May 24, 2021

Sioux Falls-based Raven Industries more than doubled its year-over-year net income in its first quarter, and CEO Dan Rykhus said it’s the start of an “exceptional” fiscal year.

Net income was $9.6 million, or 26 cents per share, compared with $4 million, or 11 cents per share, for the same time last year.

Consolidated net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, which ended April 30, were $112.5 million, up 30 percent versus the first quarter of fiscal 2021. The year-over-year growth was driven by increased sales in the applied technology and engineered films divisions.

“Fiscal 2022 will be an exceptional year for our company,” Rykhus said in an earnings release.

“We are experiencing high commodity prices in agriculture and a broad economic recovery in construction, industrial, energy and the other end markets we serve. Our company is well-positioned to drive record revenue and substantial earnings growth.”

While Raven expects global supply chain constraints to persist throughout the year, “I am confident in our team’s ability to continue to manage these challenges. While executing on the near-term opportunities, we will continue to invest in our strategic platforms that will drive substantial growth for our company in the coming years,” Rykhus said.

Raven’s applied technology division broke its quarterly revenue record, while also making significant progress on our strategic platforms for growth,” Rykhus continued.

“The momentum and demand in the market continues to grow for our ag technology solutions. Order activity remained very strong in the first quarter and backlog is at an all-time high. In Raven Autonomy, we are right on track with our commercialization goals in the current year as we continue to set the foundation for a step change in long-term growth for the division. The solutions we are developing are significant advancements in ag technology that will help solve labor shortages, provide greater efficiencies and enhance sustainability in agriculture across the world.”

The engineered films division generated substantial growth as end markets continued to recover from the pandemic, while rising prices and volatility in the resin market presented challenges, Rykhus added.

“However, our offering of highly engineered, high-value films provides flexibility to be able to mitigate rising input costs and maintain our strong profitability within the division,” he said. “For the full year in fiscal 2022, we expect to drive significant volume and revenue growth over fiscal 2021 and also exceed pre-pandemic sales levels achieved in fiscal 2020. These expectations for the current year are in line with plans developed two years ago as we return to normalized conditions while executing on our strategy of delivering thinner, lighter and stronger materials.”

In the Aerostar division, Raven continued to advance the technology for its stratospheric and radar solutions in the first quarter, while improving profitability year-over-year and sequentially.

“The momentum around utilizing our technology in defense applications continues to grow, and our team is working to advance our solution down the pathway of becoming a program of record,” Rykhus said. “Over the remainder of the year, we have a significant number of flight campaigns scheduled with multiple Department of Defense agencies as we continue to showcase the industry-leading capabilities for our stratospheric balloon systems.”