Geospace Technologies Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 11, 2023

Key Takeaways

  • Record Q3 Revenue and Profit: Geospace reported $32.7 M in Q3 revenue, the highest in nine years, and a net income of $0.24 per share, extending positive EPS for the second consecutive quarter and delivering $95.2 M revenue over nine months with $0.59 per share.
  • Oil & Gas Segment Growth: Revenue jumped 86% year-over-year to $17.7 M, driven by near-full utilization of the OBX ocean bottom node rental fleet and a newly secured $20 M one-year Mariner nodal system contract.
  • Adjacent Markets Expansion: Segment Q3 revenue hit a record $14.9 M, up 56% in industrial products led by smart water-meter cables/connectors and industrial sensors, alongside the launch of Aquana’s AVS remote shutoff valve for pilot municipal programs.
  • Emerging Markets Initiatives: Although Q3 revenue was modest, the segment continues to deliver on DARPA and government contracts while exploring new energy-transition applications in carbon storage, geothermal, and mining.
  • Strong Liquidity Position: The company closed the quarter with $27.3 M in cash, added a $15 M credit facility to boost liquidity to ~$42 M, and has $6.2 M in nine-month rental fleet investments and unleveraged global real estate.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Geospace Technologies Q3 2023
00:00 / 00:00

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Geospace Technologies Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Hosting the call today from Geospace is Mr. Rick Wheeler, President and Chief Executive Officer. He is joined by Robert Kurda, the company's Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available the Geospace Technologies Investor Relations website following the call.

Operator

At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen only mode And the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. We ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Rick Wheeler. Sir, you may begin.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Todd. Good morning, and again, welcome to Geospace Technologies conference call for the Q3 of fiscal year 2023. I'm Rick Wheeler, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, and I'm joined by Robert Curta, the company's Chief Financial Officer. In our prepared remarks, I'll first provide an overview of the Q3. Then Robert will provide more in-depth commentary on our financial performance.

Speaker 1

After final comments, we'll open the line for questions. Some of today's commentary on markets, revenue recognition, planned These statements are based on our present awareness, but actual outcomes are affected by uncertainties we cannot control or predict. Both known and unknown risks can lead to results that differ from what is said or implied today. Some of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our SEC Form 10 ks and 10 Q filings. For convenience, we will link a recording of this call on the Investor Relations page of our geospace.com which I hope everyone will visit and browse to learn a little bit more about geospace and our products.

Speaker 1

Note that the information recorded today is The Q3 of fiscal year 2023 spanning April 1 through June 30, 2023. It was very rewarding to see our Q3 performance Further extend profitability for fiscal year 2023 by an additional $0.24 per share. In fact, total quarterly revenue of $32,700,000 represents the highest figure recorded in 9 years. These results serve as strong evidence of the intended positive impact Our long standing diversification efforts and recent cost control measures were designed to achieve. Increased demand for our oil and gas segment products, Combined with continued growth in our adjacent market segment fueled both our Q3 9 month results.

Speaker 1

In the oil and gas segment, Our rental fleet of OBX ocean bottom nodes is at near full utilization, reliably collecting high resolution seismic data for a variety of clients around the globe. This growing demand and our innovations in this product domain We're the impetus that led to the recently announced $20,000,000 contract for the rental of our new shallow water Mariner nodal system. In today's market environment, we expect demand for our oil and gas segment products to remain strong well into fiscal year 2024 with an occasional up and down typical of the of the industry. On another high note, our Adjacent Markets segment had a great quarter, setting yet another record with the highest Quarterly revenue figure ever reported. In the 1st 9 months of fiscal year 2023, revenue from this segment was just Short of last year's entire full total and beat all other prior fiscal year totals, both the 3 month 9 month periods in the June 30, 2023 grew by almost 36% compared to this time last year.

Speaker 1

The increase is driven largely by water meter cables and industrial sensor products. Also during the quarter, our Aquana subsidiary announced the release of its actuator valve serial, AVS, a remote shutoff valve designed to reduce the cost of operations and enhance the safety of employees for water utilities. With the continued adoption and updates of smart water meter systems by domestic municipalities, we believe the long term increase in demand for these adjacent market products Our Emerging Markets segment contributed small but strategic portion of revenue during the 3 9 month periods, primarily related to previously announced government and defense industry contracts. Further efforts are underway to secure additional contracts for perimeter As well as the pursuit of new energy transition applications such as carbon storage, geothermal and mining, There may be more clarity on some of these endeavors in the near future. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Robert to give a little more financial detail on our Q3 performance.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Rick. Good morning. Before I begin, I'd like to remind everyone that we will not provide any specific revenue Our earnings guidance during our call this morning. In yesterday's press release for our Q3 ended June 30, 2023, we reported revenue of $32,700,000 compared to last year's revenue of $20,700,000 The net income for the quarter was For the 9 months ended June 30, 2023, we reported revenue of $95,200,000 compared to revenue of $63,400,000 last year. Our net income for the 9 month period was $7,800,000 or $0.59 per diluted share compared to last year's net loss of $14,800,000 or $1.14 per diluted share.

Speaker 2

Our Oil and Gas Markets segment produced revenue of $17,700,000 for the 3 months ended June 30, 2023. This compares with revenue of $9,500,000 for the same period of the prior fiscal year, an increase of 86%. For the 9 month period, the segment contributed revenue of $56,200,000 versus $34,300,000 for the same period last year, an increase of 64%. The increase in revenue for the 3 month 9 month periods are due to higher utilization of our OBX rental fleet and higher demand for our marine equipment and seismic sensors. The 9 month period increase in revenue is partially offset by a decrease in demand for our wireless exploration products.

Speaker 2

Our Adjacent Markets segment revenue is as follows. Our Industrial product revenue for the Q3 of fiscal year 2023 It was $11,700,000 an increase of 56% over the Q3 of 2022. The Industrial Products 9 month revenue is $29,300,000 an increase over the same period in 2022 and 58%. Both periods revenue increases are due to higher sales of our water meter cable and connector products and higher demand for our industrial sensor products. Imaging product revenue for the Q3 was $3,200,000 compared to last year's revenue of 3,500,000 The 9 month revenue for Imaging Products is $9,100,000 versus $9,800,000 when compared to the same period in 2022.

Speaker 2

Finally, revenue for our emerging markets segment for the Q3 was $109,000 compared to $135,000 for the same prior year period. The 9 month revenue for this segment for the fiscal year was $393,000 compared to $571,000 for the same period in 20 Our Emerging Markets segment continues to perform on contracts with DARPA, which was announced earlier this fiscal year and at other governmental Agencies or contractors. Excluding non cash decreases to the fair value of contingent earnout liabilities According to fiscal year 2022, our operating expenses modestly increased by $300,000 for the Q3 of 2023 and increased by $700,000 for the 9 month period. The increase in operating Our 9 month net cash investments into our rental fleet is $6,200,000 and investments into property, plant and equipment are 1.9 Our balance sheet at the end of the 3rd quarter reflected $27,300,000 of cash and cash equivalents. We are also happy to report we entered into a new credit facility on July 26, which will provide an additional $15,000,000 in liquidity.

Speaker 2

Lastly, we own real estate holdings in Houston and around the world that are owned free and clear without any leverage. That concludes my discussion, and I'll return the call to Rick.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Robert. In conclusion, Geospace delivered one of its most financially successful quarters in many years, with quarterly revenue outpacing that of the past 9 years. Not only was positive net income achieved for the 2nd consecutive quarter, but we also garnered over $27,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents, further strengthening our balance sheet. We also boosted liquidity to approximately $42,000,000 through a completed credit agreement that Robert mentioned with Woodforest National Bank. However, we don't anticipate a need for borrowing in the foreseeable future.

Speaker 1

Looking forward, we expect to see favorable performance throughout fiscal year 2020 This concludes our prepared commentary. And so I'll now turn the call back over to Todd

Operator

to provide optimal sound quality. Thank you. We'll take our first question from Bill Dezellem with Tieton Capital.

Speaker 3

Thank you. I'd like to start with the comments in the release relative to the OBX rental fleet being near full utilization. And yes, we have the Mariner contract that's coming up. So the question that I have is, is that Mariner contract Incremental to OBX being fully utilized or are some of those OBX Contracts ending and this will simply be replacing the revenue from those contracts that are ending.

Speaker 1

Hi, Bill. The Mariner contract is actually fulfilling additional demand for our ocean bottom node rentals. So the OBX 750s, which are the current rental inventory, are the ones that are currently in near full utilization. There will always be gaps here and there that occur as these jobs don't necessarily tie one right into the other. But the Mariner system is satisfying completely new demand.

Speaker 3

And that's an OBX That full utilization is maintaining and as you said, that quasi full utilization. And as a result, as we look forward, there would be revenue upside from the rental part of the business?

Speaker 1

Yes, I think so.

Speaker 3

Okay. Congratulations. That's potentially really significant. And then let me shift To Quantum, if I may, I don't recall much discussion in the past about geothermal And mining, I believe the press release specifically called out near future opportunities For both geothermal and mining along with carbon capture, would you dive To those areas in as much detail as you can, please.

Speaker 1

Yes. I can't go into too much detail. Those are new developments That are underway and have only appeared recently. The Quantum team is hard at work and you know the carbon capture issues that have been Popping up here and there, part of that consortium work up in Canada has yielded a lot of knowledge Amongst the energy transition areas of where SEDAR can actually play a significant role above and beyond carbon capture. So that being said, new discussions have started on some of these other topical areas, including geothermal and mining, And that team is busy trying to work out and work through those discussions to see what it leads to.

Speaker 1

And again, we won't know more until the future because these are rather new

Speaker 3

And if Mark is on the call, would he be able to walk us through And the geothermal in particular, what the problem is that the system would be solving for?

Speaker 1

Well, in general, it's all microseismic activity. So all of these things and then geothermal too, you're trying to inject water and heat it up. And so you need to make sure You're leaving all structures in place without interfering with their integrity. So there's Considerable things and some of the new mining techniques that are underway where you similarly want to monitor this precise microseismic activity To know how where things stand. So that's essentially the problem statement that SEDAR can solve.

Speaker 3

And Rick, kind of taking that one step further. So the geothermal in particular would be similar to a water Well, oil and gas drilling, wanting to monitor what's happening when you're putting fluid back into the earth.

Speaker 1

Certainly by analogy, I think.

Speaker 3

Yes. Okay, great. Thank you and congratulations on a really nice quarter.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Bill. Thank you, and happy birthday.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

We'll take our first sorry, our next question from Michael Melby with Gate City

Speaker 1

Good morning, gentlemen. Congrats on the good results. Hi, Mike. Hey. I was hoping you could expand on your industrial products segment or sub segment within adjacent markets.

Speaker 1

And it had a really good quarter and it's had a really good year and you described it as industrial center, Industrial Sensors and Water Meter Cables. Can you give the audience a little more color on what's involved there, The size of the market, the growth potential, and I think that Aquana has not contributed much yet, I think it would be helpful for your investors to understand more about the potential here and what's led to the really good results so far this year.

Speaker 2

Yes. So the largest portion of that growth is related to our Water meter cables and connectors. That growth is what we're seeing as a result of The expansion of smart meters as a result of smart city initiatives within municipalities, As far as the size of that industry or that market, we expect it to continue to And going forward and continue to grow, we just think that, that Smart City initiative is just going to get larger and larger in the future. The seismic sensor portion of the business this year has been A very good part has seen some growth, but as far as that being a continual business, a little bit harder for us to measure and to determine. And many times, the orders we receive are Something that we haven't necessarily planned for or expected.

Speaker 1

I think in some cases, Mike, the industrial sensors See some lumps. A lot of our business is lumpy, I think you already know that. And certainly, they are subject to that too. But these sensors are used in vibration monitoring of all sorts, including monitoring for equipment, vibration aspects And also for making semiconductors, there are some special pieces of equipment and shake tables and isolation tables. They're very important in the fabrication of some of these ICs and silicon based products and they're used there.

Speaker 1

So in addition to that And some government actually uses a vibration monitoring. I think that drove this maybe a Higher than we would necessarily expect in any given case, and that's exactly what Robert's alluding to with respect to sometimes they're just not planned and the forecast are understood And as it relates to Aquana, Aquana has Certainly have some sales, but most of these are pilot sales. So they're really a precursor to some of the larger orders that are From these municipalities, you can well imagine when you've got thousands of meters that you as a municipality are managing And you've got an innovative product that's meant to and can seriously demonstrate savings With respect to their operational costs of having to roll trucks and people out as well as just give them a better safety footprint for those employees, There's going to be some pilot programs where they try these out and make sure that they're doing what is proposed. So the majority of sales have been in these programs and I believe are precursors to what will be larger orders. Got it.

Speaker 1

And within water meters, the cables and connectors business, is this something you have very high market share in or Sole source in any OEM jobs? I think we have a good market.

Speaker 2

Well, go ahead, if you want

Speaker 1

to finish the second half of that question. Yes. And I guess, I was trying to understand if the revenue gains you've seen Are share increases or just benefiting from the overall growth of the market? That's really hard to pinpoint the latter half there. I mean, the fact is The Smart City movement is absolutely in escalation mode.

Speaker 1

I don't think anyone that keeps up with that industry would say otherwise. So there are a lot of municipalities that are only now beginning to get into the smart meters to any large and others have been into it for some time and deeply engaged. So the entire industry in and of itself It's growing. So that adds to an increased demand. I think from a market share point of view, I think that we have a very big piece of the market share.

Speaker 1

Now keep in mind that there's competitive products out there. And in fact, some of our customers have some products But they still buy ours because of the quality that they represent and they're very cost effective for them. But in reality, as smart meters came out in the initial days, they had to have some way of trying to get them connected and hooked up. It's just that we've come up with much more innovative and reliable ways of doing that, and I think that does help us in the market share.

Operator

And how do you plan to bundle as Aquana

Speaker 1

is rolled out? Is it an entirely separate product set or given your Ron, sharing the Cable and Connector business, how you plan to roll out Aquana alongside that? There is some overlap, but I believe that it's going to have its own independent movement. The fact is that with the Bonnevals And some of the other things we're working on downstream, they do need to have electrical connectivity To the radios and other components that are associated with smart metering and now these smart valves. So they will use our connectors certainly in that regard and there is that overlap.

Speaker 1

It's also nice too because much of the customer base The total for these products is going to have significant overlap. But I think Aquana is going to really demonstrate Its own value, independent of the water meter cables and connectors.

Speaker 2

And keep an eye on also Aquana has a valve that It's positioned for the property management, multifamily property type installation. So that's something different And the utility market. That's true too.

Speaker 1

Can you speak to how significant Aquana's revenues could be within the segment? Well, I mean, we wouldn't have bought them if we didn't think there was significant opportunity there. So really, it's a matter of Just how fast we can increase and get that developed market going. That's what these pilot programs are intended to do. That's what all our sales efforts Marketing efforts are intended to do in the way of getting the word out.

Speaker 1

But no, we don't give guidance in that regard and won't in this case either. And the operating margins in the segment are attractive. Were there one time things maybe you alluded to that Positively impacted that or can margins remain strong and get better from here?

Speaker 2

I think part of what contributed to that, we recently had a price increase for water meter cables. I'm not I think that's obviously going to continue, but I don't think we're going to see any significant growth and Improvement in operating margins going forward?

Speaker 1

Well, Mike, and you know we're a manufacturer. So I think the more that we put the factory into a working And we absorb our overhead a lot more effectively. And I think that had a lot to do with margin increases irrespective of other things Simply because the factory is being put to work at a higher level as it relates to those parts of the organization that make those cables.

Speaker 4

That's absolutely correct.

Speaker 1

And anything I missed today, I think the Mariner contract starts in fiscal Q1 of next year. How long does it run for?

Speaker 2

It's a 1 year contract.

Speaker 1

And that's for the $20,000,000 and that includes the options you suggest in the press release too? Yes. The $20,000,000 includes the They have of extending that contract and even purchasing the equipment. And I guess the options, if those are included, And it's 1 year in total as well? I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

Speaker 1

Should we think about the $20,000,000 being Over 1 year or is it over more than 1 year?

Speaker 2

The $20,000,000 is over the minimum rental period of 1 year, yes.

Speaker 1

Thanks. And in terms of CapEx or your investment in rental equipment, It's gotten up and was wondering what we should expect in Q4 for the full fiscal year now. Well, I mean, certainly, the merit is going to probably fall into next fiscal year.

Speaker 2

Part of our increase this year is related to components we had purchased in expectation there could be a Mariner contract. Now that we Signed that contract. We know we're going to be assembling those components. We're actually assembling them now into units, And they will ultimately be part of our rental fleet, right. So that we kind of preemptively included some of that in or Well, we spent the cash so far into the rental fleet this quarter.

Speaker 2

We'll do some more next quarter and end it in the Q1 of next fiscal year.

Speaker 1

Yes. I might have missed in the guidance, but I think before you guided towards how much you're planning to spend on CapEx In the fiscal year end and in rental equipment, do you have an update there for investors?

Speaker 2

No, I don't have an update right now, sorry.

Speaker 1

I don't think I think it's in line with what was already mentioned though, so really no major changes in that regard.

Speaker 2

That's it for me. Thank you.

Speaker 1

All right. Thanks, Mike.

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next Question from Scott Bundy with Moores and Cabot.

Speaker 4

Good morning, guys. Couple of quick questions. Rick, the AVS product that was introduced or released, is that a pilot program? Or are we actually making sales?

Speaker 1

Well, the pilot programs are sales, but they're not large quantities as it were. So I have to say it's a sale and it's a new product that extends The markets they can serve.

Speaker 4

You answered the question. I'm confused in your press release With the statement, the increase in revenue is attributable in part to a recent decision to increase manufacturing

Speaker 1

No, we definitely were constrained. Our backlog was continuing to grow and that was affecting our lead times, Making it harder for us to serve the needs of our customers, which were growing in terms of Quantities in the orders. So we definitely enhanced our manufacturing capabilities there, adding new equipment So that we could increase that capacity. And there's likely going to be more that we do in that regard even so.

Speaker 4

And lastly, Robert, roughly speaking, what are the loss carryforwards of the company?

Speaker 2

They're significant. We've got many years of loss carry forwards that We have accrued but they're fully reserved on the balance sheet. We won't reverse those Reserves or valuation allowances until we string many, many months of income together and it starts to see that those Loss and start are valuable to

Speaker 4

us. But in your 10 ks in the past, that number has ceded $100,000,000 correct?

Speaker 2

Yes, I believe it has.

Speaker 4

Thanks, guys. Nice going.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Scott.

Operator

And at this time, we have no further questions in queue. I'll turn the call back to Rick Wheeler for any additional or closing remarks.

Speaker 1

All right. Well, thank you, Todd. And many thanks to all of you who joined our call today, and we'll look forward to

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's Geospace Technologies 3rd quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Please disconnect your line at this time and have a

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