ScanSource (SCSC) Fiscal Q1 2027 Earnings Call: Sales Rise 30%, Outlook Raised

ScanSource (NASDAQ: SCSC) reported strong fiscal first-quarter 2027 demand, led by large hardware transactions and broad-based growth in North America. The deal mix and customer-specific bad debt reserves in Brazil pressured profitability, but management said these factors were largely confined to Q1.

Key Takeaways

• Net sales increased 30% year over year, while reported net profit grew 9%. Non-GAAP net income was $17.7 million, or $0.86 per share.
• Specialty Technology Solutions net sales rose 28%, but gross profit increased only 3% to $87 million due to a higher mix of lower-margin large hardware deals.
• Management estimated that large deals reduced quarterly margin by approximately 110 to 120 basis points. It expects the sales mix to move back toward a more typical balance over the full year.
• Q1 free cash flow was negative $44 million as strong revenue growth increased working capital requirements. The company reaffirmed its expectation for at least $85 million of fiscal 2027 free cash flow.
• ScanSource raised its fiscal 2027 outlook, including MicroAge, to net sales of $3.8 billion to $4.0 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $175 million to $185 million.
• MicroAge expands ScanSource’s exposure to cloud, cybersecurity, data center and AI technologies. The company is testing a co-selling model with its specialty channel partners during the current quarter.

Key Financial Data

Business and Operating Performance

Specialty Technology Solutions

Specialty Technology Solutions net sales increased 28% year over year, driven by North American hardware growth across most technologies. Management highlighted security, Cisco networking, barcode and mobility, and communications hardware as areas of growth.

Segment gross profit rose 3% to $87 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $20 million, with a 2.18% adjusted EBITDA margin. Management attributed the gap between sales and gross profit growth primarily to large hardware deals carrying lower margins.

Recurring revenue increased 16.8%. Recurring-revenue gross profit represented 14.3% of segment gross profit, up 88 basis points from the prior year.

Brazil represented approximately 5% of segment net sales. Sales there declined more than 20% on a constant-currency basis, while customer-specific credit issues increased bad debt expense.

Intelisys and MicroAge

Intelisys quarterly net billings increased 3.8% year over year, bringing annualized net billings to approximately $2.9 billion. The segment’s reported net sales increased 86%, including MicroAge, and grew 3.2% organically.

Reported gross profit increased 29% to $30 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $11.3 million, representing a 25.1% margin.

ScanSource completed the MicroAge acquisition on September 1. Management said the transaction broadens its technology portfolio and channel reach in cloud, cybersecurity, data center and AI. The near-term priority is to test co-selling of MicroAge managed services and AI solutions with ScanSource channel partners, followed by development of a repeatable and scalable services catalog.

Management Guidance

ScanSource raised its fiscal 2027 outlook to include MicroAge and reflect stronger Q1 sales:

Management said it remains confident in its original expectations for Q2 through Q4 and views the first-quarter margin and SG&A pressures as largely contained within Q1. The company plans to prioritize leverage reduction while continuing share repurchases and supporting demand.

Risks and Areas to Watch

• Hardware deal mix: Large, lower-margin hardware transactions accounted for an estimated 110 to 120 basis points of quarterly margin compression. Management expects a more normalized mix over the full year, but the timing and composition of deals remain important.
• Brazil credit exposure: ScanSource recorded a significant reserve related to Oi S.A., which was declared bankrupt on August 25. Management said essentially all exposure to that customer is now reserved and that Oi represented its largest customer concentration in Brazil.
• Working capital: Strong revenue growth drove higher receivables and contributed to the $44 million Q1 free cash flow use. Faster inventory turns partially offset the impact.
• MicroAge integration: The fiscal 2027 outlook includes 10 months of MicroAge contributions. The company is still testing how to scale co-selling of its services and AI capabilities across ScanSource’s partner base.
• Juniper timing: Management still expects Juniper revenue to begin contributing in the fiscal second half, although implementation has been delayed from earlier expectations. It does not currently expect supply constraints to materially pressure the annual outlook.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

Management said Q1’s unusually high volume of large deals reflected timing: transactions delayed or divided in prior periods were delivered, while other deals were both booked and shipped during the quarter. The company did not identify evidence of demand being pulled forward or pushed out.

Pricing also contributed a meaningful portion of the 30% sales increase, although management could not isolate the exact impact because more than 80% of transactions use special pricing arrangements.

For Intelisys, management emphasized the lag between investment and revenue realization. Smaller transactions can take six to nine months to generate commission streams, while larger transactions may require 12 to 18 months. The company is reallocating investment toward recruiting partners and generating new orders.

Asked about MicroAge’s fiscal 2027 EBITDA contribution, CFO Stephen Jones said an analyst estimate of approximately $20 million was close, while noting that the outlook includes only 10 months and that management sees additional long-term growth opportunities.

Management also views TD SYNNEX’s acquisition of BlueStar as a potential opportunity to gain market share amid distribution-channel disruption.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Welcome to the ScanSource Quarterly Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's call is being recorded. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Mary Gentry, Senior Vice President, Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Mary Gentry

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Our call will include prepared remarks from Mike Baur, our Chair and CEO; and Steve Jones, our Chief Financial Officer. We'll review our operating results for the quarter and then open the line for your questions.

We posted an earnings infographic that accompanies our comments and webcast in the Investor Relations section of our website. As you know, certain statements in our press release, infographic and on this call are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. These risks and uncertainties include the factors identified in our earnings release and our Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2026, and in our subsequent report on Form 10-Q.

Forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today, and ScanSource disclaims any duty to update these statements, except as required by law. During our call, we'll discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP results. We've provided reconciliations on our website and in the press release included in our Form 8-K filed earlier today. I'll now turn the call over to Mike.

Mike Baur

Thanks, Mary, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. Demand was strong this quarter, led by large deals and market share gains. Our team delivered broad-based growth in North America, and both segments grew net sales and gross profit. While profitability was impacted by a higher mix of lower-margin large hardware deals as well as customer-specific bad debt reserves in Brazil, we view these factors as largely confined to Q1 and not reflective of the underlying profitability of our business. We are raising our FY '27 net sales and adjusted EBITDA ranges, which now include MicroAge. We remain confident in our strategy, and we are making progress on our 3-year strategic goals.

For our Intelisys business, accelerating new order growth is the key to taking market share. We are reallocating Intelisys investments toward the activities that drive new orders, including a targeted effort to recruit and onboard new partners this fiscal year. And our new converged business unit is helping channel partners sell more communications hardware and more cloud recurring revenue. In September, we closed the MicroAge acquisition, extending our reach in high-growth technologies like cloud, cybersecurity, data center and AI. MicroAge brings solution provider relationships with top suppliers, including CrowdStrike, Dell, HPE, Microsoft, NetApp, Sophos and VMware.

Our near-term priority is to bring MicroAge managed services and AI solutions to market by co-selling with ScanSource specialty channel partners. This quarter, we are launching a pilot to test the go-to-market model. Based on what we learned, we intend to finalize a services catalog of offerings that are repeatable and scalable.

Looking ahead, we are confident in our direction. Our team is executing our strategy. With our initiatives to accelerate growth and gain market share, we believe we are well positioned for the remainder of the fiscal year. I'll now turn the call over to Steve to take you through our financial results and outlook for fiscal year 2027.

Stephen Jones

Thanks, Mike. Our first quarter results reflect strong broad-based demand in North America. While that demand drove significant revenue growth, profitability was impacted by a mix of large hardware deals that carry lower margins, along with customer-specific bad debt reserves in Brazil. Despite these factors in our Q1 results, we are confident in our organic business, and we're raising our full year outlook, including the contribution of MicroAge. Net sales grew 30% year-over-year with reported net profits growing 9% year-over-year. Non-GAAP SG&A expense in the quarter, including acquisitions, totaled $92 million or 9.6% of net sales compared to our prior year at $75 million or 10.1% of net sales. Non-GAAP net income was $17.7 million and non-GAAP EPS was $0.86 per share.

Free cash flow was a use of $44 million in Q1, primarily reflecting the higher working capital balances associated with strong revenue growth. We expect positive free cash flow generation for our full fiscal year. We continue to believe the margin dynamics experienced in the first quarter were primarily driven by sales mix and specific bad debt reserves and do not reflect a change in the underlying earnings power of our business.

Turning to our segments. I'll start with Specialty Technology Solutions. Net sales for the quarter increased 28% year-over-year, led by North America hardware sales growth across most of our technologies. Gross profit increased 3% year-over-year to $87 million. The difference in growth rate between revenue and gross profit is mainly due to mix. This quarter, we saw a significant increase in large hardware deals, which come at a lower gross profit margin. Included in this segment is our operations in Brazil, which represents about 5% of this quarter's segment net sales. In Brazil, net sales declined more than 20% on a constant currency basis. And for the quarter, we had higher bad debt expense primarily related to customer-specific credit issues in Brazil.

STS segment adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $20 million and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 2.18%. In Q1, recurring revenue in the segment grew 16.8% year-over-year and gross profits from recurring revenues represent 14.3% of segment gross profits, an increase of 88 basis points from last year. Our Intelisys & Solutions Services segment was renamed to now include our acquisition of MicroAge that we closed on September 1. MicroAge contributes hardware, software and services revenue to the segment. Quarterly net billings for Intelisys increased 3.8% year-over-year over the prior year's quarter to bring annualized net billings to approximately $2.9 billion. Q1 reported net sales increased 86% year-over-year or 3.2% on an organic basis. Reported gross profits increased 29% year-over-year to $30 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $11.3 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25.1%.

Going a bit deeper on our balance sheet and cash flow. We ended Q4 -- or Q1 with $46 million in cash and a net debt leverage ratio of approximately 2x trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA. Share repurchases totaled $5 million for the quarter. As of September 30, 2026, we had approximately $116 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. Adjusted ROIC for the quarter was 10.7%. Our leverage ratio and our continued share repurchases reflect our disciplined approach to both working capital and capital allocation priorities. Our acquisition of MicroAge is an exciting opportunity to accelerate our 3-year goals. It expands our total addressable market, technology stack, capabilities and channel reach with accretive margins and positive free cash flow generation. It also aligns with our capital allocation priorities.

Our capital allocation priorities remain the same: maintain a strong balance sheet with leverage of 1 to 2x adjusted EBITDA and be disciplined in the capital deployment, including strategic acquisition and share repurchases. In the near term, we will focus on reducing our leverage and plan to continue share repurchases. Our outlook for free cash flow reflects our belief that we will generate positive free cash flow in our fiscal year and be able to do both debt reduction and repurchases while also supporting continued strong demand. Our working capital metrics reflect the operational improvements from our cash culture focus. Faster inventory turns are helping offset higher accounts receivable balances as we respond to robust demand from our customers and their end users.

While first quarter profitability was impacted by mix and customer-specific reserve adjustments, the strength of demand and contributions from MicroAge support our confidence in the remainder of the year. As a result, we are updating our annual outlook. Including the contributions of MicroAge, we believe that reported net sales will range from $3.8 billion to $4 billion. We expect adjusted EBITDA between $175 million and $185 million. And for free cash flow, we are reaffirming our expectations that we will generate at least $85 million in free cash flow.

To help with analyst models for FY '27, we expect interest expense to range from $18 million to $20 million and our effective tax rate to range from 27.5% to 28.5%. We'll now open it up for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will be coming from the line of Greg Burns of Sidoti.

Question-and-Answer Session

Gregory Burns

Can you maybe give us a little bit more color on the strong hardware demand you saw this quarter -- which technology segments were showing the most growth and the mix you saw with the large enterprise deals this quarter? Do you expect that to continue for the rest of the year given the pipeline that you have?

Stephen Jones

Greg, this is Steve. As far as the technology growth for Q1, we continue to see strong security growth as we've seen over the last year or so. We also saw Cisco grow year-over-year in networking, barcode and mobility. And this time for the quarter, we also saw growth in our communications hardware groups.

So, I would say when we say broad-based this quarter, we really mean broad-based, especially in North America. When you ask about the mix of business and how much of our business do we think going forward are large deals. This was a unique quarter for us. We've been talking about large deals that have been pushed or also split up for a while now. And in Q1, what we saw was a lot of those deals delivered, and we also saw deals get booked and shipped in the quarter. So we think a lot of this is timing. We think we're going to modulate back to a better mix of large and run rate deals as we look at the full year.

Gregory Burns

Okay. And the bad debt in Brazil, do you have any other risks around that going forward? Or is that -- do you see that as like more of a one-off for the first quarter?

Stephen Jones

Yes. Let me add a little color to that. So in Brazil, we took a significant reserve for a company called Oi S.A., which was -- which was a Brazilian telecommunications giant, once the largest fixed-line operator in South America and a long-time customer of our Brazil business. With our Q1 expense reserve that we took, basically all of our exposure to this customer is now reserved, and we'll work through the final judicial proceedings like many other creditors for this particular customer that was declared bankrupt on August 25. As far as other exposures, this was the largest concentration of any customer we had in Brazil.

Operator

And our next question will be coming from the line of Keith Housum of Northcoast Research.

Keith Housum

I was a little confused on the performance in the quarter. Understanding that the mix was weighted towards some large deals, but were the large deals done at the expense of some of the small deals? Because if I look at the history, even going back to a year, 1.5 years ago, substantially less -- less revenue, and you still did just about the same in gross profit. So I'm just really kind of confused on the mix here and if SMB suffered because of that.

Stephen Jones

Well, Keith, this is Steve again. Thanks for the question. I would say that it was just an unusual timing for the quarter. Again, I think when I try to peel back the impact in the quarter, I would say that probably 110 to 120 basis points of our margin decline or compression in the quarter was really related to these large deals that were both carried forward from last year and booked in this quarter.

Keith Housum

Okay. It's still just -- it feels like the SMB hasn't done nearly as well compared to the large deals.

Stephen Jones

Well, we certainly wouldn't have had as much top line growth, and we would modulate back towards our normal -- our margin profile.

Keith Housum

Okay, okay. In terms of your full year outlook, is the increase in both the revenue and adjusted EBITDA, is that all attributable to or majority attributable to the MicroAge acquisition?

Stephen Jones

From a guide, what I would say, Keith, is that we have confidence in our Q2 through Q4 original guidance that we gave. We believe that the Q1 profit pressures related to the mix and the SG&A are pretty well contained in the quarter. The balance of it would be related to the positive contributions from MicroAge. I would say on the top line, we were surprised. We didn't expect a 30% year-over-year growth in Q1. So that's definitely helping push that top line up for the full year.

Keith Housum

Okay. So if I said MicroAge will contribute about $20 million in EBITDA for the year, is that in the right ballpark?

Stephen Jones

I would say that that's close. What I would say is we have bigger expectations for MicroAge. Remember, we're only talking about 10 months of this, and we're early days in what we can do to accelerate growth in our core business with what Mike talked about in these tests that we're doing.

Keith Housum

Got you. Got you. And then during the quarter, obviously, your largest -- your [indiscernible] is probably your most significant competitor in the AIDC space and POS space. Of course, I'm referring to BlueStar was bought by TD SYNNEX. Any thoughts on how that might change the competitive dynamics going forward for you guys?

Mike Baur

Keith, it's Mike. We've seen, over the years, consolidation happen in distribution. And typically, early on, there's a lot of disruption, some turmoil. We believe there'll be some market share gains. Over the years, whenever one of the broadline lower-value distributors got into any part of our business, typically, over time, it appeared that those companies still maintain similar value proposition. So that will be what we're looking for: Is there anything that's going to be expected differently from us by the suppliers based on this acquisition?

Typically, we watch that really close. We make sure the key suppliers know, well, if they're going to operate differently, meaning if BlueStar was to be operating differently going forward, we would want to be very aware of: Is that in the suppliers' best interest? So for us, we do believe there's a market share opportunity here.

Keith Housum

Great. Great. And I guess last question for me. I know it's sometimes tough to tell who your end customers are, but obviously, networking is an area you've had a lot of success lately in. Networking is in front of the AI infrastructure build-out there now. Any way to tell some of your business here is being driven by the AI infrastructure that's going into place?

Mike Baur

Keith, in our MicroAge business, for sure. We definitely -- as we did our due diligence, we looked at that very carefully. We're wanting to understand how they were performing so well, frankly, in the market with their data center products and services. And that is one reason that they became a very attractive acquisition for us because it expands our TAM.

In our core business, what we think is many of our traditional partners, whether they were our mobility partners, security partners, communication partners, many of them are looking to add some AI capabilities and more products. And so we believe that's the idea behind our MicroAge pilots. We want to co-sell with our channel partners to get them into the AI side of the business that many of them are not prepared for, including some of our larger mobility partners. We've talked to them about, "Would you like us to co-sell with you with our expertise for MicroAge?" And they've said, "Yes." So we're testing that this quarter.

Operator

And our next question will be coming from the line of Logan Katzman of Raymond James.

Logan Katzman

This is Logan on for Adam. I guess, first, I think last quarter, you mentioned supply constraints were limiting some of Juniper's contribution in 1H '27. I guess, first, did you see that come into fruition? And then I think you said the expectation was that to become fully operational in fiscal 2H. So have you seen that come to fruition, or have expectations changed around that?

Mike Baur

Yes. I think the Juniper -- this is Mike, Logan. Thanks. The Juniper plans are still similar in that we're still working with them to try to establish a pipeline. But yes, there's some delays from where we originally thought, let's say, 9 months ago. But what we said last quarter is true that we expect that we'll start to see Juniper revenue in the second half.

Stephen Jones

And this is Steve. I'll just talk about our expectations on supply chain constraints and how we're thinking about that in our outlook. We still believe that, that's manageable, and we wouldn't expect a significant impact that would put pressure or anything on our current outlook.

Logan Katzman

Awesome. I appreciate that. And then, I mean, growth here was really, really strong, obviously. I think organic revenue accelerated 27% year-over-year. How much of this was pricing versus units? And then did you guys see any pull forward in demand? And I guess on the pricing, how sustainable, if you saw that, how sustainable is that?

Stephen Jones

Well, Logan, this is Steve again. So let me talk about the pricing impacts on our growth rate. So we know it had an impact and a fair amount. For us, it's really difficult to isolate how much is pricing because more than 80% of our deals are going out on a special pricing arrangement. And so how much of the street price actually gets through is kind of hard to isolate. But we know it was a fair amount of our 30% growth. And what was your second question?

Logan Katzman

Yes. My second question was, do you guys see any, like, pull-in demand, push out and any of those dynamics in the quarter?

Stephen Jones

From what we see and what we believe, it's not apparent that we saw any pull-in or push out. I would say, given the results that we had, we feel like everything that got -- that was needed was booked and shipped in the quarter from our customers.

Logan Katzman

Understood. And I guess last one for me. I think organic Intelisys System Solutions services revenue grew about 3% year-over-year. I know you guys have been making a lot of investments into this business over the last few quarters to accelerate growth. I was just kind of curious, like, expectations around timing on when you guys think those investments will come to fruition and how you're thinking about the trajectory of that business?

Stephen Jones

Well, this is Steve again. Let me maybe talk about how that business operates. So it is a fairly long cycle from when we make an investment to when the revenues come in for us. So if you think about what happens, we make the investment, we recruit new partners, we look at new orders. Those orders get placed, then the rollouts have to happen and the commission streams have to happen. If it's a small deal, that can be 6 to 9 months. If it's a larger deal, that can be 12 to 18 months. And so it is an invest-ahead business. We've talked about this for a long time that this is an invest-ahead business. We're seeing momentum in orders. And so we're seeing the fruits of that -- those investments as we go along. We definitely want to accelerate that growth because as Mike talked about in his prepared remarks, we think that is key to growing that business is getting that -- getting those new order growth and more of that market share.

Operator

And I'm showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back to Steve Jones for closing remarks.

Stephen Jones

Thank you for joining us today. We expect to hold our next conference call to discuss our December 31 quarterly results on Thursday, February 4, at approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Operator

And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.