Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. (NYSE:NGVC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Kemper Isely: Well, the way we look at it is that we had two ways of going. We could have increased the size of our quarterly dividend or issued a special dividend. And then we also look at stock buybacks. So we don’t – we’re not going to – you’d have to spend a significant amount, significantly more money on stock buybacks to get the impact of a special dividend to our shareholders. But if you look at it on a cash flow basis, the special dividend will be paid off fairly rapidly and it won’t cause any difference in our cash flow over the next three years, whereas if we had done the increase, and it gives a really good value back to our shareholders. And then, whereas if we’d done the increase in the quarterly dividend, that’s just a constant outflow of the cash.

I don’t know if that makes sense to you, but that’s the way we looked at it. We looked at it from our cash – how fast are we going to be able to regenerate that cash from the special dividend into the company. And it really has no effect whatsoever on our cash outlays compared to where we would have been before. So we thought it was well worth doing.

Scott Mushkin: Sounds good, guys. You’ve got another just great quarter. So, thanks.

Kemper Isely: All right, thanks.

Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Kemper Isely for any closing remarks.

Kemper Isely: Thank you for joining us to discuss our fourth quarter results. We take great pride in all of the company’s accomplishments in fiscal 2023. We are committed to maximizing value for our stockholders. Today’s declaration of our second special cash dividend yields a cumulative payout of $4.46 since the dividend program’s inception four years ago. We look forward to many opportunities in fiscal year 2024. Thank you and have a great day. Bye.

Operator: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.