Kevin S. Cavanah
Analyst · KeyBanc
Thanks, John. I will start with second quarter results. We generated record revenues of $311 million in the second quarter, as compared to $221.4 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2013. The 40.5% increase in revenues was due to strong growth in our Storage Solutions and our Industrial segments. Our quarterly net income was $10.3 million, and our fully diluted earnings per share was $0.38, as compared to net income of $5.4 million and fully diluted EPS of $0.21 in the second quarter of the prior year. As you know, we completed the acquisition of the business we now refer to as Matrix North American Construction in late December. As when we owned Matrix NAC a few days in December, the revenue and net income from that business during the second quarter was nominal. The only significant acquisition-related impact on our quarterly financial results was that we acquired $242 million of backlog and incurred approximately $2 million in acquisition cost, which reduced our second quarter earnings by $0.05. Consolidated gross profit was $34.2 million in the 3 months ended December 31, 2013, versus $22.3 million in the 3 months ended December 31, 2012. Although we had some execution issues on a Storage Solutions project, which reduced our gross margin by 1.5% to 11% in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, the performance of our overall business was strong. Consolidated gross margins in the second quarter of fiscal 2013 were 10.1%. SG&A expenses were $19.3 million in the 3 months ended December 31, 2013, compared to $13.6 million in the same period last year. The increase was a result of the $2 million of acquisition costs I previously mentioned, increased incentive accruals recorded in connection with the strong performance of the company and other cost required to support the growth on our business. The acquisition-related expenses of $2 million increased our SG&A as a percentage of revenue by 0.6% to 6.2% in fiscal 2014, as compared to 6.1% in the same period last year. Our effective tax rate was 28.4% for the quarter, ended December 31, 2013, as compared to 36.5% for the quarter ended December 31, 2012. The decrease resulted from revision in the estimated benefit from R&D tax credits. Based upon the current environment, we expect a 37% effective tax rate for the remainder of fiscal 2014. Moving on to the segments. The most significant contributors of the quarterly results was the 84.9% quarter-over-quarter revenue growth in the Storage Solutions segment. Second quarter fiscal 2014 segment revenue increased to $180.6 million, as compared to the second quarter revenues of $97.6 million of fiscal 2013. The increase occurred as we have added significant balance of plant terminal projects to our normal portfolio-obtained projects. Gross margins increased to 11% in the 3 months ended December 31, 2013, as compared to gross margins of 7.9% in the same period in the prior year. The improvement occurred due to the strong overall project performance in the segment. The Industrial segment also experienced significant growth, as a result of the continued expansion of our mining and minerals business, combined with the continued execution on a significant fertilizer project. Revenues for the Industrial segment totaled $31.1 million in the 3 months ended December 31, 2013, compared to $7 million in the same period a year earlier, an increase of 344%. The robust growth, combines a strong project execution, produced 12.3% gross margins, which is above our expectations. In the prior year, gross margins were negative as the business was still on a start-up mode. As expected, our second quarter Electrical Infrastructure segment revenues decreased compared to prior year, as we did not experience a significant volume of storm work in our recently completed quarter. The second quarter of fiscal 2013 benefited from storm restoration work and aftermath of a rough-filled storm season which included Hurricane Sandy. As a result, our quarterly revenues decreased to $50.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2013 to $37.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014. The mix at work in the quarter combined with the lack of storm work contributed to a decline in gross margins from 13.2% in the prior year, second quarter, to 10.4% in the fiscal 2014 second quarter. The Oil Gas & Chemical segment continued the strong performance in the second quarter producing revenues of $62.1 million, compared to $66.6 million in the second quarter last year. We experienced significant growth in this segment of fiscal 2013. Digital high volume of turnaround work, scope growth and expansion of our core client base. While our revenues are down slightly in the quarter, we were still pleased with the overall trend of the segment. Our second quarter gross margins were towards the lower end of our expectations at 10.8%. Moving on to the 6-month results, consolidated revenues were $537.2 million, an increase of 24.6% from consolidated revenues of $431 million in the prior fiscal year. The increase in consolidated revenues was a result of significant increases in Storage Solutions and Industrial revenues. Consolidated gross profit increased from $44.6 million in the 6 months ended December 31, 2012, to $59.6 million in the 6 months ended December 31, 2013. The increase of $15 million, or 33.6%, was due to higher revenues and improved gross margins. Consolidated gross margins were 11.1% of fiscal 2014, as compared to 10.3% a year earlier. Consolidated SG&A expenses were $34 million in the 6 months ended December 31, 2013, compared to $27.9 million in the same period a year earlier. The increase was primarily related to the $2 million of acquisition costs and higher short-term and long-term incentive cost as a result of the improved performance of the company. In addition, we have continued our efforts to improve our systems, our processes and employee development. The acquisition of related expense of $2 million increased our SG&A as a percentage of revenue by 0.4% to 6.3% in fiscal 2014, as compared to 6.5% in same period a year earlier. Net income for the first 6 months of fiscal 2014 increased 67.3% to $16.9 million, as compared to prior year net income of $10.1 million. Earnings per share increased 61.5% to $0.63 per fully diluted share, as compared to $0.39 per fully diluted share in the prior year. Our backlog at December 31, 2013, totaled $882.6 million, that's compared to our backlog at the beginning of the fiscal year of $626.7 million. Project awards totaled $278.8 million in the second quarter and $551.1 million in the first 6 months of fiscal 2014. In addition, the company acquired $242 million of backlog in the Matrix NAC acquisition. At December 31, 2013, our cash balance stood at $73.3 million, as compared to $63.8 million at the beginning of the fiscal year. We utilized $51.4 million of cash for the Matrix NAC acquisition in the second quarter, with our strong operating results combined with cash generated from operations and approximately, $23 million of borrowings have allowed us to increase the cash balance through the first 6 months of fiscal 2014. The cash balance, along with availability under our senior credit facilities, provides liquidity of $162 million at December 31, 2013. We are increasing our previous guidance as a result of the strong operating performance of our legacy business and the addition of Matrix NAC. Our previous revenue guidance for fiscal 2014 of $980 million to $1.04 billion has been raised to a range of $1.2 billion to $1.25 billion. We're also increasing our previous EPS range of $1 to $1.15 to the new range of $1.15 to $1.30. That concludes our prepared remarks and we will now open the call up to questions.