Tony Reardon
Analyst · Edward Marshall of Sidoti & Company. Your line is open
Thank you, Chris. And thank you everyone for joining us today for our 2016 third quarter conference call. I will begin by providing an overview of our operations, including some market color, after which I will turn the call over to Doug Groves to go through our financial results in detail. The third quarter demonstrated our ability to continue on the course charted over the past year in which we streamlined our operations, divested non-core businesses, and cleaned up our balance sheet. We achieved 19% gross margins this quarter and earnings of $0.44 per diluted share, a solid performance given the lower revenue versus 2015, which speaks to our improved structure, enhanced margin profile, and reduced interest expense. Revenue was lower year-over-year, mainly due to the closure of our Houston operations along with the divestiture of our Pittsburgh facility in Miltec. Net of these, our core ongoing business was down just slightly this quarter, versus 2015 as gains in commercial aerospace were offset by lower military sales. That being said, we believe that the military shipments timing along with growth in the commercial aerospace platform should drive overall revenue expansion in the fourth quarter and 2017. This is underscored by our strong backlog of $566 million at the end of Q3. We also paid down $10 million of debt this quarter adding to the $55 million eliminated earlier this year, as we continue to strengthen our balance sheet to bolster our growth profile and provide increased financial flexibility. We expect to reduce debt further in the fourth quarter, as Doug will review in a moment. Now, let me provide some additional color on our end-markets, products and programs. I’ll begin with our commercial aerospace business. We’re pleased with the results but see plenty of room for additional growth. Quarterly revenue was $66 million, in line with the second quarter and roughly $4 million above the prior year period. Sales were solid across all areas of the business with a nice uptick in our Airbus revenue. We did however experienced some timing delays with regard to the shipments for the Boeing 737 and 787 platforms, which we now expect will positively increase the fourth quarter’s top line. Our commercial aerospace backlog stood at $280 million at the end of this quarter, not only a record but an increase of more than $40 million over Q2. We expect this backlog can expand further based on our strong position on the Boeing 737 and 787 programs as well as the Airbus A320, A330 and A350 platforms. We remain on track with investments to support higher demand for titanium composites and electronics, particularly on new platforms like 737 MAX and the A320neo. In support of this growth strategy, we’re expanding our Parsons, Kansas facility by approximately 70,000 square feet. The Parsons operations specializes in titanium thermal-forming technology, and we expect demand to ramp up dramatically over the coming years. Given the new applications on platforms of the Spirit, Boeing, Airbus and [indiscernible] and also driven by our increased content for shipment. Turning to our military and space sector, revenue fell to $54 million this quarter from $70 million last year, which reflects the Miltec divestures as well as budget curtailments and changing platform requirements. Given our military revenue in Q2 of $51 million, we believe that we’re at the base run rate for this side of our business, but expect to see sequential improvements next quarter as well as in 2017, reflecting higher sales from new and follow-on program awards this fiscal year. We anticipate stronger shipments of our radar racks during the fourth quarter on platforms such as the F-15 and the F-18 along with higher missile system revenue and slightly better helicopter sales. Our military backlog remains relatively stable at just over $260 million, and we continue to target additional applications for our proprietary technologies, and remain ready to address any demand changes that may take shape once the new administration takes place. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Doug to go through our financial results in detail.