Daktronics Q1 2027 Earnings Report

Daktronics EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.40
• Consensus EPS: $0.35
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.05
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.33

Daktronics Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $234.57 million
• Expected Revenue: $230.27 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$4.30 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Daktronics Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2027
• Date: 9/2/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Daktronics (NASDAQ:DAKT) designs, manufactures and sells electronic display and control systems. Its products include large-format LED video displays, digital scoreboards, message centers, digital signage, display controllers and related audio systems.

The company serves sports and entertainment venues, schools and universities, commercial and retail organizations, transportation facilities, government institutions and other customers that use visual communications. Daktronics also provides installation, maintenance, content management and other support services for its display systems.

Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota, Daktronics serves customers in the United States and international markets. Its systems are used in applications ranging from stadium and arena displays to highway information signs, school athletic facilities and corporate communications.

Daktronics Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q1 performance: Net sales increased 7.1%, operating income rose 7.2% to $24.9 million, and EPS grew 21.2% to $0.40 despite the quarter having one fewer week than the prior-year period.
• Positive Sentiment: The company entered Q2 with a $311 million backlog, marking the sixth consecutive quarter above $300 million. Management said several substantial negotiated projects are expected to be formally booked in Q2 and generate revenue primarily from Q3 onward.
• Positive Sentiment: Daktronics cited strong demand across live events, transportation, commercial, high school, and international markets, while Camino 8 deployments and new software offerings such as LiveWrx are intended to expand higher-value software, services, and recurring-revenue opportunities.
• Neutral Sentiment: Gross margin expanded 80 basis points to 30.5%, helped by mix, operating leverage, and approximately $3 million of tariff refunds, but higher RAM and other input costs largely offset those benefits in Q1. Selective price increases began in Q2, while procurement and automation initiatives are expected to contribute more meaningfully in the second half of the year and beyond.
• Negative Sentiment: First-quarter bookings were below the prior-year level because of project timing, and the company is considering exiting its highly customized international transportation business, a move that could affect the long-term viability of its Ireland facility. Daktronics also disclosed that the NBA and SEC are seeking information related to Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers and said it is cooperating without providing further comment.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Daktronics First Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded.

[Operator]

I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Lindsey Vetter. Please go ahead.

[Lindsey Vetter, Executive Assistant at Daktronics]

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating in our fiscal 2027 first quarter earnings conference call. On today's call will be Ramesh Jayaraman, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Howard Atkins, our acting Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, this presentation will contain forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, reflecting our expectations and plans about future financial performance and future business opportunities. These forward-looking statements reflect the company's expectations or beliefs about future events based on information currently available to us. Of course, actual results could differ. Please refer to slide two of the presentation that accompanies today's call, our press release, and our SEC filings for information on risk factors, uncertainties, and expectations that could cause actual results to differ materially from these expectations. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement.

[Lindsey Vetter, Executive Assistant at Daktronics]

During this presentation, we will also refer to non-GAAP financial measures. You can find the reconciliation of each non-GAAP measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure in the appendix to the company presentation slides, which may be found on the investor relations page of our website at www.daktronics.com. Our earnings release for the fiscal 2027 first quarter, which was filed to the SEC on a Form 8-K this morning, also contains certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, as well a discussion of certain limitations when using non-GAAP financial measures are included in the earnings release, which has been posted separately to the investor relations page of our website.

[Lindsey Vetter, Executive Assistant at Daktronics]

I will now turn the call over to Ramesh.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Thank you, Lindsey, and good morning, everyone. We had a strong start to fiscal 2027, and I want to thank our approximately 2,700 employees across the globe for their execution and dedication. Our strategic plan, consisting of organic growth, operational excellence, and disciplined capital deployment is working, as reflected in Q1's results in sales, profit expansion and EPS growth. In Q1, we delivered 7.1% net sales growth, supported by strong demand across key end markets in a quarter that was one week shorter than last year's. We expanded operating income by 7.2% and grew EPS to $0.40 for the quarter. Our new business pipeline remains robust. The year-over-year bookings and backlog comparison mainly reflects order timing, as we negotiated substantial projects in Q1 that we expect to receive purchase orders for in Q2.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Our focus on growth and operational efficiency generated $31.4 million in cash from operations during the quarter. We returned capital to shareholders through share repurchases, and our balance sheet liquidity remains strong. Of the numerous highlights this quarter, I'll talk about three today. One, our recently opened Mexico manufacturing plant is ramping up and successfully completed its first major production run of our narrow pixel pitch product, and we expect to ship this in late Q2. Two, our Camino 8, which is our next generation real-time 2D/3D graphics rendering engine that integrates with Daktronics Show Control, debuted at the Angel Stadium for the Los Angeles Angels home opener in early April and is now in full deployment. Starting this fall, Camino 8 will be installed in more than 10 venues across the NHL, MLS, and NCAA football, volleyball, and basketball programs.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Thirdly, and most importantly, we continue augmenting our strong management team with key leadership adds in marketing and procurement and build muscle as we scale the business. Now let's turn to the next slide on our market verticals and for an update in the first quarter. In live events, we actively installed college football and basketball projects ahead of the upcoming season, including at the University of Illinois, The Ohio State, Penn State, and North Carolina. New Camino 8 systems that I mentioned earlier are being installed across a variety of customers across the NHL, MLS, and NCAA volleyball, football, and basketball programs. Live events remains a highly differentiated business for us, well positioned to benefit from the shift towards real-time graphics and video through Camino 8, and our pipeline continues to be robust in the live events business.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Pictured here is the Wake Forest Allegacy Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In our commercial business, our out-of-home segment booked a large bulk billboard order, along with an airport advertising refresh order from a national customer. Our on-premise business is shipping a large fuel digit replacement program order received in the prior year. Pictured here is the La Crosse Sign Group, the Kwik Trip in Wando, Wisconsin. In transportation in Q1, we won large intelligent transportation systems, or ITS projects, which helped to grow the backlog in the segment. Our airport business won additional narrow pixel pitch orders from Los Angeles International and Spokane International Airports. Our transit business won large orders from Sacramento Regional Transit, the SunRail in Florida, and a project in Houston. We are seeing strong acceptance of new products, and our backlog and pipeline remain solid.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Pictured here is the Union Station in Los Angeles, California. In the high school park and recreation business, we booked several large projects this quarter, including Round Rock and Northside Independent School District in Texas, Los Angeles Harbor College, and Harrisburg High School in South Dakota. We held our annual video summit for high school users of our control systems, an event built for the high school market that connects educators with industry professionals and producers of scholastic, collegiate, and professional live events. The event gives educators practical skills they can apply immediately. Youth sports and the shift to video remain strong secular drivers of demand, further supported by a competitive differentiation through Daktronics Sports Marketing's school curriculum, DakClassroom, and other paid professional services. Our pipeline in the high school parks and recreation business continues to remain strong.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Pictured here is the Massillon City School District in Massillon, Ohio. In the international segment, we won a large order in Colombia for a major football stadium for an outdoor halo display. A longtime out-of-home customer in Serbia awarded us a large order for an additional 50-display rollout. Our international pipeline remains strong heading into Q2, especially in stadiums. We continue expanding our presence in specific international markets with regionally tailored solutions. Pictured here is the iMedia 247, the Metropolitan in Dubai, UAE. In our services business, our control upgrade orders grew, driven by Camino introduction across our installer customer base. We also launched LiveWrx in late July, a mobile-based fan experience platform built for high school sports that delivers a professional, polished experience on the video board and can be run by one person.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

A QR code lets fans join and engage live instantly. LiveWrx expands our recurring revenue opportunities and strengthens our SaaS portfolio ahead of the fall demand season. Our growth strategy remains underpinned by large, attractive end markets benefiting from long-term secular demand, increasing complexity, growing scale, the adoption of video and six-digit displays, and increasing software and content requirements. Our results, backlog, and pipeline reflect that. Let's move to the next slide to provide more specifics about our forward-looking strategy. Our strategy rests on three priorities: accelerating organic growth, strengthening operational excellence, and deploying capital with discipline to expand profitability and improve returns. On organic growth, we are focused on our core businesses, where we are uniquely positioned to benefit from the secular shift towards greater complexity, scale, and video.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

We are also selectively expanding into new vertical markets in North America, growing through software and services, and focusing on driving international growth. On operational excellence, we are getting leaner and sharper every quarter, improving procurement through data-driven strategic sourcing, optimizing our global manufacturing footprint, investing in factory automation, and deploying lean principles across the business with proven leaders directing each effort. On capital deployment, we are making high return investments in organic growth and operational efficiency, including our plant network improvements and automation, while sharpening our focus on the M&A pipeline to evaluate complementary products/solutions, vertical markets, and geographies. We continue to return excess capital to shareholders while preserving flexibility to act when opportunities arise.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Let's turn to the next slide for more detail on these initiatives in the first quarter. We will talk to the strategic execution status under the three key pillars: growth, operational excellence, and capital deployment. In addition, we will provide an update on the talent augmentations to our strong management team. Starting with our growth initiatives, our new order pipeline in our core markets remains strong as our sales, marketing, and development teams capture customer demand. We are also recruiting to expand into new verticals and channels, which allow us to enter the unserved addressable market in North America.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Third, as I mentioned, our Camino 8 expansion earlier, we are continuing to make strong progress. The LA Angels are now using Camino advanced visualizations in stadium, and starting this fall, Camino 8 will be installed at 10+ venues for the NHL, MLS, NCAA, football, volleyball, and basketball. As we look at our operational excellence initiatives, we hired a new global procurement leader and combined our direct and indirect procurement teams. We are leveraging AI to analyze our spend cube across product categories, business segments, and vendors, with results applied to optimize direct and indirect procurement starting in the second half of the year.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

We are optimizing our manufacturing network. Our Mexico ramp-up is progressing per schedule. We are increasing automation and manufacturing, with initial focus on the U.S. transportation facility, and our China facility planning is underway. In addition, Daktronics is considering a proposal to exit the highly customized international transportation business. A decision to exit such business would impact the long-term viability of our Ireland facility. Today, we inform employees in our Daktronics Ireland facility that we are entering into a collective redundancy consultation process. Looking at the third pillar on capital deployment, we are beginning to invest in manufacturing automation to raise efficiency, improve productivity, and reduce production costs.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

We are planning to have automated bending machinery installed, intended to reduce motion, excess processing, and wait time for metal fabricated enclosure elements used across many of our products. This is a good example of the operational discipline underpinning our margin expansion. We are committed to testing and expanding automation with a strong view on business case and return on invested capital. We are increasing our focus on inorganic growth. At the board level, we have a strategic transactions committee that meets biweekly to review acquisition opportunities in complementary products/solutions, verticals, and geographies that can strengthen our organic growth strategy. We have a search underway for a corporate development leader to support this effort.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

We continue to return capital to investors. Of our $40 million stock buyback authorization, we purchased $4.4 million in Q1. Lastly, but most importantly, building on talent is a continued focus for our strategic execution. I am proud of our executive team and our employee base as we continue to build the business together. In Q1, we further aligned key executive compensation tied to performance on long-term shareholder value. We have strengthened capabilities with key additional leadership in procurement, marketing, and IT, and we anticipate having a new international leader join us in Q2. Developing key talent is an integral part of our growth and scaling story, and the executive team and I met on identifying the highest potential talent within the company.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Now I turn it over to Howard Atkins, our acting CFO, to take us through the financials.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Thank you, Ramesh, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to say that the first quarter was another great quarter, carrying forward the momentum we had at the end of fiscal 2026 into the first quarter with a really good tailwind. The bottom line, if you will, the company earned earnings per share of $0.40 in the quarter, an increase of 21.2% from the first quarter a year ago, and our highest quarterly earnings per share in the past three years. This result reflects solid operating earnings of $24.9 million, up 7.2% from a year ago, even with one less week this quarter than the year-ago quarter. This also reflects the cumulative effect of having repurchased an additional 225,000 shares, equal to $4.4 million at economically attractive yields during this last quarter.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Our net sales rose 7.1%. Revenue growth would have been well above that if we would have had the extra week this quarter like we had in the first quarter of last year. Remember, we came into this quarter with one of our highest quarterly backlogs, $356 million. Our manufacturing and fulfillment teams did a great job efficiently completing revenue over time project orders, and standard immediate revenue orders. Approximately 50% of the $356 million backlog was fulfilled in the first quarter. Our gross profit rose 10% this quarter, with gross profit margin rising to 30.5%, up 80 basis points from last year. Several factors contributed to the higher gross profit margin. First, as you may remember, our gross profit margin does tend to rise when revenue rises due to some fixed cost operating leverage within gross profit.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Second, we also had some mix lift this quarter from sales increases in the higher margin transportation and international businesses. Third, we began receiving tariff refunds during the quarter and expect several more quarters of refunds. We will be recording refunds on a cash basis net of client payments going forward, as well as we did in the first quarter. Fourth, rising RAM and sensitive input prices put some upward pressure on cost of goods sold, largely offsetting the tariff refunds in the quarter. We began selectively raising product prices early in the second quarter, the quarter that we're in, and we expect to manage through a period of market-driven input cost inflation by raising prices with the market and achieving cost savings from procurement and other cost savings initiatives across the supply chain.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

As mentioned by Ramesh earlier, while orders actually booked in the first quarter were down from a year ago, we did arrange a few substantial orders, which we expect to be booked when we receive the regular purchase orders going forward. Our backlog coming into the second quarter was $311 million. This was the sixth consecutive quarter in which our product backlog exceeded $300 million. This amount does not yet include the substantial orders that I mentioned earlier, which should also generate revenue throughout the balance of the year, mostly beginning in the third quarter. Our operating expenses, expense trends with respect to operating expenses. Our selling expense rose $2.2 million in the quarter, in part due to the $2 million commission expense on a large international order.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

We expect to see some increase in selling costs as additional producers are onboarded for new market and sales channel rollouts during the course of the year. As a percentage of revenue, selling expenses remained at about 8%. Product development expenses increased $1.4 million from a year ago, in part due to having absorbed about $1 million per quarter of labor costs of XDC for the development of our MicroLED. CapEx depreciation and amortization at $4.7 million this quarter. This will gradually increase as we invest more capital in automation during the course of the year. During the last three years, the company averaged about $14 million-$16 million of annual CapEx. We expect that to be in the $20 million range over the next few years, given the high expected returns on these investments.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

G&A expense increased $1.3 million in the first quarter, in part due to consulting and additional management expenses associated with the execution of our business initiatives and our operational excellence programs, which are expected to yield solid results starting in the second half of this year, more fully in 2028. In terms of our earnings, overall growth trend in the various earnings metrics over the last five quarters show solid growth, with operating income at $24.9 million, as I mentioned earlier, and margin exceeding the lower end of our 10%-12% target range. EBITDA rising to $29.6 million. As I mentioned earlier, our earnings per share at $0.40 per share. Another key aspect of our first quarter, importantly, we continue to maintain a resilient balance sheet to profitably and flexibly manage growth and risk.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Our operating cash flow in the quarter was $31.4 million, with free cash flow at $27.5 million after CapEx cash spend. The result of the solid earnings I mentioned in the quarter and the continued efficient management of working capital. Working capital did increase approximately $16 million in the quarter compared to the last quarter of last year. I am sorry, the last quarter a year ago, but that was in line with the higher revenues, so the ratio remained basically constant. During the quarter, we purchased $4.4 million of shares at a volume-weighted average price of $19.56 per share, roughly 23% of our net income in the quarter.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

In the last five quarters, the company repurchased $29.9 million worth of shares at a volume-weighted average price of $18.04 per share. As a result, primarily of cash generation in excess of CapEx, our end-of-period cash balance reached $155 million after share repurchases, with only $10 million in debt. Let me now briefly address a matter that has been in the media concerning the NBA's investigation of Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers in connection with the league's collective bargaining agreement that many of you may have heard about. As you might expect, we have received requests for information from the NBA. Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking information from us concerning the company and Mr. Leonard. We take these requests seriously and are cooperating. At this point, out of respect for the respective processes, we will not be providing further comment.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Now, let me turn the floor back over to Ramesh.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Thank you, Howard. We are off to a strong start for fiscal 2027 with continued momentum in sales, operating margin, and EPS. Daktronics is the leading end-to-end solution provider, and I am absolutely proud to serve the company. As outlined in our Investor Day, we are the market leader in the large format LED industry with a skilled and committed team. Our large end markets are driven by secular demand trends, all growing at 2x-3x GDP. We are executing well on our strategic growth and operational excellence plans towards our committed profitability goals. We are deploying capital responsibly and with discipline to achieve more profitable, sustainable growth with improved resiliency, reliability, and efficiency. We are deploying this capital to maximize returns to our shareholders.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Moving to the next slide. As we move deeper into fiscal 2027, we continue to track toward our fiscal 2028 targets, which we reaffirm today. First, 7%-10% revenue, three-year CAGR. Second, operating margin in the 10%-12% range, and ensuring our ROIC is in the 17%-20% range. We are pleased with our progress and really excited about our forward plan. We have a strong backlog, continued demand across our major end markets, and a clear set of carefully considered execution priorities that support our path forward and our confidence.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Now I will turn the call over to the operator to take your questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or a comment at this time, please press star one one one your telephone. If your question has been answered and you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press star one one again. We will pause for a moment while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Aaron Spychalla with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Your line is open.

[Aaron Spychalla, Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

Yeah, good morning, Ramesh and Howard. Thanks for taking the questions. First for us on live events, sounds like some order timing there. Can you just speak to the confidence in closing some of those here in the second quarter? Then, performance has just been really solid there. Any changes you are seeing in win rates or competitively dynamics in that market?

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Aaron, good to have you on the call. Live events, as you know, it's a large timing-oriented business, and really it's the timing of some of the negotiations that are in progress that we expect to be slightly delayed from Q1 into the latter part of Q2. So that's where we kind of stand. With regards to all the other businesses, what we can say is our pipeline continues to be robust across the board, and we are beginning to see the pipeline beginning to shape up as the weeks and months take shape. So that's where we stand.

[Aaron Spychalla, Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

All right, thanks. Then on software and services, you talked about Camino 8. Maybe can you just talk a little bit about some of the goals there, whether it's attach rates or just how you see margin impact there as that business grows for you?

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Yeah, I think for us, fundamentally, when you look at it, we have been, I would say, in the CapEx side of a stadium build or a new construction that kind of goes on. Really what we see is, as we look at our 10-year association with the customer from software services, it really gives us a unique opportunity to go in to start working with them on 2D, 3D graphics, integrating with our Show Control. That's a unique opportunity that allows for customers to be able to deploy and use the solutions across the board. We are beginning to see this more and more from our customers to be involved as a part of the operations, and that's where we are playing. That's giving, I would say, amplification to Camino 8 as we kind of spoke about.

[Aaron Spychalla, Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

Great. Thanks for that. Then maybe one last one on margins. How much was the tariff impact in the first quarter? Sounds like you're expecting some more there, and it does just seem early in some of these operational excellence initiatives. Sounds like some balance between ASPs and costs, but just how are you thinking about margins trending from here?

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Yeah. Aaron, we did in our release and in our comments here, talk about the pluses and the minuses. To answer your question specifically, the tariff refund on a cash basis in the first quarter was about $3 million. As we said, again, that's going to change from one quarter to the next, but we expect to get some more incoming quarters because we are accounting for it on a cash basis and when received. But as I say, there were pluses and minuses in the quarter, including cost increases that we referred to, which largely will offset the $3 million.

[Aaron Spychalla, Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

All right. Thanks for taking the questions. I'll turn it over.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Tom Hayes with Roth Capital Partners. Your line is open.

[Tom Hayes, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Hey, good afternoon, guys. Appreciate you guys taking the call, and congratulations on a nice start to the year. Ramesh, I was wondering if you could provide a little bit more color on the Mexico facility, progress in Q1, your expectations as we progress through the year. What market or opportunity does that really provide you when it's fully up and running?

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Yeah. Tom, we are beginning to look at our manufacturing network just across the board, right? As we start looking at geopolitical movements, commodity movements, supplier movements, we are looking at the entire stuff to say, how do we basically keep the company rolling? Two, as we really look at our customer demand cycle build up, I think in Investor Day, we spoke about some of the installations happening in 14 days. We are also beginning to see tighter schedules that are happening for us to go cater. So a combination of our world footprint plays a part, and Mexico will play a part.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

To start with, Mexico will play a bigger part with the live events business, just in ensuring we are able to cater to the global timeline. A combination for U.S., China, Mexico, and honestly, other facilities, as we kind of come together to go down with those projects will be the first priority as we get started. That is where Mexico will be leveraged, and I think as time builds up and we get comfortable with Mexico and the supply chain and how it builds out, we will see the best use of the best plan to ensure we get the best cost leverage to get it in terms of landed cost per square meter.

[Tom Hayes, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Okay. Appreciate that. Howard, on the margin commentary you provided earlier, I just wanted to dig into that a little bit. It sounds like you expect more tariff refunds this year. You have put in some price increases that should offset some of the rise in raw material prices. Does that equate to you holding margin flat to maybe upwards as you guys progress?

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Again, margin depends on lots of other things, but in terms of those two impacts, I think the messaging we are talking about here is we do expect on a cash basis several more quarters worth of tariff refund. On the RAM and other input costs, I am sure you understand that that is happening now, and our expectation is that we will manage that in a variety of different ways, including some price increases with market. As you know, we also have a major procurement effort going on right now. So it is something that we monitor on a day-to-day basis, frankly, with a view towards offsetting the cost as much as we can.

[Tom Hayes, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Okay.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

That's where we are.

[Tom Hayes, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Appreciate that. Maybe just one last one.[crosstalk].

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Just to mention again, Tom, the price increases that I referred to started in the second quarter, not in the first quarter. There was no offset to the input cost inflation in the first quarter was not managed yet by price increases. That will start coming through this quarter.

[Tom Hayes, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Okay, great. Lastly, Ramesh, I think in the early part of the presentation, you discussed the strong order activity in transportation. Can you just talk about some of the drivers of that? Thank you.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Yes. I mean, transportation overall, as you see the ITS platform, which is the intelligent transport stuff, that is the stuff on top of roadways. We go through a cycle, and we have got a decent cycle with the ITS stuff that is building up. I think on airports, which is where we kind of forayed into, we have always done the outside of airports, departure places, as people come in. As we forayed into the inside, what we are beginning to see is, we are beginning to get new orders from more airports, one. Two, also expansion orders from the same airports that we have spoken about before.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

L.A. Airport is a great example. We went through that before. Now we are kind of in the phase II, phase III of the build that is beginning to happen. We feel pretty good about what is kind of building. Clearly, from a mass transit perspective, we are beginning to see some upgrades happening. As I just spoke about Florida and other places, Houston, and that is beginning to come. I think it is coming because of two elements. One, it is a proven fact that our stuff lasts for a very long time, and that is a durability question that happens in transportation that is evident. Two is, as some of the new product developments kind of come through with our narrow pixel line and everything else, we are actually able to expand share to these customers, and that is where we are.

[Tom Hayes, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Appreciate the color. Thank you.

[Operator]

Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or a comment at this time, please press star one one on your telephone. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Anja Soderstrom with Sidoti. Your line is open.

[Anja Soderstrom, Analyst at Sidoti]

Hi, and thank you for taking my question. Howard, you said the price increases came through in the second quarter, so there is a lag of that in terms of the high input.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

I am sorry, Anja, I did not get the second half of your question.

[Anja Soderstrom, Analyst at Sidoti]

You are only increasing the prices in the second quarter to offset the higher input, so there is a lag of that. But is that going to be an ongoing thing, or are we going to continue to see a lag?

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Price increases are getting impacted in the second quarter.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

In the second quarter. I think the point I am trying to make is that the first quarter did not include any offset to the cost increases from new product price increases. We did start raising prices selectively so far this quarter, and you will see progressively as we go through the quarter, the effect of that in the quarter.

[Anja Soderstrom, Analyst at Sidoti]

Okay, so that should help the margins further in the second quarter and throughout the year.

[Howard Atkins, Acting CFO at Daktronics]

Well, again, there are all kinds of other things going through the margin. As we mentioned, the refunds will go through if they continue. Cost increases will need to be managed properly. Yes, starting this quarter, we will start seeing some price increases impacting the margin.

[Anja Soderstrom, Analyst at Sidoti]

Okay, thank you. In terms of just your longer term targets with all the moving parts, what gives you confidence in that you are going to be able to achieve that longer-term margin profile?

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Yeah, I think it's a few areas, right? One, I think looking at going back to what we spoke about, Anja. On the organic side, it is clearly driven by the growth as well as operational excellence. We look at both sides of the coin and building towards a growth, but also an operational excellence part. So on the growth side, as you guys have seen, things have been going pretty stable in terms of where we are to what we've been kind of expecting. I think overall, the secular trends remain strong. We are expanding into new vertical markets that we alluded to. The software services gives us stickiness, and clearly our plan is also for more international growth as we look at building that segment of the business.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

I think what also gives us confidence is the operational excellence side. I mean, as we start looking at procurement and what we are beginning to do with the data cube and what it's beginning to show us, we have clear opportunities in direct and indirect spend. Two, with the manufacturing network optimization, we will see opportunities as we try to automate. That clearly gives us really good returns on investments, invested capital that we can see in the lean processes. We are seeing both sides kind of working down that execution line, and that's going to be a critical focus for us as we build the business.

[Anja Soderstrom, Analyst at Sidoti]

Okay. Thank you. That was all for me.

[Operator]

I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I turn the call back over to Ramesh for any further remarks.

[Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO at Daktronics]

Well, thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. We will be participating at the November Raymond James Symposium, as well as other investment events coming up. Thank you again for your trust you have in place for us. We are excited about what is to come. Enjoy the last few days of summer, and we will speak to you all again in the fall. Have a great day.

[Operator]

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.

Participants

Executives

• Lindsey Vetter, Executive Assistant
• Ramesh Jayaraman, President and CEO
• Howard Atkins, Acting CFO

Analysts

• Aaron Spychalla, Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group
• Tom Hayes, Analyst at Roth Capital Partners
• Anja Soderstrom, Analyst at Sidoti