Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRCY) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sheila Kahyaoglu: Thanks. Good evening, Mark. And, Mike, thank you for the time. So it seems like there’s a lot going on Mark, just both externally with the board and internally. Maybe can you just talk to us about how you’re balancing all the internal factors and what you’re most focused on now in terms of the business? Is it just ensuring the sales come through its supply chain? If you could talk to us a little bit about that? You mentioned R&D as well.

Mark Aslett: Sure. So it’s a good question. So I think the demand environment continues to be strong. So we’re still very, very focused on the top line. So bookings, as we said, were up 14%, year-over-year. We’ve had a 1.18 of the bill in the quarter and 1.16, over the last 12 months growing backlog 17% which gives us pretty good confidence and coverage along with the bookings that we expect in Q3 and Q4. So clearly, what the team is very focused on right now is the execution in the second half. It was unfortunate that we saw those FMS delays which has made the year more back end loaded. But we did talk about the coverage that we’ve got which is far higher than what we had coming into the second half last fiscal year. So we’ll continue to focus on mitigating the supply chain and the semiconductor lead times which continues to be a challenge, albeit incrementally improved.

Hiring, I think is better for the third quarter in a row. We are actually hiring more people than leaving and so. But we still got open wrecks along with the rest of the industry. And it’s important for us to continue to fill those positions as we’re looking at the growth in the business going forward. So I would say that the team is very focused on just execution, focus on growing the business and focusing on continuing to deal with the cumulative effects of the pandemic, Sheila.

Sheila Kahyaoglu: Sure, no, that’s helpful. And if I could follow up, I don’t know if you mentioned this in the answer that question, the FMS sale that slipped out, you said was $20 million of sales and 14 million of earnings associated with it. Was that right?

Mark Aslett: That’s correct. Yes. 10 million in Q2 and the same in Q3.

Sheila Kahyaoglu: Okay, so that’s a pretty high margin contracts in terms of thinking about that.

Mark Aslett: It is. So it’s a mix of capabilities. So again, there’s hardware associated with it. But based upon the capabilities that is also revenues and royalties.

Sheila Kahyaoglu: Okay, thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Ciarmoli with Truist Securities. Your line is now open.

Michael Ciarmoli: Hey, good evening, guys. Thanks for taking the questions here. Kind of staying on what Sheila was asking with kind of internal external lot going on. Just I guess more, labor’s been tight. To begin with? How do you think about managing talent right now? Talent loss? And doesn’t this potential announcement of strategic alternatives? I mean, can’t that add the disruption and kind of take employees off the ball focusing on execution so how do you kind of think about managing that risk right now?