Mark W. Sopp
Analyst · Lazard Capital Markets
Great. Thank you, Stu. Thank you, John, as well. As you hopefully saw in last week's 8-K filing and also in today's earnings release, we have scheduled out the effects of the CityTime settlement to allow investors to see how it was recorded on the books and to also see our results before giving effect to the settlement. While the deal was reached just last week, the P&L effects of the settlement itself were appropriately recorded in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2012, our fiscal '12. These P&L effects in fiscal '12 were in Q3 and Q4 only, where Q3 then reflected our best estimates at the time and Q4 reflecting a true-up to the final settlement reached. On the cash side, we made the settlement payment last week, so that will impact fiscal '13 operating cash flows. With all of that provided, for today's call I want to keep it simple and focus on our fiscal '12 results, excluding the effects of the settlement itself, as those figures better reflect the underlying performance of the business on a recurring basis and also serve as a more appropriate baseline against which to measure our future performance. With that, let me share the financial highlights of our fiscal '12. For the top line revenues, total revenues increased slightly year-over-year, while on an internal basis, we saw a 1% revenue contraction. While internal revenues contracted in the low single digits over the first 3 quarters, we did see a nice rebound in Q4 with positive 3% internal growth. The most significant growth drivers for the quarter included increases in our mission-critical airborne ISR work in-theater, the ongoing ramp-up of the Department of State Vanguard program, systems engineering work for the Army in Huntsville, scope expansion of our MRAP logistics support contract and increased demand for commercial solutions, including electronic health record and implementation services of our Vitalize Consulting business and DesignBuild and other projects in our energy business area. With respect to profitability, operating margin for the year on an ex-CityTime basis finished at 7.7%, down 100 basis points from fiscal '11. The bulk of this reduction was driven by a couple of special items. First, we had, as you might recall, a $55 million pickup in the prior year, fiscal '11, from a royalty payment we received from VirnetX. We did not receive any royalty payments in fiscal '12, but we still have rights to receive royalties in the future as VirnetX continues to pursue additional infringement cases against top-tier technology firms. Second, we had about $35 million in unplanned intangible impairments and legal-related costs in fiscal '12. Together, those 2 categories accounted for 90 basis points of margin reduction year-over-year. For the fourth quarter, operating margin was 6.9%, below recent quarters but consistent with our expectations from last quarter's guidance. First, R&D and product development expenses that Stu referenced had a peak for the year at $30 million for the fourth quarter, almost double the level in Q4 of last year. We also took a $10 million charge related to a data privacy litigation matter and had higher legal expenses primarily associated with seeking resolution of the CityTime matter. Moving on. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for fiscal '12, ex-CityTime, totaled $1.34. That's down 9% from last year on the lower operating margins, but it's also consistent with our most recent guidance. Operating cash flow finished fiscal '12 at a record high of $770 million, up 6% over fiscal '11. This translated into excellent free cash flow as well, exceeding $700 million for the year. Cash deployments totaled about the same amount, with a little over $200 million going to M&A and the remainder going to share repurchases. Finally, as Stu covered earlier, business development results were consistently strong all year. We continued to invest more in the business life cycle, demonstrated by the considerable increase in the value of bids submitted this year over last year, which was up about 25%. This increase generated positive results as demonstrated by the 1.1 book-to-bill and the $32 billion record value of outstanding proposals, which should be beneficial to longer-term growth prospects. Let me now summarize our segment results for Q4 only which, for the same reasons, will exclude the effects of the CityTime settlement, which only pertains to the Defense Solutions Group. Defense Solutions' Q4 revenues were $1.2 billion, up 3% on a total and internal basis from the fourth quarter of fiscal '11. We saw growth from our systems integration and logistics programs for tactical and MRAP vehicles, the ramp-up on the Department of State Vanguard program and higher activity for systems and software maintenance for the Department of Defense. As expected, we saw reductions from the completion of the Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization contract, BCTM, and other small programs. Q4 growth would have been 7% without the BCTM reduction alone. Defense Solutions' operating margin for the quarter was 7.6%, down slightly from 7.7% in Q4 of last year primarily due to the conclusion of the BCTM program at higher profit levels. For the Health, Energy and Civil Solutions segment, revenues for the quarter increased 10% year-over-year. Internal revenues increased 4% due to growth in energy-related DesignBuild programs, increased demand for technology services in our health IT business area and increased deliveries of our nonintrusive cargo inspection systems. I do want to point that our recent Vitalize acquisition is performing very well with revenues growing at a pace of about 50% since we closed the acquisition. Health, Energy and Civil Solutions' operating margin for the quarter was 8%, down from 9.9% in Q4 of last year. This decline was driven by the $10 million loss provision related to the data privacy litigation matter and also increased investment in R&D primarily related to the development of new home and security product offerings and also the smart grid technologies that Stu referenced earlier. Normalized operating margin for this segment should run in the 8.5% to 9% range. For the Intelligence and Cybersecurity Solutions segment, revenues for the quarter increased 2% year-over-year, all of which was internal growth. Growth was primarily attributable to increased demand for our airborne ISR programs and increases in cybersecurity work. Intelligence and Cybersecurity Solutions' operating margin for the quarter was 7.3%, down from 9.2% in the prior year fourth quarter. The decline in operating margin was primarily attributable to program write-ups in the prior year, coupled with a significant increase in R&D spend in the current year. Normal margins for this segment are in the 8% to 9% range. That sums up my remarks I want to make on fiscal '12 results. As John discussed earlier, we are pleased to announce the initiation of a quarterly cash dividend, the first of which will be $0.12 per share and paid on April 30. This translates to $0.48 per share on an annual basis, aggregating to approximately $165 million in cash dividends this fiscal year, subject, of course, to board approval in the out-quarters. This dividend level allocates a significant percentage of our normative free cash flow, roughly 25% to 30%, as a return of cash to our shareholders while preserving our capital flexibility for acquisitions, share repurchases or other purposes. To retain flexibility with respect to share repurchases, our Board has also approved the replenishment of our 40 million share purchase or share repurchase authorization, as we have periodically done since the IPO. With that, let me finish up with fiscal '13 forward guidance, which we provided in today's release. As a reminder, our guidance only covers our forward view on results from continuing operations. Our revenue expectation for fiscal '13 is in the range of $10.7 billion to $11.2 billion. For diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, our range estimate is $1.26 to $1.36. And for operating cash flows, we expect at least $150 million in fiscal '13. Again, this reflects the CityTime settlement payment, which already took place in Q1, amounting to about $430 million on an after-tax basis. CapEx is expected to be consistent with historical experience. No major changes there. Given our balance sheet and expected cash flows, our strategy is to deploy our cash for the payment of dividends, acquisitions and/or share repurchases, the latter 2 being subject, of course, to meeting our long-term strategic and economic criteria. With this deployment strategy, we intend to manage our capital structure such that we remain an A- credit rating. Wrapping it up, fiscal '12 did indeed have its challenges for us. However, we continued our strategy of driving greater cost efficiencies from our business support functions, enabled by leveraging our shared services functions, business process reengineering and driving more automation through our IT modernization efforts that have been underway for several years. As envisioned, we have reinvested most of the savings toward growth-oriented activities, primarily in product and technology development and increased efforts in business development. We have done this while simultaneously passing on overall cost reductions to our customers, clearly important in winning work in this environment. By reallocating efforts towards growth yet reducing overall costs, we were able to keep our margins relatively attractive on an apples-to-apples basis, yet have significantly improved our overall pipeline and the value of our outstanding proposals over the last 12 months. So with new leadership in place, a CityTime settlement reached, a more aggressive capital deployment plan, a strong book of business and record outstanding bids awaiting decision, the team is indeed energized and optimistic towards the future. With that, I'll now turn it back to John for final thoughts.