Gregg Mollins
Analyst · Cowen and Company. Please go ahead
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we discuss our third quarter 2017 results. Continued strong execution by our managers in the field drove the third quarter gross profit margin up 28.0%, solidly within our target range of 27% to 29%. Demand in the quarter was stronger than we had anticipated with our tons sold down only 1.2% from the prior quarter. We had expected our tons sold to decline 3% to 5% as a result of the typical seasonal trend of lower shipping volumes due to customer shutdowns and vacation schedules, as well as one less shipping day in 2017 third quarter as compared to the second quarter. On the whole, customer sentiment remained positive throughout the third quarter of 2017. Although many of our businesses experience the normal seasonal trend of lower shipping volumes compared to the second quarter, certain of our businesses servicing the energy and non-residential construction markets experienced an increase in tons sold. While there are uncertainty in the marketplace from the pending Section 232 investigation continues, the level of import has been declining from the elevated levels reached in the second quarter. Solid demand, along with reduced import levels in the third quarter, combined to support stable to higher average prices with the exception of stainless steel products. This resulted in our average selling price remaining relatively flat compared to the prior quarter. Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma impacted certain of our operations in the coastal regions of Texas, Louisiana and Florida in the third quarter. First and foremost, the safety of all Reliance employees remains our top priority and we are extremely grateful to report that none of our employees were injured in these storms. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all who suffered personal losses as they recover and rebuild. We are also grateful to report that we incurred no material damage to our facilities, inventory or equipment. That said, many of our facilities in the impacted areas were closed for a few days, because of the storms and experienced reduced shipments until our customers reopened. However, by the end of the third quarter, our impacted locations had generally recovered any lost shipments from the periods surrounding the storms with little to no impact on our financial results for the quarter. Looking forward, we believe incremental demand in the construction end-market should increase and rebuilding efforts take hold, which is favorable for Reliance with non-residential construction being the largest end-market we serve. Both shipment levels and average selling prices were up compared to the third quarter of 2016 for all of our commodity categories, including carbon, stainless, aluminum and alloy. Our alloy shipments were up significantly prior, primarily due to the improved activity levels in the energy market. As a result of the more favorable pricing environment in the current quarter, our average selling price in the third quarter of 2017 increased 6.8% compared to the third quarter of 2016 contributing to our increased profitability levels. Given low spreads between import and domestic prices, as well as the expected resolution of the Section 232 investigation by early 2018, we expect imports to remain at current levels for the remainder of the year with some potential for further declines. We have experienced some price volatility early in the fourth quarter and currently expect our overall average selling price to remain fairly steady at current levels for the remainder of 2017, with the potential for some downward pressure. However, we are supportive of the recent mill price increase announcements for many of the products we sell and expect to see the higher prices firm up as we move into early 2018. Further, we believe that more meaningful demand improvement is possible if the administrations' infrastructure plans are implemented. Beyond pricing discipline, our managers in the field continued their strong execution in terms of inventory management, helping us achieve an inventory turn rate of 4.5 times, consistent with our 2016 inventory turn rate. While we are comfortable with our inventory position, we are working to reduce our September 30 inventory to keep pace with our reduced seasonal shipping levels in the fourth quarter, which should have a positive impact on our cash flow. With respect to capital allocation, we generated solid cash flow from operations as a result of our enhanced earnings and effective working capital management. We expect to continue returning value to our stockholders in the form of quarterly cash dividends and share repurchases. We have consistently paid quarterly cash dividends for 58 consecutive years. And while we did not repurchase any shares of our stock in the third quarter, we will remain opportunistic in our approach. In addition, we have been executing on our balanced growth strategy through a combination of both acquisitions and organic growth via strategic capital investments. In the first nine months of 2017, we have spent $118.1 million on capital expenditures, primarily on growth activities with a focus on enhanced value-added processing services. As we have stated in the past, and will continue to highlight, we believe our gross profit margin improvement over the past two years compared to historical levels directly demonstrates the return on our capital investments. We're also pleased to announce that we closed our acquisition of all the common stock of Ferguson Perforating Company on October 2. Based in Providence, Rhode Island, Ferguson manufactures perforated metal parts for numerous applications in domestic and international markets, and specializes in producing highly engineered and complex products for a wide range of end-markets. Ferguson's 2016 net sales were approximately $31 million. We believe Ferguson furthers our product diversification in a niche market and also has the ability to provide highly customized and complex solutions through value-added processing we are delighted to welcome Ferguson to the Reliance family of companies. In regard to our pipeline for potential future acquisitions, we continue to evaluate attractive opportunities for well-managed metal service centers and processors with end-market exposures that complement our diversification strategy. In summary, we are very pleased with our ability to significantly increase our pre-tax income for the first nine months of 2017 compared to the first nine months of 2016 due primarily to the successful efforts of our managers in the field. Through our industry-leading value-added processing capabilities and support from a stable pricing environment we were able to maintain a strong gross profit margin. While, a level of uncertainties still exists in the marketplace both pricing and demand levels are better than they were a year-ago and we remain optimistic about the potential for increased infrastructure and equipment spending which should help support greater earnings power for Reliance going forward. I'll now hand the call over to Jim, to comment further on our operations and market conditions. Jim?