NYSE:NGS Natural Gas Services Group Q2 2024 Earnings Report $19.49 +0.09 (+0.46%) As of 03:30 PM Eastern This is a fair market value price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Natural Gas Services Group EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.34Consensus EPS $0.29Beat/MissBeat by +$0.05One Year Ago EPS$0.10Natural Gas Services Group Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$38.49 millionExpected Revenue$36.79 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$1.70 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/ANatural Gas Services Group Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2024Date8/14/2024TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateThursday, August 15, 2024Conference Call Time8:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsNatural Gas Services Group's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, May 13, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Natural Gas Services Group Q2 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 15, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Natural Gas Services Group Incorporated Quarter 2 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. Operator, assistance is available at any time during this conference by pressing 0 pound. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Anna Delgado. Operator00:00:22Please begin. Speaker 100:00:24Thank you, Luke, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during the course of this conference call, the company will be making forward looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Investors are cautioned that forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements. Finally, the company can give no assurance that such forward looking statements will prove to be correct. Natural Gas Services Group disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Speaker 100:01:11Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These and other risks are described in yesterday's earnings press release and in our filings with the SEC, including our Form 10 Q for the period ended June 30, 2024, Form 8ks and in our Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2023. These documents can be found in the Investors section of our website located at www.ngsgi.com. Should 1 or more of these risks materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially. In addition, our discussion today will reference certain non GAAP financial measures, including EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted gross margin, among others. Speaker 100:02:03For reconciliations of these non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable measures under GAAP, please see yesterday's earnings release. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Justin Jacobs. Justin? Speaker 200:02:19Thank you, Anna, and good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to our Q2 2024 earnings conference call. Thank you for joining us this morning. We appreciate your interest in Natural Gas Services Group. I'll start by introducing the team. Speaker 200:02:33Joining me on the call this morning is Brian Tucker, our President and Chief Operating Officer and John Bittner, our Interim Chief Financial Officer. I'll start today with a quick recap of the quarter, a brief discussion of updated guidance, followed by some high level remarks regarding the industry. I'll move next to our strategy with our 4 areas of growth opportunities and value levers and our progress to date. I'll then turn the call over to John Bittner, who will review the quarter in more detail. I'll end with a few closing comments on our increased guidance for 2024 and our longer term outlook, which remains quite bullish. Speaker 200:03:09As for our Q2 results, we are quite pleased with our performance as we reported higher revenue, net cash from operations and adjusted EBITDA, while delivering tangible results against the key growth and value levers I outlined in our last call. We reported a 45% increase in rental revenue year over year and a 4% increase sequentially, with the growth driven by more horsepower rented as well as rate increases. Adjusted EBITDA of $16,500,000 increased 67% compared to last year's Q2 and looking sequentially is right between our prior two quarters, which were $16,300,000 $16,900,000 Based on our results year to date and our favorable outlook moving into the second half of the year, we increased our 2024 adjusted EBITDA outlook from $61,000,000 to $67,000,000 to a range of $64,000,000 to $68,000,000 At the midpoint of the range, this equates to roughly 45% growth over 2023 after posting growth of 56% last year. I'm certainly pleased with our Q2 performance, but I'm particularly excited to announce our future growth plans. We are taking advantage of supply constraints, strong customer demand for both our equipment and service levels, along with our greater access to capital to grow our rental fleet. Speaker 200:04:28We increased our outlook for growth CapEx for 2024 and we expect it will be even higher in 2025. The increase to our CapEx guidance is to support the new long term contracts we recently signed with premier customers, including a long term customer who will become our 2nd largest customer once all these new units are operating in the field. The new contracts are all for large horsepower compression investments above our average rental rate for the fleet and above our target rate of return. Importantly, approximately 40% of the horsepower added as a result of these new contracts will be electric motor driven units. I think it is a testament to the strength of our customer relationships and the technological innovation of our units that we were able to move into the large horsepower electric space in an organic nature. Speaker 200:05:16Going forward, we can address market demand in any combination of natural gas engines and electric motor driven compression. With these new units, we have taken an important step to diversify our customer mix, reduce concentration with larger accounts and enhance our rental fleet capabilities. I'd like to take a second to thank all of our team members working out in the field, from the mechanics turning wrenches through district management. We could not have done this without your dedication and commitment to exceptional service. As for the market, both near and long term industry dynamics remain strong for us, and my comments from prior quarters hold true today. Speaker 200:05:52Demand for high horsepower compression remains strong, both from existing customers as well as new ones as evidenced by the new contracts we announced for large horsepower units. While the natural gas industry continues to see some instability in terms of pricing, this has a lesser impact on us as approximately 75% of our active fleet is in oil and liquids oriented basins where activity is primarily driven by oil. Crude oil prices remain relatively stable and the industry forecasts anticipate increased production over the coming years. As we look at the industry opportunity, we see significant growth on the horizon as customers are already looking out as far as 2026. I'd like to shift now to our strategy, using the 4 growth opportunities and value levers I discussed as the framework for tracking our progress. Speaker 200:06:42To recap, the first is optimizing our utilized fleet. 2nd, improving our asset utilization. 3rd, driving new unit growth, particularly in large horsepower. And 4th, executing accretive M and A. In Q2 and since quarter end, I believe we showed demonstrable progress against 2 of these buckets leading to our strong quarterly results and increased 2024 guidance. Speaker 200:07:05Let me start with asset utilization, which encompasses 2 parts, converting non cash assets into cash and increasing the utilization of our existing fleet. With respect to the former, our accounts receivable went from $42,000,000 to 33,000,000 dollars a $9,000,000 cash improvement in 1 quarter. This represents approximately $0.75 per share in cash. We believe there is more opportunity to reduce accounts receivable as well as create cash from other assets, notably the income tax receivable and owned real estate. Speaker 300:07:36I Speaker 200:07:40am confident that as we continue to execute, you will see more of our non cash assets converted into cash, leading to higher returns for our shareholders. As I noted on our last quarter call, this is an ongoing initiative and will take up to 24 months to fully execute. With respect to increasing utilization of our rental fleet, this is a key priority for us, but more of a medium term initiative as we look to make modest investments in our fleet to upgrade technology, convert units and increase unit readiness. We expect to have more information to share in future quarters. Next key opportunity is our fleet expansion and here we have made consistent progress with significantly more to come. Speaker 200:08:20As of June 30, we had 12.42 natural gas compressors totaling approximately 455,000 horsepower rented, representing a 22% increase in horsepower rented year over year. Horsepower utilization stood at 82.3%, which was up 370 basis points from last year. In our earnings release, we announced new contracts with blue chip customers to expand our fleet. As I mentioned, all of the new units are large horsepower and a significant portion are electric driven compression units. We will be increasing our growth CapEx this year and next year to support these contracts, something we are able to do given our leverage position and larger credit facility. Speaker 200:09:02These are material awards for natural gas services and are all long term contracts with return on invested capital projected above our target rate of 20%. As a result, I believe we'll see strong growth in revenue, utilization, profitability and cash flow. A key driver of these new contracts is our technology and commitment to innovation. We are consistently hearing this from our customers. Our technology stands apart as does our service and commitment to exceed customer expectations. Speaker 200:09:30Again, with many of our customers looking out towards 2026, this is another good sign for the future. And beyond the new awards, our pipeline is growing as is interest from large potential customers. I'll come back to this in my closing remarks, and it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to John. Speaker 400:09:49Thank you, Justin, and good morning, everyone. Let me jump into the review of our 2nd quarter results. Total revenue for the 3 months ended June 30, 2024 increased to $38,500,000 which was up $11,500,000 or 43 percent from $27,000,000 in Q2 2023. Our revenue was up from $36,900,000 for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024. Rental revenue for Q2 2024 was $34,900,000 dollars up from $24,100,000 in Q2 2023 for a 45% increase year over year and up $1,200,000 from $33,700,000 in Q1, a 4% sequential increase. Speaker 400:10:39Our total adjusted gross margin of $21,000,000 in the 2nd quarter increased approximately 65% when compared to $12,800,000 in the same period in 2023. Sequentially, total adjusted gross margin dollars decreased 1% from $21,100,000 last quarter. Adjusted gross margin as a percent of sales for Q2 2024 was 54.6% versus 47.4% for Q2 2023 and 57.2% in Q1 2024. This material increase year over year in margin percent was driven primarily by increased rental adjusted gross margins, driven by a combination of increased rented horsepower along with an increase in pricing from the previous year. The decrease from Q1 was driven by lower gross margins across the board in Q2, but primarily from lower rental adjusted gross margins in Q2 2024 as compared to Q1. Speaker 400:11:46Our rental adjusted gross margin dollars increased year over year to $20,700,000 for Q2 2024 from $12,800,000 in Q2 2023, representing a 62% increase. Sequentially, rental adjusted gross margin dollars were essentially flat, increasing by $78,000 from $20,600,000 in Q1 2024. Our rental adjusted gross margin as a percent of sales for Q2 2024 was 59.3% versus 52.9% for Q2 2023 and 61.1% in Q1 2024. As we mentioned on our last earnings call, our rental adjusted gross margins had been somewhat above historical levels for the previous two quarters. We stated that we expected these amounts to move in the direction of historical averages, and we saw that somewhat in Q2, with rental adjusted gross margins moving from approximately 61 percent of revenue for the previous two quarters to 59% for the most recent quarter. Speaker 400:13:00We expected the slight margin contraction and a movement toward historical averages. We will need to add incremental labor and overhead costs as we continue to grow. This combined with natural variability of maintenance repair cost do lead to some fluctuation in rental margins. With that said, we now have 3 successive quarters of strong rental margins, and we are increasingly confident about the margin potential of our business, as evidenced by the increase in our adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2024. SG and A expense for Q2 2024 was $4,800,000 or 12.4 percent of revenue versus $4,900,000 or 18 percent of revenue in Q2 2023. Speaker 400:13:53SG and A expense was $4,700,000 or 12.7 percent of revenue in Q1 2024. Factors leading to the increase in SG and A expense over Q1 include an increase in cost related to professional fees, specifically related to public company costs. Pretax operating income, dollars 8,500,000 for Q2 2024, which was improved from approximately $700,000 in Q2 2023 and was down sequentially from $9,300,000 in Q1. Net income in Q2 was $4,300,000 compared to $504,000 in Q2 2023, down slightly from $5,100,000 in Q1 2024. Earnings per share for Q2 2024 were $0.34 on both a basic and fully diluted basis, compared to $0.04 per share for Q2 2023 and earnings of $0.41 per share for Q1 2024. Speaker 400:15:01Our Q2 of 2024 adjusted EBITDA was $16,500,000 compared to 9,900,000 dollars in Q2 2023 or 67% increase year over year, with a 2% sequential decrease from $16,900,000 in Q1 2024. Our adjusted EBITDA in Q2 was negatively impacted by lower rental adjusted gross margin percent compared to Q1 2024 and Q4 2023, partially offset by 4% growth in our rental revenue from Q1 2024. At the end of Q2 2024, we had 12.42 rented units compared to 12.49 rented units as of June 30, 2023. In Q2 2024, rented units represented just under 455,000 horsepower compared to approximately 373,000 horsepower rented as of June 30, 2023. Our total fleet as of June 30, 2024 was 1899 units consisting of 552,599 horsepower, ending the quarter with a 65.4 percent utilization on a per unit basis and 82.3 percent utilization on a horsepower basis. Speaker 400:16:27Our average horsepower per unit as of June 30, 2024 was 291 horsepower per unit, up from 277 at year end 2023286 at the end of Q1 2024. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the 2nd quarter with $3,600,000 in cash and $163,000,000 outstanding on our amended and restated revolving credit facility. And looking at our 2 financial covenants contained in our credit agreement, our leverage ratio was 2.51x, down just slightly from 2.57x as of Q1. Our fixed charge coverage ratio for Q2 was 2.68x. Thus, we were comfortably in compliance with both of our financial covenants as of June 30, 2024. Speaker 400:17:20Our accounts receivable balance at June 30, 2024 was $33,000,000 a $9,300,000 decrease from Q1. On our last earnings call, we discussed the reasons why our receivables balance had become elevated from normal and expected levels. We stated at that time we felt this was more of a timing issue and that there was no real concern about our customers' willingness to pay. We're certainly pleased with the progress to date on accounts receivable, but continue to believe we have more improvement to make and that improvement is likely to take until the end of 2024 to fully achieve what we expect to be sustainable go forward levels. The net book value of our rental fleet at quarter end was approximately $388,000,000 We generated cash flow from operations of $31,100,000 in the first half of twenty twenty four compared to $22,600,000 for the first half of twenty twenty three. Speaker 400:18:25The increase is primarily related to higher net income in 2024 along with the reduction of our accounts receivable balance as discussed earlier in the call. We had capital expenditures of approximately $28,200,000 in the first half of the year, which can be broken out to $24,500,000 of new unit growth CapEx and rental upgrades, with the remaining $3,700,000 being maintenance CapEx. We paid down the balance on our amended and restated credit facility by a net $1,000,000 during the first half of twenty twenty four. With that, I will turn it over to Justin for some closing remarks. Speaker 200:19:06Thanks, John. With respect to our 2024 guidance, our current outlook for 2024 adjusted EBITDA is $64,000,000 to $68,000,000 which marks an increase from the prior guidance provided on our Q1 results call of $61,000,000 to $67,000,000 We've moved our range up based on our results through the first half of the year and our confidence in the margin generating potential of our rented compressor units. We are mindful of costs, looking to improve efficiencies, lowering non core expenses where we can and reallocating cash to growth and cash flow generating initiatives. With that said, there are some incremental investments that are necessary as it relates to improving scalability and efficiency of our operations in addition to making sure we have the best people in the industry. With respect to growth capital expenditures, we expect to spend between $60,000,000 to $80,000,000 in 2024, reflecting investments in new large horsepower compression units. Speaker 200:20:04As noted in our release, the wider range is primarily due to the fact that the contracts were just awarded and we are still working on the exact timing in terms of what will hit in Q4 2024 versus early next year. At the midpoint of our range, assuming $70,000,000 we would currently expect 2025 growth CapEx to increase by roughly 1 third over 2024. To the extent that 2024 is at the lower or higher end of the range, we would expect 2025 growth CapEx to adjust accordingly. This is a similar issue we faced in 2023 2024. While we are not providing 2025 guidance, we wanted the investment community to have a rough sense of the growth opportunities we currently have signed. Speaker 200:20:49As we move further into the year, we will update 2024 CapEx projections accordingly. It is our expectation that all the units related to these new contracts will be set in the field in 2025. Our outlook for 2024 maintenance CapEx remains unchanged at $8,000,000 to $11,000,000 with the majority of the expenditures related to our rental compression units with smaller amounts for field equipment, including trucks and other equipment. In terms of return on invested capital, our 2024 target remains at least 20%. In closing, we are taking advantage of the tight compression market, our industry leading technology and our strong customer relationships. Speaker 200:21:29We believe we are growing faster than our peers, certainly the public ones, and we are well positioned to capture an increasing share of the large horsepower compression market, including in the large horsepower electric market. We are profitable and continue to generate higher net cash from operating activities to reinvest in our business. Our balance sheet remains strong and our expanded credit facility provides us the flexibility to capture high return growth. We are executing on our strategy to drive cash flow and earnings while never losing sight on increasing both near and long term shareholder value. Considering the many opportunities on the horizon, I'm quite excited about what NGS can achieve in the coming years. Speaker 200:22:10This concludes our prepared remarks. So I'll ask the operator to queue up with the question and answer portion of our call. Operator00:22:16Luke, please go ahead. And ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. You. Our first question comes from Mr. Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital. Operator00:22:48Go ahead please. Speaker 500:22:51Good morning and congratulations on all the progress. Thanks Rob. Just want to get a little bit into the new contracts and the demand environment. I think you talked about a pretty good pipeline into 2025 and I guess the CapEx discussion implies that. But how is the demand environment and maybe just characterize kind of what you're seeing and when you start to see the next cadence of new contracts? Speaker 200:23:18Well, we just announced a bunch of them. So we're certainly focused on those right now and we're going to have significant activity in the second half of twenty twenty four and throughout 2025. So I think I could characterize overall that it is a robust environment in terms of demand for compression. And so we are going to have a very busy time in terms of getting all these new units set. Obviously, we had a bunch that are still coming on in the second half of twenty twenty four and into now 2025 is going to be a very active period in terms of getting new units out into the field. Speaker 200:24:02In terms of beyond that, we're already having and have been having conversations with customers for 20252026. And so that is kind of next on the docket, but overall it's an active environment. Speaker 500:24:23Okay, great. And I wasn't minimizing the new contracts you signed, so congratulations on how. Speaker 200:24:29It's okay, Robert. I appreciate it. Speaker 500:24:31I did want to ask about those. I think you said 40% were electric drive. How is that market developing? And I guess, what's sort of the comparison in that market of the rental rates and I guess the margins of that product line? Speaker 200:24:49I would call them just generally comparable. There's some differences in a number of different areas, but overall I would think of them as generally similar. In terms of the market, I think there has been a significant increase in demand for electric over the last several years. And then there is also a constraint, a practical constraint of is there power at the particular site to power these large machines? And the answer is in some cases yes and in some cases no. Speaker 200:25:27And our perspective is one of flexibility in being able to offer our customers whatever they need. Do they need natural gas? Is that what they wanted at a particular site or do they want electric? And so in that way, we really want to let the market decide that as the grid increases in terms of power that's provided and that's a reasonably uncertain exercise to understand at this point. We'll let our customers tell us what they want and we have the flexibility Speaker 600:26:00to be able to provide it for Speaker 500:26:04them. Okay, great. Thank you. I'll turn it over. Thanks, Rob. Operator00:26:08Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mr. Jim Roldison with Raymond James. Go ahead please. Speaker 600:26:16Hey, good morning guys. Good morning Jim. Justin, maybe you started talking with the new contracts and just referenced the fact that rates on those are higher than where your kind of fleet average is today. Maybe just a little sense of magnitude, so we can kind of think about where the ship is headed here over the next several quarters as those new contracts roll in? Just trying to understand that kind of delta there, if you don't mind. Speaker 200:26:46Sure. I mean, I'm not going to get into specifics on pricing. I want to indicate, that it is above the average for the fleet to show that it is overall a good pricing environment particularly for new equipment, if you have it available. And that it is I think supportive of the fact that these new units are going to be above our target return on invested capital. And so they're above, I'm not at a point where I want to quantify that amount, but they are above. Speaker 600:27:26Got it. And when I look at the range now of growth CapEx this year and you kind of alluded to where 25 is headed from there, just maybe a little bit of color on how much incremental horsepower that would equate to? Speaker 200:27:42We haven't disclosed the horsepower amount. I would say that the cost of building this horsepower is generally in line with what's out there in the market. A significant percentage of this is fabricated externally just because of the size we're doing that with partners at this point. And it's not a number that we've disclosed in terms of forward looking, although if you looked at the horsepower we've added over the last 1 to 2 years, it's generally going to be in line with those price levels. Speaker 600:28:22Got it. Appreciate that. And maybe just one last one on kind of your cash initiatives between DSOs, which you made really nice progress on this quarter and some of the other things you're doing. You mentioned the timeline could be out to 24 months, but curious if you have any visibility on some of these items just here over the next handful of quarters? Speaker 200:28:44Sure. There are a couple of buckets and timeframes. Certainly, we've shown good progress on the accounts receivable front and that is something that's a little bit more in our control. And I'm happy the way we've executed against that and continue to believe we will execute further on that. As John mentioned, it's something to get within kind of historical levels is by year end and certainly the recent past we've been well above historical levels, but we want to return back to that. Speaker 200:29:21The income tax receivable, we are making progress against, but we're dealing with a government agency there. And so at the end of the day, we are somewhat at their, if not significantly at their mercy, but we believe it is we will receive that and it's just a question of timing and we're doing everything on our side that we can to accelerate that. When it comes to the owned real estate, practically that's just a little bit longer term and I think that is probably more towards the range I gave up to 24 months. Certainly we hope to make progress more quickly, but it just does take some time with some real estate and there's some significant value there. And so we're it's something we're focused on. Speaker 200:30:07I think just the time is a little longer. Speaker 600:30:09Absolutely. Appreciate the color and thanks for the questions. Speaker 200:30:12Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it. Operator00:30:15Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mr. Tate Sullivan with the Maxim Group. Go ahead please. Speaker 300:30:22Hi, thank you. Can you talk about the procurement of the engines themselves? Is it a longer process than a couple of months ago? And is that part of your competitive advantage access to different kinds of engines than the competitors? Speaker 200:30:39I think that the procurement timeframe, it certainly isn't longer than it was over the past year or so and generally trending probably a little bit better. But it's still a long lead time item and it's not the only long lead time item. They're really kind of 3 longer lead time general items which are the engine, the compressor frame and then getting space with a fabricator to have it done. And those are all still slightly less than they were a year to 2 years ago, but it's still a long lead time item. And so that leads to some of the just uncertainty on exact timing of CapEx spend between 2024 and 25 of we're roughly 6 months to the end of the year as we were looking at these contracts and saying how much is going to fall in Q4 and Q1, but an expectation that they will all be set by the end of 2025. Speaker 200:31:44And so I think it is still a reasonably long lead time, but probably a little better than it was Speaker 300:31:51before. And related to your comments about industry leading technology, is that related to more than natural gas engines or what can you talk about what they're referring to with that? Speaker 200:32:02I think that those are the units overall. There are a couple of key items that I would point to in terms of the run times of our units and not the mechanical availability, but the actual run time that the customer sees due to our smart technology is quite strong and we've received a lot of favorable feedback from customers that delivers productivity to them. And that's important from a service level and ultimately profitability perspective on their end. So that's one component of it. And the second major component, which relates to engines, but also some of the technology that we put on to the units is reducing emissions and that is an increasingly important characteristic or need for the producers. Speaker 200:32:54And so those are certainly 2 of the big ones, not the only ones, but 2 of the larger drivers of the technology of the units where we're getting very favorable responses from customers. Speaker 300:33:07Thank you. And lastly, do you already have electric motor horsepower units in the field or when like the first? We do. Oh, you do. Okay. Speaker 300:33:16Yes, we do. Okay. And I assume the service related to those, is it much less compared to the natural gas engine components or not necessarily? Speaker 200:33:25It is lower, just because you have some lower levels of maintenance and that you got dealing with an electric motor versus an engine. Fewer moving parts, requires some less maintenance. But it is an area that we have significant experience going all the way back to fabricating these years ago. So it's an area that we have a good bit of experience from. Speaker 300:33:53Thank you very much. Speaker 200:33:54Thanks, Tate. Operator00:33:57Thank you very much. And our next question comes from Selman Akyol with Stifel. Go ahead please. Speaker 700:34:06Thank you. Good morning. Couple of quick ones for me. So you talked I think about 40% of your delivery is going to be electric drive and you've guided a little bit towards 2025. Would you expect that percentage to move meaningfully one way or the other as you look into 2025 and beyond? Speaker 200:34:26When just to confirm your question is, will the electric percentage differ much in 2025? Speaker 700:34:36Correct. Speaker 200:34:37That's a 24% I would say remainder of 202425 on the new contracts that's looking overall at 40%. Speaker 700:34:45Got it. And then is something changing out there because I mean especially for large horsepower, right, it's just not electric, but it's large electric. Is there something your customers are seeing that it's giving them confidence that to go that way because we've been hearing that that's still kind of a huge stumbling block. Speaker 200:35:06I think it was, I would say generally it's been the last several years that we've seen increasing although somewhat uneven interest in the large horsepower. I think there is an attractiveness from the operator's perspective in certainly the emission side as it relates to the compressor units and potentially some on the run time just with less maintenance. But that's assuming that there is that one power exists at that particular site and then 2, that it is consistent power. And that is I think really a material restriction in terms of the potential penetration on compression overall and specifically large horsepower. And there's a fair bit of uncertainty around that. Speaker 200:36:06The customers are uncertain as to will they have power for instances of they thought they would and then suddenly they didn't and they'd already planned to put electric horsepower there. And so I think the power supply and consistency is really the big question mark. And that's kind of an unknown, which is one of the reasons that we want to take an approach that is either or. It's whatever the customer wants there, we can supply either. And so I think there's significant interest. Speaker 200:36:37I think it will continue to increase over some long period of time, but it's going to be uneven. Speaker 700:36:43Got it. Are you and I know you focus on the Permian, we always talk about the Permian, but are you guys seeing demand in any other basins out there? Speaker 200:36:53I would say that the Permian is certainly the most robust, and for us with it around 75% of our business, the area that we focus the most. We are seeing certainly in other basins that are more oil driven. We're continuing to see demand. It's just on a relative basis for size for us, it's just smaller, but doesn't mean it's not there. Speaker 700:37:18Got it. And then last one for me. Can you just touch on your outlook for acquisitions? Speaker 200:37:24It's an ongoing process. I think it is an opportunity for us, but it's not one that we have to do for our shareholders to see, I believe very good returns. And so I think I look at it that way. It's an ongoing set of discussions with potential acquisitions, whether entire companies or portions of fleets, but it's not one that I feel that we are pressured to do. We are in an advantageous position to I think there is strategic logic to it, but we'll remain disciplined on the composition of the fleets that we're looking at, the customer mix, the basin and obviously valuation. Speaker 200:38:10And so it will be an ongoing process of which we'll continue to look at and we'll pull the trigger if we see something that we think makes sense for shareholders. Speaker 700:38:20In terms of just acquisitions, not thinking so much about another compression company, but just thinking about do you have customers who may be looking to sell units from basins that either are not working out as well as maybe originally thought? Speaker 200:38:36I'm sorry, Simon, would you just repeat the question? I'm not sure I Speaker 700:38:38understood that. Yes. Let me phrase it better. So are there any packages from your customers that you could potentially acquire from them where either the basin is not spooling up as fast as they thought or less of an emphasis? So is there any opportunity to buy compressor packages from your customers? Speaker 200:39:01I see from the customers. I missed that part, sorry. We've seen it, although that's not, I wouldn't describe that as a material portion of where we would where we are spending our time in M and A. If that becomes a larger opportunity, it's something that we'll certainly look at, but it's not a big part of it today. Speaker 700:39:19Understood. Thanks so much. Speaker 200:39:21Thank you. Operator00:39:24Thank you very much. And I don't see any other questions. Go ahead please. Speaker 200:39:44Thank you, Luke. And thanks for all of your questions and participation on the call. We sincerely appreciate your support. I want to thank all of our employees who delivered these results for our shareholders. I also want to thank our customers for trusting us with their business. Speaker 200:39:59We look forward to updating you on our progress in the next quarter. Thank you everyone and we're done with the call. Operator00:40:07This concludes today's conference call. Thank you everyone for attending.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallNatural Gas Services Group Q2 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Natural Gas Services Group Earnings HeadlinesNatural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Upgraded to Hold at StockNews.comApril 17 at 1:26 AM | americanbankingnews.comNatural Gas Services Group, Inc. Announces the Appointment of Anthony Gallegos to its Board of ...April 3, 2025 | gurufocus.comNow I look stupid. Real stupid... I thought what happened 25 years ago was a once- in-a-lifetime event… but how wrong I was. Because here we are, a quarter of a century later, almost to the exact day, and it’s happening again. April 17, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. Announces the Appointment of Anthony Gallegos to its Board of DirectorsApril 3, 2025 | globenewswire.comNatural Gas Services Group enjoys continued growthMarch 22, 2025 | msn.comNatural Gas Services reports Q4 and full-year resultsMarch 21, 2025 | investing.comSee More Natural Gas Services Group Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Natural Gas Services Group? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Natural Gas Services Group and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Natural Gas Services GroupNatural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) provides natural gas compression equipment and services to the energy industry in the United States. It engineers and fabricates, operates, rents, and maintains natural gas compressors for oil and natural gas production and plant facilities. It also designs, fabricates, and assembles compressor units for rental or sale; and designs, manufactures, and sells a line of reciprocating natural gas compressor frames, cylinders, and parts. In addition, the company offers flare stacks and related ignition and control devices for the onshore and offshore incineration of gas compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gases. Further, it provides aftermarket services for its compressor and flare sales business; and exchange and rebuild program for small horsepower screw compressors. It markets its products to exploration and production companies that utilize compressor units for artificial lift applications; and oil and natural gas exploration and production companies. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Midland, Texas.View Natural Gas Services Group ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles 3 Reasons to Like the Look of Amazon Ahead of EarningsTesla Stock Eyes Breakout With Earnings on DeckJohnson & Johnson Earnings Were More Good Than Bad—Time to Buy? 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There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Natural Gas Services Group Incorporated Quarter 2 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. Operator, assistance is available at any time during this conference by pressing 0 pound. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Anna Delgado. Operator00:00:22Please begin. Speaker 100:00:24Thank you, Luke, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during the course of this conference call, the company will be making forward looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Investors are cautioned that forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements. Finally, the company can give no assurance that such forward looking statements will prove to be correct. Natural Gas Services Group disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Speaker 100:01:11Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These and other risks are described in yesterday's earnings press release and in our filings with the SEC, including our Form 10 Q for the period ended June 30, 2024, Form 8ks and in our Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2023. These documents can be found in the Investors section of our website located at www.ngsgi.com. Should 1 or more of these risks materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially. In addition, our discussion today will reference certain non GAAP financial measures, including EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted gross margin, among others. Speaker 100:02:03For reconciliations of these non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable measures under GAAP, please see yesterday's earnings release. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Justin Jacobs. Justin? Speaker 200:02:19Thank you, Anna, and good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to our Q2 2024 earnings conference call. Thank you for joining us this morning. We appreciate your interest in Natural Gas Services Group. I'll start by introducing the team. Speaker 200:02:33Joining me on the call this morning is Brian Tucker, our President and Chief Operating Officer and John Bittner, our Interim Chief Financial Officer. I'll start today with a quick recap of the quarter, a brief discussion of updated guidance, followed by some high level remarks regarding the industry. I'll move next to our strategy with our 4 areas of growth opportunities and value levers and our progress to date. I'll then turn the call over to John Bittner, who will review the quarter in more detail. I'll end with a few closing comments on our increased guidance for 2024 and our longer term outlook, which remains quite bullish. Speaker 200:03:09As for our Q2 results, we are quite pleased with our performance as we reported higher revenue, net cash from operations and adjusted EBITDA, while delivering tangible results against the key growth and value levers I outlined in our last call. We reported a 45% increase in rental revenue year over year and a 4% increase sequentially, with the growth driven by more horsepower rented as well as rate increases. Adjusted EBITDA of $16,500,000 increased 67% compared to last year's Q2 and looking sequentially is right between our prior two quarters, which were $16,300,000 $16,900,000 Based on our results year to date and our favorable outlook moving into the second half of the year, we increased our 2024 adjusted EBITDA outlook from $61,000,000 to $67,000,000 to a range of $64,000,000 to $68,000,000 At the midpoint of the range, this equates to roughly 45% growth over 2023 after posting growth of 56% last year. I'm certainly pleased with our Q2 performance, but I'm particularly excited to announce our future growth plans. We are taking advantage of supply constraints, strong customer demand for both our equipment and service levels, along with our greater access to capital to grow our rental fleet. Speaker 200:04:28We increased our outlook for growth CapEx for 2024 and we expect it will be even higher in 2025. The increase to our CapEx guidance is to support the new long term contracts we recently signed with premier customers, including a long term customer who will become our 2nd largest customer once all these new units are operating in the field. The new contracts are all for large horsepower compression investments above our average rental rate for the fleet and above our target rate of return. Importantly, approximately 40% of the horsepower added as a result of these new contracts will be electric motor driven units. I think it is a testament to the strength of our customer relationships and the technological innovation of our units that we were able to move into the large horsepower electric space in an organic nature. Speaker 200:05:16Going forward, we can address market demand in any combination of natural gas engines and electric motor driven compression. With these new units, we have taken an important step to diversify our customer mix, reduce concentration with larger accounts and enhance our rental fleet capabilities. I'd like to take a second to thank all of our team members working out in the field, from the mechanics turning wrenches through district management. We could not have done this without your dedication and commitment to exceptional service. As for the market, both near and long term industry dynamics remain strong for us, and my comments from prior quarters hold true today. Speaker 200:05:52Demand for high horsepower compression remains strong, both from existing customers as well as new ones as evidenced by the new contracts we announced for large horsepower units. While the natural gas industry continues to see some instability in terms of pricing, this has a lesser impact on us as approximately 75% of our active fleet is in oil and liquids oriented basins where activity is primarily driven by oil. Crude oil prices remain relatively stable and the industry forecasts anticipate increased production over the coming years. As we look at the industry opportunity, we see significant growth on the horizon as customers are already looking out as far as 2026. I'd like to shift now to our strategy, using the 4 growth opportunities and value levers I discussed as the framework for tracking our progress. Speaker 200:06:42To recap, the first is optimizing our utilized fleet. 2nd, improving our asset utilization. 3rd, driving new unit growth, particularly in large horsepower. And 4th, executing accretive M and A. In Q2 and since quarter end, I believe we showed demonstrable progress against 2 of these buckets leading to our strong quarterly results and increased 2024 guidance. Speaker 200:07:05Let me start with asset utilization, which encompasses 2 parts, converting non cash assets into cash and increasing the utilization of our existing fleet. With respect to the former, our accounts receivable went from $42,000,000 to 33,000,000 dollars a $9,000,000 cash improvement in 1 quarter. This represents approximately $0.75 per share in cash. We believe there is more opportunity to reduce accounts receivable as well as create cash from other assets, notably the income tax receivable and owned real estate. Speaker 300:07:36I Speaker 200:07:40am confident that as we continue to execute, you will see more of our non cash assets converted into cash, leading to higher returns for our shareholders. As I noted on our last quarter call, this is an ongoing initiative and will take up to 24 months to fully execute. With respect to increasing utilization of our rental fleet, this is a key priority for us, but more of a medium term initiative as we look to make modest investments in our fleet to upgrade technology, convert units and increase unit readiness. We expect to have more information to share in future quarters. Next key opportunity is our fleet expansion and here we have made consistent progress with significantly more to come. Speaker 200:08:20As of June 30, we had 12.42 natural gas compressors totaling approximately 455,000 horsepower rented, representing a 22% increase in horsepower rented year over year. Horsepower utilization stood at 82.3%, which was up 370 basis points from last year. In our earnings release, we announced new contracts with blue chip customers to expand our fleet. As I mentioned, all of the new units are large horsepower and a significant portion are electric driven compression units. We will be increasing our growth CapEx this year and next year to support these contracts, something we are able to do given our leverage position and larger credit facility. Speaker 200:09:02These are material awards for natural gas services and are all long term contracts with return on invested capital projected above our target rate of 20%. As a result, I believe we'll see strong growth in revenue, utilization, profitability and cash flow. A key driver of these new contracts is our technology and commitment to innovation. We are consistently hearing this from our customers. Our technology stands apart as does our service and commitment to exceed customer expectations. Speaker 200:09:30Again, with many of our customers looking out towards 2026, this is another good sign for the future. And beyond the new awards, our pipeline is growing as is interest from large potential customers. I'll come back to this in my closing remarks, and it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to John. Speaker 400:09:49Thank you, Justin, and good morning, everyone. Let me jump into the review of our 2nd quarter results. Total revenue for the 3 months ended June 30, 2024 increased to $38,500,000 which was up $11,500,000 or 43 percent from $27,000,000 in Q2 2023. Our revenue was up from $36,900,000 for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024. Rental revenue for Q2 2024 was $34,900,000 dollars up from $24,100,000 in Q2 2023 for a 45% increase year over year and up $1,200,000 from $33,700,000 in Q1, a 4% sequential increase. Speaker 400:10:39Our total adjusted gross margin of $21,000,000 in the 2nd quarter increased approximately 65% when compared to $12,800,000 in the same period in 2023. Sequentially, total adjusted gross margin dollars decreased 1% from $21,100,000 last quarter. Adjusted gross margin as a percent of sales for Q2 2024 was 54.6% versus 47.4% for Q2 2023 and 57.2% in Q1 2024. This material increase year over year in margin percent was driven primarily by increased rental adjusted gross margins, driven by a combination of increased rented horsepower along with an increase in pricing from the previous year. The decrease from Q1 was driven by lower gross margins across the board in Q2, but primarily from lower rental adjusted gross margins in Q2 2024 as compared to Q1. Speaker 400:11:46Our rental adjusted gross margin dollars increased year over year to $20,700,000 for Q2 2024 from $12,800,000 in Q2 2023, representing a 62% increase. Sequentially, rental adjusted gross margin dollars were essentially flat, increasing by $78,000 from $20,600,000 in Q1 2024. Our rental adjusted gross margin as a percent of sales for Q2 2024 was 59.3% versus 52.9% for Q2 2023 and 61.1% in Q1 2024. As we mentioned on our last earnings call, our rental adjusted gross margins had been somewhat above historical levels for the previous two quarters. We stated that we expected these amounts to move in the direction of historical averages, and we saw that somewhat in Q2, with rental adjusted gross margins moving from approximately 61 percent of revenue for the previous two quarters to 59% for the most recent quarter. Speaker 400:13:00We expected the slight margin contraction and a movement toward historical averages. We will need to add incremental labor and overhead costs as we continue to grow. This combined with natural variability of maintenance repair cost do lead to some fluctuation in rental margins. With that said, we now have 3 successive quarters of strong rental margins, and we are increasingly confident about the margin potential of our business, as evidenced by the increase in our adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2024. SG and A expense for Q2 2024 was $4,800,000 or 12.4 percent of revenue versus $4,900,000 or 18 percent of revenue in Q2 2023. Speaker 400:13:53SG and A expense was $4,700,000 or 12.7 percent of revenue in Q1 2024. Factors leading to the increase in SG and A expense over Q1 include an increase in cost related to professional fees, specifically related to public company costs. Pretax operating income, dollars 8,500,000 for Q2 2024, which was improved from approximately $700,000 in Q2 2023 and was down sequentially from $9,300,000 in Q1. Net income in Q2 was $4,300,000 compared to $504,000 in Q2 2023, down slightly from $5,100,000 in Q1 2024. Earnings per share for Q2 2024 were $0.34 on both a basic and fully diluted basis, compared to $0.04 per share for Q2 2023 and earnings of $0.41 per share for Q1 2024. Speaker 400:15:01Our Q2 of 2024 adjusted EBITDA was $16,500,000 compared to 9,900,000 dollars in Q2 2023 or 67% increase year over year, with a 2% sequential decrease from $16,900,000 in Q1 2024. Our adjusted EBITDA in Q2 was negatively impacted by lower rental adjusted gross margin percent compared to Q1 2024 and Q4 2023, partially offset by 4% growth in our rental revenue from Q1 2024. At the end of Q2 2024, we had 12.42 rented units compared to 12.49 rented units as of June 30, 2023. In Q2 2024, rented units represented just under 455,000 horsepower compared to approximately 373,000 horsepower rented as of June 30, 2023. Our total fleet as of June 30, 2024 was 1899 units consisting of 552,599 horsepower, ending the quarter with a 65.4 percent utilization on a per unit basis and 82.3 percent utilization on a horsepower basis. Speaker 400:16:27Our average horsepower per unit as of June 30, 2024 was 291 horsepower per unit, up from 277 at year end 2023286 at the end of Q1 2024. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the 2nd quarter with $3,600,000 in cash and $163,000,000 outstanding on our amended and restated revolving credit facility. And looking at our 2 financial covenants contained in our credit agreement, our leverage ratio was 2.51x, down just slightly from 2.57x as of Q1. Our fixed charge coverage ratio for Q2 was 2.68x. Thus, we were comfortably in compliance with both of our financial covenants as of June 30, 2024. Speaker 400:17:20Our accounts receivable balance at June 30, 2024 was $33,000,000 a $9,300,000 decrease from Q1. On our last earnings call, we discussed the reasons why our receivables balance had become elevated from normal and expected levels. We stated at that time we felt this was more of a timing issue and that there was no real concern about our customers' willingness to pay. We're certainly pleased with the progress to date on accounts receivable, but continue to believe we have more improvement to make and that improvement is likely to take until the end of 2024 to fully achieve what we expect to be sustainable go forward levels. The net book value of our rental fleet at quarter end was approximately $388,000,000 We generated cash flow from operations of $31,100,000 in the first half of twenty twenty four compared to $22,600,000 for the first half of twenty twenty three. Speaker 400:18:25The increase is primarily related to higher net income in 2024 along with the reduction of our accounts receivable balance as discussed earlier in the call. We had capital expenditures of approximately $28,200,000 in the first half of the year, which can be broken out to $24,500,000 of new unit growth CapEx and rental upgrades, with the remaining $3,700,000 being maintenance CapEx. We paid down the balance on our amended and restated credit facility by a net $1,000,000 during the first half of twenty twenty four. With that, I will turn it over to Justin for some closing remarks. Speaker 200:19:06Thanks, John. With respect to our 2024 guidance, our current outlook for 2024 adjusted EBITDA is $64,000,000 to $68,000,000 which marks an increase from the prior guidance provided on our Q1 results call of $61,000,000 to $67,000,000 We've moved our range up based on our results through the first half of the year and our confidence in the margin generating potential of our rented compressor units. We are mindful of costs, looking to improve efficiencies, lowering non core expenses where we can and reallocating cash to growth and cash flow generating initiatives. With that said, there are some incremental investments that are necessary as it relates to improving scalability and efficiency of our operations in addition to making sure we have the best people in the industry. With respect to growth capital expenditures, we expect to spend between $60,000,000 to $80,000,000 in 2024, reflecting investments in new large horsepower compression units. Speaker 200:20:04As noted in our release, the wider range is primarily due to the fact that the contracts were just awarded and we are still working on the exact timing in terms of what will hit in Q4 2024 versus early next year. At the midpoint of our range, assuming $70,000,000 we would currently expect 2025 growth CapEx to increase by roughly 1 third over 2024. To the extent that 2024 is at the lower or higher end of the range, we would expect 2025 growth CapEx to adjust accordingly. This is a similar issue we faced in 2023 2024. While we are not providing 2025 guidance, we wanted the investment community to have a rough sense of the growth opportunities we currently have signed. Speaker 200:20:49As we move further into the year, we will update 2024 CapEx projections accordingly. It is our expectation that all the units related to these new contracts will be set in the field in 2025. Our outlook for 2024 maintenance CapEx remains unchanged at $8,000,000 to $11,000,000 with the majority of the expenditures related to our rental compression units with smaller amounts for field equipment, including trucks and other equipment. In terms of return on invested capital, our 2024 target remains at least 20%. In closing, we are taking advantage of the tight compression market, our industry leading technology and our strong customer relationships. Speaker 200:21:29We believe we are growing faster than our peers, certainly the public ones, and we are well positioned to capture an increasing share of the large horsepower compression market, including in the large horsepower electric market. We are profitable and continue to generate higher net cash from operating activities to reinvest in our business. Our balance sheet remains strong and our expanded credit facility provides us the flexibility to capture high return growth. We are executing on our strategy to drive cash flow and earnings while never losing sight on increasing both near and long term shareholder value. Considering the many opportunities on the horizon, I'm quite excited about what NGS can achieve in the coming years. Speaker 200:22:10This concludes our prepared remarks. So I'll ask the operator to queue up with the question and answer portion of our call. Operator00:22:16Luke, please go ahead. And ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. You. Our first question comes from Mr. Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital. Operator00:22:48Go ahead please. Speaker 500:22:51Good morning and congratulations on all the progress. Thanks Rob. Just want to get a little bit into the new contracts and the demand environment. I think you talked about a pretty good pipeline into 2025 and I guess the CapEx discussion implies that. But how is the demand environment and maybe just characterize kind of what you're seeing and when you start to see the next cadence of new contracts? Speaker 200:23:18Well, we just announced a bunch of them. So we're certainly focused on those right now and we're going to have significant activity in the second half of twenty twenty four and throughout 2025. So I think I could characterize overall that it is a robust environment in terms of demand for compression. And so we are going to have a very busy time in terms of getting all these new units set. Obviously, we had a bunch that are still coming on in the second half of twenty twenty four and into now 2025 is going to be a very active period in terms of getting new units out into the field. Speaker 200:24:02In terms of beyond that, we're already having and have been having conversations with customers for 20252026. And so that is kind of next on the docket, but overall it's an active environment. Speaker 500:24:23Okay, great. And I wasn't minimizing the new contracts you signed, so congratulations on how. Speaker 200:24:29It's okay, Robert. I appreciate it. Speaker 500:24:31I did want to ask about those. I think you said 40% were electric drive. How is that market developing? And I guess, what's sort of the comparison in that market of the rental rates and I guess the margins of that product line? Speaker 200:24:49I would call them just generally comparable. There's some differences in a number of different areas, but overall I would think of them as generally similar. In terms of the market, I think there has been a significant increase in demand for electric over the last several years. And then there is also a constraint, a practical constraint of is there power at the particular site to power these large machines? And the answer is in some cases yes and in some cases no. Speaker 200:25:27And our perspective is one of flexibility in being able to offer our customers whatever they need. Do they need natural gas? Is that what they wanted at a particular site or do they want electric? And so in that way, we really want to let the market decide that as the grid increases in terms of power that's provided and that's a reasonably uncertain exercise to understand at this point. We'll let our customers tell us what they want and we have the flexibility Speaker 600:26:00to be able to provide it for Speaker 500:26:04them. Okay, great. Thank you. I'll turn it over. Thanks, Rob. Operator00:26:08Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mr. Jim Roldison with Raymond James. Go ahead please. Speaker 600:26:16Hey, good morning guys. Good morning Jim. Justin, maybe you started talking with the new contracts and just referenced the fact that rates on those are higher than where your kind of fleet average is today. Maybe just a little sense of magnitude, so we can kind of think about where the ship is headed here over the next several quarters as those new contracts roll in? Just trying to understand that kind of delta there, if you don't mind. Speaker 200:26:46Sure. I mean, I'm not going to get into specifics on pricing. I want to indicate, that it is above the average for the fleet to show that it is overall a good pricing environment particularly for new equipment, if you have it available. And that it is I think supportive of the fact that these new units are going to be above our target return on invested capital. And so they're above, I'm not at a point where I want to quantify that amount, but they are above. Speaker 600:27:26Got it. And when I look at the range now of growth CapEx this year and you kind of alluded to where 25 is headed from there, just maybe a little bit of color on how much incremental horsepower that would equate to? Speaker 200:27:42We haven't disclosed the horsepower amount. I would say that the cost of building this horsepower is generally in line with what's out there in the market. A significant percentage of this is fabricated externally just because of the size we're doing that with partners at this point. And it's not a number that we've disclosed in terms of forward looking, although if you looked at the horsepower we've added over the last 1 to 2 years, it's generally going to be in line with those price levels. Speaker 600:28:22Got it. Appreciate that. And maybe just one last one on kind of your cash initiatives between DSOs, which you made really nice progress on this quarter and some of the other things you're doing. You mentioned the timeline could be out to 24 months, but curious if you have any visibility on some of these items just here over the next handful of quarters? Speaker 200:28:44Sure. There are a couple of buckets and timeframes. Certainly, we've shown good progress on the accounts receivable front and that is something that's a little bit more in our control. And I'm happy the way we've executed against that and continue to believe we will execute further on that. As John mentioned, it's something to get within kind of historical levels is by year end and certainly the recent past we've been well above historical levels, but we want to return back to that. Speaker 200:29:21The income tax receivable, we are making progress against, but we're dealing with a government agency there. And so at the end of the day, we are somewhat at their, if not significantly at their mercy, but we believe it is we will receive that and it's just a question of timing and we're doing everything on our side that we can to accelerate that. When it comes to the owned real estate, practically that's just a little bit longer term and I think that is probably more towards the range I gave up to 24 months. Certainly we hope to make progress more quickly, but it just does take some time with some real estate and there's some significant value there. And so we're it's something we're focused on. Speaker 200:30:07I think just the time is a little longer. Speaker 600:30:09Absolutely. Appreciate the color and thanks for the questions. Speaker 200:30:12Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it. Operator00:30:15Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mr. Tate Sullivan with the Maxim Group. Go ahead please. Speaker 300:30:22Hi, thank you. Can you talk about the procurement of the engines themselves? Is it a longer process than a couple of months ago? And is that part of your competitive advantage access to different kinds of engines than the competitors? Speaker 200:30:39I think that the procurement timeframe, it certainly isn't longer than it was over the past year or so and generally trending probably a little bit better. But it's still a long lead time item and it's not the only long lead time item. They're really kind of 3 longer lead time general items which are the engine, the compressor frame and then getting space with a fabricator to have it done. And those are all still slightly less than they were a year to 2 years ago, but it's still a long lead time item. And so that leads to some of the just uncertainty on exact timing of CapEx spend between 2024 and 25 of we're roughly 6 months to the end of the year as we were looking at these contracts and saying how much is going to fall in Q4 and Q1, but an expectation that they will all be set by the end of 2025. Speaker 200:31:44And so I think it is still a reasonably long lead time, but probably a little better than it was Speaker 300:31:51before. And related to your comments about industry leading technology, is that related to more than natural gas engines or what can you talk about what they're referring to with that? Speaker 200:32:02I think that those are the units overall. There are a couple of key items that I would point to in terms of the run times of our units and not the mechanical availability, but the actual run time that the customer sees due to our smart technology is quite strong and we've received a lot of favorable feedback from customers that delivers productivity to them. And that's important from a service level and ultimately profitability perspective on their end. So that's one component of it. And the second major component, which relates to engines, but also some of the technology that we put on to the units is reducing emissions and that is an increasingly important characteristic or need for the producers. Speaker 200:32:54And so those are certainly 2 of the big ones, not the only ones, but 2 of the larger drivers of the technology of the units where we're getting very favorable responses from customers. Speaker 300:33:07Thank you. And lastly, do you already have electric motor horsepower units in the field or when like the first? We do. Oh, you do. Okay. Speaker 300:33:16Yes, we do. Okay. And I assume the service related to those, is it much less compared to the natural gas engine components or not necessarily? Speaker 200:33:25It is lower, just because you have some lower levels of maintenance and that you got dealing with an electric motor versus an engine. Fewer moving parts, requires some less maintenance. But it is an area that we have significant experience going all the way back to fabricating these years ago. So it's an area that we have a good bit of experience from. Speaker 300:33:53Thank you very much. Speaker 200:33:54Thanks, Tate. Operator00:33:57Thank you very much. And our next question comes from Selman Akyol with Stifel. Go ahead please. Speaker 700:34:06Thank you. Good morning. Couple of quick ones for me. So you talked I think about 40% of your delivery is going to be electric drive and you've guided a little bit towards 2025. Would you expect that percentage to move meaningfully one way or the other as you look into 2025 and beyond? Speaker 200:34:26When just to confirm your question is, will the electric percentage differ much in 2025? Speaker 700:34:36Correct. Speaker 200:34:37That's a 24% I would say remainder of 202425 on the new contracts that's looking overall at 40%. Speaker 700:34:45Got it. And then is something changing out there because I mean especially for large horsepower, right, it's just not electric, but it's large electric. Is there something your customers are seeing that it's giving them confidence that to go that way because we've been hearing that that's still kind of a huge stumbling block. Speaker 200:35:06I think it was, I would say generally it's been the last several years that we've seen increasing although somewhat uneven interest in the large horsepower. I think there is an attractiveness from the operator's perspective in certainly the emission side as it relates to the compressor units and potentially some on the run time just with less maintenance. But that's assuming that there is that one power exists at that particular site and then 2, that it is consistent power. And that is I think really a material restriction in terms of the potential penetration on compression overall and specifically large horsepower. And there's a fair bit of uncertainty around that. Speaker 200:36:06The customers are uncertain as to will they have power for instances of they thought they would and then suddenly they didn't and they'd already planned to put electric horsepower there. And so I think the power supply and consistency is really the big question mark. And that's kind of an unknown, which is one of the reasons that we want to take an approach that is either or. It's whatever the customer wants there, we can supply either. And so I think there's significant interest. Speaker 200:36:37I think it will continue to increase over some long period of time, but it's going to be uneven. Speaker 700:36:43Got it. Are you and I know you focus on the Permian, we always talk about the Permian, but are you guys seeing demand in any other basins out there? Speaker 200:36:53I would say that the Permian is certainly the most robust, and for us with it around 75% of our business, the area that we focus the most. We are seeing certainly in other basins that are more oil driven. We're continuing to see demand. It's just on a relative basis for size for us, it's just smaller, but doesn't mean it's not there. Speaker 700:37:18Got it. And then last one for me. Can you just touch on your outlook for acquisitions? Speaker 200:37:24It's an ongoing process. I think it is an opportunity for us, but it's not one that we have to do for our shareholders to see, I believe very good returns. And so I think I look at it that way. It's an ongoing set of discussions with potential acquisitions, whether entire companies or portions of fleets, but it's not one that I feel that we are pressured to do. We are in an advantageous position to I think there is strategic logic to it, but we'll remain disciplined on the composition of the fleets that we're looking at, the customer mix, the basin and obviously valuation. Speaker 200:38:10And so it will be an ongoing process of which we'll continue to look at and we'll pull the trigger if we see something that we think makes sense for shareholders. Speaker 700:38:20In terms of just acquisitions, not thinking so much about another compression company, but just thinking about do you have customers who may be looking to sell units from basins that either are not working out as well as maybe originally thought? Speaker 200:38:36I'm sorry, Simon, would you just repeat the question? I'm not sure I Speaker 700:38:38understood that. Yes. Let me phrase it better. So are there any packages from your customers that you could potentially acquire from them where either the basin is not spooling up as fast as they thought or less of an emphasis? So is there any opportunity to buy compressor packages from your customers? Speaker 200:39:01I see from the customers. I missed that part, sorry. We've seen it, although that's not, I wouldn't describe that as a material portion of where we would where we are spending our time in M and A. If that becomes a larger opportunity, it's something that we'll certainly look at, but it's not a big part of it today. Speaker 700:39:19Understood. Thanks so much. Speaker 200:39:21Thank you. Operator00:39:24Thank you very much. And I don't see any other questions. Go ahead please. Speaker 200:39:44Thank you, Luke. And thanks for all of your questions and participation on the call. We sincerely appreciate your support. I want to thank all of our employees who delivered these results for our shareholders. I also want to thank our customers for trusting us with their business. Speaker 200:39:59We look forward to updating you on our progress in the next quarter. Thank you everyone and we're done with the call. Operator00:40:07This concludes today's conference call. Thank you everyone for attending.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by