EXCLUSIVE: Nautilus Execs Talk Guidance, Hiring

Want to pump some iron into Nautilus, Inc. NLS this quarter? Chief Financial Officer Sid Nayar dropped a very slight hint.

"We're very comfortable with that mid-teen range," Nayar told Benzinga, referring to Wall Street's expectations for fourth-quarter sales. This may be the best clue investors have for the fourth quarter, as the company does not issue guidance.

The interview with Nautilus followed the company's third-quarter earnings release on Tuesday, which showed 19.7 percent year-over-year top-line growth.

"You start to see some pretty big comps that we have to go up against [in the fourth quarter]. So [analysts] kind of dialed back a bit to the mid- or high-teens in terms of revenue growth," said CEO Bruce Cazenave.

Top-line growth has been accompanied by significant hiring. Twenty percent of employees have been with Nautilus for less than a year. Regarding future hiring, Cazenave said, "We plan to take some time to kind of absorb what we've added on."

Hiring over the past year has been focused on front end departments, such as R&D and consumer insights.

Good Q4 Start

With regard to the upcoming macroeconomic environment, Nautilus' direct-to-consumer segment often picks up on weakness in the economy before this information is widely known. The CEO implied the quarter has been off to a good start.

"We haven't seen any chinks in the armor in terms of consumer spending," said Cazenave.

Shares of Nautilus have traded 15 percent higher since the company's third-quarter release this week. According to Nayar, investor response to the quarter has been very positive. He said core investors have stuck with the stock and attributed the price rise to "momentum players jumping back in."

Stay tuned for the second part of this interview, which will look into Nautilus' product pipeline.

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