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Star Equity Holdings, Inc. (STRR)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Wed, Feb 26, 2014

$9.64

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Digirad Corporation 2013 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Ms. Reesa Lindsey [ph]. Please go ahead.

Unknown Executive

Analyst

Thank you, Jada, and thank you, all, very much for joining this morning. If you didn't receive a copy of today's release and would like one, please contact our office at (858) 726-1600 after the call, and we'd be happy to get you one. Also, this call is being broadcast live over the web and may be accessed at Digirad's website at www.digirad.com. Shortly after the call, a replay will also be available on the company's website. I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this conference call, including the question-and-answer period, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements include statements about the company’s revenues, cost and expense, margin, operations, financial results, restructuring efforts and other topics related to Digirad’s business strategy and outlook. These forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and financial performance to differ materially. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, business and economic conditions, technological change, industry trends, changes in the company’s market and competition. More information about the risks and uncertainties is available in the company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, as well as this morning’s press release. The information discussed on this morning’s conference call should be used in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included in those reports and speak only as of the date of this call. The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Hosting the call today from Digirad is President and CEO, Matt Molchan. Joining Matt this morning is Jeff Keyes, Digirad's CFO. Matt and Jeff will discuss the 2013 fourth quarter results, update us on the company's strategy and comment on the company's outlook. A question-and-answer period will then follow. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Matt Molchan. Good morning, Matt.

Matthew G. Molchan

Analyst · Somerset

Thank you, Reesa [ph]. Good morning, everyone, and thank you, all, for joining us today for our fourth quarter 2013 and year-end results conference call. I am pleased to report that we had another solid quarter and returned a profit for the second quarter in a row. Total revenue for the quarter was $12.5 million, with earnings of $787,000, or $0.04 per diluted share. While total revenues are down modestly year-to-year, primarily related to camera sales in our Diagnostic Imaging business, we, of course, are a different company today: better margins, more profitable and more focused on our Digirad Imaging Solutions or DIS business. Revenues from DIS grew by about $726,000 compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, which is a great indicator of our progress. Our CFO, Jeff Keyes, will go into the financial results more thoroughly in a few moments. But those of you who follow us closely know the growth in DIS fits squarely into the new operational and strategic framework we installed in early 2013. Now, with 3 full quarters working in this new strategy, we believe more strongly than ever that we made the correct strategic decision. We are proving each quarter the thesis of our strategy: that DIS is scalable and offers us the best opportunity for income, cash flow generation and growth, while at the same time, we can continue to sell our cameras with very relevant technology into the market at profitable levels. As we have reported previously, the implementation of this strategy will continue through the course of 2014. It is clear to us we are headed in the right direction. In a healthcare environment where our customers are looking for ways to be more cost effective and efficient, DIS is a welcome outsourcing model. DIS allows our customers to limit…

Jeffry R. Keyes

Analyst

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. In the release today and in my prepared comments, I will make reference to both GAAP results, as well as adjusted results, for which the adjusted results do not include nonrecurring charges associated with restructuring activities and the gain on sale of assets and license agreement associated with our surgical imaging sales, as well as references to adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP measure. We believe the presentation of these non-GAAP measures, along with our GAAP financial statements and reconciliations, provide a more thorough analysis of our ongoing financial performance. You can find the reconciliations of our earnings on a GAAP versus non-GAAP basis in today's earnings press release. As Matt noted, we announced our restructuring of the company in February, 2013. Through those restructuring efforts and -- though those restructuring efforts are essentially complete, we will continue to have some minor cost related to that effort in the first and second quarters of 2014. Also, we announced in January, that we entered into a termination agreement for our former headquarters in Poway, California. This termination agreement will allow us to exit our existing lease early and move into a smaller and more economical space for our Diagnostic Imaging operations, but we will have cost related to that effort, as we've previously announced. However, subsequent to the move, we expect that we will save an additional $400,000 to $500,000 on an annual basis. Now for a brief summary of the quarter's activity. As Matt said, total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2013 was $12.5 million, compared to $13 million for the same period last year. DIS revenue for the fourth quarter of 2013 was $9.3 million, compared to $8.5 million in the same period last year. Diagnostic Imaging revenue, which includes our camera…

Matthew G. Molchan

Analyst · Somerset

All right. Thanks, Jeff. I'd like to close by saying all of us at Digirad are very excited about our new strategic direction, the traction we are creating in the marketplace and the potential we are seeing to build scale into our business and growth. Now I would like to turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Ross Taylor with Somerset.

Ross Taylor - Somerset Capital Advisers LLC

Analyst · Somerset

Could you give us a quick overview on looking out over the year, what kind of free cash flow do you expect to generate? You've done a good job, so far, in the last 12 months, generating free cash flow, keeping the cash balances strong, even in spite of the dividend and the share buyback. But moving forward, what should we expect?

Matthew G. Molchan

Analyst · Somerset

We continue, as we have stated previously, to have an operation that generates $3 million to $4 million of free cash flow on a go-forward basis from our core business. That is our -- continues to be our direction underneath our new strategic initiatives.

Ross Taylor - Somerset Capital Advisers LLC

Analyst · Somerset

Okay. And when you look at the opportunity, back a year ago or so, the thought process was looking to try to do fold-in acquisitions in the mobile business. Could you talk about that market opportunity at this point in time, and where you see -- and with a rather substantial cash obviously, you should be able to continue to pay this dividend for an extended period of time, particularly given that you're generating free cash flow? So where do we see the balance of the cash being used for?

Matthew G. Molchan

Analyst · Somerset

Yes, a part of our strategic initiatives are to continue to pursue acquisitions within the financial discipline that we've applied into this area. And yes, we are still -- we're talking, as we mentioned, our last meeting, we continue to talk to a number of imaging and other types of health care services-type businesses that we could fold into our current DIS operation that continues to progress. Unfortunately, we don't have anything to announce in terms of any deals or anything, but we continue to look aggressively for those deals and are hopeful to find some that will fit into the financial metrics that we have put in place.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And I'm showing no further questions. Please continue.

Matthew G. Molchan

Analyst · Somerset

Okay. I just -- let me just close by saying Digirad is in a growing health care market that sees the need and sees the value of our offerings. Our mission is to create value by being the market leader and delivering convenient, effective and efficient diagnostic solutions on an as-needed, when-needed and where-needed basis. Our overall results reflect a significant turnaround in profitability and cash flow generation. DIS is growing. Our Diagnostic Imaging business is now profitable and generating cash. Our results are in-line with our new strategic direction, which as stated previously, is to make our core business a $3 million to $4 million-a-year cash-generating operation. We'll continue to execute our strategies and continue to return value to our shareholders through a dividend. I'm looking forward to discussing our continued progress and successes next quarter with all of you. Thank you for your time, your interest and your investment in Digirad. Take care.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for today. You may now disconnect.