Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Q4 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 29 Feb 2020

[Operator:]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Curtiss-Wright Fourth Quarter 2019 Financial Results Conference Call. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jim Ryan, Senior Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

[Jim Ryan:]

Thank you, Sydney and good morning everyone. Welcome to Curtiss-Wright’s fourth quarter 2019 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Dave Adams, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Glenn Tynan, our Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our call today is being webcast, and the press release, as well as a copy of today’s financial presentation is available for download through the Investor Relations section of our company website at www.curtisswright.com. A replay of this webcast also can be found on the website.

[Dave Adams:]

Thanks, Jim. Good morning, everyone. I will begin with a few highlights of our fourth quarter and full year 2019 results and a brief overview of our recently announced acquisitions. Then I will turn it over to Glenn to provide a detailed review of our full year 2020 guidance. Finally, I will return to wrap up our prepared remarks before we move on to Q&A. Starting with the fourth quarter highlights, we delivered a solid quarterly performance, which was slightly ahead of our expectations for operating margin and diluted EPS, and well ahead on free cash flow. Our adjusted results reflect strong defense sales and profitability, as well as the benefits of our ongoing margin improvement initiatives. These gains more than offset softer demand in some of our commercial and industrial markets, particularly in on and off-highway. We produced an operating margin of 18.8%, up 180 basis points year-over-year and a record fourth quarter diluted EPS of $2.12. Free cash flow was also very strong as we exceeded our guidance and generated a quarterly record of nearly $250 million, resulting in a 277% conversion rate. Please note that 2019 free cash flow benefited from approximately $20 million in advanced payments that we were expecting in 2020. Turning to our full year 2019 highlights where we achieved strong results across the board. We experienced sales increases in all three segments, led by double-digit sales growth in our defense markets. Adjusted operating income rose 7% on a 3% increase in sales, generating a 70 basis point improvement in adjusted operating margin to 16.5%. These results principally reflect improved profitability in the commercial/industrial and power segments, led by strong naval defense sales. Adjusted diluted EPS of $7.27 increased 14% year-over-year, reflecting a strong operational performance. We accomplished these results despite increased R&D investments and tariffs. We also produced solid growth in adjusted free cash flow, with a conversion rate of 121%, resulting primarily from our continued efforts to reduce working capital. This represents our seventh consecutive year, achieving more than 100% free cash flow conversion. New orders were up 6%, led by strong demand in naval defense, driving overall book-to-bill of 1.04 times, which ensures that we’re well positioned for continued solid sales growth in 2020.

[Glenn Tynan:]

Thank you, Dave and good morning everyone. I’ll begin with our 2020 end market sales guidance, where we expect overall growth of 4% to 6%, with increases in nearly every end market. In the defense markets, we expect growth of 8 to 10% overall and 4 to 6%, organically. This outlook reflects the continued favorable trends in defense, our solid backlog following very strong orders in 2019 and the contribution from the 901D acquisition. In aerospace defense, we expect sales growth to come from higher demand for actuation and flight test equipment, principally supporting the ramp-up on the F-35 program. In ground defense, sales growth is expected from planned modernization activity on the Bradley and Stryker platforms. In naval defense, we expect organic sales growth to be led by the ramp-up on the CVN-80 and 81 aircraft carrier programs, higher Virginia class submarine revenues and inorganic growth from 901D.

[Dave Adams:]

Thanks, Glenn. Before we shift to Q&A, I want to make a few closing remarks to broadly address the companywide restructuring initiatives and other investments planned for 2020. Similar to the past several years, you should expect to see a continuation of our ongoing margin improvement initiatives. We expect these initiatives to include restructuring, facility consolidations, supply chain and Lean savings and segment focus, which is dedicated to improving lower-margin businesses. These are proactive actions to ensure that we can enhance Curtiss-Wright’s profitability, both for tomorrow and years down the road, with a keen focus on remaining in the top quartile of our peer group. Given the sensitive nature of the restructuring activities as they relate to employees, facilities and customers, we are going to keep those discussions at a high level. We are balancing those efforts with continued investments in future organic growth, with another $10 million incremental increase in research and development investment planned for 2020. In addition, we expect to complete the relocation of our DRG business and transition all production to our new state-of-the-art facility in Charleston, South Carolina, by the end of the first quarter. As we look across the various initiatives discussed this morning, we are confident that these are the prudent investments required today to continue to deliver long-term profitable growth for our shareholders.

[Operator:]

And our first question comes from Myles Walton with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

[Myles Walton:]

Thanks. Good morning.

[Glenn Tynan:]

Good morning, Myles.

[Myles Walton:]

I was wondering if we can start on cash for a second, obviously, good performance there. And as you look to 2020, a couple of questions one, you put out a 3-year, $1 billion free cash flow target, which looks like you’ll easily eclipse. If you had any update on the thinking there. And then in terms of the pension contribution, Glenn, I think a couple of years ago or 2018, you did a 50 million, you thought that was going to cover you for five years, and now 150 million will cover you for five years. And so I just want to make sure I understand, are you using safe harbor for discount rates in the 25-year average? Are you using the spot rate to define what your funding requirements are?

[Glenn Tynan:]

I’m pretty sure we are using a spot rate, but it’s – what has changed is, as I said in the script, discount rate has now hit the lowest it’s been in 10 years, it’s been in a nose dive. We can go back a couple of years, and that’s where it started. And it was 17 – I think a 17 headwind we were looking at if we had not made the contribution, and that’s in 2020. That equated to about $0.31, $0.32 a share. So we wanted to mitigate that and kind of avoid cash contribution in the future. But it’s all based on the discount. If discount rate comes back, things will – that will change things dramatically, honestly.

[Myles Walton:]

And what is the position of the funding status at this point that’s implied for the plan?

[Glenn Tynan:]

I think it’s – I believe it’s fully funded, yes.

[Myles Walton:]

Okay and then maybe on the sales that you had on the CAP1000. I think you called out timing-related delay there. And then obviously, what’s implied is, I guess, recovery in 2020. Just Dave or Glenn, what’s the cause of the delay and what’s the confidence on kind of that recovery of the sales?

[Glenn Tynan:]

Well, the cause of the delay, if you go back to the third quarter, we had diverted some resources to these Sanmen – I am sorry, from the Sanmen issue – to the Sanmen issue, and we had higher – replaced it with higher revenues on the – from defense. That’s been resolved now, so that those sales – most of those sales shifted in 2020, about 20 of the 30 million that we moved out in the third quarter, and the remaining 10 is some time beyond 2020. So we’re very confident in those numbers now.

[Myles Walton:]

Okay. And then, Dave, as it relates to the aero side of the business, where, I guess, you’re looking for overall Boeing sales to be flat. Just kind of what are the sensitivities assumptions underlying that for the MAX and the 787? And then also it would require me to ask the question of your relative exposure to China and what pieces of your business might be more sensitive to coronavirus than not and how you are kind of gauging that within your guidance?

[Glenn Tynan:]

Well, I’ll add some to it, and Dave could comment if he wants. I mean just to recap, we’re maintaining our 52-month rate for our actuation equipment so that we’re under contract with, so we’ve not changed that. We have experienced a minor disruption in our non-actuation products, which are sensors and surface tech services, and we estimate immaterial impact that we have included in our guidance, about $10 million in sales that we expect in the first half of this year, and we expect to recover that in the second half of the year. And overall, we expect Boeing sales to be flat in 2020. So that’s the MAX part of our timing issue, half one, half two. Coronavirus is, again, just to give some perspective we have nine locations in China, including five manufacturing facilities. We have a little over 500 employees. Each facility has received approval to return to work. The current capacity levels range from 50 to 100%, depending upon the location, and our largest facility is at 85%. And knock on wood, thus far, no employees have been affected with the virus, so we are estimating, although it’s still a fluid situation, the financial impact could be, again, about $10 million in first half sales in the commercial/industrial segment that we expect to recover in the second half of the year. So it’s part of our half to half. In the power, I will mention, it could possibly have a slowing effect on the cadence of the CAP1000 revenues based on potential delays in receipt of approvals from China, but it’s just way too early to tell, and we’re not seeing any of that right now, but we’re just keeping our eye on it.

[Myles Walton:]

Okay. Thank you, guys.

[Operator:]

Thank you. And our next question comes from Peter Arment with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

[Eric Ruden:]

Hi, good morning. You’ve actually got Eric Ruden on the line for Peter this morning.

[Glenn Tynan:]

Good morning.

[Eric Ruden:]

Morning. Quick one for me, high level, just thinking about M&A going forward, your two recent acquisitions, 901D and now Dyna-Flo you just give your puts and takes on where you see the M&A environment given the recent market volatility, kind of where you’re seeing opportunities there?

[Dave Adams:]

Yes. Overall, the pipeline remains fairly decent for us. We were really encouraged last year when we saw 901D coming up and then Dyna-Flo and others that we’ve been in pursuit. And some of these take years, as we’ve talked in the past, but of these two, in particular, was just opportunistic today that we were able to announce Dyna-Flo, that’s ramped to the point where we could have that announcement. And we’re pretty specialized in what we acquire. If you followed us for very long, you’ve gotten to know us, and we’ve drawn a line in the sand that says, not below this point will we chase some projects. So it’s a very heavily scrutinized process that we go through. And I’d say, right now, like I said before, it’s a decent pipeline we are very careful on watching for overpaying. And some of that, you saw it in commercial aerospace over the last several years, and I’ve said over those last several years, we really want to get into that area or grow in that area too much from an acquisitive perspective because it has been pretty pricey. I haven’t seen much change there. On the industrial side, I think you can probably get some bargains right now, but for obvious reasons, and so we don’t really want to chase something down. But these two examples of what you’ve seen on 901 and Dyna-Flo are a great example of little niche product areas that complement what we do. And Dyna-Flo, I can just mention that as being the newest, and you’ve heard least about it, with their control valves, both linear and rotary and then isolation and actuators. These things all fit into the markets that we currently address with a supply or with a channels to market, where we have been absent. The particular, let’s say, the wrap-up of the pressure relief valve systems and subsystems, these now complete that system or subsystem level perspective, and we’ve been looking for this for a long time. And so it’s a great little pocket for us. It is a leader in their business. And when we find those, we tend to court them over a long period of time and then eventually, make it happen. We’ve got others like that with other products in the works today. So while we do apply a lot of scrutiny, and you haven’t seen, but four or so, five now, maybe in the last several years, you’ll continue to see that. And size will range from these smaller ones up to very large. And we’ve got, like Glenn said, we’ve got a lot of the dry power.

[Eric Ruden:]

Thanks. Appreciate the color. I’ll leave it at one for me.

[Dave Adams:]

Thanks.

[Operator:]

Thank you. And our next question comes from George Godfrey with CL King. Please proceed with your question.

[George Godfrey:]

Thank you. Two questions. First is, do you happen to have the bookings for the quarter there, I saw the 2.6, but I was just curious on the quarter?

[Dave Adams:]

The quarter was about a little under 600 million.

[George Godfrey:]

And then when the pension contribution of 150 million, that’s strictly related to the lowering of the discount rate, correct?

[Dave Adams:]

Correct.

[George Godfrey:]

Was the 50 million in 2018, 100% related to the…

[Dave Adams:]

Yes.

[George Godfrey:]

Okay.

[Dave Adams:]

Yes, it was the same situation that the discount rate has been declining for a number of years now, so…

[George Godfrey:]

Yes, well aware. Yes, okay. My question, are you able to recover any of those expenses, the pension contributions, going forward, from the government?

[Dave Adams:]

We are. There is a cash – I mentioned calculation as well for – well, all our defense businesses, but we don’t have that exact number right now, but yes, we will and yes, we have.

[George Godfrey:]

Okay. From the time that you make the contribution to the time you get some level of reimbursement, how many years is that or is it one year?

[Dave Adams:]

It’s usually a 3-year process. I think we submit our pricing – yes, our pricing to the government.

[George Godfrey:]

Got it.

[Dave Adams:]

So, we will submit it, obviously, in 2020.

[George Godfrey:]

Understood. Great, thank you for taking my questions.

[Dave Adams:]

Thank you, George.

[Operator:]

Thank you. And I’m not showing any further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Dave Adams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, for any further remarks.

[Dave Adams:]

Thanks, Sydney, and thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again during our first quarter 2020 earnings call. Have a great day. So long.

[Operator:]

Ladies and gentleman, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.