Operator
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Beacon Roofing Supply's fiscal year 2016 second quarter earnings conference call. My name is Iela, and I will be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will be conducting a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference. At that time, I will give you instructions on how to ask a question. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. This call will contain forward-looking statements, including statements about its plans and objectives, and future economic performance. Forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward looking statements as a result of various important factors including but not limited to those set forth in the risk factor sections of the company's latest Form 10-K. These forward-looking statements fall within the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private securities litigation reform act of 1995 regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company, including the company's financial outlook. The forward-looking statements contained in this call are based on information as of today, May 2, 2016 and, except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of these forward-looking statements. Finally, this call will contain references to certain non-GAAP measures. The reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures is set forth in today's press release. The company has posted a summary financial slide presentation on the investor section of its website under events and presentations that will be referenced during management's review of the financial results. On today's call for Beacon Roofing Supply will be Mr. Paul Isabella, President and CEO; and Mr. Joe Nowicki, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Paul Isabella, President and CEO. Please proceed Mr. Isabella. Paul M. Isabella - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to our 2016 second quarter earnings call. I want to take a moment to address the format of today's call. Since the 10-Q will be filed later this week, Joe and I will spend slightly more time on our prepared remarks to ensure we provide enough detail on the quarter. Now on to the quarter. As you can see from our press release, we continued the momentum established in the first quarter and had a truly outstanding second quarter. For the reasons I'll address during the call, I believe the second half of the year will be strong as year and that our full year results will exceed the estimates we discussed on the last earnings call. Aided by the acquisitions made this year, most notably the RSG acquisition, which is being integrated very effectively, strong organic growth and favorable weather conditions, we achieved record sales of over $823 million. This represents nearly double the prior year with existing same days growth over 27%. This is incredible second quarter performance, and I'm very proud of the Beacon team and appreciative of our customers. In what is normally our toughest quarter because of winter weather, we delivered positive adjusted EPS, coming in at $0.03, representing $0.23 improvement versus last year. Our team did an excellent job of growing sales and margin, controlling cost, integrating our Q1 acquisitions and, as always, staying extremely focused on servicing our loyal customer base. The financial results are even more impressive when you consider the amount of integration activity we have been engaged in over the last six months. And now, a little more color on the quarter before I provide updates on some of our strategic initiatives and what we're seeing in the industry. Six of our seven regions reported positive growth and each month of the quarter was strong. Our northeast region led the way with strong double-digit growth fueled by contractor backlog and aided by the milder winter versus last year. In addition, the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Southwest, and Midwest regions saw strong double-digit plus sales growth. Milder warmer weather did have an impact on these four regions, but contractor optimism and backlogs also seemed to be strong across most of this footprint. On an existing same day basis, sales were up for all three product lines as well, demonstrating our strength in the markets we serve. Residential existing sales were up over 31% in the quarter. This was mostly driven by same-store sales in greenfield growth and the milder winter weather we encountered. Our complimentary sales grew approximately 20% on an existing same days basis. Growth in the quarter was driven from our existing business across most of our footprint. This product line continues its steady increase and has seen positive existing sales growth in 11 of the last 12 quarters. We will continue to focus on growing this product line across our footprint through strategic acquisitions and sales personnel, adding this product to the sales offering. And economic indicators related to this pipeline are positive and should mean solid demand for the full year. Our commercial product line registered 23.5% sales growth for existing same days in the quarter. All of our reported regions grew in the quarter, and five of them experienced double digit growth. Also, it's worth noting that commercial sales have grown in nine of the 11 prior quarters on an existing basis. Along with the solid sales growth, gross margins increased nicely over the prior year. This is the sixth consecutive quarter in which the gross margin percent increased over the prior year. In terms of pricing, we saw a slight decline in the quarter, much as we've had the last few quarters. We were able to offset this for the most part with reduced material cost. I'm not surprised that pricing was slightly down. Again, Q2 is typically our toughest quarter, and even with the milder weather and improved results, there's strong competition in most markets. Recently though, shingle price increase announcements have been made by several manufacturers to be implemented in the May – June timeframe. This is being driven for the most part by severe weather in Texas and the corresponding demand it is driving. We also have recently announced price increases due to the same reasons mentioned above. Other roofing distributors have followed suit and announced in these same areas. Implementation date is in the same May – June timeframe, and we'll be watching this very closely over the next few months. And one last comment on pricing. One of our primary goals, as you know, is to grow sales. We will be smart about our approach to pricing given our growth plans and balance that with our solid management of material input costs. We believe we can keep gross margins in our stated range and will work to maintain the balance between strong growth, solid gross margins and the resulting price movement. Related to working capital, as we have consistently done in the past, we managed working capital very effectively in the quarter. Receivables, inventory and payables are under control. Net expense continues to be very positive and inventory turns were much improved year over year. This resulted in strong cash flow from operations of $80 million on a year to date basis. From an operating expense standpoint, we experienced excellent leverage as we grew sales. When excluding one-time loss related to the RSG acquisition, our operating expense as a percentage of revenue declined nearly 500 basis points for the quarter compared to last year. As we have added over $1.2 billion of acquired revenue, we are intensely focused on minimizing cost increases as we grow the top line while still modestly reinvesting as needed across the company. We are also benefiting from lower SG&A costs related to our bridge consolidation and other SG&A synergies. The operating expense leverage should continue in the back half as the synergies continue to ramp to full run rate. We are very encouraged by the leverage gained in this quarter. And I'd like to provide an update on the RSG integration and synergy plans. We have made excellent progress on the initial phase of the integration. We are tracking to our plan. The primary focus since deal close has been to fully execute on our synergy strategy, drive maximum efficiencies and cost savings in the business, and ensure positive customer impact. In addition, we have successfully transitioned all legacy RSG branches on to the Beacon ERP. We accomplished this through four waves with the last wave being complete on April 2. Our team did an outstanding job as we converted over 85 branches in six months while still running the business very well. Having all branches on our system allows for further integration in the Beacon best practices and enhances our controls platform. Our estimate for fiscal year 2016 synergy savings is on plan and we're working very hard to find upside to that total of $30 million. Overall, post-RSG close, our combined field and headquarters organization structure is performing very well and executing the RSG in the other acquisitions following RSG very well. The size and complexity of the RSG and other acquisitions can't be minimized, and our team has done an outstanding job of rallying, going the extra mile over the last six plus months. The team has proved to be extremely resilient in the face of change and it performed very well. As important, the organization is primed for more growth. Vital training has been stepped up for the branch and sales teams. Customer programs are in place to insure outstanding service and incremental sales volume. Our supply chain, information technology, finance, and audit teams, to name a few, have been enhanced. All of the elements that make us successful are under control and fueling our performance. We are absorbing our acquisitions and making Beacon stronger as a result. We will remain very focused on continuing this progress. As an example, we're now placing extra focus in energy on sales synergy resulting from the recent acquisitions. Our combined 600-person outside selling force is one of the largest in the industry, and they are focused on growth and customer value add. These in addition to our 360-plus branch managers and a 500-plus person inside sales team greatly enhances our ability to service customers and grow. We have a very diverse mix of business with our three product lines, and our team is focused on expanding these across our footprint. And now a little information on greenfields and acquired growth. As you know, greenfield branches have been and will remain a piece of our growth strategy for many years, as do acquisitions. From fiscal 2012 to the current year, legacy Beacon and RSG has opened up 65 greenfield branches. As these mature, they will continue to contribute to the top line as they gain market share on the bottom line as the cost base is leveraged from the higher revenue. Our strategy to pursue opening more greenfield locations three years ago is proving fruitful as they grow to maturity and contribute to our sales gains. To date this year, we have opened up one branch, which is by design. Given the acquisitions we have closed this year and the integration effort required, we most likely will end up at one or possibly two for the full year. As we have said in the past, this number will vary year to year based on our acquired business load and business conditions. There are many markets we want to expand in. and if acquisitions don't materialize as planned, we will consider opening up greenfield branches. Now I'd like to spend some time specifically addressing the six acquisitions in addition to RSG we have made this year. In December we purchased: RCI Roofing Supply of Omaha, Nebraska; Roofing & Insulation Supply of Dallas, Texas; and Statewide Wholesale of Denver, Colorado. RCI consists of five branches selling mostly residential and commercial roofing products. The acquisition gives us solid density across their footprint and the ability to service our Nebraska, Iowa, and Colorado customers. RIS, Roofing & Insulation Supply, consists of 20 branches selling residential and commercial insulation and residential roofing-related products. The insulation portion fits into our complementary line of business and will augment an existing product line for us. We like the prospects of this business tapping into a fast-growing industry bolstered by energy conservation and being able to leverage their business model across the wide breadth of Beacon locations. Statewide consists of one branch in the Denver market, selling primarily residential roofing products. It has a great reputation and customer base that will now have increased service options across our large branch footprint in that market. In April, we acquired Atlantic Building Products out of Eastern Pennsylvania, and Lifetime out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Atlantic Building Products serve customers out of two branches and sells mostly complementary products. We feel its business model aligns with our strategy and allows us to increase our footprint in a busy Philadelphia marketplace. Lifetime has six locations that sells mostly complementary product and serves the Carolina market. Lifetime also fits within our strategic framework and allows us to better serve the southern Virginia and Carolinas, where the demand for complementary products is strong. Today we announced the acquisition of Fox Brothers Company out of Central Michigan. Fox has four locations selling mostly complementary and residential roofing products. We like the alignment to our business model, as Fox gives Beacon better presence in the central and southern Michigan area from which to greatly expand. These six most recent acquisitions are all great companies that also give us the opportunity to expand all of our lines of business within their footprint. This will act as another growth lever for us in markets they serve in the future. To summarize acquisitions, as I've said in the past, it is difficult to predict the timing. I can say, however, that since we announced the RSG acquisition, we have seen a noticeable increase in the level of acquisition-related activity, which ranges from initial contact from prospective sellers to sellers advancing their timelines to deals actually being done. We'll continue to make acquisitions where it makes economic sense, knowing at the same time we have to drive our debt leverage lower. Since the close of RSG on October 1, we have been able to reduce our debt leverage to 3.6 times. We're very focused on our commitment of getting below two times in three years. Before I get into our guidance, I would like to talk briefly about the significant storm activity in a few of our key markets that I mentioned earlier. In the past two months, there have been hail events in South Carolina, Texas, and other smaller markets we serve. The extent of the roof damage is being evaluated, but early estimates point to a large amount of re-roof as a result. We could see strong sales volume in these areas over the balance of the year. This is fueling the higher end of our range that I'll speak to in a moment. Our ability to service contractors in the impacted storm markets has been greatly enhanced as a result of the large RSG branch additions as well as other acquisitions we have recently closed. Adding a large amount of Southern U.S. branches from RSG and the Wholesale Roofing acquisition we executed in late 2014 has greatly expanded our available capacity to service customers working in these storm markets. We are currently mobilized in these markets with trucks, people, and inventory to ensure we provide our usual excellent service. Now I'd like to provide an update to the guidance we gave on the first quarter call. With an additional quarter of visibility and coming off our incredible Q2 performance, I'm very optimistic about the full year and anticipate earnings above our prior estimates. Before I get to the specific elements, I'll set the table by saying that for April, we had existing same-days growth of approximately 15% over the prior year. There was one less day this April versus last year. This is a good start to the quarter after a strong March, especially considering the more difficult weather, both rain and snow we saw during the month of April, especially in the first half of the month. Based on what we've seen for the first two quarters and current trends, I expect full year revenue to be in the range of $4.1 billion to $4.2 billion for 2016. And in terms of gross margin, I expect us to be in the range of 23.5% to 24% for the full year. Regarding our SG&A expenses, excluding one-time costs and new purchase accounting related to the RSG transaction, we expect to be in the range of 17.8% to 18.1% of revenue for the full year. This is solid improvement from the prior year. As for adjusted EPS, the current analyst range is $1.70 to $2.12 with a midpoint of $1.92. On our last earnings call, I commented that we would be in the range of $1.80 for the full year. Now that we're deeper into the year and with our strong first half performance and favorable market dynamics that I've outlined, I now believe that we will be in the $2 to $2.10 range for the full year. I do want everyone on the call to understand that my optimism is not unbridled, but my level best guidance at this point in the year. As we have said in the past, it's very difficult for us to give full year guidance with the unknown variables we face such as pricing, demand, and storm repair, and the resulting sales variability quarter to quarter that occurs. At this point, many customers and vendors see a stronger demand profile for the second half in most parts of the country and meaningful spring storm volume has occurred. We will continue executing the fundamentals of our customer service, pricing discipline, cash generation, cost control, and continued synergy attainment with RSG and all of our acquisitions in order to finish the year as strong as we started. And now I'm going to turn the call over to Joe so he can provide further detail on the financial highlights of the quarter. Joe?