Iteris, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Mike Latimore: Great. Thanks very much. On the services business, Joe, I think you said some revenue was moved to the right there. So, can you quantify that a little bit? And was it this dynamic or you incurred the cost in quarter, but didn’t recognize the revenue in the quarter in that project or projects?

Joe Bergera: Yes, correct. I don’t have the precise number in front of me, but I think it’s probably around 1 million, maybe 1 million and 1.4 million in revenue. And yes, it was a situation where we did incur expense, but we weren’t able to take the associated revenue.

Mike Latimore: Got it, okay.

Joe Bergera: And by the way, I think that translated to about a 200 basis point or 300 basis point impact on our EBITDA.

Mike Latimore: Got it. Okay. And is the fact that the service gross margin would improve in the first quarter here and then sort of improve every quarter after that?

Joe Bergera : Yes, that’s generally true. What I was trying to say previously is that, I think we’ll do a better job of unlocking our services backlog as we’re able to overcome some of the labor capacity constraints. But the gross margin underperformance, if you will, in the fourth quarter, we think is largely isolated. It’s really driven more by the timing of some specific projects. And yes, that revenue did just slip to the right and we expect to recover both the revenue and then we’ll also see a benefit from a gross margin and EBITDA perspective.

Kerry Shiba: Mike, as our labor mix improves and we begin to step-up, it will not only help to unlock revenue, but also the mix between contract and our own labor will improve the margin also.

Joe Bergera: Yes, it’s really a great point. Thanks for pointing that out Kerry. Because Mike, in some instances, in order to deal with our own labor capacity constraints, we used subcontractors to perform some of the work and we don’t realize the same kind of margin on that revenue that we do our direct labor.

Mike Latimore: Okay. And just on the 10-K analysis. So, can you provide a little more clarity there? Which balance sheet items are you thinking about and then which years?

Joe Bergera: Yes. So, I clearly expect, Mike, that we’re going to have some balance sheet adjustments that are going to flow through. You may have noticed we didn’t include a balance sheet, for example, and when we put the earnings release out because those are going to be subject to change. The focus is really around deferred items that relate to our contracts in the services part of our business, really has nothing to do with the hardware business, which is much more straightforward. So, we’re poking at the deferrals. I guess I’ll reiterate that this is a balance sheet analysis, it does go back years into the past. And I wish I had the evaluation complete, but we’re going back in time and there’s a lot of contracts to look at and there’s a lot of detail to sift through. But primarily rather deferred items on the on the balance sheet.

Mike Latimore: Okay. Got it. And then, Joe, you mentioned that Iteris is, kind of specified in several, I think, proposals from the Safe Cities Act, I believe, have you seen that before? I mean, it sounds like they’re basically not doing an [indiscernible] this is what we want to spend money on, or can you just clarify that a little more?