Operator
Good
afternoon and welcome to today's fiscal third quarter 2010 earnings conference
call for ePlus. Today's conference is being recorded. And now for opening
remarks and introductions, I would like to turn today's conference over to Mr.
Kley Parkhurst, Senior Vice President with ePlus. Please go ahead,
sir.
Kley
Parkhurst
Thank you
for joining us today. Joining me today are Phil Norton,
Chairman, President and CEO of ePlus and Elaine Marion, our Chief Financial
Officer.
I want to
take a moment to remind you that the statements we make this afternoon that are
not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements and are
based on management's current plans, estimates and projections. Actual and
anticipated future results may vary materially due to certain risks and
uncertainties, including without limitation possible adverse effects resulting
from the recent financial crisis in the credit markets and general slowdown in
the U.S. economy such as our current and potential customers’ delaying or
reducing technology purchases, increasing credit risk associated with our
customers and vendors, reduction of vendor incentive programs, the possibility
of additional goodwill impairment charges and restrictions on our access to
capital necessary to fund our operations, the demand for and acceptance of our
products and services, the possibility of defects in our products or catalog
content data, our ability to protect our intellectual property, our ability to
reserve adequately for credit losses and other risks and uncertainties detailed
in the earnings release we issued last week and our periodic filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
The
Company undertakes no responsibility to update any of these forward-looking
statements in light of new information or future events.
With
that, I will turn the call over to Phil Norton. Phil?
Phil Norton
Thank
you, Kley. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining
us.
With me
on the call is Elaine Marion, our Chief Financial Officer.
We
appreciate your perseverance and recognize that with the bad weather we’ve been
experiencing here in the Washington D.C. metro area, it has taken us more time
to conduct this call than we had anticipated when we issued the earnings release
and Form 10-Q last week.
After my
prepared remarks, I will turn the call over to Elaine to discuss this quarter’s
detailed financial results, and then we will open the call to
questions.
I am
pleased to report that our fiscal third quarter results marked the 3rd
consecutive quarter of sequential revenue improvement. The
environment has continued to improve as our customers’ IT spending has trended
up. While not consistent among all of our industry segments, in
general, our customers reengaged in previously deferred IT projects and opened
their budgets. On a sequential basis, for the quarter ended December
31, 2009, our fiscal year 2010 third quarter, sales of product and services
increased 3.8% to $163.2 million as compared to $157.3 million in the fiscal
second quarter of 2010.
As a
result of this uptick in demand, we, and many of our peers, experienced shipping
delays for high-demand products from some manufacturers during the
quarter. By the end of the quarter, our backlog, or what we call open
orders, was nearly $46 million, which is about $20 million higher than
usual. To be clear, these open orders represent purchase orders from
our customers for which we’ve ordered the equipment, however the product is on
back order from the manufacturer which delays our recognition of
revenue.
In
addition to the backlog, our deferred revenue increased $10 million compared to
December 2008. This deferred revenue is for projects that bundle
services and hardware which we do not recognize revenue until the services are
completed or the hardware delivered. The size of our deferred revenue
is related to the timing of completing the service projects and hardware
deliveries during a quarter. If these product constraints had been
relieved by quarter end, we believe our sales of products and services would
have been higher for the quarter.
We have
continued to focus on reducing costs and improving operating
efficiencies. Salaries and benefits decreased $700 thousand or 3.8%,
to $18.8 million, due to a gradual reduction in headcount over the past year and
reduced commission expenses. General and administrative expenses
decreased $500 thousand or 11.8%, to $3.8 million, due to the Company’s focused
efforts to reduce or eliminate discretionary spending and improve
productivity.
With
improved revenue and reduced operating expenses, net earnings increased over 18%
to $2.3 million this quarter, compared to $2.0 million in the same quarter last
year. Earnings per share increased 12.5% to 27 cents per diluted
share, compared to 24 cents per diluted share in the third quarter of fiscal
year 2009. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding a goodwill impairment
charge of $4.0 million, non-GAAP net earnings totaled $4.6 million, or 54 cents
per diluted share.
ePlus has
continued to be profitable through the economic downturn, without widespread
layoffs, as we have continued to focus on delivering the advanced technology
solutions our customers demand. As a result, we are well positioned
to capture spend from our current customers as they open their budgets, and to
grow organically from new customer acquisition.
Our
balance sheet remains strong, as we continue to focus on maintaining liquidity
and minimizing leverage. In the December quarter, we spent $2.3
million to repurchase over 145,000 shares of common stock at an average cost of
$16.00 per share. We ended the quarter with a cash balance totaling
more than $82 million.
I’d like
to mention a few highlights that occurred during the quarter. We
announced several new awards and certifications this quarter, including the
Master Managed Services Certification from Cisco that recognizes our ability to
provide high-quality managed services throughout the entire product
lifecycle. We also achieved the HP PartnerONE Virtualization Elite
status by meeting specified competency and sales criteria in virtualization and
BladeSystem solutions. We are continuing to invest in advanced
technologies to deliver the customized IT solutions that our customers
demand.
Before
turning the call over to Elaine, I’d like to review a few strategic and
operational initiatives.
First, we
are prudently using our cash to invest in new leases which will reduce the need
for non-recourse debt, and will reduce interest expenses in the
future. This will likely increase our risk related to the underlying
receivables, however, we remain focused on maintaining credit quality within our
customer base.
Second,
we are focusing on strategic sourcing and optimizing purchasing, which includes
taking early payment discounts, aggregating purchasing, and deriving as much
value as possible in the supply chain.
Third, we
are finding new opportunities to hire sales professionals, and we are
aggressively recruiting top performers in new and existing markets.
In
summary, we believe ePlus is well positioned with a solid balance sheet and the
right business mix to execute on future opportunities.
Elaine
will now present more detailed financial and segment information.
Elaine?
Elaine Marion
Thanks,
Phil.
As Phil
noted, this was another good quarter for ePlus. Sequentially,
total revenue increased 3.5% to $178.7 million as a result of continued strength
in our technology sales business unit and a strong quarterly performance in our
financing business unit. We provided a non-GAAP reconciliation in our
earnings release to show our proforma quarterly and year-to-date net earnings
and earnings per share without the effects of goodwill impairment
charges. Adjusting for goodwill, our non-GAAP proforma net earnings
this quarter was $4.6 million which was essentially unchanged from last year,
and diluted earnings per share of 54 cents this quarter, which was down 1 cent
from 55 cents in the comparable non-GAAP measures in the third quarter last
year.
The
goodwill impairment charge recognized in the quarter was for the leasing
reporting unit, and represented 100% of the goodwill in that
unit. Our annual goodwill impairment test is conducted in the third
quarter, and complete information on the methodology and conclusions are
contained in our 10-Q. In summary, we projected that economic
factors, in conjunction with a reduction in the size of our leased assets, would
result in a temporary decline in future revenue of our leasing reporting
unit. The impairment test produced fair value estimates which were
below the carrying value of the reporting unit. We will finalize step 2 of our
impairment test in our 4th
quarter, however, we estimate that total amount of goodwill related to the
leasing reporting unit will be impaired.
Regardless
of this goodwill impairment, the financing business segment produced good
financial results this quarter and is an integral part of the value proposition
we offer to customers. Total revenues in the financing business
segment this quarter were $13.5 million, an increase of 34%
sequentially. For the nine month period ended December 31, 2009,
financing segment revenues decreased 18% to $33.8 million.
In the
prior year, we recorded a $4.6 million goodwill impairment charge relating to
our software procurement reporting unit. Goodwill impairment charges
have no effect on cash or the operations of the company.
Sales of
product and services totaled $163.2 million, a decrease of $8.4 million or 4.9%,
compared to $171.6 million in the fiscal third quarter of 2009. On a
sequential basis, sales of product and services increased by $5.9 million or
3.8%, compared to $157.3 million in the fiscal second quarter of
2010. This quarter, our mix of product and services with Cisco,
Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems' products represented approximately 35%,
19% and 9%, respectively, of total product and services revenues.
Selling,
general and administrative expenses, which includes professional and other fees,
salaries and benefits, and general and administrative expenses, increased $500
thousand or 1.9%, to $25.9 million, compared to $25.5 million in the third
quarter of fiscal year 2009. The increase was primarily due to higher
legal fees related to litigation in which the Company alleges defendants
infringed on certain of its patents, which more than offset other expense
reductions. These types of cases are complex in nature, and are
likely to have significant expenses associated with them in future
periods. Salaries and benefits decreased $700 thousand or 3.8%, to
$18.8 million, due to a gradual reduction in headcount over the past year from
672 to 653 employees, and reduced commission expenses. General and
administrative expenses decreased $500 thousand or 11.8%, to $3.8 million, due
to the Company’s focused efforts to reduce or eliminate discretionary spending
and improve productivity.
Interest
and financing costs totaled $900 thousand, a decrease of $500 thousand or 33.9%,
compared to $1.4 million in the fiscal third quarter of
2009. Non-recourse notes payable decreased $26.5 million or 31.2%, to
$58.5 million at December 31, 2009, as compared to March 31, 2009. As
of December 31, 2009, shareholders’ equity totaled $184.5 million.
We
continue to maintain good balance sheet liquidity, with cash and cash
equivalents of $82.1 million at December 31, 2009. As our revenue has
increased sequentially over the past three quarters, some cash has been
converted to other assets, such as receivables and
inventories. During the quarter, we spent $2.3 million to repurchase
over 145,000 shares of common stock at an average cost of $16.00. We
announced earlier today that the board of directors has amended the current plan
to allow up to 500,000 shares to be repurchased commencing on February 15, 2010
through September 15, 2010.
Looking
ahead to calendar year 2010, we remain cautiously optimistic. In our
opinion, the economic recovery is in its earliest stages and we have yet to see
demonstrated continuous improvement in the financial condition of many
companies. We remain committed to maintaining stringent credit
criteria, retaining a liquid and unleveraged balance sheet, and investing in
opportunities for growth.
That
completes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open this call to
questions.
QUESTION
AND ANSWER SECTION
Operator: Thank
you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Patrick Retzer
from Retzer Capital Management.
<Q – Patrick Retzer>:
Hi, guys. Congratulations on another nice
quarter.
<A>: Thank you,
Pat.
<Q – Patrick Retzer>:
Thanks for talking about the increased backlog and the deferred revenue;
that gives some nice color into the current quarter. I see you upped
the stock buy-back, so you’re continuing to buy stock back at less than
three-quarters of book value; that’s wonderful. Could you talk a
little bit about decreasing the non-recourse borrowings in favor of using your
own cash to fund some of the leases. Can you talk about how that will
contribute to earnings going forward? What type of interest you were
paying on the non-recourse debt versus what you’ll be saving going forward, et
cetera?
<A>: Pat, I think in
general it’s pretty hard to describe that because it’s an average over different
credit, but if you look at the cash on the balance sheet we are very
conservative and the amount of money that we earn is commensurate with that
position of being conservative. So that does contribute significantly
to the earnings. If we go and we maintain the debt portion of our leases or some
of our leases that are good credit, then we will be able to increase our
earnings in the future and that is going to be a significant change I can give
you a range.
<Q – Patrick Retzer>:
That would be great.
<A>: Maybe 400 basis
points high to 600 basis points depending on the credit.
<Q – Patrick Retzer>:
Okay.
<A>: And we’re presently
earning that.
<Q – Patrick Retzer>:
Right. That’s useful. Thanks.
Operator: our
next question comes from the light of John Lewis with Osmium
Partners.
<Q – John Lewis>: Good
morning, guys. How are you doing?
<A>: Fine, John. At
least you don’t have snow in San Francisco.
<Q – John Lewis>: I
guess first off you guys obviously announced a new buyback today. Was there any
particular reason for the announcement? Were you close to completing your
previous authorization?
<A>: The reason for it
was that we have our fourth quarter coming up and in order for us to make sure
we don’t run out of the allotted amount between now and potentially August,
before we announce the first quarter of next year, we thought it would be
prudent to do that now.
<Q – John Lewis>: Got
it. I mean it looks like quarter over quarter you grew your tangible book from
19.30 to basically 20.25. It looks like if you could just continue to repurchase
shares at a fairly – what we think is a very attractive price. I
guess you guys, obviously, do too. It seems like you could continue
to grow your tangible book at a pretty decent clip. I guess with that said, it
seems like first and foremost, the most important thing is just the business
results, and you guys have continued to do a great job executing. But
I guess one of the frustrating parts of the ePlus story is just the valuation is
just dramatically less than your peer group. I think so I guess with that said I
know you guys have been attempting to close fairly dramatic valuation
gap. What else are you doing, Phil, to help make that
happen?
<A – Phillip Norton>:
Well, one is try to earn more money. In the end that really will solve
all of that. Second, is that we have been reaching out to investors and going on
road shows. Third, we are actively working hard at getting coverage. I think
that’s the biggest element, that we have to overcome, is getting the story and
getting coverage from analysts. And I think once we do that, then we will get a
higher profile and we hope that would cause some movement in the
stock.
<Q – John Lewis>: I was
at the ICR conference and I met with I guess it was Mark and Kley. That was very
helpful, but I think it’s really important that you, as a CEO, you’ll get out
and meet with investors as much as possible on the company marketing way because
I think that’s what investors are really looking to meet the CEO as well. So
that would be great and I appreciate the call.
<A – Phillip Norton>: I
have been, John. It seems like every time you and I try to get
together, something comes up and couldn’t make it. And we are continuing to do
that. It was a good opportunity for investors also to be able to see other parts
of the management which we think are significant contributors now and will be in
the future because it’s important for them to know what the management team
looks like and going forward.
<Q>: Great, I
appreciated and thanks for your time.
Operator: [Operator
Instructions] In our next question comes from Jayson Noland from Robert W.
Baird.
<Q – Jayson Noland>:
Thanks for bringing me on. Good afternoon. It’s still early and just
question about your pipeline of business I guess. How does that look today
versus last year? You’d said you’re cautiously optimistic right
now?
<A>: If you look at last
year: January, February and March, we were looking at death in the face
everyday. This year the economy is improving and we believe IT budgets, as we
stated, are opening up. We have a bigger backlog than we’ve had in years. We’ve
had several events in which we had significantly more attendees from our present
customers and new customers. We’ve had great sequential growth in the last three
quarters. And I think our position to improve the business with the people that
we have, and the partners that we’re working with.
<Q – Jayson Noland>: Are
there specific areas of technology where you’re seeing strength in storage
versus computer versus other areas?
<A>: One of our main
strengths is Cisco and their product line, Unified Communications. We have a
very strong relationship with HP also and all of their product line: service
storage, printing, PCs, so that it’s pretty much across the map. We have other
very strong vendors in storage and servers and we believe that in the long run,
our portfolio is pretty diversified, which enables us to capture the products
that are moving the most in the industry.
<Q – Jayson Noland>: A
question, a follow-up question on the product delays. Is it broad-based or
specific to certain vendors or areas of technology?
<A>: I think it’s
specific in the industry has a lot of more – the larger players have basically
had to catch up from last year where they may have cut back their estimates on
build. And once you do that, it takes a long time for that to reverse itself.
The indications are that it is getting better. Whether it will all be filled in
this quarter, that’s yet to be seen. But I think it will be very likely that
they’ll get it done between now and the end of June.
<Q – Jayson Noland>:
Last question for me if I may. We’ve seen a lot of partnerships with
dedicated bundles, and I could see where it’s challenging for a reseller to know
how to position, I guess. How does a large var look at some of these newly
formed partnerships?
<A>: Are you referring
to the Cisco partnerships for example, or what type of
partnerships?
<Q>: Yes, no, that’s
right. It’s the Cisco, VMWare, VMWare, Cisco, EMC, HP, Microsoft. I
just wonder if it impacts how you think about your business?
<A – Phillip Norton>:
You got to really drive the business on what customers are looking for,
and which one of those areas are going to be the strongest. I think we’re
positioned well with all three that you’ve mentioned as well as some others. I
think it’s important to note that last year we were the virtualization partner
of the year. We’ve got a very well-trained engineering staff with
virtualization. That puts us in a position to partner with the Cisco NetApp,
EMC, programs that are out there, and the HP programs that are out also. So I
think we’re in a better position than most companies (a) because of our size and
(b) because we’re engineering focus on delivering solutions. And so I think the
vendors look to us to provide those services and solutions and I think that
bodes well for us in the future.
<Q – Jayson Noland>: I
appreciate your time, Phil, thanks a lot.
<A – Phillip Norton>:
Thank you.
Operator: [Operator
Instructions] Our next question comes from Brad Evans from
Heartland.
<Q>: Oh, yes, good
afternoon.
<A – Elaine Marion>:
Good afternoon.
<Q>: I noticed that the
DSOs popped up about five days sequentially. I’m assuming that just reflects the
linearity of the quarter is that correct?
<A – Elaine Marion>:
Yes.
<Q>: Could you just
comment on this activity in January and February? Has the recovery or the pace
of recovery, has it continued to accelerate?
<A – Phillip Norton >: I
think it’s too hard to tell right now. I think it’s something that we see the
industry basically still having growth, but I think the next two months will
determine whether or not it’s going to be robust or fall back a little bit I’m
not sure we can tell at this time.
<Q>: That helps. Is
there any guidance you could give us for professional fees going forward in
terms of management spend. We have seen a fairly substantial increase over the
last three quarters. Is there any guidance you can give us there?
<A – Elaine Marion>: The
type of litigation we’re involved in is very complex, and we have stated that
the expenses are likely to be significant in the future. But the outcome of the
cases are unknown at this point in time.
<Q>: Can you give us any
guidance as to when these litigation matters will come to
conclusion?
<A>: The dates of the
trials as you know are kind of ever changing. Fairly impossible to predict trial
date with the different types of motions that are submitted and what
not.
<Q>: Okay. I guess I’ll
refer to the 10-Q. And then just last thing, some of the buyback. Did the board
consider a Dutch tender at all in light of just the low-volume, the low trading
volume, that limits the stocks you can buy over the course of a day or a week or
a month?
<A>: I don’t think that
was addressed. The board decided to do 500,000 shares and that was all that was
put forward. We can look at that and see what are people thinking about in the
future.
<Q>: Okay, thank
you.
<A>: Thanks,
Brad.
Operator: [Operator
Instructions] I’m showing no questions in queue.
Kleyton
L. Parkhurst, Senior Vice President, Assistant Secretary and
Treasurer
Okay.
We’d like to thank everyone very much and we will be here for follow-up
questions if you’d like to contact us directly. Thank you.
Operator: Ladies
and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today’s conference. This concludes
the program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.