Earnings Labs

Saga Communications, Inc. (SGA)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 7, 2020

$11.03

+0.32%

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Same-Day

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1 Week

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1 Month

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-13.42%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Saga Communications Q2 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn this over to your host; Ed Christian, President and CEO of Saga Communications. Sir the floor is yours.

Ed Christian

Analyst

Thank you, Catherine. And Sam Bush is with me and he will speak momentarily, but at least Sam, Catherine was good enough to say welcome to rather than unwelcome to Saga for the conference call. We have some good things to talk about and some harsh reality to deal with. So with that Sam?

Sam Bush

Analyst

Thank you, Ed. This call will contain forward-looking statements about our future performance and results of operations that involve risks and uncertainties that are described in the Risk Factors section of our most recent Form 10-K. This call will also contain a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation for all the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure are attached in the selected financial data table. The second quarter was materially impacted by business and service provider closures restrictions and other government-mandated actions. From the gross revenue low point in April when Saga's gross revenue was down 55% compared to the prior period in 2019, our revenue has significantly recovered in each of the following months with July's gross revenue being down approximately 29%. And I think it's important to point out that from a broadcast cash flow perspective only April was negative, while May and June both showed positive broadcast cash flow. We do expect to show positive broadcast cash flow for the year if the current market conditions continue due to our efforts to reduce expenses and with the expectation that we will see ongoing month-to-month revenue improvements. We had more passion on hand at the end of the second quarter $48.9 million compared to the end of first quarter of $46.3 million. We expect there to be some fluctuation in this amount as the year continues, but we do not believe it will be reduced by any material amount by year end. Again this is if the current market conditions continue and we don't face another prolonged government-mandated shutdown in our markets. At the end of the quarter our outstanding debt remained $10 million which given the cash on hand presents no covenant or liquidity issues. I'm sure a lot of other broadcasters and businesses as a whole will be envious of this statement. I want to point out that Saga's reported net loss for the first six months was $3.2 million, but only $564,000 after adjusting for the noncash impairment charge, net of the tax benefit associated with the impairment charge. Ed with that short commentary on an unprecedented quarter I will turn it back over to you.

Ed Christian

Analyst

Thank you, Sam. For the last few days I've been listening to other conference calls. And I am kind of numbed out because as when listening to the calls it's -- we're down this we're down that. The numbers are there and here is what it is. And after a while this kind of plays over because we know what they're going to be. And it's interesting because for all the years that I've been in this business, we kind of run in -- even though we're all independent operators in -- or public companies or whatever it might be. But the trend is amazing in terms of how it really sits together and holds true across the entire country. I was talking about another broadcaster the other day who is -- has spun as many markets as we have, but they're not in a single one of our markets. And we said okay come on let's share some stuff here. How did you do during the quarter? And what are you seeing going forward? And we went through the numbers. And within one percentage point we were the same. This company totally different markets similar sizes mid-market, but it was a very interesting experience. But I really need to ask everybody's permission here to just kind of digress from the numbers for a minute and really begin to look behind the numbers. What do they mean? And that's the issue that we really have to get down to is, when we look at the numbers they don't really tell us much. It shows a percentage of business bound and we can start breaking it into categories and try and say okay and this category. And medical we were down 42% or 55% or whatever the number is. What does…

Sam Bush

Analyst

No, we did not have any questions today Ed.

Ed Christian

Analyst

All right. Do you have any questions?

Sam Bush

Analyst

No. But I can say, I always like my comments, but yours are always much more fascinating to listen to. So thank you for that.

Ed Christian

Analyst

Well, go, go, buy yourself a hotdog, keep the old man happy. All right.

Sam Bush

Analyst

I will do so.

Ed Christian

Analyst

Catherine, you can wrap this thing up and we're out of here. End of Q&A: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time. And have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.