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Powell Industries, Inc. (POWL)

Q3 2022 Earnings Call· Sat, Aug 6, 2022

$253.05

-0.97%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Powell Industries Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ryan Coleman, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Ryan Coleman

Analyst

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Powell Industries Conference Call today to review Fiscal Year 2022 Third Quarter Results. With me on the call are Brett Cope, Powell's Chairman and CEO; and Mike Metcalf, Powell's CFO. There will be a replay of today's call, and it will be available via webcast by going to the company's website, powellind.com, or a telephonic replay will be available until August 10. The information on how to access the replay was provided in yesterday's earnings release. Please note that the information reported on this call speaks only as of today, August 3, 2022, and therefore, you are advised that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate at the time of replay listening or transcript reading. This conference call includes certain statements, including statements related to the company's expectations of its future operating results that may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and that actual future results may differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition and competitive pressures, sensitivity to general economic and industry conditions, international, political and economic risks, availability and price of raw materials and execution of business strategies. For more information, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Brett.

Brett Cope

Analyst

Thank you, Ryan. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review Powell's Fiscal 2022 Third Quarter Results. I will make a few comments and then turn the call over to Mike for more financial commentary before we take your questions. Our third quarter was, in many ways, a continuation of the market trends and operational momentum we have built and operated in over the last few quarters. Order activity across our end markets remains robust and our industrial markets continue to recover and strengthen. Meanwhile, our efforts over the past several quarters to diversify the business to compete in new markets and to build a stronger services offering are yielding encouraging results. While macroeconomic factors such as material prices, labor availability and the global supply chain remain challenging, I have been very pleased with our team's ability to navigate those headwinds and keep Powell on a sound path towards higher project activity and improved profitability. Total revenue was $135 million in the quarter, representing growth of 17% compared to the prior year and sequential growth of 6%. Revenue from our oil and gas markets grew 19% compared to the prior year to $59 million, while our utility revenue grew 15% to over $30 million. Traction saw a decline of $4 million, mainly as a result of project timing, while our petrochemical revenue was relatively unchanged. On a year-to-date basis, revenue from our industrial end markets was higher by 19% compared to fiscal 2021 as we continue to experience improved customer order activity and encouraging positive momentum. We experienced strong demand as we secured $202 million of new orders in the third quarter. That figure is the highest quarterly new order total in over 2 years and marks 5 consecutive quarters of rising gross new order activity. Book-to-bill…

Michael Metcalf

Analyst

Thank you, Brett, and good morning, everyone. In the third quarter of fiscal 2022, we reported revenue of $135 million, higher by $20 million or 17% versus the same period in the prior year, and higher sequentially by 6%. New orders booked for the third fiscal quarter of 2022 were $202 million, $98 million higher versus the prior year and $51 million higher sequentially. As a result, our book-to-bill ratio was 1.5x in the current period. Backlog was $503 million at the end of the third fiscal quarter and is $77 million higher as compared to the same period a year ago. Compared to 1 year ago, domestic revenues were higher by 16% versus the prior year to $103 million, while international revenues were 19% higher compared to the prior year, driven by strong activity across our U.K. and Canadian operations. In total, international revenues were $32 million in the third fiscal quarter. From a market sector perspective, revenues across our oil and gas and petrochemical sectors were higher by 14% versus the prior year, while the utility sector was higher by 15% on a year-over-year basis. Additionally, we also experienced increasing volume across our other commercial end markets, which was 94% higher versus the third quarter of fiscal 2021. The volume in this sector is driven predominantly by product applications across data centers, universities and other miscellaneous commercial infrastructure. Offsetting these year-over-year increases, the traction power sector was lower by 29% versus the third fiscal quarter of 2021 on the timing of new large traction projects. Gross profit increased by $2 million versus the same period 1 year ago to $19 million in the third fiscal quarter. As a percentage of revenue, gross profit decreased by 76 basis points versus the prior year to 14.1% as we encountered operational…

Operator

Operator

Brett Cope

Analyst

Thank you, Matt. As we stated on today's call, our third quarter results marked another significant and positive step in the recovery, and we are optimistic as we evaluate the resiliency of our end markets in the face of global headwinds. We possess an incredibly talented team, a strong backlog and a robust balance sheet to allow us to execute over the coming quarters. With that, thank you for your participation on today's call. We appreciate your continued interest in Powell and look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

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