June 24, 2021

Despite an overall drop in business, Brookings-based Daktronics improved its earnings for the most recent fiscal year.

Fiscal 2021 ended May 1, 2021, so much of the immediate pandemic-related drop was felt in the prior year.

Net income for 2021 was $10.9 million, or 24 cents per share, compared with an operating loss of $200,000, or 1 cent per share, in the prior fiscal year.

Net sales were $482 million in 2021 versus $608.9 million in 2020.

Product backlog at the end of the fourth quarter was $251 million, compared to a backlog of $212 million a year earlier and $195 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2021.

Fiscal 2021 was a 52-week year, and fiscal 2020 was a 53-week year. Sales, orders and other results of operations were impacted because of the additional week of operations.

Controlling operating expenses helped the bottom line. They totaled $103.5 million in 2021, compared with $138.9 million a year earlier. Operating margin improved to 3.5 percent as a percentage of sales for fiscal 2021, compared to a breakeven for fiscal 2020.

Daktronics is the world’s largest supplier of large-screen video displays, electronic scoreboards, LED text and graphics displays, and related control systems. Its products are found in places such as stadiums, arenas, shopping malls, Times Square and mass transportation centers.

As many of those segments were disrupted during the pandemic, the company announced in May 2020 it was cutting 100 jobs, or less than 5 percent of the workforce, after other expense reduction measures had been taken.

“As we entered into fiscal 2021, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic created uncertainty, disruption and volatility,” chairman, president and CEO Reece Kurtenbach said.

“To protect our liquidity, we reduced our operation’s spend, capital investments and returns to investors. While our orders and revenues were muted, we continued to market our solutions to customers and worked to strengthen our operations. These actions allowed us to generate cash, pay back our line of credit and generate a profit through this uncertain pandemic year. I thank all of our stakeholders for your help in managing through this unique and unprecedented time – our employees, customers, suppliers, investors and communities.”

During the fourth quarter, order and quoting activities have created a positive outlook going forward, he added.

“We believe the movement of and the safe gathering of people will allow our customers’ markets to continue to recover over the coming year,” Kurtenbach said.

“Over the long term, we believe the fundamentals of the audiovisual industry are strong and are poised for growth. We are actively investing in new technologies and markets to meet that expected demand with world-leading solutions and value. As we work through the pandemic recovery, we remain disciplined in managing our operating expenses and strategic in our capacity additions for the elevated demand. We expect headwinds in material, labor, freight availability and inflation as the world economies recover, which may cause volatility in our revenue cycles and production costs. We look forward to the global recovery and long-term profitable growth.”