7/25/2025

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2025 Comfort Systems USA Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Julie Shape, Chief Account Officer. Your line is open.

speaker
Julie Shape
Chief Account Officer

Thanks, LaTonya. Good morning. Welcome to Comfort Systems USA's second quarter 2025 earnings call. Our comments today, as well as our press releases, contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the applicable securities laws and regulations. What we will say today is based upon the current plans and expectations of Comfort Systems USA. Those plans and expectations include risks and uncertainties that might cause actual future activities and results of our operations to be materially different from those set forth in our comments. You can read a detailed listing and commentary concerning our specific risk factors in our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, as well as in our press release covering these earnings. A slide presentation is provided as a companion to our remarks and is posted on the investor relations section of the company's website found at ComfortSystemsUSA.com. Joining me on the call today are Brian Lane, President and Chief Executive Officer, Trent McKenna, Chief Operating Officer, and Bill George, Chief Financial Officer. Brian will open our remarks.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay, thanks, Julie. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on the call today. We had a fantastic quarter with amazing execution by our teams. This is the first time that our quarterly revenue has exceeded $2 billion. We earned an unprecedented $6.53 per share this quarter, which is an increase of 75% compared to a year ago. Our mechanical business had a sharp increase in profitability and our electrical segment was higher as well. Service revenue and profits also increased by double digit percentages. Our bookings were strong and our backlog at the end of the quarter grew to a new high of $8.1 billion. Demand remained strong, especially in technology. we continue to book work with good margins and good working conditions for our valuable people. We are going in into the second half of 2025 with significant same-store growth in both sequential and year-over-year backlog. I am happy to announce the acquisition and welcome Rightway Plumbing, a great plumbing business based in Florida, that we expect will earn $60 to $70 million per year in revenue. We also increased our quarterly dividend by $0.05 to $0.50 per share, and we actively purchased shares during the first half of 2025. Despite a backdrop of tariff ambiguity and economic uncertainty, we feel fortunate to have good demand, especially for large and complex projects. Thanks to our amazing people, we expect continuing strong results in 2025 and continuing success into 2026. Trent will discuss our operations and outlook in a few minutes, and I will make a few closing comments after our Q&A. But first, I will turn the call over to Bill to review our financial performance. Bill?

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Brian. Our second quarter results are remarkable, with 19% same-store revenue growth, sharply higher margins, and over $220 million of free cash flow. We also achieved more than $300 million in quarterly EBITDA for the first time ever, and that's a 50% increase over the same quarter one year ago. Revenue for the second quarter of 2025 was $2.2 billion, an increase of $363 million, or 20%, compared to last year. Electric segment revenue grew by 49%, while mechanical segment revenue increased by 13%. Through six months, same-store revenue has grown by 17%. And currently, our best estimate is that for full year 2025, our same-store revenue increase will remain that mid-teen range. Gross profit was $510 million for the second quarter of 2025, $146 million higher than one year ago. Our gross profit percentage grew to a remarkable 23.5% this quarter compared to 20.1% for the second quarter of 2024. Quarterly gross profit percentage in our mechanical segment jumped to 22.9% this year. compared to 19.2% last year. Margins in our electrical segment also increased significantly to 25.3% as compared to 23.6% in the second quarter of 2024. We currently expect that gross profit margins will continue in the strong ranges that we have averaged over recent quarters. SG&A expense for the quarter was 210 million, or 9.7% of revenue, compared to $180 million or 9.9% of revenue in the second quarter of 2024. SG&A increased mainly from ongoing investments in people to support our higher activity levels. Our operating income increased by just over 60% from last year, from $185 million in the second quarter of 2024 to $300 million for the second quarter of 2025. With improved gross profit margins, our operating income percentage surged to 13.8% this quarter from 10.2% in the prior year. Our year-to-date tax rate was 20.7%. Our effective tax rate in the first quarter was lower due to interest we received on a delayed refund by the IRS that was associated with our 2022 federal tax return. We received that $118 million refund in April 2025, which included $11 million of interest. Excluding this item, our effective tax rate would have been approximately 23% year to date, and we expect our tax rate for the second half of 2025 to continue to be in that 23% range, with our full year effective rate a bit lower due to the discrete benefit recorded in the first quarter. In July 2025, the federal government enacted major tax reform legislation. However, we currently do not expect that the new and amended provisions will have any significant impact on our operating results or cash flows. After considering all these factors, net income for the second quarter of 2025 was $231 million, or $6.53 per share. And that compares to net income for the second quarter of 2024 of $134 million, or $3.74 per share. And this is an over 70% improvement from last year's already very strong showing. EBITDA increased at $334 million this quarter from a strong $223 million in the second quarter of 2024. This 50% increase reflects great execution by our workforce and strong demand in our markets. As of June 30th, our 12-month trailing EBITDA exceeds $1 billion for the first time ever. Free cash flow for the second quarter of 2025 was $222 million. This quarter's cash flow includes two discrete cash flow items that largely offset each other. As previously discussed, we received a $118 million tax refund in April 2025 that was related to our 2022 federal tax return. In addition, the remaining impact of our long-awaited cash flow turnaround of the advanced customer payments from our modular operations completed this quarter. As expected, the advanced payment position that we enjoyed for several quarters has now roughly normalized, and we expect that starting now and over time, our cash flow should once again approximate our after-tax earnings, subject to the quarter-to-quarter and seasonal variances that are typical in our industry. We purchased additional shares this quarter, and year-to-date, we have spent $111 million buying approximately 326,000 shares. Even after funding share repurchases and our right-way acquisition, we are in a net cash position of more than $250 million. And considering our strong cash prospects, we remain in a great position to reward our shareholders and fund additional growth. And that's all I've got on financial information. So, Trent, take it away.

speaker
Trent McKenna
Chief Operating Officer

Thanks, Bill. I'm going to discuss our operations and outlook. Our backlog at the end of the second quarter was a record $8.1 billion, a large sequential and year-over-year increase. Since last year, our backlog has increased by $2.4 billion, or 41%, and $2.2 billion of the increase was same store. On a sequential basis, backlog increased by $1.2 billion, or 18%, of which $1.1 billion was same store. Second quarter bookings were especially strong in the technology sector, both in our traditional construction business as well as the modular part of our business. We are entering the second half of 2025 with same store backlog 37% higher than at this time last year, and our project pipelines remain at historically high levels. Industrial customers accounted for 63% of total revenue in the first half of 2025, and they are major drivers of pipeline and backlog. Technology, which is included in industrial, was 40% of our revenue, a substantial increase from 31% in the prior year. Manufacturing revenues were strong but declined modestly as our businesses chose to book a higher proportion of technology-related projects. particularly data center construction. Institutional markets, which include education, healthcare, and government, remain strong and represent 24% of our revenue. The commercial sector, which is a smaller part of our business, provided about 13% of revenue. Most of our service revenue is for commercial customers. Construction accounted for 85% of our revenue with projects for new buildings representing 58% and existing building construction 27%. We include modular in new building construction and year to date modular was 18% of our revenue. We currently have over 2.7 million square feet of building capacity dedicated to our modular business and we expect to have around 3 million square feet by early next year. Service revenue was up 10% and is 15% of total revenue. Service profitability was strong this quarter, and service continues to be a growing and reliable source of profit and cash flow. As mentioned before, we are entering the second half of 2025 with a backlog that is 37% higher on the same store basis than we had at this time last year. And we have superb teams working hard for our customers every single day. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of our employees across the country, we are optimistic about our future. I want to close by joining Brian and Bill in thanking our over 20,000 employees for their hard work and dedication. I will now turn it back over to LaTonya for questions. Thank you.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

Certainly. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please stand by while we compile our Q&A roster. And our first question will be coming from Sanjita Jain of KeyBank Capital Markets. Your line is open.

speaker
Sanjita Jain
Analyst, KeyBank Capital Markets

Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. So appreciate the update on the modular square footage. Can you tell us how you're thinking about the extent of expansion in your modular capabilities and your thoughts on possibly adding a third location?

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

Sangeeta, I would say that we like what we've been doing, which is adding incremental capacity as, you know, in a way that's measured and really spending even a bigger focus or at least as much focus on improving productivity and automation in our existing spaces. So I think, you know, the kind of growth you've seen, as long as the market supports it and as long as The amazing people who run these two businesses for us are convinced that they have the bandwidth to implement it. As long as those things hold true, we'll probably continue the same kind of incremental build out. It feels as if that demand is there, to say the least, actually. And so, I don't know. I hope that answers your question as far as the third location. You know, that's something we think about on a long-term basis. We have two pretty great locations, right? We're right in the middle of the mid-Atlantic. Houston is pretty well located, especially for the markets that these things need to go to. And even considering the states you have to drive through, because that's a consideration, because different states have different load requirements. So I'm not sure that's a high priority for us right now, but we're very open-minded to it.

speaker
Sanjita Jain
Analyst, KeyBank Capital Markets

Got it. And if I can follow up, I know you said that the reconciliation bill does not, maybe does not necessarily directly apply to what you do, but the bonus depreciation does help many of your customers as probably the Trump executive order on AI. Can you talk a little bit about if you've had any initial conversations with your customers around that?

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

You know, the bonus depreciation helps them and us some, I would say that I would not view that as an important driver for us at a time when we're already experiencing demand that far outstrips what we could possibly do. But, you know, anything that makes people a little hungrier is good, right? But I wouldn't consider that an important consideration.

speaker
Sanjita Jain
Analyst, KeyBank Capital Markets

Carter, I appreciate your thoughts, Bill.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Akash Singh. Your line is open.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Again, our next question will be coming from Akash Singh. Your line is open. Moving forward, our next question will be coming from Julio Romero of Sidoti & Company.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

Your line is open.

speaker
Alex
Analyst, Sidoti & Company

Yeah, so good morning. This is Alex on for Julio. Congrats on the quarter.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

All right, thank you.

speaker
Alex
Analyst, Sidoti & Company

My first question, you know, maybe we could start with just some color on growth for the remainder of 25. I know backlog, you know, and revenues have grown meaningfully even over, you know, the historical comps that you've mentioned that were a little tougher. So, you know, how's your confidence that this sort of continues positively into 25 and 26 and, you know, maybe some of the conversations that have led to that?

speaker
Trent McKenna
Chief Operating Officer

You know, Alex, you know how our backlog is always very lumpy, right? So we don't. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about that and when jobs land kind of on a time scale. What we're really looking at is kind of our future pipelines. And what we see right now is very robust pipelines. They continue to be robust, even with all the bookings we had in the second quarter. So, yeah, things are still very bullish with regard to future work.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Hey, Alex, this is Brian. I'm just going to jump in. Also, service, right, is – You know, Bill and Trent mentioned we're getting good growth and service. It's about a band two business for us now, growing about 10% this last quarter. So that's been nice, consistent growth, both from a revenue and profitability standpoint and onto the construction growth.

speaker
Alex
Analyst, Sidoti & Company

Very helpful, Collin. Thank you. And I think, you know, kind of rising above consistent growth, you had very nice earnings performance, And I think you wrote about anticipating solid earnings for the remainder of 25 and into 26. So could we get a little color there? Is solid sort of a statement of continuing where we are now? Or is that a little bit more from historicals? Just a little color would be helpful.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

Well, we have a lot of work to do. We think our guys are the best in the world at doing it. Our customers want it. They're willing to pay for it. Um, so I think we just feel pretty great about at least the foreseeable, um, demand and our ability to profitably meet it. We don't really have additional guidance on margins and stuff. These margins are pretty eye popping and, uh, we're still digesting them, but, um, we feel pretty darn bullish about our prospects going forward.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. You know, Alex, if you look at these, you know, our gross margin is 23.5%, which is strong. So we're getting a good combination of, you know, pricing, which is out there as well as the execution has been just terrific. So I think we're pretty optimistic about our results over the end of this year to next year for sure.

speaker
Alex
Analyst, Sidoti & Company

Great. Well, very exciting results again and a lot more questions, but we'll jump back in the queue. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

All right. Thank you.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

And our next question will be coming from Brent Thielman of D.A. Davidson & Company. Your line is open.

speaker
Brent Thielman
Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Company

Thanks. Good morning. Great quarter, guys. I guess the first question, just Trent, you commented on the manufacturing kind of customer side and that Ultimately, we're focusing maybe a bit more on the data center tech customers where you may get the best opportunity out of it. I guess the question is, has that market or pipeline of opportunities on that side subsided, or it's just simply your workers are fungible and you're going to best opportunities?

speaker
Trent McKenna
Chief Operating Officer

No, it hasn't subsided. It's still strong. So what really is happening is the best opportunities right now are presenting themselves a more often than not on the technology side. And so companies are choosing to, you know, put their skilled workforce in the best possible circumstances to be successful. And that's what the technology customers right now.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

You know, Brett, just to follow on, I mean, our operating companies, I think, are doing a superb job with project selection. Stuff that we're really, you know, good at doing. in places where we're strong. So, you got to really tip your hat to them about the work they're bringing in here and how they're doing it.

speaker
Brent Thielman
Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Company

Yeah. And then on modular, I heard you say 18% of revenue year to date. Could you possibly comment maybe on, you know, the proportion modular represents in backlog today? And then also, just from a customer standpoint, Um, you know, is there an opportunity to add another hyperscaler to what you already have, um, just with the incremental capacity you're adding, or is that capacity add really to serve, you know, the customers, existing customers you have today?

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

So your first, your second question, the opportunities there, there are people who would, who would buy our product, the people that are two main customers really are, are, are our best option to sell to right now. You know, across our businesses right now, there's a general tendency of our guys, of our leaders, of our, you know, the people who interact with our customers to choose to do business with the customers who realize that we're trying to do something together as opposed to trying to do something that is, you know, a fight. So we're really, really choosing who we, give our unbelievable and scarce resources to by the people who really want to go out there, build a good project, build it right, build it quick, work together, understand that everybody has to be paid for the risk they take. And so I think ultimately that's the experience we're having with those customers. And that's really, really valuable to us.

speaker
Brent Thielman
Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Company

Okay. And sorry, just the question around modular proportion of backlog is that something you could comment on or how we might think about what's in the book of business?

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

So my guess was modular is going to continue to grow, right? We're investing in new space. We're improving our productivity. There's a range of how fast it could grow. If you made me pick an over-under, I'd say now that we think that the business overall is going to grow mid-teens, I think modular should stay near that percentage. Now, having said that, I fully recognize it's grown from, you know, 4 to 6 to 8 to 10 to 12. You know what I mean? But, you know, we have such good demand and opportunity in all of our businesses that it's a pretty, it's a, everybody's great at getting bigger and better. It's a pretty tough chore to get, become a bigger percentage of our company right now.

speaker
Brent Thielman
Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Company

Okay. If I could sneak one more in, just maybe another approach to kind of the visibility question. Could you talk about the funnel or pipeline? What that looks like today is you look into 26 and possibly into 27. I mean, I'm sure you're having conversations about next year at this point, but is the dialogue with customers becoming much more active about, you know, opportunities into 2027 at this point?

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, Brent, absolutely. I mean, you know, 25 is we're full, right? You're looking at 26, 27 for sure looking at opportunities longer out. As you know, we got bigger projects that run longer, take longer to get them done in the front end to get them signed, sealed, and delivered. But, you know, customers are looking out 26, 27. It's It's a great time to be in the construction business, buddy. Very good. I'll pass it on. Thank you.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Adam Thalhammer of Thompson Davis. Your line is open, Adam.

speaker
Adam Thalhammer
Analyst, Thompson Davis

Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats on the record quarter. I basically wanted to pick up with where Brent left off. And rephrase the question, within the current backlog, how much of that work would be scheduled for 2027 plus?

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

A lot. I don't think we have a precise number. Yeah, a lot.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

But yeah, the statement we made, Adam, about we're feeling good going out is... is because we're seeing both the backlog and what we're looking at is healthy.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

If you do a little math, you have to realize that if we're telling you we're going to grow mid-teens, the backlog is pushing farther out.

speaker
Adam Thalhammer
Analyst, Thompson Davis

Understood. The growth that you've seen at Walker Electrical, How much of that is occurring in their traditional North Texas market versus work in other areas of Texas or even outside of Texas?

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

So right now, all their work is in Texas, and it's in the four what I call major markets, Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. So though they're very strong, North Texas, Dallas, et cetera, the other three markets are strong. It's Probably if you talk to them a few times since they've been in business, that all four of their major markets have been strong, Adam.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

Walker is killing it. It's amazing what they're doing. But all of our other electricals are just killing it as well. So it's important to understand. One of the nice things for us is that Because we bought all of our electricals in the last five years or so, five or six years, we bought them at a time when we already had developed a big conviction around buying companies that had exposure to the super cycle, had exposure to certain states, certain complex capabilities. So if you look across Comfort Systems USA, our electricals just have a higher proportion of the companies that are tuned towards the good things that are happening right now. And they are doing an amazing job taking advantage of it, as are our mechanical companies, obviously, and our service. You know, everybody except corporate is doing great.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

But we're doing our bit on this call to help out.

speaker
Adam Thalhammer
Analyst, Thompson Davis

Lastly, anything more you can say high level on pricing? Just as your technology customers are taking up more And more of your capacity to what extent are they paying up for that?

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

But you know, if you look at our gross margins, our pricing is obviously very good, right? You know, you can you can read them in the income statement, but you know pricing is good and we're getting paid for the risk and services that would deliver.

speaker
Trent McKenna
Chief Operating Officer

You know, and then Adam, our our project teams are really delivering efficiency effectively, We've really pushed a lot of innovations out that are helping them manage projects even more efficiently than they had previously, so that's also driving that margin. To some extent, our technology customers are very good partners with regard to those endeavors when it comes to innovation.

speaker
Adam Thalhammer
Analyst, Thompson Davis

It's been a long time since we've cried about a bad job, so great work.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I'm knocking on wood on that one, Adam.

speaker
Adam Thalhammer
Analyst, Thompson Davis

Me too.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, guys.

speaker
Adam Thalhammer
Analyst, Thompson Davis

Thanks.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

Thank you. And our next question will be coming from Josh Chan of UBS. Josh, your line is open.

speaker
Josh Chan
Analyst, UBS

Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats on a really good quarter. Thank you. Yeah, it's clear that your demand environment is really strong, so could you just talk about kind of your workforce, their willingness to continue to work more, make more, but kind of keep working hard, and then what you're seeing on the recruiting front?

speaker
Trent McKenna
Chief Operating Officer

That's a great question, Josh, because that's what really is the secret to Comfort Systems' long-term success is making sure that it continues to be the best place for a craft professional to work. And I think our companies do a really great job of being the employer of choice in their markets. And then, you know, what we've, and we've talked about this previously, but what, you know, what we've done with our staffing company that's internal to the organization has really helped us be able to flex up and down and take care of our, you know, our core workforce as we've, you know, moved through, especially these larger projects. Additionally, we get a lot of collaboration on jobs. So we have more than one of our operating companies on projects and they're able to share labor in ways that it has also been able to help us. But yeah, it's certainly an all of the above approach when it comes to talent right now, because everybody's constrained as far as being able to recruit and find. But I think we're getting our fair share, if not more, of the talented craft professionals in America right now. That makes sense.

speaker
Josh Chan
Analyst, UBS

Thank you, Trent. And I guess like in terms of project selection, How do you think about the approach to choose projects, you know, between the different verticals? Because obviously, you know, technology is chosen more and more frequently. So, you know, are you okay with that? You know, how are you talking to your operations about choosing types of projects that you want exposure to?

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. You know, that's a good question. I think they're doing a great job. You know, selecting what's available in their markets. We're still pretty diverse, as you can tell by the pie chart of the different industries we serve. So we've kept good balance. Obviously, tech is, you know, red hot right now. So we're trying to service those customers the best we can. But we are keeping our fingers in all the pies. Everything but commercial, right? Office buildings are slow. Everything else has got good activity. And I think they're selecting... I think as Bill said in his script, we have the best working conditions for our people. They're going to pay for the risk and the services we provide.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

One of the best operators in the world who works for us made the point recently that we don't decide what needs to be built. We just make sure we're the best people to build it. So this guy also said, I'll take any job you have as long as it rhymes with Addison or

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

The second party was kidding.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

The first party was dead serious. We have to just do the work that's there for us and be the best people to do it.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

And that's why, you know, Josh, if you think about the bigger picture, training is crucial in here at all levels of this organization, from the field up through project management, leadership. Make sure our folks throughout the organization are well-prepared to address the market.

speaker
Josh Chan
Analyst, UBS

Yeah, I appreciate the color, guys, and congrats again on a really strong quarter.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

All right, thank you.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

And our next question will be coming from Brian Brophy of Stiefel. Your line is open, Brian.

speaker
Brian Brophy
Analyst, Stiefel

Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Congrats on the nice quarter. Appreciate the update on the modular capacity expansion plans. Can you provide an update on what you're seeing on modular from a competitive standpoint? Are you seeing any new entrants in the space? Curious your latest thoughts on how you're feeling about your leadership position there. And I guess to what extent are any changes in the competitive environment driving, I guess, some of this leaning into more capacity? Thanks.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

So I will say our customers continue to encourage people to develop competitive capacity for us. They've had some of the best companies in the world work on that with mixed results. We don't think that we're, you know, what we do is can't be done by someone else. We just, our goal is just be so good at it that you'd be crazy to buy it from somebody else. So I hope that answers your question.

speaker
Brian Brophy
Analyst, Stiefel

Okay. And then that's helpful. And then I guess Anything to call out on the healthcare end market? It looks like that was really the only other end market that grew meaningfully outside the tech this quarter.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I mean, we're seeing, I think we mentioned it in the last few quarters, Brian, that we're seeing some, you know, new built hospitals get built. Heavy in the south for sure, Florida. So we are seeing a number of opportunities both on expansion of hospitals, new build, and also surgical centers are you know, the smaller outpatient-type facilities you see. So, yeah, we are seeing some strength in healthcare. Been pretty consistent for a little over a year now.

speaker
Brian Brophy
Analyst, Stiefel

Thanks. I appreciate it. I'll pass it on.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

And our next question will be coming from Sam Snyder of North Coast Research. Your line is open.

speaker
Sam Snyder
Analyst, North Coast Research

Hey, guys. Great job, obviously. I just had a I had a question on modular like everybody else seems like. I was wondering what has sort of changed or what could change going forward that has made modular, respectively, a bigger part of the business? And then is there anything that you see down the road that maybe that changes? 10% is good. I'm surprised it's not more, but just curious your thoughts there. Why 10? And is there anything you see down the line? where that might change.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

One thing people misunderstand about modular, it's very easy to think about it as a separate product line. And it is a different way of doing something. So anything that we do modularly, and we've done not just tech, we did pharma. Pharma was our main customer for modular for many years. is something that is also being done that day in a thousand locations in a stick built way so modular is a way of delivering a product that um a building that is being built in you know in the traditional ways as well it has certain really unique advantages relating to speed and flexibility and we think that there As the years pass, if you look forward in time, modular will become a more and more important modality for delivering especially complex projects in the United States. But as far as what percentage it takes, I just think for now, at least for tech, where we're being pretty much bought out, it is a vector that allows them to do even more than they could have done if they ignored this opportunity. But I don't, you know, so I think people, there may be a day when people are trying to decide, well, which way of doing this is going to win. I think that will not be in my lifetime. I think it's a really great modality for accomplishing things. There are projects that have certain characteristics for which it really has almost irresistible advantages. But I do think people – it's really important that people understand it's a way of doing something, not a different thing that's being done. A building is a building is a building is a building.

speaker
Sam Snyder
Analyst, North Coast Research

That's really helpful. Thank you. And then I had a – I'm switching gears. Looking at price-cost, do you see – your, uh, your suppliers trying to pass on costs that really aren't there. And, you know, I, I, they're probably not getting that by you, uh, as a larger contractor, but just kind of curious on, you know, are you able to get some concessions from customers based on, uh, based on that sort of the tariff, uh, you know, scaries right now, or, uh, is, or is it really just passing through? And if it, to the extent that it does or it doesn't, it just passes through equally. What kind of people do you think we are?

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

Business people. Yeah, y'all, this is the real world. People want to be compensated for what they do. They use talking points to justify getting... the best price that they can. I believe there are for sure people who are using these conversations to justify price increases. And I also believe there is a lot of people absorbing stuff. So I just think it's just like when things happened during COVID, people would say, are you seeing delays from COVID? And that's a hard question to answer because we always see delays. I don't think I've ever seen a building built while they're... I virtually have never seen a building built that was finished on the goal day to finish it in the first conversation. So we always see delays. We always see price negotiations and bouncing around. It's a complex situation with lots of factors. So I guess the answer is yes and no.

speaker
Sam Snyder
Analyst, North Coast Research

Sorry to not give you a very helpful answer. That's okay. I think it's just the gross margins are so good. I'm just looking for any reason why that might not continue.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

We don't have some clever trick right now that's kind of sneaking some money out the side. It's just that our guys are really valuable. They're hardworking. They can provide you with something that's hard to get your hands on and great customers are willing to pay for it.

speaker
Trent McKenna
Chief Operating Officer

And Sam, if we had a clever trick, we wouldn't tell you.

speaker
Sam Snyder
Analyst, North Coast Research

That's fair. That's fair. All right. I'll pass along. Thank you.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thank you.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

And our next question will be a follow-up from Barrett Thielman of DA Davidson and Company. Your line is open, Brent.

speaker
Brent Thielman
Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Company

Hey, thanks. I guess a quick question on the semi-fab market and anything that Maybe coming down the pipeline there and maybe you can comment on pharma as well. There's been a number of announcements out there and, you know, how real of an opportunity that can be down the line for you.

speaker
Trent McKenna
Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, those are all very strong in pipeline right now. We've got a lot of prospects that are out there. I mean, nothing that I comment on, but that's all larger stuff and it's very lumpy, like you get it or you don't. Sometimes you get it at a small contract and then the remainder of the value of the contract is done in change orders over time. So it's one of those things, it's hard to see it going through in and out of backlog, but at the same time, our pipeline is showing very strong opportunities in both pharma and chip fab.

speaker
Brent Thielman
Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Company

Okay. And then maybe just more of a nuanced question, but, you know, when I look about that revenue by activity type, existing building constructions actually have been outgrowing new construction for the past four quarters. And I guess I think about data centers being largely Greenfield. I just was curious why that is. and the results?

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

You know, so much of our work is industrial now. And in the United States, an awful lot of industrial is adding on to existing capacity as opposed to greenfield, even in the tech area. So that's been a trend actually for a long time as we've become more and more industrial. Because the reality is, if you're building phase three of something, for us, that's an existing sort of thing. Some of that's just like It's a little bit definitional, and it's also just the nature of the industrial world.

speaker
Brent Thielman
Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Company

Okay, and so in that regard, the margins wouldn't really be different. I've always thought of existing as having higher margins to it. But if you're doing phase three of something, it's in some way still a green zone.

speaker
Bill George
Chief Financial Officer

It would still have as the big differentiator there is what percentage of the project is materials and subcontracts. And that would perform more like a traditional new building if it's an extension, you know what I mean? So I guess I would agree with that. Right now, margins are so good across the board that those distinctions are a little hard to even make.

speaker
Brent Thielman
Analyst, D.A. Davidson & Company

Very nice. Thanks for taking the extra one. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

Thanks. And I would now like to turn the conference back to Brian Lane for closing remarks.

speaker
Brian Lane
President and Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thank you. In closing, I want to reiterate My gratitude for the amazing dedication and excellence of the teams we have across our nation, serving our customers every day. Demand is strong and our people are rising to the challenges of addressing the robust need for their unique skills. As Trent mentioned, we feel that conditions are good for us to continue to perform. And as Bill indicated, we have the resources and the commitment to lean into delivering for our employees, our customers, and you, our shareholders. Thank you for your confidence, and have a great rest of the summer. Thank you.

speaker
LaTonya
Conference Operator

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

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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