Insteel Industries Inc. (NYSE: IIIN) today announced financial results for its third quarter ended July 3, 2021.

Third Quarter 2021 Results

Net earnings increased to $18.4 million, or $0.94 per diluted share, from $6.7 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, in the same period a year ago. Insteel’s third quarter results benefitted from higher spreads between selling prices and raw material costs driven by strong demand for the Company’s reinforcing products and price increases implemented to recover rapidly escalating manufacturing costs.

Net sales increased 31.8% to a record $160.7 million from $122.0 million in the prior year quarter driven by a 32.9% increase in average selling prices offset by a 1.0% decrease in shipment volumes. The average selling price increase was the result of price increases implemented during the quarter, while the decrease in shipment volumes reflects tight supply conditions for raw materials. On a sequential basis, average selling prices increased 14.2%, while shipments increased 1.2%.

Gross margin widened 750 basis points to 19.6% from 12.1% in the prior year quarter primarily due to the higher spreads. Insteel’s net earnings for the current year quarter reflect a $0.4 million increase in cash surrender value of life insurance policies, which reduced selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expense, and $1.6 million in restructuring charges related to the Company’s March 16, 2020 acquisition of substantially all the assets of Strand-Tech Manufacturing, Inc. (“STM”) that includes a $1.4 million impairment of an asset held for sale related to the pending disposition of the STM real property, which, in the aggregate, decreased net earnings per share by $0.05. In the prior year the aggregate impact of these items increased net earnings by $0.04 per share.

Operating activities generated $36.2 million of cash compared with $17.3 million in the prior year quarter due to a combination of increased net earnings and a reduction in net working capital, which provided $13.2 million of cash in the current year quarter as compared to $8.4 million in the prior year quarter.

Nine Month 2021 Results

Net earnings for the first nine months of fiscal 2021 increased to $41.5 million, or $2.13 per diluted share, from $11.6 million, or $0.60 per share, in the same period a year ago. Net sales increased 25.4% to $419.3 million from $334.4 million in the prior year period driven by a 16.5% increase in average selling prices and a 7.7% increase in shipments. Gross margin widened 860 basis points to 19.5% from 10.9% due a combination of higher spreads and increased shipments.

Insteel’s net earnings for the current year period reflect a $1.5 million increase in the cash surrender value of life insurance policies, which reduced SG&A expense and $2.8 million of restructuring charges related to the STM acquisition, which, in the aggregate, decreased net earnings per share by $0.05. Net earnings for the prior year period reflect $1.2 million of restructuring and acquisition charges related to the STM acquisition and a $1.1 million gain on the disposition of assets held for sale, which, in the aggregate, offset resulting in no impact on net earnings per share.

Operating activities generated $65.5 million of cash compared with $44.6 million in the prior year period due primarily to an increase in earnings. Working capital provided $11.9 million of cash in the current year period as compared to $19.1 million in the prior year period.

Capital Allocation and Liquidity

Capital expenditures for the first nine months of fiscal 2021 increased to $13.7 million from $3.4 million in the prior year period and are expected to total up to $20.0 million in 2021 to complete the upgrade and redeployment of the STM assets, support the growth of our engineered structural mesh business, invest in our information systems, and fund recurring maintenance requirements.

Insteel ended the quarter debt-free with $89.8 million of cash and no borrowings outstanding on its $100.0 million revolving credit facility.

Outlook

“We are encouraged by the continued strength in private and public non-residential construction markets,” commented H.O. Woltz III, Insteel’s president and CEO. “The swift rebound in widely monitored non-residential construction market leading indicators to almost record levels together with consistent levels of public construction spending give us confidence that demand will remain robust into 2022.”

Woltz continued, “Of increasing concern, however, are ongoing supply constraints and sharply escalating raw material prices in both domestic and international markets that are creating heightened uncertainty for our customers and having an unfavorable impact on our operations. While we are seeking to supplement domestic steel availability with offshore supplies, we do not expect significant relief from tight supply conditions through the end of the calendar year. Despite these challenges, we expect favorable demand and strong financial performance for our fourth fiscal quarter.”

Conference Call

Insteel will hold a conference call at 10:00 a.m. ET today to discuss its third quarter financial results. A live webcast of this call can be accessed on Insteel’s website at https://insteelgcs.gcs-web.com/ and will be archived for replay until the next quarterly conference call.

About Insteel

Insteel is the nation’s largest manufacturer of steel wire reinforcing products for concrete construction applications. Insteel manufactures and markets prestressed concrete strand and welded wire reinforcement, including engineered structural mesh, concrete pipe reinforcement and standard welded wire reinforcement. Insteel’s products are sold primarily to manufacturers of concrete products and concrete contractors for use, primarily, in nonresidential construction applications. Headquartered in Mount Airy, North Carolina, Insteel operates ten manufacturing facilities located in the United States.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release, the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates,” “appears,” “plans,” “intends,” “may,” “should,” “could” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although we believe that our plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, they are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and we can provide no assurances that such plans, intentions or expectations will be implemented or achieved. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in detail and are updated from time to time in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), in particular in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 3, 2020.

All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. All forward-looking statements speak only to the respective dates on which such statements are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect any future events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events, except as may be required by law.

It is not possible to anticipate and list all risks and uncertainties that may affect our future operations or financial performance; however, they include, but are not limited to, the following: the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, demand for our products and our operations, including the measures taken by governmental authorities to address it, which may precipitate or exacerbate other risks and/or uncertainties; general economic and competitive conditions in the markets in which we operate; changes in the spending levels for nonresidential and residential construction and the impact on demand for our products; changes in the amount and duration of transportation funding provided by federal, state and local governments and the impact on spending for infrastructure construction and demand for our products; the cyclical nature of the steel and building material industries; credit market conditions and the relative availability of financing for us, our customers and the construction industry as a whole; fluctuations in the cost and availability of our primary raw material, hot-rolled steel wire rod, from domestic and foreign suppliers; competitive pricing pressures and our ability to raise selling prices in order to recover increases in raw material or operating costs; changes in United States or foreign trade policy affecting imports or exports of steel wire rod or our products; unanticipated changes in customer demand, order patterns and inventory levels; the impact of fluctuations in demand and capacity utilization levels on our unit manufacturing costs; our ability to further develop the market for Engineered Structural Mesh (“ESM”) and expand our shipments of ESM; legal, environmental, economic or regulatory developments that significantly impact our business or operating costs; unanticipated plant outages, equipment failures or labor difficulties; and the “Risk Factors” discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 3, 2020 and in other filings made by us with the SEC.

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