Earnings Labs

Quanta Services, Inc. (PWR)

Q1 2018 Earnings Call· Thu, May 3, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Quanta Services First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. . It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Kip Rupp. Thank you, sir, you may begin.

Kip A. Rupp - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Thank you, and welcome everyone to the Quanta Services first quarter earnings conference call. This morning we issued a press release announcing our first quarter results, which can be found in the Investors & Media section of our website at quantaservices.com. Additionally, we have posted a summary of our 2018 outlook and commentary that we will discuss this morning in the Investors & Media section of our website. Please remember the information reported on this call speaks only as of today, May 3, 2018, and therefore you are advised that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of any replay of this call. This call will include forward-looking statements intended to qualify under the Safe Harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include all statements reflecting Quanta's expectations, intentions, assumptions, or beliefs about future events or performance, or that do not solely relate to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements involve certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict or beyond Quanta's control, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. For additional information concerning some of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, please refer to the cautionary language included in our press release issued today, along with the company's 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K, and its other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on Quanta's, or the SEC's, website. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and Quanta does not undertake any obligation to update such statements and disclaims any written or oral statements made by any third-party regarding the subject matter of this call. Please also note that we will present certain non-GAAP financial measures in today's call, including adjusted diluted earnings per share, backlog, and EBITDA. Reconciliations of these measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release. Lastly, if you would like to be notified when Quanta publishes news releases and other information, please sign-up for e-mail alerts through the Investors & Media section of quantaservices.com. We also encourage investors and others interested in our company to follow Quanta IR and Quanta Services on the social media channels listed on our website. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Duke Austin, Quanta's President and CEO. Duke?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Kip. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Quanta Services first quarter 2018 earnings conference call. On the call, I will provide operational and strategic commentary before turning it over to Derrick Jensen, Quanta's Chief Financial Officer, who'll provide a detailed review of our first quarter results. Following Derrick's comments, we welcome your questions. This year is off to a good start, and we are pleased with our results. First quarter revenues were a record $2.4 billion in GAAP, and adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.24 and $0.40, respectively. We ended the quarter with record 12-month and total backlog for each of our segments and had record consolidated backlog of approximately $11.7 billion, which we believe supports our expectations for this year and bodes well for opportunities for multiyear growth. As a result of our solid first quarter results, strengthening in markets and confidence in our ability to safely execute, we have raised our full year revenue and earnings per share expectations for 2018. Our Electric Power operations executed well in the first quarter, from both a top line and margin perspective. The strong performance was driven by solid execution across our operations, and we are particularly pleased with our execution in Canada through the winter season. Additionally, we performed emergency restoration services during the first quarter in response to several severe winter storms. This work helped offset adverse work conditions on projects for both Electric Power, and Oil and Gas operations, caused by these storms. This is a good example of how Quanta's diverse services and geographic presence can mitigate risk from severe weather events to our overall results. We continue to have a positive near and long-term outlook for our Electric Power segment because of our customers' multiyear, capital budgets continue to increase, and should remain…

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Duke, and good morning, everyone. Today we announced record first quarter revenues of $2.42 billion, an 11% increase as compared to the first quarter of 2017. Net income attributable to common stock was $37.6 million or $0.24 per diluted share compared to net income attributable to common stock of $48.3 million or $0.31 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2017. Adjusted diluted earnings per share attributable to common stock, a non-GAAP measure, was $0.40 for the first quarter of 2018 compared to $0.39 for the first quarter of 2017. Negatively impacting the quarter and reflected as adjustments in our adjusted diluted earnings per share calculation were acquisition and integration costs of $7.2 million, $6.2 million net of tax or $0.04 per diluted share attributable to common stock primarily associated with the two acquisitions completed during the quarter. Electric Power revenues increased 28.6% when compared to the first quarter of 2017 to $1.57 billion with double-digit or near double-digit growth across all sub-segments of our Electric Power services. A larger increase was primarily due to higher customer spending associated with electric transmission projects and partially due to favorable performance and progress on a large electric transmission project in Canada. In addition, we have $23.8 million in incremental emergency restoration service revenues, approximately $18 million in revenues related to more favorable foreign currency exchange rates and approximately $15 million in revenues from acquired companies. Operating margin in the Electric Power segment increased to 9% in the first quarter of 2018 as compared to 8.2% in the first quarter of 2017. This increase was due to higher segment revenues, including a higher proportion of electric transmission project revenues. Also contributing to the higher operating income and margins was the previously mentioned electric transmission project in Canada, which experienced favorable winter…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentleman, we will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Noelle Dilts with Stifel. Please proceed with your question. Noelle Christine Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Hi, thanks. Good morning. And I'm sure you'll hear this a lot today, but congratulations on a really nice quarter. So my first...

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Noelle. Noelle Christine Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: My first question, I just wanted to dig into guidance a little bit more. When you look at the high-end of the guidance, can you just give us a sense of kind of what it takes to get there in terms of thinking about uncommitted work? Or is it really just that you have to execute well on the work you have right now?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah, Noelle. I think from our standpoint, we haven't really changed the way we've looked at guidance other than the fact that we've had a quarter under our belt, and as you see the year and you see the macro markets, they're all strengthening. So it gives us a higher degree of confidence to the midpoint there. In the high end, we see, we still have some uncommitted. We're just starting on our gas season there on the large diameter pipe. Also our Canadian winter that's in front of us as well. So as we see that and we see us progress through that season, it'll allow us to get better visibility into the other side of the year. So that's where the high end lies, is in the backside of the year. Noelle Christine Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Okay. Great. That's helpful. And then as it relates to Stronghold, you had a couple – one competitor in particular talk about some continued disruption associated with the hurricane, so it was nice to see that you guys performed there, performed well there. Can you give us a sense of just maybe how some of the sub-businesses are performing? And what you think helped drive some of that recovery in what sounds like is a market that's still seeing some disruption?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yes. You know, the Stronghold acquisition, we felt like we bought a company that was necessary, the maintenance would get performed year-over-year and that's the case. And we bought exactly what we thought we did. They performed exactly like we thought. And we're extremely pleased. We also see lots of opportunities in that market, that space. We're not seeing the impacts that others may see. So, we're extremely pleased with how they performed and believe they'll perform the rest of the way and for the long-term for that matter. The management team is fantastic and our opportunities downstream just continue to come in. Noelle Christine Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alan Fleming with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Alan Fleming - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Good morning.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Good morning.

Alan Fleming - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Duke, maybe you can help us understand or think about your margin guidance in Electric Power a little better. The nine percent you did was the highest 1Q we've seen in at least several years. I know there were some storm work in there, we know what your guidance is for the full year, but starting the year out this strong, and it seems like you're executing well. You have big projects like Fort McMurray continuing to ramp, so why wouldn't you be able to do closer to the midpoint of maybe of your 10% to 12% range this year, in a year where you base business is also growing, at least mid- to high-single digits?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah, we've said it all along that we though the Electric Power business would be in double-digits this year and it will be, from what we see. And if it goes higher than that, we'll need some pull-in from storms and such. Again, we have telecom segment that reports through there, which Derrick can give you the impact on that. But we like the market, we like the macro market. We do think we're seeing more larger projects, we're bidding larger projects now, continue to see those verbal commitments and such. So, we like where we sit. We don't have Wind Catcher in our guidance. If something like that was to go, it creates more upward end to the margin and upward end to guidance. So I'll let Derrick comment on the telecom.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah, everything Duke said I agree with. To his point, I mean, as compared to previous periods, telecom is in our guidance at this point. It has some dilutive effect to that. When we get to the end of the year as the individual quarter, we think we'll be into upper high-single digit range of execution, but here in the first part of the year you're in the lower single digit range and so that's putting a dilutive effect to the overall year for Electric Power. An additional point is, is that when you saw higher levels of margin in the past, we had a larger contribution of larger transmission projects. As it stands here today, we're executing only on, for 2018, a couple to three of those larger projects. In years past, we've been executing on as many as 9 or 10. So there's still a little bit of drag that's there for some underutilized equipment, whether that's coming from U.S. or Canada, so there's still an opportunity for margin expansion is there to the extent that we bring on additional large projects. And then lastly, as Duke said, I mean, to the extent that we have the amount of growth that we have, you've got deployment of resources and G&A, and so as we look forward and think about the growth dynamics that are there, we think we'll have better absorption.

Alan Fleming - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please proceed with your question.

That's good color. My follow-up is on Oil and Gas. Yeah. Obviously there's been some concern about delays in large pipeline projects with the recent change in FERC policy. So can you help demystify for us what you think your visibility is on mainline pipe over the next year or two? You know what the skepticism is, but do you think there's enough visibility for continued backlog growth in Oil and Gas, at least over the near to medium term?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah, this is Duke. We see the projects out there, so the opportunities are there. You have your LNG takeaways. You're starting to see in Texas and Louisiana as well as in Canada, so we're starting to see some visibility in the LNG market, which takes a lot of pipe. They use a tremendous amount of gas. We are seeing the FERC ruling recently on MLPs where it disallows on a FERC line the tax benefit. So that is new. It's new information out there. I do not think it's changed, really the viewpoint that it's necessary to build pipe to these markets and they'll continue to build it. It may be noisy for a quarter or two till they get it ironed out at FERC, but I do believe most of our customers are looking for venues. Either they're dissolving their MLPs, or whatever they're doing, to make sure that they can continue to build pipe to market and make sure that their rates assess the new provisions there from FERC.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tahira Afzal with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Tahira Afzal - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, folks. Congrats on the quarter, and I assume the mix shift pipeline win for yourself.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. We got a good pipeline in Oklahoma. We're proud of it, so we're happy about the award.

Tahira Afzal - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah. So, just to get a little more granular, Duke, on the pipe side. It seems like there's some pretty big pipes tied to LNG coming forward. Your comments on Canada were interesting. Is the (sic) Coastal GasLink perhaps what's driving your enthusiasm there? Or generally would you assume that the LNG build-out which seems a little more solid now in Canada, is really leading to a larger, broader build-out that you're getting excited about?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah, Tahira. I think if you look at it, there's a multitude of large projects out there. You have Keystone sitting out there, you have Line 3 sitting out there, you have Coastal, you have both Enbridge and TransCanada have lines that feed the LNG exports in Canada. So all those are lines that we're looking at, we're certainly around the edges on. But beyond that, I mean it takes a lot of feeder lines and a lot of short lines that feed out of those shelves into those larger pipes, so that also is something that interest us in our midstream market. So we're seeing all that come together. We kind of said in the past though, if we saw a bunch of LNG export, you would see us – the cycle elongate. So any of that, the old pipelines also get us somewhat more enthusiastic about the longevity of larger diameter pipe. That being said, I really like our portfolio of companies that we have. I like how we're delivering on all the macro markets. So all that being said, just in general, I think our macro market and our ability and our earnings power of the company has never been greater. Our markets are continuing to strengthen, and I can't say it enough on all of our segments.

Tahira Afzal - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Got it. Okay, Duke. And then, obviously, the quarter is strong to really support that. And I guess as a follow-up to that, it's rare for you guys to raise guidance in the first quarter, so clearly a sign of the confidence you have. Going forward, as you look, what are the upside opportunities? It seems, obviously, Wind Catcher is one of them. But outside of Wind Catcher, would you say there are equal opportunities for guidance raises potentially for the rest of the year in both segments? Or are they more pronounced in one versus the other?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. I think, Tahira, we're looking at it long term. So if you just look at it, you look at it today, and you say our backlog's $11.7 billion.

Tahira Afzal - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Right.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

We're sitting on Wind Catcher and other awards in excess of $2 billion today. They're verbally (37:08) to proceed whatever it may be that we see that we could possibly be in backlog depending on how we look at the next quarter and the quarters beyond. So that being said, the markets are extremely strong. Our base business, we've talked about it, growing single-digits. The CapEx, the OpEx of the utilities continue to grow. That's really what's driving the business is that 80% to 85% of that base business that continues to strengthen and now we're starting to see these larger projects layer on top of that and so the strength of the larger projects give us a lot of confidence in the outer years and this year included.

Tahira Afzal - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Got it. Thank you, Duke.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yes.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Duncan with Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Matt Duncan - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Hey. Good morning, guys. Let me add my congratulations on a great quarter.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Matt Duncan - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

So, Duke, on the Oil and Gas guidance specifically, you walked through what you're seeing kind of in every piece of that business, but you didn't change the guidance and your tone is certainly growing more positive. And if I remember correctly, your guidance in that segment assumes that large diameter revenue dollars are down year-over-year but you're saying you're going to be fully utilized with your large diameter spreads by the end of the second quarter or early in the third quarter. Those things just don't seem to make a lot of sense together and then when I look through the rest of the business, demand for small pipe around the shales seems to be rising rapidly. You talked about that. You're also seeing good performance out of Stronghold and growth in that market. So can you just help us a little bit with the assumptions that are baked in to this Oil and Gas guide and what really does it take to take the range up? Is it as simple as we need to get to the end of the second quarter and make sure we're on track on these large diameter jobs? Or is there something else that we're missing?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Matt, I mean, I think the year is somewhat inverse of last year where we had a large first quarter with Sabal Trail and we're able to give little bit more visibility on our Gas segment early. It's inverse to that this year where you're starting to see the back half with our season's more normal this year, so you're starting to see all of our spreads or starting construction now. We're getting more comfortable that they're going to get in construction. We are in West Virginia with a bunch of work in other areas. There's risk to those – that work and contingencies. And as we get there, we get started, our productivity rates start to run. We can see it and get more visible on it, but I think I've said in the past on that type of work. We'll be cautious about how we guide it, but I think by the end of the next quarter we should be able to get more visibility in it and we'll take a different look at it but we're really just starting our big pipe season on the Gas business which will drive the upper end of any kind of guidance adjustment on the Gas side. So our season's just started. We gave you early guidance, and we're in the early stages of the Gas piece. But as a portfolio of the company, in general, just take the large diameter pipe out, we're strengthening across the board.

Matt Duncan - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah. Okay. So and then second question on that front. You talked about Stronghold. It sounds like the year is off to a good start. I really don't think you're getting any credit for what, to me, was a pretty smart acquisition. So can you give us an update on that business, on the outlook for that business? How much did it grow year-over-year in the first quarter? And then just downstream demand in general for your industrial services business. What does that look like?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Matt, I think the demand is there for sure. As far as what we've said, the $575 million to the $600 million, we'll stand by that as it sits today. They had a good first quarter, which is seasonally a big quarter for them and their own target for the year here. So we're pretty excited about where we sit. What they do from a service standpoint is certainly necessary in these refiners, as well as the downstream market. So the company continues to take market share. Others are having issues. We continue to get people, superintendents, whatever it may be. Employer of choice. I really like the management team. We got what we thought we bought. We'll move forward with it. It's a great base revenue business. It allows us to diversify in our Gas segment. If we get some things, some different kind of weather in the first quarter, you would start to see that even in the first quarter. But I think as we move forward and we get the large diameter pipe that that piece of business really shines.

Matt Duncan - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

To be clear, how much was it up year-over-year?

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. What I'd say is, is that its – you're looking at double-digit growth. We had commented that historically they've been five, six years a compound annual growth rate of double-digit. When you look at run rate revenues, 2017 coming into 2018, we're seeing that same dynamic, double-digit for both the year, as well as the quarter.

Matt Duncan - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Thanks, guys. Congrats again.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yes. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jamie Cook with Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question. Jamie L. Cook - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Hi. Good morning. And nice quarter. I guess two questions, probably more longer term. How do you guys think about the timeline to achieve the 10% medium to long-term margin target that you guys laid out at your Analyst Day. The revenues are clearly already exceeding that expectation. So how do we think about that? And what do we need to do to get there? And then my second question too on the communications side, you talked about mid-single digit margins in the remainder of the year. How do we think about the revenue opportunity in 2019? And what does the revenue opportunity need to be so that this business isn't dilutive to total margins?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Jamie, really, from our standpoint, all the business lines are strengthening. So when we talked about at the Analyst Day, we kind of laid out a $10 billion and $1 billion from an EBITDA standpoint, $10 billion and $1 billion of EBITDA is kind of was our goals and we still stay behind those goals. We're getting closer to the top line. We got to work on the bottom line, we know that from the margin profile. So we talked about our Electric segment getting in double-digits this year; I think we'll be in there. We're growing a telecom business. It's how much growth we have underneath that also pulls down some of these margins. And as we look at the distribution business on the gas side, we talked about consolidating some offices, getting some strength out of those investments that we've made in distribution. We're getting that, we're seeing that. So I think every – all those businesses are starting to enhance our whole portfolio, but I do think you need to look at Quanta as a portfolio of companies which gives us great strength as we move forward. You've seen it this quarter in a storm where one division or one segment may get hit a little bit, but we have a storm and you get this impact of a storm. So the portfolio of companies and the way that we're using our specialized skilled labor, the 35,000 plus or running on 40,000 that'll get out there, it's how we're doing that and the solutions we're providing in a portfolio, that allows the earnings power and the growth of the company over the long term. And I think to put it in a little segment or a big segment for that matter, it's the whole company that's moving forward. Jamie L. Cook - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. But three versus five years as we sit here in the growth trajectory that you have? Not to put you on the spot, but...

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Well, I mean we've set $10 billion and $1 billion in our guidance, is already at $10 billion. Take out Stronghold at the high end, I mean, the opportunity to certainly get to the $10 billion; can we get to the $1 billion? We need to execute through contingencies. We need to see some larger projects come in. But I'm not saying we can't even get there this year. I mean it's a stretch, obviously, at the high end to get to the $1 billion. I'd give it three year's timeframe. Jamie L. Cook - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

We see that the growth on the base business. We've said in the past that if you take out the large projects, which we can't control, we'll growth in the high-single digits on the base business, which is 80% to 85% of the business. So if you take that growth rate, I can't tell you exactly where the large projects are going to fall. I just said that verbally or from an LNTP or Wind Catcher or whatever it may be, you're sitting on another $2 billion of backlog, so at least. Jamie L. Cook - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you. I'll get back in queue.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steven Fisher with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Steven Fisher - UBS Investment Research

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks. Good morning. Wondering if you could talk about what the mix of large transmission revenues has been in the Electric segment over the last 12 months and what's the burn of it over the next 12 months? I'm really just trying to get a sense of how long you can go before you really need to book a Wind Catcher type project before it kind of becomes noticeable that you don't have a lot of large electric transmission project in there.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah, Steve, we've been running at – for Electric Power with base business in the probably 80% to 90% range now for quite some time for Electric Power. As we look forward to total contribution to 2018, I would anticipate it's going to be in that same kind of range, in that 80% to 90% range overall. The larger projects that we have today run really through, call it, the early to mid-2019. But from Duke's commentary, we continued to see opportunities for additional project awards and so I would anticipate this time next year, you can still yet see something that's in that 80% to 90% range of base business with continuing to have contributions from larger transmission projects.

Steven Fisher - UBS Investment Research

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Great. And then, not sure if you mentioned it or not, but how much did acquisitions add to backlog? And I see that you have more M&A costs embedded in your guidance for the full year. I mean, this small amount relative to what you've incurred already, so just kind of wondering what your future M&A plans are and what the strategy is there.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

M&A to backlog from the first quarter was fairly nominal, call it around $20 million or so. Remember that the two acquisitions, one was a small electric power company and then the other one was actually the (sic) Northwest Lineman College which is a smaller component of overall backlog. And then relative to – on a go-forward basis, I mean, we continue to be opportunistic looking at M&A across Electric Power, Oil and Gas, Canada, U.S., Australia. We do think that there are still yet a number of opportunities that are out there and that we continue to explore looking for ways to add strategically to the overall portfolio.

Steven Fisher - UBS Investment Research

Analyst · UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chad Dillard with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Chad Dillard - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Good morning, guys.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Good morning.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Good morning.

Chad Dillard - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

So help me understand the change in your Oil and Gas guidance for 2Q through 4Q? After the fourth quarter, your implied guidance was $3.4 billion for that time period, but now it looks like it steps down to about $3.25 billion. So just wanted to understand is, what's driving that weakness if I'm reading that correctly.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah, I think that we're saying that as it stands here today, our guidance as of the beginning of the year really remains unchanged. We're really looking forward to the second quarter and mobilizing on the individual project themselves. So I would say the low and high of our revenue expectations as well as margin expectations remain the same. We had a little bit higher revenue here in the first quarter maybe than we were originally looking at, but that was just the standpoint of continuing to work through projects. The dilution associated with that was the headwind from the storm work, which offset that. So, effectively, as we stand here today, the second, third and fourth quarter dynamics for us are still remaining unchanged to our expectations as to the beginning of the year. And we'll – I think we'll have a lot better visibility when we get to the second quarter on – from a confidence perspective, as well as narrowing of the range.

Chad Dillard - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Got it. Okay. And as I look at my pipeline tracker, the center of gravity is definitely shifting more towards the Permian, which tends to be more open shop. So, can you remind us how many open shop spreads you have under (49:35), maybe even like the revenue capacity with that business? Also, do you think you can grow your mainline backlog or at least keep it flat exiting 2018, 2019? And then lastly, how do you think about when LNG actually materializes as a kind of a large scale pipeline opportunity, do you think you'll be more like a construction phase in 2019 or it will be more of an award phase in 2019 for that?

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. So just in Texas we do see a lot of activity in the Permian, both union and non-union, on those larger diameter pipes you can do that work. But again, we can run a couple of spreads, non-union there, on large diameter pipe with our non-union activity. So, yes, we are seeing that. We do see the opportunities there in the mainline. The large projects are lumpy, as you know. So, again, and when they go into backhaul, can we back fill it? It will just be a lumpy progress, how we look at it. So I can't tell you exactly how that'll come in. There's certainly the opportunity for us to maintain that level through 2019. It just – we don't know when those projects come into RFQ, RFI type timeframes. So it will be difficult for us to kind of give you exactly when they'll hit backlog. But the opportunities and what we're seeing and the robustness of the market, we're certainly having great discussions with our customers for 2019 and beyond. And the LNG export, as we've talked about, really it impacts Canada, Texas. It's broad-based. And your midstream business also comes back as – when you get this takeaway capacity in Appalachian. It allows that midstream business to come in. And that's not easy work, and it's big diameter work even. You're talking 16, 24-inch pipe coming in through the mountains of West Virginia. So that's good work for us. And so we're pleased that you'll start to see that come back as well. So shell plays certainly fill up these big pipes for our LNG export. The liquids are there as well, coming out of the oil sands. And so we're pretty excited about that market long term.

Chad Dillard - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Adam Thalhimer with Thompson Davis. Please proceed with your question. Adam Robert Thalhimer - Thompson Davis & Co., Inc.: Hey. Good morning, guys. Nice quarter. When's the last time you were fully utilized with your long haul oil and gas spreads?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. I mean, I think you – that becomes difficult because we can do two projects in one year, we can do a multitude of different things. So just to say, hey, when are you at capacity, depends on where the projects are. And when you're in the mountainous regions, there's only a finite number of spreads that can work through the Rockies or even through kind of in the Appalachian region, so. That being said, it's difficult. I don't think we're turning down work by any means, and I'm not sure that we ever have in certain areas. Depending on the project, depending on where it's at, we're certainly capable of booking work at this point. But in the U.S., from our standpoint, on our mountain spreads, on the tough, rough terrain, I believe we'll be at capacity in the third quarter. Adam Robert Thalhimer - Thompson Davis & Co., Inc.: Okay. Yeah. That just struck me as an interesting comment from your prepared remarks. And then as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about on the telecom side, the city that you won, curious if there's additional cities up for grabs and if you see backlog continuing to build in that segment?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yes and yes. I do think that it's a matter for us, we're starting it from an organic standpoint for the most part, so our ability to get qualified, craft skilled labor and deploy them in the field as quickly as possible and least expensively as possible is something that we're striving to do. We made the (sic) Northwest Lineman acquisition. We were able to have telecom curriculum take those guys, put them in the field fairly rapidly. We really like that acquisition. I can't say enough about how much that does for us from training and craft skilled labor and new markets, and certainly from an organic growth standpoint, the opportunity is there. We could book work daily, we could book more and more backlog, we could double our backlog. It depends on how quickly we can get people to the field and perform. And I'm more concerned with our performance and making sure that we create the value that we said we would for our customers and deliver. So we're going to be cautious about how we deploy and how quickly we do, but certainly the opportunities are there. The market's very good. Adam Robert Thalhimer - Thompson Davis & Co., Inc.: Good to hear. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from line of (sic) Andy Wittmann with Robert W. Baird. Please proceed with your question. Andrew John Wittmann - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I think I just have one for today and it has to do with the electric transmission market. And it looks like it wasn't just you guys that had kind of good awards and good results here in the quarter, but the other two public competitors also had really strong bookings. I was wondering, with that as the backdrop, Duke, are you seeing that the market is tightening in any capacity as you move here through 2018? And is there any implications on the pricing or terms that you're taking on in the market today as you look forward?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

No. We've said in the past, it's really about utilization for us. The market it'll bear a certain amount of return and then it's about utilization and how well we can fully utilize our equipment, people, and resources. The market's there. I've said it over and over. If you look at the CapEx, OpEx spends of the 20 (55:31) they continue to exponentially grow. I can't – the elongation, we're in very early stages. We talk about these segments and these being in 10-year cycles. I mean we're very early stages of an upward cycle in the Electric business and it's all about replacement, grid modernization. We're doing all this without very negative low growth for that matter for the most part and most regions are at least flat. So as you start to see any type of industrial load growth, things like that creates these larger transmission projects and layers on top of this, but we continue to provide solutions to our customers that make sense and we're real happy with where we sit there. Our guys in the field are doing a fantastic job from a performance standpoint. I can't say enough about the management team we have there and where we sit. Our long-term outlook there is certainly strong. Andrew John Wittmann - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alex Rygiel with FBR & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Alex Rygiel - B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Analyst · FBR & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you. Nice quarter, gentlemen.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Alex.

Alex Rygiel - B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Analyst · FBR & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Derrick, can you remind us what portion of your revenue is coming out of Canada and maybe help to frame how big that business is today relative to the past peak either from a revenue standpoint or a margin standpoint so we can think about what the upside of that business is over the next couple of years.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. As it stands, Canada is still running probably in the 15% to 20% range. Of that, that's about the same mix whether you look at Electric or telecom or Oil and Gas. It really runs pretty consistent across the lot of it. Relative to where it's been in the past peak, that's hard to answer on because of the fact that over five years ago, I mean we've continued to acquire companies in Canada. Five years ago we didn't necessarily have as much of an oil and gas presence as we do today through acquisitions. So ultimate contributions I'd say are larger today than they were five years ago. I'm not sure I can provide really any other color than that. Going forward, I'd tell you that we continue to also see growth opportunities in Canada comparable to what we see in U.S. for both Electric Power and Oil and Gas. And we continue to see large pipe project opportunities in Canada. So it's a growing part of our business and I would say that comparable to U.S. with the double-digit growth. I'd say maybe next year and the year after you might see it in that 20% range.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

I would agree with that. I mean I think the U.S. grows too, so I think it stays in that range, but the large – we're depressed a bit on our large pipe market as it sits right now in our outlook. If that strengthens, certainly Canada would strengthen as well. (58:28) you also have some FX there as well that was in the past the dollar – Canadian dollar was a little stronger, so.

Alex Rygiel - B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Analyst · FBR & Company. Please proceed with your question.

And then secondly, can you talk a little bit about cost inflation broadly? I mean, obviously you got fuel inflation, labor inflation, materials are inflating; how is that affecting your business and your margin and how is that affecting your customers' decision process?

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah, I mean, the things that I watch the closest is interest rates and things like that. We're able to kind of keep wage inflation on the Electric side around 3%, 3.5%, something like that. That's where it will iron out. That's what the market bears. The Gas side on these larger diameter projects, certainly, the labor will move. It'll get bouncy on you, so we take all that into account when we're looking forward on these projects. And taken in – we typically don't take material inflation, things like commodity inflation. So fuel is the only thing that'll move a bit, but we're not seeing any kind of crazy numbers there. We're in pretty good shape. We like where we're at.

Alex Rygiel - B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Analyst · FBR & Company. Please proceed with your question.

And as it relates to the customers' decision process, obviously some of their material costs are going higher; has it affected it at all?

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

No. I mean, we have not seen that year. Certainly, everybody would – the steel kind of tariff announcement, this and that, everybody's kind of struggling on what that means, but we've not – everybody's kind of getting around what that says and what that means. I think in general, the market's pretty stable and everybody is adapting to regulation, whether it be tax rebate or increases in steel tariff. As long as we have good visibility and understand it and understand what's coming out of it from a regulatory aspect, the industry tends to adapt.

Alex Rygiel - B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Analyst · FBR & Company. Please proceed with your question.

It's helpful. Thank you.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brent Thielman with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question. Brent Edward Thielman - D.A. Davidson & Co.: Thanks. Good morning. Couple of quick wrap-up questions. Did, Derrick, the other expense line item, the $20 million to $30 million previously I think is now $30 million to $40 million. Would you expect that to alleviate as we get into next year or kind of hold at these sort of levels?

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

I think that as we go forward we'll continue to have other types of investments. We've said in the past that, that's a component of our business that we continue to pursue, strategic investments and the like. So I think that – whether it be 2019 or 2020, I'd have a level of expectation that's in there. From a size perspective, that – it's hard to say. But as it stands right now, I'd probably say that I'd be backing off on that number a little bit going into 2019 compared to 2018. Brent Edward Thielman - D.A. Davidson & Co.: Okay. And then maybe following up on some prior questions. Obviously, great margin this quarter in the Power business. It wasn't quite clear to me though because you lost a little bit of work, weren't able to execute on some work you thought you could. But you got the benefit of storm work. I guess net-net, was the storm work in that positive margins in the quarter versus the business you lost?

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yes.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

And some of that's difficult to say, because just the way that it irons out whether it's more positive or not. But definitely from the segment standpoint it is accretive to the segment, the storm margins.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

It's just generally hard to quantify exactly what the contribution is. But we do find it to be accretive to the margins for the quarter.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

It's utilization, the guys are working long hours to get more utilization out of the equipment, such. Brent Edward Thielman - D.A. Davidson & Co.: Okay. Got it. Great quarter. Best of luck.

Derrick A. Jensen - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time I would like to turn the floor back to management for closing comments.

Earl C. Austin, Jr. - Quanta Services, Inc.

Management

Yeah. First I'd like to thank the guys in the field. They're performing the work every day safely and we thank them, certainly, and look forward to performing the work in the future safely. And thank you, everyone, for participating in the first quarter 2018 conference call. We appreciate your questions and ongoing interest in Quanta Services. Thank you. This concludes our call.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.