Matt Flanigan
Analyst · Daniel Moore with CJS Securities. Please proceed with your questions
Thanks Karl and good morning everyone. First, I'll address the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Our fourth quarter and full year 2017 earnings include a net $50 million or $0.37 per share charge for the estimated impact of the TCJA. This is comprised of $57 million charge related to the deemed repatriation of accumulated foreign earnings, a $9 million charge for accrual of foreign withholding taxes on expected future cash repatriations and $26 million tax benefit from the revaluation of tax liabilities at the new lower U.S. federal tax rate. As provided in the act, the deemed repatriation tax will be paid over eight years. We expect our 2018 effective tax rate to approximate 22%. This rate reflects the lower U.S. federal tax rate or anticipated mix of domestic and foreign earnings and the impact of state income taxes. While the U.S. tax rate has decreased, the benefit to Leggett is not as significant as might first be assumed. A larger share of our income is expected to be earned in higher tax foreign jurisdictions. The U.S. domestic production activities deduction has been eliminated and the deduction for a portion of executive compensation will be phased out. The 2018 rate also includes an ongoing accrual for taxes payable to foreign jurisdictions associated with repatriation of cash from future earnings. Finally, our tax rate is impacted by changes in stock compensation, which vary from year-to-year and is forecasted to be lower in 2018. During 2018, we expect to repatriate approximately $300 million of cash currently held in foreign accounts. Both the timing and exact amount of this repatriation activity is difficult to predict and is subject to local foreign governmental requirements among other things. In keeping with our long standing priorities, cash will be used for; one, organic growth involving capital expenditures and working capital investments; two, dividends; three, strategic acquisitions; and four, share repurchases. In the short term, we may use a portion of that cash to repay $150 million of debt that matures in July. We do not plan to pay a special dividend or undertake significant incremental share repurchases with this cash. Now back to our 2017 financial performance. We generated operating cash flow of $444 million. We continue to have a sharp focus on working capital management and we ended the year with adjusted working capital as a percentage of sales at 10.6%, which was a notable improvement from our recent trends. In November, we declared $0.36 per share quarterly dividend, which was 6% increase versus the fourth quarter of 2016. The dividend payout as a percentage of adjusted earnings is within our targeted range of 50% to 60%, and we expect future dividend growth to approximate earnings growth. At yesterday’s closing price of $43.45, the current yield is 3.3%, which is one of the highest yields among the 53 companies that comprise the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats. For the full year, we repurchased 3.3 million shares of our stock at an average price of $48.66 and issued 1.7 million shares primarily for employee benefit plans. Our financial base remains very strong and this gives us considerable flexibility when making capital and investment decisions. In November, we issued $500 million of 10 year notes with a 3.5% coupon and used the proceeds primarily to repay outstanding commercial paper. We also increased our revolving credit facility, which supports our commercial paper program from $750 million to $800 million and extended the term of the facility to November 2022. We ended 2017 with net debt to net capital of 33% comfortably within our longstanding target range of 30% to 40%, and we have the full $800 million of credit available to us. We also monitor debt-to-EBITDA and ended 2017 with debt at 2.1 times our trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA. We assess our overall performance by comparing our total shareholder return to that of peer companies on a rolling three-year basis. Our target is to achieve TSR in the top one-third of the S&P 500 over the long term, which we believe will require an average TSR of 11% to 14% per year. For the three-year period that ended on December 31, 2017, we generated compound annual TSR of 7% per year. That performance places just below the midpoint of the S&P 500. While this is disappointing, we continue to believe our disciplined growth strategy and improved use of capital will support achievement of our top third goal. We believe the macro environment should support modest growth in our end markets over the next few years. More importantly, we expect to grow organically at a faster pace in our markets as a result of content gains, program wins and other opportunities we have developed within our growth businesses such as Automotive, Bedding, Adjustable Bed, Work Furniture, Geo Components, and Aerospace. As we entered 2018 with continued steel inflation, we also expect sales to increase from the pass-through of higher raw material cost. Although, there will again be a lag in timing which occurs when we adjust our own selling prices. With this backdrop for 2018, we are forecasting stronger sales growth. Sales from continuing operations are expected to be $4.2 billion to $4.3 billion or up 6% to 9% over last year. We expect mid-single digit volume growth from strength in many of our businesses. The PHC acquisition should add 2% to sales growth and raw material related price increases should also add to sales growth. We expect 2018 earnings per share of $2.65 to $2.85 compared to our 2017 adjusted EPS of $2.46. We therefore expect earnings to grow 8% to 16%. This assumes an effective full year tax rate of approximately 22% as mentioned earlier. Based upon this guidance range, our 2018 full year adjusted EBIT margin should be 12% to 12.5%. Recent steel cost inflation is expected to pressure margins during the first quarter. Assuming cost stabilize, margin should improve for the remainder of the year. Operating cash flow should approximate $500 million in 2018 with working capital expected to be a smaller use of cash than in 2017. Capital expenditures should be near $160 million for the year and dividend should require approximately $195 million. As has been our practice, after funding organic growth and dividends, remaining cash flow will be prioritized toward competitively advantaged acquisitions. Potential acquisitions must meet stringent, strategic and financial criteria. Should no acquisitions come to fruition, we have a standing authorization from the board to repurchase up to 10 million shares each year. No specific repurchase commitment or time table has been established. However, we currently expect to repurchase between 2 million to 3 million shares in 2018 and issue approximately 1 million, primarily for employee benefit plans. 18 months ago, we shared a set of three year operating targets that reflected our top TSR goal through 2019. With the modest decline in 2017's adjusted EPS from continuing operations, we're extending by year and slightly modifying our longer term targets. The 2020 operating targets are revenue of $5 billion and EBIT margin of 13%, and EPS of $3.50. This EPS target reflects our anticipated 22% tax rate. These targets assume a stable microenvironment that yields moderate demand growth. And they also assume that content gains continue and then organic growth will be augmented by strategic acquisitions. The targets anticipate no significant inflation, deflation, currency fluctuation or divestitures. With those comments, I'll turn the call back over to Susan.