Kenneth W. Smith
Analyst · Robert W
Thanks, Brian, and good morning. I'll turn to Slide #4 titled Gibraltar Year-Over-Year. First, I'll remind you that I'll be discussing adjusted income and margins, excluding special and nonroutine transactions. So starting with the consolidated fourth quarter results and comparisons. Revenues increased on the strength of acquisition-related growth, while businesses we owned in both quarters experienced a 3% increase in revenues. Company-wide, the 3% organic increase was the net result of increased unit volume in both segments. And I'll provide more color on the relative strength of market conditions while I discuss each segment. The fourth quarter's adjusted operating margin decreased slightly by 40 basis points, the net result of a 20 bps increase in consolidated gross margin led by gains in our Residential Products segment, offset by higher SG&A as a percent of sales primarily related to equity compensation recorded at corporate expenses. The EPS improvement from last year's $0.05 per share to the $0.08 this quarter resulted from a $0.05 increase from residential new construction volume and the efficiencies in our West Coast residential business plus a $0.02 improvement on lower interest expense resulting from our successful refinancing of notes in January of 2013 and a $0.01 increase from a lower income tax rate. And these 3 increases were partially offset by a $0.03 decline in lower sales from residential repair and remodeling, which was in line with the reduced reroofing activity; a $0.01 decline from the Industrial & Infrastructure Products segment related to pricing; and lastly, a $0.01 decline from variable compensation expense. Now the full year results and comparisons on Slide 4. Full year revenues increased on the contribution of acquired businesses, the largest of which was purchased in the fourth quarter of 2012. Businesses we owned in both periods experienced a 2% decrease, which was a net result of an increase in residential-related products, offset by a lower sales in the Industrial & Infrastructure Products. This year's adjusted operating margin was down compared to 2012, the net result of improved operational performance from our West Coast residential business plus accretive acquisitions plus residential new construction, all of which was more than offset by the Industrial & Infrastructure Products results, which experienced a tighter price to commodity cost relationship. And in corporate expense, we had some higher equity-based compensation tied to higher stock price this year. Translating these key items into their effect on adjusted EPS in reconciling from last year's $0.65 a share to $0.69 this year. The key changes were a $0.14 increase from our Residential Products segment, which included the more efficient West Coast operation and the net higher unit volume led by postal products, plus a $0.06 increase from the recent acquisitions plus a $0.07 increase on the lower interest expense on the refinancing of notes and a $0.01 increase from the small change in the year-to-date income tax rate. And these 4 improvements were offset primarily by 2 other factors: a $0.17 decline from the Industrial & Infrastructure Products segment as weak demand affected pricing and compressed its margins and a $0.07 per share decrease on higher equity comp. I'll turn to each of our 2 reporting segments, now starting with Slide 5, Residential Products. It's fourth quarter sales increased, reflecting 6% organic growth plus 3% growth related to acquisitions. This was another quarter of solid growth and revenue related to residential activity. The strength of the positive organic growth in the fourth quarter was driven by continued demand for our postal storage products. And this demand exceeded the reduction we had in sales from roof-related products. Our storage -- postal storage solutions include a variety of new secured cluster mailbox designs for apartments and condominiums, as well as low-rise commercial delivery locations. Centralized cluster mailbox is now a benefit for business objectives of property owners and managers by eliminating the need to have someone staffing the front desk to handle and safe keep deliveries. It also aligns with the U.S. Postal Service's drive to create a self-sustaining business model that includes minimizing the cost of delivery. Residential repair and remodeling activity in the fourth quarter was down 5%. Demand for our roof-related products does correlate with bigger ticket reroofing activity. And general reroofing activity was lower in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. This segment's operating income for the quarter climbed 20% with margin expansion driven by the leverage on the incremental unit volume. For the full year 2013, Residential Products grew 5% year-over-year. And the reasons for the organic growth are the same as we had for the fourth quarter: revenue rise, sales rose from postal products based on new construction and the conversion efforts of the postal authorities and that rising demand for postal products exceeded that of the sale decrease for our roof-related products such as rain dispersion and attic ventilation products. Overall, our residential repair and remodeling sales, including roofing, were down 6% year-over-year. 2013 was a year of comparatively fewer storms, so less storm damage to be repaired. And the underlying demand for replacing roofs that have reached the end of their reasonable life also was lower in 2012. While Gibraltar does not sell asphalt shingles, we do sell attic ventilation and rain dispersion products, which are frequently replaced when the homeowner replaces or repairs their roof. Operating income for the year increased, showing excellent margin expansion on a 5% revenue rise, again, led by the leverage on the additional unit volume. I'm now going to turn to Slide #6, our Industrial & Infrastructure Products segment. It's fourth quarter sales were up 10% from 4Q 2012 largely due to 2 acquisitions in the fourth quarter of 2012. The smaller organic growth was from mid-single-digit percentage increase of transportation infrastructure products, also slightly positive unit growth of products sold into the industrial markets, including discrete and process manufacturing in both North America and Europe. For sales to North American industrial markets, 4Q 2013 was our first quarter in the past 6 quarters showing a favorable revenue comparison to the prior year period. And for European sales to industrial markets, 4Q 2013 marked the first quarter in the past 7 quarters for us showing a favorable revenue comparison. So we're hopeful that a recovery in industrial markets becomes sustainable throughout 2014. This segment's operating income for the quarter increased but not commensurate with the revenue increase. There was an increase on higher volumes, plus benefit from a better mix of special orders but competitive pricing on standard industrial products provided an offset that pushed down slightly the operating margin by 20 bps to 7.5%. For the full year 2013, Industrial & Infrastructure Products segments sales increased 5%, which is a 5% decline organically but more than offset by the organic growth -- I'm sorry, the acquisition growth of 10%. The organic decrease in sales within this segment was on price, while unit volume in 2013 was nearly equivalent to 2012. Industrial end markets, which provided incremental volume for our products included agricultural equipment, refining and automotive, markets with little volume change include the oil and gas production, while lower volume came from transportation infrastructure, coal mining and architectural facades for leisure and public sector buildings. Operating income for the full year decreased, and the operating margin moved down 190 bps to 8.6%, largely due to a tighter relationship between pricing and commodity costs. Now I'll turn to Slide #7 titled Cash Flow Remaining Strong. We generated cash in 2013, a notable improvement over 2012's cash flow from operations. And I would like to point out on the second footnote that in addition to the cash flow represented by the bars, we also received an additional $12 million in cash from the sale of one of our larger manufacturing plants located in California. This transaction was a result of restructuring efforts put in place by our team in the West Coast over the past 2 years and will allow us to further reduce costs going forward. Days of net working capital for 2013 was 65 days, equivalent to the same low level in 2012, and expect that this shortened cash conversion time is sustainable in the periods of higher economic growth which lie ahead. Although not shown in Slide 7, we ended 2013 with cash on hand plus availability of our undrawn revolver, both of which summed to $200 million of liquidity at year end, all earmarked for funding the growth of the company. Now turning to Slide #8, 20 -- titled 2014 Financial Guidance. Our sales growth for 2014 is expected to be driven to a large extent by continued strength in residential new construction and a firming of demand from residential remodeling activity. Growth in general industrial activity and the easing of pricing pressures as market growth improves are expected to be weighted to the second half of 2014. And all of this contributes to our expectation for a full year 2014 consolidated revenue growth in the mid-single digits. For the Residential Products segment, the latest industry -- indices such as the National Association of Homebuilders Housing Market Index, Harvard's Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, the Architectural Billings Index, as well as the latest Census Bureau reports on housing sales and starts all point toward a gradually improving market for new construction in 2014, while roof-related demand correlated to repair and remodeling is expected to provide single-digit growth. We're working on a range of customer initiatives to leverage these underlying trends. Our goal for these initiatives is to keep making evolutionary changes to our product lineup and keep them fresh and differentiated in the marketplace. For example, we've introduced new postal solutions, which have been well received by customers and are expected to contribute to a year of organic growth in 2014. In our Industrial & Infrastructure Products segment, we're hopeful that our 4Q proves to be an inflection point and a positive signal for a year ahead. We saw less volatility in industrial demand and pricing during the fourth quarter than we experienced earlier in 2013. The latest industry indices such as the PMI index and the Architectural Billings Index point towards varying degrees of improvement this year, and several economic forecasts for Europe point to GDP growth after the recent periods of contraction. After a slow start to 2014, the industrial end markets expected to have modest growth include manufacturing, automotive and refining. And oil and gas production could increase driven by intensified horizontal drilling. Regarding the infrastructure -- I'm sorry, the transportation infrastructure market, there is less certainty in the outlook for federal government spending. For transportation projects, the current 2-year federal transportation appropriation expires this coming September 30. While there is growing dialogue regarding the new bill at the federal level, including how to raise new sources of revenue, state and local governments are embracing the idea of coming up with funding sources of their own to supplement the federal spending. At present, state and local governments are continuing with a narrowing window of current federal funding for new projects, which led to the projects with shorter durations with smaller dollar amounts, and has contributed to our lower backlog of transportation projects entering 2014. As a result, the first half of 2014 revenues and profits for our transportation infrastructure products is expected to be unfavorable compared to the strong first half of 2013. Our plan for the upcoming first and second quarters is to focus on rebuilding our backlog. And this should position us for a stronger second half of 2014 with a potential for upside when Congress approves a new transportation appropriations bill and the states generate additional funding of their own. Regarding our unallocated corporate expenses for the full year 2014, we expect it to approximate $18 million or 2% of sales and adjusted net interest expense to approximate $15.5 million for the year and the adjusted effective tax rate to approximate 38%. As a result, we now expect Gibraltar will deliver sales growth between 4% and 7% this year, led by momentum in residential demand, while increases in demand for our Industrial & Infrastructure Products are expected to be weighted towards the second half of the year. With modest margin expansion and the full year consolidated sales growth, we expect adjusted EPS this year to be in the range of $0.76 to $0.90 per share, which compares to $0.69 reported for 2013. This wider-than-usual EPS range reflects our uncertainty as to the timing and strength of the market restoration and residential repair and remodeling activity, as well as the broader industrial markets. Longer term, Gibraltar is well positioned to deliver more significant improvement on both the top and bottom line as a more broad-based end-market rebound occurs. Now Slide #9 entitled 1Q14 Preview. The first quarter is historically one of the 2 quarters each year with lower sales volume as cold weather reduces construction activity. And to that point, this winter, particularly January, for much of February, weather has been harsher. And at one point, I understand snow covered 60% of the U.S. The weather, combined with weak conditions in certain markets, are likely to result in lower first quarter consolidated revenues with Residential Products down slightly and Infrastructure & Industrial Products revenues equivalent to the first quarter of last year. Concerning adjusted EPS, we expect the first quarter of 2014 to be slightly less than last year's $0.04 due to the effects of harsher winter weather slowing the residential construction activity and continued weakness in industrial and transportation infrastructure markets. And at this point, I'd like to turn the call back to Brian.