Brady Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 22, 2024

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

Operator

I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Anne Thorin, CFO. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Brady Corporation's fiscal 20 24 Q3 earnings conference call. The slides for this morning's call are located on our website at www.bradycorp.com/investors. We will begin our prepared remarks on slide number 3. Please note that during this call, we may make comments about forward looking information.

Speaker 1

Words such as expect, will, may, believe, forecast and anticipate are just a few examples of words identifying a forward looking statement. It's important to note that forward looking information is subject to various risk factors and uncertainties, which could significantly impact expected results. Risk factors were noted in our news release this morning and in Brady's fiscal 2023 Form 10 ks, which was filed with the SEC in September. Also, please note that this teleconference is copyrighted by Brady Corporation and may not be rebroadcast without the consent of Brady. We will be recording this call and broadcasting it on the Internet.

Speaker 1

As such, your participation in the Q and A session will constitute your consent to being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Brady's President and Chief Executive Officer, Russell Schaller. Russell?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Anne, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We released our Q3 results this morning, and I'm thrilled to report a new company record high earnings per share this quarter. Both of our regional businesses performed well with total organic sales growth of 4.5%, improved gross profit margin to 51.6% and we continued our strong cash generation. Our teams are executing incredibly well and delivering great results despite sluggish economic conditions. We also returned funds to our shareholders through both our normal quarterly dividend and an increased amount of share buybacks.

Speaker 2

This quarter, we purchased 863,000 shares for 50,400,000 dollars We continue to view opportunistic share buybacks as an excellent way to deliver return to our shareholders and our purchases this quarter demonstrated this commitment. As part of our journey developing new technologies, we introduced several products this quarter. We launched a rugged barcode scanner, which is the result of an integrated development effort with 1 of the companies we acquired in 2021, and we launched a new industrial inkjet color label printer. On the material side, we launched ToughStripe Max, which is a reengineered and improved version of our high quality floor marking tape designed for the highest traffic areas in our manufacturing site. We have several new printers and other innovative new products in our pipeline planned for launch this fall and throughout next year as well.

Speaker 2

I'm incredibly proud of the results this quarter. We're identifying new sales opportunities and we're improving our service levels, all of which is making an impact every day. I can also see the potential that generative AI can bring to Brady to increase productivity and to better equip our sales force with the data and information they need to be more effective. It's an exciting time in the world of technology and the potential that generative AI has to positively impact our customers and the broader economy is substantial. I know that we're making the right investments today to continue to increase sales and profitability for years to come.

Speaker 2

And none of this would be possible without the hard work and focus by the entire Brady team. Now I'll turn it over to Anne to provide more financial details on our financial results. Anne?

Speaker 1

Thank you, Russell. This quarter, we grew organic sales 4.5 percent, while increasing our EPS to a new quarterly record. We reported GAAP EPS of $1.05 per share, which was up 9.4% compared to the Q3 of last year. Non GAAP EPS, which is calculated as our GAAP EPS excluding the after tax impact of amortization expense as well as the gain on a divestiture from last year was $1.09 per share, which was up 14.7% compared to the Q3 of last year. Our organic growth was strong in both regions with our Americas and Asia region growing 4.5% and our Europe and Australia region growing 4.4% this quarter.

Speaker 1

We're growing well in excess of GDP in most of our end markets and geographies. We also continue to integrate our businesses into our regional structure, which has allowed us to capitalize an increased rate of organic revenue growth non GAAP an increased rate of organic revenue growth, non GAAP EPS growth of 14.7 percent, continued improvement in gross profit margin and an ongoing commitment to return funds to our shareholders through our quarterly dividend and increased share buybacks, which together this quarter were $61,600,000 Starting on slide number 4, you'll find our quarterly sales trends. Organic sales grew 4.5% and foreign currency translation decreased sales by 0.3% this quarter and the impact of divestitures reduced sales by 2.3%, resulting in total sales growth of 1.9%. Growth was driven by both of our regions this quarter. Turning to slide number 5 for our gross profit margin trending.

Speaker 1

This details another quarterly improvement in our gross profit margin to 51.6% from 50.3% in the Q3 of last year, which was an increase of 130 basis points. We continue to realize benefits from our sales growth coming from higher margin products along with stabilizing input costs compared to last year. Slide number 6 details our SG and A expense trending. SG and A was $95,800,000 this quarter compared to $91,000,000 in the Q3 of last year. If you exclude amortization expense from both the current and prior year and exclude the gain on a divestiture from last year, then SG and A expense decreased from 27.4 percent of sales to 27.2 percent of sales.

Speaker 1

Moving along to Slide number 7, you'll find our investments in research and development. This quarter, we once again increased our investment in R and D from $15,700,000 to $17,700,000 which represented 5.1% of sales in the quarter. We launched 3 excellent new products this quarter, which Russell will describe in more detail during the regional discussion. Turning to slide number 8, this details our pretax earnings, which increased 2.2% on a GAAP basis from $63,000,000 to 64,400,000 dollars On a non GAAP basis, our pretax earnings increased 8.2 percent from $61,700,000 to 66,800,000 dollars Our earnings and EPS are detailed on slide number 9. We continue to increase earnings on a quarter over quarter basis and this quarter represents a new company record.

Speaker 1

Our GAAP EPS increased by 9.4% and excluding the after tax impact of amortization from both periods and the gain on the divestiture from last year, non GAAP EPS increased 14.7% compared to last year. Slide number 10 summarizes our cash generation. Operating cash flow increased from $72,500,000 in the Q3 of last year to $72,700,000 this quarter. For the full 9 months to date, our operating cash flow is up significantly from $129,900,000 last year to $171,100,000 this year, which is an increase of 31.8%. Moving along to Slide number 11.

Speaker 1

This slide summarizes our net cash position. We continue to focus on always making cash based decisions throughout the organization, which shows through our increase in cash flow from operating activities as well as our cash position of $96,700,000 as of April 30. We are consistent and disciplined in our approach to capital allocation. First, we use our cash to fully fund organic sales and efficiency opportunities. This includes investing in research and development, sales generating resources and capital expenditures that increase our automation and our overall efficiency.

Speaker 1

We'll continue to deploy capital to productivity and sales growth opportunities throughout the economic cycle. Next, we focused on consistently increasing our dividends. This fiscal year marked our 38th consecutive annual increase in our dividend. After fully funding our organic investments and our dividend, we then deploy our cash in a disciplined manner for acquisitions where we have clear synergies and for opportunistic share buybacks. In this quarter, we repurchased 863,000 shares for $50,400,000 Our strong balance sheet puts us in a position to execute additional growth opportunities through our R and D investments and our sales resources to acquire companies strategically when synergies are clear and the price is right and to return funds to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

Speaker 1

On slide number 12, you'll find our fiscal 2024 guidance. We are increasing our full year fiscal 2024 EPS guidance range of $3.80 to $3.95 on a GAAP basis and $3.95 dollars to $4.10 on a non GAAP basis to $3.93 to $4 on a GAAP basis and to $4.08 to 4 $0.15 on a non GAAP basis. We still expect low single digit organic sales growth for the full fiscal year 2024, which means we're expecting low single digit organic sales growth in the 4th quarter. This is based upon our current forecast and the comparison to our sales results in the Q4 of last year. Our outlook is based upon April 30 foreign currency exchange rates and it assumes continued economic expansion.

Speaker 1

We also expect a tax rate of approximately 21% for the full year, depreciation and amortization expense ranging from $30,000,000 to 32,000,000 dollars and capital expenditures of approximately $75,000,000 which is inclusive of approximately $55,000,000 of capital expenditures this year for the purchase of a previously leased facility, which took place earlier in the fiscal year, along with the build out of a new facility. The build out of the new facility will allow us to consolidate 2 locations into 1, which will reduce our overall footprint. Potential risks to our guidance among others include potential strengthening of the U. S. Dollar, inflationary pressures that were unable to offset in a timely enough manner or an overall slowdown in economic activity.

Speaker 1

I'll now turn the call back over to Russell to cover our regional results and to provide some closing thoughts before Q and A. Russell?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Ann. Our Americas and Asia regional results begin on Slide 13. Sales were $224,800,000 this quarter and organic sales growth was 4.5%. The impact of divestitures reduced sales by 3.5%. In total, including foreign currency translation, sales increased 0.9%.

Speaker 2

We had great results this quarter. We grew in all of our major product lines with the strongest growth in our core Identification and Safety Solutions businesses, as well as wire identification. We really had some nice momentum at the close of the quarter and I'm pleased with the team's ability to improve our rate of growth this quarter following a slower first half of the year. Our Asia business grew organically 1.9% this quarter. China took a step back compared to the 2nd quarter and our sales declined just over 17%.

Speaker 2

Economic conditions are challenging in China, but our business outside of China more than made up for this decline with another strong quarter of growth led by India and Singapore. Segment profit in Americas and Asia increased by 1% to $49,700,000 and segment profit as a percentage of sales was consistent with last year at 22.1%. We added to our sales force this quarter and we hired additional engineers in R and D, which slowed our segment profit growth in the region for the quarter. These are the types of investments Brady will continue to make to ensure our long term organic sales growth. Turning to Slide 14, you'll find the performance of our Europe and Australia region.

Speaker 2

Sales were 118.6 $1,000,000 this quarter. Organic sales growth was 4.4% and foreign currency decreased sales by 0.6% for total growth of 3.8%. Sales growth was strongest in our core identification and safety solution products where we continue to identify new opportunities to solve problems for our customers, which is resulting in sales growth well in excess of GDP. At 4.7%, our organic growth in Europe was well above their GDP and organic growth in Australia was 2.6 percent in the quarter. Strong organic sales growth in Europe resulted in a significant improvement in segment profit in the quarter from $17,100,000 to $19,500,000 an increase of 14.3%.

Speaker 2

As a percentage of sales, segment profit increased 150 basis points from 15% to 16.5%. We continue to identify opportunities for efficiencies following our regional reorganization that we put into place last year. And we've been able to offset increased cost pressures through manufacturing efficiencies and targeted price increases. Our Europe and Australia business continue to deliver excellent results. Turning to products, we recently launched 3 exciting new products that I'm particularly proud of.

Speaker 2

The V-four thousand five hundred barcode scanner, the J7300 industrial inkjet color label printer and the tough stripe max floor marking case. The V4500 is a wireless programmable barcode scanner with rugged exterior making it ideal for industrial applications. It's Bluetooth enabled, includes our proprietary Cortex Decoder technology, which allows it to easily interpret extremely small barcodes and other hard to read surfaces. Its dynamic user interface allows the user to move from setup to first scan in seconds and includes a data parsing feature that can sort and arrange data and connect to cloud and the user's ERP system. Its high speed allows for scanning from any angle and we're looking forward to bringing this scanner to market and so far the response from our customers has been incredibly positive.

Speaker 2

The J7300 industrial inkjet color printer is the culmination of several years of printer ink and material development. It's a fast industrial grade color printer for variable print jobs with a wide range of applications that offers many features previously unavailable at this price point. The printer is ideal for industrial labeling that changes frequency from regulatory signage and lean visuals to barcoding to lab identification and GHS labeling. It prints smear free inks on label materials that resist water, chemicals and abrasions for up to 2 year outdoor durability and even longer periods indoors. The J7300 is Wi Fi enabled and includes a dashboard that allows our users to plan, budget and troubleshoot with status alerts, job cost calculator, remote monitoring and much more.

Speaker 2

It includes the Brady Workstation Safety and Facility ID Suite, which helps create signs, markers, labels and tags in graphics and color palettes that also connect to third party software and print PDFs. The setup takes only seconds because our LabelSense technology instantly recognized and sets up label rolls in inks while eliminating waste by printing on the very first label. Brady is committed to innovating products that reduce our users' environmental impact. For example, ToughStripe Max is our new offering with our top selling product line of specialized floor marking tape. This version of ToughStripe is 50% thinner and its adhesive is applied to edge to edge making it last even longer in heavy forklift and industrial vehicle traffic.

Speaker 2

It's simple to apply and an excellent solution for our customers because it allows them to quickly and easily comply with safety requirements and prevents operations hazards in their operations. I'm really proud of these new products and I'm looking forward to the pipeline of more innovative new products that will be launched this year. With that, we'd like to start the Q and A. Operator, would you please provide instructions to our listeners?

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct a question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Kashin Killer of Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Speaker 3

Yes. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, Russell and Ann. So I guess first off, you're expecting low single digit growth for 4Q, but maybe as we look another quarter or 2 beyond that end of fiscal 2025, are you able to give us, I guess, any qualitative view on what you might be expecting in terms of organic growth? And perhaps what your customers are telling you about demand beyond this quarter?

Speaker 2

Yes. This is Russell. Obviously, I wish I had a perfect crystal ball. I think a lot of industrial indicators are pointing to a favorable second half of the calendar, which would be the beginning of our fiscal year. I do think that some of the expectations for recovery have been premature.

Speaker 2

Depending on who you read, it was supposed to happen in the first half of this calendar year and yet it seems like a lot of things have pushed out. So I guess the long and short of it is, we along with I think a lot of our industrial peers are looking forward to a more robust second half of the year, but I still think there's a lot of uncertainties that maybe temper that optimism.

Speaker 3

Okay. Understood. That makes sense. And I guess just relatedly, what trends are you seeing in industrial automation at this point, I guess as it relates to industrial track and trace? And then secondly, I think healthcare has been a continual drag on an organic basis over the past couple of quarters.

Speaker 3

But just wondering if you can give us a quick update on that business as well. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes. So I'll give you the short term and the long term on the industrial track and trace and automation. So the short term, we're definitely seeing some hesitancy in investment, I think partially due to interest rate environments and general economic concerns. In the long run, though, we feel very optimistic because if you look at machine learning or AI or whatever you want to talk about, it all is reliant on being able to identify individual parts in your manufacturing operation as they work through the process all the way through to being delivered to the customer, in some cases even post customer sale to provide service and support. So the long run, I think is a fantastic market.

Speaker 2

I do think there's some choppiness that is occurring right now due to overall economic conditions in Europe and to a lesser extent in the U. S. Regarding the Healthcare segment, hospital admissions have really been stagnant to down for the last several years and we participate mostly in the hospital admission process. We have less of a footprint in what I'll call the urgent care. So, I think our sales have been reflecting of that.

Speaker 2

And frankly, it is and has been a bit of a drag on the otherwise stellar growth for some of our industrial products. We don't foresee that trend changing dramatically, although we are launching some new products in the healthcare space in the next couple of quarters that we think will help us take a larger wallet share in what is a pretty stagnant market.

Speaker 3

Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Farazani of Sidoti. Your line is now open.

Speaker 4

Good morning, Russell and thanks so much for the detail on the call. Russell, just I wanted to ask first on the 3 new products you detailed. Were any of those available in the previous quarters of those products coming?

Speaker 2

No. They're basically in pilot launch right now. So they really will start to see sales in Q4 and into next year. The one thing while I am super excited about all three of those products and some of the products that are coming, Remember, we're comprised of literally hundreds of different products. We don't have the equivalent of an iPhone launch.

Speaker 2

So those sales will feather into our overall organic growth rate, but you won't see a pop due to those launches.

Speaker 4

Yes. Then so the question is given the macro concerns in Europe, the positive surprise to me was almost 5% organic growth. Because I think about you as sort of GDP plus that's certainly much stronger. Can you help us out on how you got there, price versus volume or what how you're outpacing the market in Europe?

Speaker 2

So, I would say we have just simply a fantastic team that is finding new ways to increase wallet share, in Europe. The you're right, the GDP collective GDP of the EU region is probably less than 1%, although subject to revision. And we do sell to virtually all industrial companies worldwide or at least in the EU and in the Americas. But not every company buys everything we can do. And I think the European team has been particularly successful in expanding wallet share at a number of our customers and that's why you're seeing better organic growth because it is not coming via pricing.

Speaker 2

It is principally due to increased product consumption.

Speaker 4

And then I was surprised with even further gross margin expansion. Is that mix, is that with healthcare not growing as fast? Is that straight mix? How much of that is new products? And how sustainable is the margin you reported this quarter?

Speaker 2

Yes. We feel the gross margin was very favorable. I think we're living in a great period right now for Brady where some of the part variance costs that we had had previously and the premiums that we had paid on shipping and transportation have all gone away. And so you're seeing a much cleaner gross margin. There's a little bit of one time gains in that gross margin.

Speaker 2

I think 51% and change is probably close to a high watermark of our gross margin. So I wouldn't necessarily bank that in, in the future. But we're although we don't manage to gross margin directionally in the 50% range is certainly a comfortable place for our portfolio.

Speaker 4

Great. And then just on SG and A, you've done such a great job over the last couple of years bringing that down as a percentage of sales. Even though you grew to this quarter, it's kind of flattening out. Do you still think there's room or you're at a comfortable level when you think about SG and A as a percentage of sales?

Speaker 2

I think there's a couple of competing factors there that are both helping to improve SG and A as in lowering SG and A and some other factors that are increasing it. So I'll kind of give you the puts and takes. Being able to deploy our salespeople more efficiently and effectively and using tools to better route their sales calls and to target customers and accounts. That goes towards the plus column of driving down SG and A costs. On the flip side of that, paid advertising, particularly doing search and what have you, continues to be an increasing expense.

Speaker 2

The 2 right now are kind of balancing each other. I think the future wildcard will be how search is and paid search is potentially upended with some of the new tools coming out there as well as the internal tools we're using to better optimize where we're placing our investments in terms of paid search catalogs and field salespeople. So I know that's kind of a long winded answer without giving you a lot of direction. Right now, we feel comfortable with the SG and A, but of course, we are always looking for ways to further drive down that cost and improve our efficiency.

Speaker 4

Okay. That's helpful. Last one for me. Just you didn't talk much about Gravitech. Are you waiting for that to close to provide more detail or anything you want to say about that?

Speaker 4

Yes.

Speaker 5

So I

Speaker 2

can give you it's still in the regulatory approval process. So I don't want to delve too much into that till we get ready to close. But I think it is reasonable to talk about the thesis of Gravitech and why we are looking at that as a business. So half or more of our products are related to identification and identification solutions. So whether it's part marking or it's machine readable barcodes or what have you, The one part of the ecosystem that we don't have is direct part marking.

Speaker 2

So we do labels and we do materials, but there is a percentage of products that are direct part marked, either laser or via mechanical marking and that's not been part of our portfolio previously. We see the potential with Gravitech to provide a more complete solution to our customers where we can provide both the labels for customers that want that, but also part marking and machine readable barcodes directly on parts for another segment of the customer base that wants those. And again, it's very much geared towards a manufacturing professional use. There's a part of lasers that are consumer based. That's not really our target market.

Operator

Okay. Thanks, Russell. Thanks, Aaron. Thank you. One moment for our next question.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Keith Housum of Northcoast Research. Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Good morning, Russell. Good morning, Ann. And congratulations on the quarter. You definitely beat our expectations and outperformed your peers. Russell, as we're looking at you guys rolling out your Rugged Truck and Trace products, I think the scanner is probably the first one coming out here.

Speaker 5

Does your go to market strategy change at all as you're approaching what I think is relatively new market when it comes to these type of devices?

Speaker 2

Yes, I would say partially. So there are a significant number of our customers that work with us directly and will continue to do so. And that's also true of some of our distributors that are involved in this space. The one thing that is additive to our channel to market is we're working more through value added resellers. In the course, throughout the world, there's a network of VARs.

Speaker 2

Now when we purchased Code and Nordic ID years ago, that is a very comfortable space to them. They are, although in slightly different markets, they've been working with VARs for many years. Brady traditionally had not been doing that much. So what you're looking at is kind of twofold. We're taking some of the VAR network that Code had established in the U.

Speaker 2

S. And Nordic has in Europe and we're just expanding our portfolio to them. At the same time, we are working with a number of other segments that we have used in the past, but to a much less extent because we didn't have that full portfolio of products. And then to expand further, part of the thesis of Gravotech is to add lasers and direct marking to that overall capability to help us further work with some of the VAR integrators in a manufacturing environment.

Speaker 5

Great. Appreciate that. In terms of your share repurchases, is there any restriction on your share repurchases going forward based on where you have cash? I guess maybe ask question in another way, will you be paying for the back GraviTek out of your European funds or all the U. S.

Speaker 5

Funds?

Speaker 1

Yes. Good question, Keith. No restriction on our ongoing share repurchases from the standpoint of where our cash is located. We have $37,000,000 remaining on our current authorization and we'll continue to be opportunistic as the opportunities present themselves in the future.

Speaker 5

Great. Thank you. And then Russ, I think I heard you say that as you guys ended the quarter, you ended the quarter with some momentum. So it sounds like your activity actually picked up throughout the quarter as turning into the Q4. Is that fair?

Speaker 2

Yes. Let's hope it continues into the Q4. But yes, it definitely we definitely saw a better last month of the quarter than the first two. The first two months were very much a continuation of what we had seen in the first half of our fiscal year, but this last month really was an acceleration of product adoption. And we hope to see that come through in the Q4, but we'll just see how that turns out.

Speaker 2

And it

Speaker 5

may have partially answered my next question, the final question, but what surprised you in

Speaker 2

the quarter? Was it the fact that

Speaker 5

you accelerated so quickly in the last month?

Speaker 2

I'm sorry, I didn't?

Speaker 5

Yes. I guess what surprised you was your results

Speaker 2

for the quarter? I thought you said price. It was very broad based. It wasn't a particular customer or a particular end market. It was generally very broadly based.

Speaker 2

I do think that it's we're kind of in a very fascinating time of a lot of money sitting on the sidelines and some uncertainty about level of investments. Apparently in April, a number of our capital expenditures and how companies capital expenditures and how companies look at their investment thesis going out. We've got our stable MRO products that continue to be very stable. And then you have some that are more sensitive to overall economic conditions. And it just it hit well for us in April.

Speaker 5

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd now like to turn it back to Russell Soller, President and CEO, for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Great. Thanks, everyone, for your time and participation today. Our results were very good this quarter with 4.5 percent organic sales growth and record high earnings per share. Our gross profit margins have improved to more than 50%, which demonstrates the value we are bringing to customers with our innovative products and solutions. We're investing in research and development and our pipeline is filled with new and innovative products yet to come.

Speaker 2

Our financial position is excellent. Our balance sheet provides us with the ability to continue to invest in organic businesses through the addition of sales resources and talented engineers. We're proud of our increased annual dividend for 38 straight years and we can buy back shares and transact strategic M and A when the opportunities are available. Our high quality earnings are the result in significant cash generation, which allows us to fund all of our capital allocation priorities simultaneously in order to generate shareholder return over the long term. We're focused on our consistent priorities, which are to continue to launch innovative new products that provide unique and effective solutions for our customers to continue to invest in sales generating resources and increase organic sales, to execute operational efficiencies and continue to increase profitability, and to effectively deploy our capital to drive long term shareholder value through organic investments, acquisitions and returning funds to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

Speaker 2

The macroeconomic environment can present uncertainties at times, but we'll continue to control what we can control so that we deliver consistent long term value for our shareholders. Thank you for your time this morning and for your interest in Brady. Operator, you may disconnect the call.

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.

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