Lindsay Corporation beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $1.36, expectations were $1.26. LNN isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Hello and welcome to the Lindsay Corporation Fiscal First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the call to Randy Wood, President and CEO. Please go ahead.
Randy Wood: Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal 2024 first quarter earnings call. With me today is Brian Ketcham, our Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to start by once again recognizing our dealers, partners and employees around the world for their contributions. Their focus on our customers and execution of our business strategies continues to generate positive results for our shareholders while supporting our purpose of conserving natural resources, expanding the world's potential and improving quality of life. I continue to be very appreciative of the job they're doing. Our fiscal first quarter was highlighted by growth in our North American irrigation markets and improved operating income and margin capture infrastructure segment, driven primarily by growth in Road Zipper System leasing.
In North America, demand for irrigation equipment was improved over the prior year first quarter as commodity prices and US net farm income have continued to support stable demand in our North American end markets. We experienced increased order activity as grower profitability became more transparent following harvest season. This was expected and is consistent with the wait-and-see approach we discussed coming out of last year's spring selling season. Moving to international irrigation. Our key end markets remain healthy, although revenues for the quarter were lower in South America, particularly Brazil. Despite being down year-over-year, our results remain quite solid, particularly when compared to the record-setting international revenues captured last year.
Specific to Brazil, the FINAME financing program offered by BNDES was modified this year to distribute funding and quarterly increments. Ultimately, this caused some short-term disruption to our order confirmations in the period and while this impacted our quarterly results, we do not believe this will have a significant impact to our full year results in the region. Moving to infrastructure. While we're still very much in the early stages of deployment, we are beginning to see the positive impact of IIJA-driven US infrastructure spending. We continue to see solid growth in Road Zipper System leasing and sales of our road safety products in the quarter, which largely offset the softer Road Zipper System sales and project activity in the period.
As a reminder, last year's fiscal first quarter carried the tail end of revenues from the large project in Massachusetts. Road Zipper lease revenue continues to represent a greater proportion of our consolidated infrastructure segment revenues. This sales mix remains accretive to Lindsay's overall margin profile. We also continue to actively manage projects through our Road Zipper sales project funnel. However, timing and project implementation remains challenging to forecast. In the area of technology and innovation, I'd like to highlight a few key items this quarter. The integration of the FieldWise acquisition is going very well and we're pleased that we've continued to add dealers to our distribution channel. This is a key element of our technology growth strategy and it expands our access to the installed base of competitive brands.
A farmer standing in a field with a modern irrigation system in the background.
We're also pleased to record our first commercial sale of our new RoadConnect platform in the quarter. This roadside asset monitoring technology has been well received by the market, and we expect to see growth in both device and subscription revenue going forward. I'd now like to turn the call over to Brian to discuss our first quarter financial results. Brian?
Brian Ketcham: Thank you, Randy, and good morning, everyone. Consolidated revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 were $161.4 million, a decrease of 8% compared to $176.2 million in the first quarter last year. Net earnings for the quarter were $15 million or $1.36 per diluted share compared to net earnings of $18.2 million or $1.65 per diluted share in the first quarter last year. Turning to our segment results. Irrigation segment revenues for the quarter were $140.2 million, a decrease of 8% compared to $152.1 million in the first quarter last year. North America irrigation revenues increased 7% to $89.4 million compared to $83.9 million in the first quarter last year. The increase in North America irrigation revenues resulted primarily from higher unit sales volume that was partially offset by the impact of a less favourable mix of shorter machines compared to the prior year first quarter.
Average selling prices remained stable and were comparable with the first quarter last year. In international irrigation markets, revenues of $50.8 million decreased 25% compared to record revenues of $68.1 million in the first quarter last year. The decrease resulted primarily from lower sales in Brazil and Argentina compared to record sales in those markets in the first quarter last year. Changes in the timing of funding under the financing program in Brazil that Randy mentioned and the government transition in Argentina following the recent presidential election both contributed to lower sales in the quarter. Total irrigation segment operating income for the quarter was $25.3 million, a decrease of 12% compared to the first quarter last year.
And operating margin was 18.1% of sales compared to 18.8% of sales in the first quarter last year. Lower operating income and operating margin resulted primarily from lower international irrigation revenues and the resulting impact from deleverage of fixed operating expenses. Gross margin remained consistent with the first quarter last year. Infrastructure segment revenues for the quarter were $21.2 million, a decrease of 12% compared to $24.1 million in the first quarter last year. The decrease resulted from lower Road Zipper System sales with the prior year first quarter, including $8 million of project sales that did not repeat. The impact of lower Road Zipper sales was largely offset by growth in Road Zipper lease revenue and higher sales of road safety products compared to the first quarter last year.
Infrastructure segment operating income for the quarter was $3.6 million, an increase of 7% compared to $3.4 million in the first quarter last year. And Infrastructure operating margin for the quarter was 17.1% of sales compared to 14% of sales in the first quarter last year. The increase in operating income and margin resulted primarily from a more favourable margin mix of revenue with higher lease revenue compared to the first quarter last year. Turning to the balance sheet and liquidity. Our total available liquidity at the end of the first quarter was $225.7 million, which includes $175.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and $50 million available under our revolving credit facility. Our strong balance sheet and our ample access to liquid capital resources will continue to serve as a strategic advantage for Lindsay.
As we continue to execute our capital allocation strategy to create enhanced and sustained value for our shareholders. That concludes my remarks. And at this time, I'd like to turn the call over to the operator to take your questions.
