Kent Yee
Analyst · Sidoti & Company
Thank you, David, and thank you to everyone for joining us for our review of our second quarter financial results. Q2 shows that we carried our momentum from the first quarter through the entire first half of 2019. We are growing sales, improving gross margins and our balance sheet continues to be poised for us to be acquisitive. Strong sales growth within Supply Chain Services, gross margin expansion and improvement within IPS along with strategic investments have been key themes during the first half of 2019 for DXP. For the 6-month period ending June 30, 2019, total sales grew 7.9% to $644.5 million, and operating income is up 20.7% to $37.7 million. Diluted earnings per share is up 29.3% to $1.13 per share. Total sales for the second quarter increased 7.1% year-over-year to $333.3 million. Second quarter sales growth was supported by all 3 business segments. Second quarter sales growth was led by Supply Chain Services growing 20.6% year-over-year to $52.3 million, followed by Innovative Pumping Solutions growing 9.1% year-over-year to $81 million, and Service Centers growing 3.3% to $200 million. Average daily sales for the second quarter were 5.3 million per day versus 4.9 million per day in Q2 2018. The ISM PMI remanufacturing index averaged 52.2% for the second quarter compared to 58.7% in 2018. Additionally, the Metalworking Business Index averaged a reading of 51.5% in the second quarter of 2019 versus 58.2% in Q2 2018. In terms of oil and gas, the average U.S. rig count for Q2 was down 50 rigs versus Q2 2018. Canada's rig count is down 26 rigs versus Q2 2018. That said, WTI averaged $60 per barrel for the second quarter versus $55 per barrel in Q1. In today's environment, we believe our oil and gas customers are focused on disciplined capital allocation and free cash flow. While this clearly indicates that some of our key indicators are showing a decelerating growth environment, we have strategies designed to take market share, and we are executing and winning with these strategies. Supply Chain Services is leading our sales growth this year, accompanied by another strong year from Innovative Pumping Solutions. The sales growth in Supply Chain Services is the result of adding new customer sites within the food and beverage, aerospace, medical device and oil and gas industries, which has been occurring since Q3 of 2018. The rollout of new sites does impact operating income margins over the short term due to implementation costs, including inventory burn-off and initial hiring of on-site personnel without the corresponding revenue fully ramping up. Projects within our IPS segment, which experienced year-over-year sales growth, continue to include pipeline natural gas and onshore loading stations, as David mentioned. Regions within our Service Center segment which experienced meaningful sales growth in the second quarter include the West Ohio River Valley and Texas Gulf Coast. Turning to our gross margins. DXP's total gross margins were 27.6%, a 25 basis point improvement over Q2 2018. DXP's total gross margins for the second quarter primarily reflects improvement within our IPS business segment. IPS gross margins improved 419 basis points sequentially. And we are seeing an overall improvement in the gross margins on the jobs we have in the backlog. In terms of operating income, combined, all 3 business segments improved 42 basis points in year-over-year business segment operating income margins versus Q2 2018. Total DXP operating income increased 40 basis points versus Q2 2018 to $22.8 million. Innovative Pumping Solutions improved operating income margins 278 basis points to $12 million, while Service Centers' improved operating income margins 29 basis points to $23.2 million. Supply Chain Services decreased 278 basis points year-over-year. And as we discussed, this was primarily driven by the implementation of new SCS sites, as we mentioned during our Q1 conference call. Turning to EBITDA. EBITDA was $28.7 million in Q2, up 2.7% from 2018. However, during 2018, there was a onetime gain associated with the sale of a corporate facility. Adjusting for this gain, EBITDA grew 7.7%. Year-over-year EBITDA margins were essentially flat or increased 6 basis points after adjusting for the onetime gain. For the 6 months, this translated into 1.5x operating leverage and for the quarter 1.1x operating leverage after adjusting for the onetime gain. In terms of EPS, our net income for Q2 2019 was $13.5 million. This is up $1.9 million or 16.4% versus Q2 2018. Our earnings per diluted share for Q2 2019 was $0.73 versus $0.63 in Q2 2018. Turning to the balance sheet. In terms of working capital, our working capital was $241.5 million at the end of the quarter. This amounted to 19.1% of last 12-month sales. This is above our historical average but reflects the seasonal nature of working on projects and investing in associated working capital and project-related jobs within IPS. We expect this to start trending downwards as we move into Q3 and Q4. Accounts receivable were at $210.3 million at the end of the second quarter, up $13 million sequentially. Inventory is up $13.1 million from Q4. This reflects DXP carrying higher levels to support our revenue growth and investment we expect within IPS and the Service Centers. We achieved inventory turns of 7.1x. In terms of cash, we had $25.5 million in cash on the balance sheet at June 30. In terms of CapEx, CapEx in the second quarter was $6.3 million or 1.9% of second quarter sales. Compared to the second quarter of 2018, CapEx dollars are up $1.5 million. CapEx during the quarter reflects investments made within our facilities, including our corporate office, fabrication facilities in Houston and other Service Centers locations. We also are continuing to make investments in software to enhance our corporate support operations. Return on invested capital, or ROIC, at the end of the second quarter was 25%. During Q2, ROIC was impacted by the $16.2 million increase in working capital from Q1 to Q2. In terms of our capital structure at June 30, our fixed charge coverage ratio and secured leverage ratio remained at 3.7 and 2.2 to 1, respectively. Total debt outstanding at June 30 was $247 million. In conclusion, we are pleased with the first half of 2019. We look forward to finishing the year strong, executing on our strategy, growing sales both organically and through acquisitions and driving both gross and EBITDA margins. Momentum has been good, and we look forward to pushing this through the entirety of 2019. We will now turn the call over for your questions.