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HEICO Corporation (HEI)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Fri, Feb 26, 2016

$263.28

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Hillary and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the HEICO Corporation Fiscal 2016 first quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Certain statements in this call will constitute forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and contingencies. HEICO's actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by those forward-looking statements as a result of factors including, but not limited to: lower demand for commercial air travel or airline fleet changes or airline purchasing decisions, which could cause lower demand for our goods and services; product development or product specification costs and requirements, which could cause an increase to our costs to complete contracts; governmental and regulatory demands, export policies and restrictions, reductions in defense, space or homeland security spending by U.S. and/or foreign customers or competition from existing and new competitors, which could reduce our sales; our ability to introduce new products and product pricing levels, which could reduce our sales or sales growth; product development difficulties, which could increase our product development costs and delay sales; our ability to make acquisitions and achieve operating synergies from acquired businesses; customer credit risk; interest, income tax rates; and economic conditions within and outside of the aviation, defense, space, medical, telecommunications and electronics industries, which could negatively impact our costs and revenues; and defense budget cuts, which could reduce our defense-related revenue. Those listening to this call are encouraged to review all of HEICO's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to filings on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or…

Operator

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Ron Epstein.

Ronald Jay Epstein - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst

Hey, guys. Good morning, guys. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Ron.

Ronald Jay Epstein - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst

Quick question for you. We've seen in the data that we collect that aircraft retirements have come down, right? They peaked in a couple of years ago, and it looks like they were down year-over-year in 2014 over 2013, and now it's like 2015 is down over 2014. Are you seeing any impact to that presumably positive, but I'm not sure, on your business? Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Eric, do you want to answer Ron's question, please? Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Good morning, Ron. We have seen a little bit of an impact with some aircrafts that had scheduled to be retired receiving some additional service and needing parts. We haven't seen any major impact of that up until this point. But we are cautiously optimistic that there will be some coming along. In terms of just a little bit of color, the way we look at it is, of course, (26:47) with high oil prices and with the financial crisis, a lot of maintenance was, if you will, deferred in the 2007, 2008, 2009 time period. 2010 was sort of maintained that level, and there was a lot of maintenance that was performed in roughly 2011, 2012, 2013 in that area. And we had organic growth in the number of quarters, I think north of 20% or in the high-teens at that period of time. And now, what we're seeing is a little bit of a steadying in demand, again, those aren't falling off , but it's sort of flattish as compared to where it was back then. And as some of these aircraft age, it will require maintenance. Now, we are anticipating that a number of them will be taken out of service, and we are not anticipating a certain aircraft needing additional service. So that is not built into our models. So I think that there has been, if you will, a bit of a maintenance holiday and the lack of need of maintenance as the result of all of the maintenance that was done in there roughly 2012, 2013, 2014 – or 2011, 2012 and 2013 time period.

Ronald Jay Epstein - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst

So just as a follow-on, if we were to see oil kind of stuck in a $30 to $40 range implying you'd see retirements return to sort of a more – as a percentage of the fleet, a more normal number, maybe 1.5% of the fleet gets retired, so you'd have more older airplanes flying around. You're cautiously optimistic. Not to put words in your mouth, but that's good for you? Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Yes. Definitely, low oil prices are very good for us. A number of the analysts have run numbers showing that with low oil prices, the original justification for buying new aircraft is not there, and so we think it would be definitely be good for us.

Ronald Jay Epstein - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst

All right. And maybe just one big question for all three of you guys, and I'll let you decide who wants to answer it. Could you highlight maybe one or two of the new product areas that you're investing in that you're most excited about? Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Again, we normally stay away from specific products or customers or competitors, because the moment we say something, we've got our competitors on the line right now. But I can tell you that due to our decentralized nature, all of our business units are working on new product development and have a lot of new things in the pipelines that they're all very excited about. Not all of them are going to hit, but we're very encouraged that we've got a lot of very interesting things in the pipeline right now.

Ronald Jay Epstein - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst

Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Ron, this is Larry. I just want to kind of underscore what Eric said. As I look across the whole line of businesses that we're in, I can tell you that we have no business that I'm saying, oh my goodness, this is a real problem. This is difficult. Some are more outstanding than others. And if you met the people that run these businesses, they are truly extraordinary people. And I give them the credit for the great success of the company. But whether it's in our space business, or our parts business, the MRO business and the new Robertson business, the people at the head, the Presidents, the unit leader, business unit leaders are really fantastic. We have also selected, as you know, businesses that have by their nature some protection, some mote, something that protects our margin. We don't like low-margin businesses. So when we have one business that's doing – just to use a number, 25% operating margin and other ones doing 42%, just throwing a number at, how do you say, well, one is better? They're both fantastic. And so I would say that across the board, I think that we're really – all of the areas that we operate in, I'm very, very pleased. And I look for continued growth in very – probably in all those areas.

Ronald Jay Epstein - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst

All right. Great. Thanks, guys. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Larry Solow.

Larry S. Solow - CJS Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Hi. Good morning, guys. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Larry.

Larry S. Solow - CJS Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Perhaps a question for Eric maybe. Could you just characterize a little bit more on the issues with repair and overhaul, it seems like the mix will be probably more temporary and maybe the issue was South America, maybe not as much. And can also remind us how much of FSG is approximately repair and overhaul? Thanks. Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Well, with – good morning, Larry. With regard to South America, I think everybody is pretty well aware of the economic turmoil down there due to low commodity prices. So we believe that there has been, if you will, a deferral or a push-out in demand for aircraft parts, as well as repair services. Again, not doing anything inappropriate and there is nothing – they're not breaking any of the requirements in order to overhaul these (32:36). But they're optionally deciding to defer what they can go ahead and defer. So I think that it is a temporary thing. They're not going to be able to do this long-term, because the – some of these things are going to require more heavy maintenance. So we anticipate that should return to normal sometime down the road. However, the way I'm looking at it is, we've got a lot of good projects in the pipeline. So I think that either the market returns back to where it's been historically or some of our new projects take off. And we're cautiously optimistic that at least one of those will happen. So that's the basis for our optimism in this area.

Larry S. Solow - CJS Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Got it. Okay. And then, just switching gears real fast, just in terms of the outlook for 2016, clearly most of that, or I guess it's really primarily for Robertson. So you've increased your sales outlook by about 6% and net income by about 3%, and it looks like D&A is $6 million higher. Can I assume that a good portion of that D&A is A and that's also impacting net income but is non-cash? Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Carlos, do you want to address that (34:02)? Carlos L. Macau - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Executive VP: Sure. Right. Yeah, you can assume that. Most of the increase in the ETG segment and in the FSG segment is due to A in the D&A area and keep in mind that Robertson is defense, primarily a defense company, and is housed and resident within our ETG segment.

Larry S. Solow - CJS Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Got it. Okay. Great. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Herbert.

Ken Herbert - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst

Hi. Good morning. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Ken.

Ken Herbert - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst

I wanted to first, Victor, if I could, Robertson obviously, if not the largest, one of the largest deals you've done, can you provide just some more color on obviously, sort of your expectations for growth in this business, anything on the strategic rationale and specifically how we should think about or how you're thinking about margins in this business over 2016 and into 2017 and the opportunity to expand the margins? Victor Hesq Mendelson - Co-President and President of Electronic Technologies Group & Director: Ken, yeah. This is Victor. You're right, it was our largest acquisition we've made to date. In terms of the strategic view on this business, it fits very well with our niche sub-component, maybe up to sub-system level products. This, to us, we view it really as a component or a subsystem that is mission-critical. It is high-reliability, so it fits perfectly with what we do in this business. And it is a required product in the applications where it goes – on the wide array of helicopters. What we love about it is several things. One, is it is what we consider to be a healthy margin business. Now, we don't break out what those are, but we've said publicly we don't make acquisitions typically unless there is at least a 20% operating margin. So it does fit within our criteria on the margin side. And usually businesses don't attain these kinds of margins unless they're doing something special, and they're doing things very well, and they do that over a long period of time, which Robertson met those characteristics as well – and where they have kind of a long lead ahead of where others might be able to do it or attempt to make these products. So that was attractive to us.…

Ken Herbert - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst

Victor, I really appreciate the detail there. Can you indicate how the sales break out today in terms of forward fit or new helicopter build versus the retrofit market? Victor Hesq Mendelson - Co-President and President of Electronic Technologies Group & Director: Well, unfortunately, I can't break that out, but I can tell you that it is overwhelmingly the – it's for either new helicopters or retrofitted kind of reset helicopters that come in and are basically rebuilt by the government. So that is really overwhelmingly the business. The repair, overhaul, commercial markets are, as far as we are concerned, all opportunities as opposed to risk.

Ken Herbert - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. That's great. Helpful. And just finally, Larry, I guess your leverage now still relatively low, absolutely on an absolute level higher or at one of the highest levels it's been for the company at just 2.3, 2.4 times the EBITDA. Can you just remind me again what your comfort level is? Or how will you think about capacity for M&A as we go through the rest of the year? Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sure. Firstly, our debt-to-EBITDA is under 2 times. It's probably closer to 1.75 times. And if you project out the cash flow, we've said we estimate cash flow of about $220 million. So that – I think we've said it's $565 million. So it'll be down closer to 1 turn. So our leverage is very low. To answer – and I've been asked this many times – how high would we bring the leverage. Firstly, we try to have control of growth and we focus at 20%. And I can tell you, in order to do 20% bottom-line, we don't have to take the leverage way up to 5 times, 6 times, 7 times. So we can accomplish that, probably, at 2 to 3 turns. But if we had an opportunity to make a sensational acquisition that would create cash flow and growth and so forth and so on, I'd feel comfortable at 6 times or 7 times. However, I would want to make sure that it's not the absolute number that scares me, it's how quickly the 6 times or 7 times turns back to 2 times to 3 times. So it would all depend upon that acquisition and that's really the way we look. We don't like high leverage. Companies get in trouble with leverage. We've always been a low-leverage company and for 20 years – 25 years, we have been able to grow at a compounded rate of about 20% bottom-line and spot price. So we see no reason why in the next three years to five years we can't continue to do that with low leverage. I don't know, does that answer your question?

Ken Herbert - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst

Yeah. No, that's helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Okay.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Sheila Kahyaoglu.

Sheila K. Kahyaoglu - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Hi. Thank you, guys, and great quarter. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Sheila.

Sheila K. Kahyaoglu - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Very nice. I guess, I'll start with big picture first. In terms of just the guidance increase, you've put up 14% sales growth in the first quarter and 20% net income growth, but your guidance is significantly lower than that. And the D&A doesn't quite make up for it. So I was just wondering is there anything that slows down organically or is it just conservatism regarding the Robertson acquisition? Victor Hesq Mendelson - Co-President and President of Electronic Technologies Group & Director: I'm not following the question all that well. I think...

Sheila K. Kahyaoglu - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

I just meant that the organic growth is going to continue on its moderate growth trend and then you have Robertson coming in. But the net income numbers this quarter, the growth was up 20%, but your guidance is only for 10% to 13% in growth. Carlos L. Macau - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Executive VP: Yeah. Sheila, this is Carlos. As we mentioned in the press release and Larry spoke of, at the beginning of the call, the 20% growth is real comparable Q1 2015 to Q1 2016 growth. That includes about $0.03 worth of broker fees, if you would, relative to the Robertson acquisition. Our guidance is based on GAAP guidance, okay? So we've given you guidance of revenue growth between 14% to 16% on the top-line, and we've given you bottom-line growth of 10% to 13%. The reason that bottom-line growth is a little wider is because we are in the process of assimilating Robertson. We're in the process of closing down purchase accounting and there is a lot of judgments on things yet to be made. And so we'll narrow that range down as we get into Q2 when we have better visibility into how we finalize that out. But as Victor mentioned earlier, we're five to six weeks into this deal. And we really wanted to be fair to focus on our projections as to why we did it. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Sheila, if you'll go back historically, most years, we have guided – as we came out of the box, we guide more conservatively. We use the figures that come from down below from the business operations and they tend to be conservative. They don't want to over-promise and under-produce. And we use those figures to give guidance also. Historically, we have raised guidance as we've gone through the year, and visibility becomes clear. And I think, in essence, that's what Carlos is saying, and we would rather be err on the side of conservatism, and promise a little less and, hopefully, we can deliver more. But as the numbers come in, we'll adjust the guidance as we get better visibility. I mean, I'm hopeful. You know we set a target of 20%, all right? So that's our goal. And we'll see if how close we come to that.

Sheila K. Kahyaoglu - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Understood. And then, I guess, just one for Eric. In terms of the slowdown in the business in the repair and overhaul, was that all South America or that was just across the board? I know, you discussed it in the beginning a bit. And then, on the 6% organic growth that you did see in the other business lines, could you maybe elaborate on what products or platforms or geographic regions that were contributing to that? Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Sure, Sheila. With regard to the repair services, the South America, I would say, was the most notable of the ones that were down a little bit. And again, when we say down, I mean this is not, if you will, material or a big number down. I mean, it was just what we think was a little bit of weakness down there in the economy and it sort of makes sense and with the strength in the U.S. dollar. So with regard to the growth in the other areas, it was really very broad-based, we're doing very well in the parts business, in the distribution business, in specialty products, and I would say it was very much across the board in all of those businesses. And I fully expect the repair side to return to its historical growth numbers hopefully in the near future.

Sheila K. Kahyaoglu - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Sure. Thank you very much. Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Thank you. Carlos L. Macau - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Executive VP: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Robert Spingarn. Robert M. Spingarn - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Hi, everybody. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Robert. Carlos L. Macau - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Executive VP: Good morning. Robert M. Spingarn - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): So forgive me if I missed something. I jumped off for a moment. But Larry, your guidance increase on the top-line, is that fully just reflective of Robertson? Are there any changes elsewhere? Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I'll let Carlos respond to that, Rob. Carlos L. Macau - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Executive VP: Yeah, Rob. So on the organic side, we really didn't have much change in views between the two segments. It seemed about right. But we do have acquired businesses from last year and this year that are contributing to that which are performing very well. So that was primarily the contributing factors to our guidance increases. Robert M. Spingarn - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): So the organic is as it was? Carlos L. Macau - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Executive VP: Yeah. We're still shooting about mid-single digits in those segments on the organic side from what we disclosed in December. Robert M. Spingarn - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Okay. And so, now just to follow on that with Eric, have you seen anything based on the first quarter, which might change your expectations for the rest of the year? In other words, it sounds like the repair and overhaul pressure is timing, and maybe that comes back – or is it – or are you offsetting it elsewhere with some strength? Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and…

Michael F. Ciarmoli - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Hey. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning.

Michael F. Ciarmoli - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

I just have one and I'm – I wish – I wanted to go back to Robertson, I guess. I mean, you guys sound – it looks like a great deal. It seems like you're pretty optimistic on the helicopters. I'm just wondering if you can reconcile, especially on the new-build side, I mean, I think the budget that was just presented was literally characterized as a bloodbath in terms of army aircraft procurement. It looks like Black Hawk volumes are going to be down significantly, Apache is down significantly, Chinook. I mean, have you guys thought about the current procurement environment going forward to reconcile that with how Robertson has performed? Victor Hesq Mendelson - Co-President and President of Electronic Technologies Group & Director: Yeah. I mean, the budget is not set yet and it gets – this is Victor by the way – it's going to move around before it's set. We are aware of that, what the proposal is for the coming year. At Robertson, they have a fair amount of foreign military sales, foreign military business, as well as growth on some other retrofit and repair work – not repair work, excuse me, but retrofit and resets and so on. So right now, we'll see when the budget sets out but our expectations we think are still appropriate.

Michael F. Ciarmoli - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And then, can – are you guys the sole source or is Robertson on the JLTV and can that be a significant needle moving program for the Robertson revenue streams going forward? Victor Hesq Mendelson - Co-President and President of Electronic Technologies Group & Director: We're very careful to say what we're working on, but I will say that historically they have not been on JLTV, and that is not something that we've baked into our projections going forward.

Michael F. Ciarmoli - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Okay. So I'm looking on their website, JLTV fuel system, so we should just kind of take that with a grain of salt for now. Victor Hesq Mendelson - Co-President and President of Electronic Technologies Group & Director: I think they had – the only real heavy groundwork that they had done historically had been on the Bradley and that was a program that was completed decently before our acquisition. So we have not baked ground equipment into the projections. But I won't say what they're working on. You understand the difference there. We don't have it in our projections going forward, but I can't say what they're working on for competitive reasons.

Michael F. Ciarmoli - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Got it. Perfect. All right. That's all I had, guys. Thanks. Victor Hesq Mendelson - Co-President and President of Electronic Technologies Group & Director: Thank you. Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Eduardo Sinclair (59:34).

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

Hi. Good morning. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

How do you see the lessor party saving nowadays regarding PMA parts? And how do you think the PMA parts will be impacted if the aircraft leasing market continues evolving? Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Eric, do you want to respond to that? Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Yes. Yes. Good morning, Eduardo (59:56).

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

Good morning. Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: There are a number of (01:00:02) permit the use of PMA parts on their aircraft, and a number of airlines worldwide will not sign leasing contracts without having the opportunity to do that. And of course, the airlines that have larger fleets are the ones who are typically able to get that, if you will, restriction lifted. The smaller airlines, it's been an issue of education, and frankly, market power of the lessors. But I think there are a number of things going on in the international airline community. In particular, IATA has been very vocal in this area, not telling airlines that they should or should not use PMA material, but instead wanting to maintain the option for them. Because as you know, the airline industry is typically extremely competitive and they have a number of, if you will, monopolies to priors, and it's not a good thing when they have a particular manufacturer who can dictate prices. So we've been successful working with a number of lessors. As a matter of fact, if any customers are on this call and want to know the names of lessors, our salespeople would be more than happy to give them the names of those people who are cooperative in this area. So we think that there is a lot of progress that's been made. There is a tremendous amount of progress that remains to be made in this area. And for the short-term, we have not baked that into our projections. I don't know if that answers your question.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

Yes. Thank you very much. Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: You're welcome. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Levenson. Stephen E. Levenson - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Steve. Stephen E. Levenson - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Two small items. Some of the things that we track include aircrafts that we believe are going to be coming in for service. And it looks like there is going to be an increasing number of Boeing 777s. I don't think that's your biggest program, but could you give us an idea sort of where that platform ranks in importance for HEICO? Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Eric, do you want to (01:02:26)? Eric A. Mendelson - Co-President and President of HEICO's Flight Support Group & Director: Sure. I'd be happy to answer that. Good morning, Steve. The Boeing 777 is an important platform for us. We do have a number of products on it. Again, we don't like to get into too much specifics on exactly which products. The aircraft has been in service roughly 20 years, so many of those aircrafts are entering their sweet spot of needing overhaul. We're finding aircraft that are having other wear conditions, which have not been previously exposed or detected. So we're finding opportunity there. One of the interesting things that has come out of the Boeing 777 is the, in particular, the Rolls-Royce powered aircraft since there is one – basically one supplier of material and one supplier of overhaul choices. The Rolls-Royce powered aircraft that come under tremendous financial cost pricing problems because people don't want them because the cost of maintaining the engine is so high. So I think this is causing a sort of an awakening in the airline community…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of George Godfrey. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, George. George J. Godfrey - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: Good morning. Thank you for taking the question. I wanted to ask about Robertson and, specifically, M&A activity. You talked so glowingly about the acquisition, and it appears to early days being off to a nice start and really positive for the company. It is the biggest acquisition you've done to-date. Are there more opportunities, not necessary fuel systems for helicopters but more Robertson-like acquisitions in size, nature, financial metrics and the positive view that the customers have on that product. Are there similar ones and like that in your M&A pipeline? Thank you. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: George, I would say, Robertson – in terms of product, the answer would be no, because Robertson makes a very unique sole source product. So that's not – but from the point of view of acquisition pipeline, there are a number of deals that we have which are larger than deals we have done in the past. The problem with talking about acquisition – and we have a lot of deals in the pipeline and we're doing a lot of due diligence. But, as I've mentioned to shareholders in the past, the – to comment too much detail on acquisition, you never know what you're going to find when you start to look under the stones and you would start to kick the tires and do due diligence. And sometimes, the – what appear on the surface to be great acquisition opportunities, is allowed (01:07:16) because of the due diligence doesn't hold up. I don't have to tell you that investment bankers and sellers like to…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Herbert Wertheim.

Dr. Herbert A. Wertheim - HEICO Corp.

Analyst

Larry, thank you so much for what you've done for us and our family. We're, as you know, your largest shareholders for almost 25 years now. Congratulations to the team. You have never really disappointed us. You just keep exceeding our expectations. And, again, thank you very much for everything that you've done for us and for our community. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Herb, thank you very much. You have been an extremely loyal and supportive shareholder. And thank goodness, you've been well-rewarded. I'd like to take this opportunity to make a comment to remind people on the call that perhaps is the single thing that I am most proud of and I think Eric and Victor, that early on the company sold a large block of stock to the 401(k) plan. And over the years, the stock has been allocated to employees' accounts. As you know, they can defer up to 6% in their compensation and then put it in the 401(k) and they select from a menu of mutual funds and for the money that they contribute. The money that we contribute is contributed in HEICO stock. And the result has been that the employees of HEICO, and I'm talking about people who are not big wage earners, I'm talking about people who have made $25,000 to $40,000, some of these people have over $1.5 million in their 401(k), and the – some of the people have already retired. And it's really – I think, it makes us extremely happy and proud to know that people who have worked hard at HEICO and who have dedicated themselves, done a good job and so forth besides getting compensation. When it comes to their retirement, they don't have to look at the government and ask the handouts and all kinds of other stuff, but HEICO has taken care of them. And, Herb, you as a shareholder and myself and my family, we have really contributed because part of our profits went to the 401(k). But we have taken care of these people, and I've had many people come up to me after they retired and say, thank you very much, we never could have done this on social security. So Herb, just I thank you very much for your comments and point out that there are also a lot of very, very happy, satisfied employees at HEICO. Thanks, again.

Dr. Herbert A. Wertheim - HEICO Corp.

Analyst

You're more than welcome, Larry. Thanks again for what you do not only for us as shareholders, but what you do for the community as a whole. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Herb.

Operator

Operator

There are no further audio questions at this time. Laurans A. Mendelson - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, I want to wind this up by thanking everybody again for their interest in HEICO. We are available if you have questions. Give us a call. You know where to reach us. And otherwise, we will be looking forward to speaking to you with the Q2 earnings report at some time in about three months. So have a wonderful weekend to everyone. This is the end of the call.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect.