Earnings Labs

LKQ Corporation (LKQ)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 28, 2016

$30.74

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the LKQ Corporation First Quarter 2016 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Joe Boutross, Investor Relations for LKQ Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Boutross. You may begin.

Joseph P. Boutross - Director-Investor Relations

Management

Thank you, Devon. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to LKQ's first quarter 2016 earnings conference call. With us today are Rob Wagman and Nick Zarcone. Please refer to the LKQ website at lkqcorp.com for our earnings release issued this morning, as well as the accompanying slide presentation for this call. Now let me quickly cover the Safe Harbor. Some of the statements that we make today may be considered forward-looking. These include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, hopes, intentions or strategies. Actual events or results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in our Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the SEC. During this call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in today's earnings press release as well as the slide presentation. And with that, I am happy to turn the call over to our CEO, Rob Wagman. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Joe. Good morning and thank you for joining us on the call today. This morning, I will begin our review of the quarter with a few high level financial metrics, followed by an update on our operating segments in the various macro trends, each segment witnessed in their respective markets and conclude with an update on our corporate development achievements in the quarter. Nick will follow with a detailed overview of our Q1 financial performance. Turning to slide three, Q1 revenue reached a record $1.92 billion, an increase of 8.3% as compared to $1.77 billion in the first quarter of 2015. Net income for the first quarter…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Bret Jordan with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Bret Jordan - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question

Hey. Good morning, guys. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Bret.

Bret Jordan - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question

Hey. On that ECP growth for stores open over 12 months of 5.8%, that's pretty strong. Is there anything going on? Is the market that strong or are you gaining market share in that region? Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hey, Bret. We're still taking market share for sure. And what I'm most excited about is we still haven't introduced our other product lines, being used, re-man to a (34:55) great extent. So, there's still opportunity there as well, but we believe we're taking market share. A little bit of a headwind there actually with the strong SAAR rate. We have to wait for those cars obviously to get into the independent aftermarket. So, we're very pleased with that number, it is very strong and we expect it to continue.

Bret Jordan - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And then on the PGW side, you mentioned you picked up a couple of contracts since you initially announced the deal. Can you share with us what those are? And is there a capacity constraint as far as your production capability or is it just the ability to outsource that class? Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. We can't share who they were, but they are locked in for future models. And as far as capacity, we do have the capacity to continue to take on new accounts. So that's not going to be a problem.

Bret Jordan - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question

Okay. Great. And then a housekeeping, do you have a feeling for what alternative parts were as a percentage of North American repair? Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: The last – we did that annually update, and it was at – at the end of 2015, Bret, it was still 36%.

Bret Jordan - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question

Okay. Great. And thank you. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Bret.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please proceed with your question.

Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please proceed with your question

Yeah. Thanks. Good morning, guys. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Ben.

Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please proceed with your question

Thanks for taking my questions. So in your self-service business, you accelerated the number of vehicles you purchased pretty materially, up 25%. Obviously, scrap still – trends have improved, but I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on that business line. Do you think we're reaching a turning point there? Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, I think the downturn in scrap, Ben, allowed us to buy a better car for less money and that's what's really driving the revenue there. We're putting better cars through the system and they are plentiful. So long term, scrap has ticked up slightly finally, so it seems to have bottomed out nicely. So we plan on continuing to buy aggressively in that line of business. Business has been very good there.

Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And then, we've heard some news recently about pretty severe hailstorms in the southern U.S., Texas primarily. Can you talk a little bit about what you think this means for your business going forward? Obviously, you've got the glass business now, it's good for your collision business as well, but just curious to hear your thoughts there. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah, absolutely. When we look at Q1, it was really a tale of two countries. We meet with CCC regularly, and they gave us some stats on the Northeast and the Mid-West being down and the number of – accident frequency and that was not the case in the Southwest and the West. And we actually had a strong double digit organic growth in both of those markets. So we do expect – I did see an ad by Caliber Collision that they are booked through September for collision repair. So, we do expect some nice tailwinds coming out of that market.

Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please proceed with your question

Great. And then just one housekeeping... Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: (37:41) PGW will also be able to realize that benefit as well.

Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please proceed with your question

Great. And then, just one last housekeeping. You said your guidance reflects a continuation of current scrap steel prices. Should we think of that $93 per ton that you realized in the first quarter as the price that's embedded in your guidance? Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Ben, this is Nick. Good morning. The $93 was the average for the quarter. Actually, as we came to the end of the quarter, was up a little bit, so we're kind of sitting right at around triple digits, which is great to be out of double digits, if you will. And so, that's really what's embedded in the guidance. Again, it's up a little bit which is good, but it's not up meaningful enough to really drive any sort of EPS accretion or...

Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please proceed with your question

Got it. So, it's end of the quarter price? Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah.

Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please proceed with your question

Great. Thanks. Best of luck. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Ben.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nate Brochmann with William Blair. Please proceed with your question. Nate J. Brochmann - William Blair & Co. LLC: Good morning, everyone. Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Nate, good mooning. Nate J. Brochmann - William Blair & Co. LLC: And so, if we kind of – and I know, Nick, you pointed this out in terms of you can't really tease it out in terms of the weather impact in the first quarter. But if we exclude that and kind of come in April a little bit in terms of more mile patterns year-over-year, can you talk about – like I mean, I would assume that the tailwinds are still existing in terms of increased miles driven, more parts per repair, and you talked about the more certified parts. I mean I would assume that, kind of moving out of that first quarter on the weather comp issue that you're still feeling good about the trends in the business and the tailwinds there. Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Absolutely, no change in the longer term tailwinds, Nate. We feel very good about what's happening to the car park. The age of the car park. The number of miles driven. The distractions on the road. I mean, all that is absolutely no change from our perspective. As Rob noted, there are parts of the countries that had a soft winter, particularly the Northeast, Mid-West and importantly Canada, which Rob didn't mention. The shops did not have a big backlog in April. But by the time you hit May and June, all that's flushed through the system and it shouldn't be an issue. Nate J. Brochmann - William Blair &…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of James Albertine with Stifel. Please proceed with your question. James J. Albertine, Jr. - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning. Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Good morning. James J. Albertine, Jr. - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Wanted to ask on the cost of goods sold side in North America with Manheim coming down here quite precipitously last few months, it would seem to be a benefit to your margins. But at the same time, you noted you're buying a higher quality and fewer higher quality vehicles. So, just wanted to get a better understanding of how we should think about modeling gross margin, imagining it's a benefit for 2Q and the balance of the year, but if you could help us sort of understand the magnitude there. Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah, Jamie. This is Nick. We're not anticipating a major pickup in – or a benefit on the cost of goods sold line. Again, the Manheim index is down a little bit, which ultimately helped us at the auctions a little bit. That said we are buying a newer car. You would have noticed that the average cost of the vehicle that we're buying was actually up, I think was about 9% in Q1 relative to last year. Now, our goal is to get more parts dollars off the car. And actually what we've been very consistent over the last several years in mentioning, as we've started to move towards buying a newer vehicle, while the gross margin dollars that we can get off that car go…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Craig Kennison with Robert W. Baird. Please proceed with your question. Craig R. Kennison - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. First, following upon on Bret's earlier question, have you run any scenarios at ECP, to evaluate the impact of T2 on your fulfillment rates or ultimately your growth rate there? Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: We do know Craig that, we're going to have a lot more capacity of the store products. We run at about a 98% fill rate today. What we think we'll be able to do though is rather than having, in some cases, where we have limited, much limited supply in the field, will be able to put more in the field because of these regional hubs we're developing as well. So, we will have a lot better ability to backfill quickly. So, we do think our speed to market will be quicker, as a result. And of course, just with the automation, we do expect a lot more efficiencies as well, both in terms of pulling quicker and getting to our customers even quicker as well. Craig R. Kennison - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Do you see any impact on inventory turns as a result of T2? Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: The near term, the inventory will go up a bit, Craig, only because we're going to be filling that warehouse while we will still have inventory in the two warehouses that we'll ultimately shut down. That's more of a timing issue. Ultimately it'll work through the system. The inventory may go up a bit but it's not going to be…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tony Cristello with BB&T Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question. Anthony F. Cristello - BB&T Capital Markets: Thank you. Good morning. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Tony. Anthony F. Cristello - BB&T Capital Markets: First question I had with respect to some of these initiatives on Roadnet and as well as on the sales force. I wonder if you could add a little bit more color in terms of which one do you think over the long term will give you a bit more of a benefit or greater efficiencies. And with respect to particularly the sales force initiative, some of the KPIs that are being implemented, are they going to drive overall higher fill rates or traction or customer service scores, or what should we think about in terms of the near-term benefit? Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Sure. If I rank them both, I would say, Roadnet's got the bigger impact for a couple of reasons. One, we can just be so much more confident with our customers as to when their products are going to be there. The route optimization is just incredible and how they route the drivers. For example, one thing it tries to do is take more right turns than left turns. So you can turn right on red as oppose to crossing traffic when you have to turn left. Those little efficiencies add up dramatically and the effect of ultimately probably putting fewer trucks on the road with better service is really going to have an impact on our customer base. As far as the sales KPIs, Tony, we're looking at total clock time, sitting with our reps, I think…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bill Armstrong with C.L. King & Associates. Please proceed with your question. William R. Armstrong - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: Good morning, guys. Most of mine have been answered. But on the Rhiag and PGW acquisitions, you've indicated what you thought the accretion might be in 2017 for a full annualized run rate. Any change to your – what are you seeing there? Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: No. Nothing, Bill. I mean the increase in our guidance is basically $0.17 a share. That's the exact same $0.17 that collectively we announced when we chatted about those transactions in December and February respectively, again picking up $0.11 from the Rhiag acquisition and $0.06 from the PGW transaction. When you think about how that gets spread for the quarters, obviously, the second quarter is going to have the smallest impact because while we have three months of Rhiag, we only have two months of PGW. So you probably want to think about that as maybe being a nickel of the $0.17. Then Q3 and Q4 would suggest about $0.06 a piece against – it may be $0.065 in Q3 and $0.055 in Q4 just because of the seasonality, some of the seasonality that we just talked about. But again, the $0.17 increase in our guidance is exactly consistent with what we've previously announced for the two transactions. And on – what we saw in Q1 even though they weren't on our ledger, if you will, they're tracking the plan which is good. William R. Armstrong - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: Okay. Great. Thanks for that color. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Bill. Devon, I think we have time for one more call.

Operator

Operator

Okay. Our next and final question comes from the line of Jason Rodgers with Great Lakes Review. Please proceed with your question.

Jason A. Rodgers - Great Lakes Review

Analyst · Great Lakes Review. Please proceed with your question

Thanks for squeezing me in. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hello, Jason.

Jason A. Rodgers - Great Lakes Review

Analyst · Great Lakes Review. Please proceed with your question

My questions are answered. Did want to ask though, if you could provide an estimate for interest expense for the year? Thanks. Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I don't have that at my fingertips. For the first quarter, our interest cost was running at about 3.8% on a total blended basis with all the fees and everything else. And we've got about $3.4 billion of debt, roughly probably $100 million, when you do that math.

Jason A. Rodgers - Great Lakes Review

Analyst · Great Lakes Review. Please proceed with your question

Thank you very much. Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: No problem.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments. Robert L. Wagman - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, everyone, for your time today. And we look forward to speaking with you in July, when we report our 2016 Q2 results. Have a great day. Dominick P. Zarcone - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks, everyone.