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Federal Signal Corporation (FSS)

Q2 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Jul 28, 2015

$111.73

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Federal Signal Corporation Second Quarter Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Brian Cooper, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please begin.

Brian Cooper

Management

Good morning and welcome to Federal Signal's second quarter 2015 conference call. I'm Brian Cooper, the company's Chief Financial Officer. Also on this call with me are Dennis Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer and Jennifer Sherman, our Chief Operating Officer. We will refer to some presentation slides today, as well as to the news release which we issued this morning. The slides can be followed online by going to our website federalsignal.com, clicking on the investor call icon and signing into the webcast. We have also posted the slide presentation and the news release under the Investor tab on our website. Dennis will lead off today, but before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of our comments made today may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to the Safe Harbor language found in today's news release and in Federal Signal's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents are available on our website. Our presentation also contains some measures that are not in accordance with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. In our news release and filings, we reconcile these non-GAAP measures to GAAP measures. In addition, we will file our Form 10-Q today. Now, I’ll turn the call over to Dennis.

Dennis Martin

Management

Thanks, Brian. We are happy to report another strong quarter and before Brian goes into more detail on the results for the quarter, I want to give a brief update on some of our strategic initiatives. We continue to focus on discipline growth making investments in businesses that we want to grow. These investments typically include producing newer, more sophisticated manufacturing equipment, adding capacity to the existing facilities and funding new product development initiatives. As you can see from the significant improvement in operating margin during the quarter, which included the improvement in each of our groups, we continue to benefit from leveraging invested capital and manufacturing efficiencies and cost. The 12.7% consolidated operating margin reported for the quarter was a record high and exceeded the long-term target that we have set for ourselves. Although it will vary from quarter-to-quarter, with continued focus on executing our strategies already twenty initiatives, our goal is to maintain a consolidated operating margin in the margin of 12% over the long-term. We continue to strive to diversify our customer base as well as our markets. With our innovation initiatives we’re responding quicker to the market needs, with the introduction of new products are designed to give us access to new customers. Of course one other way of achieving our objective of growing our industrial business at a faster pace than our missile business would be through an industrial focused acquisition program. With the additional M&A resources that we added earlier in the year, we are strengthening our acquisition pipeline. While we intend to continue to fund internal growth opportunities, we’re also committed to acquisition that create value for our shareholders and we would like to add at least $250 million from acquisitions to our revenue run rate over the next three years. We intend to continue to exercise discipline in considering acquisition opportunities. Jennifer is going to talk a little more on our evaluation process shortly. She’ll also provide some perspective on our performance and market conditions and talk about some of our growth initiatives. She’ll also give a detail of our outlook for the remainder of 2015. But first I’m going to turn things over to Brian to address our financial results for the quarter.

Brian Cooper

Management

Thank you, Dennis. As you’ve seen in our earnings news release, our second quarter results reflect a significant increase in operating income despite relatively flat sales. This translated to a significant improvement in consolidated operating margin. Consolidated net sales were $231 million for the quarter, down 2% compared to the prior year quarter. However, excluding foreign currency translation effects, consolidated net sales were up $4 million or 2%. Operating income was $29.2 million, up 22% versus last year. Consolidated operating margin was 12.7%, up an impressive 250 basis points compared to 10.2% a year ago. Income from continuing operations was $18.3 million for the second quarter, up 8% compared to the prior year. That translates to EPS $0.29 per share, which is up 7% compared to $0.27 per share last year. There are no material non-GAAP adjustments to our results in either period. Also in the quarter orders declined by 16% versus last year and backlog was $269 million, down from $356 million a year ago. Jennifer will elaborate on how we’re responding to softness in some of our markets and how these results factor into our view of the second half of 2015. As you can see in our group results, all three of our business groups reported improved operating margin versus Q2 last year. Foreign currency translation reduced second quarter orders and sales in our Fire Rescue Group and to a lesser extent in our Safety and Security Systems group. Although our top-line was affected, foreign currency changes have had no material impact on our bottom-line. The impact on second quarter consolidated operating income was less than 2%. Environmental Solutions Group drove much of the overall improvement in operating results, reporting a net sales increase of $7.4 million or 5% versus last year. This came on the strength…

Jennifer Sherman

Management

Thank you, Brian. I’ll like to start by adding a couple of comments on our strong quarterly results. I’ll then provide some perspective on what we’re seeing in our markets and talk about progress we’re making against some of our growth initiative, before wrapping things up with an update on our outlook for the rest of the year. As Brian mentioned, the Environmental Solutions Group had an outstanding quarter. It’s new 20% operating margin for the quarter is the highest it has ever been and reflects continued execution on 80/20 and lean initiative, leveraging capacity and utilizing our flexible manufacturing model. A highlight for the quarter was that our Elgin Sweeper facility completed to ship [ph] the highest number of street sweepers since 2006. At the Safety and Security systems Group, we continued to see strong performance in public safety markets both domestically and overseas, particularly in Southern Europe, which continues to show signs of improvement. On the Integrated Systems side, we saw some year-over-year decline in results. This is driven in part for the timing of orders and deliveries and by the unfavorable oil and gas market. However, we continue to be encouraged by the number of projects in our pipeline. The Fire Rescue Group, which is our Bronto Skylift business, reported nominal income for the quarter compared to a weak second quarter a year ago. As we’ve discussed previously, Bronto’s results can fluctuate significantly from period to period and could be impacted by the volume of unit shipments. During the second quarter, approximately $5 million of revenue and $1 million of profit was temporarily deferred. This was because the terms of a customer contract prevented us from recognize revenue in the second quarter despite the units being delivered. The Fire Rescue group’s second quarter gross margin improved to…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And we’ll go to Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital.

Steve Barger

Analyst

Good morning.

Dennis Martin

Management

Good morning, Steve.

Jennifer Sherman

Management

Good morning, Steve.

Steve Barger

Analyst

Good morning. Just let’s start on the acquisitions, $250 million and deals over three years certainly would be an exciting thing to see. You talked about wanting things that fit closely or you would be something transformational, how should we think about that in the context of the three segments? Could there be a fourth in the way that you see the realm?

Dennis Martin

Management

We haven’t focused on that, but there could be.

Steve Barger

Analyst

And just as you go out, you talked about being selective and disciplined, what’s your general philosophy around whether it’s better to buy a well-run business for a higher multiple or a fix it up for a lower multiple?

Dennis Martin

Management

I think, Steve, it will depend on how closer this is to the core of the company. So if we found a business that was very close to our distribution core, our manufacturing core, that needed to be 80/20, we would certainly take that project on and move ahead. We’d paid a little more obviously for something that’s running well. Again if it’s close to the core or we can see how it develops perhaps into a new area that we can be successful and for shareholders.

Steve Barger

Analyst

But it sounds like you wouldn’t buy something that was fixed up [ph] unless you felt like you really understood the business?

Dennis Martin

Management

We wouldn’t.

Steve Barger

Analyst

Okay. And I mean you’ve talked about both tuck-ins versus transformational, but just as you look at the acquisition environment out there right now and does this - does it seem more like you lean more towards a couple of $100 million deals? Or is this more like five, $50 million deals just based on the [indiscernible] of things that you see?

Dennis Martin

Management

Yeah, everything that we’ve looked at is range from $10 million to $800 million and obviously on the high end, 800 million would be too big I think for us. But it could be a combination of three or four smaller things, but as you know, we could do three or four each one takes the same amount of effort. So for example, one that we like that was in a couple of hundred million, 300 million range, we would certainly feel good about that too, so.

Steve Barger

Analyst

Okay, you definitely can get some product lines.

Brian Cooper

Management

And Steve, I was just going to say, I mean, to the extent we are doing a smaller acquisition, it’s more likely to be more in line to the product line acquisition or something like that, which again would fit the tuck-in category.

Steve Barger

Analyst

Understood, you’ve timed up some product lines over the past couple of years, anything else that you see as possible divestiture to kind of clean up the portfolio?

Dennis Martin

Management

Well, we constantly look at it and so we have nothing on the plan at this point, but one of our evaluation points is that constantly go back and look at the value to the shareholders over the long run of all our businesses. So we will continue to do that, but nothing on the immediate horizon.

Steve Barger

Analyst

And when you look value to the shareholders, is your primary filter? Or what is your primary filter whether it’s return on capital earnings growth? How do you think about the kind of business that fits into the portfolio?

Jennifer Sherman

Management

We really look at earnings growth. We look at where is our opportunity to use that business with the platform for future acquisitions which is critical and we look at the mix of industrial versus municipal, we’ve talked about that before. And as Dennis mentioned, we are constantly evaluating all of our businesses using those criteria.

Steve Barger

Analyst

Got it. One more and I will get back in line. You reaffirmed your guidance, which is good to see, implies $0.43 to $0.50 in the back half. Can you just give us a little more color on what you see as the primary factors or the big swing factors that could cause results to come into the high end or the low end?

Jennifer Sherman

Management

It really depends on performance at our Environmental Solutions business. Their backlogs right now, they’re full to the third quarter and we’re looking at the fourth quarter. So we feel good about our current guidance and we’ll update you at the end of the third quarter in terms of where we are for fourth quarter.

Dennis Martin

Management

FRG continuing to shift their backlogs will also make a big difference, Steve, so really a combination of that. We seem to be steady at SSG. So it really is already around the company.

Steve Barger

Analyst

All right. Thanks very much for the time.

Dennis Martin

Management

Thanks.

Brian Cooper

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We’ll go to Walter Liptak with Global Hunter.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

Hi, good morning guys. Congratulations on a nice quarter.

Dennis Martin

Management

Thanks, Wal.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

I wanted to ask about kind of along the lines of the M&A and your comments on corporate expense being up a little bit for professional fees. Can you give us some detail on what kind of professional fees you’re paying for?

Brian Cooper

Management

They relate to actually corporate matter. So I mean there are some legal costs and some other things, but it’s not a stuff that we would necessarily expect to continue over time.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

Okay, got it. [indiscernible] What do you think the - you’ve been talking about acquisitions for a while now. I wonder what you are thinking now for timing or are you close on something where we see something before the end of the year or is it 2016?

Brian Cooper

Management

So, Wal, I mean, the markets out there, they are very hard to call and you never know when things will get done. All I can tell you is, we have some active opportunities we’re looking at. Some of them are pretty small. A couple of them are a little bigger. They all kind of have their own pace and sometimes they fall off the tracks real fast. So we’re working on things, the pipeline or the funnel is a lot fuller than it used to be. We kind of had to rebuild our process. A couple of years ago, we had not really been in a position to be looking very actively at acquisitions and we’re doing that now. So more things are coming to us and we’re being more proactive with our businesses in identifying things. We would like to go after companies that we’d like to talk to and approach. So there are things going, but exactly when something can happen is something I’m not comfortable calling.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

Okay, great. And then one last one about the ESG business and your comment about trends in the market, I wonder if we can get more colors on North America or is it international where we’re seeing positive trends that should flow through into fourth quarter and maybe next year, then the third quarter production and mix for our products, how is that looking?

Dennis Martin

Management

We’re seeing activity, certainly activity in the sewer cleaner market. That’s good. Jennifer mentioned in her note that because we shortened our lead times with our new assembling processes of Vactor that we actually reduced the lead for customers, the dealers to place orders eight months out and that equates to our reduced backlog, probably 30 million of our reduced backlog, Wal. It’s just relative the fact that we can now shipped product out of stock in case of our Guzzlers. So I think some of the adjustments that we saw in the first quarter and the second quarter will kind of go away and we’ll see more normal trends of business in the third and fourth quarter for the ESG side. The international business, the orders there tend to be opportunistic and they come and go as we said last year that second quarter we had huge orders or multiple huge orders. We still see good order activity, but it’s not quite the same level of big fleet. So I think it’s going to be more of a steady trend and then at the end of the half we think we’ll - as we said that our guidance, mid guidance that we gave prior and we feel pretty good about that considering what’s going on in the economy.

Jennifer Sherman

Management

And we talked specifically about our municipal orders were up 37% over the last quarter and we continue to see a healthy outlook for municipal demand in our Environmental Solutions Group and our SSG businesses.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

Okay, great. Along those lines with the municipal orders up 37%, yeah, I guess, in SSG, where do you think orders picking up sequentially? Are you seeing it in North America? Or is it in Europe? Or where they’re becoming better?

Dennis Martin

Management

Right, Wal, they’re actually seen in both places. We’ve seen in our VAMA business as well as in the US.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

Okay, great. Okay thanks very much, guys. I will get back in queue.

Brian Cooper

Management

Thanks, Wal.

Jennifer Sherman

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we have a follow-up from Walter Liptak with Global Hunter.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

Okay, guys, I guess, I’m back.

Dennis Martin

Management

Yes.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

I wanted to ask about your O&G exposure and just the percentages we are looking at especially on SSG and what you’re hearing from the customer around timing for replacement trucks?

Brian Cooper

Management

I will give a short at that, Wal, and Jennifer and Dennis may want to elaborate. When we look at our exposures, ESG is probably pretty typical of the company between the ESG and SSG. We’ve got less than 10% of our revenue that we identified as coming from sort of oil and gas. Some of that is downstream, so it’s not necessarily affected by the oil and gas prices the way the other things are. But what we have seen is that a lot of our ESG products are serving - the fracking operations have reduced in oil and gas fields. So as that changes, our demand has been affected by more than just the direct effect, because some of the equipment that used to be deployed in the oil fields has been redeployed elsewhere. So I mean it’s somewhere in that rage 10% or so, which is attractive business for us, but we’ve done a nice job I think of capturing other business as we go and we’re using this as an opportunity to pursue some other markets.

Dennis Martin

Management

I think in this last quarter, Wal, we’ve had a bigger impact than the 9% or 10%. What’s happened here is lot of our rental customers and a lot of the customers who purchased equipment over the last year to serve the oil and gas had begun to sell off their equipment in the used market. So we’ve seen some deflation of demand by that, but I think that will - that should work its way through the market here and through this quarter, I think, eventually on to a more normal stream of orders through the factory for that, but there was more of that than we did expect.

Jennifer Sherman

Management

We have a concentrated effort right now to redeploy many of our sales people from oil and gas to other markets including utility. I talked about the new product introductions we have and we are encouraged by the results that we’ve seen to-date and we expect that to be a growing market for us.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

Okay. It sounds very good. Thanks very much.

Brian Cooper

Management

Thanks, Wal.

Jennifer Sherman

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Dennis Martin

Management

Okay, it sounds like we have no more questions. So in closing, I would like to reiterate that we’re excited about our progress and the opportunities in front of us and we appreciate the continued support of our stockholders, employees, distributors, dealers and customers and we thank them all. And thank you for joining our call today. Good-bye.

Operator

Operator

And that concludes today’s conference. We thank you for your participation.