Howard Lance
Analyst · Barclays Capital
Thank you, Pam. I want to add my welcome to all of you for our third quarter fiscal 2011 earnings call. Harris posted solid third quarter results with higher consolidated orders in the prior year and strong operating margins in both our RF Communications and Government Communications Systems segments. Revenue was higher than the prior year quarter primarily due to the impact of acquisitions. Income was lower due to the favorable product mix in the prior year. As you'll remember, we had the large volume of expedited shipments of tactical radios to equip the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles for Afghanistan. In addition, our Government Programs and IT Services businesses began to see some impact in the quarter from slowing U.S. Government spending, including the disruption caused by the continuing budget resolution. We've reduced our expected revenue in fiscal 2011 by a total of $100 million in Government Programs and IT services as a result, and we've reduced fiscal 2012 revenue by a comparable $100 million. But you may recall in our previous earnings call we explained that if revenue was in fact impacted by the CR, we did not expect any appreciable impact on margins as a result of our continuing emphasis on operating efficiencies and cost control, and that's exactly what's happened. I'm pleased to report that we've closed now on 3 previously announced acquisitions that have become part of our new Integrated Network Solutions segment. We believe these businesses will help drive revenue growth, margin expansion and increase earnings for Harris in fiscal 2012 and beyond. On April 4, we completed the acquisition of the Schlumberger Global Connectivity Services business. They are a leading provider of satellite and terrestrial communications services for the international energy markets. We also acquired the infrastructure assets from Core180's government business, thereby extending our U.S. terrestrial network capabilities and lowering our cost of operations. These 2 acquisitions have been combined with previously acquired CapRock Communications and the Harris Maritime Communication Services business to create Harris CapRock Communications, a $600 million-plus managed Communications Services business serving government, energy and maritime markets. This business combination positions us as the leading supplier in a high-growth industry. The added scale makes our second only to the U.S. Government as a purchaser of satellite bandwidth, which, along with our plans to rationalize redundant facilities and operations, creates a very rich opportunity for expanding operating margins across the business as we move forward. We also completed the acquisition of Carefx, a leading provider of interoperability workflow solutions for government and commercial healthcare providers. Carefx has a broad hospital customer base, providing Harris with increased channel access to the fast-growing commercial healthcare IT market. We'll benefit from increased sales of Carefx solutions, along with cross-selling additional services offered by other Harris businesses. Consolidated revenue in the third quarter was $1.41 billion, 6% higher than the prior year. Non-GAAP income, excluding acquisition-related costs, was $149 million or $1.16 per share compared with $170 million, or $1.29 per share, in the prior year. Non-GAAP income before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was $294 million in the quarter compared to $310 million in the prior year quarter. This represents a year-over-year decline of about 5% in EBITDA as compared to an EPS decline of 10%. Consolidated orders of $1.55 billion exceeded revenue and was 7% higher compared with $1.45 billion in the prior year. This resulted in a consolidated company book-to-bill of $1.1 billion for the third quarter. Turning to RF Communications. Third quarter revenue for the RF Communications segment was $550 million, about flat with the prior year. Prior year expedited shipments of tactical radios to equip MRAP vehicles created a distorted year-over-year comparison. Remember that Harris shipped $1 billion in MRAP program radios over the 5 quarters that ended in 1Q of fiscal 2011. While this is certainly a great testament to our leading radio technology and our commercial business model, this success produced some very tough quarters to beat in an already very successful business. Operating income for the RF Communications segment was $179 million compared with non-GAAP operating income of $208 million in the prior year. Again, the prior year benefited from the MRAP shipments previously noted. Operating margin in the quarter was very strong at 32.5%. And that's about 50 basis points higher than we had previously expected. And we believe these higher margins are sustainable going forward in fiscal 2012. Our new manufacturing facility is scheduled to be operational in July, further helping us to maintain our low-cost position and supporting healthy margins for the long run. Tactical Communications revenue was $431 million in the quarter, about flat with the prior year. And we believe this was an excellent result given the difficult comparison. Deliveries to the MRAP program declined by $206 million year-over-year. Non-MRAP shipments to DoD customers increased significantly due to the adoption of our new Falcon III 117G wideband networking radio. And International revenue increased significantly comprising 1/2 of Tactical Communications' revenue during the third quarter. Public Safety and Professional Communications revenue was $119 million in the third quarter, also flat with the prior year and continuing to reflect the constrained state and local government spending environment. However, we expect recent program wins to begin to drive sequential revenue improvement beginning in the fiscal fourth quarter. RF Communications segment orders were $722 million in the quarter with a book-to-bill of $1.3 million, and segment backlog increased to $1.70 billion. Orders for Tactical Communications as part of that total were $351 million with a corresponding book-to-bill of 0.8. Backlog continues to be healthy, with Tactical Communications backlog standing at $981 million at the end of the third quarter. U.S. DoD orders were slightly higher than revenue in the quarter, with international orders as expected slightly below revenue. Ongoing instability in the Middle East is likely to push about $100 million in orders previously planned for the back half of fiscal 2011 into fiscal 2012. It's important to note this is simply a timing issue. We haven't lost any orders. But given its likelihood at the present time, backlog at the end of our fiscal year is now expected to be in the range of $800 million to $900 million for Tactical Communications. This is still very healthy and continues to support our fiscal 2012 guidance. Key orders in the U.S. market during the quarter included $70 million to deliver encryption devices and support services for the Blue Force Tracking system used by the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps. Total orders for these encryption devices and support now exceed $100 million. Also, $40 million from the Army for Falcon II HF vehicular systems; $23 million from the Air Force for Falcon III multiband handheld radios; and $9 million from the Army for HF radios for use in the Joint Biological Point Detection System. And this is an important new application for our communication systems. The U.S. Department of Defense continues to accelerate its adoption of Harris Falcon III wideband networking radios, embracing our commercial enterprise business model. We continue to believe that legacy communications, which rely on large, heavy, single-band, single-mission radios used primarily for voice, are far beyond their useful life. The modern battlefield, where war fighters have to simultaneously deal with multiple threats, require high-bandwidth network communications capability driven down to individual soldiers. Their increasingly complex missions require video, e-mail, collaborative chat and multiple waveform application availability. The upgrade from narrowband to wideband radios will occur on a large scale, and Harris will continue to lead this transformation. Ultimately, the DoD installed base of legacy radios represents a $10 billion market opportunity for Harris. Turning to International. Orders in the quarter came from diverse regions around the world and included multiple types of products and systems. They included $29 million from a country in Asia to provide the next phase of their integrated C4ISR project and a $22 million order from the same country for Falcon III Secure Personal Radios; $19 million from a country in Southeast Asia for Falcon III and Falcon II tactical radios; $11 million from the Australia Department of Defence for Falcon III tactical radios as part of their networked battlefield communication system; $10 million from an international customer to provide a secure tactical network communication system, and this one is comprised of Falcon III, Falcon II, as well as our public safety land mobile radios; a $10 million order from the Afghanistan National Army for Falcon III multiband, handheld tactical radios; and a $5 billion order from a nation in East Africa for Falcon II and Falcon III tactical radios. Our fiscal 2012 outlook for Tactical Communications remains solid. We closed the third quarter with healthy opportunity pipelines: $1 billion in the U.S. market and $2.6 billion in international markets. While some of the increase from the previous International pipeline of $2 billion reflects the timing issues I referred to, most of the increase is due to additional new identified opportunities. Our expanded regional hubs are playing a key role. In the U.K., we're serving Europe and Western Asia. In the United Arab Emirates, we're serving the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa; our new hub in Australia will be serving throughout Asia-Pacific; and our hub in Miami, Florida providing service to Latin America. Now all of these hubs are increasingly effective in securing new business for Harris. Each locations hosts sales and business development staff, a customer briefing center to show customers the capabilities of our products, along with system engineering and technical support resources. We're also continuing to expand our addressable markets by investing in new international products and by extending our reach into large, integrated communication systems projects. Orders in Public Safety and Professional Communications in the third quarter were $371 million compared to $168 million in the prior year and included, most notably, a $291 million order to design and deploy the First Responder Radio Communications System throughout Alberta, Canada. This is a province-wide public safety communications network. And also, orders included $15 million from Dane County, Wisconsin to upgrade their public safety communications system with our digital P25 IP solution. For the past several quarters, we've seen some opportunities in this market push out due to constrained state and local budgets. But on the positive side, we're finally beginning to see a pickup in new bid and proposal activity, and we view this as a very encouraging sign. Overall, our pipeline of public safety and professional communications opportunities remains large at $3 billion. Revenue in the Government Communications Systems segment in the quarter was $431 million, up 1% from the prior year. Revenue growth on a pro forma basis was about 7% higher in the quarter, and this is when you exclude the Field Data Collection Automation program for the U.S. Census Bureau, which declined by $24 million year-over-year as expected. Of course, the winding down of the 2010 Census program represents a total of $80 million in year-over-year revenue decline for fiscal 2011 in total. Revenue increased in the quarter on the GOES-R program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as on the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft program for the DoD. Slowing U.S. Government spending continued to impact revenue on several of our classified programs. I'll remind you that a portion of our Classified business consists of short-cycle programs. And these were hit particularly hard in the case of a continuing resolution where funding for new programs is not always available. Segment operating income in the third quarter was $60 million, and operating margin was very strong at 13.9%. During the third quarter, we achieved several significant program wins in the business. And these included a $15 million delivery order from the Air Force for telemetry modules for the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile program; also, a new 3-year contract to build Ka-band antennas for 3 Inmarsat-5 satellites, which will be the backbone of a worldwide wireless broadband network; and another order for a 3-year contract to build a 22-meter deployable L-band reflectors to support military and civilian communications in Mexico. Together, these programs have a combined value of more than $100 million and illustrate the current strength in the global satellite market; and finally, after the close of the quarter, Harris received an $11 million contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. We also introduced an important new capability this quarter we call the KnightHawk 3G. This is our ruggedized mobile tactical base station that, when it's combined with our Falcon III 117G wideband networking radio, enables war fighters on the move to maintain cellular services in locations with limited or no connectivity. The KnightHawk 3G allows war fighters to train, fight, communicate more effectively and report to commanders in real time regardless of their location. Moving to the new Integrated Network Solutions segment. Revenue in the third quarter grew 23% to $463 million. Organic revenue was about flat compared with the prior year. Broadcast Communications showed strong revenue growth of 9%, while revenue declined in Harris' IT Services business as a result of the slowing U.S. Government spending, including the disruption caused by the continuing resolution. Segment non-GAAP operating income was $32 million, 6.8% of sales. Operating income benefited both from acquisitions as well as much-improved performance in Broadcast Communications. Broadcast Communication business was profitable in the quarter and is still on target to be at breakeven for the fiscal year. That's a significant year-over-year improvement. These profit improvements were partially offset, however, by an operating loss in the Cyber Integrated Solutions business. We talked about this last quarter as we continued to invest in this large and fast-growing market. Also, we talked about last quarter lower pricing and the contract extension for the Navy Marine Corps intranet program, and that's impacting year-over-year Harris IT Services margins. Major Integrated Network Solutions orders or program wins in the quarter included 14 task orders totaling $150 million to provide C-, Ku- and X-band space segment capacity, monitoring and control, teleport services and operations and maintenance to DoD agency customers located around the world. Also, a $15 million contract extension from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for systems engineering services for their VistA imaging application. A $4 million contract to provide local operations and support to the U.S. Army Dental Command at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Fort Bragg, North Carolina and internationally at bases in Korea and Germany. We received a $9 million order from a country in Central Asia for our broadcast solutions, including master control rooms, production studios, playout and news centers. Also in Broadcast, the contract for the installation of an advanced digital out-of-home and IPTV network for the new Madison Square Garden transformation project. More than 1,100 arena displays will deliver a dynamic viewing experience to fans at MSG going forward. This project will commence this summer and be completed for the 2013, 2014 season. Continuing orders from traditional U.S. broadcast stations also were received in the quarter, including from Gray Communications, Cox Broadcasting and CBS. And we received a $10 million order from Virtual Computing Environment Corporation (sic) [Company], or VCE, for trusted enterprise cloud solutions. This is an important milestone for our Cyber Integrated Solutions business. Harris also recently announced a strategic alliance with VCE and their majority owner, EMC, that's expected to accelerate the growth of cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service. As part of this strategic alliance, development teams from Harris, RSA and VCE are integrating patented Harris technologies within the VCE Vblock infrastructure platform. We expect together to deliver unparalleled levels of visibility, control, security, performance and availability in the cloud environment. EMC and VCE are also actively engaged in joint marketing with Harris to create Trusted Enterprise Cloud services demand. Turning to the Healthcare Solutions business. We announced the formation of a joint venture with Johns Hopkins Medicine to develop next-generation, medical imaging management solutions. This collaboration brings together Harris' industry-leading health information capabilities and security technologies with Johns Hopkins renowned clinical expertise. The new image management solutions will be deployed first by the entire Johns Hopkins health system. And later, we'll market this to other hospitals and healthcare providers around the country. At our broadcast team, we introduced the new Selenio media convergence platform to the U.S. market at the annual National Association of Broadcasters trade show. With Selenio, Harris introduced the industry's first integrated media convergence platform. Traditional broadcast and IP signal distribution together can require the use of up to 45 different components, 25 rack units of physical space, consume 2,500 watts of power and require 131 connector cables. Now let's compare that to Selenio. Distribution requires one single component, 3 rack units of vertical space, consumes only 600 watts of power and requires only 14 cables. So this is an amazing improvement, and we think will lead to rapid adoption of the new Selenio technology globally across broadcast customers. We continue to believe the Integrated Network Support segment is well positioned to deliver future revenue growth and margin expansion. As we discussed during our Analyst Day in March, we expect this segment to grow faster than other segments and achieve margins of 11% to 12% by fiscal 2014. Let me now ask Harris CFO, Gary McArthur, to comment on our financial results during the quarter.