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CBIZ, Inc. (CBZ)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Tue, Jul 29, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the CBIZ second quarter 2014 results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions). Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steven Gerard, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.

Steven L. Gerard

Management

Thank you, Kate and good morning everyone and thank you for calling into CBIZ’s 2014 second quarter and first half results conference call. Before I begin my comments I’d like to remind you of a few things. As with all our conference calls this call is intended to answer the questions of our shareholders and analysts. If there are media representatives on the call you’re welcome to listen in. However I ask that if you have questions you hold them for after the call and we’ll be happy to address them at that time. The call is also being webcast and you can access the call over our website. You should have all received a copy of the press release which was issued this morning. If you did not you can also access that on our website. Finally please remember that during the course of the call we may make forward-looking statements. These statements represent management’s intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations, and predictions of the future. Actual results can and sometimes do differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our SEC filings our Form 10-K and our press releases. Joining me on the call this morning is Jerry Grisko, our President and Chief Operating Officer; and Ware Grove, our Chief Financial Officer. Prior to the opening this morning we were pleased to release our second quarter and six month results wherein we have noted that our revenue is up year-over-year for the quarter and the half and our income from continuing operation is up for the quarter and the half. We are also on an-adjusted basis would have reported increase in earnings per share but for the impact of the convertible shares which we have talked about before. The second quarter was a particularly active quarter for us in terms of our balance sheet restructuring, including, as we have announced this morning the new $ 400 million unsecured revolving credit facility and started in the quarter and lapsing into the third quarter the repurchase of some of our convertible debt. There is a great deal of complexity in these transactions. So what I would like to do is turn it over to Ware give you details.

Ware H. Grove

Management

Thanks Steve, and good morning everyone. As is our normal practice I want to take a few minutes to review the highlights of the second quarter and year-to-date numbers we released this morning for the period ending June 30, 2014. To begin before we start with the numbers as Steve indicated we are very pleased to announce an expanded five year $ 400 million unsecured credit facility that replaces our current $ 275 million unsecured facility. Our current bank group is very supportive and each of our banks have significantly increased their commitment to CBIZ as a participant in this expanded facility. This facility not only continues to provide us with the capacity for growth through acquisition and continue our program of share repurchases, but it also provides us greater flexibility to refinance or to otherwise repurchase or retire the convertible notes that are due in October 2015. As we announced in the release this morning in July we concluded the repurchase of approximately $17.4 million of the notes and I’ll talk about that in more detail later as that transaction will have a favorable impact on borrowing costs for the balance of 2014 and beyond. Now turning into the second quarter and six month numbers as a reminder the second quarter and six months of last year are restated to reflect the sale of our medical management practices operation which occurred in August 2013. As I indicated our first quarter call the restated quarterly numbers for both 2012 and 2013 are outlined in footnote number 21 in our 10-K report for 2013 if you wish to reference those numbers. Now we were pleased to report that total revenue for the second quarter increased to $180.9 million which is a 5% increase over second quarter 2013. Same unit organic growth…

Steven L. Gerard

Management

Thank you Ware. Let me comment on the few other things. Our acquisition pipeline remains strong. We've completed four transactions year-to-date and we will probably -- we typically do three to six and my guess is that we will do at least three to six this year. So, we are, basically where we want to be on the acquisition side. In terms of our take on the economy as it affects our clients we were seeing our clients continue to be cautious but continuing to explore opportunities for growth both in terms of employment and investment so while the climb out of the recession will continue to be very slow and will probably continue to be slow for another year or two we are seeing positive signs. And as we’ve commented we are looking for a stronger second half of 2014 based upon activity that we have today or that we expect and that should reflect itself in the third and fourth quarter. Let me stop here because I know we’ve covered a lot of detail and ask for questions of our analysts and shareholders and we'll comeback with some concluding comments.

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Josh Vogel from Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : Thanks. Good morning guys.

Steven L. Gerard

Management

Hi Josh. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : Ware, I am sorry, I missed your comments with regard to the private transaction for the repurchase and retirement of about 70 million of convert, did you said there was one holder or is there a group of holders?

Ware H. Grove

Management

There was one holder, Josh. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : Okay, and now, when you think about the timing of a refi, what do you think the likelihood is that will you issue another convert versus using the larger credit facility you have now?

Ware H. Grove

Management

We're going to look at all options. The larger credit facility gives us the complete flexibility if we wish to take out the convert with the revolver. And based on what the market looks like at the time we'll make that decision. I think I commented before that there is an array of facilities and if I have to rank them in order I would say that a new convert is the least likely of the opportunities. But what we did in this financing which closed yesterday was we really took any refinancing risk off the table. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : Okay. And what's the interest rate on the $400 million facility and what was it on the $275 million?

Ware H. Grove

Management

The pricing grid has improved or lowered by 25 basis points, so today the new facility we will borrow it at LIBOR plus a 175 basis points where it was LIBOR plus 200 basis points prior. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : Okay, and Ware, your comments about the government healthcare consulting business and the pace of business has improved and the pipeline is strong. Last quarter you mentioned that given the change in time and scope $3 million in revenue was pushed out to later in the year. How much of that did you see, of that $3 million did you see in Q2?

Ware H. Grove

Management

I’m not sure we have seen the recapture in the change in scope. The comments really related to the timing of new business and when it comes on board and when we could recognize the revenue. So as we win and successfully gain new business through successful responses to RFPs you then have a start date that may start a month or two after that and then once the work starts to get done we start to recognize revenue. So there is a little bit of lag between the time that we actually win new business and record revenue.

Steven L. Gerard

Management

And Josh just to clarify if we were not clear before, any scope change was generally a permanent change. What we have been able to do is make it up with new business. We did have some timing issues but the bigger issue in the first quarter was a scope change on a couple of large contracts and that is not going to change this year, but they have done a great job in replacing that with new business. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : Okay and just lastly from me for some housekeeping and modeling, when I am looking at interest expense and share count for Q3 versus Q2 should we expect, both to be down sequentially.

Ware H. Grove

Management

Yeah, I think you will see, remember our cash flow’s relatively seasonal so our borrowing levels should reduce a bit absent any further acquisition activity. We would expect to reduce our interest expense sequentially in the 3rd and the 4th quarters compared to what you saw in the first and second quarters. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : Okay and the share count will be down sequentially especially once you back out the dilution or from the convert that we purchased and we tied the $17 million.

Ware H. Grove

Management

Yeah. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : So the diluted share count will be down?

Ware H. Grove

Management

Yeah, we are not even going to attempt to forecast the share count impact for the convert because that’s based on the price which is somewhat volatile. But yeah I think you are right, the share count is going to be relatively constant for the balance of the year. The earlier share repurchase activity that we’ve conducted of 1.3 million shares year-to-date should have a greater impact in the second half on the weighted average share count calculation. Josh Vogel - Sidoti & Company : Okay, great, thanks for taking my questions.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Jim McDonald from First Analysis. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Good morning, guys, this is Tom calling for Jim.

Steven L. Gerard

Management

Hey, Tom.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I was hoping you give a little bit of commentary on how the Affordable Care Act is -- what you guys are expecting with the critical fall enrollment period coming up?

Steven L. Gerard

Management

We have viewed the Affordable Care Act as a net positive to us. We have not seen a dramatic movement of our clients to exchanges, either private or public exchanges. The Affordable Care Act still is confusing to lot of our clients. So we continue to see that as a net positive in our consulting business. I am not expecting that it will have a dramatic increase year-over-year because a lot of the tick-up that we were expecting we actually saw last year. But we think it will continue to add revenue opportunities to us.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Right, thank you. And then, do you any more color on the financial services segment outside of the healthcare consulting business?

Steven L. Gerard

Management

Yeah, you remember the start in the first quarter was really hampered for the core tax and accounting business by weather-related closures. And so we had a really soft start and that business doesn’t immediately rebound in the second quarter but it flows into the second and third quarter as often times extensions are granted into September 15th and October 15th time frames. So we have seen some modest improvement but we hope to see and expect to see continuation of that improving trend in the third quarter and actually into the fourth quarter.

Ware H. Grove

Management

Yeah. In addition, we're seeing, as we track the new business, generally we're seeing a higher pick-up than we’ve seen in prior year which gives us some degree of confidence that the numbers we put out this morning in terms of reiterating our forecast are still very, very good numbers. In addition, we have a number of units as they come through busy season that didn't necessarily have the business that they thought they were going to have so there is an opportunity to continue to do what we do every summer which is make sure that we right-size the organization. So you put all of that together and I think that gives us the confidence to reiterate our guidance with respect to revenue and with respect to our earnings as well.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great, terrific. Thank you guys.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) There are no questions at this time. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Steven Gerard for any closing remarks.

Steven L. Gerard

Management

Thank you, Kate. To our shareholders and analysts we thank you for your questions and for calling in. The second quarter activity in terms of the new revolving credit facility and the repurchase of some of the converts were improvement to us for positioning the balance sheet long term. And it's encouraging to see the growth, the continued growth as expected in terms of our revenue and our earnings. To our associates again thank you for your hard work. These results came as a result of your hard work. So we appreciate it. Look forward to talking to everybody after the release of third quarter.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.