Good morning, and welcome to the Innovative Solutions & Support First Quarter 2021 Fiscal Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Geoffrey Hedrick, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead. Good morning. This is Geoffrey Hedrick. Welcome to our conference call to discuss our performance for the first quarter of fiscal 2021, our business conditions, and the outlook for the coming year. Joining me today is Shahram Askarpour, our President, and Relland M. Winand, our CFO. Before I begin, I'd like Rell to read the safe harbor message. Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. I would remind our listeners that certain matters discussed in the conference call today, including new products and operational and financial results for future periods, are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, either better or worse, from those discussed, including other risks and uncertainties reflected in our company's 10-K, which is on file with the SEC and other public filings. Now I'll turn the call back to Jeff. Thank you, Rell. We managed to maintain revenue growth, bottom line profitability, and positive cash flow in the first quarter of our fiscal 2021, in spite of the pandemic's impact on our industry. Our balanced mix of retrofit and OEM has somewhat mitigated the impact of the COVID pandemic on our business. The exponential growth in our autothrottle has been impacted by a slower and steady expansion in demand and promising revenue growth. This was our third consecutive year in which our first quarter revenue and operating income increased from the previous year's first quarter. In addition, we finished this quarter with a backlog that was greater than the end of the quarter, and we have achieved these results while maintaining commitment to implementing precautions against COVID-19 that we seek to ensure the safety of our employees and suppliers and customers. Reflecting on our continued confidence in the business, December, the board of directors declared a special $0.50 per share dividend. Together with a $0.65 dividend declared in September, we returned nearly $20 million of our cash to the shareholders over the second half of calendar 2020. As a result of our strong cash flow, we remain in excellent financial condition with significant liquidity and no debts. We have, however, expanded our access to capital by opening a credit line with our bank, making that available if we need it. Since speaking to you a few weeks ago, we continue to make progress on our strategic initiatives. Flying Magazine, a leading aviation industry publication, has just awarded IS&S one of its three prestigious annual awards for their 2020 Editors' Choice Awards, along with SpaceX and Garmin. These highly anticipated and distinguished awards are selected by their senior editors based on the products that have the greatest influence on safety and technology and aircraft operations. With Textron, we announced that they offered our ThrustSense autothrottle as standard equipment on the new King Air 260, further expanding our product revenue from Textron. All of our OEM contracts are expected to generate recurring revenue of significant value over the next few years. All of these contracts are with some of the most respected names in the industry, Textron, Pilatus, and Boeing. In addition to their direct impact, these relationships are creating additional growth opportunities. Excuse me. In the case of Textron, we are jointly capitalizing on their global network of service centers, where they are, and we are promoting the autothrottle benefits. We will go on tour next month to five of the service centers at the beginning of the month with presentations by their chief test pilot and our product support maintenance group. Retrofit market is much better than the OEM opportunity right now. We are making progress working with Textron to more broadly adopt our technology across their product portfolio. The success of our ThrustSense technology in the general aviation market is creating opportunities in adjacent markets, such as military air transport and several multi-engine aircraft. In addition to the steady recurring revenue generated from these contracts, there remains strong demand of our legacy products with our long-term customers. Recent introduction of the synthetic vision and autothrottle upgrade for the Eclipse Jet is seeing steady demand. The new ownership has committed to refurbishing and upgrading used aircraft and are preparing to place sizable orders on new cockpits for those airplanes. The strong growth of online shopping and a decrease in air passenger miles has made the 757 and 767 aircraft a choice for cargo carrier conversions. We have delivered several shipsets of 767 flight decks to Amazon, who is creating their own fleet expansion. We continue to see demand for our flat panel display technology as part of the cargo conversion upgrade of these aircraft. The first quarter was a reasonable start to the new fiscal year in light of the virus's impact on our industry, and we are confident our strategy to focus on innovative opportunities will continue to create value for our shareholders. I'll turn that over to Rell now. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you all for joining us this morning. Looking at the first quarter, revenues were $4.9 million, up 8% from $4.5 million a year ago, reflecting an increase in King Air autothrottle system sales and growth in the flat panel display revenues arriving from the ongoing conversion of 757 and 767 aircraft to air cargo planes. Gross margins for the quarter were 52.7%, compared to 57.7% in the year-ago quarter. This is primarily attributable to an increase in direct costs as we staff operations to efficiently meet the demand of both the increase in production programs under contract and the increasing demand for air transport retrofit services. Warranty expense also increased in the quarter. Margins remain in line with historical averages and can be expected to expand as we leverage our fixed investment through revenue growth anticipated over the balance of the year. Total operating expenses for the first quarter of fiscal 2021 were $23.3 million, down marginally from a year ago, and basically unchanged from the preceding fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. Operating expense control remains our priority, and we do not believe they will rise much further from current operating levels over the balance of the year. Research and development expense decreased from the year-ago quarter, reflecting increased product development programs that were allocated to cost of sales in the quarter. Research and development expense were over 12% of quarterly revenues, which is consistent with our strong commitment to innovative and new product development. Selling, general, and administrative expenses were up marginally from the year-ago quarter. Note that first quarter operating expenses reflect the increase in staff brought about by steady growth, as well as the one-time costs typically incurred in the December quarter, such as our annual audit. This increase was partially offset by reduced marketing show expenses, a result of COVID-19. For the quarter, we generated operating income of $232,000, a marginal increase from the year-ago quarter. We reported quarterly net income of $240,000, or $0.01 a share, as compared to net income of $328,000, or $0.02 per share in the year-ago quarter. This decrease in net income is due to a reduction in interest income this quarter, reflecting the decreased cash balance and lower interest rates compared to the year-ago quarter. The company remains in strong financial position with cash on hand of $5.6 million at December 31st, 2020. Our cash position is net of nearly $20 million of dividends dispersed in the fourth quarter, offset by approximately $1.7 million of positive cash flow from operations. We anticipate being operating cash flow positive for the full year. The company is debt-free. Consequently, we believe the company has sufficient cash to fund operations for the foreseeable future. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Shahram. Thank you, Rell, and good morning, everyone. Continuing a trend in the first quarter that now stretches back over the last couple of years, we grew revenues, generated a profit, and were cash flow positive. These results reflect the growth of recurring revenues from OEM production contracts, ongoing demand for our legacy products, and the growing aftermarket upgrades of ThrustSense products. These results also reflect the diversity of our markets, high quality of our customers, who are among the most respected brands in the industry. This focus on working with the best in the business on both new and existing airframes, new and existing technology, has proven to be a formula for success. While our Pilatus PC-24 and Boeing KC-46 contracts have been underway for some time, our Textron King Air contracts are beginning to ramp up. Initial units, including those ticketed for simulators, have been shipped with the King Air 260 scheduled for delivery until later this year, and the new version of C90 to follow, we are not at full run rate production volumes. Textron has noted that it delivered eight King Air 360s in the fourth quarter, and as Textron sales production rates increase, we will follow suit. The larger opportunity in the King Air market is the approximately 5,000 aircraft that are currently in service. We estimate the retrofit market to be about a $300 million opportunity. The versatility and performance of our autothrottle is enabling us to look at growth potentials across all our markets, commercial air transport, general aviation, and military. For instance, we are in conversation with manufacturers of both twin-turboprop, twin-jet, and multi-engine aircraft with regards to our autothrottle, not only in the business aviation market, but in the military and other markets as well. While some of these discussions have slowed down due to the pandemic, the interest is real, and the potential is exciting. It always is encouraging to receive further recognition for our ThrustSense autothrottle from industry experts, such as recent Flying Magazine Editors' Choice Awards, based on products that have the greatest influence on safety and technology in aircraft operations. Briefly reviewing some of our ongoing programs, the PC-24 program has been highly successful, and we expect aircraft delivery rates to remain at a steady level. We believe this program will continue to run for many years, offering predictable, stable, recurring revenues. As Jeff mentioned, the ongoing growth of online shopping and the dramatic decrease in air passenger traffic has cargo carriers aggressively acquiring 757 and 767 aircraft. They are now converting to cargo planes. Part of these conversions, our cargo carrier customers, such as Icelandair, DHL, and Amazon, are installing our flat panel display systems. There are over 1,000 operational 757s and 767s, and a large number are still available for cargo conversion retrofitting. We believe will lead to ongoing, steady demand for our flat panel display technology. The KC-46 program with Boeing is one of our three OEM production contracts. It continues to provide a steady contribution to our recurring revenue and profitability. Finally, we maintain our relationship with Eclipse and its aircraft owners, many of whom are upgrading their cockpit with our synthetic vision and enhanced autothrottle technology, for which we received STC just this past September. New orders in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 were $5.4 million, up $2 million sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2020. Backlog as of December 31, 2020, was $4.2 million, which is also an increase compared to the end of the previous quarter. Backlog at the end of any one quarter is not necessarily indicative of future business activity, as revenue is also comprised of intra-quarter book-and-ship orders which never enter backlog. As I first mentioned last quarter, the pandemic has limited our ability to personally meet with customers and prospects, as well as to work with the FAA, which is operating under a work-from-home directive. These are headwinds that are temporarily slowing some of the progress we would have otherwise anticipated. In the longer term, we do not expect the impact of the pandemic to materially alter our overall growth strategy or our ability to drive profitability and generate positive cash flow. Before turning the call back to Jeff for some closing remarks, let me quickly note the effort of our employees to integrate new safety protocols in our standard operating procedures and how this has enabled us to maintain productivity without jeopardizing their health, safety, or well-being. Let me turn the call back to Jeff for some closing remarks. Thanks, Shahram. The fiscal year is off to a solid start, with revenues up, continued profitability, and strong cash flow. We have rewarded our shareholders with nearly $20 million in dividends in the second half of calendar 2020. It is our intention to continue to build the business to create even greater value for our shareholders in the long term. Thank you for coming. Thank you for your ongoing support. Thank you for your encouragement. Thank you for your audience today. Operator, please turn us over for questions. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. First question will be from David Campbell of Thompson Davis & Co. Hey, Jeff, Shahram, Rell. Hey, David. Thanks for your comments today and for doing a good job despite the pandemic and that impact on your company. I also want to thank you very much for the special dividend in December. That was well needed by the Campbell family. Thank you very much. I'm hopeful of revenues in coming quarters will begin to reflect the optimism of who you have in your various products and for services. I'll continue to estimate probably more earnings than I should. One of these quarters, I expect your optimism will produce some meaningful profits. If you have any problem with that, please let me know. Thank you. Listen, I'm the first guy that wants you to have more profits. Remember, I'm the largest shareholder in the company, so I want to have lots of profits. I'm with you. Keep up the good work. Thank you, Jeff. The next question will be from Roger Goldman, a private investor. Good morning, Jeff, and well done, team. Very nice quarter in spite of all the headwinds and very optimistic. Jeff, I have a question about battery-powered airplanes. There's a lot of attention being given to battery power as the future of aviation. There are any number of incredibly well-funded startups who are already flying these airplanes with delivery expected in the next two years. Have you looked at playing in that market, and if so, how? The quick answer is no, we haven't. We would like to see the market develop a little more definitively. My judgment is that it's terrific. You can do a lot of things with electric motors that you can't do with any other propulsion means. One of the problems continues to be a source of energy to drive the motors. Yep. Batteries are difficult. The latest looks at trying to use hydrogen in a new way to produce enough energy would be good. There's good reasons for it, because remember, a battery doesn't get any lighter as it gives up its charge. Right. You're carrying all that huge amount of weight. It's like carrying a full load of fuel to landing, and you don't want to do that. It makes it a lot more problematic. I don't know how long it'll take, but it'll be probably 20 years. I'm reminded by Shahram that they're telling us we're going to have fusion energy for 30 years. Yeah for the last 70 years. It'll happen, I'm sure. I just don't know when. In the meantime, we're very much focused towards the conventional demand. There's an awful lot of aircraft out there, especially interested in our autothrottle. Yeah. We're delighted that this award. Flying it was quite interesting because they selected SpaceX for landing that booster, which was amazing. Having watched NASA not ever being able to do it's a huge achievement. Bluntly, Garmin did a hell of a job getting an Auto land in a small airplane. We'd like to think that we can do an Auto land in a bigger airplane if the demand is there. I'm happy to say that. FAA told us that they lose 100 or two people a year for upset accidents. Yep. The work that we're doing here today and the certification, they believe, are going to save lives. That, to me, is humbling, and it also is promising for the business. Thank you. Thanks for the question. The next question will be from Michael Friedrich, another private investor. Morning, everyone. Morning. Morning. Hey, guys, can you talk to me a little bit about the twin jet market? You had mentioned it in the comments. I know that previously, prior to ThrustSense, you'd already developed an autothrottle for the Eclipse. Going forward, would you be looking to use ThrustSense in the twin jet market? What advantages do you guys have in that market over the existing players that are already there? The biggest one is our patented VMCA upset protection. Addison, Texas, famous Addison, Texas, made all the news of the airplane with 13 people on board rolling over on its back and crashing and killing them all. If you happen to be one of those people, it's really important. The equipment that we make actually prevents that from happening. That is unique. They've tried to deal with the problem for over 100 years unsuccessfully. We were able to do it, patent it, and put it into practice. Textron had the vision and the initiative to actually go ahead and put it on their airplanes as quickly as they did. Yeah. We're proud to be a partner with Textron, and we see a huge market. We've been contacted by, I'd say, if I count the number of airplanes, probably 5,000 airplanes beyond the King Air, of people who want to put an autothrottle, a autothrottle, our autothrottle on the airplane. One of the other big reasons for our autothrottle being unique is, to my mind, it's the only one that is really retrofittable. Any other autothrottle, you have to build a whole new throttle quadrant in the airplane, structural, huge modifications, or put a new engine in. We do two things. We protect the engine, which costs three quarters of a million to a million dollars to overhaul, and if you over temperature it, you have to pull it, or exceedances that can damage the airplane and loss of control accidents that can kill you. All of those make it a compelling case, and now our latest version of it will enable us to do it without taking the aircraft out of service. That's an amazing achievement. Right. We can do a retrofit without losing the revenue from the aircraft. That's great. Geoffrey, back to the question, though. I'm talking about the twin jet market. I know Addison was a King Air situation. Specifically more to the autothrottle being done on the Eclipse Jet. Will the ThrustSense be applicable to other twin jet models, or is there a different form of autothrottle you'll be marketing in that area? No, it'll be very similar, if not identical. We are, as we speak, in talks with another OEM. You isolate the two aircraft. One way of doing it is saying that you have a turboprop and a turbofan, and the turbofan or what we think of as a conventional jet airplane, like the Eclipse, had turbofan engines. We are looking at other airplanes, as we speak, that use turbofan engines. The same safety features we offer the turboprops, we now offer the turbojets. The reason we were so attractive in the turboprop market is there was no autothrottle for the King Air. 5,000 airplanes out there and no autothrottle, because it was a very difficult thing to do because the way the controls went out to the engines left an enormous amount of slack and problems with the control system. We were able to fix that. We have a unique solution, and that hopefully will continue to show interest from a broad range of people in the industry. Okay, good. Another question, Jeff. Can you talk to me about what's going on with the FAA right now? Like you just said, they're doing a work from home program. Do you have pending applications with them right now that you're still waiting to hear from them on? Yeah, we have a lot, but I would tell you that our ACO is Boston, and they've done an outstanding job. They're typically the bottleneck, but even working from home, they've gone out of their way. In some respects, working from home is reasonably good. We've dealt with an ACO where we used to have guys that just disappeared on us, and while we were waiting for an answer. Our FAA has been remarkably responsive, and I want to be careful. I don't want to jinx their very good performance. Working from home, I'll tell you what. I believe that in five years, maybe two years, that 25% of our key employees will be working from home. I believe there's a huge resource of early retired, remarkably talented people. At my age, I refer to them as mature. That want desperately to keep busy and work and can bring so much to our company. We don't have to move them. We don't have to tell them, "You got to leave California to come work for us." We hope to tap into that resource, and we've got a conscious effort to do it. I'll tell you, I conducted my last three board meetings by computer. We don't fly people in from Phoenix anymore. By the way, we got through the board meeting an hour early because we're all focused on getting the job done instead of having the normal chit-chats. Now, you've missed the personal relationship, and that's unfortunate. We are all focused on a job, so it's actually quite good. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. If the FAA figures out how to handle it, I'll tell you right now, so far, Boston's been doing it very, very well. They've done an outstanding job. Okay. Do you have applications that are beyond Textron that are currently in with them? Yeah. Okay. In fact, a large portion, and understand Textron's been a really good partner in that they recognize that it's terrific to put it on the new aircraft, and they, of course, did it immediately. Importantly, the existing fleet of valuable aircraft is over 5,000, and this is a relatively modest investment relative to the cost of the airplane that yields huge savings in maintenance on the engine and maybe most importantly, maybe life-saving. We're very positive. We're getting people with four-engine, multi-engine aircraft, much bigger airplanes with four turboprops that are asking us to build an autothrottle for them. We're looking at several military airplanes right now on exactly the same requirement. Right. Okay. One more question, Geoff, and I'll let you run. Just briefly touch a little bit more on the COVID impact. It sounds like this is more affecting the rollout of the retrofit market in the autothrottle. Does this have to do with the idea that you can't actually visit people in person, and they can't actually take the plane up and try things out? Can you just kind of give a little bit more color on what the hurdles are here to kind of getting all of that going? Well, I'm clearly no expert on it. Let's take a look at a couple of the problems. When you have things like COVID, and you own an airplane, you don't hop in your airplane every day the way you used to go places. Although, what we're finding is kind of interesting, is there's an increasing demand in the small jet market, so that people who want to travel, we have friends that go to Florida, and because they're at risk, and they don't have their shots yet, they're leasing airplanes or renting airplanes to make the trip. You see a lot more in that area. For people doing upgrades, they're all preoccupied with the basic of how do I stay alive and stay healthy problem, and they don't worry so much about how they're going to fly to lunch in Nantucket. It impacts the demand, then it impacts our ability to talk to our customers. We have a customer who's very interested, but I can't visit him. We have people that we would like to demonstrate our airplane with, and it limits that, too. It's subtle in some cases, but it's pervasive for sure, and it has a huge impact. Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate the clarity. Good luck going forward. Thank you very much. Look, that looks like the last one. Thank you for your time and attention today. If you do have questions, you can always call Rell. We'll get them answered for you. Thank you again for your interest and your investment. Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines. Have a great day.
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