Earnings Labs

ScanSource, Inc. (SCSC)

Q2 2018 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 6, 2018

$40.61

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the ScanSource Quarterly Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session. Today’ call is being recorded. If anyone has any objections you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Mary Gentry, Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.

Mary Gentry

Management

Thank you and welcome to ScanSource's earnings conference call for the quarter ended December 31st, 2017. With me today are Mike Baur, our CEO; and Gerry Lyons, our CFO. We want to welcome Matt Dean, our new General Counsel, who is also joining us on the call. We will review our operating results for the quarter and then take your questions. We've changed our supplemental financial information this quarter and provided a CFO commentary instead of presentation slides to accompany our comments and webcast. The CFO commentary is posted in the Investor Relations section of our website. Certain statements made on this call, including our expectations for sales and earnings for our third quarter 2018 will be forward looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors identified in the earnings release that we put out today and in ScanSource's Form 10-K for the year ended June 30th, 2017, as filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. ScanSource disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements to reflect like actual results or changes in expectations, except as required by law. We will be discussing both GAAP and non-GAAP results during our call and have provided reconciliations between these amounts in the CFO commentary and in our press release. These reconciliations can also be found on our website and have been filed with our Form 8-K. Mike Baur will now begin our discussion with an overview of our results.

Mike Baur

Management

Thanks Mary and thank you for joining us today. We reported outstanding results for our second quarter highlighted by record quarterly net sales, 10% organic sales growth, and higher profitability. Both net sales and non-GAAP EPS exceeded the high end of our forecast range, and our quarterly net sales surpassed $1 billion for the first time. Our net sales for the quarter increased 14% year-over-year, driven by strength in our worldwide barcode security and networking segment, including higher big deals in North America from customers in our federal business and the areas of mobile computing, POS systems, and physical security. The higher big deals include large federal deals that closed during the quarter that we originally expected to close in the September quarter. Our international business also contributed strong sales growth, up 17% year-over-year, driven by excellent results from our point of sale and barcode customers in Europe and in our Network1 customers winning new business in cybersecurity and networking solutions in Brazil. In addition to our impressive top line growth, our non-GAAP operating margin increased to 3.4%. We continue to make excellent progress on our 2018 growth initiatives. Momentum in mobile computing solutions in all of our geographies continued, with outstanding growth and strong customer demand. As an example, as part of a multiyear rollout, we helped a customer deploy over 2,000 rugged mobile devices to a national retail chaining for a solution that enables more accurate inventory tracking and management processes. Similarly, we had another strong quarter of double-digit growth in video surveillance solutions. Our value-added model includes developing solutions and understanding how to help our customers grow their business. A recent example is an existing customer in our North American point of sale and barcode business who is in the middle of deploying a $20 million video…

Gerry Lyons

Management

Thank you, Mike. For the quarter, we delivered both strong sales and non-GAAP operating income and EPS growth. Net sales increased 14% year-over-year, while our non-GAAP operating income grew even faster, up 18%. Both our net sales of $1.03 billion and our non-GAAP EPS of $0.90, exceeded the high end of our forecast range. Our second quarter results reflect a lower tax rate from U.S. tax reform and our non-GAAP EPS includes a 7% -- sorry, $0.07 per share benefit from lower tax rates. Our GAAP operating income just decreased 4% year-over-year from increased expense for the change in fair value of contingent consideration and higher intangible amortization. Second quarter GAAP diluted EPS of $0.31 was below our forecasted range due to a one-time $6.7 million tax reform charge in the December quarter, which had a $0.26 unfavorable impact on GAAP diluted EPS. Consolidated net sales increased 14% to over $1 billion. The dollar impact on sales due to foreign currency translation was positive $14 million and the POS Portal acquisition added $20 million to net sales. Organic net sales increased 10% year-over-year, driven by strength in the worldwide barcoding, networking and security segment, including higher big deals in North America. Gross profit dollars increased 15% year-over-year from higher sales volumes and the addition of POS Portal. Our second quarter 2018 gross profit margin was 10.9%. Our gross margin declined from the previous quarter's gross margin of 11.5% due to a higher mix of big deals, which typically have lower margins. The gross margin was up slightly from the prior year period from the addition of our higher margin POS Portal acquisition. SG&A expenses increased $7.9 million from the prior year quarter to $75 million for the second quarter of 2018. This increase reflects the addition of POS Portal and…

Mike Baur

Management

Thanks Gerry. For the quarter, we achieved strong organic sales growth and improved profitability. We are executing our strategic plan that includes growth initiatives for solution selling at higher margins. We're driving our business to sell total solutions with a deep understanding of our customers' needs. We're pleased with the momentum of our business and the progress we're making. So, now, we'd like to open it up for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Keith Housum with Northcoast Research.

Keith Housum

Analyst

Good afternoon everyone. And thanks for taking my questions. And congratulations on the quarter, good to see the organic growth returning. If I look at the guidance you guys have for the third quarter 2018, do you see the same revenue drivers that you saw here in the second quarter that's kind of driving that 5% organic growth rate?

Gerry Lyons

Management

Hey Keith, this is Gerry. I think, the answer to that is, yes. We have these six initiative that we've been focused on, and we expect those things to continue to generate those same sorts of sales.

Keith Housum

Analyst

I guess coming in terms of -- speaking in terms of market demand, you guys saw some large deals in North American mobile computing market and so on. I guess as you exit the quarter and looking into the third quarter, do you see those same drivers, I guess, the market demand, is that still existing, the same thing you saw in last quarter?

Mike Baur

Management

Well, I think, what we'd say is -- it's Mike. Keith, I think what we would say is that we're executing our plan and what that includes as we indicated and there's really sitting down and spending more time with our customers than we ever have in the past, understanding what they need from us. And I think we're seeing that result and better execution by our team on meeting demand from customers, not necessarily from the market itself, but from our customers. So, just like you survey VARs, we always have, but I would say our engagement with our customers, Keith, is different today than it was a year ago from understanding better. What it is they need, so they can sell, we'll work on a solution, which means what we used to sell you plus more.

Keith Housum

Analyst

Got you. Okay. Appreciate it. And then your fair value adjustment is core is bigger than what we've seen in prior quarters, except for last quarter, obviously, was Network1. Is that primarily related to the -- I guess, the better than expected performance of Intelisys?

Gerry Lyons

Management

That's right. That's exactly it, Keith.

Keith Housum

Analyst

Okay, great. And if I can squeeze one more in here. We've got a question from investors recently regarding the benefit from tax reform. I guess in your guys' opinion, is there any concerns that some of that benefit will be competed away as competitors kind of look at the after-tax return on their sales?

Mike Baur

Management

That's not our view. We have not heard that from our customers from the marketplace. I certainly didn't understand why an investor would ask the question. And we believe that it's our job to maintain our margins in a competitive marketplace and we believe that that's not what will happen to our markets at this time. That is not our belief.

Keith Housum

Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks guys. I'll jump in the queue.

Gerry Lyons

Management

Thanks Keith. Appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Adam Tindle with Raymond James.

Adam Tindle

Analyst · Raymond James.

Okay. Thanks and good evening. I just wanted to start on -- for fiscal 2018, I think kind of entering the year, you had a goal to increase non-GAAP operating margin to get to that mid-3% range. I could be underestimating the interest expense increase, but I think guidance is implying, operating margin probably closer to kind of that 3.2% range. So, I'm just hoping for an update on whether we see a big upswing in 4Q to hit that mid-3% level? Or is this kind of becoming more of a fiscal 2019 goal?

Gerry Lyons

Management

Adam, this is Gerry. So, we're forecasting, but that's still our goal, this mid-3.5%, right? But the guidance for the third quarter is going to be down, right? The third quarter is our toughest quarter for us to forecast, but we also expect there will be a bit of a rebound in the fourth quarter.

Adam Tindle

Analyst · Raymond James.

Okay. I guess what changed throughout fiscal 2018 where you may have been kind of hoping for a bit better performance. It was at maybe barcode margins that didn't rebound quite as much. What changed throughout the years that where that mid-3% looks a little bit unattainable at this point?

Gerry Lyons

Management

Yes, I think the answer -- the way I would answer that is, we've continued to invest ahead of the curve. And so in our prepared remarks, we talked a bit about investing certainly in our recurring revenue business. We've been investing in other places as well. And so I think that's part of why we're not quite where we wanted to be because we see there is opportunity for growth and we're trying to take advantage of that.

Adam Tindle

Analyst · Raymond James.

Okay. And I guess maybe on that same topic. You had no shares repurchased during the quarter and more recently the stocks been hovering at or below book value. You mentioned repurchases as your lowest priority, and to your point, organic growth is kind at the top. Is there any aspect of internal valuation that helps kind of reshuffle those priorities? Can you just kind of maybe more broadly speak to the factors and the discussions around the tradeoffs between the three priorities you mentioned?

Gerry Lyons

Management

Yes, we have never talked about those publicly. I mean we certainly are very metric or very formulaic-driven company when it comes to share repurchases and comes to making tradeoffs between investments. And so it really is in that order, as we described on the call, that if organic growth and then potential acquisitions, and then share repurchases. So, if we see there is more opportunity on one of those than the other, then we'll certainly head in that direction.

Adam Tindle

Analyst · Raymond James.

Okay. Maybe just one last clarification. I think you mentioned you expect to generate operating cash flow during the remainder of fiscal 2018. Does this mean that fiscal 2018 operating cash flow as a whole will be positive or just for the second half will be positive? And maybe a little bit more color on what enables the change because I think you're still guiding for revenue growth?

Gerry Lyons

Management

Right. So, we're expecting that we will be cash flow positive for the year. And what gives us the encouragement there is, if you look at our cash flow statement, we've got a fair amount of money tied up for the six months ended in accounts receivable and again we talked about that being timing related. We're also working on reducing our working capital investment, which obviously will generate some cash. So, that's what encourages us.

Adam Tindle

Analyst · Raymond James.

Got it. Okay. Thanks so much.

Gerry Lyons

Management

Sure.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Chris McGinnis with Sidoti & Company.

Chris McGinnis

Analyst · Sidoti & Company.

Good afternoon and thanks for taking my questions. And nice quarter. Can you just maybe explain a little bit -- Intelisys is obviously growing really well. Can you just talk maybe how you're integrating within the business and maybe with the customers that you dealt with the prior two, how are you introducing the new that's new opportunity? Thank you.

Mike Baur

Management

Yes, Chris, this is Mike. I'll take that one. I think the big opportunity still ahead of us is to accelerate the ability for a, let's call them, a traditional ScanSource channel partner VAR to adopt the idea of adding recurring revenue services and programs and offers from Intelisys, really strong list of carriers and cable companies and cloud companies. We announced a couple of times during this year that we were having these events, we call them Super 9s. And one of them was to specifically organize around a group of about 50 ScanSource VARs that had not been involved previously with Intelisys. So, we held that event to really design and improve the concept for a program that would allow us to scale. So, I would say, we've learned a lot especially in the last 12 months about, what we believe, it takes to identify the right kind of VAR company that is ready to add some of the services from Intelisys and so we believe we understand that process and we need to scale it. But now with some of the, I guess, commentary that Gerry was referring to where we said, we were going to accelerate some of our investments in our recurring revenue business. So, we've had to add additional channel managers, for example, in the field to make contact with these customers and give them more information about how to do this. And I think what we really see ahead of us is there is this big opportunity from the cloud to really connect VARs to our Intelisys offers, because one of the lesser understood aspects of the Intelisys offers is from the cloud perspective versus the traditional carriers, which sell wire and wireline opportunities. So, I think, as our, for example, is our unified communication VARs need cloud solutions. The Intelisys opportunity is staring right in the face. And I think we expect to see that accelerate through rest of 2018 and into 2019. That's a long answer, but that's kind of where we are.

Chris McGinnis

Analyst · Sidoti & Company.

No, thanks very much. I appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And I also see a question from the line of Martha Masiarz with Wells Fargo Securities.

Martha Masiarz

Analyst

Hi, just a couple of questions. So, in the past year, you have mentioned supply constraints and several vendors in the barcode and security segment. And recently some vendors have mentioned supply constraints due to growing demand. So, I was just wondering is -- have you seen this landscape over the past couple of months and what do you expect going forward?

Mike Baur

Management

Yes, thanks. This is Mike. I'll try that one. I think in general, we don't have any significant constraints. One of the things that we benefited from over the years is having a balance sheet and a margin profile that allows us to take larger positions in inventory when we see it as an opportunity. And whenever we see pending or possible shortages, we believe with our strong relationships with our suppliers and vendors that we're in a better position than our competitors. So, I would say there is no demand that we can't meet today because of supplier shortages.

Martha Masiarz

Analyst

Okay. And then the second question is regarding POS Portal. I know you previously guided to $110 million in revenues and I was just wondering if we should expect a slightly lower year end guidance given the past two quarter revenues?

Gerry Lyons

Management

Yes, this it Gerry. Yes, it is down slightly. We had a couple of things happen there that didn't go exactly the way we expected. So, it is down slightly from that $110 million.

Martha Masiarz

Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you so much.

Gerry Lyons

Management

You're welcome.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And that concludes our question-and-answer session for today. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mike Baur for any closing comments.

Mike Baur

Management

Thanks for joining us today. We expect to hold our next conference call to discuss the March 31st quarterly results on Tuesday, May 8th, 2018.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.