Derrek Gafford
Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed
Thanks, Steve. The company delivered an impressive set of results this quarter with total revenue of $684 million, which was nearly $20 million above our midpoint expectation. Nearly every service line was up 5% or more and the company's top 10 states all experienced improving trends. We saw improvement across all industry verticals with the exception of manufacturing, which continues to face a challenging export market. In construction we saw considerable improvement with 10% growth driven by momentum in both residential and nonresidential markets. Revenue for staffing services was up 8%, with the branch-based operations continuing to deliver strong results within the national customer base and an upturn in demand from small to medium-sized customers towards the end of the quarter. Green energy returned to growth this quarter versus a decline in prior quarters. The on-premise business also continues to deliver strong revenue results with both its largest customer and within the core customer base. Revenue growth for the managed services segment was 10% or 14% on a constant currency basis, boosted by new customer wins and expanded services within existing customers. We continue to win new RPO deals at an encouraging pace reaffirming our optimistic sentiment regarding its growth prospects. Now let's discuss the company's profitability for the quarter. Total adjusted EBITDA was $44 million for Q3, up 5% and in line with our guidance expectation, albeit lower than one might expect given the revenue beat for the quarter due to two items. We incurred $2 million of cost related to obtaining and implementing new customer relationships, which were not included in our guidance expectation. Also the year-over-year gross margin comparison is unfavorably impacted by 20 basis points due to the size of the workers' compensation reserve adjustment in Q3 2014. Excluding the impact of these items, adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 30 basis points to 6.9% and adjusted EBITDA growth was 13%. Staffing services EBITDA was up 10%. Excluding the two items mentioned earlier, EBITDA and EBITDA margin grew by 17% and 70 basis points, respectively. Managed services EBITDA and EBITDA margin declined by 15% and 340 basis points, respectively due to new customer implementations and currency. On a constant currency basis, managed services EBITDA and EBITDA margin were down 3% and 230 basis points, respectively. Total company gross margin was down 50 basis points, with 20 basis points from the workers' compensation headwind discussed earlier. The other 30 basis points is from a change in revenue mix as the rate of growth among national and on-premise customers has outpaced the growth of small to medium-sized customers, which generally carry higher gross margins. SG&A expense was up $5 million, net of $2 million of nonrecurring integration costs in Q3 2014 or $7 million excluding these costs. The new customer related costs discussed earlier constituted $2 million of the increase and the remaining $5 million from costs associated with the $50 million increase in revenue. This quarter's 39% effective income tax rate was lower than the 28% rate in Q3 last year, which included an increase in expected benefits related to prior year tax provisions. Please note that the adjusted EPS calculation provided accounts for the difference between these rates. Turning to the balance sheet. Q3 finished with $115 million of total debt and a debt to trailing adjusted EBITDA ratio of 0.8. Total liquidity, defined as cash plus borrowing availability on the revolving credit facility, was $225 million. Looking ahead to Q4 of 2015, we expect total revenue growth of about 8%. On a segment basis, staffing services revenue is expected to be up 8% and managed services about 7%, or 9% on a constant currency basis. Adjusted EPS is expected to be $0.58 to $0.64. Based on the adjusted EPS midpoint, this equates to adjusted EBITDA about $48 million or 15% growth. Due to the size of the reserve adjustment to workers' compensation in Q4 of 2014, expense was 40 basis points lower than the current 2015 run rate. On a comparable workers' compensation rate basis adjusted EBITDA growth is expected to be about 20%. We will continue using a combination of organic and acquisition growth to deliver value to shareholders. Organic growth is clearly our top priority due to the strong returns produced by the company's operating leverage. The challenge of finding the right talent is an increasing concern across businesses of all types due to a smaller pool of available talent and widening skilled gap within the pool available. With a rapidly aging workforce, changing demographics and other related factors adding to the challenge, we believe this trend will intensify over the next decade. We like our strategic positioning in the account space and combined with the competitive differentiation of our specialized services, we are optimistic about the prospects for sustainable organic revenue growth in the future. Strategic acquisitions will continue to play a big role in our growth strategy with 18 deals under our belt over the last decade. We have developed a competency of acquiring and integrating talent solution businesses that produce demonstrable shareholder value. With an ample deal pipeline and strong balance sheet, we are very excited about the acquisition opportunities ahead. That ends our prepared comments. We can now open the call for questions.