Dycom Industries : Q4 2021 Transcript

Dycom Industries, Inc. (NYSE: DY) Q4 2021 Results Conference Call March 3, 2020 9:00 AM ET CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS

Steven E. Nielsen, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Dycom Industries, Inc.

Ryan F. Urness, Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Dycom Industries, Inc. H. Andrew DeFerrari, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Dycom Industries, Inc.

OTHER PARTICIPANTS

Adam Robert Thalhimer, Analyst, Thompson Davis & Co., Inc. Alex Rygiel, Analyst, B. Riley Securities, Inc.

Brent Thielman, Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Co.

Eric Luebchow, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities LLC Noelle Christine Dilts, Analyst, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc. Jon D. Lopez, Analyst, The Vertical Trading Group LLC Alan Mitrani, Analyst, Sylvan Lake Asset Management LLC Alexander Dwyer, Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION SECTION

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Dycom Industries Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2021 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Steve Nielsen, President and Chief Executive Officer. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.

Steven E. Nielsen, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Dycom Industries, Inc.

Good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you for attending this conference call to review our fourth quarter fiscal 2021 results. Going to slide 2. During this call, we will be referring to a slide presentation, which can be found on our website's investor center main page. Relevant slides will be identified by number throughout our presentation. Today, we have on the call Drew DeFerrari, our Chief Financial Officer; and Ryan Urness, our General Counsel. Now, I will turn the call over to Ryan Urness.

Ryan F. Urness, Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Dycom Industries, Inc.

Thank you, Steve. The statements made during this call may be forward-looking in nature and are provided pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include all comments reflecting our expectations, assumptions or beliefs about future events or performance that do not relate solely to historical periods. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from our current projections, including those risks described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed March 2, 2020 and our other filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Steve?

Steven E. Nielsen, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Dycom Industries, Inc.

Thanks, Ryan. Now, moving to slide 4, and a review of our fourth quarter results. As we review our results, please note that in our comments today and in the accompanying slides, we reference certain non-GAAP measures. Specifically, in accordance with our 52/53-week calendar, this quarter included a 14th week. All references to organic revenue and organic growth exclude the effect of this additional week. We refer you to the Quarterly Reports section of our website for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their corresponding GAAP measures.

To begin, I want to express my sincere hope that everyone listening to this call as well as their families are healthy and safe. We are living in truly unprecedented and trying times for our country. I could not be prouder of our employees as they continue to serve our customers with real fortitude in difficult times. They have my thanks.

Now for the quarter. Revenue was $750.7 million, an increase of 1.8%. Organic revenue, excluding $5.7 million of storm restoration services in the quarter declined 6.2%. As we deployed 1 gigabit wireline networks, wireless/wireline converged networks and wireless networks, this quarter reflected an increase in demand from one of our top five customers.

Adjusted gross margins were 14.3% of revenue, reflecting the continued impacts of the complexity of a large customer program. Adjusted general and administrative expenses were 8.5%, and all of these factors produced adjusted EBITDA of $45.7 million or 6.1% of revenue and adjusted diluted loss per share of $0.07 compared to a loss of $0.23 in the year-ago quarter. Liquidity was strong as cash and availability under our credit facility was $570.5 million.

Finally, during the quarter, we repurchased 1.32 million shares of our common stock for $100 million, representing just over 4.15% of common stock outstanding. Even after this substantial repurchase, notional net debt only increased by $14.6 million during the quarter. In sum, over the last four quarters, we have reduced notional net debt by over $275 million, increased availability under our credit facility by a similar amount and meaningfully reduced shares outstanding. As our most recent share repurchase authorization has been exhausted, our board has newly authorized $150 million in share repurchases.

Now going to slide 5. Today, major industry participants are constructing or upgrading significant wireline networks across broad sections of the country. These wireline networks are generally designed to provision 1 gigabit network speeds to individual consumers and businesses, either directly or wirelessly using 5G technologies. Industry participants have stated their belief that a single high-capacity fiber network can most cost effectively deliver services to both consumers and businesses, enabling multiple revenue streams from a single investment.

This view appears to be increasing the appetite for fiber deployments, and we believe that the industry effort to deploy high-capacity fiber networks continues to meaningfully broaden our set of opportunities. Access to high-capacity telecommunications has become increasingly crucial to society in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in rural America. The wide and active participation in the recently completed FCC RDOF auction augurs well for dramatically increased rural network investment supported by private capital that in the case of at least some of the participants is expected to be significantly more than the FCC subsidy.

We are providing program management, planning, engineering and design, aerial, underground and wireless construction and fulfillment services for 1 gigabit deployments. These services are being provided across the country in numerous geographical areas to multiple customers, including customers who have initiated broad fiber deployments as well as customers who will shortly resume broad deployments and with whom, order flow has recently increased markedly. These deployments include networks consisting entirely of wired network elements as well as converged wireless/wireline multi-use networks.

Fiber network deployment opportunities are increasing in rural America as new industry participants respond to emerging societal incentives. We continue to provide integrated planning, engineering and design, procurement and construction, and maintenance services to several industry participants. Near-term macroeconomic effects and uncertainty may influence the execution of some customer plans. Customers continue to be focused on the possible macroeconomic effects of the pandemic on their business, with particular focus on SMB dislocations and overall consumer confidence and creditworthiness. We see some uncertainty in the overall municipal environment as authorities continue to manage the general effects of the pandemic on permitting and inspection processes. Overall, we remain confident that our scale and financial strength position us well to deliver valuable service to our customers.

Moving to slide 6. During the quarter, we experienced increased demand from one of our top five customers. Organic revenue decreased 6.2%. Our top five customers combined produced 69.4% of revenue, decreasing 15.5% organically, while all other customers increased 25.3% organically. Comcast was our largest customer at 18.8% of total revenue, or $140.9 million. Comcast grew 28.8% organically. Revenue from AT&T was $126.2 million, or

16.8% of revenue. AT&T was Dycom's second largest customer. Verizon was our third largest customer at 15.7% of revenue, or $117.8 million. Lumen was our fourth largest customer at $100.5 million, or 13.4% of revenue. And finally, revenue from Windstream was $36 million, or 4.8% of revenue. Windstream was our fifth largest customer.

This is the eighth consecutive quarter where all of our other customers, in aggregate, excluding the top five customers, have grown organically. In fact, our business with these customers has grown organically by double-digits each of the last two quarters. Of note, fiber construction revenue from electrical utilities was $44.1 million in the quarter or 5.9% of total revenue. This activity increased organically 125% year-over-year. We have extended our geographic reach and expanded our program management and network planning services. In fact, over the last several years, we have meaningfully increased the long-term value of our maintenance and operations business, a trend which we believe will parallel our deployment of 1 gigabit wireline direct and wireless/wireline converged networks as those deployments dramatically increase the amount of outside plant network that must be extended and maintained.

Now going to slide 7. Backlog at the end of the fourth quarter was $6.810 billion versus $5.412 billion at the end of the October 2020 quarter, increasing approximately $1.4 billion. Of this backlog, approximately $2.787 billion is expected to be completed in the next 12 months. The increase in backlog reflects renewals and new awards across a significant number of customers, offset in part by adjustments resulting from further communications regarding the reprioritization and rescoping of the components of a large program and our assessment of the expected pace of another component of the same program.

From AT&T, we received extensions as well as awards, expanding our covered services across a significant majority of our business. First, construction expansions in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida; second, extensions for construction and maintenance services agreements in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Florida; third, an extension and scope expansion for wireless services in Kentucky, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia; and finally, a five-year extension for locating services in California.

For Comcast, engineering agreements in Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Georgia. For Charter, construction and maintenance agreements in New York and Ohio. From Frontier, construction agreements in Connecticut and Florida and a construction and maintenance agreement in Florida. For Verizon, a construction agreement in Texas and renewal in Maryland and Virginia and locating agreements for various customers in Maryland and New Jersey. Headcount increased during the quarter to 14,276. Now, I will turn the call over to Drew for his financial review and outlook.

H. Andrew DeFerrari, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Dycom Industries, Inc.

Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. Going to slide 8. Contract revenues for Q4 were $750.7 million and organic revenue declined 6.2%. Q4 2021 included an additional week of operations due to the company's 52/53-week fiscal year. Adjusted EBITDA was $45.7 million, or 6.1% of revenue, compared to $44.5 million, or 6% of revenue, in Q4 2020. Non-GAAP adjusted gross margins were at 14.3% in Q4 and increased 10 basis points from Q4 2020. Gross margins were within our range of expectations for the quarter, but approximately 80 basis points below the midpoint of our expectations. This variance reflected approximately 100 basis points of pressure from a large customer program, offset in part by approximately 20 basis points of improved performance for several other customers.

G&A expense increased 25 basis points, reflecting higher performance-based compensation, offset in part by lower administrative costs compared to Q4 2020. The Q4 2021 non-GAAP effective income tax rate was 30%, including incremental tax benefits related to recent tax filings. For planning purposes for fiscal 2022, we estimate the non-GAAP effective income tax rate will be approximately 27%. Non-GAAP adjusted net loss was $0.07 per share in Q4 2021 compared to a net loss of $0.23 per share in Q4 2020. The improvement resulted from the after-tax benefits of higher adjusted EBITDA, lower depreciation and lower interest expense.

Now going to slide 9. Our balance sheet and financial position remains strong. During Q4, we repurchased 1,324,381 shares of our common stock at an average price per share of $75.51 in the open market for $100 million. Our board of directors has approved a new authorization of $150 million for share repurchases through August

2022. Over the past four quarters, we have reduced notional net debt by $276.4 million. We ended the quarter with $11.8 million of cash and equivalents, $105 million of revolver borrowings, $421.9 million of term loans and $58.3 million principal amount of convertible notes outstanding.

As of Q4, our liquidity was strong at $570.5 million. Cash flows from operations were robust at $102.4 million, bringing our year-to-date operating cash flow to $381.8 million from strong conversion of earnings to cash and prudent working capital management. The combined DSOs of accounts receivable and net contract assets was at 136 days, reflecting the impact of a large customer program. We expect improvement in the DSO metric in fiscal 2022 as the impact of this large customer program declines. Capital expenditures were $20.4 million during Q4, net of disposal proceeds, and gross CapEx was $21.9 million. Looking ahead to fiscal year 2022, we expect net CapEx to range from $150 million to $160 million. In summary, we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet and strong liquidity.

Going to slide 10. As we look ahead to the first quarter of fiscal 2022, we expect our results to be impacted by the adverse winter weather conditions experienced in many regions of the country. For the quarter ending May 1, 2021 as compared sequentially to the quarter ended January 30, 2021, the company expects contract revenues to range from in line to modestly lower and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of contract revenues to range from in line to modestly higher. The company believes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operating results, cash flows and financial condition is uncertain, unpredictable and could affect its ability to achieve these expected financial results.

Now, I will turn the call back to Steve.

Steven E. Nielsen, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Dycom Industries, Inc.

Thanks, Drew. Moving to slide 11. Within a challenged economy, we experienced strong award activity and capitalized on our significant strengths. First and foremost, we maintained significant customer presence throughout our markets. We are encouraged with the emerging breadth in our business. Our extensive market presence has allowed us to be at the forefront of evolving industry opportunities. Fiber deployments enabling new wireless technologies are underway in many regions of the country.

Telephone companies are deploying fiber-to-the-home to enable 1 gigabit high-speed connections. Increasingly, rural electric utilities are doing the same. Cable operators are deploying fiber to small and medium businesses and enterprises. A portion of these deployments are in anticipation of the customer sales process. Deployments to expand capacity as well as new build opportunities are underway. Dramatically increased speeds to consumers are being provisioned and consumer data usage is growing, particularly upstream.

Customers are consolidating supply chains, creating opportunities for market share growth and increasing the long-term value of our maintenance and operations business. As our nation and industry continues to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, we remain encouraged that our major customers are committed to multiyear capital spending initiatives. We are confident in our strategies, the prospects for our company, the capabilities of our dedicated employees and the experience of our management team as we navigate challenging times. Now, operator, we will open the call for questions.

QUESTION AND ANSWER SECTION

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Adam Thalhimer with Thompson Davis & Company. Your line is open.

Adam Robert Thalhimer, Analyst, Thompson Davis & Co., Inc.

Hey, good morning, guys.

Steven E. Nielsen, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Dycom Industries, Inc.