John R. Hewitt
Analyst · Stephens Inc
Thanks, Kevin. I'm pleased with the strong performance in the second quarter and believe we are positioned for continued success. Our growth in backlog continued during the second quarter as we have a positive book-to-bill ratio along with record revenues in the quarter. Backlog was $433.6 million at the end of the quarter, which is our highest level of backlog since the third quarter of fiscal 2009. We expect to see this trend continue as proposal volume is robust in all of our business lines. We are definitely seeing strength return from majority of our markets. Opportunities in all business lines have increased, and we feel very good about our year. As a result, we are increasing our revenue guidance for fiscal 2012 to a range of $725 million to $775 million, and increasing our earnings guidance to $0.85 to $0.95 per fully diluted share. Due to normal seasonality we experienced in our business, we would expect the fourth quarter to be somewhat stronger than the third quarter. As a backdrop to these strong results, I'd like to give you an overview of our recently completed long-range strategic plans and focus areas for the company. As we successfully execute on our strategy, we will continue to make safety our #1 priority, leverage and expand our core competencies and markets, create a broader North American footprint, maintain a balanced risk portfolio, continue to build our business organically to the addition of key leadership and engage in an active and focused acquisition program. There are 4 main market sectors where we will focus our growth, and we are anticipating growing our consolidated revenues 12% to 15% annually while incrementally improving our earnings over the next 5 years. Electrical infrastructure is a key sector focus area for us. High-voltage power work and substation, transmission and distribution in the Northeast Corridor along with targeted expansion in the Midwest, West Coast and Eastern Canada represent high growth areas for our business. In addition, our ability to offer storm restoration services on a broader geographic basis will be integral to our growth in this portion of the sector. The aging infrastructure, interconnect needs, automation upgrades and general maintenance load presents a tremendous long-term opportunity for our business. Related to power generation, the retirement of certain coal-fired generating stations and heightened concern associated with nuclear power combined with abundant shale gas resources will create an expansion of our gas-powered electric generation fleet. These anticipated the opportunities associated with these projects will provide a critical part of our portfolio in the future. In our oil and gas and chemical business sector, consisting of refinery turnaround, maintenance and repair initially in small-cap projects, and construction opportunities stemming from shale energy development will be an area of continued expansion. We also expect to create a significant market presence in industrial cleaning through strategic investments over the next 3 to 5 years. Further, we expect continued organic growth in the balance of the sector by leveraging our current operations and services. The North American storage business will continue to be a core element of the future of Matrix. All lines in this business including AST new tank, maintenance and repair, as well as specialty vessels are anticipated to provide consistent year-over-year growth with higher expected growth in our Canadian operations. Recently, our Western Canadian office, which operates in the Alberta Oil Sands region, was awarded a $34 million tank package which strengthens our market position in this region. While our market position in Cushing continues to be dominant, over 50% of our current and future business is forecasted in other regions across North America. In closing, our industrial businesses including mining metals, material handling and other industrial project services represent fairly new business lines within our portfolio. The mining metals market throughout the Western United States and Canada is expected to provide a significant part of our portfolio over the long term. Our Material Handling business, acquired in May 2012, is beginning to create EP and EPC opportunities for the company. The global demand for various types of specialty metals, ores and other raw materials is expected to remain strong for the foreseeable future. Our market sectors have good growth opportunities that allow us to be -- allows to successfully apply our skill sets as well as cross-leveraging other aspects of our business. This gives us a clear path to build upon our already strong brand. With that, I'd like to open up the call for questions.