Stephen C. Taylor
Analyst · Global Hunter
Okay. Thanks, Lindsay, and thanks, Ross, and good morning and welcome to everyone to Natural Gas Services Group's First Quarter 2013 Earnings Review. I'm glad to report that we started the year with a good quarter. In fact, one that I call robust. I'll start off the review by reminding everyone that we had a substantial nonrecurring sale of rental compressors in the first and second quarters of 2012 that will affect the year-over-year quarterly comparisons. The top line impact was little over $5 million higher-level of revenue in the first quarter of '12 when compared against the current quarter. However, we have been able to replace a fair amount of that compressor sales revenue with compressor rentals and flare sales. Although the top line is mixed, shift to these higher-margin product lines and some strong segment margins has enabled us to report higher levels profitability, whether it is gross margin, operating income, net income or EBITDA. On an apples-to-apples basis, net of the nonrecurring revenue, the quarterly comparisons will be even more impressive. We were happy with our ability to reduce our cost of goods sold by 22% and report a 14% increase in net income in spite of a 9% revenue difference. Now let's move to the numbers. Look at total revenues. In the year-over-year quarters, the first quarter of '13 revenue decreased 9% to $24 million from $26.4 million in the first quarter of 2012, with the decline due to the aforementioned nonrecurring sales of some rental fleet equipment in the first quarter of 2012. Have we narrowed the effect of the nonrecurring revenues, our total revenues would've grown by 13% year-over-year. For the sequential quarters of the fourth quarter 2012 compared to the first quarter of this year, total revenues increased a little over $400,000. Breaking this down, compressor sales were up a little over 17% or about $800,000, our rental revenues were 7% higher. But a major impact was a $1.2 million decline in flare sales. This reflects a large year end 2012 rush to deliver this equipment to the field, but year-over-year flare sales were still 2/3 higher this quarter than the first quarter of 2012. Comparing this current quarter to the first quarter 2012, in spite of the decline in revenue, total gross margin increased 9% from $11.2 million to $12.2 million. This is primarily driven by strong margins in our compressor sales business. Overall gross margin increased from 43% to 51% of revenue, a very strong overall margin. Sequentially, gross margin increased about $800,000 to $12.2 million or about 7%. SG&A increased only nominally in the year-over-year and sequential quarters and continues to run in the 8% average range of revenue in all periods. Looking at the operating income. Compared to the year-over-year quarters, our operating income reflect a 9% increase from $5.6 million in the first quarter of 2012 to $6.1 million this current quarter. Sequentially, operating income increased over $600,000 or 11% and climbed from 23% to 26% of revenue this quarter. In the comparative year-over-year first quarters, net income increased 14% from $3.5 million last year to $4 million this year. Comparing the fourth quarter 2012 to the first quarter of this year, net income was up $400,000 or 12% of $4 million, a healthy 17% of revenue. EBITDA increased 13% from $9.4 million in the first quarter of 2012 to $10.7 million in the current quarter. Sequentially, EBITDA increased $1.1 million or 11% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. EBITDA ran a 45% of revenue this quarter. On fully diluted basis, earnings per share this quarter was $0.32 per common share, an increase of 10% or above comparative year-over-year and sequential quarters. Looking at total sales revenue in the year-over-year quarters, total sales revenues, which includes compressor, flare and parts sales, fell from $12.4 million in the first quarter of last year to $7.8 million in the first quarter of 2013. This comparative decrease was due totally to the nonrecurring sale last year. Without that event, our sales revenues would have increased 11% year-over-year. For the sequential quarters, total sales revenues fell $500,000 this quarter from $8.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. This decline was mainly attributable to a $1.2 million sequential drop in flare sales. Overall gross margin, however, increased from 33% to 38% of revenue in the sequential quarters, and was mainly driven by higher profitability in our compressor sales business. Looking at compressor sales alone. In the current quarter, there were $5.2 million. This compares to $10.7 million in the first quarter of last year. And without the effects of the nonrecurring sale, they would have been essentially flat. I do want to highlight the fact that compressor sales posted a 29% gross margin this quarter. Sequentially, compressor sales increased $800,000 or 17% higher than last quarter. Our compressor sales backlog at the end of the first quarter was $4 million to $5 million, and we think our total compressor sales this year will be around $10 million to $11 million. Rental revenue had a year-over-year increase of $2.3 million or 17% from $13.7 million in the first quarter of 2012 to $16 million for this current quarter. Gross margins were 57% of revenue this quarter, compared to 60% last year. Our rental margins tend to run between 57% and 60% depending on the quarter. And since we expense and don't capitalize any maintenance or overhaul costs, margins can move depending on the level of make-ready overhaul expanse we incurred during any particular period. This is typically a positive indicator because we are getting equipment ready to go to the field. Sequentially, rental revenues grew 7% to $16 million this quarter. We ended the first quarter of the rental fleet unit utilization at 79% and horsepower utilization at 80%. Along with, and as a driver of these utilization increases, we felt that it's significant that the number of net rental contracts started in the first quarter of this year was the highest quarterly number since 2008. Also of interest is that while this quarter was again denominated by oil shale installations, we also saw a combination of vapor recovery units and a few dry gas installations that resulted in a more varied mix than what we have seen in a while. Fleet size at the end of March was 2,328 compressors. This is a net addition of 49 compressors year-to-date on a capital spend of $7.7 million this quarter. Between 35% to 40% of our active fleet is now deployed in oil shales and liquids-oriented plays. This is up from about 1/3 of the fleet last quarter. I mentioned last quarter that newly implemented EPA regulations are driving the increased use of small horsepower, low-pressured compressors called VRUs, vapor recovery units, to the capturing of vapors from oil storage tanks, and that we were successful to win that contract to supply this type of equipment to a major operator in one of the new oil shale basins. This type of equipment is right up our alley as far as it being smaller, wellhead type horsepower and we anticipate more activity in this realm. In fact, we were successful on another VRU contract this quarter in a different basin. We don't expect much revenue out of it this year, but do anticipate a ramp-up in 2014. A point here is that new EPA statutes are influencing how our customers operate, is driving greater use of small compressors and flares. Going to the balance sheet, our total short-term and long-term debt was $900,000 as of March 31, 2013, and cash in the bank was a little over $31 million. Our cash flow from operations through the first 3 months of this year was $10.9 million. Now generally from a market perspective, with a geographic asset or commodity focused, we think NGS is exceptionally well positioned in our core rental business. Geographically and from an asset view point, we're in a balance of dry gas and wet liquid plays, we presently have a 60-40 fleet mix split between gas and oil. Our moving into new basins the last couple of years has proven profitable, and we see the growth continuing. Concerning the traditional gas basins, we have been through a 4-year drought. No growth, but no deterioration either. But we are starting to see some interest in dry gas compression again. There's certainly not a rush to the door and I personally don't think we will see too much activity until the coming winter, but it's more than what we've seen for a long time. Oil, of course, is the driver. And although there are predictions all over the map as far as pricing and activity, I tend to think it will stay strong enough for NGS to grow with -- over the near term. The newest driver is, as I mentioned, the new EPA regulations that are to be implemented over the next year or 2. We've seen a bit of business from this and I think it will continue to grow. As most of you know, it can be volatile until we see the real impact on our customers and their approach to operating under them. So whether you're talking gas economics, oil economics or no economics, we have the EPA. NGS will be able to get more than our fair share of the available growth. Although there's a lot of noise around rig count declines, predictions about lower oil prices and the continuation of relatively low gas prices, our high utilization and net contract gains demonstrate our against the tide progress in our core rental business. The compressor sales business is still the fuzzy part of the picture for us. This quarter demonstrates that we can take a fairly large decline in compressor sales revenues and still drive overall margins and profits higher. To sum it up, our shift towards rentals and away from sales over the past few years is playing out positively and as we predicted. That's the end of my prepared remarks, and I'll turn the call back to Ross for questions anyone might have.