财报电话会议：Saga Communications报告2024年第一季度业绩喜忧参半
在2024年第一季度财报电话会议上，Saga Communications (SGA)报告净收入略有下降，运营费用有所增加。首席执行官Chris Forgy谈到了广播行业面临的挑战，强调了与广告商信任的重要性以及向数字广告的战略转变。
首席财务官山姆?布什详细介绍了财务业绩，包括净收入下降2.5%，至2470万美元，运营费用增加5.9%，至2300万美元。该公司还讨论了其收购战略、专注于数字增长以及向股东回报价值的计划。
2024年第一季度净收入下降2.5%，至2470万美元。
由于员工薪酬及营运增加，营运开支上升5.9%成本部分。
Saga Communications正在将其广播电台集团更名为媒体集团，将销售商更名为媒体顾问。
该公司收购了印第安纳州拉斐特的五家广播电台。
Saga Communications报告了2880万美元的现金和短期投资。
该公司的数字业务收入占总营收的一半约占第一季度总收入的10%。
车站的运营费用预计今年将增加4%至5%。
到2024年，公司一般和管理费用预计将在1200万美元左右。
税率预计在26%至29%之间，递延税为3%至6%。
佐贺通讯正在经历坏账费用增加和客户延迟付款的问题。
有必要获得更大份额的媒体支出，以应对行业挑战。
该公司正在投资于互动收入、电子商务等领域在线新闻产品和NTR。
重点关注电子商务、流媒体和互联网的收入增长在线新闻服务。
尽管该公司的战略重点是数字，但数字收入占总营收的6%只有一个约占第一季度总收入的10%。
佐贺通讯打算重新培训媒体顾问，以有效地与客户接触。
该公司尚未宣布派发股息，但计划建议通过股息或股票回购实现股东价值回报。
未来的收购将瞄准中小型市场。
Saga Communications在管理不断增加的运营成本的同时，通过强调数字增长和战略收购，引领着不断发展的媒体格局。在适应行业需求的同时，该公司致力于转变其商业模式并向股东回报价值的承诺仍然是一个焦点。
在最近的市场活动中，佐贺通讯(SGA)的财务业绩表现出了弹性。截至2024年第一季度，该公司的市值为1.3046亿美元，在过去的12个月里一直处于盈利状态，这与分析师对该公司今年将保持盈利的预测一致。这种盈利能力反映在公司的市盈率上，截至2024年第一季度，该公司的市盈率为18.5倍，过去12个月的调整后市盈率为18.81倍。
与Saga Communications特别相关的一个InvestingPro提示是其可观的股息收益率，据报道，该公司2024年的股息收益率为17.28%。对于寻求收益的投资者来说，这一高收益率值得注意，尤其是考虑到该公司已连续13年保持股息支付，这表明了向股东回报价值的坚定承诺。
尽管收入增长略有下降，截至2024年第一季度，过去12个月的收入增长幅度为-2.69%，但Saga Communications仍设法保持了18.42%的毛利率，虽然不是最强劲的，但表明了其运营效率的某种程度。
对于有兴趣深入了解Saga Communications财务状况和未来前景的投资者，InvestingPro提供了额外的见解和指标。目前，SGA有6个以上的InvestingPro Tips，网址为http://k1.fpubli.cc/file/upload/202405/12/g1anf30dxwl。为了提高你的投资策略，使用优惠券代码PRONEWS24可以获得每年或两年一次的Pro和Pro+订阅额外10%的折扣。
接线员:大家早上好，欢迎来到佐贺通讯2024年第一季度财报发布会和电话会议。此时，所有参与者都被置于仅听模式。现在我很荣幸把讲台交给主持人克里斯·弗吉。先生，这一层是你的。
Chris Forgy:谢谢你，Matt。就像我上次说的，我们会为你和我们的公司找到一个地方，用你那种温顺的语气。我们会解决这个问题的。但是，再次感谢你，马特，感谢每一个人谁是花时间加入我们的Saga的第一季度收益电话会议。我们感谢您对Saga Communications的持续关注和支持，我们相信Saga Communications是世界上最好的广播公司。最近，我从其他广播公司听到越来越多的事情，比如坏账费用在增加，90天的旧账加上应收账款在增加。客户预订得更晚，付款也更晚。佐贺是买家，不是卖家。跟我们谈谈收购我们公司的事吧。嗯，我们也经历了一些——前面提到的一些，这让你有点想知道，这个行业是否有一点让我感到惊讶。也许有。但是你看，这个行业并没有崩溃，它只是在放缓，只是一点点。我们可以选择坐着不动，什么都不做，保持现状，让重力顺其自然，或者我们可以采取不同的行动，我们选择了后者。还记得我们以前在学校遇到的数学问题吗，这里有一个给你。广播最多只占媒体支出的7%。举个例子，如果你在一个市场上，电台集团在该市场上占有35%的收入份额，那么电台集团实际上只获得了该市场总广告支出的不到3%。忘掉那7%，我们每天都要接触的客户，那些与我们有着“良好关系”的客户。将超过60%的资金或广告预算用于数字产品和供应商。我说的不是网络开发，而是数字广告，他们平均使用三到四个不同的数字供应商来做这件事。所以在很大程度上，我们作为一个行业还没有赢得他们足够的信任来与他们进行60%的讨论。我们的大多数广告商信任我们，只有7%的讨论。事实是，这有点令人震惊，但事实是，在我看来，我们所有的7%都处于危险之中。我之前多次说过，Saga的目标不是成为一家数字公司。但为了保存和保护这7%，我们必须向我们的卖家提供必要的技能，使我们有资格与客户进行60%的讨论，再加上7%，并且一直这样做。这是Saga在过去16个月里经历的转型变革的主要和最后一部分。那些参加过我们季度电话会议的人，你们听过我们谈论这个。我们已经提供了愿景和产品，现在，我们正在为我们的领导者和卖家提供技能，帮助他们在60%的讨论中赢得一席之地。因此，作为一项前瞻性的意向声明，我们将把我们所有的广播电台集团更名为媒体集团，并将我们所有的销售者、客户经理和客户主管的头衔改为媒体顾问，就像金融或旅游顾问一样，他们对待客户的方式是这样的:客户先生和太太，在你的金融旅行之旅中，你渴望或希望去哪里?让我带你去吧。让我做你的向导。我们了解收听我们的广播电台和流媒体的人以及他们的行为，我们比任何人都更了解这一点。作为一个行业，我们知道这一点。那么，为什么现在要开始这个改变呢?因为只有现在，我们才能通过过去16个月的准备工作，为我们的广告商和广告合作伙伴带来更多的负担。这是广播，然后有些，然后有些，如果没有漏斗顶部，传统媒体，或者用外行的话说，广播和我们的Saga在线新网站和服务，就无法工作。山姆将介绍我们的许多细节，我称之为，我们称之为，我想你会同意，是一个低于标准的第一季度的表现。一些标题有点令人震惊和误导，尤其是当你看到完整的故事时，山姆将提供。虽然我们无法做到季度盈利和长期经营，但它绝不像Saga那样。相对于其他广播公司的表现，我们满意吗?绝对不是。如果最近有人告诉我，你不能花费相对表现。作为转型变革和其他必要运营成本的一部分，费用是否会增加?是的，他们是。我们是否受到这种转型变化的进展方向和我们正在经历并将继续自愿经历的增长的鼓舞?当然了。星星之火才能燎原。你们可能都听说了，火种已经点燃了。接下来，我将把话筒交给我们的首席财务官萨姆·布什。萨姆，现在轮到你了。
Sam Bush: Thank you, Chris. Now for my favorite two paragraphs in the whole conference call. This call will contain forward-looking statements about our future performance and results of operations that involve risks and uncertainties that are described in the Risk Factors section of our most recent Form 10-K. This call will also contain a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation for all the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure are attached in the selected financial data tables. Now on to the numbers. For the quarter ended March 31, 2024, net revenue decreased 2.5% to $24.7 million compared to $25.3 million last year. Political did not have a major impact this quarter. As for the quarter, we had $312,000 in gross political revenue this year compared to $194,000 for the same period last year. Political has been slower than expected so far this year. We do expect it to pick up as the year progresses, but it’s still difficult to determine, where the hot races will be and how they will impact the states and markets we are in. Station operating expense, as Chris talked about, was up 5.9% to $23 million for the three-month period. As discussed in previous conference calls, we made a strategic decision to reward our staff, pay increases in recognition of the work they do and for economic and competitive purposes, we continue to do so. These pay increases and related payroll taxes amounted to an estimated $471,000 or approximately 37% of the increase in the first quarter’s station operating expense. We also had other smaller but still meaningful increases in our station operating expenses, including increases in health insurance sales surveys, interactive streaming and content and bad debt expense. This, in total, amounted to approximately 50% of our total station operating expense increases in the first quarter. For a bit more color on the expenses, interactive streaming and content expense was up $109,000 for the quarter, which was in conjunction with the overall increase in gross interactive revenue of $572,000. This does include some of the start-up expense for our online news product. Also, the bad debt expense was very unusual for Saga and was mainly the result of an issue incurred with one agency as well as the overall economic conditions impacting our clients. We will be working through this as the year progresses. We had an operating loss of $2.4 million for the quarter compared to an operating income of $905,000 for the same quarter last year. As indicated in the press release, the operating loss for the quarter included $971,000 other operating expense, which was a noncash write-off on the sale and abandonment of nonproductive broadcast assets/licenses in two of our markets during the quarter. Station operating income, a non-GAAP measure, was $2.8 million for the quarter. Capital expenditures for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 were $1.1 million compared to $1.4 million for the same period last year. We currently expect to spend between $5 million and $5.5 million for capital expenditures in 2024. For the quarter, we continued to see good growth in our interactive revenue, which was up as previously stated, $572,000 for the quarter. While local revenue is down for the quarter, it’s important to note that e-commerce, which mostly gets recorded as local direct revenue increased $348,000 for the quarter. As Chris stated, we believe that there is still significant growth to be achieved in both of these areas. We continue to plan on utilizing our financial strength to strategically invest in our operations, both in the market and corporate level as we work to grow specific revenue types, including local, national, interactive e-commerce, online news products and NTR. Also, we are planning on closing on our previously announced acquisition of five radio stations in Lafayette, Indiana from the Neuhoff family as of June 1, 2024. The current staff’s commitment to serving their local community is a great foundation to build off of as we bring them into the Saga family. The purchase price, subject to adjustments is $5.3 million. The company’s balance sheet reflects $28.8 million in cash and short-term investments as of March 31, 2024, and $23.7 million as of March 6, 2024. We paid a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share for an approximate total of $1.6 million on March 8. We also paid our first variable dividend of $0.60 per share for an approximate total of $3.8 million on April 5. To date, we have paid over $130 million in dividends to our shareholders since 2012. That’s something I’m very proud of. Pacing for the second quarter remained soft and somewhat volatile as we ended April up low single digits, but both May and June are currently pacing down mid to high single digits. At this point, we would expect second quarter overall to be down low single digits. based on the first quarter and our current projections, we currently expect that our station operating expense will increase by approximately 4% to 5%, which is a change from what we’ve suggested in the past for the year as compared to 2023. In addition to the inflationary environment that is significantly driven by our investments in our staff, sales training and ongoing interactive development, including our online news product. We anticipate the annual corporate general and administrative expense to be approximately $12 million for 2024. Our tax rate is expected to be 26% to 29% with a deferred tax of 3% to 6% going forward. And Chris, with that, I will turn it back over to you.
Chris Forgy:谢谢你，Sam。山姆，记得我之前在电话里说过无线电没坏，只是速度变慢了。我们只是有一个形象或者我认为是感知挑战。山姆,你会怎么做如果我告诉你,我有一个应用程序,而不是一个开胃菜,因为我知道你责骂,但是如果我有一个应用程序,应用程序在给定的时间达到91%的美国成年人18 +到达不同的观众和提供targetability、数字化和空气,同时是地方性和国家提供最有效的cpm,提供所有其他流媒体服务,如亚马逊(纳斯达克:Amazon)、苹果公司(纳斯达克:Apple)音乐,YouTube,Spotify(纽约证券交易所股票代码:SPOT)卫星广播组合，提供了有史以来最高的投资回报率广告支出，并且现在正在做所有这些事情。你喜欢这个应用吗?
山姆·布什:我想问你去哪里买。
Chris Forgy: It’s called radio. Radio isn’t broken. It’s just slowing down, maybe a little misunderstood. And Saga is not big enough in order to have the scale to speed radio back up for the entire sector, but we can speed it up for Saga. And the toughest time to change is not when something is broken, but when something starts to slow down and radio is slowing down. Think of a professional athlete who’s just passed his or her prime, it’s tough to move on from them and cut them loose. But if a career-ending injury occurs, then you have to. You have no choice but to change, and change is hard. We are choosing not to wait for a career-ending injury, but to create transformational change and growth. We’ve chosen. You’ve heard me say this many times during the call, we have chosen, we’ve done it voluntarily. We’re bringing this on ourselves, if you will, to bring about and initiate our own transformational change. And it takes time, discipline, investment spending and our very strong stomach to start the fire and keep it stoked. As I said, transformational change is not immediate and certainly isn’t easy. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it may. Anything worth a dam isn’t easy. In fact, many stop when it gets hard, they lack courage. We’re doing it anyway. Courage is nothing more than fear holding on just one moment longer. You see part of leadership is developing a vision and diligently staying with it even in the face of difficulty, doubt and those who don’t want you to or don’t believe you will succeed. We’ve been sharing quarter-by-quarter for 16 months, our growth in critical silos of business like e-comm. During the trailing 12 months, we produced nearly $2 million in revenue. Q1 2024 was up 249% year-over-year in this space and April 2024 was our best month ever. In our streaming revenue, our TTM was at $4.8 million, a $1.6 million lift year-over-year and April, again, was our biggest month ever. Now on to our online new services. Year-to-date, our online new services have over 1 million users, over 3.5 million page views and have amassed over $1.5 million in revenue and all 18 sites will be deployed and operating by the end of June 2024. That’s speed. What we’re doing now is the next step of this transformational process. Again, it started with a vision for growth then we provided tools and resources to begin the growth process. Now we’re providing the skills, training and teaching necessary in order for our leaders and media advisers to execute, and we must now execute. We are retraining the minds of our media advisers on how they look and think about our product and our customers’ business. Saga’s Senior Vice President of Operations, Wayne Leland and Saga’s Architect for Innovation and Growth, I think that’s a really cool title, by the way, Matt Burgoyne are heading up this critical effort along with our entire corporate leadership team, and it’s tough and we’re all resolved to success. This paradigm shift is not about our products, our transmitters, our towers, our morning shows, our ratings or even our music. It’s about the audiences we reach and serve and the knowledge we have acquired over time about those listeners along with the expertise as broadcasters we possess to persuade them, then to capitalize on all that we have learned about the process consumers go through and how they behave as they engage with an advertiser, ultimately resulting in more customers, more patients, more clients and more sales for our advertising partners. So there really is no better time than right now to go through this transformational change. Things are not broken. They’ve just slowed down. As I have said all along, by doing it now during a time when there are definite headwinds and times are tough and people are sweating. In those headwinds subside, Saga will come out on the other side stronger ahead of the pack, better serving our customers and realizing exponential growth versus the flat being the new up when it comes to broadcast revenue. So if I may, and I appreciate your attendance and your consideration today. I’ll leave you with this. At the signing of the declaration of independence, George Washington was in a dubious position of attempting to ratify the constitution. It’s not going to be easy. Many of the delegates to the convention did not share his faith in the constitution. In fact, you may remember Ben Franklin’s quote. During the debate, gentlemen, we must now hang together or we shall most assuredly, hang separately – we must now hang together or we most assuredly will hang separately. During the convention, Washington was seated on an old widen chair, with not a full sun, but a half sun carved into the chair. After strong debate and resistance, the men agreed to sign the declaration of independence. And as the men signed a constitution, Ben Franklin said that he had the great happiness to know that the sun carved into Washington’s old wooden chair was a rising sun and not a setting sun. Thank you all for your time, your interest and your support of Saga Communications, the best media company with the best people on the planet. Sam, do we have any questions?
萨姆·布什:首先，我要说的是，克里斯，听了这些之后，在你的办公室里看到你田纳西的东西，我能想到的就是，我想戴上头盔——老实说，让我坐上教练。我们能搞定的。如果我早点想到这一点，我早就把它做完了。但是，是的，我们确实收到了一些问题，收到问题总是很好的，但如果这些问题是我们在电话中已经回答过的问题，那就更好了。所以我要讲的是其中一个是关于第一季度的数字发展情况，我们已经讨论过了。但是我们今年的销售额是11%，基本上数字和互动是我们总收入的一部分。我想说的是，我们在第一季度的总营收中，数字营收约占10%，这一比例在10%之间。再说一遍，我是一个搞金融的人，所以我的答案比较保守，今年的营收比例大概在10%到11%之间。所以我很欣赏你的问题。接下来是一些其他的问题。他的问题是，我将把其中的两个问题放在一起，他的问题是请讨论一下下次分红的时间和数量，今年剩余时间的分红以及讨论一下当前对股票回购的看法?
Chris Forgy:如果你不介意的话，Sam，我先讲前半部分。我们还没有宣布派息。然而，管理层的意图是建议向股东回报价值，无论是季度经营股息变量还是特别股息。
山姆·布什:克里斯，我想补充一点，董事会认为每季度回购股票是特殊的，我已经说了很多年了，还有我们的新变量，股息，我们今年早些时候第一次支付。我之前在每次董事会上都说过。董事会将根据当前的经济状况和收购机会，考虑并宣布未来的股息，比如我们在电话中已经谈到的老佛爷。正如你所说，在可预见的未来，继续向董事会推荐当前的季度股息水平，这当然是管理层的意图。下一个问题是……
Chris Forgy:今天我们有很多问题。
山姆·布什:是的，我们回答了，但是我们已经回答了更多的问题。所以…
Chris Forgy:好的。好吧。
山姆·布什:所以我们真的还有一个问题，这实际上是两个问题的混合。我们有一个问题，哪个集群在本季度更强，哪里更弱，然后这与我们的资产基础有关，可以这么说，相对于我们的市场规模和我们未来的意图是什么?
Chris Forgy:所以，是的，最大的城市在本季度受到了BCF下降的冲击，但它确实影响了各种规模的市场。仅供参考，在Lafayette关闭之后，我们的27个市场中将有22个是在小于100的市场中运营的市场。因此，在我们前进和考虑收购的过程中，我们将始终关注中小型市场。
萨姆·布什:很好。有了这些，我想我们就只有这些了。一如既往，如果有任何问题，请直接与Chris和我联系，我们可以安排与您直接通话。感谢大家参加这次电话会议。马特会把它交给你收尾。
接线员:谢谢。各位，今天的活动到此结束。你可以在这个时候断开连接，并有一个美好的一天。谢谢你的参与。
萨姆·布什:谢谢你，马特。
Chris Forgy:谢谢你，Matt。
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