Tony Reardon
Analyst · Sidoti. Your line is open
Thank you, Chris, and thank you everyone for joining us today for our 2016 first quarter conference call. I'll begin by providing an overview of our operations including some market color after which Doug Groves will go over our financial results in detail. First, as our investors know we've made many changes to our company over the past year to improve overall operating performance. We've cut cost, streamlined operations and most recently shed non-core assets such as our Pittsburgh and Miltec businesses. We did this to focus Ducommun on the core aerospace and defense industry and improve margins and reduce the unpredictability inherent in certain industrial energy markets. We did sell these operations at attractive prices over 8x EBITDA resulting in a gain on the sale that Doug will speak to in a moment. Most importantly the sales generated net proceeds of approximately $50 million, which we used to pay down debt. At the end of the quarter total indebtedness stood at just $190 million a far cry from where we were a year ago at $280 million. As you know we are serious about delivering the company to strengthen our balance sheet and reduce interest expense and we've accomplished a great deal in this regard over the past year and a half. At the same time, our gross margins have rebounded nicely, testimony to the many initiatives taken to reduce cost and improve the efficiency of our operations. Gross margins reached 19% this quarter versus about 15% last year and in Q4. So, while revenue was down year-over-year as expected primarily due to lower military spending the actions we've taken have boosted our underlying operations and focus the company for better growth going forward. Our backlog at $564 million is the highest it's been over a year with the primary driver being increased military backlog which bodes well for the stabilization of that market. We believe the performance we saw in the first quarter will also lead to improved results as the year plays out. We will continue to focus our streamlining initiatives such as the previously announced changes to reduce our administrative office in St. Louis, which we concluded early in Q2. In addition, we will be closing a small integrated electronics facility serving the oil field service industry in Tulsa, Oklahoma within the coming months. As we look to further increase the operating leverage at our core manufacturing locations and focus our capabilities on the markets we serve. Now, let me provide some additional color on our end markets, programs and products. I'll start off with the commercial aerospace business, where quarterly revenue once again was very strong nearly $67 million, we saw strong shipments across our large aircraft segment slightly offset by weakness in the commercial helicopters and the regional and business jet markets none of this was unexpected. We ended the quarter with the backlog of $268 million near record highs for another sign that we believe there is further growth in these areas going forward will be strong. Ducommun has content on some of the best platforms in the industry including the Boeing 737, where we'll see an acceleration of revenue due to higher content and production rates as this transition to the 737 max in the coming years. We also have a strong position on the 777 and the 787 as well as content on the Airbus A320neo and the A350. As a matter of fact, we recently announced a new contract with Airbus to provide titanium structures for engine support on the A320neo. And with Airbus also awarded us the first work on the A330neo, an engineering design contract in which we will collaborate and improve the manufacturability, cost and function of certain metal structures, applications for Airbus. These are great wins to Ducommun that will expand our support to the Airbus across the A320 and A330 family allowing us to demonstrate our manufacturing design expertise and potentially pave the way for other opportunities with this OEM as we go forward. As a reminder, we currently have over 30 new development programs underway across Ducommun, many of which will begin positively impacting top line results later this year and into next year. To support this growth, we will be investing in certain operations during the second half of this year to cover our titanium composite and electronics product line. The expansion in these three areas has been an integral part of our strategy and as a result we need the appropriate facility upgrades, equipment and personnel to support the contracts already in place and ensure the capacity for additional new application. We will continue to focus on these strategic imparities and see many opportunities for future growth. Turning to our military and space sector, revenue fell to $58 million this quarter versus $71 million last year. This was not really a surprise given what we've said in the past about overall budget curtailments and reduced spending on certain platforms. However, some of this decrease was related to shipment timing. As we said at the beginning of the year, we expect the current run rate for our military business to be in that $60 million to $70 million range for the foreseeable future, so the first quarter was obviously shy of that. However, our defense backlog rooted $261 million this period the highest level in over a year this reflects needed electronic upgrades on many platform we serve and demand for the missile defense -- in the missile defense business. So while we're not bullish on this part of the business just yet, the stability I spoke about is clearly there and we anticipate [for roll] [ph] going forward. We are in a much shape operationally as evidenced by this quarter for the lower run rates currently in place as we look to take advantage of shifts in the budget spending. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to Doug to go through the financial detail. Doug?