Operator
Operator
Good morning. My name is Brent, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to Weyerhaeuser Second Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Denise Merle, Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Denise M. Merle - Senior Vice President-Human Resources & Investor Relations: Thank you, Brent. Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Weyerhaeuser's second quarter 2015 earnings. On the call with me this morning are Doyle Simons, CEO; Patty Bedient, CFO; and Beth Baum, Director of Investor Relations. This call is being webcast at www.weyerhaeuser.com. Our earnings release and presentation materials can also be found on our website. Please review the warning statements in our press release and on the presentation slides concerning the risks associated with forward-looking statements, as forward-looking statements will be made during the conference call. We will discuss non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of GAAP can be found in the earnings material on our website. I will now turn the call over to Doyle Simons. Doyle R. Simons - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Denise, and welcome, everyone. This morning, Weyerhaeuser reported second quarter net earnings of $133 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, on net sales of $1.8 billion. Each of our businesses delivered solid operating results, as operational excellence efforts helped mitigate the delayed arrival of the spring building season and the continuing challenge of a strong U.S. dollar. In addition, we returned over $150 million of cash to shareholders in the quarter through repurchase of common shares. Cumulative repurchase at quarter end totaled $610 million, as we near completion of our existing $700 million authorization. I will begin this discussion of our business results with some brief comments about the housing market. Housing indicators remain choppy and the spring building season was slow to gather momentum in the second quarter as weeks of heavy rain and flooding in the South hampered building activity. However, markets gained momentum late in the quarter as the weather abated and our outlook for 2015 remains unchanged at approximately 1.1 million housing starts, which represents a 10% improvement compared with 2014. We continue to be optimistic about the longer-term prospect for housing as rising employment, strong consumer confidence, historically low mortgage rates and signs of increased participation by first time home buyers should support continuing improvement in the U.S. housing market. In addition, builder sentiment in July was at the highest level in 10 years and our customers continue to tell us they expect increased housing activity in the second half of the year. Let me now turn to our business segments, starting with Timberlands, charts three to five. Timberlands contributed $127 million to the second quarter earnings, compared with $162 million in the first quarter. Lower average sales realizations for western logs and lower earnings from timberlands dispositions more than offset seasonally higher sales volumes. In the West, export log prices remained under pressure due to the continued strength of the U.S. dollar. However, export volumes increased substantially, compared with first quarter due to seasonally improved demand from our Japanese and Chinese customers. Domestic log sales realizations declined throughout the quarter, as log markets remained well supplied due to favorable market conditions in the first half of the year. In the South, fee harvest increased seasonally as we were able to flex harvest settings around the second quarter's extreme wet weather. Average sales realizations for Southern logs were comparable to the first quarter. Second quarter included earnings of $5 million from disposition of non-strategic timberlands, a reduction of $12 million, compared with the first quarter. The Timberlands business continues to benefit from operational excellence initiatives and remains on track to meet its OpEx targets for 2015. Wood Products, charts six and seven. Wood Products contributed $71 million to the second quarter earnings, an improvement of $9 million compared with the first quarter. EBITDA increased to $98 million. Improved sales volumes and reduced operating cost enabled the business to overcome lower average realizations for lumber and oriented strand board. In Lumber, EBITDA declined $6 million, compared with the first quarter, a 5% decline in average sales realizations was mostly offset by seasonally higher sales volumes, lower Western log costs and operational excellence initiatives to reduce manufacturing cost. In OSB, EBITDA decreased by $4 million due to a 3% decline in average sales realizations. I was particularly pleased with the performance of engineered wood products in the quarter, as we reported EBITDA of $38 million, an increase of $12 million compared with the first quarter. Sales volume rose seasonally across all product lines and per unit manufacturing costs improved due to higher production volume and operational excellence initiatives. EBITDA for the distribution business increased by $5 million, compared with the first quarter due to improved sales volumes, higher product margins and lower overhead cost. Our Wood Products businesses remained relentlessly focused on operational excellence. Lumber and OSB are on track to achieve their 2015 targets. Engineered wood products is tracking significantly above its full-year EBITDA improvement target, up $26 million year-to-date compared with 2014. And our distribution business has been challenged by the severe weather in some of its key markets in the first half of the year and has work to do to achieve its target. However, this business is well-positioned to capitalize on the expanded building activity we expect during the second half of 2015. Cellulose Fibers, charts 8 and 9. Cellulose Fibers contributed $27 million to earnings, compared with $33 million in the first quarter. Pulp market stabilized during the second quarter as global inventories declined to more balanced levels. Average pulp realizations were down compared with the first quarter. As expected, maintenance expense increased significantly in the second quarter, as we completed a planned extended outage at our Flint River, Georgia mill. The outage included scheduled maintenance and installation of energy-related capital improvements. The West Coast port disruption resulted in approximately $8 million in lingering logistics costs in the second quarter, but we anticipate minimal effects going forward. The Cellulose Fibers business made good progress on operational excellence initiatives in the second quarter, including the successful startup of a turbine generator that significantly reduces energy cost at our Flint River mill. This business remains on track to achieve its 2015 operational excellence target. I will now turn it over to Patty to discuss our third quarter outlook. Patricia M. Bedient - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks, Doyle, and good morning, everyone. The outlook for the third quarter is summarized on chart 13, and I'll begin my comments with Timberlands. In the West, sales realizations for export logs to Japan are expected to improve slightly, due to increased housing demand. Although China inventories have decreased from earlier in the year, they remain at above-normal levels, putting continued pressure on prices. Domestic log realizations are anticipated to increase as a result of constrained supply due to fire-related harvest restriction. Fee harvest volumes are expected to decrease accordingly. In the South, average sales, log sales realizations are anticipated to be comparable to Q2. Fee harvest volumes are expected to increase on a slightly lower grade mix as Q3 typically carries a greater percentage of thinning volume. Silviculture costs are anticipated to increase both seasonally and because some activities had to be deferred from Q2 as a result of wet weather. Earnings from non-strategic land sales are projected to be around $10 million, compared to $5 million in Q2. Overall earnings in our Timberlands segment are expected to be slightly lower in Q3, compared to Q2. Turning to Wood Products. Although, lumber and oriented strand board prices have decreased during the month of July, the average sales realizations for this month are still higher than the Q2 averages. We expect prices for both lumber and OSB to increase in the remainder of the quarter from today's level. We anticipate average sales realizations for engineered wood products in the third quarter to be comparable to the second quarter. Sales volumes are anticipated to be seasonally higher across most product lines. Western log costs are expected to be modestly higher than Q2. We will be taking some annual maintenance downtime in our engineered wood products facilities, which will negatively affect manufacturing costs for the quarter. We expect continued improvement in the results of our distribution business. Overall, we anticipate that third quarter earnings in our Wood Products segment will be higher than the second quarter, but likely lower than the third quarter of last year. Moving to the Cellulose Fibers business, global softwood pulp inventory levels decreased during the second quarter, and we were basically in balance at the end of the quarter. However, because the industry typically plans fewer maintenance outages in the third quarter, combined with uncertainty around demand from China, inventory levels could tick up leading to some softness in pulp prices in the third quarter. We expect higher sales volumes to partially offset the potential effect of lower sales realization. We anticipate substantial cost improvement in the third quarter. During the second quarter, we had 46 maintenance-related outage days. And this quarter, we have only minimal days planned. As a result, we will have lower maintenance expense and higher productivity. In addition, now that the West Coast port dispute has been resolved, we do not anticipate a repeat of the $8 million negative effect that we experienced in Q2. Overall, third quarter results in our Cellulose Fibers segment should significantly increase, compared to the second quarter and exceed the third quarter earnings of last year. Chart 10, summarizes the results of unallocated items. Before special items, total cost decreased by just over $60 million. The largest item making up this variance was foreign exchange as the Canadian dollar appreciated from approximately $0.79 at the end of the first quarter to $0.81 at the end of the second quarter. For modeling purposes, every penny in the exchange rate is roughly $4 million on a pre-tax basis. The other large item was the elimination of intersegment profit in inventory and LIFO. This item is difficult to predict, as it fluctuates based on the level and mix of inventory from quarter-to-quarter. However, we do not expect the change of this magnitude in the third quarter. Now, I'll wrap up with some overall financial comments, beginning with chart 11. Cash flow from operations for the second quarter was $366 million or an increase of $289 million, compared to the first quarter. In addition to increased earnings, large positive variances included lower working capital, and lower interest payments, compared to the first quarter. Capital expenditures for the second quarter totaled $108 million, bringing our year-to-date expenditures to $197 million. We continue to expect total expenditures for the full year to approximate $500 million. We do not have any debt maturities until 2017 and have no borrowings outstanding under our $1 billion line of credit. As detailed on chart 12, during the second quarter, we used $154 million to repurchase our common stocks. And at the end of Q2, we had approximately $90 million remaining under our existing authorization. Now, I'll turn the call back to Doyle, and I look forward to your questions. Doyle R. Simons - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Patty. The housing market continues to gather momentum and building activity is increasing, although, it has come this year in fits and starts. Looking forward, we are well positioned to capitalize on its improvement. And we remain relentlessly focused on driving value for shareholders through operational excellence and disciplined capital allocation. Now, with that, I'd like to open up the floor for questions.