Howard Lance
Analyst · UBS
Thank you, Pam, and welcome, everyone, to our fourth quarter fiscal 2010 earnings call. Harris ended fiscal 2010 with a very strong quarter. Orders, revenue and income were significantly higher than the prior-year quarter, and we generated significant operating cash flow. Orders were higher than revenue, further increasing our backlog. Revenue in the fourth quarter was $1.46 billion. That's 13% higher than the prior year. On an organic basis excluding the impact of acquisitions, revenue was 8% higher. Non-GAAP income, which excludes acquisition-related costs, was $161 million in the fourth quarter or $1.24 per diluted share. That's an increase of 38% compared with the prior-year quarter. Orders in the fourth quarter were $1.72 billion, and that's 33% higher than the prior-year quarter. We saw a continued strong performance in the quarter in the RF Communications segment, as well as strong underlying revenue growth and excellent program execution across the Government Communications Systems segment. Our track record of delivering consistent growth in revenue and earnings continued in fiscal 2010, with momentum building as the year progressed. Revenue for the full fiscal year was $5.21 billion, 4% higher than the prior year. Non-GAAP income was $582 million or $4.43 per diluted share, that's an increase of 15% compared with the prior year. Orders for the full year were a record $6.08 billion, 36% higher than fiscal 2009. As a result of the full year book-to-bill of 1.2, we have very strong momentum as we begin fiscal 2011. In RF Communications, fourth quarter revenue for the segment was $630 million, 35% higher compared to $468 million in the prior-year quarter. The results included $486 million in revenue in Tactical Communications, up 17% from $415 million in the prior year and $144 million in revenue in Public Safety and Professional Communications. Non-GAAP segment operating income was $227 million compared with $144 million in the prior year. Operating margin was a very strong 36% reflecting favorable product mix and operating efficiencies. Fourth quarter orders for the RF segment were $890 million. That included $711 million for Tactical Communications and $179 million for Public Safety and Professional Communications. For the full fiscal year, orders for the segment were $2.88 billion yielding a 1.4 book-to-bill. And that included $2.34 billion for Tactical Communications and $541 million for Public Safety and Professional Communications. As a result of the large amount of new orders, backlog increased significantly in the quarter providing the foundation for continued growth in fiscal 2011 in the RF Communications segment. As of year end, segment backlog stood at $1.76 billion, and that included $1.24 billion in Tactical Communications. Backlog is higher than previously expected due primarily to higher international Tactical Communications orders received in the fourth quarter. Tactical Communications orders continue to be driven by multiple factors including increasing customer adoption of our next-generation Falcon III radios, equipping of new MRAP and M-ATV vehicles and new wins on long-term international communications modernization programs. The Harris next-generation Falcon III radios offer both U.S. and international customers unprecedented situational awareness capabilities, including streaming video to the tactical edge of the battlefield for the very first time. Users are reporting that the Falcon III is changing the way they are conducting their missions, and is literally saving lives. Major Falcon III orders during the quarter in the U.S. market included $24 million from the Joint Tactical Radio System Program Executive Office for our Falcon III AN/PRC-152 multiband handheld radios for the U.S. Air Force, $20 million and $11 million of orders from the U.S. Department of Defense for Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radio systems, along with $17 million for Falcon III AN/PRC-152 handheld radios. We also received an $11 million order from the U.S. Marine Corps for the Falcon III AN/VRC-110 multiband vehicular radio systems. And also $13 million order and a $27 million order for the Falcon III AN/PRC-152 multiband handheld radios, as well as vehicular adapters to equip those radios into MRAP vehicles. Other significant U.S. DoD [Department of Defense] orders included $139 million to provide additional Falcon II high-frequency tactical radio systems and $101 million for Falcon II multiband manpack radios for MRAP vehicles. The Harris MRAP and M-ATV program wins resulted in significant orders and revenue in fiscal 2010, and this program will continue to be a revenue contributor in fiscal 2011, albeit at a lower level. What was really unusual about the M-ATV program was the condensed time frame for its deployment. What would normally have been rolled out over several years is being completed in about 12 months. That's allowed the M-ATV program to be a real showcase for Harris. We've demonstrated the advanced capabilities of our Falcon III radios to a large and broad user group across multiple branches of the Services, and we've also demonstrated our ability to respond quickly to the higher demand and also to new user requirements. These abilities are made possible by our unique commercial business model serving this market. Traditional programs of record are not able to respond as we can. Our strategy successfully deploys new technology at the grassroots level, fielding new radios as quick as possible across a broad spectrum of users to encourage further adoption. This strategy continues to be very successful for us. While the M-ATV program was certainly significant to our Tactical Radio business, [in] terms of orders and also as a means of reaching this broad user group quickly with our new Falcon III radios, it's important to note that the business also experienced strong orders growth outside of the M-ATV and MRAP programs in both the U.S. and international markets. When you exclude $35 million in M-ATV and MRAP orders in fiscal 2009, and then $1 billion in orders under these programs in fiscal 2010, the remaining tactical radio orders also grew in fiscal 2010 by 15% over the prior year. That was 10% growth in DoD and 21% growth in international. We believe this illustrates that we've clearly got strong momentum outside of just the MRAP programs alone. Stronger International orders in the quarter, not only reflected a strengthening global market, but also a significant uptick in customer adoption of our new Falcon III radio family. Major International orders in the quarter included $99 million from the government of Pakistan, for the next phase of comprehensive multilevel C4I system utilizing both Falcon II and Falcon III radios. Also our line of secure personal radios, multiband networking radios and high-capacity line-of-sight radios. We also received an $11 million order from another country in Central Asia for both Falcon II and Falcon III radios, orders from two NATO countries totaling $26 million for our Falcon III multiband handheld radios, an $8 million order from a customer in the Middle East to supply Falcon II multiband handheld radios and Falcon III radios, including our secure personal radios and high-capacity line-of-sight systems, and finally, a $33 million order from the government of Iraq for Falcon II HF radios. During the quarter, we also announced our new mission modules for the Falcon III AN/PRC-117G manpack multiband radio. The mission modules will provide mission-specific customization and flexibility by enabling users of the 117G to quickly and easily add advanced capabilities to the radio on an as-needed basis. Mission modules expand functionality such as adding a second wideband radio channel, an HF radio channel or an ISR module. In addition to the benefits already mentioned, the mission modules will also allow industry partners to develop new applications that can ride on the 117G through the use of an open platform standard interface architecture. The Harris Falcon III 117G offers advanced capabilities today to meet the war fighters' urgent needs, and our new mission modules will ensure the continuous integration of new capabilities to address future requirements. In summary, our Tactical Radio business had another very successful year. More importantly, the strong level of new orders that we received did not deplete our future orders opportunity pipeline. It has now been replenished and stands at $2 billion for International and $1.5 billion in the U.S. market. The continued investment of our funds for development of additional new products will allow us to continue to outpace the progress of our competitors who are using only government funds to try and achieve the same results. We're listening to the needs of our customers, and we’re investing to solve their problems in the most efficient way possible. We believe this business model becomes even more valuable as customer budgets come under pressure. In Public Safety and Professional Communications, our one-year anniversary of acquiring this business occurred in May. As already noted, we had a strong finish to the fiscal year. In spite of constrained state and local budgets, we delivered organic revenue growth in fiscal 2010 of about 7%, and we built backlog going into fiscal 2011. During our first year of ownership, we introduced revolutionary new products such as the Unity multiband land mobile radio. We significantly stabilized and improved the operation of a number of networks that are already deployed with our customers, and we had a number of very important long-term large program wins. We also continue to see a robust opportunity pipeline in this business, exceeding $3 billion in North America. Major Public Safety and Professional Communication wins in the fourth quarter included a $30 million order to deploy a P25 Trunked Communication System in Monroe County, New York. This system supports 25,000 public service, public safety users. Ultimately, the program will unite all of Monroe County's public service and public safety agencies under a single modern digital communication system that's built on our VIDA IP-based network. The system will interoperate with the legacy law enforcement system, the legacy fire services system and the legacy public service system. We also received a $23 million order from a major energy company in the Southwest for our Open Sky voice and data communication system, and a $9 million order from Franklin County, North Carolina, for our P25 communication system and then finally a $5 million order from the New York State Police for our Unity XG-100P multiband radios. Revenue in the Government Communications Systems segment was $707 million in the fourth quarter. That compares with $704 million in the prior year. Of course, as expected, revenue from the Field Data Collection Automation program, or FDCA program, for the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 Census declined about $50 million compared with the prior-year quarter, and it declined about $240 million for the fiscal year in total as the program nears completion. Excluding the FDCA program and also adjusting out for the impact of acquisitions, revenue for fiscal 2010 was 7% higher than the prior year. We think that demonstrates continued strength in the Government Systems and Services businesses. Revenue growth in the quarter benefited from multiple programs included the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Series R ground segment weather program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. During the quarter, this program completed the System Definition Review. That's a formal technical review of the ground architecture and how it will operate within the overall GOES-R system architecture, and the program established a firm baseline for advancing to the preliminary design phase of the program. Other programs contributing to revenue growth included the modernization of enterprise terminals, or MET program for the U.S. Army, the Joint Strike Fighter Program for the Department of Defense and the headquarters relocation IT services program for the U.S. Southern Command. Non-GAAP segment operating income in the fourth quarter was $78 million, and that was about flat with the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was a solid 11% for the quarter. We achieved several significant program wins in the fourth quarter, and these included a six-year $97 million contract from the Federal Aviation Administration for its Weather and Radar Maintenance and Sustainment Services II program. The program scope includes software maintenance releases, depot support, on-site field support and engineering services for 22 operational FAA facilities across the U.S. Harris was also awarded a five-year $140 million contract for the Space Network Ground Segment Sustainment Program for NASA. Pending the resolution of an award protest, Harris will lead the effort to replace equipment and software in the space-to-ground link for NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, also known as TDRSS. The SGSS program builds on Harris' 30-year incumbency supporting TDRSS. Harris was a primary developer of the original TDRSS ground system for White Sands in Mexico in the early 1980s and also provided the large deployable antennas on the original TDRSS satellites. Harris was also awarded in the quarter a 30-month $25 million IT services contract to modernize and support high-bandwidth networks at 15 Air National Guard sites nationwide. And we also received an award of a $25 million classified program. We continue to see a strong pipeline of opportunities in our new Healthcare Solutions business. During the quarter, Harris was awarded several new contracts by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. These included a proof of concept study to demonstrate anytime Internet access to veterans’ healthcare information using Smart phones, a development contract to create and implement a new IT project requirements process within the VA and a contract extension to evaluate how the use of emerging technologies can positively impact clinical care. These awards are a result of the company's November 2009 acquisition of Patriot Technologies, a leading provider of healthcare IT, imaging and the enterprise software solutions for the VA. And then following the close of the quarter, Harris was awarded a 10-year $130 million contract to supply antennas and control systems for NOAA's GOES-R program. The antennas will provide communications links for command, telemetry and sensor data as well as the communications link to direct data users. So we expect solid revenue growth for Government Systems in fiscal 2011 as we continue to benefit from the recent wins on GOES-R, healthcare, NASA and Classified Cyber. We also expect continued growth in our FAA programs and in IT services broadly. The pipeline of opportunities remains very large. Though like many of our peer companies, we are seeing some award dates slipping out in time. We remain confident that our backlog, along with the opportunities to be awarded in fiscal 2011, support our projected growth. Last Friday, we announced the closing on our acquisition of CapRock Communications. CapRock is a global provider of mission-critical managed satellite communication services for government, energy and maritime markets. Their highly reliable solutions include broadband Internet access, Voice over IP Telephony, wideband networking and real-time video, all delivered to nearly 2,000 customer sites around the world. The combination of CapRock and Harris will give customers access to a greater breadth of a shared communications capabilities, depth of expertise and unparalleled customer support while enabling us to enter new vertical markets and increase our international presence. The Broadcast Communications segment continued to underperform in the fourth quarter. Revenue of $128 million was in line with recent quarters, but fourth quarter orders were sequentially lower at $111 million. Segment operating income was a loss of $21 million in the quarter. This did include $7 million coming from restructuring costs and $6 million coming from inventory write-downs. Fourth quarter results reflected the continued weak U.S. market capital spending trend. For the full fiscal 2010, Broadcast Communications revenue declined almost $100 million or 17% from fiscal 2009. The decline was led by $60 million in lower revenue in our transmission systems product line. Significant cost reductions were implemented in 2010 in response to the lower revenue trends, and further actions will be completed in early fiscal 2011. But we cannot rely entirely on cost-reduction actions to deliver improved financial results. A new leadership team was put in place in this business in the fourth quarter. We believe that continuing to invest in the growth markets of the future is the right strategy. Although we are investing at a time when the legacy market has continued to decline, this is the means to make this business a long-term success and a positive contributor to the company's future financial results. Let me highlight today three growth areas. First, international markets, including the BRIC nations of Brazil, China, India and Russia along with other countries in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa, offer us significant growth opportunities. Their transition from analog to digital broadcasting is still just getting started. There's growing demand for both digital transmission systems and the related infrastructure that goes with it. In response, we recently launched transmitter production at new factories in Brazil and China using manufacturing partners. The regional presence will increase our market share and reduce our product cost. The second area is the U.S. government market for full-motion video systems continues to grow. Harris has a strong market position with unique technology capabilities in this area. Our FAME solution, short for Full Motion Video Asset Management Engine, offers unequalled performance and scalability as our government customers cope with increasing amounts of digital intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information. Several FAME systems have been deployed, and we’re receiving positive customer feedback. Third, the growth of digital out-of-home advertising continues. Our solutions enable advertisers to reach consumers on the move. New systems will be increasingly deployed to deliver rich media content in live sports and entertainment venues, retail establishments and to mobile handheld devices. At the recent Infocom Trade Show, Harris demonstrated an array of innovative digital audio video solutions which integrate digital signage hardware and software, production play out and scheduling systems, multi-viewers and graphic engines. Harris is uniquely positioned to offer end-to-end solutions and services, which enable customers to implement efficient media workflows and create new revenue streams. These market initiatives, along with the broader end market recovery, will drive improved top line revenue and bottom line results in fiscal 2011 and beyond in this segment. Let me now ask Harris' CFO, Gary McArthur, to comment on the financial results in the fourth quarter.