Monday, March 13, 2006

Jones Soda conference call

I was able to print out the JSDA conference call on Friday and read it over. First of all, JSDA went up over 6% today so that greatly helped my portfolio while the markets remained flat.
I thought the conference call was good and the results were great.
4th quarter revenue was up 37% and they had a positive EPS of 3 cents (which would have been higher but they dealt with some one-time costs).

Some more positive news: they extended the Barnes and Noble agreement for another year and Starbucks will add a third flavor. Panera is rolling out a customization program and Starbucks is going to start one soon.
I was hoping lincensing revenue was going to come up bigger. It increased 12% and this is revenue from Target (cans), Kroger (frozen pops), and Big Sky (candy). This number seemed a bit weak considering the base amount was fairly small. The 12% increase equals about $123,000

Gross margins improved as did their cash position. A few financial ratios declined though, so it's worth keeping an eye on them. Accounts receivable days outstanding increased to 38 days, while accounts payable increased to 42 days. Average days of inventory increased to 77 days. It's nothing too drastic, but it could cause trouble if the trends continue (I don't think they will).

I'm curious as to how long they will keep going with their energy drinks. The margins are good, but it doesn't seem to be catching on.
Most of the analysts thought it was a good earnings report, except for Jeff Kanter who seemed disappointed (but I think this is a common thing with him).

One last thing to mention is their cash flow position. They had cash flow from operations of about $875,000 and capital expenditures of roughly $240,000 (60k from branding and 180k on regular capex). This equates to a rough free cash flow calculation of $635,000
FCF = CFO - Capex
On a FCF/share basis, the results are not very meaningful, but the important thing is that they are cash flow positive.

I've successfully caught a cold, so time for some rest.

1 comment:

Tiredbuthappy said...

Wow, I haven't thought about Jones soda for years. In the snowboard shop where I worked between college and grad school, we sold Jones. Cool labels. Bright colors. TERRIBLE beverage. Tasted like sugar water. Has it improved? I always wanted to like it because the company seemed so cool.

Jeez, that was almost ten years ago. Glad they've survived.