Richard Robinson
Analyst · Stifel
Thank you, Gil. Good morning, and thank you for joining our fiscal 2013 year-end analyst and investor conference call. For this morning's prepared comments, I'm joined by Maureen O'Connell, CFO and CAO. As you saw in this morning's press release, 2013 fiscal year revenue was $1.8 billion, earnings per diluted share from continuing operations was $137 million, excluding onetime items, or $110 million including onetime items, and free cash flow was $59.4 million. Our overall results were greatly affected by lower sales of The Hunger Games, which decreased significantly compared to the trilogy's extraordinary performance in 2012, even as it remained on the New York Times Best Seller List. Despite this revenue decline, we achieved the high end of our revised guidance for revenue and exceeded our revised earnings per diluted share and free cash flow targets for the year. This is the result of sales growth in the Education groups in the second half of the year and particular strength in our customized classroom books and Guided Reading Programs in the fourth quarter. We also continued to advance our digital strategy, including launching System 44 Next Gen and preparing to introduce 4 additional major new Ed Tech products, all built on the base of our foundational Read 180 program, during fiscal 2014. Investments in Storia, our ereading platform and delivery system, were on plan and revenue was in line with our expectations. A main driver of our results this year of our future growth is the changing landscape of the Education business. Teachers and schools around the country are now implementing the Common Core State Standards, which will rekindle our national discussion about how we best help students become college and career ready and grow into successful individuals and citizens. Districts are striving to prepare students to meet the new and more rigorous standards and to add more technology in the classroom, particularly tablets. This means that they need professional development and human capital solutions, a wide range of education products and content available with print and digital formats and data-driven formative assessment tools, as well as services to support learning. Working with districts, Scholastic provides all these elements in a comprehensive program to drive student achievement. Our approach is opening up major opportunities to engage at a higher level within districts and respond to RFPs for total learning solutions from pre-K to 12. School districts are looking for help to manage the significant transition to a changed curriculum and are highly receptive to Scholastic's partnership approach. We are well positioned to continue to be the trusted proven provider that can best meet the changing needs of our customers and engage kids with both print and digital materials to improve learning. We've already received great feedback from teachers and administrators about how our extensive product offering and additional tools can help them. System 44 Next Gen, launched at the end of the fiscal year, has been very well received. This reading program for the most challenged readers in Grades 3 to 12 provides explicit instruction in phonics, comprehension and writing. Our additional major new product introductions are also on track and all will begin to ship by August. Math 180 is our revolutionary math intervention program for the Common Core. Designed for struggling students in Grades 6 and up, this program builds students' confidence and competence in Math while providing teachers with comprehensive support to ensure success. iRead is the digital foundational reading program designed to close the achievement gap before it begins and place all K-2 children on the path to academic success. Read 180 for the iPad will be ready for back-to-school and will support those schools who are buying iPads for classroom instruction. Common Core Code X was built specifically to address the demands of the Common Core State Standards. It supports teachers with text for students to read, analyze and write about every day. This program was developed with input from the New York City Department of Education and was recently listed as an approved curriculum for use in their middle schools district wide. Our suite of products will provide students the programs they need to succeed, from the time they enter kindergarten to the time they graduate from high school. We are confident that these programs will help students gain the skills and knowledge base they need to succeed in a rigorous Common Core classroom and for college and career readiness. The Common Core State Standards and demand for digital content are also providing opportunities for our Children's Book business. To meet the new rigorous standards, children need to read more and read at a higher level. Parents and teachers have always depended on Scholastic as an unparalleled, curated source for discovering and purchasing just the right books for children's interest in reading levels. Our trusted clubs and fairs are even more important as the book business continues to change. In fact, a recently completed third-party market research report found that parents are increasingly relying on our Book Fair and Book Club channels, to find age-appropriate, top-quality children's books for both independent reading and to support classroom learning. Accordingly, we have introduced clear, grade-specific marketing in Clubs that is well aligned with the Common Core, which we believe will help to increase revenue per order. In addition, we are implementing cross-channel sales and marketing programs in our Clubs and Fair businesses. This collaboration will increase our customer touch points and strengthen our ability to provide books in print and digital formats that can help children link their independent reading to Common Core-driven skill development. Scholastic and Storia, our award-winning children's ereading app and ebook purchasing system, are ideally situated to be an important platform in schools and with consumers, as the children's ereading market scales from its current level, which we believe is currently less than 10% of all children's and young adult sales, excluding The Hunger Games trilogy. At the same time, we are seeing significant interest in Storia from teachers who use the platform in the classroom. In fiscal 2014, our investments in Storia will be substantially lower than they were during the initial development period, as we focus on adding more children's book favorites and content and enhancing the Storia dashboard to make it even more useful in the classroom, including student tracking functionality. We will, of course, continue to make Storia ebooks readily available through our Clubs and Fair channels for families, making the transition to children's ereading. Our book distribution channels are a critical element of our ability to foster our connection with students, parents and teachers. And this is largely because they facilitate a continued supply of best-selling titles, including those from our Trade Publishing group. We had strong performance from our front and back list in 2013 and have an exciting lineup of titles for fiscal 2014. We are continuing to work with Lionsgate to promote The Hunger Games books to new readers of all ages, ahead of the November 22 Catching Fire film release. We are also excited about Spirit Animals, our multi-platform fantasy adventure series, and about the launch of the new trade paperback editions of the Harry Potter series with new cover art and the colorized addition of the Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey and new nonfiction titles to support Common Core. Summing up the opportunity for the -- in the Common Core standard, one of our top literacy consultants, Pam Allyn, has said, "This is an extraordinary moment for parents, teachers and publishers. It is the first time there has been a document that lays out, not a curriculum, but a set of ambitious goals." Meeting these goals will be extremely challenging for many educators and students. With the trust we have established with districts all across the country, it is not surprising that schools have turned to us to help them solve their greatest challenges, whether preparing their teachers, helping their struggling students or building quality fiction and nonfiction grade-appropriate book collections. We are laser-focused on capitalizing on the significant opportunities the changing buying behavior and new needs in the classroom have presented for our Children's Book and as well as our education businesses. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Maureen to review our fourth quarter and fiscal year results in further detail.
Maureen E. O’Connell: Thank you, Dick, and good morning, everyone. Let me begin with the income statement. For the full year, revenues declined 16% versus last year to $1.8 billion, largely driven by lower U.S. and international sales of The Hunger Games trilogy. This was partially offset by strong educational sales and particularly strong sales of our classroom books in the second half of the year. Cost of goods sold in fiscal 2013, as a percent of sales, was roughly even with last year at approximately 46%. SG&A declined by $59.6 million compared to the prior year due to lower employee-related expenses. SG&A included onetime expenses of $13.6 million related to cost savings initiatives in the year and $9.3 million in the previous year due to a voluntary retirement program. Earnings per share from continuing operations was $1.10 compared to $3.39 a year ago. Consolidated earnings per diluted share was $0.95 compared to $3.21 last year, including onetime expenses of $0.27 and $0.29 per diluted share, respectively, related to cost reduction and restructuring programs. Excluding the onetime items, fiscal 2013 earnings per diluted share from continuing operations were $1.37 versus $3.68 in fiscal 2012, which exceeded our revised guidance range. The decline in net income was largely the result of lower revenues, particularly from lower Hunger Games sales, as well as our planned investment in digital initiatives, partially offset by cost-cutting measures. Our cost savings actions delivered savings of approximately $40 million this fiscal year. Onetime costs were approximately $14 million. Segment revenues in Children's Book Publishing and Distribution was $846.9 million, and operating income was $24.5 million. Segment results reflected decreased sales of The Hunger Games trilogy compared to fiscal 2012 and lower revenue per order in School Book Clubs, partially offset by increased revenue for School Book Fairs. In Educational Technology and Services, segment revenue for fiscal year was $227.7 million and operating income was $29.5 million. Results were driven by increased demand for our professional development and consulting businesses throughout the year, stronger sales of Educational Technology products in the second half of the year and the launch of System 44 Next Generation in the fourth quarter. As a reminder, last year, we benefited from higher revenues related to Read 180 Next Generation launch and a significant sale of adoption product in Texas. In Classroom and Supplemental Material Publishing, segment revenue for fiscal year was $218 million, and operating income improved significantly to $29.6 million due to increased classroom books sales as well as strong revenues from Classroom Magazines and other nonfiction content aligned to Common Core State Standards. In International, segment revenue for the fiscal year was $441.1 million and operating income was $39.8 million. Foreign exchange had a negative impact on revenue of $3.9 million in the year. Segment results were primarily driven by lower revenues in Canada and Australia, as a result of lower Hunger Games sales. In Media, Licensing and Advertising, segment revenue for the fiscal year was $58.7 million and operating income was $4.7 million, primarily reflecting our planned decrease in low-margin console sales. Corporate overhead expense was $60.2 million in fiscal 2013 compared to $87.1 million in the prior year, including onetime items and reflecting lower employee-related expenses and lower incentive compensation expenses in the current period. We maintained a strong balance sheet with no net debt and access to an untapped $425 million credit agreement with favorable terms and conditions. During the fourth quarter, we funded the maturity of approximately $150 million in 5% notes, which matured in April 2013, with borrowings from our revolving credit facility, which has since been repaid. We expect to save more than $5 million in interest expenses moving forward. At year-end, cash and cash equivalents exceeded our total net debt, our total debt by $85.4 million and compared to $35.6 million a year ago. In addition to our quarterly dividend, we repurchased 11.8 million in shares in fiscal 2013 and have approximately $19.6 million remaining under our previously authorized limits for open market share repurchases. During the quarter, free cash flow was $47 million compared to free cash flow of $87.5 million in the prior year period. For the full year, free cash flow was $59.4 million versus $147.6 million in the prior year. Now I'd like to discuss our outlook for fiscal 2014. In fiscal 2014, Scholastic expects to generate revenue growth in all our businesses, excluding the impact of anticipated declines in Hunger Games sales and improved profitability compared to 2013. For 2014, this revenue and profit growth will be driven by 2 major themes. The first is in education. As schools move towards adopting customized solutions that include print and technology elements, Scholastic expects to capitalize on major opportunities in the education segment, based on a greater focus on digital solutions and the implementation of curriculum aligned to the Common Core. Scholastic's 2014 revenue and profit growth will be driven by the company's education businesses as a result of the introduction of new Educational Technology products, including System 44 Next Generation, Math 180, iRead, Common Core Code X, and Read 180 for the iPad, coupled with strong and growing demand for our customized programs provided through the Classroom and Supplemental Materials Publishing segment. The second major theme is in the children's book area. Trends in children's book market are providing more opportunities for our Clubs and Fair businesses to reach teachers, schools and families with books that help children and students link their independent reading to the Common Core Standards. Accordingly, we are aligning resources in our Children's Book business to serve customers in a more unified way and introduce more grade-specific marketing for clubs and schools. Our Children's Book revenue is expected to decrease compared to fiscal 2013 with lower year-over-year sales of The Hunger Games trilogy, which we expect to be partially offset by increased revenue per fair in our School Book Fairs and new titles released through our Trade businesses. We expect Book Club revenue to be flat compared to fiscal 2013. As planned, investment in Storia in 2014 will decrease as platform development has been substantially completed. We expect to have higher depreciation and amortization expenses in fiscal 2014 as a result of past investments. Storia's investments moving forward will focus on content delivery and enhancements, including features designed to make the platform more useful to teachers in the classroom. Internationally, the growing global commitment to expanding English instruction, combined with the launch of our new education unit in Singapore, helped us achieve strong sales in emerging markets. This was particularly evident in India, where we have seen compound growth rate of 20% over the past 3 years. We are now well positioned to expand our product development in English Language Learner programs in emerging markets to drive growth in 2014. We are continuing to implement programs to enhance operational efficiency and to align our cost base with our revenue growth expectations. As a result of these factors, on a consolidated basis, we expect total revenues in fiscal 2014 of approximately $1.8 billion and earnings per diluted share from continuing operations in the range of $1.40 to $1.80 before the impact of onetime items. Fiscal 2014 free cash flow is expected to be approximately $60 million to $80 million. This outlook includes capital expenditures of $55 million to $65 million compared to $56 million in fiscal 2013, and prepublication and production spending of $65 million to $75 million compared to $73.7 million in fiscal 2013. This outlook reflects the impact of our Educational Technology product rollouts and investment in the company's digital initiatives. Now I'd like to return the call back to Gil to moderate a question-and-answer session.