Ducommun Incorporated

All participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require assistance during the conference, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Chris Wampler. Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Controller, and Treasurer.

Thank you. And welcome to Dukaman's 2022 First Quarter Conference Call. With me today is Steve Oswald, Chairman, President, and CEO. I'm going to discuss certain limitations to any forward-looking statements regarding future events, projections, or performance that we may make during the prepared remarks or the Q&A session that follows. Certain statements today that are not historical facts, including any statements as to future market conditions, results of operations, and financial projections, are forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are therefore prospective. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. In addition, estimates of future operating results are based on the company's current business, which is subject to change. Particular risks facing Dukama include, among other things, the cyclicality of our end-use markets, the impact of COVID-19 on our operations or customers, the level of U.S. government defense spending, timing of orders from our customers, legal and regulatory risks, management changes, the cost of expansion and acquisition, competition, geopolitical developments, and disasters, natural or otherwise. These risks and others are described in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, and our forward-looking statements are subject to those risks. Statements made during this call are only as of the time made, and we do not intend to update any statements made in this presentation, except if and as required by regulatory authorities. This call also includes non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our filing with the SEC for a reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP measures referenced on this call. We filed our 2022 First Quarter Form 10-Q with the SEC today. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Steve Oswald for review of the operating results. Steve?

Okay, thank you, Chris. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today for our first quarter conference call. Today and as usual, I will give an update on the current situation of the company, after which Chris will review our financials in detail. The company remains focused first and foremost on the health and safety of our employees. The team has done an excellent job with the safety protocols put in place since March 2020. We continue to follow our best practices aligning with health authorities. Within the company, we had 287 cases of Omicron in Q1 of 2022, with 263 of them occurring in January. Turning to the Q1 financial results, the company's first quarter performance was very solid, the company delivering year-over-year revenue growth of 4%. This was excellent in light of the significant amount of COVID cases mentioned previously among the workforce in January. The commercial aerospace market recovery was a real bright spot in Q1. And Boeing's 737 MAX business was up over 100% year over year. And the Airbus A320 family also had a significant increase of over 80% year over year. The company's defense business, after great progress in the past two years, was down, but still delivered a solid performance. Finally, our overall commercial aerospace business showed good year-over-year revenue growth for the third consecutive quarter. We also posted solid gross profit of 19.9%, along with an adjusted EBITDA of 12.3%, despite the challenging start to the year. The team also posted adjusted operating income margins of 7.5%, which is good progress for the start of the year as we continue to build our track record of effective operational leadership and cost management in any environment. Quality of earnings was solid as well. The company reaching GAAP diluted EPS of 66 cents a share versus 55 cents a share for Q1 2021 and adjusted diluted EPS of 67 cents a share versus 66 cents in 2021. First quarter revenue was higher due to the Commons overall commercial aerospace growth, up 53% year over year, along with continued solid defense business versus prior year, though down on a fairly strong Q1 2021 number. The military and space program that had growth in Q1 included the F-18, F-16 Mir missile program, and other military rotary wing aircraft programs. Our continued approach to the defense market continues to be innovative products and processes as a tier one supplier that provides significant value to the customer, along with striving for a consistent high level of service. Raytheon Technologies as well was again our number one customer in Q1. We continue to benefit from the strategic supplier agreement signed with the missile and defense business over two years ago. We've been hard at work with current and new programs offloading and share shift with Raytheon Technologies and look forward to continuing to leverage that relationship in 2022 and 2023. I mentioned in the last call about the offloading from defense primes and the future benefits for the company. The work is progressing with Raytheon, GA, Northrop Grumman and others, and will be over 45 million in 2022 for strictly offloading, up from roughly 31 million in 2021. We then expect to double it to $90 million plus in 2023, a great deal of that in our circuit card business. The long-term run rate of programs already commercialized or in development will be over $125 million by 2025. These opportunities include Raytheon SPY6 products for GA, tow missile electronic harnesses and circuit cards, and the next generation jammer, which would be a major driver for revenue. The defense backlog was also a bright spot in Q1 and ended the quarter at $509 million. The commercial backlog also showed strong signs of recovery, increasing sequentially for the third consecutive quarter, from $276 million at the end of Q2 2021 to $377 million at the end of Q1 2022. a very good sign. The book-to-bill ratio for Q1 was 1.2. We are thrilled that the total backlog for Q1 reached an all-time high of $943 million for the company. The company's cost actions and lead organization are also continuing to pay dividends. Even before the pandemic, the company was working on initiatives to offset the 737 MAX beginning in Q4 2019. The effectiveness of our operational leadership and action since then, and through two years of COVID, will provide meaningful benefits as we move forward and gain scale across our businesses. SG&A spending in particular is a contributor, especially at the corporate level, which is among the industry leaders. In regards to the outlook, Our continued good momentum in commercial aerospace, along with our significant backlog in defense, will result in high single-digit revenue growth for the full year of 2022, which we are very pleased with. We estimate that revenue remains solid in defense, but over the quarters ahead, we will see more and more commercial aerospace volume return. Our high narrow-body to wide-body ratio for the business will also help us based on current challenges facing wide-body aircraft. The other bright spot for Dukama is our business aviation portfolio, which is up 70% in revenue year-over-year with a strong backlog, especially with GS. As mentioned in previous calls, we have the capacity, supply chain, and strong operating team ready to deliver the forecasted rate increases ahead, and we look forward to every opportunity. Another area for the companies and investors to discuss is M&A. We continue to be actively looking for companies that fit our model and believe this will only be an accelerator to higher results now and in the future. We had a significant win with the acquisition of MagSeal in December. I'm happy to report that the numbers are already ahead of plan and the integration has been excellent. I also want to mention that all of our acquisitions completed since 2017. have been integrated well, are leaders in their space, the financial numbers are ahead of expectations, and have added much needed high margin aftermarket revenue to the company. We will delve deeper into this performance at our upcoming investor meeting planned for the second half of this year, and stay tuned for the date. Before I move to the market commentary, we announced today a restructuring initiative which commenced subsequent to Q1 2022. Our team has taken this action to accelerate the achievement of our strategic goals to better position the company for stronger performance. We are still finalizing details as to the timing, certain actions, and operations affected, including facility repositioning-related expenses, impairment of long-lived assets, severance, and write-down of inventories. We currently anticipate this initiative will result in approximately $10 to $14 million in total pre-tax restructuring charges over the next 12 months. The company anticipates these destruction actions will result in estimated annual cost savings of approximately $3 to $4 million beginning in 2023. Now let me provide you with some color on our markets, products, and programs. Beginning with our military and space sector, We posted first quarter revenue of $99.3 million, a decrease versus 2021. Despite being down, this was a solid showing for the business in Q1. As mentioned earlier, we saw increases in demand for our F-18, F-16, Mir missile program, and other military rotary wing aircraft. First quarter military space revenue represented more than 70% of the Commons revenue in the period and this will be changing over time to reflect more balance with commercial aerospace. We also ended the first quarter with a solid backlog of $509 million, which represents 54% of the economy's total backlog. Then our commercial aerospace operations. First quarter revenue increased year over year to $54.1 million, driven mainly by bill rate increases on large aircraft platforms, business aviation, and in-flight products for Viasat. Tucomit expects a meaningful improvement in the commercial aerospace markets overall for the rest of 2022 and 2023. And the future is very bright across our product offerings, including our industry-leading titanium structural business. The backlog within our commercial aerospace sector stands at roughly 376 million at the end of the first quarter, a significant increase sequentially compared to Q4 2021 and the third consecutive quarter of growth. With that, I'll have Chris review our financial results in detail. Chris?

Thank you, Steve, and good afternoon again, everyone. As a reminder, please see the company's 10Q and Q1 earnings release for a further description of information mentioned on today's call. As Steve discussed, our first quarter results reflected another period of solid performance. The first quarter results saw a strong increase in commercial aerospace revenue. We're pleased to see the continued strength and overall travel demand, which should drive higher shipments going forward. We're off to a decent start in 2022 and are looking forward to building on our Q1 2022 results and are in a position to do so. Now turning to our first quarter results, let me review some of the highlights. Revenue for the first quarter of 2022 was $163.5 million versus $157.2 million for the first quarter of 2021. The year-over-year increase reflects 18.7 million of growth across our commercial aerospace platforms, partially offset by 14.8 million of lower revenue within the military and space sector. A portion of the year-over-year increase is directly attributable to MagSeal, which we acquired in December 2021. Thus, our overall growth was a combination of organic and inorganic. Tacoma's overall backlog at the end of the first quarter was approximately 943 million, an all-time high. reflecting recent growth across our commercial aerospace platforms, setting up the company for strong top-line performance for the rest of 2022 and beyond. Our defense backlog remains strong at $509 million and has us positioned for another strong year for our defense business. As a reminder, we define backlog as potential revenue based on customer purchase orders and long-term agreements with firm fixed prices and expected delivery dates of 24 months or less. We posted total gross profit of $32.5 million for the quarter versus $33.1 million in the prior year period, while gross margins were 19.9% and 21.1% in 2022 and 2021, respectively. The decrease in margin year over year reflects unfavorable product mix, partially offset by lower compensation and benefit costs. During the first part of Q1, our workforce availability was impacted by the COVID Omicron variant, as well as harsh winter weather in the Midwest. The ripple effects of these items slowed production in some performance centers. Also, while we were not immune to supply chain issues, we were able to manage through another quarter without significant supply chain impacts through our proactive supply chain efforts, executing strategic buys, leveraging our performance center flexibility, and utilizing inventory that we had invested in. SG&A was $23.4 million in the first quarter versus $22.5 million last year. The increase largely reflects one-time severance charges. Newcomen reported operating income for the first quarter of $9.1 million or 5.6% of revenue compared to $10.6 million or 6.8% of revenue in the prior year period. Adjusted operating income was $12.3 million or 7.5% of revenue this quarter compared to $12.3 million or 7.8% of revenue in the comparable period last year. Our definition of adjusted income now includes an add-back for acquisition-related amortization expense. As a result of this change, we have recast comparable numbers with this methodology. Interest expense was $2.4 million for the first quarter of 2022 versus $2.8 million in the prior year period. The company reported net income for the first quarter of 2022 of $8.1 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, compared to net income of $6.7 million, or $0.55 per diluted share, a year ago. The increase year-over-year includes other income of $3.0 million for the insurance recoveries related to business interruption related to our Guaymas recovery. On an adjusted basis, the company reported net income of $8.3 million or $0.67 per diluted share compared to net income of $8 million or $0.66 in 2021. Both the adjusted net income and adjusted diluted EPS amounts include the aforementioned add-back of acquisition-related amortization expense. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $20.1 million or 12.3% of revenue compared to $21.1 million, or 13.5% of revenue for the comparable period in 2021. Now let me turn to the segment results. Our structural segment segment posted revenue of $66 million in the first quarter of 2022 versus $58 million last year. The year-over-year increase reflects $12.8 million of higher sales across our commercial aerospace applications, partially offset by $4.9 million of lower revenue within the company's military and space markets. Structural segments operating income for the quarter was $4.9 million or 7.4% of revenue compared to $5.1 million or 8.8% of revenue last year. The year-over-year operating margin decrease was primarily due to unfavorable product mix partially offset by favorable manufacturing volume and lower compensation and benefit costs. Excluding inventory purchase accounting adjustments and other adjustments in both years, The segment operating margin was 11.7% in 2022 versus 11.1% in 2021. As a reminder, the recently acquired MagSeal business results are a part of the structure's business. Our electronic system segment posted revenue of $97.5 million in the first quarter of 2022 versus $99.1 million in the prior year period. These results reflect $9.9 million of lower revenue across the company's military and space customers, partially offset by $5.9 million of higher commercial aerospace revenue. Electronic systems operating income for the first quarter was $9.4 million, or 9.7% of revenue, versus $12.5 million, or 12.6% of revenue in the prior year period, primarily reflecting unfavorable manufacturing volume and product mix. As mentioned earlier, the impacts of COVID and the winter weather presented challenges in Q1 for us. The challenges were more prevalent in the Midwestern portion of the country, which is where the majority of our electronics business operates. Corporate general administrative expenses. CG&A expense for the first quarter of 2022 was $5.2 million, or 3.2% of revenue, versus $7 million, or 4.5% of revenue in 2021. The year-over-year decrease was primarily due to lower compensation and benefit costs. Turning to liquidity and capital resources. We have available liquidity of $119 million. We used $18.9 million of cash from operations this quarter compared to cash used of $23.4 million in the prior year period. The first quarter typically results in a cash outflow from operations as we pay our annual incentives and invest in working capital to support expected business growth. We made voluntary pay downs on our term loans of $30 million in the current quarter. Our 12-month debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio was 2.6 and remains amongst the lowest in the last several years. As a reminder, during Q4 2021, we increased retained earnings and shareholders' equity by over $115 million, which was an increase of over 30%. This was as a result of the gain related to our successful sale-leaseback project. It was a great outcome. In terms of capital expenditures, we spent $4.8 million during the quarter Going forward, we anticipate spending between $16 million to $18 million for the full year 2022 for sustaining capital and ongoing product development. As Steve mentioned earlier, subsequent to our quarter end, we approved and commenced a restructuring plan. The details and timing of certain actions are being finalized, but we currently anticipate this initiative will result in approximately $10 million to $14 million in total pre-tax restructure charges over the next 12 months. We'll provide additional details in future calls. In conclusion, in the first quarter, we posted solid results while growing our commercial aerospace backlog, setting us up for continued strong performance for the rest of 2022 and beyond. We expect to see our top line and bottom line pick up momentum from Q1 as we move through the year. We significantly improved our gross debt position by paying down $30 million on our term loans. We'll continue to look at our operations for opportunities to accelerate our growth as we look to deliver stronger operating results and returns for our investors going forward. I'll now turn it back over to Steve for his closing remarks. Steve?

Okay, thanks, Chris. Okay, so in closing, you know, it's a very good start to the year despite a few temporary challenges. I'd like to take this time again this quarter to thank our common employees along with our investors, suppliers, and other stakeholders for their continued support. We've done a great job managing the business and maintaining a level of excellence in 2020 and 2021. And all of our hard and smart work will now pay off in full in the next few years ahead. So we're very optimistic. We thank you for listening, and we'll now open it for questions. Operator?

As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press the pound key. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Pete Osterlin from Truist Securities.

Hey, good evening. This is Pete on for Mike Trimoli. Thanks for taking the question. First, I just wanted to ask where you are on production rates for the 737 MAX. Are you currently aligned with underlying OEM build rates or Are there any differences for your current production rates due to lead times or inventories in the system? What are your expectations for where production rates will be going throughout the rest of the year?

We're right aligned with Boeing and right aligned with Airbus as far as the build rates. One of the bright spots for DeCommon is we're in a very good position with our titanium inventories. We have We feel very good about where we are. We're, you know, sort of shoulder to shoulder with both companies, as well as with Gulfstream and other manufacturers. So we feel great about, you know, where we are with inventory. We're, you know, pretty much aligned. And I'll mention Spirit as well because they're a big customer of ours. So I think we're in very good shape.

We had one thing there. Great, thanks. Just to add, Pete, just to add real quickly, too, your other part of your question on, you know, the inventory that they have, I mean, that's the wrinkle we're still, like everybody, working through as we've come out of the pandemic is, you know, their rate is the rate we've got in the plan. That's what we're working towards. But what we see, we're still working back to those sort of published rates. You know, we're still, as they work through their inventory, we see some of that come from their inventory, some of it come from us.

All right, thanks. And then just also the question on margins, you know, just given the year-over-year drop in electronic systems, you know, understood that some of the impact you called out was from COVID and weather, and, you know, it seemed like they'd be contained more in the first quarter. But, you know, are you expecting that the product mix headwinds that you called out will continue impacting the segment in the second quarter? And are you seeing any meaningful inflation for labor or other input costs that might be an additional headwind heading into 2Q?

No, I wouldn't say significant. I'd say certainly we're working with a lot of dynamics that everybody is in terms of inflationary pressures with what you see from labor or what you see from the supply chain. But we're covered and feel like we're in a good spot, especially as we move forward on that. But the margin itself, Q1 tends to be sort of the toughest margin quarter for us really across the board, but particularly with electronics. And as we look forward, we're planning on the mix coming back to a more normal, normal state. Uh, and so if we can do that, we'll, we'll look forward to, to snapping back, uh, back from where we're at here in Q1.

Okay, great. And then, uh, just one, one last one if I could.

Yeah, let me just, this is Steve. Let me just say I want some little comment. So, so, uh, you know, obviously, uh, you know, a lot of manufacturers struggle in January. I'm sure you've heard it from, from other companies. Uh, uh, you know, we, we had to, uh, certainly, uh, worked very hard in February and March to make up for some absenteeism, which I think we did. But I think one of the bright spots going forward on the margins and those type of things, we have our all-time record backlog. So that's going to help a lot as we go forward through the next three quarters.

Understood. Makes sense. And then just one last one, if I could. On the defense side, are you seeing any demand signals from your defense prime customers suggesting that there might be any additional opportunities or volume increases as a result of the Russia-Ukraine situation? And just, you know, what is your overall outlook for, you know, the global defense spending environment moving forward?

Yeah, look, you know, we really built our defense business. So, you know, we feel real good about it. Yes, there is more activity, absolutely, with threats going on and continued threats, just legacy and in general. So the competition with Russia, competition with China, Ukraine. So we absolutely are seeing activity. that we're working on and we feel good about. The other thing, just to mention again in my remarks, is that outside of programs and other things, I mean, customers are eager to work with us on sort of non-core manufacturing issues and defense primes where they're looking at things and saying, do we really want to make circuit cards in our factories at the kind of cost an OEM has, or do we want to send it to the commons? I think not only this year, but certainly next year, we're going to have some nice talent with that offloading on top of the order activity now.

All right, great. Thanks for taking the questions.

Okay, nice to be with you.

Thanks.

Our next question is from Ken Herbert with RBC Capital Markets.

Hi, this is Steve Strackhouse for Ken Herbert. I was hoping you guys could just discuss some of the weakness that you saw in military and space in terms of the programs.

Yeah, I think a couple things here, and I'll let Chris jump in, too, is that, you know, a lot of it was timing of orders. You know, as we look at some missile programs that we've had, you know, there tends to be some movement when you have – you know, foreign military sales and our tow missile cases as well. Those things kind of go in a little bit of, you know, variable as far as orders go. So overall, again, I thought it was a very solid quarter for us. Cards were good. Harnesses were good. But I think in just top-level markets, a little lightness in missiles and on the tow case.

Yeah. No, I think, you know, on the military side, just on the fixed wing, you know, F-35 down a little bit was a part of it. But I'd say the other theme really is, you know, the volume is a matter, too, of what we can produce and, you know, what would be issues that we sort of pointed to with Q1 with, you know, with working through COVID and working through weather. That's a constraint on what we're able to, you know, to produce on the military side. So, Pointing that back to the strong backlog at over $500 million, we feel really good about where we're at. But that's a little bit about why Q1 played out the way it did.

Perfect. And then do you kind of expect that to be a bit more positive into Q? And then just, if I could, just kind of a full year outlook for defense as well?

Yeah, I mean, I'll start and see if you can jump in here. But, I mean, we definitely, yeah, we don't anticipate, you know, the same type of complexities on the workforce with COVID, weather, things like that. And Q2 usually is where we can start to stretch our legs a little bit just as we operate. So we feel good, you know, about that part of it, getting to utilize, you know, what we have, you know, out there in the backlog. And from a full year, I mean, we knew, you know, we've come through a couple of really strong years of defense growth. And so, you know, this year, the story is we – Have a business now that, you know, we certainly flexed hard toward defense coming from 19 through 2021. Seeing commercial pick back up is going to be really helpful. Defense, we've got a strong business now that, you know, we're going to continue to make some inroads like Steve mentioned. But overall, you know, it's the commercial business is what's going to drive a lot of the high single growth that Steve talked about. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Thanks for being with us.

Again, if you have a question at this time, please press the star and then the number one key on your phone. If your question has already been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press the pound key. Our next question is from Mike Crawford with B. Riley Securities.

Thanks. Regarding the latest restructuring initiative, how much is that related to M&A integration? Do you still think of these acquired entities like LDS, CTP, Nobles, and MagSeal as separate subsidiaries, or are they more integrated into structural and electric systems?

Yeah, Mike, good afternoon. So, look, they're definitely more integrated. This really is sort of outside those companies and much more into some of our legacy footprint that, you know, I haven't dealt with since I've been here, and I think just for everyone on the phone, I mean, we did the only other restructuring in November 2017 when I first started, and I felt that now I'm five years into the job. I talked to the team. We have some opportunities. I'll give you one example on the calls. I think it's important is that we have a facility in Thailand that really doesn't really fit for us as far as strategic value. It's very far away, tough for governance and those types of things. So that's an opportunity we're going to move forward on. So it's those types of things, Mike, where You know, we're getting ready for the next five years here. We're trying to get things right and get to our long-term goals.

Okay. And then further regarding your footprint, what's the current capacity level at Glamis following the fire you had there earlier?

Well, we have a brand-new building, and I'm proud of the team. So by the end of Q2, we're going to be right back where we are as far as production. For background, we had to move all that work up to Gardena, our Gardena facility, and we did. And we built a new building. We feel really good about it. All the work is being transferred back in Q1 and in Q2. So we'll be ready to go. I think our capacity – Mike, I think right now, you know, we've got a lot of runway. You know, we're certainly looking to double that business. We're looking at other opportunities because, as I mentioned in previous calls, you know, the LEAP engine block door is now fully commercialized in Middle River. We have closeout panels. We have the fairings. So we're looking to do more in that space. We like the cells a lot. We think Versacore could do a good job there. So more to come.

Okay, thanks. Just one last one. You mentioned... know things like the spy six radars and ngj for commercial offloading but what about um like captive titanium operation at airbus that you could you know what to do has there been any progress on that or yeah nice i wish i was just kidding uh help look uh you know uh we have our we have our you know

we have our place to play or our lane with Airbus. We're certainly interested if there's more opportunity there. I don't see, you know, we benefit from higher volume when Airbus gets busier, which they will. You know, we certainly anticipate we're going to, you know, see more share. Okay. You know, that's sort of what's happened in the past now that we're coming out of COVID. So we think that's more of the play for the common titanium is that we As they go higher and other suppliers may struggle, we have, you know, we've been on time to Airbus over two years now. So, straight. So, we feel good about our position there. We're going to benefit once we keep going on these build rates. So, again, stay tuned on that, too.

All right. Thank you very much.

Okay, Mike.

Thanks.

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back to Mr. Oswald.

Okay, thanks very much. And thanks, everybody, for your time today. You know, we feel, obviously, we had a bit of a tough start, as I mentioned, in January, a lot of absenteeism, and, you know, that was just our reality. But I think we had a very good start to the year. We're very optimistic about the next three quarters. So that's a good feeling among our team here. And, you know, the all-time backlog number is something that, you know, obviously we're proud of. I mean, customers, they vote with orders, okay? That's how they vote. So our customers are behind us. We have the team. We have the footprint. We have the supply chain. So I think more good things ahead. Again, as I've always said in my calls, thank you for your support. Have a nice afternoon or evening.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.