Malibu Boats reported a 5.2 percent net sales increase for the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, to $181 million, beating Wall Street’s $179 million expectation, and a gross profit increase of 14.3 percent to $45.7 million.
Unit volume was off 5.3 percent due to production limitations, but still grew net income by 32.1 percent to $22 million.
The company reported adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.13, above the Street’s $0.88 estimate.
“Our team delivered a phenomenal start to fiscal year 2021,” said Malibu CEO Jack Springer in a statement. “We captured insatiable demand for our innovative boats, while at the same time flexing our competitive leadership and vertical integration capabilities to support fantastic margins in our seasonally lowest margin quarter.”
During the quarter, the company benefited from “the hot retail environment,” customer demand for larger boats with more options and features, and execution of its operational initiatives, said Springer.
“As a result, we have not skipped a beat, as we further drove market share gains and extended our leadership position in our highly attractive markets,” said Springer.
Net sales attributable to the Malibu segment increased $14 million, or 16.2 percent, to $99.8 million; sales in the Pursuit segment edged up 1.7 percent to $36.7 million.
Sales in the Cobalt segment decreased 11.3 percent to $44.5 million due to production challenges. “The planned lower production rates were driven by our investment in the plant to optimize efficiency and expand capacity, the introduction of three new Cobalt models during the quarter, and challenges around labor and supply as a result of the pandemic,” the company said. “While we are ahead of our planned production levels, we do not expect unit volume in this segment will result in year-over-year gains until the second half of this fiscal year.”
