Earnings Labs

MDU Resources Group, Inc. (MDU)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Wed, May 4, 2016

$21.96

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

I'd like to welcome everyone to the MDU Resources Group 2016 First Quarter Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. This call will be available for replay beginning at 1:00 PM Eastern today through 11:59 PM Eastern on May 18th. The conference ID number for the replay is 77094219. Again, the conference ID number for the replay is 77094219. The number to dial for the replay is 855-859-2056 or 404-537-3406. I would now like to turn the conference over to Doran Schwartz, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of MDU Resources Group. Thank you. Mr. Schwartz, you may begin your conference. Doran N. Schwartz - Chief Financial Officer & Vice President: Thank you, and welcome to our first quarter earnings release conference call. This conference call is being broadcast live to the public over the Internet and slides will accompany our remarks. If you like to view the slides, please go to our website at www.mdu.com and follow the link for the conference call. Our earnings release is also available on our website. During the course of this presentation, we will make certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Although the company believes that its expectations and beliefs are based on reasonable assumptions, actual results may differ materially. And for a discussion of factors that may cause actual results to differ, refer to Item 1A, Risk Factors in our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and the Risk Factors section in our most recent Form 8-K. Our format today will include formal remarks by Dave Goodin, President and CEO of MDU Resources, followed by a Q&A session. Other members of our management team…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your first question comes from the line of Matt Tucker with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Good morning. Congrats on a nice quarter. David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Matt. Thank you very much.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

I wanted to ask about the refinery first and the change in the expected utilization. I guess, could you just provide some color on why that seems to be the best strategy now? Martin A. Fritz - President & Chief Executive Officer, WBI Holdings, Inc., MDU Resources Group, Inc.: Hey, Matt. This is Martin. Hey. Currently, obviously, the market pricing for the diesel and naphtha is very depressed. So, given where the margins are, it makes more sense to run it at a lower volume. And currently, the plant – the lowest we can run without causing problems is between 14,000 and 15,000 barrels per day, and so that's why we're operating in that range.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Thanks, Martin. I guess, I think at the Analyst Day, you seem to plan to keep running at closer to full utilization. So, I guess, a) what's kind of changed in your thinking there? And then b) were the first quarter results at the refinery in line with your expectations? Martin A. Fritz - President & Chief Executive Officer, WBI Holdings, Inc., MDU Resources Group, Inc.: Yes. The first quarter results were in line with our expectations, but pricing has continued to decrease through the first quarter in terms of diesel and naphtha with the slowdown especially in the rig count. I mean, we were over 85 last year. The last I looked, we're down to 26 rigs. So, obviously, a lot of the production especially on the diesel side is very Bakken dependent. And so it moves with that. And so with the decrease in rig count, we've seen that continue to be challenging.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Got it. Thanks, Martin. And while I've got you, maybe just a couple on the pipeline in midstream side. Could you talk about the outlook for gathering volumes for the rest of the year? And does this new well pad imply that you'll see rebound here in second quarter or when those come online? And secondly, could you talk about what's driving the strong transportation volumes you saw in the quarter? Martin A. Fritz - President & Chief Executive Officer, WBI Holdings, Inc., MDU Resources Group, Inc.: Yes. A couple of things now, Matt. On the midstream side with Pronghorn, you're going to see a pickup in the next quarter with the new well pad and the wells that we're shutting and coming back online. So, we think we're online with that through the rest of the year. On the transmission side, given where our pipe is located in kind of the key counties giving the (17:46) rigs we continue to, I believe, we'll see increased volumes. And then, the other thing we've got going is storage spreads have picked up so, we've got a lot of folks transporting to storage and we continue to believe we'll see that at least through the second quarter here, and will remain, obviously, that is spread-dependent.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Great. Thanks. And just last question maybe for Jeff on the services side. The margins were a little bit lower year-over-year. I mean obviously, nice backlog, nice earnings rebound. But in thinking about margins have been higher this year overall versus last year, is that more driven by operating leverage or are the margins in backlog actually stronger as well? Jeffrey S. Thiede - President & Chief Executive Officer, MDU Construction Services Group, Inc.: Hey, Matt. This is Jeff. The margins in our backlog are close to what they've been in historical past. Execution is going to be key. Some of higher volume areas in our business such as our service work, our non-backlog areas, our equipment sales and rental have been temporarily slow. We've had a little bit of additional competition in those areas. But we're feeling confident in our backlog, the margins we have and well-positioned to be able to focus on our execution and bringing those margins at or above our plan.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Thanks, Jeff. Just a follow-up to that. If I recall, the equipment sales and rental business is largely tied to electric transmission. Is the slowness there indicative of any kind of trend you're seeing in that market or is it kind of quarterly lumpiness? Jeffrey S. Thiede - President & Chief Executive Officer, MDU Construction Services Group, Inc.: I think it's just the temporary slowdown. We're seeing strong signs from our customers in that industry on it improving through 2020. Our volumes are slightly lower. But we've made a capital investment in this area – in our company. It's going to pay off. We're adjusting some internal processes to make our business more competitive, but also improving on our successful reputation we've earned through our relationships and our people. And we're providing great equipment and tools and service for this area. And we've made some adjustments for this temporary period that we think it's going to be, again, one of our strongest areas of our company.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Thanks for the color, gentlemen. I'll jump back in the queue. David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you very much, Matt.

Operator

Operator

You have a follow-up question from the line of Matt Tucker with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

I really just had one final follow-up. Would you be able to quantify the impact of the warmer weather versus normal at utilities during the quarter?

Nicole A. Kivisto - President and CEO, Utility Group, MDU Resources Group, Inc.

Analyst

Yeah, Matt. This is Nicole. When you look at the electric side of the business, we did see milder temperatures than we saw last year, which did impact our volumes as you saw, but on an overall basis our electric business had a very strong quarter, as Dave alluded to so the volume impact was really offset by the regulatory activities that we saw in the electric side of the business. So, overall our volume decline was not overly material to the electric side of the business. And now on the gas side of the business, we really saw 11% colder than last year weather in the Western states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and then kind of the reverse effect in the Montana, Dakota Great Plains territory. So, we haven't really quantified those numbers in total, but both of the business are up and what I guess what I would comment is when you look at the temperatures compared to normal, so I am not comparing the last year, but I am comparing the normal, we saw warmer than normal weather. And so to the extent, that we could see normal weather throughout the remainder of the year, obviously that would provide some upside to the earnings.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Great. Thanks, Nicole. And just while I am at that. Maybe one more circling back to the refinery. And you mentioned considering strategic options there. I think your partner Calumet said something similar when they reported recently. Could you elaborate on what strategic options you're considering and should we consider that you're looking to sell the refinery? Martin A. Fritz - President & Chief Executive Officer, WBI Holdings, Inc., MDU Resources Group, Inc.: Hey, Matt. At this time just to kind of what Calumet said they put out an 8-K that said they may divest a certain non-core asset including Dakota Prairie Refinery. Obviously we're having ongoing discussions and we're looking at all the options. We're evaluating them at this time. So, not really in a position at this point to give you a clear direction. We'll keep you in the loop. I can give you a little color on what we're doing short-term. The team has actually been doing a really good job out there. Since December 6, we've been running operationally fine. The other thing we're doing is we're focused on controlling what we can control, obviously the cost. So, we're in the process of working with all our vendors to see if we can get to cash flow breakeven with them providing us some assistance given where we're at. So, hope that helps a little color. We'll keep you in the loop but the process is really ongoing right now as we speak.

Matt Tucker - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Understood. Thanks, Martin. That's it for me. David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Thank you, Matt.

Operator

Operator

This makes the last call for question. This call will be available 1:00 pm Eastern today to 11:59 pm Eastern on May 18th. The conference ID number for the replay is 77094219. Again, the conference ID number for the replay is 77094219. Your next question comes from the line of Peter Flynn with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Peter, please make sure that your line is not on mute.

Peter F. Flynn - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Peter, please make sure that your line is not on mute.

Hey, can you guys hear me? David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. Good morning, Peter.

Peter F. Flynn - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Peter, please make sure that your line is not on mute.

Hey. Good morning. I had question on the construction segment. Should we view the large backlog increases translating to revenue, is that 2017 event considering you guys maintained revenue guidance? David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: You broke up a little bit there, Peter. Could you repeat the question?

Peter F. Flynn - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Peter, please make sure that your line is not on mute.

Yes. I'm sorry. Can you hear me? David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Oh that's better. Thank you.

Peter F. Flynn - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Peter, please make sure that your line is not on mute.

Okay. Should we consider the large backlog increases at the construction segment translating to revenue if it's 2017 event considering you maintain 2016 revenue guidance? David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Are you thinking more materials or services or some of both.

Peter F. Flynn - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Peter, please make sure that your line is not on mute.

Both actually. David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. We'll start with Dave Barney and talking about his backlog that $831 million a bit and then we will move on to Jeff Thiede.

Peter F. Flynn - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Peter, please make sure that your line is not on mute.

Okay. David C. Barney - President & Chief Executive Officer, Knife River Corporation, MDU Resources Group, Inc.: Hi, Peter. I would definitely expect our revenues to go up as the backlog has gone up. We're expecting – we've added a lot of backlog to that record backlog we've had in March and we have a good schedule out there. I'm expecting record backlog almost every month going through to June. So, yes, I would expect the revenue to be going up in the constructing materials company. I don't know if we're giving guidance on that but I just did I guess. David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. Well we are, in a sense but it's early in the year which is why held it flat at this point. But clearly backlog is a nice indicator of what could grow into revenues. Jeff? Jeffrey S. Thiede - President & Chief Executive Officer, MDU Construction Services Group, Inc.: Yes. And for us, we expect most of the projects that we have in our backlog and would be monetized this year, key is going to be execution, and it's early.

Peter F. Flynn - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Peter, please make sure that your line is not on mute.

Okay. Great. That's all I had. Thanks, guys. David L. Goodin - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Thank you, Peter.

Operator

Operator

At this time, there are no further questions. I'd now like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks. Doran N. Schwartz - Chief Financial Officer & Vice President: Well, thank you. And as we noted earlier, first quarter results represent a good start here in 2016. We are committed to continue building on this momentum by focusing on the factors that we can most directly influence, controlling cost, expanding margins, as well as growing earnings. And again, we appreciate your participation on this call today, and thank you again for your continued interest in MDA Resources. Operator?

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's MDA Resources Group conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.