Philip Fain
Analyst · Benchmark Company. Your line is open
Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Earlier this morning, we released our fourth quarter results for the quarter ended December 31, 2022. We also updated our investor presentation, which you can find in the Investor Relations section of our website and plan on filing our Form 10-K with the SEC in the next few weeks before the filing deadline. We're reporting our quarterly results later than our customer reporting practice due to illnesses experienced by some members of our accounting finance team, causing delays in the year-end closing in audit. I would like to thank the members of the accounting finance team for their dedication and hard work. Before starting my review, I want to point out to everyone that our fourth quarter includes a $0.8 million one-time charge for severance costs associated with the company's former President and CEO, who has announced on November 22, 2022, is no longer with the company. The majority of the cost will be paid in 2023. I will present our fourth quarter operating results with and without this one-time charge. Now I'll take you through our fourth quarter results. Consolidated revenues for the 2022 fourth quarter totaled $36.1 million, the highest quarterly sales reported in over 10 years compared to $23.8 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 51.9%. Government defense sales increased 84% with strong growth in both business segments driven by order flow and the commencements of deliveries of some long lead time components. Commercial sales increased 38.1%, reflecting the contribution of Excell and solid organic growth in oil and gas end markets. Excluding Excell, total organic sales increased 23.1% from the prior year period. Our total backlog exiting the fourth quarter grew to $111 million, the highest level in our company's history, which represents an increase of $4.8 million or 4.6% over the comparable backlog exiting the prior quarter and an increase of $47.3 million or 74.2% over that exiting the fourth quarter of 2021. During the quarter, supply chain disruptions persisted, including increased lead times on components from suppliers impacting both our internal and customer manufacturing delivery schedules, resulting in continued delays in our shipments to future periods. Mike will address our go-forward actions in his comments, which follow. Revenues from our Battery & Energy Products segment were $32.1 million compared to $22.1 million last year, an increase of 45.4% with $7 million of the $10 million variance attributable to Excell and $3 million of net organic growth, comprised of increases of 67.5% in government defense sales and 26.9% in SWE's oil and gas market sales, partially offset by a 17.2% decrease in medical sales due solely to component shortages to fulfil increased demand from a large international medical device OEM. Net organic sales for this segment increased 13.9%. The backlog for our Battery & Energy Products business of $88.6 million, representing 74% of our 2022 total year sales is an increase of $0.4 million or 0.4% over the comparable amount exiting the third quarter. The sales split between commercial and government defense for our battery business was 71-29 compared to 75-25 for the 2021 fourth quarter, and the domestic to international split was 55-45 compared to 50-50 last year, accentuating both growth in U.S. government defense sales and the continued success of our global revenue diversification strategy. Revenues from our Communications Systems segment were $4 million compared to $1.7 million last year an increase of 138.1% reflecting the receipt of components to commence the fulfillment of a large international order and to continue the fulfillment of a large U.S. order with some spill over into 2023. The backlog for our Communications Systems business of $22.4 million, representing 190% of our 2022 total year segment sales is an increase of $4.5 million or 25.1% over the comparable amount exiting the third quarter. On a consolidated basis, commercial to government defense sales split was 63-37 versus 73-27 for the year earlier quarter, again reflecting the growth in government defense sales. Our consolidated gross profit was $8.1 million for the 2022 fourth quarter, up 52.8% over the 2021 period. As a percentage of total revenues, consolidated gross margin was 22.4% versus 22.3% for last year's fourth quarter. Gross profit for our Battery & Energy Products business was $6.9 million compared to $4.8 million last year. Gross margin was 21.6%, a sequential increase of 290 basis points over the 18.7% reported in the third quarter and a decrease of 20 basis points from 21.8% reported last year. The sequential improvement was primarily due to our closer matching of customer price increases with the continued cost inflation of certain raw materials and key components, including various electronic components, PC boards, chipsets and certain metals to name a few. For our Communications Systems segment, gross profit was $1.1 million compared to $0.5 million for the year earlier period. Gross margin was 28.7% compared to 28.1% last year, reflecting higher factory throughput leading to higher cost absorption tempered by inefficiencies associated with delays in receipts of components. Operating expenses were $7.9 million compared to $6.5 million last year, an increase of $1.4 million or 20.7%. The increase was primarily attributable to the one-time severance charge of $0.8 million in incremental expenses, including intangible amortization of $0.7 million due to the timing of the Excell acquisition on December 13, 2021. As a percentage of revenues, operating expenses were 21.8% or 19.6% when excluding the one-time severance charge compared to 27.4% for last year's fourth quarter, a 780 basis point improvement reflecting sales leverage. Operating profit was $0.2 million, inclusive of the $0.8 million one-time severance charge compared to an operating loss of $1.2 million last year. Our tax benefit for the fourth quarter was $0.2 million, the same as that reported for the 2021 quarter computed on a GAAP basis. Including the one-time charge and the impact of interest expense to help finance the Excell acquisition and foreign currency losses associated with the strengthening of pound sterling to the U.S. dollar, net loss was $0.2 million or $0.01 per share. This compares to a net loss of $1.1 million or $0.07 per share for the 2021 quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, defined as EBITDA including non-cash stock-based compensation expense, was $2 million or 5.6% of sales for the 2022 quarter compared to a loss of $0.1 million for the prior year quarter. Turning to our balance sheet, to proactively influence our position to service our substantial backlog, we increased inventory by $0.4 million or 1.1% over the third quarter. This represents an increase of $8 million or 24.1% over year-end 2021. We ended the 2022 fourth quarter with working capital of $50.1 million compared to $47.6 million for last year. Debt to capital at quarter end remained low at approximately 0.18. Going forward, with our backlog diversified end markets, growth initiatives and ongoing actions to improve our gross margins, we remain tenaciously dedicated to realizing the full leverage potential of our business model. Before turning it back to Mike, there is one other matter that I will share with you. On January 25, 2023, during performance of their daily morning information technology security procedures, our information technology team discovered an unauthorized entry into our information technology systems for our Newark, New York and Virginia Beach locations. The accounts in question were immediately disabled by our IT team and the company's information security committee met promptly taking swift action, including the immediate notification of our cybersecurity insurance carrier. Shortly thereafter, with recommendations from our cybersecurity carrier, we engaged external incident response professionals to assist with our assessment, recovery and response. On February 7, the company received an electronic communication allegedly from a third-party known for nefarious ransomware attacks, claiming responsibility for the incident - and discussions with the third-party commenced through experienced cybersecurity professionals engaged by the company. This incident caused a partial disruption of our business operations at both locations, which resulted in production and shipping downtime of approximately two weeks. The company has now restored its information technology systems and production has been resumed in both locations. We do not believe that any other company locations were affected by this incident and these other locations have continued their normal operations. The full scope of the cost and related impacts of this incident on Q1, 2023 results, including the extent to which the company's cybersecurity insurance will offset the cost of the professionals we engaged and of the interruption to our business is currently under review. The company's deductible for its cybersecurity insurance is $100,000. Based on the recovery of our systems, review of the files affected as well as the company's prompt response to an assessment of the incident, no ransom or other amount has been or is expected to be paid to the third-party. We continue to monitor our information systems for any irregularity. I will now turn it back to Mike.