Operator
Operator
Good morning and welcome to the Pool Corporation 3Q 2015 Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mark Joslin, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead. Mark W. Joslin - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Thank you, Kate. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our call. I would like to remind our listeners that our discussion, comments, and responses to questions today may include forward-looking statements, including management's outlook for 2015 and future periods. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed today. Information regarding the factors and variables that could cause actual results to differ materially from projected results is discussed in our 10-K. And with that, I'll turn the call over to our President and CEO, Manny Perez de la Mesa. Manuel J. Perez de la Mesa - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Mark, and good morning to everyone on the call. I'd like to start my comments this quarter with a bit of reflection. As many of you know, our mission is to provide exceptional value to our customers and suppliers, creating exceptional returns for our shareholders, while providing exceptional opportunities for our employees. Without providing exceptional value to our customers and suppliers, we cannot achieve an exceptional return for our shareholders or provide exceptional opportunities for our employees. To that end, we have invested consistently over the course of over 20 years to further our value proposition and further distinguish us in the marketplace. It is our employees who make our exceptional value proposition a reality every day, the same employees who have been provided exceptional opportunities, in many cases having started with us as drivers, working in the warehouse, in customer service or in management training programs and who are now running businesses, regions, or divisions within our company. As to our shareholders, earlier this month, we celebrated 20 years as a public company. The bottom line was a 26% total shareholder return compounded annual growth rate, ranking us in the top 1% amongst S&P 1500 companies, public for the past 20 years. A special thank you to all who helped make this happen, but we still have much left to do. In the third quarter, we were fortunate to have a mild September, helping extend the season a bit in northern markets, which contributed to our domestic Blue business's 8% base business sales growth in the quarter and 7% base business sales growth year-to-date. Texas and adjacent markets recovered to normalized growth rates in the quarter after the heavy rains of the second quarter, while the pool industry in California continued to educate authorities to protect against shortsighted decisions. In an industry that increased sales by an estimated 2% to 3% this year, our results are clear evidence that once again, our unique proposition is being recognized and rewarded by our customers and suppliers. Building Materials again led the way, with 12% sales growth in the quarter and year-to-date. We continued to gain share with Building Materials as well as expand the market, working in partnership with our customers and suppliers. Equipment sales increased 10% in the quarter and 8% year-to-date, reflecting both the continual, gradual recovery of replacement activity and an improved mix with higher priced, more energy-efficient products. Commercial Products sales were up 9% both in the quarter and year-to-date as we continue to capture share in this product category. Retail product sales increased 4% in the quarter and 3% year-to-date despite recent years' negligible growth of the pool install base and there being virtually no price inflation. In Chemicals, by far the largest product category sold through the retail channel, our sales were also up 4% in the quarter and 5% year-to-date, which is in contrast to the overall industry results as we, together with our customers, continue to gain market share. Our growth in international markets in local currency was very similar to our domestic Blue business at 6% both in the quarter and year-to-date as we continue to increase share in targeted markets and product categories. Our Green business sales declined modestly both in the quarter and year-to-date due primarily to our discontinuing several unprofitable product lines, although in this case, shortsighted decisions in California to pave or cover in plastic lawns and landscaping also impacted sales. As expected, our gross margins were essentially flat versus prior year as were our base business expenses in the quarter. Year-to-date, our expenses were modestly lower given the impact of the stronger dollar. This leveraging of our infrastructure enabled us to increase our base business operating margin by 80 bps both in the quarter and year-to-date. The leveraging of our structure carried over to our asset base, with our after-tax trailing 12-months return on investment capital increasing by 120 bps to 19%. These results incorporate our ongoing investments in facilities, people, technology, marketing, et cetera, as we continually strive to further enhance our value proposition for the future. Altogether, our base business operating profit increased by 13% in the quarter and 12% year-to-date with earnings-per-share increasing by 15% both in the quarter and year-to-date, despite the adverse currency impact. With the season winding down, our expectations are more the same in the fourth quarter with our realizing another successful year of solid growth, driven by improved execution in every facet of our business. Effectively, we are executing our mission as we have for over 20 years, creating exceptional value for our customers, suppliers, shareholders, and employees alike. Our results and our success are premised on the commitment of our people. It is their dedication, their engagement and their use of the tools and resources uniquely available to them that enable us to provide exceptional value. Now I'll turn the call over to Mark for his financial commentary. Mark W. Joslin - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Thank you, Manny. Starting with operating expenses, you can see that we've continued to have very good results here. Our goal this year, as it is every year, is to leverage gross profit growth by driving efficiencies through our operating structure, resulting in operating margin expansion. 2015 looks to be a very successful year in that regard as we have the opportunity to set a new high mark of exceeding 9% operating margin for the year. In 2015, we benefited from currency translation of the stronger U.S. dollar on our non-U.S. operations, which resulted in a $2.4 million reduction in reported expenses for the quarter and $6.5 million year-to-date. Offsetting this for the quarter was $2.8 million in higher incentive comp expense based on our improved performance expectations for the year, with year-to-date performance comp expense up nearly $1 million. Our biggest cost, which is labor, was relatively flat for the quarter and up very modestly for the year as we've been able to handle most of the increased volume with the existing staff with year-over-year head count as of the end of September increasing just 1.5% over last year. Moving down the income statement to interest expense, we reported $600,000 higher expense for the quarter, which was primarily due to the currency settlement losses in the quarter rather than interest expense, which was relatively flat compared to last year. This was offset by lower tax rate in the quarter as we benefited from our usual annual Q3 tax rate true-up. Looking at our balance sheet, our increase in total net receivables at quarter end was 6% and was consistent with our sales growth, while our net inventory balances were flat year-over-year. These results, along with our growth in income, helped put us in a good position on cash generation at the end of September, with cash flow from operations of $78 million, which was up $41 million from last year. We've continued to use excess cash to repurchase shares throughout the quarter, with 414,000 shares repurchased since we last reported, at an average price of $69.18 per share, for a total use of cash of $29 million. This gives us 1.3 million shares repurchased year-to-date at an average price of $67.86 for a total use of cash of $86 million, leaving us with $78 million under our current share repurchase authorization. Despite our ongoing share repurchase program, we've continued to maintain a relatively conservative capital structure. Our leverage at the end of September, which is measured on the basis of a trailing 12-month debt-to-EBITDA was 1.65, which compares to 1.60 a year ago. At this level, we are at the lower end of our target leverage of 1.5 times to 2 times debt-to-EBITDA. At this point, I'll turn the call back over to the operator to begin our question-and-answer session.