Philip J. Hawk
Analyst · Stephens Inc
Thanks, Ted. Now I would like to provide a few additional perspectives on our recent performance and outlook. All financial results referred to in my remarks will be adjusted results that exclude nonroutine items that were described by Ted and are set forth in our financial statements. Ted shared the overall results with you. Revenues were $200 million, approximately flat with the prior year quarter. While normally, we would not be pleased with flat revenue performance, we are encouraged by this revenue performance because we achieved it without the benefit of the significant very large project activity of the prior year period. I will elaborate on that more in a moment. Adjusted earnings per share was $0.62, slightly down from the record $0.66 per share earned in the corresponding prior year period. Again, there are encouraging trends here as well, both with Quest and our job margin improvement initiatives in our business groups. Similar to the discussion of the first quarter results in our last conference call, I will review and discuss our detailed results in 2 separate groupings: Quest Integrity Group and then a combined rest of Team grouping that includes Inspection & Heat Treating Services, Mechanical Services and corporate support activities. As Ted indicated, we are pleased that Quest has bounced back nicely in the second quarter achieving record performance. Quest quarterly revenues exceeded $20 million level for the first time in its history. The revenue growth reflected significant momentum in both process and pipeline inspection services and engineering assessment services. Several aspects of Quest's business are noteworthy. First, demand continues to be very strong for Quest integrated -- integrity and -- integrated integrity and reliability management solutions. We are encouraged both by the breadth and depth of interest across geographies. Pipeline and process piping integrity present multifaceted challenges and are major industry issues. Quest provides a very interesting set of solutions specifically designed to address these challenges for difficult-to-inspect lines. In this regard, we expect to apply these solutions to an expanding array of customer segments in the near-to-medium term. Second, we are pleased with Quest's ability to expand its service delivery capability and capacity. Reaching the $20 million revenue level in this quarter was a significant milestone, reflective of our management's focus on disciplined scaling. And finally, we are pleased with the attractive operating leverage associated with the Quest business growth. Quest remains on track with its business and performance plans. Now let me move on to a discussion of the rest of Team's businesses. In the second quarter just completed, the combined revenues for the rest of Team's businesses, excluding Quest, were about $180 million, down about $5 million or 3% from the prior year quarter. As I mentioned in my introductory remarks, there was encouraging positive growth in a number of areas or our business during the quarter. However, all of this growth was offset in this quarter by the $24 million decline in very large project activity versus the prior year period. The primary cause of this decline was the very high level of large project activity in the prior year comparable rather than significant revenue weakness in this quarter. As a reminder, we define very large project activity as any customer or project with more than $2 million of revenue in the quarter. For the second quarter just ended, Team had 2 very large projects versus 9 similarly sized projects in the corresponding prior year period. Both the number of very large projects, 9, and the total project revenue from these very large projects, $29 million achieved in last year's second quarter, were significantly higher than this quarter, as well as, by the way, any other prior quarter for Team. As a further illustration of this, in the second fiscal quarter 2 years ago, Team also had just 2 very large projects similar to this year. The difference versus last year primarily reflects the specific timing of individual projects and turnarounds and not any unfavorable trends in either overall demand or in Team's competitive position in very large projects. I am pleased that Team was able to offset nearly all of this a very large project decline in the quarter with attractive growth in other segments. For example, Team's smaller activity -- smaller project activity, those with revenues less than $500,000 in the quarter, increased by $16 million or 17% in the quarter. Inspection services, again, this excludes Quest, including both standard and advanced inspection services, increased $7 million or 8% in the quarter. Onstream Mechanical Services, which includes leak sealing, hot tapping and fugitive emissions monitoring, increased about $5 million or 13% in the quarter. Not surprisingly, turnaround services declined $16 million or 24% given the larger project association. Summarizing all these facts and figures, Team faced a difficult comparison with the prior year due to extremely strong, very large project activity in that same prior year period. Nevertheless, we continue to see attractive growth and progress in many segments. And we remain optimistic about our growth opportunities in the second half of the year. There are several attractive factors supporting this positive outlook: the continued positive momentum in the inspection and onstream services; the lack of strong prior year large project comps going forward; and the expectation of project tailwinds in the remainder of the fiscal year. This is driven by a very active spring turnaround season and a significant number of new projects related to America's new low-cost energy position that will initially take place along the Gulf Coast. These new facilities include petrochemical facility expansion, LNG export terminals and related infrastructure and gas-to-liquids projects. Now turning to operating profits and profit margins. Adjusted overall profits for the rest of Team business grouping are down nearly $4 million, reflecting primarily lower volumes. Overall gross margin was about flat, about 29% for both the current and prior year quarters. Following several quarters of unfavorable gross margin comparisons, I was pleased with our performance this quarter. It reflects in part progress with our job margin improvement initiatives. Excluding Quest, SG&A expenses for the rest of Team businesses increased about $1.9 million versus the prior year quarter, reflecting the impact of acquired businesses, as well as our continuing business development initiatives in a number of areas. As our expected revenue growth returns in the second half of the year, we believe we are well positioned to achieve attractive operating profit leverage consistent with our performance in past years. As stated in our earnings release yesterday, we are affirming our current guidance of $1.55 to $1.85 per share on an adjusted basis. We continue to expect full year revenue in the $765 million to $790 million range. While the holiday period during the third quarter always presents challenges for us, looking forward, we see significant project activity levels beginning in mid-January and continuing at least through the end of the fiscal year. Now to wrap up, I remain confident about our overall position and longer-term prospects. Of course, we still have to earn all of these opportunities with continued outstanding service and support to our customers. All Team colleagues are focused on that responsibility everyday. That concludes my remarks. Let's now open up for questions.