Ennis reports Q1 39c vs. 47c last year

Reports Q1 revenue $97.4M vs. $102.7M last year. CEO Keith Walters commented, “Our performance for the quarter met our expectations. The print market overall continues to be fairly soft with competitive pricing, resulting in downward pressure on operating margin. Our gross profit margin showed an 80-basis point decline from the sequential quarter, decreasing from 29.2% to 28.4% and an 80-basis point increase compared to 27.6% in the same prior year quarter…Our prior year quarter was favorably impacted by the sale of an unused manufacturing facility which resulted in a $5.8M gain and increased our diluted EPS 17c. “We are in the early stages of completing the implementations of our ERP systems of our recent acquisitions and when fully implemented, we believe the margins of the acquired businesses will improve to expected levels. These acquisitions did approximately $4.5M in revenues for the quarter and $21.2M in revenues for the year. Diluted EPS were negatively impacted 1c per diluted share for the quarter and positively impacted 3c per diluted share for the year…Our profitability and strong financial condition will allow us to continue operations and take advantage of acquisitions without incurring debt. Given those strengths, we also anticipate timely access to credit should larger acquisition opportunities materialize. We continue to focus on returning value to shareholders by delivering profitability and through our quarterly dividends.”