Steven E. Nielsen
Analyst · B. Riley Financial. Your line is now open
Thanks, Ryan. Now moving to Slide 4, and a review of our second quarter results. As we review our results please note that in our comments today and in the accompanying slides, we reference certain non-GAAP measures. We refer you to the quarterly report section of our website for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their corresponding GAAP measures. Now for the quarter, revenue was $972.3 million, an organic increase of 23.5%. As we deploy gigabit wireline networks, wireless wireline converged networks, and wireless networks, this quarter reflected an increase in demand from three of our top five customers. Gross margin was 17.9% of revenue, and increased 63 basis points compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2022. Improved operating performance of 122 basis points in the second quarter was partially offset by 59 basis points of higher fuel costs. General and administrative expenses were 7.5% of revenue and all of these factors produced adjusted EBITDA of $104.7 million or 10.8% of revenue and earnings per share of $1.46 compared to $0.59 in the year ago quarter. Liquidity was solid at $366.3 million improving sequentially. And during the quarter, we repurchased 104,000 shares for $10 million. Now going to Slide 5. Today, major industry participants are constructing or upgrading significant wireline networks across broad sections of the country. These wireline networks are generally designed to provision gigabit network speeds to individual consumers and businesses, either directly or wirelessly using 5G technologies. Industry participants have stated their belief that a single high capacity fiber network can most cost effectively deliver services to both consumers and businesses, enabling multiple revenue streams from a single investment. This view is increasing the appetite for fiber deployments and we believe that the industry effort to deploy high capacity fiber networks continues to meaningfully broaden the set of opportunities for our industry. Increasing access to high capacity telecommunications continues to be crucial to society, especially in rural America. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes over $40 billion for the construction of rural communications networks in unserved and underserved areas across the country. This represents an unprecedented level of support. In addition, substantially all states are commencing programs that will provide funding for telecommunications networks, even prior to the initiation of funding under the Infrastructure Act. We're providing program management, planning, engineering, and design, aerial, underground and wireless construction and fulfillment services for gigabit deployments. These services are being provided across the country in numerous geographic areas to multiple customers. These appointments include networks consisting entirely of wired network elements and converged wireless wireline multi-use networks. Fiber network deployment opportunities are increasing in rural America as new industry participants respond to emerging societal initiatives. We continue to provide integrated planning, engineering and design procurement and construction and maintenance services to several industries participants. Macroeconomic effects and supply constraints may influence the near-term execution of some customer plans. Broad increases and demand for fiber optic cable and related equipment may cause delivery volatility in the short to intermediate term. In addition, the market for labor remains tight in many regions around the country. It remains to be seen how long this condition persists. Furthermore, the automotive and equipment supply chains remains challenged, particularly for the large truck chassis required for specialty equipment. Prices for capital equipment are increasing. As we contend with these factors, we are encouraged that industry participants increasingly understand that cost pressures are industry-wide. Several have addressed those impacts, while others are expected to do so as well. Within this context, we remain confident that our scale and financial strength position as well to deliver valuable service to our customers. Moving to Slide 6. During the quarter, organic revenue increased 23.5%. Our top five customers combined produce 67.4% of revenue, increasing 26.6% organically. Demand increased from three of our top five customers. All other customers increased 17.4% organically. AT&T was our largest customer at 26.3% of total revenue or $255.9 million. AT&T grew 44.2% organically. This was our sixth consecutive quarter of organic growth with AT&T. Lumen was our second largest customer at 13.1% of revenue or $127.6 million. Lumen grew organically 33.7%. This was our second quarter of organic growth with Lumen. Revenue from Comcast was $111.8 million or 11.5% of revenue. Comcast was Dycom’s third largest customer. Verizon was our fourth largest customer at $80.8 million, or 8.3% of revenue. And finally, revenue from Frontier was $78.7 million or 8.1% of revenue. Frontier grew 147% organically. This is the first quarter since April of 2017, where our top five customers grew organically in excess of 25% and the 14th consecutive quarter where all of our other customers and aggregate, excluding the top five customers, have grown organically. Of note, fiber construction revenue from electric utilities was $79.8 million in the quarter and increased organically 54.4% year-over-year. We have extended our geographic reach and expanded our program management and network planning services. In fact, over the last several years, we believe we have meaningfully increased the long-term value of our maintenance and operations business, a trend which we believe will parallel our deployment of gigabit wireline direct and wireless wireline converged networks as those deployments dramatically increase the amount of outside plant network that must be extended and maintained. Now going to Slide 7. Backlog at the end of the second quarter was $6.028 billion versus $5.593 billion at the end of the April 2022 quarter, an increase of $435 million. Of this backlog, approximately $3.111 billion is expected to be completed in the next 12 months. Backlog activity during the second quarter reflect solid performance as we booked new work and renewed existing work. We continue to anticipate substantial future opportunities across a broad array of our customers. During the quarter, we received from Lumen fiber construction agreements in Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, and Minnesota; for Brightspeed, fiber construction agreements with Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and North Carolina; from Verizon, a construction and maintenance agreement in Pennsylvania; for Frontier, construction and maintenance and fiber construction agreements in California, Ohio and Pennsylvania; and from Conexon, a rural fiber construction agreement in Louisiana. Headcount was 14,951. Now I will turn the call over to Drew for his financial review and outlook.