS&E acquisition over an approximate 2-year time frame. We continue to aggressively, but prudently, pursue such cost reductions. In Q3, we estimate we benefited by about $4 million from these efforts, as we have now achieved an annualized run rate exceeding 80% of our target. Q3 impairment, restructuring and other charges were $2.5 million, part of which related to our effort to realize such synergies and cost savings from the AS&E acquisition. The company's effective tax rate was 27.0% in Q3 and 27.3% on a year-to-date basis. Our provision for income taxes is based upon the mix of income from U.S. and foreign jurisdictions and tax rate differences among countries, as well as the impact of permanent taxable differences, tax elections and valuation allowances amongst other items. Let's now turn to a discussion of our non-GAAP operating income and margin. As would be expected with an increase in sales and profitability, the company's adjusted operating margin improved in Q3 of fiscal '17 coming in at 10.0% compared to 8.8% in the prior year period. Given the solid revenue growth in Security and the impact of the profitability from AS&E sales and related synergies, the adjusted operating margin was again strong in this division, improving both year-over-year and sequentially to 14.7%. We are again very pleased to see further strength in the Opto division as the adjusted operating margin increased to 11.3% from 10.2% year-over-year. We also saw some year-over-year third quarter improvement in our Healthcare Division adjusted operating margin to 4.2% from 3.4%, though we still have much room for further improvement. And as the top line accelerates, we expect to see significant operating margin expansion in Healthcare. Moving to cash flow. In Q3 of fiscal '17, cash flow from operations was $33.9 million, capital expenditures were $7.7 million, while depreciation and amortization was $16.9 million. Days sales outstanding, or DSO, was 68 days for the third quarter of fiscal '17 compared to 69 days last year. Days inventory improved in Q3 by 35 days from Q3 of last year. In absolute dollars, inventory decreased approximately $17 million on a sequential basis from the end of Q2. We repurchased $42 million of our common stock, including net share settlements in Q3. This includes $35 million repurchased concurrently with the consummation of our convertible notes offering. Our balance sheet remains strong. Finally, turning to guidance. As Deepak mentioned, to reflect the impact of the sale of the AED business during Q3 that we previously discussed, and current expectations, we are updating our sales guidance and tightening the range for our earnings guidance. Our sales guidance is now $950 million to $970 million, and our non-GAAP earnings guidance is $285 to $305 per diluted share for fiscal 2017. We currently believe the sales in earnings guidance reflects reasonable estimates. Actual sales and earnings, however, could vary from this range because of the risks and uncertainties that affect our business and industries generally, including items that may not be entirely within our control such as site readiness or product installations, customer acceptance and the timing of orders in each division. Over the past decade, we have a track record of producing sales and earnings growth with strong cash flow generation, while simultaneously investing in product development and innovation for the future in conjunction with strategic acquisitions. We feel these efforts have served us well. Our investments have enabled us to continue our leadership role in the turnkey screening solutions market space and have allowed us to introduce innovative products and solutions to the market across our industries. Thank you for participating on this conference call. And at this time, we would like to open the call to questions.