Earnings Labs

Vulcan Materials Company (VMC)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Tue, May 3, 2016

$291.11

-0.06%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-1.29%

1 Week

+3.39%

1 Month

+1.73%

vs S&P

-0.27%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Vulcan Materials Company First Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Alicia, and I will be your conference call coordinator today. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode to prevent any background noise. A question-and-answer session will follow the company's prepared remarks. And now, I would like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Mark Warren, Director of Investor Relations for Vulcan Materials. Please go ahead, sir.

Mark D. Warren - Director-Investor Relations

Management

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for your interest in Vulcan Materials Company. Joining me today for this call are Tom Hill, Chairman and CEO; and John McPherson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Strategy Officer. To facilitate our discussion today, we have made available, during this webcast and on our website, supplemental information. Rather than walk through each slide, Tom and John will summarize the highlights of our quarterly results and outlook. We believe this approach will assist your analysis and will allow more time to respond to your questions. With that said, please be reminded that comments regarding the company's results and projections may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties, including general economic and business conditions, the timing and amount of federal, state and local funding for infrastructure, the highly competitive nature of construction materials industry, and other risks and uncertainties. These are described in detail in the company's SEC reports, including our earnings release and our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition, during this call, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. You will find a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures and other related information in our earnings release and at the end of this presentation. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Vulcan's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Hill. Tom? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Mark, and thank all of you for joining us for our first quarter earnings call. I hope you've had time to review our earnings release and the supplemental information posted earlier today on our website. As you saw reflected in our financial results, our teams really hit on all cylinders during the first quarter,…

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. We'll go first to Jerry Revich of Goldman Sachs. Jerry Revich - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Hi. Good morning, everyone. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Hey, Jerry. Jerry Revich - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Gentlemen, I'm wondering if you can comment about early indications of pricing cadence for April. Last year, you were able to push pricing sequentially over the course of the year, and you had a 3% increase sequentially 2Q versus 1Q. I'm wondering how is this year shaping out. Do you think you'll be able to push pricing over the course of this year once again? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yes. As you look at the first quarter, I think this was a really good start to pricing. It was pretty consistent how we thought pricing would be accepted throughout our markets and with our plan. Overall, the climate for pricing remains very healthy. I think the environment is good throughout the construction industry. In fact, we would see some pockets of tight supply. As the year goes on, we're going to comp over higher and higher prices with our success with that last year. But it's also about making profit in this business. It's about the balance of price mix and volume and that – and what's really important is that compounding effect of pricing. So I think, at this point, we're really pleased with our people's execution of their pricing plans, and we have really good confidence in our guys. Jerry Revich - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Okay. And can you talk about, on the public construction side, what's the speed of DOT request for bids turning into actual project where – how is that timeline shaking out? I guess on…

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to Kathryn Thompson of Thompson Research Group.

Kathryn Ingram Thompson - Thompson Research Group LLC

Management

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions today. Just there's been obviously a great deal focus on the public end market, but I wanted to switch gears in terms of what you're seeing in the non-res end market because there's been some speculation that – could that market continue growth as we've seen. So, to that end, what are you seeing in terms of market demand trends from non-res projects, color on growth rate either by the quarter or for the trailing six months, and the types of projects you're seeing growth, growing best in your most important markets? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Kathryn, we continuously grow with the non-res. We look at the leading indicators, but what we're seeing in our markets and backlogs, are our customers continues to be healthy. As far as growth rate is concerned, it may not be as fast as last year, but it's still growing. I think that one of the things you'll see here is that the res is growing at a very fast rate, and usually non-res, particularly the retail construction will follow that. So, on the ground, we continue to see the growth. We still have a number of the large projects that we'll ship this year on the coast, and we also see some pretty healthy manufacturing growth. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Kathryn, one thing we're seeing that's a bit of a shift or a transition is our local teams are seeing a lot of small commercial work that's really popping up, and it's difficult to predict. This kind of pops up and gets executed pretty quickly. But we're seeing that in a number of markets, including (24:27) Nashville. So we think that bodes well for the overall health, mix, sustainability of the recovery to see this uptick in small commercial work across many of our markets.

Kathryn Ingram Thompson - Thompson Research Group LLC

Management

Great. Thank you. And then on Georgia, last quarter, volumes were up 20%-plus. Our checks have seen at least a similar, if not healthier growth rate there. What are you seeing in terms of just how that state performed? But also importantly, just revisiting the prior quarter question which is have you seen any pickup in increased funding from that state, just increased volumes from the funding that was passed last quarter? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Georgia is really hitting on all cylinders, every market segment is growing. It's very healthy, housing, non-res. The highway is – actually, we've got a number of jobs that were backlog – very large jobs that were backlog prior to the funding. The state DOT has had a lot of pressure on it to turn out jobs in the new funding. So we may see some overlay work towards the end of the year in Georgia. But the real – I think, the real hit of the doubling of Georgia's funding will come in 2017 and 2018.

Kathryn Ingram Thompson - Thompson Research Group LLC

Management

Okay. And final question on Texas. In the past conversations we've had, you had said that Texas is really the only market that's getting close to getting back to normal. Are there any other markets that are getting kind of back to that normal market? And then, also just for the benefit of folks on the call, if you could differentiate within Texas what markets are – or what you would view back to (26:11) normal and what percentage of your Texas revenues are in each of those markets? Thank you. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. First of all, Texas is the only market we have that's anywhere close to normal demand. As far as commenting on the market in Texas, it's – as you said, it's a big place with many different markets. Overall, it remains very healthy. Dallas and San Antonio are still very strong. We're seeing rural Texas gets stronger and that's a – we have a big presence there, particularly the asphalt presence and that's good for us because it's driven by the increases in highway funding and the damage that was done to the roads from all the oil explorations. Houston, we probably see some softening in res and non-res. It's a watch for us. The coastal work, we still have a lot of large work that we're shipping. There's a – when I say coastal, I mean from Brownsville to Beaumont. There's also – including Houston, there's also a number of jobs that are coming there. Now, timing of all that with big jobs, as always, you'll see ebbs and flows. But – so, overall, with the except for the watch on res and non-res, I'd tell you Texas markets are healthy.

Kathryn Ingram Thompson - Thompson Research Group LLC

Management

Okay. Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to Trey Grooms of Stephens.

Trey H. Grooms - Stephens, Inc.

Management

Hey. Good morning, gentlemen. Congrats on a great quarter. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you. Good morning. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Thank you, Trey.

Trey H. Grooms - Stephens, Inc.

Management

So, looking at – I guess kind of sticking with the geographic theme here, can you talk about how the geographic mix that you're seeing as well as product mix could be impacting your pricing and kind of your expectation there as we look through the balance of the year? John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Trey, for the quarter and as we look for the balance of the year, they are really in total, I'm going to call it, geographic and product or customer mix issues were kind of awash. So, there's really no big impact in that in our pricing for the quarter. Back on the geographic point and really the broadening of the recovery, we do see more of our, if you will, Atlantic Coast markets and Southeast markets, really beginning to participate in the recovery more and more fully across more end-use segments. How exactly that plays out in terms of price and product mix impact over the course of the year, we'll have to see. But that's not a big driver and the pricing or margin results you've seen of late.

Trey H. Grooms - Stephens, Inc.

Management

Got you. Okay. And then on California being down, I mean, it sounded like in the fourth quarter that was a pretty good market for you, and then you noted seeing a slowdown there, and you pointed out some infrastructure work. Is that just timing? And then I know weather was obviously a factor there. Can you talk about kind of what the California market looks like when weather is cooperating for you guys? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Sure. As we said, California was hit really hard in the first quarter with rain. We still see solid growth in demand in California. Short term, we could see some issues with Caltrans funding or timing of work. I think the good news for us about California is that market is very diverse. Our out (29:32) markets in California are very diverse. So this year on top of healthy residential market growth, we'll see a number of water projects, high-rise projects and airport projects start in 2016. So what I'd tell you is overall, long-term, we believe that the California will continue to experience sustainable growth.

Trey H. Grooms - Stephens, Inc.

Management

Okay. It's helpful. And then the last one for me is, I think that you had – when you first gave your guidance on your 4Q call, you had expected volumes to be more kind of back-half weighted. But obviously, with the big volume quarter now you guys just put up, just trying to think about how that changes your expectation for the quarterly cadence or kind of how the volumes kind of shake out as we progress through the year. And then with that, the obvious question we've been getting, do you think there was any pull-forward from some of these stronger markets that benefited from weather, kind of pulling forward into 1Q from 2Q or some other period? John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Trey, it's John. I'll start and Tom could chime in. On the guidance, what we're trying to note is some of the El Nino-related weather effects that we did in fact see. And of course, you saw our – both our California businesses, and some of our Mountain West businesses, and a little bit Texas affected by that. In addition, as Tom just mentioned, we had a bit of a low on some large public construction work in California. But then, of course, despite those challenges on the volume side, we posted the results you saw today. It's difficult to say if we had a little bit of pull-forward or a little bit of, I'm going to call it, overflow from 2015 where, for example, in North Carolina and South Carolina, some fourth quarter shipments were delayed by the bad weather they had. But as best we can tell, however, you adjust for it, we are seeing some strengthening in demand across more geographies, across more end-use segments. And as a result, you've seen us move our expectation for the year from 7% growth to 8% to 9% growth, in line roughly with what we've experienced over the last 12 months. We're seeing a recovery that still has a ways to go, but has more and more engines driving it, if you will. I think...

Trey H. Grooms - Stephens, Inc.

Management

Great. That's it for me. Thanks a lot, guys. Keep up the good work.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to Garik Shmois of Longbow.

Garik S. Shmois - Longbow Research LLC

Management

Hi. Thanks and congratulations. You called out in the press release that you're starting to win share on large projects. And I remember a year ago at the Analyst Day when you indicated that this is – part of the strategy is we work through the recovery. It seems like it's bearing fruit. I was wondering if you can maybe provide a little bit more context around where you are with your share gain platform as it pertain to perhaps the quarter and the last 12 months? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. If you remember, I think what we said was we – I think we probably lost some share in the downturn, and it's always – as the markets come back, we'll recover that. As the recovery continues to mature, you'll see higher and higher shipments in the really high growth quarters in our markets, which is where we are. So, naturally, those jobs will be in our zone of natural advantage, so to speak, we're located. You'll also – we're also seeing more and more very, very large jobs, both commercial and highway work, and those also fall right in our wheelhouse. So it's just a natural recovery as the market returns. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: So, Garik, it's a little – it's a little hard for us to quantify that, especially kind of at this timeframe in the recovery. But as Tom said, I think it wouldn't surprise us if you're beginning to see some of the larger, more sophisticated producers recovering a little bit of share that they gave up in the downturn.

Garik S. Shmois - Longbow Research LLC

Management

Okay. Thanks. Just want to switch to some of the cost buckets within aggregates. Specifically, is it possible to indicate what your diesel cost was in the quarter? And then also on repair and maintenance, it has been trending up over the last several quarters. It was up again in the first quarter. Can you provide an outlook on R&M costs as you move through the balance of the year? Is it still going to be elevated on a year-on-year basis, or will some of those costs start to plateau? John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Sure. I'll start, Garik, and then Tom will chime in, in just an attempt to give you some more color as best we can. Again, first thing we'd highlight that is if you look on a trailing 12-month basis, even excluding the positive effects of diesel, our overall unit cost of sales is essentially flat. So what's really behind that, if you take a – again, a trailing 12-month view is that our teams are doing a great job and they've been able to get some real operating leverage as volumes have increased, and that's offset some of the cost pressures that come from higher R&M that we've been talking about. So all in all, they're doing a great job. We've really seen that for the last two quarters. We hope to keep seeing it going forward. We'll keep an eye on it. But we're certainly very pleased to see that cost performance. In the quarter, our average diesel price is probably about $1.30, probably $5 million, $6 million benefit from that in total. But, again, what we'd underscore. And then our R&M in the quarter, as we said, it was still elevated. To give you a rough…

Garik S. Shmois - Longbow Research LLC

Management

That's super helpful. Last question is just quickly on the asphalt volumes that declined in the quarter. Was that mainly driven by some of the commentary that you indicated that California had experienced over the last quarter? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. California asphalt was hit hard. You just can't lay it obviously in the rain. I think we're pleased with our overall asphalt performance. Despite California being down, Texas volumes were up, driven by – a lot by both textile work and private markets. I think we – our folks have done a good job of managing a mix of price, cost of material margins and all the while serving our customers, and that's tough to do in the first quarter with icy weather. So even with California down, I think we're pleased with our performance in asphalt for sure.

Garik S. Shmois - Longbow Research LLC

Management

Thanks, guys. Good luck. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Thanks, Garik.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to James Armstrong of Vertical Research.

James H. Armstrong - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Management

Good morning. Good start to the year. Congrats. First question I had is on the weather impact as we go into the second quarter. Obviously, the South has been really, really wet in places. Are you seeing any impact of that as we go into the second quarter, or have you been able to pretty much overcome that so far? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Obviously, April has been wet. Anybody can look at the weather and tell that. But we would always tell you that we're going to – quarter-over-quarter or even month-over-month, yes, you're going to have weather, yes, you're going to have things that will affect you positively and negatively, but you can't judge it quarter-over-quarter or month-over-month. You really got to look at long term. So regardless of what the weather does, the demand is there, and if they don't – if it gets delayed, it's not going away. It's just postponed. And it always catches up and it always happens. But month-to-month, we're going to have periods of good weather and bad weather. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: And, James, we're not going to comment on April sales on this call. So, we'll talk about that in our next call.

James H. Armstrong - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Management

Yeah. And then going to asphalt, margins were absolutely fantastic there in the quarter. Should those continue or should those come under a little bit of pressure as oil prices start to march up? And can you talk about the lag in asphalt and oil? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. If you look at the – the quarter material margins are probably a little ahead of schedule – a little ahead of our expectations. We could see some pressures with – as – the changing liquid AC prices. Again, I think our folks are doing a really good job of managing that, and this is a balance of volume, price, cost of material margins. So – and there is a lag there, we're trying to predict what that is and how that is. Asphalt sometimes runs through the cadence of it and sometimes it doesn't, but we'll manage that as it comes along.

James H. Armstrong - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Management

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to Adam Thalhimer of BB&T Capital Markets. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Hey. Good morning, guys. I'd also say congrats. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Adam. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: I wanted to ask about firstly on M&A. Maybe some updated thoughts on that, you putting your investment grade rating to work. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: First of all, I'd tell you that we are in a – we are very pleased with the purchases we made over the last 18 months and how they performed, and they performed very well. The M&A market continues to be healthy. We continue to be – so, it's a huge focus for us. It's something that we pay a lot of attention to. We're very busy with it. Obviously, we can't talk about anything we're working on, but we'll let you know when that happens and when those come – when those finalize. But it's healthy. We're focused on it and it's a priority for us. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Would you – are you going to preference either the smaller deals or larger deals at this point in the cycle? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: We'll – I think what we look at and what we concentrate is what fits us both large and small, what are – is unique synergies to us and making sure that we buy it for the right price and then we integrate it, so it's both. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Okay. And then, also as we think about 2017 and the potential for DOT work to benefit from the FAST Act. Is there anything we should be aware of in terms of whether pricing on that work is lower or maybe the incremental margin opportunity on that work is less, maybe just some color on that would be helpful? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I think that the impact of DOT spending both state and federal coming to fruition, and shipments will only help pricing. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: And of course, not just – we'd always encourage you to focus – you and anybody, not just to focus on pricing, but overall margin performance. And that volume, that mix, that's good for our overall balance of price. The operating efficiencies, product mix, let's just say, we're looking forward to it. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Great. Thank you very much. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to Timna Tanners with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Timna Beth Tanners - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Yeah. Hey. Good morning, guys. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Hey, Timna.

Timna Beth Tanners - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

These should be fairly quick. We've talked about a lot of these topics, but I just wanted to touch on 2017 because some of the independent forecast for non-residential construction have been tapering their enthusiasm into 2017. So is that just maybe excess enthusiasm on their part or is there something that you might be able to help us understand about tapering in 2017 activity, whether that be some of the big projects rolling off or anything else? John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Timna, honestly, we haven't given any guidance for 2017. So just with that qualification first, I think where we come back to in case it's helpful is what we see if you will on the ground. And the momentum that we're seeing overall as it relates to private construction and private non-res is – is largely unchanged. I mean, there are going to be specific geographic markets, for example, Houston, that with layoffs, et cetera, we keep an eye on. But in total, we still like the momentum we see, the breadth of the recovery, the breadth of the end markets, the higher levels of small commercial work that we see. So from our kind of humble on the ground view, the death of non-res has been announced prematurely. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I think on the housing piece, the housing recovery still remains pretty modest compared to historical cycles. And most forecasters would expect it to continue to gain steam, so – and non-res will follow that. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: And the large project pipeline we have seen as it relates to larger industrial projects, still largely unchanged. So, again, we obviously keep a close eye on it. We haven't – we're ways away from anything that we consider 2017 guidance in our part. But what we do see, and we've talked about more for 2017 also, is just the beginning of the increase in public construction beginning to kick in, strengthening public demand, and we're kind of getting to the point in the cycle where that's beginning to kick in a bit more also.

Timna Beth Tanners - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Okay. Great. The other question is about your high quality problem which is a very low dividend yield. And I understand that you just doubled your dividend, but I was just wondering if you could talk around the way you think about it philosophically, and is there a target yield, is there something that drives the way your board thinks about the dividend or the right level of it? John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Sure. I'll start. I think you're right, a high quality problem to have. First, we're focused again on balancing re-investment in the business, investment in growth, including the M&A opportunities that Tom discussed, and ongoing return on capital to shareholders. We think we have the financial flexibility and strength to balance those goals over time. We do not have a target dividend yield. And it's really a board decision as to revisit it, of course, periodically. We do think of it in the context of overall return of capital to shareholders and balancing those other objectives very much including growth. But we do not have a target dividend yield. We do expect our payout ratio over time will be roughly consistent with companies of our credit rating and size.

Timna Beth Tanners - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to Keith Hughes of SunTrust.

Keith Hughes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Management

Thank you. You don't have any more notes due until 2018, so how would you characterize the use of cash flow the next couple of years between acquisitions, debt pay-down and share repurchase? John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: Our capital allocation and cash usage priorities have really remained unchanged from prior communications. So just to briefly echo some of those, one, we have intentionally managed our balance sheet so that we have the kind of flexibility that you just mentioned. We will make the appropriate operating capital investments back in the business to maintain the value of our franchise. We do not expect to need to use cash to pay down debt. Obviously, we don't have maturities due in the near term, but we're comfortable with our current level of debt. We will continue to pursue growth opportunities aggressively, whether those are M&A related or, as we mentioned in our release and in our comments, whether they are internally driven growth opportunities, investments in new railyards, new quarry sites, the kind of things that we would do internally. We have several opportunities there. We – to the point the question just asked on the dividend, we would expect the dividend to grow roughly in line with our earnings for a while. We're very focused on the sustainability of that dividend throughout the entire cycle. And then as we said before, we will be opportunistic as we go forward and potentially using share repurchases or other means to return any excess cash to shareholders after those other priorities.

Keith Hughes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Management

In acquisitions, would those be in the current footprint, or are you willing to look outside the current footprint for the right opportunity? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: To answer your question, both, and we've done both. Some of our highest returns on capital are the bolt-ons because they complement your existing operations and they defend some of your existing – the operations. But we'll look outside of our footprint. I mean, we just did that with New Mexico over the last 18 months. But I think would we go outside our footprint, we would want to go in as a number one or number two producer, or a path to be number one or number two. So – but to answer your question, it's both.

Keith Hughes - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to Mike Betts with Jefferies.

Mike F. Betts - Jefferies International Ltd.

Operator

Thank you very much. I'd like to come back on the cost question please. And looking at the $0.68 per ton saving in Q1, I think that equates to about $27 million. You've kindly explained diesel's saving of $5 million or $6 million, and I think the R&M was an offset of about $3 million. So, I'm still missing a big number there, sort of $24 million, $25 million. Is that all operating leverage because the volume growth was so high or is there anything else there? That's kind of my first question. My second question, when we're looking at the full year in terms of costs, you highlighted the trailing 12-month flat cost. Is that a pretty decent assumption to make for the full year? Thank you. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: I think that to start with your first question, I think it's a combination of operating leverages and improved volumes and operating efficiencies on the variable side. So, it's a combination of both of them. There is a lot of volume leverage in that, but it's a combination of the two.

Mike F. Betts - Jefferies International Ltd.

Operator

Are there any one-offs in there? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: No. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: (50:19). J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, I think one of the things, timing of stripping, Mike, I would say maybe had some benefit of it that will – that's always comes in, get some stars, but it's not a whole lot.

Mike F. Betts - Jefferies International Ltd.

Operator

Okay. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: And, Mike, for the full-year outlook, we'll see. We're very focused, as Tom mentioned, on continuing to drive these operating efficiencies to control what we can control, to use Tom's words, and to leverage our cost of sales where we can. We'll see how it come out. There are a lot of moving pieces in the business like ours, but it's something we're very, very focused on.

Mike F. Betts - Jefferies International Ltd.

Operator

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next to Stanley Elliott with Stifel. Stanley Elliott - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Hey, guys. Good morning. Question back on the cost side, at what point do you start to add more and more shifts, is this kind of more later in this year or into next year, and – or maybe think about it, can you meet the 9% sort of same-store sales growth on the existing head count maybe running a little bit of over time? Just, how do we think about adding shift work on a go-forward basis? J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, first of all, I wish we were running two shifts everywhere. I'm a little operator guy. And that – that's – life is good if that happens. I think that – but it's on a market-by-market, plant-by-plant basis. So for example, you've got – if you go to Texas, you've got plants that are running two shifts already. You go to some markets in our some of our Atlanta operations, they're running – they're not even running full shifts. So, it's such a local business and that is market-by-market. So there's not a broad-based statement. But I don't – overall, we'll do that a little bit at a time, but we're nowhere close in most markets to adding shifts. It's really adding hours or even adding a full shift on a – a full shift on a full plant, but we would love to have those problems. Stanley Elliott - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: That's great news. John R. McPherson - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Strategy Officer: We also, Stanley, back to Mike's point, we're probably getting – with the breadth of the recovery, we're probably getting to a point where we…

Operator

Operator

That's all the time we have for questions. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Tom Hill for any additional or closing remarks. J. Thomas Hill - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you. Thank you very much for your interest in Vulcan Materials Company, and we look forward to speaking with you throughout the quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. We thank you for your participation.