Operator
Operator
Good afternoon. My name is Susan, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Fortune Brands' Third Quarter 2016 Earnings and Results Conference Call. Thank you. I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Brian Lantz, Vice President of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications. You may begin your call. Brian C. Lantz - Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc.: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Fortune Brands Home & Security quarterly investor conference call and webcast. We are pleased to be here today to provide an update on our progress during the third quarter of 2016. Hopefully, everyone has had a chance to review the news release issued earlier. The news release and the audio replay of the webcast of this call can be found in the Investors section of our fbhs.com website. I want to remind everyone that the forward-looking statements we make on the call today, either in our prepared remarks or in the associated question-and-answer session, are based on current expectations and on market outlook and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. These risks are detailed in our various filings with the SEC, such as our Annual Report on 10-K. The company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, which speak only to the time at which they are made. Any references to operating profit, earnings per share or cash flow on today's call will focus on our results on a before charges and gains basis for continuing operations with the exception of cash flow unless otherwise specified. With me on the call today are Chris Klein, our Chief Executive Officer; and Lee Wyatt, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we've allowed some time to address questions that you may have. I will now turn the call over to Chris. Christopher J. Klein - Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc.: Thank you, Brian, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. Our teams delivered profitable growth in the third quarter in the face of challenging comps, select channel inventory reductions and slower than anticipated repair and remodel activity. Importantly, our businesses remained focused on targeting the most attractive segments of our markets and we delivered strong profit performance across all four segments. Since late September and through the month of October, we've seen the pace of orders across our business strengthen, returning to levels that we would expect. So, based on our solid third quarter performance, consistent execution and our current assumption for market growth, we're revising our full year outlook for sales growth to 9% to 10%, while confirming our previous EPS outlook. Let me first spend some time on our view of the U.S. home products market, followed by my thoughts on our business performance in the third quarter. Then I would like to discuss the recent creation of our Global Plumbing Group and why we view this platform is the first step to further accelerating growth for the Plumbing segment. And finally, since we've just celebrated our five year anniversary as an independent company, I'll provide my perspectives on the company that we have built and how we have positioned ourselves to maximize growth and value for the years ahead. Lee will then provide more details on our third quarter performance and our 2016 outlook. Starting with our view of the U.S. home products market. In the third quarter, the market for our home products grew at the lower end of the pace that we expected. We estimate that repair and remodel activity grew at around 4%, and new construction grew generally as expected. Our businesses experienced repair and remodel activity that began to slow in July and was clearly slower throughout August and the first half of September. While demand was slower over this period, our channels also reported a tighter labor market at available contractors and trades people to take on incrementally more projects over the summer months after a fast start to the year. Notably over the past five weeks, we've seen R&R activity and order patterns improve and more consistent with what we would expect starting in mid-September and continuing through October and consumers continuing to drive an improving mix within our categories. New construction demand continues to grow as expected with single family growing faster than multi-family and single family entry-level activity continuing to improve. Looking at the full-year 2016, our overall assumption is that the U.S. home products market, which impacts 70% of our sales grows at a combined rate of around 6%. Within the year, we saw upside in the first quarter driven by better weather. The second quarter was pretty much as we expected. The third quarter saw a slower repair and remodel activity partially due to labor constraints. And with our current visibility into order patterns, the fourth quarter is shaping up to be on plan. Taken together, 2016 will be a good year. Looking forward, our basket of new term indicators for the home products market remains pointed to strong underlying demand, some constraints in skilled labor, significant levels of single-family new construction activity, and continued market momentum as we head into 2017. Now, let me provide some perspective on our business performance. For the third quarter, our teams delivered strong performance across all operating segments. Sales increased 3% and total company operating margin increased to 14.8%. Starting with our Cabinet segment, we continue to follow disciplined strategy focused on profitable growth. Our consistent pace of product innovation and our high levels of reliable service to our channel partners continued to drive performance. In the third quarter, our overall Cabinet sales were flat to the prior year and operating margins driven by an increasingly efficient operations and an improving mix expanded to 12.4%. Excluding last year's third quarter load-in to support a major new vanity program launch and promotional timing, our total Cabinet sales increased mid single-digits in the quarter. And the dealer channel sales grew both single-digits overall. However, sales grew solid mid-single-digits in all of our core semi-custom product lines, and we continued to see mix improve. In our luxury lines, which make up a little more than 25% of our dealer channel volume sales were lower. Overall, dealers are seeing strong growth from our new construction products, we're benefiting from deeper relationships with existing customers, and we're beginning to see some cross-sell benefits from our Norcraft acquisition. Sales for our in-stock cabinets and vanities which are sold through home centers were down, but grew high single-digits when adjusted for the comparison to last year's load-in and promotional timing in the third quarter. The sell-through of the new program and product upgrades that we launched last year are performing very well and we're planning for the launch of additional new programs in 2017. Our Cabinet team has been focused on partnering with our customers to continue to deliver on consumer trends and drive growth in our in-stock cabinet and vanity programs. The remaining 25% to 30% of our Cabinets business, which includes home center special order, semi-custom, builder direct and targeted markets and Canada, grew mid-single-digits. We're disciplined in our approach to these segments as we focus on where we can partner with our customers to capture profitable growth. With our focused approach we grew share in these segments and drove strong margin improvement. We're especially pleased with our home center special order business, where our partnership approach is working well and driving growth at above market rates with an improving mix. In summary, I feel good about our industry leading cabinet business. We continue to execute well and deliver strong results even in a quarter where the market was not as strong as we planned. We're building share in the most attractive segments of the market. Our plants are increasingly more efficient and our new product introductions and program wins are helping us drive a richer mix across a number of price points in the market. For our Plumbing segment, sales were up 7% for the quarter, with solid mix and strong operating margin. Excluding select channel inventory reductions and sales from the recent acquisitions, sales increased to 6% driven by strength in U.S. wholesale, China and Canada. Across our markets, we continue to see consumers trade up and our mix improve as innovation and design, finish and function attracts consumers who trust our brand. As we look at the remainder of the year, our growth should benefit from incremental marketing spend, a healthy new construction market, and more focus on recently launched products. Sales in Canada were up high single digits to the prior year where we were gaining share. Notably we continued to see strong growth in the urban markets with our home center partners. China sales increased double digits versus the prior year. Sales gains were brought across the China business particularly in our Moen branded stores where we continue to drive increased productivity. Doors reported sales were up 4% for the quarter. Door products again saw sales growth in both wholesale and retail. Therma-Tru continues to benefit from the rollout of a refreshed retail strategy that includes an enhanced product line, simpler, more intuitive displays, and better sales support for our customers' associates. And in wholesale, we continue to benefit from strong new construction placements and our enhanced distribution in the southern and western U.S. In the Security segment, sales increased 6% from the prior-year quarter and were up approximately 8% excluding the negative impact of the planned exit of some less profitable Sentry Safe product lines. The growth came from multiple channels and geographies and we were beginning to see profit improvement from the integration of Sentry Safe into Master Lock. We're also ramping up our Sentry sales efforts as we continue to be excited about the opportunities we see between our Master Lock and Sentry businesses over the next few years. So to recap the quarter, our teams are consistently leveraging our competitive advantages to deliver profitable growth. We executed well in a U.S. home products market that is continuing to expand despite periodic labor constraints among installers and tradesmen and we are gaining momentum in our Security business with Sentry integration behind us. Now let me turn to the newly formed Global Plumbing Group, which is a key strategic step to enable accelerated organic and incremental long-term growth. The approach to the GPG is much like the evolution of our Cabinets business into a platform that can support multiple brands across multiple price points sold into leading channel positions supported by dedicated supply chains. The new GPG platform structure should allow us to accelerate growth while leveraging our global supply chain and strong distribution. It paves the way for additional acquisitions, joint ventures and supply agreements and allows for a seamless integration and continued growth. While only an initial step, we've recently made our first two acquisitions as part of this new platform. Riobel is a premium Canadian showroom brand which brings strong innovation and best-in-class service. We've also recently purchased ROHL, which includes both the ROHL and Perrin & Rowe brands, which bring a design-centric artisanal approach to luxury products. Under the GPG, these additions now have even greater potential for profitable growth. The new Global Plumbing Group enhances the potential for future growth as we look to grow our Plumbing sales to $2.5 billion by 2020. We're excited about the opportunity to transform our business, enter new markets, develop new products, manage our channels and customers more holistically and accelerate both organic and incremental growth. Finally, before I turn the call over to Lee, we're proud that we've just celebrated our five year anniversary as an independent company. And we're excited about our accomplishments over a relatively short period of time. Our teams have executed extremely well and delivered outstanding results. But I'm even more excited about the foundation that we've built to drive both organic and incremental growth over the next five years. Notably in our first five years, this team has nearly doubled our sales and more than doubled our operating margin. We've increased our EPS almost five fold. We've deployed capital in value creating ways which include making five acquisitions for $1.4 billion, repurchasing over $900 million of our shares, and initiating and consistently increasing a dividend. And we've delivered exceptional returns for our shareholders. At the same time, we've evolved and positioned our businesses for future growth by building on our structural competitive advantages and our leading market share positions, creating stronger operating capabilities and platforms, driving new products, new programs and new distribution, investing in capacity and productivity and by strengthening our management team and aligning incentives to focus on driving shareholder value. The favorable demographics driven by housing demand from the longer-living Baby Boomers and increasingly the Millennials, we've seen elongated new construction cycle and pent-up R&R demand being realized. These demand drivers, coupled with the stronger business model we have created, position us extremely well not only for 2017, but for the next several years. Additionally, over the next three years, we continue to believe that we have the potential to deploy more than $2 billion to drive incremental growth and shareholder value through strategic acquisitions, share repurchases and increasing our dividend. To sum up, R&R demand was softer in the summer, but after accounting for inventory impacts and some market labor constraints, the core of our business continued to perform well and we're maintaining share. So, I am quite comfortable with the top-line performance as we head into the balance of the year, as we're picking up sales in the better parts of the market which drive profitable growth. With respect to the bottom-line, I am very pleased. Margins in the quarter were again strong and we're pacing ahead of our planned long-term profit targets. And lastly, I am encouraged by what we've seen in terms of our orders over the last five weeks. It's exciting to me that fundamental demand is still healthy, even if there was some softness this summer. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Lee, who'll review our third quarter financial performance and provide detail on our outlook for 2016. E. Lee Wyatt - Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc.: Thanks, Chris. As Brian mentioned, to best reflect ongoing business performance, the majority of my comments will focus on income before charges and gains from continuing operations. Let me start with our third quarter results. Sales were $1.28 billion, up 3% from a year ago. However, simply adjusting for the major program launch and promo event in Cabinets last year, company sales would be up 5%. Consolidated operating income for the quarter was $189 million, up 13% or $21 million compared to the same quarter last year. EPS were $0.80 for the quarter versus $0.64 for the same quarter last year, increasing 25% or $0.16. Earnings were strong and ahead of expectations driven by continued stronger operating performance and a lower tax rate. Now let me provide more color on segment results. Our third quarter Cabinet sales reflect the combination of very challenging comps and a softer R&R market. Sales were $602 million, approximately flat from the prior year, but increased mid-single-digits excluding the major program launch and promotional event for in-stock vanities in the third quarter of 2015. Dealer sales increased low single-digits from the prior year, core semi-custom sales at dealers increased mid-single-digits while luxury products were lower this quarter. Sales from in-stock cabinets and vanities decreased due to the prior year product launch and promotional event. Excluding the prior year activity which was $23 million of the total $38 million increase last year, in-stock cabinets and vanities sales increased around 7%. Remaining sales for home center semi-custom, builder direct and Canada increased 6%. Within those remaining sales, Canada declined largely due to the areas impacted by the downturn in the energy industry. In spite of flat sales, our Cabinet segment continued to increase its leading operating margin. Operating income for the Cabinet segment increased $11 million or 17% over the prior year. Operating margin for the quarter increased 180 basis points to 12.4%. For the full year, we expect an operating margin of around 11% compared to 9% in 2015. Turning to Plumbing, the GPG generated solid sales growth in the third quarter. Sales were $391 million, up $27 million or 7%. Excluding select channel inventory reductions and sales from acquisitions, sales increased 6%. Sales in Canada increased 8%, and China sales increased 11%. In spite of around $7 million in additional brand spending, the GPG maintained its leading operating margin. Operating income increased $3 million to $85 million, up 4% from the prior-year quarter. Operating margin for the segment was 21.7%. For the full year 2016, operating margin is expected to be over 21%, including incremental brand spending of $6 million in the fourth quarter. Door sales were $129 million, up $5 million or 4% from the prior year quarter. Operating income increased 34% with an operating margin of 17.3%, which benefited by around a 100 basis points due to expense timing. Full year operating margin for this segment is expected to be around 12.5%. Security sales were $157 million in the third quarter, up 6% to the prior year. Segment operating income was $27 million and the segment operating margin was 17%, which also benefited by nearly a 100 basis points due to expense timing. For the full year 2016, operating margin is expected to be around 14% with an expected fourth quarter margin of over 15%. To sum up consolidated third quarter performance, sales increased 3% and EPS were ahead of plan at $0.80. Our total company operating margin was 14.8%, up 130 basis points from the prior-year with an incremental margin of more than 50%. We are ahead of plan on our operating margin growth and squarely on track to reach our goal of approaching 15% operating margin when the housing market returns to steady state levels. Before turning to the balance sheet, let me comment on the impact of lower tax rate. Our effective tax rate in the quarter is down from the prior year due to the previous adoption of the new accounting standard that requires companies to reflect the excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation transactions in their tax rate and EPS. While our previous guidance assume some benefit in both the third quarter and fourth quarters, our current guidance assumes all benefit was realized in the third quarter. Let me now turn to the balance sheet. Our September 30, balance sheet remains solid with cash of $279 million, debt of $1.59 billion, and our net debt-to-EBITDA leverage declined to 1.7 times. By year-end, we expect leverage to decline another 10 basis points to 20 basis points, excluding any additional capital transactions. Turning last to the details of our outlook for 2016. Our market and sales assumption for 2016 now call for U.S. home products market growth of 6%, down from 6% to 7%, due to softer summer repair and remodel activity that Chris discussed earlier. Accordingly, we now assume total global market growth of 5% down from our 5% to 6% expectation earlier in the year. Based on that market assumption, we now expect our full year 2016 sales to increase 9% to 10% compared to 2015. We have narrowed the range on our outlook for 2016 EPS to $2.72 to $2.76. The midpoint of our full year EPS outlook remains unchanged at $2.74, based on our continuing strong operating margin performance and the lower annual tax rate. The midpoint reflects a 32% increase over prior year EPS of $2.07. The guidance reflects the fourth quarter EPS range, which is unchanged of $0.67 to $0.71 to achieve the annual EPS outlook of $2.72 to $2.76. Note that our year-to-date, EPS through the third quarter are $2.05, which includes the benefit of a lower tax rate due to the adoption of the new accounting standard. Although, we adopted this new standard in this year's second quarter, our year-to-date EPS of $2.05 also reflects a benefit of $0.04 attributable to the first quarter. This first quarter benefit will begin to be reflected in quarterly comparisons in 2017. We expect 2016 free cash flow to be around $400 million with our conversion rate of over 90%. The annual EPS outlook includes the following assumptions: interest expense of around $50 million; a full-year tax rate of approximately 29.5% with no benefit in the fourth quarter from the previously mentioned new accounting standard; the average fully diluted shares of approximately $158 million. In summary, we're pleased with our performance so far this year and are set up for a strong 2017. The R&R market growth was softer than expected in the third quarter. But, recent trends and long-term fundamentals continue to point to solid demand and an elongated cycle. Our disciplined focus on profitable growth is working well. As we are ahead of plan, and on track to hit our long-term operating margin goal of 15%, as the housing market reaches its long-term average. We remain focused on using our balance sheet and cash flow to drive incremental shareholder value through acquisitions and share repurchases. I will now pass the call back to Brian. Brian C. Lantz - Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc.: Thanks, Lee. That concludes our prepared remarks on the third quarter of 2016. We will now begin taking questions. Since there may be a number of you who would like to ask a question, I will ask that you limit your initial questions to two and then reenter the queue to ask additional questions. I'll now turn the call back over to the operator to begin the question-and-answer session. Operator?