Earnings Labs

ePlus inc. (PLUS)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 7, 2013

$83.85

-0.60%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. And welcome to the ePlus Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference may be recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Kley Parkhurst. Sir, the floor is yours.

Kley Parkhurst

Analyst

Thank you, Hewey, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. With me today are Phil Norton, Chairman, President and CEO of ePlus; Elaine Marion, our Chief Financial Officer; and Erica Stoecker, our General Counsel. I want to take a moment to remind you that the statements we make this afternoon that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements and are based on management's current plans, estimates, and projections. Actual and anticipated future results may vary materially due to certain risks and uncertainties detailed in the earnings release we issued yesterday and our periodic filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, including our Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2012, and our Form 10-Q for the 3 and 9 months ended December 31, 2012, when filed. The company undertakes no responsibility to update any of these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. I'd now like to turn the call over to Phil Norton. Phil?

Phillip Norton

Analyst

Thank you, Kley. We are pleased with our financial results for the quarter and year-to-date despite a weaker IT market as reported by analysts. Revenues for the quarter increased 8% over the prior year's quarter. Based on a revised earnings per share issued today, fully diluted earnings per share increased 3.7% on a year-over-year basis to $1.11 per share from $1.07 per share. For the 9 months ending December 31, 2012, revenue grew 21.3% to $746.8 million and net earnings grew 39% to $27.1 million. We continue to deliver the advanced technology solutions that our customers demand and are investing in ePlus-branded value-added solutions to add future revenue and margin. Our revenue growth for the quarter and year-to-date was driven primarily by our larger customers who are continuing to utilize our advanced technology solutions and engineering delivery capabilities to serve their business needs. We expect these large customers to continue to build private and hybrid clouds, drive virtualization and upgrade their networks. And we will continue to invest in the technologies and engineering resources that enable their success. The majority of our revenue is derived from corporate education and state and local customers. We have very little direct business with the federal government, however, we see a potential opportunity on the leasing side of the business to increase financing of procurement contracts for IT equipment and software on behalf of prime contractors. Historically, we have experienced that leasing becomes more critical to fulfilling the government's mission during periods of reduced spending, using leasing agencies and departments can acquire mission-critical equipment, using operating funds instead of capital funds. At the end of the quarter, we experienced sizable growth in deferred revenues and open orders as a result of a number of advanced integration projects for several of our large customers. These…

Elaine Marion

Analyst

Thank you, Phil. Today, we issued a press release revising our previously reported diluted earnings per share to $1.11 for the quarter ended December 31, 2012, from $1.05, and earnings per share for the 9 months ended December 31, 2012, to $3.38 per share from $3.35 per share. Based on additional consultation with our independent registered public accounting firm, we determined that the initially reported earnings per share calculation had -- we had used had incorrectly used the number of actual shares rather than the weighted average number of shares in respect to cash dividend declared during the quarter. In particular, the company declared dividend of $2.50 per share based on shares outstanding on December 17, 2012, of 8,151,201. In the prior calculation of earnings per share, we accounted for the dividend or distributed earnings using the actual shares outstanding rather than the weighted average shares for the 3- and 9-month period. We continue to drive strong revenue growth as this is our 12th quarter of year-over-year growth. Our consolidated revenues for the current quarter grew 8% to $242 million as compared to $224 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2011. Net earnings increased 3.3% to $9 million in the third quarter fiscal year 2013 as compared to $8.7 million in the prior year. This quarter, we implemented the 2-class method of calculating earnings per share because we had a small number of stock that can participate in net earnings along with the common shareholders. Under the 2-class method, both basic and diluted EPS are calculated for each class of common stock and participating securities, considering both dividends declared or accumulated and participation rights in the undistributed earnings. The 2-class method results in an allocation of undistributed earnings as if all those earnings were distributed, which can result in…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Presenters, I'm currently showing no phone line questions. I'd like to turn the program back over to you.

Phillip Norton

Analyst

We'd like to thank you very much for taking the time for our conference call. If you have any questions, please contact Kley Parkhurst. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you again, presenters. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day. Attendees, you may log off at this time.