Renee J. Peterson
Analyst · Cleveland Research Company. Please proceed
Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Sales for fiscal 2014 grew to $2,172,700,000 compared to $2,041,400,000 for fiscal 2013. We achieved net earnings for the year of $173.9 million or $3.02 per share. This compares to fiscal 2013 earnings of $154.8 million or $2.62 per share. Net sales for the quarter were $414.1 million compared to $382.4 million for the same period a year-ago. We delivered net earnings of $10.9 million or $0.19 per share compared to $5 million or $0.08 per share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. For the year, we repurchased over $1.6 million shares of company stock at an average price of about $63 per share for a total cost of about $100 million. This includes roughly $37,000 shares in the fourth quarter at about $2 million. At year end, we had approximately $2.7 million shares remaining on our authorization. For fiscal 2015, we anticipate spending a similar amount on share repurchases as we did last year. Our Professional segment sales were up 3.7% to $1,477,600,000 for the year. This includes 5.1% growth for the quarter to $268.9 million. Strong demand for landscape contractor, micro irrigation, construction and rental, and golf products all contributed to the growth for the year. Professional segment earnings were $276.3 million for the year, up 8.6% compared to fiscal 2013. Professional segment net earnings for the quarter totaled $31.6 million, a $9.8 million increase compared to last year. Our Residential segment sales for the year increased 13.1% to $672.4 million. Snow throwers sales led the way followed by riding and electric products. The increase was somewhat offset by unfavorable currency movements and weather in Australia as well as the walk power, the domestic walk power mower rework issue and a late spring. The fourth quarter saw residential sales rise 19% from a year ago to $138.8 million, which is attributable to favorable shipments of snow throwers, electric products and fall walk power mower activity. For the year Residential segment net earnings were $76.9 million up 24% from last year. Residential net earnings for the quarter totaled $16.3 million up $6.1 million from last years fourth quarter due to product mix and ongoing productivity improvement. Now on to our operating results. Gross margin for the year was up 10 basis points to 35.6%. For the four quarter gross margin improved 90 basis points to 34.5%. Realized pricing and productivity improvements positively impacted margin results, while unfavorable segment mix, currency exchange rates, and slightly higher commodity costs were negative influences. For fiscal 2015, we anticipated decrease in gross profit of about 10 basis points to 20 basis points due to a one-time impact from purchase accounting related to the BOSS acquisition. We also expect to see a drag in exchange rate similar to what we experienced last year. SG&A expense as a percent of sales decreased by 70 basis points for the whole year, while sustaining investment in engineering at the same rate as last year. SG&A decreased by 160 basis points for the quarter against an 8.3% increase in sales. The decreases for both the year and the quarter were primarily due to the leveraging of expenses over higher sales volumes. For fiscal 2015, we expect SG&A to be slightly better as a percent of sales. Other income for the year was down $3.5 million to $8.7 million, the decrease was primarily due to a legal recovery in fiscal 2013 that was not repeated this year and higher foreign currency losses. Operating earnings as a percent of sales improved 80 basis points to 12.1% for the year including a fourth quarter increase of 250 basis points to 4.7%. Interest expense declined for the year by 4.8% to $15.4 million, due to capitalized interest on large capital projects. Interest expense for the quarter was up 11.7% from the same period a year ago to $4.4 million. Our effective tax rate for the year was 32.2% compared to 31.7% last year, due to the benefit received in the first quarter of fiscal 2013 from the retroactive enactment of the Domestic Research Tax Credit that expired on December 31, 2013. We expect our effective tax rate for fiscal 2015 to be about 32.5%. Turning to the balance sheet; Accounts receivable at the end of the year totaled $158.2 million, an increase of about 1% compared to fiscal 2013. Net inventories were up 14.4% to $274.6 million, the increase reflects inventory to address our backlog of orders that were up by 50% as of year-end in both our professional and residential businesses. We expect existing orders to be filled early in fiscal 2015. Trade payables decreased 8.7% to $124.3 million, while we experience limited increases in the fourth quarter, commodity prices remain neutral to slightly higher for the year offset by both internal and supplier productivity improvements and favorable contracts. As you know, we remain focused on inventory accounts receivable and trade payables management, at the end of the year the company is 12-months average net working capital as a percent of sales improved to 15.1% compared to 16.6% a year-ago. As Mike will discuss in relation to our new employee initiative ongoing improvement in working capital will become an ever greater priority. As of fiscal 2015, our capital expenditures are projected to be about $75 million and additional investments in product research and development capabilities and capacity. We expect that depreciation and amortization will be approximately $60 million to $65 million. As Mike noted in light of our consistently strong levels of cash flow our Board increased our quarterly dividend by 25% to $0.25 per share from our previous rate of $0.20 per share. In fiscal 2014, the company paid $45 million in dividends, when added to the more than 1.6 million shares of repurchased common stock we returned almost $150 million to our shareholders for the year. These actions are consistent with our focus on returning value to our shareholders. That said our overall investment priority remains the same. We will continue to look for opportunities to drive profitable growth. I’ll now turn it back to Mike for his concluding comments.