Latest news with #Q32025
National Post
27-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
RioCan Advances the Monetization of its $1 billion RioCan Living Residential Rental Portfolio with $197.3M of Strategic Dispositions
Article content TORONTO — RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust ('RioCan' or the 'Trust') (TSX: announced today that it has entered into firm agreements to sell its 50% interest in four RioCan Living residential rental properties. Upon closing, the Trust is expected to generate total gross sale proceeds of $197.3 million, inclusive of the Q4 2024 sale of Strada. Additional proceeds are anticipated from the sale of a Toronto residential rental property, which is in late-stage negotiations. These transactions are expected to close in Q3 2025 with the purchase prices in line with RioCan's IFRS values. As at Q1 2025, the RioCan Living residential rental portfolio included 13 income producing properties and two properties under development and was valued at approximately $1.0 billion. RioCan is maximizing the value of this portfolio through the sale of individual assets or subsets of the portfolio, and will focus on completing these sales in-line with IFRS values within the next 12 to 24 months. Article content Article content 'With RioCan Living, we've developed a portfolio of transit-oriented, mixed-use properties in Canada's major markets. Having achieved its intended scale, we are focused on generating maximum value from this one-of-a-kind portfolio. These strategic dispositions are a significant milestone in the RioCan Living asset monetization strategy, demonstrating the portfolio's immense value,' said Jonathan Gitlin, President and CEO of RioCan. 'Given the numerous attributes that differentiate our portfolio in this competitive market, we have full confidence in the Trust's ability to continue to unlock its intrinsic value. The outcome is increased financial flexibility for RioCan and a simplified business model focused on our core retail business.' Article content Following the close of the firm agreements, the RioCan Living portfolio will consist of nine income producing properties and two properties under development with a total valuation of approximately $0.9 billion, based on the Trust's most recent IFRS values. There continues to be considerable interest in the remaining assets in the RioCan Living portfolio. Article content Value Creation: These transactions crystallize the value created through past development efforts. Balanced and Accretive Capital Recycling: The net proceeds from these transactions will be used to reduce the Trust's debt and to support its Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB) program. RioCan has remained active under its NCIB program, buying back the Trust's Units that continue to trade at a significant discount to NAV. Since the start of 2025, the Trust has purchased and cancelled 5.5 million Units at a weighted average price of $17.99 per Unit for a total cost of $100.0 million, before equity buyback tax. RioCan's stated balance sheet objective of maintaining an Adjusted Debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio within the 8.0x to 9.0x range remains unchanged. Value Validation: These transactions confirm the RioCan Living portfolio's IFRS values and demonstrate clear demand for RioCan Living's best-in-class portfolio. Business Simplification: By monetizing the RioCan Living portfolio, the Trust is simplifying its business, with a continued focus on its core, productive retail operations that generate reliable and resilient growing income. Improved Unsecured Debt to Total Contractual Debt Ratio: Upon completion of these transactions, the purchasers will assume the existing CMHC insured mortgages, which will further improve the Trust's Unsecured Debt to Total Contractual Debt ratio 1. Inclusive of the previously disclosed repayment of maturing mortgages in May 2025, this ratio is expected to improve from 57.3% as at Q1 2025 to approximately 60%. Article content About RioCan Article content RioCan is one of Canada's largest real estate investment trusts. RioCan owns, manages and develops retail-focused, mixed-use properties located in prime, high-density transit-oriented areas where Canadians want to shop, live and work. As at March 31, 2025, our portfolio is comprised of 177 properties with an aggregate net leasable area of approximately 32 million square feet (at RioCan's interest). To learn more about us, please visit Article content This News Release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. This information reflects RioCan's objectives, our strategies to achieve those objectives, as well as statements with respect to management's beliefs, estimates and intentions concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance or expectations that are not historical facts. Forward-looking information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as 'outlook', 'objective', 'may', 'will', 'would', 'expect', 'intend', 'estimate', 'anticipate', 'believe', 'should', 'plan', 'continue', or similar expressions suggesting future outcomes or events. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. All forward-looking information in this News Release is qualified by these cautionary statements. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future events or performance and, by its nature, is based on RioCan's current estimates and assumptions, which are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those described in the ' Risks and Uncertainties ' section in RioCan's MD&A for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and in our most recent Annual Information Form, which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the forward-looking information contained in this News Release. Although the forward-looking information contained in this News Release is based upon what management believes are reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with this forward-looking information. Article content The forward-looking statements contained in this News Release are made as of the date hereof, and should not be relied upon as representing RioCan's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this News Release. Management undertakes no obligation, except as required by applicable law, to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TD Cowen Increases Analog Devices (ADI), Maintains Buy Rating
On May 23, TD Cowen raised its price target on Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI)'s stock to $250 from the prior target of $200, while reiterating a 'Buy' rating. This was seen after the company released its recent earnings report and guidance. A technician working on power management in a semiconductor factory. As per the analyst, the results were strong but saw less attention because of worries related to early order fulfillment and the impact of tariffs on the broader semiconductor industry. Joshua Buchalter (the firm's analyst) stated that, amidst uncertainties, Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) happens to be in a stronger cyclical position, given the ongoing secular tailwinds, as compared to peers. The company's strong emphasis on innovation and customer success allows it to continue to enhance its leadership at the increasingly AI-driven Intelligent Edge. Buchalter believes that the company's robust inventory management and fab-lite business model are expected to help it withstand challenges. Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) stated that its Q2 2025 bookings accelerated across the end markets and regions, leading to sequential backlog growth. These improved demand signals help its outlook for continued growth in Q3 2025. For Q3 2025, the company expects revenue of $2.75 billion (+/- $100 million). At the midpoint, it anticipates a reported operating margin of ~27.2% (+/-150 bps), and an adjusted operating margin of ~41.5% (+/-100 bps). Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) is engaged in designing, manufacturing, testing, and marketing integrated circuits (ICs), software, and subsystem products. While we acknowledge the potential of ADI to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ADI and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 13 Cheap AI Stocks to Buy According to Analysts and 11 Unstoppable Growth Stocks to Invest in Now Disclosure: None.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TD Cowen Increases Analog Devices (ADI), Maintains Buy Rating
On May 23, TD Cowen raised its price target on Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI)'s stock to $250 from the prior target of $200, while reiterating a 'Buy' rating. This was seen after the company released its recent earnings report and guidance. A technician working on power management in a semiconductor factory. As per the analyst, the results were strong but saw less attention because of worries related to early order fulfillment and the impact of tariffs on the broader semiconductor industry. Joshua Buchalter (the firm's analyst) stated that, amidst uncertainties, Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) happens to be in a stronger cyclical position, given the ongoing secular tailwinds, as compared to peers. The company's strong emphasis on innovation and customer success allows it to continue to enhance its leadership at the increasingly AI-driven Intelligent Edge. Buchalter believes that the company's robust inventory management and fab-lite business model are expected to help it withstand challenges. Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) stated that its Q2 2025 bookings accelerated across the end markets and regions, leading to sequential backlog growth. These improved demand signals help its outlook for continued growth in Q3 2025. For Q3 2025, the company expects revenue of $2.75 billion (+/- $100 million). At the midpoint, it anticipates a reported operating margin of ~27.2% (+/-150 bps), and an adjusted operating margin of ~41.5% (+/-100 bps). Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) is engaged in designing, manufacturing, testing, and marketing integrated circuits (ICs), software, and subsystem products. While we acknowledge the potential of ADI to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ADI and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 13 Cheap AI Stocks to Buy According to Analysts and 11 Unstoppable Growth Stocks to Invest in Now Disclosure: None. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q3 2025 Brady Corp Earnings Call
Ann Thornton; Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, Treasurer; Brady Corp Russell Shaller; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; Brady Corp Operator Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q3 2025 Brady Corporation earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. After the speaker's presentation, there will A question and answer session. To ask a question, please press 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. So, with the draw your question, please press 11 again. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Anne Thornton, CFO. Ann Thornton Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the Brady Corporation fiscal 2025 3rd quarter earnings conference call. The slides for this morning's call are located on our website at We will begin our prepared remarks on slide number 3. Please note that during this call we may make comments about forward-looking information. Words such as expect, will, may, believe, forecast, and anticipate are just a few examples of words identifying a forward-looking statement. It's important to note that forward-looking information is subject to various risk factors and uncertainties which could significantly impact expected results. Risk factors were noted in our news release this morning and in Brady's fiscal 2024 for 10K, which was filed with the SEC in September. Also, please note that this teleconference is copyrighted by Brady Corporation and may not be rebroadcast without the consent of Brady. We will be recording this call and broadcasting it on the internet. As such, your participation in the Q&A session will constitute your consent to being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Brady's President and chief executive officer, Russell Schaller. Russell? Russell Shaller Thank you, Ann, and thank you for all joining us today. We released our fiscal 2025 3rd quarter results this morning, and I'm pleased to report another quarter of record high adjusted earnings per share. We grew organic sales 1.6%. Acquisitions grew sales 10.5%, and we grew adjusted earnings per share by 11.9% in the quarter. Our Americas and Asia regions reported excellent organic sales growth of 5.4% and adjusted operating income growth of 20.2%. Our Europe and Australia region is operating in a tough macro environment this quarter, which was reflected in our organic sales decline of 5.4%. However, adjusted operating income increased 3.8% in the quarter, in large part due to restructuring actions we've taken to lower our cost structure in that region. We're in a position to drive future earnings growth in Europe due to the efficiency actions we've taken this fiscal year. We once again increased adjusted earnings per share while increasing our investment in R&D by more than 8% this quarter. This was the result of our ongoing investment in our organic business as well as from our acquisition of Gravitech at the beginning of this fiscal year. We continue to integrate our R&D functions and build out combined new product road maps which now include direct part marking technologies. I'm especially happy to announce the acquisition of Funai's microfluidic solution business based in Lexington, Kentucky with their main production facility in the Philippines. Funai has been a supplier to us for specialty ink cartridges, and they further round out our portfolio to enable custom part marking. In light of the uncertainty presented by global trade and tariffs, I'd like to spend a moment on the topic and provide additional details about some elements of our manufacturing footprint and our supply chain. Slide 4 provides an overview of our global operations as well as our revenue by geography through the first three quarters of 2025. For the most part, we manufacture our products in country of the ultimate sale. The three primary exceptions to this are special adhesive materials which are produced in the US. Our printers which are produced in Malaysia and a variety of specialty identification products that we produce in Mexico, we distribute these product lines to our other locations globally for sale within their countries. And from a sourcing perspective, we import goods from China to the US for a few specific product lines which represent approximately USD50 million in annual sales. The majority of our operations in China are for customers in China. Moreover, we do have some ability to use our global footprint to change either the sourcing country or the location of the product's point of substantial conversion if one country has a particularly onerous tariff rate. Although we've been impacted by incremental tariffs and expect to continue to be impacted, we do believe that our largely in-country manufacturing operations and our geographic and in market diversification helps mitigate much of the impact of these tariffs. As far as our revenue by geography through the first three quarters of this fiscal year, 52% of our revenue is generated in the US, 30% in Europe, 8% in Asia, with the remaining 10% in Australia and the rest of Americans, breaking Asia down further, 3% was in China and 5% was in the rest of Asia. Now I'll turn the call over to I to provide more details on our financial results. Ann Thornton Thanks Russell. In the third quarter, organic sales were led by growth of 5.4% in the Americas and Asia region, which was partially offset by an organic sales decline of 5.4% in Europe and Australia, resulting in total organic sales growth of 1.6%. We also grew adjusted diluted earnings per share from USD1.09 per share last Q3 to a new record high of USD1.22 per share, which is an increase of 11.9%. We took further actions this quarter to address our cost structure in two primary areas in response to the performance of certain businesses as well as economic conditions. First, we reduced headcounts in several of our locations in China. Given the decline in economic activity in China, we believe this action was necessary to lower our headcount to reflect the decrease in sales and our growth outlook in the region. And second, we took further action to lower headcount in Europe in order to operate with a more efficient structure while further integrating the operations of our gravitech acquisition. In total, we recognized facility closure and other reorganization costs of USD3.9 million in the third quarter, and we believe these actions will allow us to operate more effectively and efficiently going forward. Turning to slide number 5, this details our quarterly sales trends. Organic sales grew 1.6% this quarter. Acquisitions added 10.5%, and foreign currency translation reduced sales by 0.7% for total sales growth of 11.4% in the quarter. Slide number 6 details our quarterly gross margin trending. Our gross profit margin was 51% this quarter compared to 51.6% in the third quarter of last year. The restructuring actions that I just mentioned resulted in incremental expense of USD1.1 million in cost of goods sold in the third quarter. So, if we excluded this expense, our gross profit margin would have been 30-basis points higher or 51.3%. We continue to generate sales growth from our highest gross profit margin products. Moving to slide number 7, this details our SG&A expenses trending. SG&A was USD108.7 million this quarter compared to USD95.8 million in the third quarter of last year. As a percent of sales, SG&A increased to 28.4% compared to 27.9% last Q3. If you exclude amortization expense of USD4.8 million and facility closure and other reorganization costs of USD2.8 million this quarter, then the SG&A was 26.4% compared to 27.2% in the third quarter of last year, which was a decrease of 80-basis points. We continue to identify efficiencies throughout our sales support function as well as other administrative support functions, and the restructuring actions that we took last quarter are already paying off. This allows us to invest in better growth opportunities in geographies such as Southeast Asia and to support additional growth opportunities for our high-performance printing solutions. Slide number 8 details the trending of our investments in research and development. We continue to increase our investment in R&D and through our acquisitions of Gravitech and the inkjet Solutions business unit of Funai, we're investing in new product development more than ever. R&D expense was USD19.2 million this quarter, which was an increase of 8.5% from USD17.7 million in last year's third quarter. We're very excited about our new product roadmap along with two new products that we launched this quarter which Russell will describe in a moment. On slide number nine, you'll find the trending of our pre-tax earnings. Pre-tax earnings on a GAAP basis increased from USD64.4 million to USD65.7 million in the quarter. If you exclude amortization from both periods, as well as the facility closure and other charges from the current quarter, pre-tax earnings increased 11.5% from USD66.8 million to USD74.4 million. On slide number 10, you'll find trending of our net earnings and earnings per share. Our GAAP net income increased from USD50.9 million to USD52.3 million and our GAAP diluted earnings per share increased from USD1.05 to USD1.09 in the third quarter. If you exclude amortization from both periods and the facility closure and other charges from the current period, our adjusted net income increased from USD52.7 million to USD58.8 million an increase of 11.6%. And our adjusted diluted EPS increased from USD1.09 per share to USD1.22 per share, which was an increase of 11.9% to a new company record quarter. Moving to slide number 11, you'll find a summary of our cash generation. Operating cash flow was USD59.9 million in the third quarter of this year, compared to USD72.7 million in the third quarter last year. Free cash flow was USD55.6 million in Q3 of this year compared to USD64.4 million in last year's Q3. Slide number 12 details the impact that our cash generation has on our balance sheet. As of April 30th, we were in a cash position of USD49.3 million, and in the quarter, we returned USD44.5 million to our shareholders through the form of dividends and share buybacks, and we funded the acquisition of the microfluidic solution business at the beginning of April. Our approach to capital allocation is consistent, which is first, to use our cash to fund organic sales growth and efficiency opportunities. This includes investing in new product development, sales generating resources, and capability enhancing cap backs. Our consistently strong cash generation gives us the ability to invest throughout the economic cycle so that we're positioned to drive future sales growth and improvement in profitability. And second, we focus on consistently increasing our dividends. At the beginning of this fiscal year, we announced our 39th consecutive year of annual dividend increases, which is a streak that we're very proud of. After funding organic investments and dividends, we then deploy our cash in a disciplined manner for acquisitions where the synergies are clear and for opportunistic share buybacks. This quarter we purchased Funai's micro microfluidic solution business for USD11.6 million and we purchased 476,000 shares for USD33.2 million which was an average price of USD69.64 per share. Our balance sheet allows us to continue to increase our investment in organic sales opportunities, to invest in new product development, to acquire companies that are a strategic fit with both our core business and our capabilities, and to return funds to our shareholders through dividends and opportunistic share buybacks. As for the financial impact of tariffs, we realized approximately USD3 million in incremental tariff expense in the third quarter, or about USD0.05 of deleted earnings per share. And as we look ahead to the 4th quarter, we expect continued exposure to. While at the same time mitigating some of the impact through targeted price increases, strategic sourcing alternatives, analysis of our supply chain, among several other actions. But the situation is rapidly changing, and we estimate incremental tariffs to impact our fourth quarter in the range of potentially USD3 million to USD5 million net of mitigating actions. This is an estimate based upon current tariff rates and scope, which have been changing rapidly, and the actual outcome may change depending upon trade policy developments as well as depending upon the timing of our mitigating actions. As a result of this uncertainty, combined with the fact that we've entered the fourth quarter of our fiscal year, we are tightening our adjusted deleted EPS guidance range from our previous range of USD4.45 per share to USD4.70 per share to a range of USD4.48 to USD4.63 per share. Other elements of our guidance include organic sales growth and the low single digit percentages for the year ending July 31, 2025. Depreciation and amortization expense of approximately USD40 million, capital expenditures of approximately USD25 million and a full year income tax rate of approximately 20%. Our income tax rate generally tends to be slightly lower in the 4th quarter compared to our full year expectation, which is due to our historical profit mix and the expected timing of certain tax adjustments. Potential risks to our guidance, among others, include strengthening of the US dollar, inflationary pressures, continued changes in tariffs, or other downstream impacts of global trade disruption, or an overall slowdown in economic activity. Now I'll turn the call back over to Russell to discuss some new product launches and cover our regional results before Q&A. Russell Shaller Perfect. Thanks, Anne. This quarter we launched our I-6100 industrial desktop label printer, which is a mid-sized printer that can handle mid to high volume printing on a wide variety of Brady's specialty materials. It offers a number of enhancements, including faster print feeds and an intuitive user interface to change print settings. Like all our new industrial printers, it comes with Brady workstation and our wire ID software suite with built-in templates for fixed text or freeform label design options. As always, setup is incredibly easy. It's sturdy, and it's built for industrial environments. We also launched our HH86 handheld RFID reader. This is an all-in-one device that can scan barcodes, NFC, HF, and UHF RFID labels featuring an ergonomic grip extended battery life, and IP 65 rating, and the ability to withstand a 5-foot drop. It has been purposefully designed to withstand challenging industrial environments. Additionally, with the capability to read over 1,000 RFID tags per second, plus the ability to run Android applications natively, our reader can help our customers modernize their high-speed production workloads. We continue to see the benefit of our R&D investments with these and many new products we will launch over the coming year. Our goal remains to have a complete integrated solution that enables our customers to mark and identify their parts with all common methods. I'm really proud of our new products this quarter and this year, and our products in the pipeline for the coming year will be excellent additions to our portfolio. Now provide some details of the financial performance of our regions. Results for America's and Asia region are shown on slide 14. Sales are USD253.7 million this quarter, and organic sales growth was once again strong at 5.4%. Our Americas and Asia region grew 5.0% organically year-to-date. Acquisitions increased sales to 8.6%, and foreign currency decreased sales by 1.1% for a total sales growth of 12.9% this quarter. Our wire ID, safety and facility ID and product ID product lines continue to lead our top line, and our healthcare identification business grew in the low single digits this quarter. Our Asia business continues to exceed our expectations with organic sales growth of nearly 23% this quarter. We return to growth in China following a year of decline while our business in Japan and Southeast Asia continue to grow as they benefit from manufacturing expansion and growth in our printer product lines throughout the region. Our reported segment profit in the Americas and Asia increased 15% to USD57.2 million, and segment profit as a percentage of sales was 22.5%. It excluded the impact of amortization in both the current quarter and last year's Q3, as well as the facility closure and other reorganization costs in the current quarter, segment profit increased 20.2% compared to the prior year. Sales growth in our specially identification products and the optical reader technologies that we acquired several years ago continue to drive both top and bottom line. The action we're taking in non-core areas of our business also set us up for more profitable growth in the future. Turning to slide 15, this details our results for Europe and the Australia region. Sales were USD128.9 million this quarter. Acquisition sales added 14.2%, while organic slow sales declined 5.4%, and foreign currency translation decreased sales by 0.1%, resulting in total sales growth of 8.7% in the region. Our businesses in both Europe and Australia are operating in a challenging economic environment for industrial manufacturers. We saw a decline in this end market as well as within most of our major product lines. We took additional actions in the quarter to lower our cost structure in both regions, and the reorganization actions we took last quarter contributed to the improvement in our segment profit for this quarter. Our reported segment profit was down 10.5%, but if you exclude the impact of amortization in both the current quarter and last year's Q3, as well as the recognition of costs incurred in the quarter, segment profit increased by 3.8% compared to the prior year. We're setting ourselves up for increased profitable growth in the future. I'm pleased with our results this quarter. We've been navigating the ever changing global tariff situation, and we're working through mitigating actions as quickly as we can. Meanwhile, we'll continue to invest in the new product development throughout our business, including Gravitech, with our newest acquisition of microfluidic solutions. We need to keep our momentum going through the end of the year and ensure that we're positioned for long-term profitable growth, and we'll do that by staying focused on our strategy and controlling what we can control. With that, I'd like to turn it over for Q&A. Operator, would you please provide instructions to our listeners? Operator Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press 11 again. One moment for questions. Our first question comes from Keith Housum with NorthCoast Research, you may proceed. Good morning. Thanks guys. I appreciate it. In terms of the tariff, I appreciate the color on the special expense there, but Russell, can you perhaps provide the color? Are you seeing any impact on the top line, either demand destruction or actually, additional, revenue as people are starting to talk and actually make some actions on, moving manufacturing around. Russell Shaller Yeah, so a couple things to that entire question. No, we haven't seen any tariff related demand destruction at this point. However, I think both Brady, as well as a lot of the industrial companies carry a couple of months' worth of inventory. So, you haven't really seen the effect of tariffs just yet, a lot of what we're shipping was manufactured pre-tariff, and now we did get hit a little bit certainly towards the end of the quarter, but by and large you haven't by any means seen the full effect of tariff. So you know. I don't think there has been much recognition one way or another about the tariffs long term impact, and as anybody that follows this, it changes literally on a daily basis in terms of both the amount and what's included and what isn't included. So, ultimately if you assume that we're going to wind up with a little bit more tariffs than what we had, I expect to see some price increases rolling through, from both ourselves as others look to recapture most if not all of the tariff changes that have come through. Now, will that ultimately be inflationary? Will that turn out to be demand destruction, or will people just yawn? I think it depends on the amount of the tariff and which countries in particular get hit and whether it turns out to be substantially more than 10% in any one country. Okay, great. I appreciate it. Your commentary and adjusted SG&A, I think, was insightful. It appears probably one of your lowest quarters and the lowest quarter in recent memory. How sustainable are those actions? So I guess a one-time items there that perhaps was artificially low for the quarter, or is this kind of a new general run rate which should we think about going forward? Russell Shaller Yeah, so of course the future is always a little uncertain, but no, we, Brady has had a long-term journey that's lasted for years to keep driving down SG&A, and we continue to look for ways of operational efficiency, so there is always a little bit of bounce around the data points. So, if it could pick up maybe a couple 100-basis points or down a couple 100-basis points in any one quarter wouldn't particularly surprise me, but You know our goal year over year is to continue to drive out costs and as Brady looks at their footprint and how we serve our customers, we're continuously looking for ways to be more efficient and really spread our SG&A over a much larger organization. So, the goal is absolutely continue understanding that there will be a little bit of noise on a quarter to quarter, but if you look at a multi-year trend, we absolutely are driving down SG&A. Great. And then finally, I guess last question for me, you went through the acquisition that you guys did in April pretty quick. Do you mind just kind of, walking through again like the opportunities that this acquisition provides you guys, and are they already a supplier for you guys? Russell Shaller Yeah, so Funai has a very long history stretching back to the original inventions at IBM and then it took a turn at Lexmark before it became Funai, and now it's part of Brady where I hope it's going to be forever. So, what they do is, you're very familiar, I'm sure, with a commercial inkjet cartridge that might sit in your office printer. They make the industrial. A version of that which is more tailored towards high performance inks, very particular use cases, and you know we've known them and worked with them for at least a half dozen years. Their product is integrated into our inkjet printer, which is how we originally came to know them. They also sell inkjet cartridges to other companies in a host of what I call very nichey application. For industrial print on demand applications. So you know we see this technology and a great group of guys in Lexington, very smart, a number of PhDs and people who have been doing this for years, so we give it, we see this as a huge opportunity for a growth factor for Brady, to round out along with lasers our ability to do direct part marking, which has always been a little bit of a GAAP. We had of course labels for an eternity, and now we have lasers and inkjet that we can control so we can go to customers with a complete solution basically providing the ability to mark the part how they want to market it and you know again it's going to take a couple of years to get, fully integrated and everything up and running, but I'm super happy that we were able to make this acquisition. Great thanks good luck, appreciate it. Operator Thank you, our next question comes from Steve Ferazani with Sidoti. He may proceed. Morning, Russell. Morning, Anne. I appreciate the detail on the call. Russell, I did want to ask about the 4Q guide. If Americas and Asia was up 5% year over year in 3Q and Europe was down 5%, but your guide is for Americans in Asia to grow only low single digit and Q4 and Europe to be flat. I'm just trying to figure out why these two are going in opposite directions in 4Q. Russell Shaller Yeah, so we're still anticipating a bit of a headwind due to tariffs in America, it says yet we haven't seen it, but at some point, we feel like this is going to be a little bit of a headwind in the Americas and so we're estimating the magnitude of that. Your guess is as good as mine, where we're going to wind up by the end of the quarter. And then on Europe, if you look at Europe, the first two quarters in Europe were essentially flat year over year. The third quarter definitely saw deterioration. What we're hoping and we actually expect as we look through our business forecast is that we're going to see enough of a Recovery in Q4 that we're basically going to get back to flat. So, you know that's where you see the mix. I know there's a lot of moving pieces in there to pick apart, but you know we're hoping that Europe doesn't get any worse and actually has a moderate recovery and that the US probably will experience a bit of headwinds in the coming quarter. How much of that is the impact from the old WPS? I know that's still pretty significant for that part of Europe, less so in the Americas. That has typically been, or used to be when you would report it, a lot more volatile for you. How much is that impacting Europe? Russell Shaller So yeah, a couple of things. So, the WPS in America is almost down to, it's not nothing, but it's getting there. So, the WPS factor in America is minor and not really part of it, which is again probably why they grew 5%. In Europe, the WPS business, with the exception of the UK has always been pretty strong. So, if you remember in years back, it's a very fragmented market and some of the dynamics that exist in the US that makes the WPS business model tough doesn't really exist as much in Europe. What I think you're seeing in the European numbers and if you look at industrial production, particularly in Germany, you're seeing some Just staggering year over year declines that really started in 2019 and continue to go down. So, we're tracking some of that because of course we're in the heavy industrial sector as well as automotive and some other areas, and I think the epicenter of the problem really is Germany with some collateral damage to some of the other industrialized countries in Europe. So again, we're expecting that to flatten out at this point versus the quarter over quarter declines we've seen for the last several quarters, but again, we're just cautious, and this is another reason we took costs out of the European. Organization in particular because you know if you look at it, even with the decline in sales adjusted for our reorg costs, we were able to improve profitability by 3.8%. So, you know I feel like our organization is absolutely. The right size to service the market as it stands now and of course, if anything happens in the future, Brady has shown a willingness and ability to act very quickly to respond to market dynamics both up and down, which I would expect in the future. Okay, and can I ask about what you're seeing in China? Russell Shaller Yeah, for us particularly, China has always been a tough market and has become more tough. If you look at most of Southeast Asia, our customers are multinationals. We never did a tremendous amount of business with indigenous Chinese companies, very tough to crack, particularly from a safety ID business, but the multinationals on the other hand, like the ability to have the same look and feel of their manufacturing worldwide, and you know we benefit from that. But if you look at the relative either underinvestment or out and out exodus in China for multinationals, we're basically following right along, and the reason that is the reason we shut down our Beijing facility, which we no longer felt was scale or even necessary. We do have 3 plants still in China, which I think is the right footprint for us for the foreseeable future. So we, we're not planning on doing anything additional in China. But remember, it's most all of our China businesses is. Indigenous to China. So, we manufacture in China for Chinese customers, and it now is only about 3% of our corporations' revenue, so pretty small. On the flip side, tremendous gains outside of China throughout the region, and I think you're seeing again some exodus from China, which is why you're seeing such a pickup in some of the other countries that we serve. Yeah, pretty consistent over the last several quarters. If I could get in a couple of quick modeling questions and can you break out that USD3.9 million facility closure and reorg cost to segments? And the other question would be just on the acquisition. I know it's very small, but any guess what how that contributes to revenue just for our model. Ann Thornton Sure, yeah, the reorg costs were split basically pretty much evenly between the between the two regions. You can just call it so USD3.9 million in the restructuring was basically right, pretty much right down the middle for the items that I mentioned. And then the acquisitions relatively small. It's a carve out effectively of the parents who I, and so we're still in early stages. It's relatively immaterial, which is why you didn't see a press release regarding the acquisition USD11.6 million in in purchase price, and we're estimating 1st year sales in the realm of USD15 to USD20 million. Perfect. Thanks Russell thanks then. Ann Thornton No problem thanks Steve. Operator Thank you. I would not like to turn the call back over to Russell Shaller for any closing remarks. Russell Shaller Perfect. Thanks everyone for your time this morning. We've delivered strong results, I think it's a challenging environment, and I am particularly pleased with the performance of the teams here at Brady to do that. So, we've recorded record adjusted earnings per share. Our financial position is excellent. Our balance sheet gives us the ability to continue to invest in our organic business. We can close on strategic M&A and still return funds to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Meanwhile, our ability to generate cash allows us to fund all capital allocations, priorities, and generate shareholder returns essentially simultaneously. The current tariff environment adds a new level of uncertainty for any global manufacturer as well as to the overall economy. And although we do expect to continue to be impacted by incremental tariffs, we believe that our global manufacturing presence and our Geographic diversification helps to mitigate some of this potential impact. The situation changes almost daily. If not hourly, and we're monitoring it closely like any other global manufacturer, but in the meantime, we're controlling what we can control so that we can continue to deliver on our prior, which are to invest in our top line growth, develop our product offering to support our customers' identification needs. Execute operational efficiencies to ensure profitable growth and effectively deploy our capital to drive long-term shareholder value through organic investments, strategic acquisitions, and returning funds to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Although the current environment is uncertain. I am super optimistic about our future, and I know we're making the right moves today to overcome near term challenges and continuing to deliver long term results. Thank you for your time this morning, operator. You may disconnect the call. Operator Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
CNET
14-05-2025
- CNET
This Speaker Has One Thing Sonos' Era 100 Doesn't: a Touchscreen
WiiM has unveiled its first multiroom speaker, the Sound, which includes a touchscreen (unlike the Sonos Era 100, one of the best Wi-Fi wireless speakers) and voice assistant control. The WiiM Sound follows the company's popular line of music streamers and promises 100 watts of power, a 1.8-inch high-resolution touchscreen and can be paired for stereo sound. The company also announced a compatible Sub Pro subwoofer with an 8-inch driver. The WiiM Sound speaker includes a 1.8-inch touchscreen WiiM The speaker, which resembles the Bose Home Speaker 500 or Apple HomePod, includes a 4-inch woofer and dual-balanced mode radiator tweeters, plus support for 24-bit/192 kHz high-resolution streaming. It offers compatibility with Chromecast built-in, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, DLNA and Alexa Cast. In addition to Wi-Fi 6E, the speaker also includes Bluetooth 5.3 and Ethernet. The WiiM Sound can be controlled via the WiiM Home application, a Google Home speaker or an Amazon Echo. Pairing WiiM's $40 Voice Remote with the Sound will give you hands-free Alexa control. In my testing, WiiM's $149 Pro and $329 Ultra offer excellent sound quality for a more affordable price than competitors such as the $449 Sonos Port. While pricing of the Sound is not yet available, I'm anticipating it will cost between $200 and $300. The speaker will be available in Q3 2025 on Amazonand select retailers.
