Kenneth Smith
Analyst · Sidoti & Co
Thanks, Henning, and good morning. And I'll start by discussing the first quarter P&L performance from 2 perspectives, the first perspective being sequential performance, so let's turn to Slide #7 in the presentation. And in describing our first quarter P&L performance, I'll be referring to the adjusted measures presented on these slides.
Regarding revenues, we had strong double-digit growth, which was all volume related in both the residential and nonresidential markets that we serve. Where our products sold in residential markets, weakness in the West Coast region was more than offset by higher residential sales elsewhere to net a 4% increase, as shown on Slide 7. And as Henning cited, our product and program offerings to retail channel customers helped propel that 4% increase.
Regarding gross profit and gross margin, there was excellent margin expansion on the increase in unit volume, as the slide notes. With an increase in revenues of $18 million, gross profit increased by $8 million, which translates into a contribution margin north of 40%. Helping the incremental profit contribution were the savings from recent facility closures and our continuing lean initiatives to improve efficiencies.
Next is operating income. That also improved substantially, benefiting from the leverage on higher unit volume plus the sequentially and much lower SG&A expense.
Although SG&A expense is not specifically shown on Slide 7, the Q4 2011 period had a significantly high charge in SG&A for performance-based equity awards. In Q1 2012, the charge in SG&A expense for equity-based comp was much lower, and the sequential change in expense was a reduction of $6 million.
As we discussed in our Q4 earnings call on February 24, we expect the quarterly charge for equity-based comp in 2012 to approximate a more normalized amount we recorded this quarter, with much less volatility quarter-to-quarter as compared to 2011.
And regarding EPS, a sequential increase of $0.26 per share was driven by the items summarized on the slide.
Now let's turn to Slide #8, entitled Year-over-Year Performance. The slide presents our second perspective on Q1 2012, its comparison to Q1 a year ago.
Starting with revenues. Our 17% increase was fueled by acquisitions, with D.S. Brown and Award Metals being the largest, totaling 13 percentage points of that growth. And as Henning discussed on Slide 5, he covered the other background on market conditions and top line growth initiatives.
Regarding gross profit, we increased by over $6 million compared to last year on incremental revenues of nearly $29 million. As noted on Slide 8's comment box, we did have margin expansion from D.S. Brown and many of our core businesses. However, we also had unfavorable results in our West Coast operations serving the residential markets.
Our West Coast residential business includes the Award Metals acquisition, which Henning described in some detail when he talked about Slide 5. Award is receiving a major overhaul in its manufacturing and distribution operations, including facility consolidations, new equipment and processes and product line expansion, a process, all of which has expanded in scope since this acquisition. This continued cost of integration, coupled with a reduced demand from the West Coast residential market compared to Q1 last year, has dampened gross profit, which partially offset gross margin improvements in our other businesses.
Talking about operating income, which declined from a year ago, the most significant factor affecting the $500,000 decrease in operating income was higher SG&A expense. The SG&A expense was $28 million this quarter and there were 2 factors why it's nearly $7 million higher than $21.5 million in Q1 last year.
First, SG&A expense in Q1 2011 had a benefit related to equity-based compensation, as noted in the comment box on Slide 8. Since certain of our equity-based compensation is fair-valued, based in part on Gibraltar's stock price, the stock price declined during the first quarter of 2011 that resulted in the benefit to the P&L for the first quarter last year.
And the second factor for higher SG&A this quarter was the added SG&A expense incurred by our newly acquired businesses.
And to summarize the largest changes in operating income from Q1 a year ago, they were the following: a $2 million increase to operating income from a 30% contribution margin on the incremental organic revenue; plus nearly a $2 million increase to operating income on revenue from the acquired D.S. Brown; less a $2 million reduction on lower West Coast demand and the Award Integration cost; and finally, the $3 million unfavorable comparison for accrued equity compensation.
Regarding the EPS decline of $0.02 compared to a year ago, I summarize the key changes as the following: a combined $0.09 per share increase from organic growth outside the West Coast residential market, including our acquisition into the public infrastructure market, which was more than offset by a combined $0.05 per share decrease on softer demand from the West Coast residential market and the continuing cost of integrating Award; and a $0.06 per share decrease on the change between the quarter's equity compensation cost.
I'll now turn to Slide #9, Cash Flow. We used free cash flow during both quarters, as expected. We have higher inventories and receivables as we support the rise in seasonal orders from our customers.
Days of net working capital continue to be low at 66 days for the first quarter this year compared to 56 days first quarter last year. The 66 days this year includes the higher working capital needs of D.S. Brown, whose customer orders generally involve longer time to fulfillment, and compared to less complex products produced elsewhere in Gibraltar. Total days of working capital continue to be well within the optimal range we're targeting for the long term, and we believe we will sustain this favorable level going forward.
Now turning to Slide #10, entitled Continued Loan Net Debt. We ended the quarter with low -- with a low position of debt to capitalization and net debt to net capitalization. We have no borrowings against our revolver currently, and we haven't had any borrowings since mid-September of 2011.
We did use some cash this quarter for seasonally higher working capital needs. Nonetheless, we continue to have a conservative debt level and no near-term debt maturities. Our leverage ratio at March end was 3x. And our liquidity increased again this quarter to $176 million at the end of March.
Our strong balance sheet, lower leverage and ample liquidity certainly can accommodate the financing of organic and acquisition-driven growth opportunities, to which Brian will update you on in his closing remarks.
And then lastly, I want to provide you more color on our P&L expectations for 2012. First, as Henning stated earlier, end markets have been steady but weak, certainly as compared to their conditions before 2008. Published indices see mixed. For example, the American Institute of Architectural -- Architects' Architectural Billing Index was steady but still slightly positive, Harvard's Joint Center for Housing LIRA index projects moderate near-term increases, while the National Association of Homebuilders' sentiment index slipped some in April. All of which suggests to us that growth in 2012 for the markets we serve would have mid-single-digit growth. And we factored into that our small exposure in Europe, which is a geography with uncertain growth prospects this year, and the West Coast residential market whose growth we expect to catch up to other regions' in the -- of the U.S.
In light of published indicators and what we're currently seeing in our markets, we believe that, for the full year 2012, we'll likely have organic revenue growth of 4% to 5% for our core businesses, plus incremental 2012 revenue from the acquisitions which would add an incremental $30 million to $35 million.
As we think about our gross margins, we do expect leverage on organic revenue increases in our core businesses, and that would be plus or minus 30% contribution margin. And any significant change in product mix would lead to an increase or decrease of that.
And in addition, there are seasonal volume changes that historically drive higher volumes in -- volumes and margins in the second and third quarters and lower demand and margins in the fourth and first quarters.
We expect our gross margin for the full year 2012 to be in the range of 20% to 20.5% based on our current assumption of low volatility and raw material costs. This range factors in the cost and extended time frame to complete our West Coast region reorganization, including the Award Metals acquisition.
Regarding our SG&A expense for the full year of 2012, we expect to do approximate $27 million to $28 million per quarter and represent on a full year basis about 13% of revenues. We expect much less volatility quarter-to-quarter for equity-based comp than we experienced during 2011, primarily due to design changes for equity awards issued this year.
Our expectations for other financial measures for continuing operations on an adjusted basis for the full year 2012 include: net interest expense at the current run rate of $4.7 million to $4.8 million per quarter, an effective tax rate of approximately 39%, CapEx spending of $16 million to $18 million and free cash flow to approximate 4% of full year revenues.
In summary, we believe all of that to come true and position Gibraltar for an improved bottom-line performance in 2012.
And now Brian has concluding remarks.