Live Ventures Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 7, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: All four operating segments delivered improved third-quarter performance, each achieving higher operating income and margins year-over-year despite headwinds in the home construction and refurbishment markets.
  • Negative Sentiment: Total revenue decreased 9.2% to $112.5 million, primarily driven by declines in the retail flooring and steel manufacturing segments, partially offset by a 15.2% increase in retail entertainment revenue.
  • Positive Sentiment: Gross profit increased 3.4% to $38.3 million and gross margin expanded by 410 bps to 34%, boosted by operational efficiencies and the higher-margin Central Steel acquisition.
  • Positive Sentiment: Net income rose to $5.4 million (EPS $1.24) from a $2.9 million loss and adjusted EBITDA increased by $7.1 million to $13.2 million, reflecting effective cost-reduction initiatives.
  • Positive Sentiment: Strong liquidity with $37.1 million in available cash and credit lines, alongside a share repurchase program that bought back 12,695 shares at an average of $8.83 per share.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Live Ventures Q3 2025
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Live Ventures Fiscal Year Q3 twenty twenty five Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question and answer session. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Greg Powell, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Greg.

Greg Powell
Greg Powell
Director - IR at Live Ventures

Thank you, Elvis. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Live Ventures third quarter fiscal year twenty twenty five conference call. Joining us this afternoon are John Isaac, our Chief Executive Officer and President and David Barrett, our Chief Financial Officer. Some of the statements we are making today are forward looking and are based on our best view of our businesses as we see them today. The actual results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including those outlined in our latest forms, Form 10 k and Form 10 Q as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Greg Powell
Greg Powell
Director - IR at Live Ventures

We have no obligation to publicly update any forward looking statements after this call, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, or otherwise. You can find a copy of our press release that was referenced on today's call in the Investor Relations section of the Live Ventures website. I direct you to our website liveventures.com or sec.gov for historical SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to David to walk through our financial performance.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Thank you, Greg.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Good afternoon, everyone. Before discussing our financial results, I'd like to touch on a few key highlights from the quarter. We are pleased to report that all four of our operating segments delivered improved performance in the third quarter, with each achieving higher operating income and operating margin compared to the prior year period. These results were delivered despite continued softness in the new home construction and home refurbishment markets, which remain a headwind for our retail flooring and flooring manufacturing segments. As noted last quarter, in response to the challenges in our retail flooring segment, we appointed a new executive leadership team.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

The new team is actively implementing operational cost saving initiatives focused on top line growth and improving efficiency. During the quarter, our targeted cost saving initiatives are having a significant impact and generating considerable savings in the retail flooring segment. In addition, our other segments are also benefiting from the cost saving measures implemented during the quarter. Now let's discuss the financial results for the third quarter ended 06/30/2025. Total revenue for the quarter decreased $11,200,000 or 9.2% to approximately $112,500,000 The decrease was primarily attributable to the retail flooring and steel manufacturing segment, which collectively decreased by approximately $12,000,000 The retail entertainment segment revenue increased $2,500,000 or 15.2% to approximately $19,000,000 as compared to the prior year period.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

The increase in segment revenue is primarily due to increased consumer demand for new products, which typically have higher selling prices. Retail flooring segment revenue decreased 6,600,000.0 or 17.9% to approximately 30,400,000.0 as compared to the prior year period. The decrease is primarily attributable to the disposition of certain Johnson Floor and Home, Harpet One stores in May 2024 and reduced consumer demand due to the weakness in the housing market. Flooring manufacturing segment revenue decreased 1,800,000.0 or 5.7% to approximately 31,300,000.0 as compared to the prior year period. The decrease is primarily due to reduced consumer demand as a result of the ongoing weakness in the housing market.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Steel manufacturing segment revenue decreased 5,400,000.0 or 13.8% to approximately 33,600,000.0 as compared to the prior year period. The decrease was primarily driven by lower sales volumes of certain business units, partially offset by incremental revenue of 5,000,000 at Central Steel, which was acquired in May 2024. Gross profit for the quarter increased 1,200,000.0 or 3.4% to 38,300,000.0. Gross margin increased by 410 basis points to 34% from 29.9% in the prior year period. The increase was primarily driven by higher margins in our steel manufacturing and flooring manufacturing segments.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

The increase in gross margin in the steel manufacturing segment is primarily due to improved efficiencies and the May 2024 acquisition of Central Steel, which has historically generated higher margins. The increase in gross margin in the flooring manufacturing segment is primarily due to improved efficiencies and more favorable product mix. General and administrative expense decreased approximately $3,800,000 or 12.6% to $26,300,000 The decrease was primarily due to lower compensation and other operating expenses resulting from targeted cost reduction initiatives in the retail flooring and flooring manufacturing segments. Sales and marketing expense decreased approximately $1,800,000 or 31.5% to 4,000,000 The decrease was primarily due to lower compensation and marketing expenses resulting from targeted cost reduction initiatives in the retail flooring and flooring manufacturing segments. Interest expense decreased 9% to 3,900,000.0.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

The decrease was due to lower average debt balances as compared to the prior year period. Net income was approximately 5,400,000.0 for the quarter and diluted EPS was $1.24 compared with a net loss of approximately 2,900,000.0 and a loss per share of 91¢ in the prior year period. Net income for the third quarter includes a $1,500,000 gain on employee retention credit and a $1,300,000 gain on the settlement of a holdback liability related to the Precision Marshall acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was approximately 13,200,000.0, an increase of approximately $7,100,000 compared to the prior year period. The increase in adjusted EBITDA is primarily due to the improved operating performance during the 2025, reflecting the targeted cost reduction initiatives in the retail flooring and other segments.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Turning to liquidity. We ended the quarter with total cash availability of 37,100,000.0, consisting of cash on hand of 7,600,000.0 and availability under various lines of credit totaling 29,500,000. Our working capital was approximately 65,900,000.0 as compare as of 06/30/2025 compared to 52,300,000.0 as of 09/30/2024. At the end of the quarter, total assets were 387,500,000.0 and total stockholders' equity was 94,300,000.0. As part of our capital allocation strategy, we may make share repurchase from time to time.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

We believe our stock repurchases represent long term value for our stockholders. During the quarter, we repurchased 12,695 shares of the company's common stock at an average price of $8.83 per share. In conclusion, we are pleased that all four of our operating segments delivered improved performance in the 2025 with each reporting higher operating income and operating margin compared to the prior year period. Our third quarter results reflect the impact of our strategic pricing actions and continued focus on operational excellence. These outcomes underscore the success of our disciplined cost management and efficiency initiatives across our diversified portfolio.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

We believe these results affirm our ability to enhance profitability and generate strong cash flow even in challenging market environments. We will now take questions from those of you on the call. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

And our first question comes from Joseph Kowalski. Please go ahead.

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

Gentlemen, very nice. I like what I read and what I heard. Sounds generally very good.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

I appreciate it. Thank you. I'm very excited.

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

Couple questions, and I'll throw them all out there, and then you can do with them if you wish. Generally, my understanding is that your goal was to acquire companies and leave the management to those companies while you take care of, you know, the headaches and whatever overhead there is. In this particular case where you've I think it was you said with flooring where you've taken a more active role, is that indicative of something that you intend to do in general with your companies? Is that particular to that area?

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

That's my first question. I'll I'll wait for the answer. Yeah. And I'll give you the other question afterwards because they're all related.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Yeah.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

I would say our strategy remains the same. Our intention is always keep the management teams in place as long as we're delivering the operating performance that that we expect. And if we're you know, if if we see that there's a gap, we will we'll step in and make sure that we put the right people, the right resources in order to generate the, you know, return for our shareholders.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

And so, we we we prefer not to intervene, but we will when we have to. And and in this case here, if you look at our historical financials, we have to intervene and and make changes.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

So this is what you see today, and we're very pleased now with the changes.

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

What's your next And I appreciate that. And and I think that that's a a great way to act. I was just curious to know if it if it indicated a change, which you're telling me, it it it does. So that that I I appreciate very much all of that.

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

Okay. Do you have these couple questions all kind of are related? When you're looking now for companies to acquire, are you looking largely in the same general areas that you have companies already? Or are you looking to expand the footprint into different areas and build? That is, do you think you have a solid core of of, you know, the companies you have within those areas and it's time to look outside of that?

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

Or do you think it's better to look for more to fill out those core areas? Or or are you doing both? The second question is, do you have a committee that looks for these things, or is it just one or two individuals? And then the the third question is, do you wait to have a certain amount of cash on hand to determine whether it's time to to buy another company? And then finally, what do you think about marijuana space?

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

I know it's kind of oversaturated and there's questions of government regulations, but I was just curious to know if that's something that's on your radar screen.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

I'll set off John, or do you want to The go short answer, Joseph, is we will look at anything and everything. Obviously, if it's something that could be perceived as a bolt on acquisition, and we feel that we have a management team that knows the space very well, then we will likely focus on that more. But we will look at paying and and everything, and the team is the the c c team. We look at all acquisitions together, and we discuss them as they mature.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

And regarding the marijuana space, as you know, we don't have anything marijuana space. I think it's federally it's not legal yet. So there are many other opportunities there. Many other opportunities out there for us, you know, that low hanging fruit and other potential acquisitions. We don't have to go that far yet.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

So so, yeah, we'll we'll look at anything and everything though, mister Spencer.

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

So will there come a point, do you think, where you have enough in a particular business area and you say, you know what? We're we're full on this.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

We're good. And we'll just we'll look elsewhere, or do you think it'll just be whatever you think, you know, bit at that moment, and you don't know if there'll ever be a time where you'll have enough in a particular sphere or a particular area.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

We look at opportunities as they arise, you know, and what our opportunity costs are and what our, you know, what we're looking at at the moment. If we find, you know, that something delivers a return of x, you know, what you know, vis a vis another acquisition that will give us a return of two x, then we will look at both and evaluate what's, you know, best for shareholders, what delivers the most return would be lowest amount of risk. I mean, everything this is what we this is what we do at the at the at live level is evaluate and allocate capital as a And then and the last question was, do you do you wait for a particular amount of cash on hand before you start thinking about doing something else?

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

Or is it just if you find something, you'll you'll, you know, borrow as needed to do it and and the cash on hand is not as relevant?

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

We're always looking at deals and looking at opportunities.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

As you know, we'll be able to take take in the end market is, you know, it's it's a slow process. So we're we're always looking at opportunities. We're not looking at, you know, we need to have, you know, x dollar in the in the in the bank to be able to make an we're always looking at deals, and we always have come up with creative ways to finance those, whether it be bank financing, seller financing, any other type of financing. So Thank you.

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

Thank you very much.

Joseph Kowalski
Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C

Basically, keeping everything open, which is, I guess, the best way to be. And I really appreciate you taking the time to address my question. Thank you for your support.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Thank you. You.

Operator

Our next question comes from Todd St. Mary.

Analyst

Hello, Todd. Gentlemen, I I wasn't gonna comment on this, but listening to the last set of questions, I I feel compelled to do so. I'm actually a retired executive from a company called US Filter, and we grew by acquisition in the nineteen nineties.

Analyst

We actually did a 150 deals in two years. So I know something about this, And I would have two suggestions. The first one is, I I would recommend you continue to focus on running your business and improving it the way you have this last quarter. Because I think if you do that, there's a good chance that you can get your earnings on a consistent basis to $2 or $3 or maybe even more per share that would drive your share price up to 30 or 40 or $50 again. And then what you can do from there is use your stock as currency for deals.

Analyst

So that's a far more efficient way to grow by acquisition than cash or debt in general. If you can run get your share price up. And that was kind of the magic of what we did back in the nineties. So I'm just throwing that out there. I did have a series of questions on the quarter.

Analyst

And the first question I have is in regard to, the the improvements you made with margins and with your cost cutting. Do you see any additional improvements coming? Or or do you have you done everything that you've targeted?

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

No. We're we're not done yet.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

And still, I think when we look at the retail flooring segment, we feel like there's still more work to do. We're doing, you know, much better than what we were a year ago, but but I think we we still have room for improvement. And there are still initiatives like lease negotiations and things like that that we're working on in that segment that are yet to yield the you know, haven't closed the numbers yet. So there there's still more to come, and and we're continuing to focus, you know. And and so right now, just even in the retail flooring segment, there's there's still room to go.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

And but but it's just a continuous process. We're always looking. And especially during the times when the the market is down, I guess, it, you know, makes us stronger coming out of that out of the soft market.

Analyst

So Oh, okay. So as I'm thinking about this going forward then, I can reasonably expect that the margin improvement we saw this quarter and the cost savings and SG and A will continue or even improve over time.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

We will always be evaluating these things, Todd, whether we're in a good market or in a bad market, you know, in a in a good economy, bad economy. This is the the the the jobs of the CEOs of our subsidiaries. We're always evaluating for more and more efficiencies. But, yes, some of our operating subsidiaries have more opportunities than others others within our portfolio. And so what David said was correct.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

We believe there's more room for improvement and our heads of our subs are working very hard on those and extracting those for our shareholders.

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. My next question is, are any of your business segments seeing material impacts from tariffs, either good or bad?

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

The answer I guess the short answer is no.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

There's been a little bit, but it's all been very minor, not even really noticeable. We have been taking a lot of actions because, you know, you never know what's gonna happen if the the the space is pretty volatile. So we have been diversifying our vendors in different countries as well as in The US, making sure we have those relationships so that way we can act if it were to become an issue. The other thing I I would just say is I think we are as as well positioned as any of our peers, such that if it ultimately had to turn out that we need to increase pricing, it would be more of a market thing, not a live thing.

Analyst

Do you think you might have an opportunity in the steel manufacturing business because of the steel tariffs or could actually be a plus for you?

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

It is in the steel because if those prices go up, you know, some of our subsidiaries carry a decent amount of steel on hand. So as those prices go up, we're sitting on inventory that's at a lower cost, which could provide for better margins and more profitability if the space goes that way.

Analyst

Okay. Thank you for that. My next question is on revenue.

Analyst

Obviously, revenue has been pressured here for the reasons you you stated. I'm wondering if you could give us a feel on what you see going on in the next three to six months to twelve months. Have we bottomed out, or is it gonna get worse?

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

You know, we we typically don't provide speculation on kind of our, you know, these types of things, but I think what I'll say is is what I think we all see. I think it's been pretty volatile.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

There's there's reasons why we get some hope and optimism. I mean, some of those would be, you know, a lot of our subsidiaries are impacted by the interest rates, specifically in the housing market. That's the interest rate prices have just slowed down the housing market quite a bit. That that stifles renovations and things like that for new flooring, which impacts our flooring manufacturer and our retailer. Also, in our steel industry, some of our providers make parts that use as raw materials in the manufacturing of other items like appliances and automobiles.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

So interest those are things that are typically financed. So that's another thing that the consumers look at. And with them being a big ticket item, not only is it just interest rates, but it's also, I think, the, you know, the disposable income of the consumers. So I think there's reason for optimism and that I it seems like now the general census that I'm hearing is that it sounds like rates may be going down here in September. But at the flip side of that, also, looks like the jobs and and market is a little bit more softer.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

So how all that's gonna play out, we'll see. But I think we've positioned ourselves as well as any of our peers.

Analyst

Okay.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

Just a bit of unknown fact there's a lot of unknown factors, interest rates that they would mention, like, you know, wars, what's happening in the world. But as you as you as you saw, I mean, we we've been hyper focused on the bottom line in our, you know, earnings.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

This quarter, as you can see from our numbers, revenues were down, but adjusted EBITDA doubled. So, you know, we've we've been focused on efficiencies, and we'll continue to focus on it. And we will see what happens with revenue, what happens with the economy, what happens with the fiscal policies of the itself.

Analyst

Well, you did it. You've done a great job this quarter with the improvement.

Analyst

There's there's no question. I was really excited when I saw the report. So I I compliment you guys on that. And I I honestly feel being get any kind of revenue growth, your bottom line is gonna surge. I mean, it'll be great.

Jon Isaac
Jon Isaac
President , CEO & Director at Live Ventures

Exactly.

Analyst

This this might be a stupid question because I I'm not an expert at all in your business. But is there any opportunity for your flooring businesses to take advantage of what is happening with the manufacturing build out in this country to actually do it like an office building and things like that?

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

You know, I'm not sure I follow.

Analyst

Well well, I mean, your your flooring businesses are concentrated, if I understand it correctly, in the residential markets.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

We have residential and commercial. Oh, okay. Also yeah.

Analyst

We do car an opportunity on the commercial side? I mean, I'm assuming with all this money coming in to to increase manufacturing in The US that there's gotta be a great opportunity there for flooring.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Yeah. We we haven't seen any of that trickle through yet. I mean, I think there's a couple of areas. Right? I mean, another one of the areas that I was thinking about was Central Steel does all the racking and stuff like that for data centers.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

And with the AI that's out there, they're actually doing pretty well, and that was the acquisitions that we had last year. So I I think there's gonna be different opportunities that come up just with the, you know, the the different things that we're seeing in the market such as what you're talking about, more manufacturing here. So we'll take advantage of them as we can. But, yes, our we we we do some some commercial as well as residential.

Analyst

One more thought just off the top of my head.

Analyst

And, I wasn't planning on talking about this at all. But when the acquisition conversation came up, it probably triggered for me. May you might wanna think about maybe trying to target a company that has access to the markets that you wanna get into. Maybe not a great manufacturer per se, you know, but somebody that has access to those markets that you can buy basically is almost like a a sales arm for your manufacturing.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Right. Right.

Analyst

You you know, that might be a really good acquisition for you guys.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Yep.

Analyst

I guess that's it. Did you cover oh, I did have one more.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Yep.

Analyst

Have you ever talked about if the business gets to and I know this is probably a year or two out, but you guys are doing share buybacks right now, small ones. But if you get to where the business is consistently generating earnings of two or three or four dollars or more, would you ever consider doing a dividend?

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

I don't I don't know that we've kind of gotten far enough along to to consider that. I think at this point, one of the things that we're focused on is is paying down our debt and and and driving shareholder value by decreasing our debt.

Analyst

Okay.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

But but, I mean, I think that's another avenue. You know, once we start seeing some of these this improved consistent, improved performance, then then those those are things we'll have to be thinking about.

Analyst

Well, if I if just the the last comment, and I I I will just repeat it. But I think it's important.

Analyst

If if you you have more acquisition targets and that's the direction you wanna go, I strongly encourage you to keep doing what you're doing and and take the actions needed to focus on your business now, drive that share price up, and really consider using your shares as currency. I think it it could be great for you. Plus, it add a lot of liquidity to the stock.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

I agree. We just gotta get that stock price higher.

Analyst

Right, guys. Well, I appreciate your patience with me.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Thank you, Tony. Thank you for your questions. Thank you.

Operator

We have no further questions at this time. That concludes our meeting today. You may now disconnect.

David Verret
David Verret
CFO at Live Ventures

Thank you.

The host has ended this call. Goodbye.

Executives
    • Greg Powell
      Greg Powell
      Director - IR
    • David Verret
      David Verret
      CFO
    • Jon Isaac
      Jon Isaac
      President , CEO & Director
Analysts
    • Joseph Kowalski
      Analyst at JD Investment Management, L.L.C
    • Analyst
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