Operator
Operator
Good morning and welcome to the Watsco, Inc. Third Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Albert Nahmad. Please go ahead. Albert H. Nahmad - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning and welcome to our third quarter conference call. This is Albert Nahmad, President and CEO. With me is Barry Logan and Paul Johnston, Executive Vice President. First, the cautionary statement. The conference call has forward-looking statements as defined by SEC laws and regulations that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of these various laws. Ultimate results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Watsco delivered another solid quarter. We achieved record sales, profits and earnings per share, while continuing to make significant investments in our business and, most notable, which are investments in technology. We also produced the highest level of operating cash flow for any quarter in our history. Given our cash flow and continued confidence in our business, we have announced today a 21% increase in our annual dividends to $3.40. This dividend increase will be reflected in our payment in January of next year. I will discuss more about our technology and strategy, but first let me go over the financial performance. For the quarter, sales increased 4% to a record $1.2 billion and increased 5% on the same-store basis. HVAC equipment increased 5%, including an 8% increase in the United States and came from share gains in a continued movement towards higher-efficiency systems. Other HVCA (sic) [HVAC] products increased 3% and commercial refrigeration products increased 2%. The EPS for the quarter increased 5% to a record $1.64. Operating income grew 5% to a record $111 million. Operating margins expanded 10 basis points to 9.4%. Gross profit margin improved 10 basis points and SG&A as a percentage of sales was flat. Now, for the nine months, sales increased 5% to a record $3.2 billion. HVAC equipment increased 7%. Other HVAC products grew 2% and commercial refrigeration products increased 2%. EPS for the nine months increased 14% to a record $4.16. Operating income increased 11% to a record $283 million. Operating margins expanded 50 basis points to a record 8.8%. Gross profit margins have improved 30 basis points and SG&A as a percentage of sales decreased 20% to a record low. Operating cash flow for the quarter was a record $174 million. For the nine months, operating cash flow was $100 million compared to $42 million last year. Our balance sheet remains conservative with a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of under 1 time. We expect to further reduce debt by the end of the year, as fourth quarter is a, seasonally, period for positive cash flow. Now, Watsco's revised outlook for 2015 diluted earnings per share is in the range of $4.85 to $4.90, representing a prospective growth rate of 12% to 13% over 2014. Now, let's move on to the technology discussion. These are exciting times at Watsco. Over the last 25 years, we have scaled our business to become the leader in the industry and have achieved greater results – and have achieved great results for our shareholders. Over this period, market capitalization has grown from under $50 million to over $4 billion. Stated in terms of total shareholder return, which measures capital appreciation plus dividend, Watsco's 25-year compounded annual growth rate is 20%, which ranks number 28 out of all public companies that have the market cap of over $2 billion. Watsco's scale has allowed us to compete with capital, giving it more fulfillment centers and products available than anyone. It also allows us to attract and retain the industry's best talent and to partner with OEM suppliers from a strategic long-term point of view. We are looking to use our scale and size to bring technology and innovation to our business and our industry. Our investments have been in the development stage over the last two years and are now in various stages of implementation in our business units. We have grown from under 60 technology employees three years ago to over 170 at present. Our current annual run rate for technology-related costs is approximately $20 million. Here are some examples of what we're doing in technology. We have launched mobile apps in e-commerce to enable customers to buy from us 24 hours a day every day, using the industry's largest source of digitized product information, which is presently over 300,000 SKUs. We have instituted data-driven culture by developing business intelligence and data analytics capabilities to provide insight and support for greater decision making by our 700 profit-and-loss managers. We are implementing software and other tools to optimize our supply chain to improve service levels with less investment. In the long run, we are targeting a material reduction in infrastructure costs, which will provide the opportunity to increase operating margins as our business grows. Now, we are conducting an investor and an analyst meeting on December 18 in Miami Beach to discuss our technology strategy in greater detail. Please let Barry Logan know if you would like to join us. With that said, Barry, Paul and I will be happy to answer your questions.