Chris Kastner
Analyst · Bernstein. Your line is now open
Thanks Mike and good morning. Today, I will review our fourth quarter and full year consolidated results as well as provide you with some information on the outlook for 2018. Before I get into the results, let me review a couple of one-time items that are included in our financials. We adjusted net earnings $14 million for the one-time expenses related to the early extinguishment of debt in the fourth quarter of 2017. Additionally, we adjusted net earnings $63 million for the impact of tax reform, $56 million for the write-down of our net, the deferred tax assets and $7 million associated with an expected $214 million acceleration of discretionary pension contributions into 2018. Please refer to the earnings presentation on our website or the earnings release for more information on these adjustments as well as the segment results. Turning to our consolidated fourth quarter results on Slide 4 of the presentation, revenue in the quarter of $2 billion increased 3.9% over fourth quarter 2016, primarily due to a full quarter of Camber sales of $70 million versus one month of Camber sales of $23 million in 2016 and higher volumes in Navy nuclear support services and aircraft carriers at Newport News, partially offset by lower volumes on the NSC and DDG programs at Ingalls. Operating income for the quarter of $227 million increased $41 million or 15.3% from fourth quarter 2016 and operating margin of 11.4% decreased 257 basis points. These decreases were primarily driven by $50 million of favorable one-time items at Newport News in 2016 and lower risk retirement at Ingalls, partially offset by improved performance at Technical Solutions and a favorable FAS/CAS adjustment. Moving on to the consolidated results for the full year on Slide 5, revenues were $7.4 billion for the year, an increase of 5.3% from 2016. This increase is primarily driven by a full year of Camber sales of $309 million in 2017 compared to one month of sales in 2016, higher volumes in aircraft carriers and Navy nuclear support services at Newport News and higher volumes in amphibious assault ships at Ingalls. Operating income for the year was $865 million and operating margin was 11.6%. Additionally, interest expense was $94 million for the year, an increase of $20 million from the prior year due to the bond refinancing in December. Our effective income tax rate was 65.8% for the quarter and 38% for the full year. This compares to 21.5% and 26.9%, respectively, for fourth quarter and full year 2016. These increases were primarily due to the revaluation of our net deferred tax assets as a result of Tax Reform. Turning to cash flow on Slide 6 of the presentation, cash from operations was $434 million in the quarter and free cash flow was $301 million. For the full year, cash from operations was $814 million and free cash flow was $453 million. Compared to 2016, cash from operations of $822 million and free cash flow of $537 million. The decrease in free cash flow was primarily due to lower net pension benefit and increased capital expenditures in 2017. Fourth quarter capital expenditures were $133 million and for the year $361 million or 4.9% of sales. This compares to $285 million or 4% of sales in 2016. Cash contribution to our pension and post-retirement benefit plans were $335 million in the year, of which $294 million were discretionary contributions to our qualified pension plan. Additionally, we repurchased approximately 174,000 shares in the quarter at a cost of $41 million, bringing the total number of shares repurchased in 2017 to approximately $1.4 million at a cost of $288 million. We also paid dividends of $0.72 per share, or $33 million in the quarter bringing totals dividends paid for the year to $115 million. Now let me provide you with some items for 2018 as shown on Slide 7. We expect non-current state income tax benefit to be in the $8 million to $12 million range, and our effective income tax rate to be approximately 21%. We expect interest expense of approximately $63 million for the year and we expect capital expenditures as a percent of sales to be between 5% and 6%. As Mike mentioned in his comments, Tax Reform allows us to increase our capital expenditure commitment through 2020 by an additional $300 million. Turning to Slide 8, I'd like to provide you with some perspective on FAS/CAS and pension contributions for 2018 and 2019. These assumptions are based on the pension discount rates and asset returns as identified on Slide 8. As you are aware, pension is sensitive to changes in needs and other assumption, but because of Tax reform, I thought it would be helpful to provide you with an understanding of our current baseline. We expect favorable net FAS/CAS adjustment of $369 million in 2018 and $356 million in 2019. As a reminder, starting in 2018, we have adopted the new retirement benefit standard ASU 2017-07, which moves all components to the FAS, pension and post-retirement benefit expense except for service cost from operating to non-operating income with no impact to net income. And as Mike mentioned, we plan to accelerate a portion of the 2019 discretionary pension contribution of $214 million into fiscal year 2018. This makes our planned cash contributions to pension and post-retirement benefit plans $549 million in 2018 and $92 million in 2019, of which $508 million and $49 million, respectively, are discretionary contributions to our qualified plans. That concludes my remarks. I'll turn the call back over to Dwayne for Q&A.