Bob Wrocklage
Analyst · Stifel. Your line is open
Thanks, Ken, and good morning, everyone. I want to begin by stating it is incredibly difficult to quantify the specific impact of COVID-19 on our financial results in the quarter. Clearly, it was far reaching in terms of customer order patterns, supply chain logistics and capacity interruptions and ultimately costs, including the various implemented cost savings actions. So similar to the release, my comments will not include that breakdown or level of granularity. If you turn to Slide 4, you can see that total sales for the second quarter were $91.1 million compared to $103.5 million in the same period last year, a decrease of 12%. Given our sales concentration in the U.S. market, it is not surprising that the month of April marked the low point for us in terms of both orders and sales, as the vast majority of States were under government lockdown restrictions. Customers were definitely taking a pause in determining the impacts to their operations, how to operate remotely, how to continue with projects, and how long the restrictions would last. Municipal water demand began to improve to become less worse if you will, as the lockdowns began to be lifted in mid-May and into June. In municipal water, overall sales decreased 9% with April representing the largest year-over-year decline, the sequential improvement off of that bottom to a more stabilized level as the quarter progressed. I would not characterize it as back to normal, but definitely off of the April bottom with relative consistence. In addition, backlog grew as orders exceeded sales in the quarter due to a number of factors. These included manufacturing disruptions from stay-at-home orders in the U.S. and Mexico, higher rates of intermittent employee absenteeism, and early supply chain challenges, all of which combined to limit output at certain of our manufacturing facilities. Additionally, the sequential demand ramp impacted order timing and our ability to convert orders into sales late in the quarter. On a positive note, revenue mix trends toward adoption of smart metering solutions, including BEACON service revenue along with ultrasonic meter penetration continued. In contrast, flow instrumentation sales declined 22% year-over-year, with April again representing the most difficult demand level. As expected, demand trends improved from the April low, but at a very modest pace reflective of the significantly challenged industrial markets served, and our continuing view of this product line being lower for longer compared to the more resilient municipal water trend. Operating profit as a percent of sales was 13.9%, a 60 basis point decline from the prior year 14.5%. As we discussed on our last call in mid-April, we enacted a number of temporary cost containment measures to mitigate the impact of the rapid sales decline to both profitability and cash flows. These included reductions in discretionary spending, the hiring freeze, reduced work hour furloughs, and executive salary reductions among others. While the reduced work hour and salary reductions were initially targeted for five weeks, we did extend those reductions for an additional four weeks through mid-June. The combined actions helped to contain the decremental operating margin impact from the rapid sales decline to approximately 20% in the quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 39.3%, up 40 basis points year-over-year, despite the sales decline, and once again in the upper half of what we would call our normalized range of 36% to 40%. The implemented cost actions helped to offset lower production volumes. Additionally, positive sales mix, notably the overall trends of ultrasonic meter adoption and higher BEACON service revenues along with lower commodity costs benefited gross margins in the quarter. SEA expenses for the second quarter were $23.2 million, down $2 million year-over-year, resulting from the net benefit of the implemented cost actions, partially offset by higher investments in certain business optimization initiatives. The income tax provision in the second quarter of 2020 was 24.3%, slightly higher than the prior year's 23.8% rate. In summary, EPS was $0.33 in the second quarter of 2020, a decline of 15% from the prior year's earnings per share of $0.39. Working capital as a percent of sales was 22.9%, in line with the prior sequential quarter. Free cash flow of $20.1 million was just $700,000 below the prior year comparable quarter, despite lower earnings and was due primarily to the working capital differential between corners and deferral of our quarterly federal income tax payment under the CARES Act. We’ve continued to monitor customer cash receipts and supplier payment terms, and we have not experienced any significant collectability or other issues. We ended the quarter with approximately $85 million of cash on the balance sheet, and a net cash position of approximately $81 million. In addition, we have an untapped credit facility of $125 million. We believe we have ample liquidity to fund operations, our dividend and other capital allocation priorities under a wide range of potential economic scenarios. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Ken.