William Thalman
Analyst · B. Riley. Please go ahead
Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin my comments by covering the third quarter highlights on Slide number nine. Note that the schedules in the appendix provide more detailed information on our financial results, including the non-GAAP measures Stephanie referenced. As a reminder, we divested the Piling business since September of last year, and Track Components in August of this year. These transactions are not being treated as discontinued operations. Accordingly, the amounts presented today include the Piling business within the steel products and measurement segment and the Track Components business within the rail technologies and services segment unless otherwise noted as adjusted for comparability purposes. Third quarter sales were $130 million essentially flat with last year. As previously mentioned, net sales for the quarter included a $4 million adverse impact associated with the Crossrail settlement. This impact reduced both net sales and gross profit in the quarter. Gross profit increased by $800,000 or 70 basis points from the prior year quarter. The Crossrail settlement reduced gross profit margin by 240 basis points in the current quarter. In addition, a purchase accounting adjustment related to VanHooseCo acquired inventory adversely impacted reported gross margins by 70 basis points. Excluding these items, third quarter gross margin was 20.8% up 370 basis points over last year's third quarter. SG&A expense was up $2.6 million, due in part to $1.4 million in costs associated with the company's acquisition and divestiture activities and contingent consideration for the VanHooseCo acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA in Q3 increased $4.9 million to $9.3 million, a 111% increase year-over-year. I'll cover the drivers of this improved results on the next slide. Operating cash flow was a usage of $5.5 million in Q3, due primarily to higher working capital levels needed to deliver the robust organic sales and quarter end backlog, which increased 9.1% from the second quarter. We expect to generate strong operating cash flow in Q4 as working capital requirements ease through the balance of the year. Third quarter orders totaled $137.3 million down 1.1% from the prior year. Orders improved 5% organically and 5.6% from acquisitions but were offset by an 11.7% decline due to divestitures. Third quarter backlog increased $41.1 million year-over-year due to a 12.7% organic increase and 6.7% increase from acquisitions partially offset by a 1.6% decline as a result of divestitures. Slide 10 provides an overview of the drivers of our year-over-year performance in the third quarter. The Bridge on the left shows the overall change in sales, which reflects the strong organic growth of $15.3 million or 11.8% during the quarter. The impact driven by portfolio activity added $7.2 million from acquisitions that was more than offset by an $18.6 million reduction in sales related to businesses that were divested. The adjusted EBITDA chart reflects the impact of the legacy business growth and margin expansion and net portfolio activity impact on adjusted EBITDA results. Adjusted EBITDA for the current year third quarter removes the impact of the Crossrail settlement, acquisition and divestiture related costs, the purchase accounting adjustment and contingent consideration expense related to VanHooseCo and the loss on the Track Components divestiture. Note that adjusted EBITDA for the prior year third quarter removes the $2.7 million gain on the divestiture of the Piling business. Adjusted EBITDA increased $4.9 million to $9.3 million year-over-year. The drivers of the improved performance include organic growth and margin expansion in our legacy business and the accretive effect of our portfolio moves. I'd emphasize that adjusted EBITDA from our portfolio reshaping efforts improved $1.5 million on $11.4 million less sales, highlighting the strong leverage delivered by this initiative. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of adjusted sales expanded from 3.4% last year to 6.9% in the current quarter. Margin expansion in our legacy business was driven primarily by our Precast business, but all segments contributed to the improved results. We previously communicated our goal to transform our portfolio from slower growth, commodity like offerings to higher growth, more profitable technology focused solutions. We are seeing early indications we are on the right path in our reported results and look forward to continuing our value creation journey. Over the next three slides, I'll cover the performance of each of our segments starting with our rail segment on Slide 10. Third quarter rail segment revenue increased $3.4 million year-over-year, driven by 11.8% organic growth, partially offset by a 1.9% reduction associated with acquisition and divestiture activity and a 5.3% reduction associated with the Crossrail settlement. Gross margins were also impacted $4 million due to Crossrail and excluding this settlement rail gross profit margins expanded 250 basis points. New orders declined from the prior year due to the sale of the Track Components business and timing of orders primarily related to rail distribution. Over the trailing 12 months, sales and orders have been approximately $300 million, resulting in new change in the backlog. As reflected on Slide 12 Precast Concrete Products segment revenue increased $10.9 million or 60.6% year-over-year, organic sales increased 25.2% and the VanHooseCo acquisition contributed 35.4% year-over-year. Gross margins increased 450 basis points year-over-year driven by the legacy business and the impact of the VanHooseCo acquisition. Margin expansion our legacy bid business, which was up 410 basis points year-over-year reflects the expected fulfillment of backlog generated ahead of pricing actions as well as increased volume year-over-year. The expansion and the overall segment margins includes $900,000 in inventory adjustments related to the VanHooseCo acquired inventory, which negatively impacted segment margins by 290 basis points. Orders and backlog levels remain robust in our Precast segment and we expect this favorable trend to continue with the VanHooseCo acquisition and the announced government funding programs. The steel products and measurement segment revenues decreased $14.3 million or 37.6% year-over-year. The organic sales increase was 5.2% offset by a $16.3 million decline or 42.8% from the sale of the Piling business. Gross profit margins improved 230 basis points due to the sale of the dilutive Piling business as well as increased pricing and favorable business mix. Sequentially, Q3 margins were up 70 basis points reflecting our efforts to mitigate commodity inflationary headwinds, coupled with favorable business sales mix. Order rates in Q3 increased 58.8% while backlog increased 47.7% with both increases due primarily to a large order for coated pipe in our Birmingham, Alabama facility in support of a carbon capture and sequestration project. The prior year orders included $13.2 million associated with the piling business that was divested. Our year-over-year results are reflected on Slide 14. Year-to-date sales decreased $40.3 million or 10.1%. The impact of divestitures contributed $61.6 million of the decline or 15.4% partially offset by 3.5% organic sales increase and 1.8% due to acquisitions. Steel products and measurement segment net sales declined $51 million or 42.1% due to the piling divestiture. The rail segment declined $6.1 million or 2.7%, driven by the track components divestiture accounting for $2.4 million of the decline, as well as the Crossrail settlement. These decreases were partially offset by increased sales in our global friction management business. The precast segment realized a $16.8 million increase, or 33% driven by $6.4 million from the VanHooseCo acquisition and strong sales in the Southern U.S. region. Gross profit in the current year-to-date period was $62.8 million a $4.4 million decrease or 6.6%. The decrease in gross profit was driven primarily by the impact of the piling divestiture and the Crossrail settlement, partially offset by sales strength in precast. Precast gross profit increased by $2.3 million, including gross profit of $1.3 million from the VanHooseCo acquisition, which included the $900,000 inventory purchase accounting expense. Rail gross profit declined $1.8 million due to the Crossrail settlement and steel products and measurement gross profit declined by $4.9 million driven primarily by the sale of the piling business. Selling and administrative expenses for the year-to-date period increased $1.5 million or 2.5%, including $2 million associated with the company's current year transformation activities. Adjusted EBITDA year-to-date, which is adjusted for the impact of the Crossrail settlement, acquisition and divestiture related items and non-routine insurance proceeds was $16.7 million, a 7.8% increase compared to the prior year period. Our liquidity metrics are reflected on Slide 15. As expected, our net debt increased during the third quarter to $94 million, with the closing of the $52 million VanHooseCo acquisition. On August 12, 2022, we amended our credit facility to obtain approval for the VanHooseCo acquisition and temporarily modified certain financial covenants to accommodate the transaction. The amendment modified the maximum gross leverage ratio covenant through June 30, 2023. The maximum ratio through December of 2022 is 4x. As of September 30, our gross leverage ratio was 3.3x. With expected cash generation from operating activities, we expect our gross leverage ratio will improve in the fourth quarter and moving into 2023. Also, in the third quarter, we generated approximately $7.8 million in cash from the track components divestiture, and we finally received the $5.6 million federal income tax refund. Both items were accretive to our leverage ratio at the end of the quarter and we are now pursuing an additional $2.8 million federal tax refund. As we've indicated in the past, we will strive to maintain a balanced level of indebtedness relative to our overall profitability, cash generation and capital structure with a long-term target of around 2x net leverage. My closing comments will refer to the Slides 16 and 17 covering orders, revenue and backlog by segment. The book-to-bill ratios on Slide 16 reflect the increasing strength we've seen in our business through the third quarter. Rail technologies and services orders were softer in Q3, but this is just timing of orders. Over the trailing 12-month period, sales and orders are approximately $300 million. We continued to see strong order intake in our precast concrete business with Q3 orders totaling $31 million, up approximately 31% versus last year, driven by the VanHooseCo acquisition, which added $7.1 million in orders since we took ownership. Steel products and measurement orders increased significantly due to the coatings order previously mentioned. And lastly, our consolidated backlog on Slide 17 reflects robust growth across the portfolio, particularly in the precast concrete and steel products and measurement segments. Our quarter end backlog is at a five year high and is up 17.7% versus this time last year. Backlog was impacted by a 12.7% organic increase and a 6.7% increase associated with acquisitions, partially offset by a 1.6% decline due to divestitures. The robust order intake and backlog levels demonstrate the ongoing strength in the business and commercial markets we serve. While recessionary market conditions remain a broader macro risk, we remain optimistic in the long-term prospects for the growth in our served markets. Thank you for your time. And I'll now hand it back over to John for his closing remarks. John?