E. Lee Wyatt
Analyst · Stephen East from ISI Group
Thanks, Chris. As Brian mentioned, the majority of my comments will focus on income before charges/gains, which best reflects ongoing business performance. Let me start with our third quarter results. Sales were $1.125 billion, up 24% from a year ago, with our home product sales growing 26%. Consolidated operating income for the quarter was $122 million, up 67% or $49 million compared to the same quarter last year. EPS were $0.46 for the quarter, up 59% or $0.17 versus the same quarter last year. Now let me provide more color on segment results. Our Cabinet sales were $449 million, up $119 million or 36% over the prior-year quarter, led by growth in dealers and home centers. Operating income for this segment almost tripled to $37 million, up $24 million as we benefited from higher sales volume running through our improving supply chain. And operating margin was 8.2%, 420 basis points higher than the same quarter last year. Our strategy of disciplined sales growth is working as planned as we continue to exceed the overall Cabinet market growth while improving profitability. We are seeing broader growth in our semi-custom and custom Cabinet lines, as R&R spending improved over last year. Excluding WoodCrafters, sales grew 18% and operating income increased $19 million to $32 million, more than doubling. Plumbing sales for the third quarter were $338 million, up $60 million or 22% versus the prior-year quarter. All channels, again, performed well, with U.S. wholesale and retail and the China business all experiencing double-digit sales growth. Operating income was $66 million, up 36%, even as we made incremental brand investments in the U.S. And importantly, operating margin was 19.5%, 210 basis points higher than the same quarter last year. Windows & Doors sales were $181 million, up $23 million or 14% from the prior-year quarter. Within this segment, the Door business experienced 14% sales growth, while the Window business grew 15%. Operating profit for this segment increased to $9 million, $2 million better than last year. Third quarter Security & Storage sales were $157 million, up 10% to the prior-year quarter. Security sales increased 7% and sales of tool storage products were up 21%. However, approximately $5 million of the $7 million sales growth for storage in the quarter was the result of our largest customer pulling forward some fourth quarter orders, ahead of the holiday promotional period. Segment operating income increased 42% to $30 million driven by a combination of sales gains and changes to our benefit structure as we align all of our benefit programs ahead of implementation of the new health care law. So to sum up the third quarter performance, we continue to leverage our structural competitive advantages to drive share gains and we're beginning to see better mix driven by the improving R&R market. During the quarter, we also took steps to better align the systems strategy in our Cabinets segment with its business strategy, focusing on more flexible systems that provide industry-leading content for consumers and superior tools for designers to deliver the best purchase experience in the industry. As a result of this shift in systems strategy, we recognize net charges of $0.09, primarily noncash charges related to abandonment of previously developed software. Turning to the balance sheet. Our September 30 balance sheet remained solid, and our cash position increased in the quarter to $157 million even as we opportunistically repurchased $30 million of shares in the quarter. Debt decreased to $356 million. As we previously stated, over an assumed 5-year time horizon beginning in 2012, to the housing market to return to a steady-state, our strong free cash flow combined with our flexible balance sheet, should provide over $2 billion of cash to drive incremental shareholder value. Let me now provide further details on our revised outlook for 2013. As discussed previously, our approach to the annual outlook begins with a market assumption but also includes continued share gains in addition to the overall market growth. So based on our market assumption and our performance through the third quarter, we now expect our full year 2013 sales to increase 15% to 16% compared to 2012. Our expectation for full year EPS are now in the range of $1.47 to $1.49. The midpoint of our guidance represents an increase of 66% over 2012 EPS of $0.89. It is important to note that within our EPS guidance, we intend to continue to make strategic investments across our businesses in the fourth quarter in order to prepare for significant growth opportunities in 2014 and beyond. We expect 2013 free cash flow to be approximately $300 million for the full year after CapEx of approximately $90 million and we should end the year with net debt-to-EBITDA around 0. In summary, our business model's performing well and we are pleased with our strong third quarter and year-to-date performance. This momentum should position us well for 2014 as we continue to benefit from our structural competitive advantages in the recovering market for our products. Importantly, this sustainable momentum in both the housing market and in our business performance should allow us to create incremental shareholder value by making select acquisitions and returning cash to shareholders through our dividend and share repurchase. I will now turn the call back to Brian.