Phebe Novakovic
Analyst · Jason Gursky from Citi. Please go ahead
Thanks, Erin. Earlier today we reported first quarter earnings from continuing operations of $2.14 per fully diluted share on revenue of $7.8 billion, operating earnings of slightly over a billion and net earnings of $716 million. We beat analyst consensus by $0.20 and were well ahead of analyst expectations on revenue as well. We were also better than our previous guidance and our own expectations. I should point out that we enjoyed an effective tax rate of 29% as opposed to consensus of around 30.5%. This accounted for approximately $0.05 of the outperformance. Jason Aiken will more fully discuss the tax rate a little later. I should further note that the diluted weighted average share count was 334 million for the quarter compared to consensus of approximately 332 million, so none of the outperformance comes from a lower than expected share count. I have asked Jason to give you a little more insight into our share repurchase activity when I conclude my remarks. All in all, this is a truly strong quarter from an operating perspective as evidenced by the operating margin of 13.2% and a return on revenue of 9.2%. It was a good quarter from a cash perspective as well. We had 745 million net cash provided by operating activity. After capital expenditures of 98 million, we had 647 million of free cash flow from operations, about 90% of net income. The general comparisons quarter - over - quarter are pretty compelling compared to the first quarter 2014, revenue was up 519 million or 7.1%. Total defense revenue was up 10.1%, pretty remarkable. Our operating earnings were slightly more than $1 billion, up 17.5% over the prior year’s quarter leading to a 120 basis points improvement in margins. A very strong operating leverage is an important part of the story. Net earnings were up more than operating earnings, primarily due to the previously mentioned lower tax rate. Finally, EPS was up 25.1% over the year ago quarter as a result of better operating earnings , lower tax rate and lower share count. Let me provide some commentary and a little perspective around the results of our operating segment. First Aerospace, sales are down by 17 million compared to Q1 2014, less than 1% and down 132 million sequentially against the strong fourth quarter. On the other hand, earnings outpaced the year ago quarter by 27 million, about 6.7% on a 140 basis points expansion in operating margins. Operating earnings were also up 19 million sequentially. The 20.4 operating margin for the group represents the high with both companies contributing. A word of caution here, we are out of the gate fast but this pace is not sustainable from a margin perspective. Orders were not overly strong in the quarter but need to be viewed in the context of a very robust fourth quarter 2024. It was a quarter where the sales pipeline was replenished and strengthened, part of the normal cycle after a strong quarter. This is consistent with what we saw on the first quarter 2014 following the strong fourth quarter at 2013. We’re off to a very good start in the Aerospace group. Marine Systems, revenue of 1.94 billion was up 342 million or 21.4% compared to the year ago quarter and down 97 million sequentially as one would expect against the fourth quarter 2014. Operating earnings were up 22 million or 13.3% against the year ago quarter and down 5 million sequentially. We have particularly good performance at Electric Boat in NASSCO. Some of the more striking comparisons are found at Combat Systems. Compared to the first quarter of 2014, sales were up 105 million or 8.3% and earnings were up 65 million or 46.8% on a 400 basis points improvement in operating margins. Recall that the results in the first quarter of 2014 were impacted by a 29 million restructuring charge at European Land Systems as a result of reductions in the Austrian operations which were consolidated in Spain and Switzerland. If we disregard that charge, margins would have been 13.4% on a pro forma basis. Even on that basis, the improvement in this year’s operating margins is a significant 160 basis points. Sequentially, revenue was down 251 million and operating earnings are down 67 million as anticipated in the business to always have a very strong fourth quarter largely related to contract delivery. All up, continued strong performance at Combat Systems. It’s been a long times since we’ve been able to report an increase in revenue in this group. IS&T, the big upside surprise incurred this group. You might recall that our guidance was to expect a revenue decline of 5.5% year - over - year, well that certainly did not happen in the first quarter. Revenue in the quarter was up 89 million or 3.9% against the year ago quarter and off only 98 million against the powerful fourth quarter 2014. Operating earnings of 217 million were 34 million more than a year ago quarter, up 18.6% on a 120 basis points improvements in margins. On a sequential basis, operating earnings were up 5 million on a 60 basis points improvement in margins once again nice operating leverage. The 9.2% operating margins was the best that this group has achieved in a while and is very encouraging. The trend is in the right direction. So we’re off to a very good start to the year, nicely ahead of our expectations. We do not as a practice change guidance at the end of the first quarter. It is our practice and has been for three years to give you a full review of our expectation at the midpoint of the year. Sufficed to say that we are ahead of the operating plan upon which our guidance is based. We will work to consolidate our improvement and continue to outperform. I’d like to now turn the call over to our CFO, Jason Aiken.