Q3 2024 MillerKnoll Inc Earnings Call
Participants
Carola Magdalena; IR; MillerKnoll, Inc.
Andi Owen; CEO; MillerKnoll, Inc.
Jeff Stutz; CFO; MillerKnoll, Inc.
Greg Burns; Analyst; Sidoti & Company LLC
Budd Bugatch; Analyst; Water Tower Research LLC
Alex Fuhrman; Analyst; Craig Hallum Capital, Inc.
Reuben Garner; Analyst; The Benchmark Company LLC
Presentation
Operator
Good evening, and welcome to Miller Knowles quarterly earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Vice President of Investor Relations, Carola Magdalena.
Carola Magdalena
Good evening, and welcome to Mylan Third Quarter Fiscal 2024 conference call. I am joined by Andi Owen, Chief Executive Officer; and Jeff Stutz, Chief Financial Officer. Also available during the Q&A session is John Michael, President of America's contract, and Debbie Propst, President of Global Retail. Before I turn the call over to Andi, please remember our safe harbor regarding forward-looking information. During the call, management may discuss information that is forward looking and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to be different than those expressed or implied.
Please evaluate the forward-looking information in the context of these factors, which are detailed in today's press release. Forward-looking statements are as of today, and we assume no obligation to update or supplement these statements. We may also refer to certain non-GAAP financial metrics, which are reconciled and described in our press release posted on our Investor Relations website at knowles.com. With that, I will turn the call over to Andy and his.
Andi Owen
Thanks, Carla, and good evening, everyone. For this past quarter presented its challenges. We're proud to highlight our resilience and strategic focus by taking a lower volume of orders and sales. We maintained a steadfast commitment to enhancing our business operations. Our efforts yielded significant results as we successfully improved gross margins across all business segments, showcasing our ability to adapt and thrive in dynamic market conditions. As you know, as an agile company, we have implemented several programs across our contract and retail business to boost demand while also putting in place restructuring measures to better align our operating costs with the evolving economic landscape.
With our melanoma dealer network firmly established in the U.S., we've turned our focus down to showrooms, studios and tools that make it easier to create design solutions for customers. Our and strategy is anchored in having fewer and more robust Milano design centers and targeted cities around the world.
We're bringing our brands together so that customers and design partners can experience the full breadth of our offering in one location. To this end, we will combine our Chevron in most markets, and we will also invest more heavily in dealer showrooms and new programs, especially in markets with out of corporate showroom presence. This work is already underway in several major U.S. markets, namely Chicago, Washington, D.C., and the greater Los Angeles area that follows showroom co-location enhancements that we previously announced in New York City, Toronto and London simultaneously in North American model.
More than 40 dealer showroom refreshes that are in progress with many more planned at DWR we recently opened a new concept studio in the San Francisco Design District space introduces our products in a new way, showcasing routine and galleries and interactive exhibits. We understand it enhancing our environment feels great results, and we've been encouraged by the increased customer interest and foot traffic in the store across our retail experience. We know that most orders include a customer touch point in one of our stores. By enhancing these spaces and strategic location, we believe that will continue to build market share, especially as macroeconomic conditions become more favorable.
We are also making significant progress across our technology platform. But past January, we launched our program portal experience digital hubs, which serve as a singular place for clients, dealers and our architecture and design partners to access projects and putting information in one place providing a forum for collaboration and streamline processes. Similarly, we've launched augmented reality capabilities on Retail and Contract websites as supplement to our highly functional 3D configurators. We've seen that customers who use these tools have a higher conversion rate and are faster to add products to the car. Since these programs reflect the confidence we have in millennials, long-term value and the opportunities ahead.
However, we are realists and we understand that while encouraging these initiatives and organizational enhancements are stepping stones to achieving our goals. Existing demand pressures, including the elevated cost of capital here in North America are affecting the housing and office space market. And following the decisions relating to capital expenditures, this is taking a toll on the short-term results of our business to match the current demand environment. This quarter, we implemented targeted workforce reductions and realigned our leadership team against our different business segments and geographic areas, Stephen has will have a meaningful impact on our SG&A cost structure. Jeff will share more details on this later.
American fitness of the third quarter is usually a softer period. The step of in activity that customarily comes to the end of the quarter did not materialize as expected. Our team is back to act. However, focusing on price optimization and launching a series of initiatives to help our clients make decisions and therefore, Coke's demand. We continue to see leading indicators trending positively. Client requests from our comps are up over 20% year-over-year and contract activations and pricing requests are up over 30% in Q. three. Clearly, we were very pleased to report closed capacitor international contract business as we continue to transition legacy Herman Miller dealers to full Miller and all dealers.
The transition not only enhances the product portfolio of our existing dealerships, but also involves legacy dealers opening new rebranded and furnish terminal showrooms, thereby enhancing our market presence. Furthermore, we also have aggressive plans underway to bring known new markets throughout Europe, our network around the globe. It's unmatched in Beach, and we are in place to deliver designs for these regions as demand starts growing. Similarly, as macroeconomic pressures ease, we anticipate releasing pent-up retail demand and preparing ourselves to meet this interest throughout our retail organization. We maintain a strong focus on inventory management and optimizing our product assortment.
We've accelerated the introduction of more than 100 new styles and designs and reach, adding hey, Newtown and Geiger products, introducing new DWR collections and expanding assortment from our strategic third party vendors as well as building ethanol offering through additional finish and material options. Furthermore, we have expanded our design services, which has resulted in increasing the penetration of orders from design services as well as fewer returns for right now, we are at EUR11, while in the luxury housing market and our retail and specialty businesses tracked closely.
But that market new home movers spend significantly more than the average will continue to watch that rates as they have the potential to move in our favor this year. And when they do, we are prepared to capture the wins over the next few months. We will have exciting and significant opportunities connect to connect with their key plants around the globe and show the best of our collective with our core audience is absolutely in the lungs and design days in Chicago. These are moments right divisionally demonstrate the forward-thinking innovative spirit that will carry us to the future while establishing meaningful connections ahead of these events.
Our research and insights team is conducting seminars in over 40 cities across three continents, sharing actionable insights with organizations and navigating changes in the way we work and adapting their spaces to our evolving world are highlighting several successful project profiles and the upcoming launch of season four of our about plays podcasts as companies navigate change and invest in their space and continue to turn to us as the leader for an experienced data-based perspective on designing for tomorrow, our industry has had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine how we think about spaces for decades to come we have a chance right now, compassionate patients where we live and work to better support individual wellness productivity and a sense of belonging.
And when I look across our collective, there's no team more capable of rising certification. You're focused and confident in the hard work we're doing right now. And I'd like to thank you for your continued support and our Knoll and now I pass it on to Jeff for a deeper dive into this quarter's numbers jumped by Sandy.
Greg Burns
Good evening, everyone.
Jeff Stutz
This afternoon we shared our third quarter results, and I'm pleased to announce that we have achieved adjusted earnings per share of $0.45, in line with our guidance despite softer than expected revenue for robust profitability. We demonstrated this quarter showcases the resilience of our gross margin profile and underscores the efforts of our teams in protecting. And we delivered consolidated gross margin of 38.6%, which improved more than 450 basis points over the prior year in the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement in adjusted gross margin, improved operational efficiency, moderating input and delivery costs and incremental pricing benefits were the primary drivers, all of which align with the themes we have consistently communicated is our focus over the past several quarters.
Furthermore, these actions were complemented by disciplined operating expense management and the ongoing benefit of our acquisition synergy program. As Andy mentioned, we took further steps this quarter aimed at improving the efficiency of our selling, general and administrative functions. This resulted in a targeted reduction of our management workforce. Additionally, we reviewed our real estate footprint and announced showroom consolidation plans in key markets, which we believe will not only reduce our ongoing cost structure, but also create a more cohesive and compelling expression of our brand collective once fully implemented later this spring.
These actions are expected to deliver annualized cost reductions of between $14 million and $16 million. At the consolidated level, net sales in the third quarter of $872 million decreased 11.4% on a reported basis and 10.1% organically compared with the same quarter last year. And new orders totaled $830 million, reflecting an organic decrease of 4.7% from the same quarter a year ago. While we saw declines in both the Americas Contract and Retail segments, demand levels in the international and specialty segment were more encouraging, particularly in the contract component of our business.
Although consolidated order levels for the full quarter did not meet our near term expectations, the trend improved across all segments as we move through the period. And for the month of February, our consolidated orders were up 2.8% over last year. Within the Americas contract segment, net sales for the quarter were $441 million, representing an organic decrease of 9.2% from the same quarter a year ago. New orders in the period reflected a similar pattern coming in 9.4% lower than last year on an organic basis. Here again, demand trends improved as we move through the period and into the early part of Q4 in fact, over the last two weeks, orders have trended up over 5% to last year despite lower sales versus last year.
We again delivered much improved gross margins in the Americas segment this quarter, net pricing benefit moderating input costs. The realization of synergy benefits and tightly managed operating expenses contributed to achieving a gross margin of 33.1% and adjusted operating margin of 8.1%. Although we've not yet seen their consistent impact on order rates, we remain highly optimistic that improvement is on the horizon given a range of forward-looking data points. Indicators such as customer inquiries, project mockup requests and contract activations continued to grow year over year, and the overall funnel of project opportunities remains encouraging. Within the funnel of projects, we are tracking the value of opportunities that we have won, but for which the actual order has not yet been received, we're encouraged to share that this number is double the value. It was this time last year.
All of this adds to our confidence that we are at or near a demand inflection point in the business question remains, however, one of timing. By historical comparison, we continued to experience delays in the time it takes customers to make final order decisions. And this is added to the complexity and challenge of forecasting the business considering the current macroeconomic climate with elevated interest rates, lagging ABI readings and sentiment measures edging higher, but still below pre-pandemic levels. None of this is surprising to us still the data we are tracking inside our business and what we hear from customers and our dealers gives us confidence that there's pent-up demand awaiting further improvements in the macro backdrop.
Turning to our international contract and Specialty segment, net sales for the quarter totaled $217 million, which is down 10.6% organically year over year, while new orders came to $228 million, reflecting a year-over-year organic increase of 7.9%. Demand patterns month-to-month continued to be inconsistent. However, orders grew in both December and February, primarily driven by portions of mainland Europe, South Korea and India, China, Australia, and in the Middle East, one of our key strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing the scope and reach of our international network is completing the transition from Herman Miller to full line Miller and all dealers. This effort is steadily gaining momentum with currently over 40% of this network offering the Miller and old product portfolio.
We have a consistent schedule of additional transitions planned in the upcoming quarter. We were also pleased with the margin profile of the segment. The adjusted operating margin was 10.4% in the third quarter, albeit down 110 basis points year over year due to lower sales volume. Despite this, we continue to expand gross margins. And this past quarter we achieved a record level of 44.5% favorable product mix, improved freight and distribution management and proactive restructuring initiatives taken earlier in the year. All contributed to this improved profit picture as it relates to our global retail segment. In the third quarter, net sales totaled $214 million, reflecting an organic decrease of 11.3%, while new orders totaled $183 million, marking a 7.1% organic decline primarily due to subdued housing related demand.
Regarding adjusted operating margin for the retail segment, this quarter, we achieved 5.6%, 10 basis points higher than last year, despite the decrease in net sales from the main drivers of the margin expansion were improved operational and delivery efficiency and favorable product mix. Despite the challenging retail environment, our retail team remains dedicated to improving in-store experiences, broadening our product offer, enhancing digital capabilities and elevating brand awareness. And we're confident that this strategic approach will nurture brand loyalty, promote deeper engagement and position our business to take advantage of pent-up demand as market conditions improve, and we're beginning to see signs of improvement in the economic data.
Sandy mentioned home sales in the US are at 11 year lows and demographic trends point to robust future construction growth. This is evidenced by last month's Homebuilder sentiment readings, which posted its third consecutive month again in February, reaching its highest level since August of 2023. Moreover, renovation activity should also benefit from an aging housing stock and eventual turnover. As we mentioned to you last quarter, we believe that the demand fundamentals for the segment are pointing stronger and expect the retail segment to be a major contributor to both top and bottom line growth in our business for years to come regarding cash flow and the balance sheet. This quarter, we saw cash generation of $61 million in cash from operations. This enabled us to repurchase approximately $1.5 million shares for a total cash outlay of approximately $40 million. And at quarter end, our net debt to EBITDA ratio was approximately 2.65 turns.
Now let's turn our near term view to guidance and outlook. Given the macroeconomic conditions currently impacting our demand picture, we expect net sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 to range between $880,000,920 million. Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the period expected to be between 49 and $0.57. The midpoint of this earnings range implies a year-over-year growth of approximately 29%, which is notable given the decline in year-over-year revenue. And based on this forecast, we expect full year adjusted diluted earnings per share of between $1.90 and $1.98, while economic uncertainty certainly persists and parts of our business were growing in our confidence that a favorable shift in demand patterns is on the horizon, and we believe this will translate into broad-based sales and earnings growth as we move through the upcoming fiscal year. So with that, overview of the numbers. I'll now turn the call over to the operator, take your questions.
Question and Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Greg Burns, Sidoti & Company.
Greg Burns
Please go ahead and good afternoon. Can you just talk about your win rates in the Americas and maybe why why you think and maybe it's taking longer for some of this to move through your funnel? And do you feel like and do you feel like there's been any changes in share in the market? And do you feel like you maybe need to get more aggressive with maybe some of your incentives too to start converting maybe some of what you're seeing in your pipeline? Thank you.
Andi Owen
Greg, it's Andy. That does a lot of questions. So I'll start with a couple of points. First, everything demand patterns in the early part of recovery are always choppy, and they ultimately vary significantly based on customer size and industry sector. So I think that's really kind of where we find ourselves currently. And I don't think we're either surprised or disheartened to see some relative differences across the competitive landscape. I think I've talked to recycle over the last 25 years has played out this way, I think from a quarter-to-quarter fluctuation demand over the long term, we believe in the right position to protect our market share. From a timing perspective, I think it is still taking customers longer to make decisions on what's in the funnel and what's been one, I think our win rate is actually 3% higher than last year, which is really encouraging we are not seeing pricing activity that is frightening to us or feels like willing to discount more. It feels very stable out there. We're addressing pricing on a job-by-job basis, but we are not feeling like it is incredibly competitive, Jon, and let you add a little bit more about if you want.
Jeff Stutz
Yes, I would add, Andy, if we look at what's in the funnel in addition to a significant increase in new opportunities added to the funnel. As you mentioned, the win rate is up slightly, and Jeff mentioned in his opening comments that as we track an opportunity through the sales process. The second the last step is it's either marked closed or one. And then the final step because it's booked and the amount of projects and opportunities in that final step closed one for us has increased significantly versus prior year. So it is it is really just a matter of timing in terms of that converting into an order. We're still seeing construction delays and supply chain things in other industries that are impacting project timing. But again, looking at all leading indicators and they're all pointing in the right direction right now.
Greg Burns
Okay. And then on when you look at the balance sheet, obviously you're generating cash looks like you bought back some stock this quarter. Are you comfortable with the leverage here? Like why not? But what's your decision factor between your buying back shares versus maybe paying down the debt? Thank you.
Jeff Stutz
Yes, Greg, we've tried in this? This is Jeff. We have this is we've been buying some shares all fiscal year at different levels, and we've just been opportunistic. We think the shares are undervalued. We think it's a good deal and a good investment. Now having said that, we have been balanced. If you look at the course of the first nine months of the fiscal year, we've taken a balanced approach in both block shares and paid down some debt this quarter just due to some timing of accessing some of our international cash we did. We did see a little tick-up a little bit at the end of the quarter, but but the intent has been in our in our plan going forward. We'll continue to be balanced on that front?
No, we're not concerned with the leverage ratio. Again, we look as we look ahead and we look at the internal measures that we noted on the call and what we what we see are clouds clearing from a macroeconomic perspective and the trends we've even seen within each of the three business segments. From an order entry standpoint, we're confident we're going to see demand improvements on the horizon. Our margins are strong with well above last year's levels, and so we're quite comfortable at the level that we're at.
Greg Burns
All right. Thank you.
Operator
Budd Bugatch, Water Tower Research.
Budd Bugatch
Good morning, Andy. Good morning, Jeff. Good morning or good afternoon, Kerala and John. Sorry, it is what it is the afternoon on And congratulations on the profitability in the quarter. I know that. So a difficult thing and you're managing managing that well, but I am concerned about what I see in the in the implied backlog, particularly in Americas contract, which looks to me to be somewhere, I think it probably in the $355 million to $360 million range. Jeff, if I did the math right now, that's right, but that's what steps the lowest backlog in Americas contracts in some before the acquisition since the acquisition time of the acquisition and it makes it. I think it I think you told me makes it very difficult to leverage your manufacturing at that same time. So irrespective of the pricing, what's going on there? Why when will we see that backlog start to rise?
Jeff Stutz
Well, well, but well, I won't disagree with you that we everyone in this room is not a we have every every interest to see order rates pick up and we're spending, but our full efforts as an organization to support the sales organization to support the operations organization to drive order growth. And that's what it's going to take. And I think we are up and as we said in the prepared comments, were on the costs of seeing order demand pickup, we saw some positive trends as we move through the quarter. I made the comment that Americas orders in the last couple of weeks have increased over last year, same thing weeks prior year. So the trends are pointing in the right direction.
I think the macro indicators, as we've covered are pointing in the right direction. We fully expect to see that backlog begin to grow. But we have been through 18 months or so of what I would call a contract economic recession. And we're finding our way to the bottom of it, and then we will fight our way through the other side of it. Okay. And I have more on that, but I know I've got one more follow up. And let me just go to the global retail because again that that looks like that's a significant drawdown in backlog, not quite as severe as some as a CEO, but come. What can you talk a little bit, Andy, on the global retail, what you're seeing in terms of e-commerce versus in-store? How do we look on same same store, same location same brand kind of bases. However, you wanted to give us a flavor on that and and the future of that particular rum segment as well.
Andi Owen
But it's a great question and David Harris. I may let her answer the specifics, but I think it's actually very promising. And some of the backlog that you're referring to from last year reflected some of the supply chain issues that we were having along with many other retailers as we work through that. So I think the reduction in backlog is actually a really good thing. And I'd point to how we're managing our inventory much more efficiently and the cycle time from when you were ordering furniture for us now two minutes showing up in your home is much shorter. So that processing is actually really beneficial because it drives more conversion. That was the that business is really healthy, outperforming competition. So Debbie, do you want to answer some of the specifics.
Hi there. As it pertains to some of the channel question you had, and we're seeing a fairly consistent pattern across our three channels stores, web and wholesale with one exception that given the design service implementation that we've been doing in our stores, we're really seeing an acceleration of average order value in that channel as the contribution of design service sales picks up. Those orders are about over two times the size and dollar volume about non design service sales. So we're very focused on optimizing the store traffic and activity around design services were in the process of densifying our store floor sets to showcase more of the expanded offering in stores as well as making sure that we're being much louder and more aggressive about driving traffic towards these design services now that our sales force is fully trained to that capability.
Budd Bugatch
So the average ticket in retail are you in the two to $3,000 range?
Andi Owen
Yes, that's correct.
Budd Bugatch
Okay.
Thank you. Good luck on the corner following on from the next quarters and the balance of the year.
Operator
Alex Fuhrman, Craig Hallum Capital.
Alex Fuhrman
Hey, guys. Thanks very much for taking my question. Andy, you talked a little bit about consolidating some showrooms in an effort to align the cost structure. What about on the global retail side of the business? You think there are opportunities there to maybe consolidate some of your retail stores? Or are there still opportunities to continue to open more stores there?
Andi Owen
And it's a great question, Alex. And just to touch on the showroom consolidation, I think the major driver behind why we've decided to do this is really driven from our customers in the ag community and making sure that we have everything in an easy and convenient place for them. To actually see all of our brands. So we're very excited about that. It's not really driven by cost because it's a great side benefit, but really driven by the customer and what they're telling us from a retail store standpoint, we are very under stored compared to our competition. And I would say we have opportunity to increase our store footprint. We find that our customer that shops online as well as in bricks and mortar is increasingly a better customer.
So we can really have a huge opportunity in the next two to three years to increase that footprint. We're also seeing really, really successful trends in our stores that you mentioned, design services, the work that RAE.s are doing to personalize and really move the sales forward is very helpful. So we're very bullish on store growth.
Alex Fuhrman
And Andy, are there any brands in particular you think are under stored or perhaps opportunity for multi-branded stores?
Andi Owen
I think primarily our initial growth will be around the DWR brand and Herman Miller, and we definitely think there's possibility for Knoll as well. But we carry no within Design Within Reach as well. So all of our brands have potential, but those three are the ones we'll focus on first.
Alex Fuhrman
Okay, that's great. Thank you very much.
Operator
Reuben Garner, The Benchmark Company.
Reuben Garner
Thanks. Good evening, everybody. The revenue just just wanted to kind of clarify plus square something up. Jeff, you talked about kind of maybe nearing or being at an inflection point. I don't know if that was in Americas specific comment or just kind of in general, but you're also announcing a restructuring and implementing cost savings, I would guess, because we've had kind of consistent order pressure over the last year or 18 months with you as you put it, can you kind of walk us through the decision or the thought process there. Why restructuring now if we're going to start coming out of this?
Andi Owen
And then I got a follow-up and let me start with balance sheet and then I'll pass it on to Jeff, who listen, we're always looking at our structure and how efficient we're being. And remember, we are still finishing up integration between these two companies and as we finish some of our synergy work as we move forward into the future, we're becoming more and more efficient in certain functions and as we've done that, we've taken the opportunity to sort of close the circle on many of the integration activities we think are mostly at the end because it's really kind of the final targets about, Jeff, what would you add or the earlier?
Jeff Stutz
I think that's right, Robert, to your question, I would caution you to read to read really anything into that I mean, we one of the things we did, we've always prided ourselves on it at all is trying to be on our front foot and making sure that we are are responding to the current market conditions that we see, but also protecting the new the strategic investment parts of the business that we are confident are going to are going to help grow the business top line and in profitability going forward. And this is and I think I think you can look at this as and ongoing practice of that kind of housekeeping I mean, this was not a this was targeted, as I mentioned in my prepared comments around the management ranks. And it was it was not just a cost takeout, but it was also a simplification set of decisions. I mean that Andy said it in her prepared comments, but I'll just emphasize that the decisions around real estate, it would be wrong to think of that as purely focused on cost takeout. This is about creating a much more compelling expression of the combined billion-dollar brands in these major markets that we serve. So it certainly is not all about cost. And I mean, I guess I'd leave it at that.
Reuben Garner
Sorry, I was on mute. Yes, that's helpful. And then I guess, pricing, it sounds like it is stable. Can you just talk about I know you're coming into the end of your fiscal year, but maybe talk about it on on a go forward basis.
Andi Owen
The next kind of year. What's left in the pricing actions that you've already announced? One was the last pricing in that action you announced. Do you need another one this year to keep up with inflation. Are you seeing your competitors announce them? I guess just kind of an update on price cost in this environment?
Jeff Stutz
Yes, Reuben, this is Jeff and John. Please jump in I would characterize where we feel we are as an organization is we're kind of back to what I would say are more traditional, more ongoing annual price increases at the cadence and there are still inflationary pressures. They're nowhere near the level that we were seeing when we were having to do multiple price increases any per year. Our last increase was last June. It'll probably on that same at roughly that same type of calendar schedule as we move forward and much more in line with kind of pre-COVID annualized price increase percentages Okay.
And then I guess last question, you kind of answered the share question. I think that was directed at the Americas side of my question, actually, internationally, the business seems to be holding up a little better. And in fact, it looks like the last quarter showing growth again on how much of that would you attribute to kind of maybe the benefits that there were between Nolan Miller versus have you seen a stabilization in macro over there? Kind of quick? I know it's been a volatile situation, but just kind of thoughts on how things have transpired over the last six, nine months?
I think it's a combination of all of those things really. I think the great news about our international business is that it is very diverse. So if you sell struggle in Europe, then you have China, and that's beginning to wake up to offset that. So I think we have market as we mentioned on the last several calls, the Middle East, India, Asia and China starting to pick up that are really kicking in and that stability has driven the business forward and the one thing to remember to Rubin with and differences in our business in international and the Americas and International is much more nascent and we are much more lightly penetrated. So we have a lot of opportunity to grow market share and to expand markets to grow dealers and also Knoll, as you know, supplementing part of our products offering that we never had in Europe before. So as we continue to transition Herman Miller dealers to MILLER Knoll dealers, there is momentum behind that. And as dealers begin to learn the products, there's momentum behind that. So I would just say it's really just a difference in the maturity of the markets and how we penetrate in the market.
Andi Owen
And if Chuck, what would you add to that or if it goes, covers it spot on. And as I said, I think I said last one, but I'm going to sneak one more in, if I'm sorry, Jeff, can you just maybe you said this, but just to restate it, if you could the order patterns that you saw throughout the quarter, can you walk through those again, what kind of December, January, February looked like. And then were those were those specific to this consolidated? Or did you break out Americas? And if you didn't, could you talk about what you're seeing in Americas on a month-by-month basis?
Jeff Stutz
Yes.
Reuben Garner
Yes.
Greg Burns
Let me start, Reuben with just kind of the consolidated picture. We were down, but from a organic quarter perspective down at 4.7% of the full quarter Q. three, but we came into the quarter down closer to 1011% and we exited at a consolidated level in February, up almost 3%. So we saw a fairly steady improvement in the year-over-year organic order counts as we move through. That was consolidated the Americas, not NetIQ, not a wildly different story there. I mean we came into the quarter in December with larger year on year declines that we saw improvement. As we moved into January, we were kind of mid single digit declines, February on around that same level. So we ended the full quarter down 9.4%. So we saw that improvement as we move through February. And then what's been most encouraging is quarter to date through those kind of the latest data. The Americas segment is down, but it certainly has improved down 3% in the last couple of weeks, up five so that it's been a fairly consistent walk toward an improving trend line.
Reuben Garner
Okay. Thanks for the detail, guys. I'll pass it on.
Operator
There are no further questions. I'll now turn the floor back President and CEO, Andi Owen, for closing remarks.
Andi Owen
Thank you so much. I want to thank everyone again for joining us on today's call, and we look forward to connecting with you all again soon in Camp.
Operator
This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.
