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Ultralife Corp  (ULBI 6.35%)
Q1 2019 Earnings Call
May. 02, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET

Contents:

  • Prepared Remarks
  • Questions and Answers
  • Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Ultralife Corporation First Quarter 2019 earnings release call. At this time for opening remarks and introductions, I'd like to turn the call over to Miss Jody Burfening. Please go ahead.

Jody Burfening -- Investor Relations, MD & Principal

Thank you, LeAnn and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning for Ultralife Corporation's Earnings Conference Call for the First Quarter of 2019. With us on today's call are Mike Popielec, Ultralife's President and CEO; and Phil Fain, Ultralife's Chief Financial Officer. The earnings press release was issued earlier this morning. If anyone has not yet received a copy, I invite you to visit the Company's website, www.ultralifecorp.com, where you'll find the release under News in the Investor Relations section.

Before I turn the call over to management, I would like to remind everyone that some statements made during this conference call contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results could differ materially from those projected as a result of various risks and uncertainties. These include potential reductions in revenues from key customers, uncertain global economic conditions and acceptance of new products on a global basis. The company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect the company's analysis only as of today's date. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Further information on these factors and other factors that could affect Ultralife's financial results, is included in the Ultralife's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the latest Annual Report on Form 10-K.

In addition, on today's call management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that management considers to be useful metrics that differ from GAAP. These non-GAAP measures should be considered as supplemental to corresponding GAAP figures.

With that I would now like to turn the call over to Mike. Good morning Mike.

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning Jody and thank you everyone for joining the call. Today, I'll be discussing two topics during my prepared remarks, our Q1 2019 operating performance, and the closing of an exciting acquisition that was completed yesterday.

I'll start by making some overall comments about our Q1 2019 operating performance. Then I'll turn the call over to Phil, who would take you through the detailed financial results. After Phil has finished, I'll provide an update on the progress against our 2019 revenue initiatives, including the acquisition, then open it up for questions.

For the first quarter of 2019, both of our business units experienced year-over-year down quarters in Government defense revenues, which unfavorably impacted our operating results. For the communications systems business, whereas shipments of our leader radio ancillary components did start in Q1 2019, it was much later in the first quarter than expected when we spoke to you on last quarter's call.

We are currently working closely with our channel partner, as we ramp up production of these units which fall under the $19 million dollars in US Army delivery contracts, you will recall we received in October of 2018.

For the Battery and Energy products business, Q1 2019 revenues were down year-over-year due to timing differences and several by U.S. government defense revenue channels, as well as noteworthy revenue softness in our China manufactured 9-volt product line, which remains subject to tariffs.

The medical segment continues to be a bright spot in our B&E revenue mix, achieving a double digit revenue increase in Q1, fully offsetting the 9-volt softness and leading to a 4% increase year-over-year in our overall commercial revenues. The recent fluctuations in our government defense revenue, underscore our motivation to continue to diversify our end markets, particularly in the commercial area. To that end building on our success, in penetrating the medical market both organically and through acquisition, we are thrilled about our next acquisition, which takes us into the oil and gas and subsea electrification markets.

In a few minutes, I'll give you further information on our organic revenue initiatives, and a strategic rationale for the acquisition. But first, I'd like to ask also Ultralife CFO, Phil Fain, to take you through additional details of the first quarter 2019 financial performance. Phil?

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Thank you, Mike, and good morning everyone. Earlier this morning, we released our first quarter results for the quarter ended March 31,2018. We also filed our Form 10-Q and Form 8-K with the SEC this morning, and have updated our investor presentation in the Ultralife website. I would like to thank all those who helped make this happen.

We also announced the acquisition of Southwest Electronic Energy Corporation. I will go over the financial and accounting implications of this transaction, after my review of the first quarter results.

For the first quarter, consolidated revenues totaled $18.9 million, representing a $4.2 million or 18.2% decrease from the $23.1 million reported for the first quarter of 2018. Consolidated revenues were largely impacted by delays experienced by our communication systems business, in the start-up of production and shipment of amplifiers to support the US Army's network modernization initiatives under the $19.2 million delivery orders announced in October 2018. The resulting lower sales cascade through our first quarter financial results and other reported metrics.

The commercial to government and defense split was 53-47 versus 42-58 for the year earlier period, reflecting 4% revenue growth in the commercial sector, and lower year-over-year sales for government and defense for both businesses.

Revenues from our Battery and Energy products segment were $16 million a decrease of $1.2 million or 7.1% with gains in commercial revenues offset by lower government and defense sales. Commercial sales of $10 million grew $0.4 million over the prior year, driven primarily by a 10.4% increase in medical sales, partially offset by lower 9-Volt sales. Government and defense sales of $6 million decreased $1.5 million from the 2018 period, due primarily to timing of shipments to the US Department of Defense and nine U.S. defense contractors.

As a result, the Battery and Energy products sales split between commercial and government and defense was 63-37 compared to 56-44 for the 2018 period. The geographic distribution of our battery and energy product sales, was a domestic to international split of 47-53, compared to 55-45 for the 2018 first quarter, reflecting higher international demand for our medical products.

Revenues from our communication systems segment were $2.9 million, a decrease of $2.9 million from last year. The decline was due to delays in the start-up production and shipments of amplifiers to support the US Army's delivery orders. First quarter revenues for 2018 included shipments of vehicle amplifier adapters for the U.S. Army Special Force Assistance Brigades under a contract awarded in December 2017, and shipments of power supplies to a large global defense player. Our consolidated gross profit was $5.1 million compared to $7.3 million for the 2018 period. As a percentage of total revenues, consolidated gross margin was 26.9% versus 31.6% for last year's first quarter.

Gross profit for a battery and energy products business decreased 12.4% from $5 million to $4.4 million. Gross margin was 27.6%, a decrease of 160 basis points from 29.2% reported last year, due to unfavorable sales mix.

For our communications system segment gross profit was $0.7 million compared to $2.3 million for the year earlier period. Gross margin was 23.4% compared to 38.4%, primarily due to costs incurred to commence production of amplifiers under the orders received in October 2018. Operating expenses totaled $4.5 million, compared to $4.9 million last year. Primarily reflecting continued tight control over discretionary spending. As a percentage of revenues, operating expenses represented 24% compared to 21.4% reported for the first quarter of 2018.

Operating income for the first quarter of 2019 was $0.5 million compared to $2.4 million for the 2018 period. And operating margin was 2.9% for the 2019 period versus 10.2% last year.

First quarter non-cash operating expenses, including depreciation and tangible asset amortization and stock compensation expenses amounted to $0.8 million compared to $0.7 million for the year earlier period. This brings us to adjusted EBITDA defined as EBITDA including non-cash stock based compensation expense of $1.2 million or 6.4% of sales versus $3 million or 12.9% for the first quarter of 2018.

Other expenses primarily comprised of interest expense and foreign currency transactions decreased from $133,000 to $58,000, primarily due to the strengthening of the US dollar to pound sterling over the prior year. Our tax provision for the first quarter was $41,000 compared to $55,000 for the 2018 period.

Net income for the first quarter of 2019 was $0.4 million or $0.03 per share compared to net income of $2.2 million or $0.14 per share for the same period last year. Our cash on hand of $21.2 million decreased $4.7 million from year-end, reflecting a $5.1 million increase in inventory, primarily to support the fulfillment of our communication systems, U.S. Army delivery orders, the repurchase of 227,300 shares during the first quarter, bringing the total shares repurchased to 372,774 since our Board of Directors authorized a $2.5 million share repurchase program effective November 1st. And capital expenditures to support our CR123A and thionyl chloride strategic projects.

Our strong liquidity and access to capital affords us flexibility in making capital allocation decisions. To that end, in addition to supporting investments in new product development, capital expenditures and our share repurchase program we funded our acquisition of Southwest Electronic Energy Corporation through a combination of cash on hand and a drawdown of our revolving credit facility.

We have also completed an amendment of our credit agreement, to include a five year $8 million dollar term loan with no prepayment penalties, and extended the maturity two years through May 2022. With respect to the acquisition, we will record the purchase accounting adjustments and the direct costs related to the transactions in the second quarter, in accordance with GAAP. Taking into account the acquisition related expenses and the interest expense, we expect the transaction will be accreted to EPS by the second quarter of 2020.

In summary, the actions we are taken to drive profitable growth remain our highest priority. Our intent remains on driving volume and sales, through further organic and synergistic initiatives, supplemented with accretive M&A, to unleash the full leverage potential of our business model.

I will now turn it back to Mike.

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Phil. For 2019, we continue to be focused on increasing our revenue growth opportunity set through diversification and expansion of market and sales reach, new product development and strategic CapEx and accretive acquisitions.

I'm very pleased to announce, that yesterday the Battery and Energy products business completed the acquisition of Southwest Electronic Energy Corporation based in Missouri City, Texas. This bolt-on acquisition further supports our diversification into the commercial space, by providing entry to the oil and gas exploration and production, and subsidy electrification markets, which are largely currently unserved by Ultralife.

Another key benefit includes, obtaining a highly valuable technical team of battery pack and charger system engineers and technicians, that we are very excited to add to our new product development based revenue growth initiatives in our commercial end markets, particularly for smart metering, asset tracking and other industrial applications. The acquisition fits well with our core, and that is focused on mission critical niche applications, has competitive differentiation based on quality and reliability, long term high value proposition customer relationships, and a similar well-run business model.

And although business is cyclical, we expect it to be at least somewhat skewed from the demand cycle of our existing U.S. Government and Defense market. To give you an idea of what this acquisition will mean to us in terms of potential revenue contribution. For the total year 2018, revenues of Southwest Electronic Energy were approximately $28 million, which would represent an addition of approximately 39% to B&E's annual revenues or 32% on a total company basis, and from a percentage of total revenue mix perspective, it would represent approximately 24% of total company revenues.

We are kicking off day one of our 100 day integration plan today with the team in Texas, where we plan for them to remain, using a similar approach to what was done for our successful electronics acquisition. Lastly, we expect Southwest Electronic Energy's earnings contribution to be EPS accretive within the first 12 months.

Looking further into Battery & Energy products business; market and sales reach expansion has been about diversifying more into the global commercial markets, and international government defense markets. to lessen the volatility on our revenues, as a result of lumpiness in U.S. government defense market demand. For the first quarter of 2019, commercial and international government defense revenues represented 67% of our total B&E sales.

Looking inside our commercial revenue and our medical sales for Q1 2019, Global Medical sales representing 34% of the total B&E sales and were up 10% year-over-year. B&E total international sales were up 8% and largely medical driven. Key medical device battery and charger product shipments were made in Q1 2019 for applications including breathing devices, medical cards, infusion pumps, automated external defibrillators, digital X-ray and surgical robots.

New delivery orders in the quarter from four long-standing customers under blankets and/or multi-year agreements totaled over $4.3 million, providing good ongoing revenue from these customers.

In addition to medical, we also continued to pursue other targeted commercial end markets, including industrial equipment, safety and security, metering and sensors, asset tracking in-transport entertainment drones and UAVs and the Internet of Things. Several of these projects include ThinCell product cells from our China facility, which in Q1 2019 were up more than four times the prior year's first quarter.

Lastly in B&E's U.S. government defense business, Q1 2019 revenues were down 21% year-over-year driven, by project timing and essentially the same three customer channels, the DoD, OEM primes and energy storage, which just last quarter capped off strong quarterly and total year-over-year revenue increases, again demonstrating the demand variability in those market segments.

These shipments in Q1 2019 included a wide range of batteries for tactical communications to the Department of Defense, and various OEM primes. We also received several new orders and submitted several large proposals and responses to RFQs from our U.S. government defense customers.

Lastly we have begun the first article testing and the production readiness for the next generation 5390 primary batteries with the new CFx blend 5790 battery coming up next, getting us closer to being ready to receive delivery orders against the approximately $72 million dollars in multi-year DLA IDIQ awards received in 2017.

Regarding new product development revenue of B&E, in Q1 2019, revenue from products introduced less than or equal to three years ago, was 12% of total B&E revenue.

During the first quarter, activity continued on a wide range of products to see the new product development funnel, such as a new military communications backup battery, a non-military communications battery for the public safety market, an industrial valve application battery. The development of our smart U1 product line, including a new voltage variant. Battery solutions for medical digital imaging applications and cardiac assist device batteries and MGP improvements to our Thionyl Chloride cell product line, targeting industrial, metering and IoT applications, for a global customer base.

We continue to provide value and strengthen long term relationships by closely collaborating with key customers in the development of new products, evolving existing products to multi-generational product plans, and by helping our customers expand their products' competitive advantage.

Lastly with strategic CapEx, we continue to attack on two fronts, the development and manufacturing of the new products that will serve Internet of Things applications, in the rapidly growing wireless devices market, as well as the next generation 3-volt more smoke alarms, asset tracking devices, and metering.

At our Newark, New York facility, we have now successfully completed UN transportation testing for our US product produced, allowing us to begin shipment of samples and low volume product in April.

The automation equipment producing high volume production of our premium 3-volt primary battery product line under the previously announced $4.3 million dollar capital investment, continued to arrive over the course of Q1, with installation of the integrated cell assembly for our dry room starting in April and a debug and commissioning activities expected to continue through the first half of 2019. These new products will provide customers with world class product performance, safety, and a competitive price value proposition, as well as a supply chain proximity of a US manufactured products.

In China, our new locally manufactured lithium manganese dioxide 3-volt cell samples have been supplied to customers and we're ramping to full production volumes. Our goal is to produce the highest value proposition, best quality and safest products in which ever one of our global locations, that best serves the supply chain of our end market and OEM customers.

Regarding communication systems, in Q1 2019, new product development revenue from products less than or equal to three years old, represented approximately 68% of communication systems revenues. Shipments in the quarter included 20 watt amplifiers, 50 watt amplifiers, as well as initial IDIQ contract deliveries for non-standard commercial vehicle communication kits, and mounted power amplifier systems, in support of the U.S. Army's network monetization initiatives.

The initial deliveries in Q1 2019 for the U.S. Army's network monetization leader radio program were short of anticipated mix and volume targets, due to integration, supply chain and testing challenges and delays, and thus did not meet expected full rate reproduction in Q1. However, as these obstacles resolve, as of the end of April, we have completed more production units in the first month of Q2, than we did in all of Q1 2019. And as a result, anticipated strong increase in shipments in Q2 versus Q1.

The continued focus of military spending on modernization, provides solid opportunities for communication systems products overall, and we remain well positioned for new and follow-on program awards for the U.S. Army's handheld, manpack and small form factor programs, focused on a leader handheld radio. These systems, when integrated with a specific handheld radio from an OEM defense partner, provides a soldier with highly improved communication range, enhanced digital voice and data connectivity, and improved operational flexibility and readiness.

New product development initiatives continue to drive a significant portion of communication systems revenue, over multiple years, and we continue to engage OEMs globally, to identify emerging capability requirements to expand our product reach into new markets. We remain driven to increase new product development capacity from multiple simultaneous major programs, and achieving developmental and production innovation. We will continue fielding technically superior products, that enhance operational readiness and effectiveness of the latest radio programs and solutions operated by dismounted warfighters and installed in ground mobility, maritime and air platforms.

In closing for the first quarter of 2019, although we were disappointed that meaningful production under the recent large communications systems contracts for mountain amplifiers and vehicle amplifier adapters started later than expected, we are aggressively working to get back on track in the second quarter.

As noted last quarter, communications systems started the year with a total value of in-hand present year shippable backlog almost 30% than our total 2018 revenue, and that backlog is still expected to ship in 2019.

As we ship units against the current contracts, we will continue pursuing other new product development driven integrated communication system program opportunities.

As for the Battery and Energy products business in Q1, we are delighted to start the new year with the acquisition of Southwest Electronic Energy, not only for the new customers and revenue opportunities it will bring, but also for the strong team and technical resources that will become part of and strengthen our global team. At B&E, we are also looking for meaningful revenue capture from completion throughout the year of several maturing new products and programs, including the new 3-volt cell, a world class ER product line, smart U1 batteries, multiple medical market expansion opportunities, the government defense 5390 and 5790 primary batteries; OEM, STC and Leader Radio and Public Safety radio battery packs, and numerous 2590 rechargeable battery prospects.

As a company, we are growing the revenue opportunities created by continuing investment in market and sales reach expansion, new product development and strategic CapEx, and continue to focus on prospect development for future revenue growth from the medical and industrial markets, Internet of Things market, U.S. government defense market, and now also the oil and gas and subsea electrification markets.

We remain committed to our target of increasing revenue each quarter year-over-year, with leveraged earnings and we fully expect to deliver a year of profitable growth in 2019.

Operator, this concludes my prepared remarks and we'd be happy to open the call for questions.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instruction). And we'll take our first question from Gary Siperstein with Eliot Rose Wealth Management.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Good morning Mike and Phil. How are you?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good Gary.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

So Mike, just to just to be clear. So by you reiterating the backlog and talking about these delays, we didn't lose any customers out of their frustration because we, you know, had these delays. So everything's still intact? It's just that they were pushed out a little bit, is that correct?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

That's correct.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

OK. And then last quarter, as you said in your remarks, you had led us to believe that you know for the $19.2 million -- and I think those are VIPER orders, that it was -- half would be in the first quarter, half would be in the second. So -- and you had originally thought some of that would ship in the fourth quarter of last year, and then you had mentioned there were some things on on Ultralife's that you wanted to improve on and that caused the delay. So since that conference call was in the middle of the first quarter, so what changed? You know was the customer pushed back when they wanted the delivery? Or did it take you longer to fix the problem that flipped it from Q4 to Q1. You know, what changed after that, you know when you're leading us to believe of what happened in Q1?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

You are correct I did say that and that's why I made the direct comments addressing that during my prepared remarks. Just the continued complexity of really doing three new simultaneous amplifier designs all at once. A significant amount and I'll say actually a Herculean effort by all the project teams involved, our own project teams, as well as our OEM partners project teams, and some of their partners as well, and trying to coordinate the overall design of a very complicated configuration. And just the timing that it takes in an iterative process to go through and complete that design and complete this complex communication between the three different parties from the standpoint of the equipment.

Any changes that are made during the fine tuning or testing that would trigger a new ordering of components and lead times associated with that, you know, those things together that, I certainly, don't want to burden you with all the details of how to run the business on a day to day basis. But on an aggregate basis, they led us to where we are today. And so I wanted to make sure it was very clear that it was different than what we thought earlier. Really had nothing to do with the level of effort or hours that people were putting forth. But wanted to be truthful and honest where we stood. We didn't lose any customers. We still intend to shift the entire amount that's under contract, and that's where we are.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. So you've mentioned that there was some resolvement in the issues with the amplifiers and that you really ramped up the shipments in April, so that they were bigger than the whole first quarter. So does that mean -- is that both on VIPER and the Leader orders or is it just down to $19.2 million VIPER?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Just to be clear, we're sort of mixing apples and oranges a little bit, but let's refer to the products as -- the current $19.2 million contract, as there's two different types of mounted power amplifiers. And then there's one VIPER RASK, meaning that it's an integrated solution with amplifier, power supply, L-band capability for the handheld radio, that we referred to as VIPER when it came out for that initial contract with the U.S. Army. Right now we're just referring to the product line as a vehicle adapter amplifier.

So what we're talking about here is, the mounted power amplifiers are two separate amplifiers. The vehicle amplifier adapter is another amplifier type system, and doing all three of these all at the same time and making sure they all communicate with each other.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Ok. So again I just want to make sure I'm not confused. So the fact that you shipped in April a larger amount than the first three months, was that all on the $19.2 million, or that was various contracts?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

That was on the $19.2 million.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. So that's off and running and despite the complexities, the customer in April was happy with the amplifiers working and so forth?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Absolutely.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. And how much of that $19.2 million shipped in Q1, if any?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

We don't really provide that level of detail. Just a very beginning part of it.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. So the majority of it will go over the next three quarters?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Right.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. And then, you mentioned timing with battery orders down, and I think you called out that 9-volt was weak in China, does the weakness have anything to do with the transition in some cases the 3-volt or again, is that apples and oranges, it's just a timing issue on 9-volt and 3-volt for different different products, different uses?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I think you're correct I mean there -- it wasn't just as a result of tariffs and things like that and we've said that over the last couple of quarters. We said the contribution was transition from 9-volt to 3-volt. We said that there was a lot of people that had a liquid supply chain on their own. So when the tariffs come in place, we thought they were buying fewer products, as they let off their internal inventory. And then the outright number of people that perhaps were buying less, because of the increase in the tariff. At this point, you know, we believe given some of the customers have gotten to very low quantities, that the tariff is having a pretty substantial impact on the demand.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. Got you. And I don't not get a chance to read it yet, but Harris came out with their earnings yesterday and had a conference call. And I thought it was interesting that that they specifically talked about, how significant the tactical radio business was for DoD, and they said the revenue was up 55% in the quarter, and they talked about going forward budgets, where it will be over $1 billion larger over the next five years to $7.3 billion, and on all modernization and tactical stuff. And they specifically called out LRIP orders on the HMS manpack, the two channel radio, and how that is going to go into production and then they finally set that the Marines separate from the Army. They got initial orders for multichannel manpacks, etcetera and then they talked about international countries as well modernizing.

So you know, I know you don't talk about specific customers, but I think part of that, at least the leader orders are part of that multi-billion dollar modernization on the handhelds that Harris and Thales are the major suppliers, and I know we supply batteries to both of them. So that was a little more commentary from Harris than on any other call, regarding some of these future products and how they're ramping significantly and how the budgets are growing very significantly. Is that what you're starting to hear as well? I know it didn't come through in Q1, but are you getting some color from your customers on that stuff?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I think we've been bullish on it for some time now in terms of the overall expenditure levels without, commenting specifically about either of the two vendors that you mentioned that were involved in that program. I think it bodes well. We're providing enough ancillary equipment to the radio manufacturers themselves. So without large demand for overall radio contracts, there's not a lot of need for ancillary equipment. So we're very optimistic about it and we'll try to serve our OEM partners as best we possibly can, for technical and performance satisfaction. And you know, very optimistic of where this will go. But we will experience lumpiness from time to time in the supply chain, and we saw that in Q1.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. And Harris also mentioned in that same commentary, that they were expecting another LRIP on both the manpack and the two channel this summer for the Army. And then it should soon -- after that testing, go into full production. Is that the sort of schedule you're hearing and be up for it some point later this year or into next year 2020, that its scheduled to go in full production?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I'd rather not comment on somebody else's view of the outlook. But if that's true and it turns out to be true, I think that's good for all of us.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay great. So none of that's changed and that's growing and that's where we participate in the future. Going back to the acquisition now, Phil, you called out that it was paid for with cash and utilization of a part of the line of credit. Explain to me why the $8 million dollar term loan -- in other words my initial understanding on the line of credit, it was for $30 million or $35 million and there was a balloon aspect for another $15 million or $20 million. Is that still in place minus whatever you used, or is the line of credit gone and it's replaced by this term loan?

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Gary, we have that very thoroughly explained in the 8-K that we issued at 7 AM this morning. But I'll recap that; the revolver remains in place. If you recall the revolver is $30 million dollars plus a $20 million accordion. So what we've done is, we have worked through the First Amendment of that revolving credit agreement and the the First Amendment not only extends for the life of the agreement for two years, it also puts in place an $8 million term loan, that is part of the $30 million plus $20 million, in addition to -- with no prepayment penalties whatsoever. And the point I want to emphasize is, you know, we've been working very hard to find an Ideal acquisition for us. It doesn't mean it's a clear signal, it does not mean that it's a one and done proposition. Right after we closed the acquisition, we have our eyes out on various other projects. You know very well what our capital allocation strategy is, it's new products, its a strategic CapEx, of course a share repurchase program and it's all about profitable growth, which includes both organic and strategic M&A. So that just fortifies our desire to move forward on other projects, following the same criteria that we have in place.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay super. That's what I thought, and that's anticipating my my next question, which was I think you guys originally at Accutronics, we are talking about -- since there's almost the same amount of work involved in a $20 million acquisition, as there isn't a $60 million or $70 million acquisition, the goal was to you know find something a little more transformative and bigger. So Southwest Electronic, even though was bigger than Accutronics, to me doesn't satisfy that transformative adjective. However, therefore I'm wondering was it just too good to pass up and you're still looking for the transformative or as you just mentioned, you're back on the hunt again and it just hasn't shown up yet, the transformative one, but this one was just too good to look up together. Is that close to true?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

You know I don't know if I'd look at it that way. I look at it as a very attractive end market, that's very consistent with what what we do. And you know it happened to be this company first showed up on our list over four years ago. And you know so you have a number of discussions going on at any time. And as economic conditions improved and the oil and gas market improved, you know, the owner felt more interested in talking about it. You know we've been in discussions with them over the last year. We've been in discussions with lots of people over the last couple of years.

And so you know it wasn't just the specific goal that being X amount of revenue. We certainly like to try to continue to move up the chain and increase the size of our acquisitions. But getting this into an extremely attractive end market for our product line and the more we got into it and looked at the company, the more we liked it. It was just a great fit for us and I'm very excited about going through the smooth integration.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Did all the key owners stay or did all of them go? What's the breakdown on the key management and ownership of the company, the top employees?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well we just closed yesterday. So we're hoping they're still there today. But no exactly -- we would expect that the overall majority of the management team in the workforce would stay along with us.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. Super. And can you guys tell me over the last five years, what their CAGR was?

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Gary you're going to see -- we have 70 days which takes it to July 10th to issue an amendment to the 8-K, which includes all the required SEC disclosures. And most of your financial questions will -- the investment community's financial questions will be answered in that filing.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. But you've been obviously satisfied with their history, and I assume they are EBITDA positive. Can you please comment on that?

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Yes that's one of -- certainly and I think we shared with the investment community, what our criteria are, both the strategic benefits and the financial parameters, and that's certainly one of them.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. And Phil, you mentioned you bought 227,000 shares back in Q1. What was -- do you have the average price that was paid, and can you also tell me what the highest price per share was paid?

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Yeah. You'll see all that Gary in our Form-10Q, which again was filed with the SEC at 7 AM this morning. And I'll save you the time for working the math, you'll see it's $7.20. It's disclosed in the 10-Q

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. What was the highest price you paid? That's the average, right?

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

That was the average. It was pretty close to that band.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. And the buyback is still open and available?

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Yes

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. And then Mike on the -- you called out the samples in April for 3-volt. Was that -- just for my clarity was that exclusively for IoT, or was it for everything, smoke detectors, meters, robotics?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

That test was passed and there was two different pieces of it. In the US, we passed the UN test and so we're in a position to start shipping samples to a plethora of different end markets, including IoT. In the case of China, we've been already shipping there a little bit -- a large part of those are associated with smoke detectors, as well as other industrial type applications. So it's not just exclusive to IoT at this point.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay. Got you. And so have we been shipping any 3-volts prior to this, or is this the first certification and then the first production orders?

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

We have had a 3-volt product for some time and had a little bit different construction. And it was sort of a technician replaceable product, meaning that it just wasn't something -- being an aftermarket type application. And so this is a slight modification to me, really what the current market requirements are for our product, as well as making sure that we're just a little bit better than the competition, in terms of our performance.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Okay, got you. And last question. So you've said in the script, you still expect to grow earnings this year. So we did $0.40 non-GAAP last year, with the variability quarter-to-quarter. I know you know it can be all over the place as the first quarter demonstrated. But the implication is, the company should average $0.13 a quarter for the next three, to beat what we did last year. So is that sort of the expectation and do you expect it to -- I know the quarter is going to be different. So is the ramp -- hypothetically could it be -- do you expect it to be equal roughly by quarter? Or could it be like 10, 15, 20, and ramp right into the fourth quarter, or do you think you'll get to a steady state in this Q2, so it'll be similar to Q3s and Q4s?

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Sure. As you know we don't provide quantitative guidance. But I think if you go back and and think about or reread the comment that Mike made, we will certainly stand by that. Our goal is, as Mike said, to have another year of profitable growth in 2019. How we get there? There's a lot of variables that go into that. We would love to have evenly weighted quarters throughout the end of the year. But life usually doesn't work that way. So we are prepared to get there, whatever the configuration is, to make that happen.

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

Understood. But we should at least, everything else being equal, do close to $0.40 for the next three quarters in order to beat last year. All right, hey thanks. Sorry for taking up all your time with all these questions and I'll give someone else a chance.

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

They were good questions, Gary. Thank you very much.

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Thank you, Gary.

Operator

(Operator Instructions). And it appears that there are no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Michael Popielec, for any additional or closing remarks.

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Great. Well thank you once again for joining us for our first quarter 2019 earnings call. We look forward to sharing with you our quarterly progress in each quarter's conference call in the future. As Phil mentioned, I'd also like to note that we did have an updated investor presentation on the website. So please check that out, as well as all the other documents and filings that were made today. Have a great day everyone.

Operator

And that does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Duration: 47 minutes

Call participants:

Jody Burfening -- Investor Relations, MD & Principal

Michael D. Popielec -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Philip A. Fain -- Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Gary Siperstein -- Eliot Rose Wealth Management -- Analyst

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