Granite Construction Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 2, 2024

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning. My name is Megan, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Granite Construction, 2024 First Quarter Conference Call. This call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.

Operator

And after the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer period. Please note, we will take one question and one follow-up question from each participant today. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Vice President of Investor Relations, Mike Barger.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to be here today with President and Chief Executive Officer, Kyle Larkin and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Lisa Curtis. Please note that today's earnings presentation will be available on the Events and Presentations page of our Investor Relations website. We begin today with a brief discussion regarding forward looking statements and non GAAP measures. Some of the discussion today may include forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Speaker 1

These forward looking statements are estimates reflecting the current expectations and best judgment of senior management regarding future events, occurrences, opportunities, targets, growth, demand, strategic plans, circumstances, activities, performance, shareholder value, outcomes, outlook, guidance, objectives, committed and awarded projects or CAP and results. Actual results could differ materially from statements made today. Please refer to Granite's most recent 10 ks and 10 Q filings for a more complete description of risk factors that could affect these forward looking statements. The company assumes no obligation to update forward looking statements, except as required by law. Certain non GAAP measures may be discussed during today's call and from time to time by the company's executives.

Speaker 1

These include, but are not limited to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share. The required disclosures regarding our non GAAP measures are included as part of our earnings press releases and in company presentations, which are available on our website, graniteconstruction.com, under Investor Relations. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Kyle Oergen.

Speaker 2

Good morning, and welcome to our Q1 conference call. I'm pleased to report that we are off to a strong start in 2024. Before diving into our Q1 results, I would like to share an update on our organizational structure. During the quarter, we reorganized our operations to more closely align with our reportable segments, Construction and Materials. We believe that this new structure better positions our leadership team to manage the performance of these segments.

Speaker 2

As a reminder, we previously organized into 3 operating groups, California, Mountain and Central. In the prior structure, our leaders managed both construction and materials operations within their respective groups. Our new structure results and our construction experts overseeing construction operations and our materials experts overseeing materials operations. Of course, our teams will continue to work together, but we believe the new structure will allow us to better leverage our expertise to drive top and bottom line growth. Construction leadership is focused on supporting regions with growth strategies and project execution, of leveraging resources across the company to better serve our national clients.

Speaker 2

For our materials segment, newly centralized management functions such as sales and quality control should drive consistency and improved financial performance. Granite has invested significantly in the Material segment over the last several years with both acquisitions and strategic investments. And our materials segment leadership will be tasked with identifying opportunities build shareholder value through further organic investments and M and A. Importantly, this new structure does not change our vertical integration strategy in our home markets. Regional leadership in both Construction and Material segments will maintain the partnership that has differentiated Granite for decades.

Speaker 2

I believe this organizational change sets the foundation for Granite's next chapter and will accelerate our ability to provide shareholders with higher levels of return. Moving to the construction segment, I'm very pleased with the strong start to the year. Winter weather means the Q1 is typically our slowest, but our teams are off to an outstanding start in part because of more favorable weather conditions in 2024. So far in 2024, we have bid and won more work than in 2023, but cap remained flat in the 4th quarter, but increasing significantly year over year. While cap was unchanged during the quarter, the market has been consistent with our expectations.

Speaker 2

Our markets in the public and private sectors continue to be strong in California and across our geographies. We expect cap to grow in 2024. Best value projects continue to be a focus and represent $2,500,000,000 or 46% of our total cap. Collaborative delivery methods captured in this number like construction to manager general contractor or progressive design build better position us for success by allowing us to collaborate with our clients to mitigate risk. Larger best value projects are often separated into smaller work packages that are reviewed through multiple project workshops.

Speaker 2

This provides more opportunities to assess and address risks, the large bid build projects. In the last 15 years, we have completed or have under contract 87 best value projects. Generally, these projects are constructed more quickly and with fewer claims. In the Q1, construction revenue increased 18% year over year led by our teams in California, Utah and the Midwest. This was primarily a result of the higher cap entering the year and the more favorable weather conditions compared to the Q1 of 2023.

Speaker 2

With our strong start to the year, our current cap and the bidding opportunities ahead of us, we are on track to win the work needed to meet our revenue guidance in 2024 and continue our organic growth in 2025. Moving to the Materials segment, the first quarter benefited from price increases and higher volumes associated with more favorable weather in our most seasonally impacted quarter. As mentioned previously, we are focused on price increases, targeting the 10% increase on average in aggregates and 5% in asphalt. So far this year, our price increases align with this expectation. We will continue to monitor progress as the year continues and we approach the heart of the construction season.

Speaker 2

Over the past 3 years, we have significantly invested in our Materials segment. We expect this pattern to continue in 2024 with approximately $50,000,000 of planned strategic investments in further automation projects at plants, new reserve expansion and a new aggregate plant that is expected to come online later this year. We ended 2023 with 1,300,000,000 tons of reserves, an increase of 294,000,000 tons or 30% since 2021. This includes 140,000,000 tons of reserves added through acquisitions in 2023. In 2024, we will continue to explore M and A options for both bolt on opportunities and possible expansion in the new geographies.

Speaker 2

We remain very selective in our pursuits, but I'm hopeful we will complete additional materials M and A transactions in 2024. Now, I'll turn it over to Lisa to review our financial performance for the quarter.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Kyle. In the Q1 of 2024, we saw significant improvement in our financial performance compared to the Q1 of 2023. Revenue increased $112,000,000 or 20 percent. Gross profit increased $22,000,000 or 68 percent. Adjusted net loss improved $5,000,000 Adjusted EBITDA improved $18,000,000 and operating cash flow improved 101,000,000 dollars It is an exciting start to the year.

Speaker 3

In the construction segment, revenue increased $92,000,000 or 18% year over year to $595,000,000 driven by higher levels of cap and favorable weather. The increases in revenue were led by California, Utah and the Midwest. Construction segment gross profit improved $20,000,000 with a gross profit margin of 9.5%. The improvement in gross profit margin was largely due to a decrease in negative net revisions and estimates. The increase in gross profit was offset by $5,000,000 of seasonal gross losses from acquired businesses, including purchase accounting related depreciation and intangible asset amortization of 3,000,000 dollars In the Materials segment, revenue increased $20,000,000 year over year to $77,000,000 with gross profit increasing $2,000,000 to a gross loss of $3,000,000 The increase in materials revenue was primarily due to acquired businesses as well as increases in sales prices and volumes.

Speaker 3

The increase in gross profit was led by higher sales prices in both aggregates and asphalt, which was offset by losses from acquired businesses of $3,000,000 including $2,000,000 due to purchase accounting related depreciation and intangible asset amortization. Building on the momentum from the second half of twenty twenty three, cash flow significantly improved over the Q1 of 2023 with operating cash flow of $24,000,000 or $101,000,000 improvement. We have made significant strides in this area and our teams remain focused on cash generation. With our performance in the Q1, I believe we are on track to meet the operating cash flow target of 7% of revenue for 2024. During the quarter, total debt decreased $102,000,000 due to the full pay down of the revolver with a corresponding decrease in cash and marketable securities of $116,000,000 With our cash and marketable securities of $337,000,000 and availability under our credit agreement of $333,000,000 we have the liquidity to continue to invest in growing our operations, both organically and through M and A.

Speaker 3

We are continually reviewing opportunities for bolt on acquisitions to infill our existing footprint as well as expansion opportunities into new geographies such as the Lehman Roberts and Memphis Stone and Gravel transactions that closed late last year. While we continue to be very selective, I expect that we will pursue further M and A in 2024 that will add to our cash flow generation and lead to increased shareholder value. Now I'll briefly touch on our guidance for 2024. We are raising our adjusted EBITDA margin range from 9% to 11% to 9.5% to 11.5 percent. The only change in our assumptions from last quarter is that we have excluded non cash stock based compensation from adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker 3

This allows for adjusted EBITDA to be more comparable to our industry peers. Excluding non cash stock based compensation for the full year 2023 would have increased adjusted EBITDA margin from 7.7% to 8%. The Q1 of 2023 has been recast to reflect the adjustment. There is no other change to our guidance for 2024 and based on the Q1 results, I believe we are on track to meet our guidance. Now, I'll turn it back over to Kyle.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Lisa. I'll close with the following points. We started 2024 strong with significant growth in revenue, adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow compared to 2023. This builds upon the momentum carried into 2024 from the growth experienced in the second half of twenty twenty three. Our cap supports this growth remains high at $5,500,000,000 We see a continued strong public and private market environment supported by the IIJA and healthy state budgets across our geographies.

Speaker 2

Bidding opportunities ahead of us are robust and should provide excellent opportunities to continue to grow CAP, meet our growth objective in 2024 continue organic growth in 2025. Our guidance for 2024 is largely unchanged except for an increase in our adjusted EBITDA margin range to 9.5% to 11.5% based upon the exclusion of stock based compensation expense. I believe we are on track to meet our guidance for 2024. With our de risk portfolio, we are seeing the positive effects of our ability to generate cash. In a seasonally slow quarter, we generated positive operating cash flow and I expect to reach our target of operating cash flow of 7% of revenue for 2024.

Speaker 2

Finally, I expect further M and A to be completed in 2024. We're actively pursuing M and A that should drive cash flows and shareholder value. Operator, I will now turn it back to you for questions.

Operator

The first question comes from Brent Thielman with D. A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hey, thanks. Good morning.

Speaker 2

Good morning, Brent.

Speaker 4

Good morning. Kyle or Lisa, I guess maybe just first on the construction segment. Could you just talk about what you see in terms of performance of the new portfolio of work versus the old portfolio? Doesn't appear to be any meaningful drag from kind of the legacy stuff this quarter, but maybe you can just parse those two areas out and how you see things progressing there in that business segment?

Speaker 2

Sure. Well, certainly, we're off to a good start in the Q1, certainly on the top line and the bottom line relative to where we were in 2023. And I think it's, as you mentioned, it's the 1st year we haven't had the drag of really the ORP projects that we spoke about in the past and really good cap. So we came in, we've been building up high quality cap. We continue to do that and so we're seeing kind of the benefits of that, certainly as we get going here in 2024.

Speaker 4

Okay. And I guess second, just the materials business group, I know you've been doing a lot within that segment internally just in terms of investments, obviously externally as well. It's always a little difficult to see the effects of that in the bottom line for the Q1, just because of the seasonality, obviously. But maybe you could talk about the impact you're seeing from some of those investments you've made in that business group, what that's having on productivity, efficiencies, those sorts of things would be interesting to hear, Kyle. Yes.

Speaker 4

So it's

Speaker 2

a good question. And really, we've been reinvesting that business, as you all know now, for a couple of years, we've been focused a lot on reserves and reserve expansion. And so a lot of that's replacing reserves that we had invested in probably in previous years. So we're getting caught up in many ways. And we're starting to see the acquisition of Brunswick Canyon, CMR up in Canada start to play in.

Speaker 2

Late last year and into this year, we'll start seeing those ramp up. So the last is where the automation effort, we're making a lot of investments in automation. The first plant that's fully automated came online this year in Arizona. So we'll really start to see that ramp up for us in 2024 and beyond. And then we have another one coming online in Bakersfield in June.

Speaker 2

So I think it's still little bit to come. I think we've been making a lot of those incremental investments are going to pay off over really the long haul.

Speaker 4

And I

Speaker 2

think from a structure perspective, the timing is right for us. Our materials team has done a really nice job of growing the materials business and it's a big part of our business today. And as you mentioned, we continue to reinvest in our materials business. And we want to ensure that we're really maximizing the value in the materials business and getting return on those investments. And that's why we did this organizational change, it's really let our teams do what they do best.

Speaker 2

And overall, this is part of our transformation as a company and our journey. I don't think we have the organizational readiness to do this a couple of years ago, but we're certainly in a really good place today to make it happen. And so we believe that change will again help drive top line and bottom line growth beginning in 'twenty four, but into future years. Okay, very good. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Steven Ramsey with Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi, everyone. It's John calling in for Steven. Thanks for taking my question. So digging a little bit more to the material side, is there any kind of price volume factors you could discuss through this year, decent pricing? Do you kind of do you see that continuing?

Speaker 5

And then on the volume side, kind of what your just general thoughts are there?

Speaker 2

Yes, pretty consistent with what we shared on the last call. We see this year aggregate volume being relatively flat, which is healthy really compared to 2023. So the asphalt size where we saw improvement coming, which we can still believe is going to be the case, primarily in California. On the volume side, we have seen the pricing take hold that we said we're going to do, which was 10% on ag and 5% on asphalt. So that's good news there.

Speaker 2

And we're going to continue to kind of keep a pulse on the market and see there's further opportunities for us to adjust pricing accordingly.

Speaker 5

Got you. Okay. And then on the cap side, project bid environment right now, are you guys seeing any changes there? I think we're hearing that might be getting a little bit more crowded on some projects in some areas. Just curious as to kind of what your thoughts are as the years progressed and then the rest of 'twenty four, do you see any changes?

Speaker 2

Well, our cap has stayed fairly consistent sequentially. Obviously, we're up about $400,000,000 year over year. So we still feel really good about the cap we have. We feel really good about the quality of the cap that we have in place today. But I can tell you through April, we've been bidding more work this year than last year.

Speaker 2

So we're seeing better market from an activity perspective. We've been picking up more work through April of this year than where we were last year at the time and our margins on that work has increased as well. So we think the market is very healthy, remains healthy, both on the public and the private side. So maybe we're seeing a few things a little bit different than others.

Speaker 5

Got you. Great. Okay, thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from Jerry Revich with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi, this is Adam on for Jerry today. Thanks for taking my question. Historically, I think 2Q EBITDA margin steps up to above where full year margins end up for the year. How are you thinking about the margin cadence over the course of 2024 versus normal seasonality? Any puts and takes that we should keep in mind there?

Speaker 2

I don't know. I think you can probably go back and look at our typical seasonality. I think the hard part is, we're a lot different business than we have been historically. So certainly our risk profile of not having these mega projects, our goal has been now for the last couple of years really de risking the organization in our portfolio and providing more consistent financial performance. And so I think we're going to start to see that work itself through and we'll start to see a little bit less of volatility certainly in our EBITDA margin moving forward.

Speaker 2

So I'd probably look back at maybe some of the seasonality and then we'd have to take out some of the abnormality kind of the bigger movement items that we've had to deal with.

Speaker 6

And then can you just talk about what level of material cost inflation you're factoring into your bid today?

Speaker 2

Well, on the construction side, we bid every single project and we get coverage on the equationary items through subcontractors and suppliers. And then our owners also cover escalators and deescalators. So those are already factored in. It's hard to give you an material side, we have been able to increase our pricing, as I mentioned on aggregate and asphalt, but we've also kept the energy escalator that we put in place in April of 2022. So that really covers us on the natural gas and diesel on those cost fronts.

Speaker 6

Great. Thanks so much.

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank

Operator

you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Kyle Larkin for any closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Okay. Well, thank you for joining the call today. As always, we want to thank all of our employees for

Speaker 1

the work they do every day.

Speaker 2

I look forward to seeing many of you next week during the Construction Industries Safety Week. Thank you for joining the call and your interest in Granite. We look forward to speaking with you all soon.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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