Cadre Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CDRE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Van Sinderen: Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions. I’ll take the rest offline.

Brad Williams: Okay. Thank you, Jeff. We’ll talk to you in a little bit.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Shiela [ph] with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi, guys. This is Sam [ph] on here for Sheila [ph]. Congrats on the quarter. Now I just want to ask quickly, another strong quarter of gross margins and EBITDA margins, continued sequential performance is strong. You mentioned EOD and armor mix should continue to normalize into Q4. Can you just help us frame some of these other moving pieces within the implied EBITDA guide that steps down a few points sequentially here in Q4?

Warren Kanders: The two biggest pieces are really armor mix, we do have some larger armor orders in Q4 that we have visibility today. On that we know we’ll be — the lower margin than we experienced in Q3; and really more of that normalization. And then on the EOD side, as we think about the different products, this would be moving away from EOD suits to doing more volume in some of our other product lines such as tools and robots, which are just a lower margin profile in that quarter. That’s really the two drivers along with a little bit of volume leverage, obviously with the lower top line; that’s implied in that guidance.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it. That’s helpful. Thanks. And I guess, you know, maybe just to step back and talk a little bit more on sort of top line; strong 12% year-over-year growth and up 3% sequentially, against — its typically a seasonally soft Q3. Can you just help us kind of bucket the growth drivers within that? And sort of — you mentioned the large international order, but is there anything, like timing of backlog or price or just more volume out the door that got pulled forward here in Q3?

Blaine Browers: Yes, it’s really — it’s really volume. I mean, there’s some price but the price sequentially is not a significant component there. I think as you kind of think about the drivers, there’s nothing other than a large international order I mentioned in the crowd control side; there is nothing that really sticks out significantly. The armour team, in particular, has had some significant volume; Brad mentioned, the HyperX, which is that soft tactical — they’ve continued to deliver some hard armor products as well, coming off the — driven really by the [indiscernible] school incident last year which is really going to be placed in shields. And those are really — those kind of drivers there. Other than that, there’s nothing that really kind of sticks out but those are significant numbers, when you make that large international order, that’s a very significant number for that business.

It certainly had an impact in the quarter, and you’re getting to kind of imply where we can’t really talk about the size of the order but it’s certainly implied when you look at the changing guidance, and certainly kind of Q3, Q4 change.

Unidentified Analyst: Great. Really helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Matt [ph] with ROTH MKM. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hey guys, good evening. We covered the margin swing for the fourth quarter. But I wanted to get a better understanding of the swing factors on the top line guide for the fourth quarter, I guess implied in the idea of like $10 million range. Maybe just talking about the factors on the swing into the high end or the low end of that guidance range? And then, just — are there any large orders we should be thinking about, that could get pulled in or pushed out that kind of factor in there?

Blaine Browers: Yes, the push and pull is really — is implied in that kind of range, Matt. And certainly when we get to the end of end of the year, time gets critical, you get holidays. So anything that certainly think internationally, anything that gets pushed out into kind of maybe decision point — kind of mid-December then or even earlier, that tends to have some risks to it. So there’s — I think as we always get towards the end of the year, we get a little cautious on those orders. Sort of kind of where we — the day we feel confident on the range and the guide, but there’s a couple of significant orders, really in armor is really going to be the — that kind of make or break. And that’s – kind of seemed like the business and that visibility right there that really tends to be armor and duty here that have that shorter visibility, whereas DoD tends to have that larger visibility.

So when you hear about the armor our duty here, it’s about those orders coming in. When you move to the D side, that’s typically driven by — maybe customer changes on delivery dates, right, though we already have the firm order in place or it could be driven by payments with prior to shipment, we’re waiting on a pre-payment or a full payment. Those are really kind of the two components that impact the range there as we move into Q4.

Brad Williams: And I would say overall, Matt, we’ve factored in when we built that that revise range overall, for any of those kind of potential situations that Blaine was just referencing.

Blaine Browers: And we kind of think about that too, Matt. That’s not a loss. I don’t know — we don’t think about that as losing, that would just be a push.

Unidentified Analyst: Got you. Okay, that’s helpful guys. And then, just on the acquisition. I know you probably don’t want to say too much on it, but just curious of the language you used; was that it’s similar to the existing business. Does that mean that it could be an existing products or maybe just any flavor for sort of where you might be headed there?

Warren Kanders: Matt, we’re not going to go there. Just say, the — it’s a very comfortable business, we know the people, and we’re very excited about the opportunity. Obviously, we need to go through all the things that we go through to acquire businesses, and working through the contracts and the diligence and so on. But we’re encouraged by this one, and I think when we can speak about it specifically, you’ll agree with us that it’s a very strong deal.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, great. Had to try there, Warren. Thank you.

Warren Kanders: I know. It’s okay.

Operator: And the next question comes from Ron Epstein with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Ron Epstein: Hey, good evening guys. A lot has been asked, but let me see if I can open the aperture [ph] a little bit. So Warren, when you think about M&A, security is a broad definition, right. So there are verticals that you don’t currently play in — maybe more technically oriented, tech like electronics, that kind of thing. When we think about potential deals you could do, how are you thinking about adjacencies and other verticals that aren’t — where you’re playing currently?