Parsons Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the first quarter 2021 Parsons Corporation earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in 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 then one on your telephone keypad. Please be advised that today's conference may be recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star then zero to reach an operator. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Dave Spilly, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2021 financial results. Please note that we provide a presentation slides on the Investor Relations section of our website. On the call with me today are Chuck Harrington, Chairman and CEO, Carrie Smith, President and COO, and George Ball, CFO. Today, Chuck will discuss execution against our corporate strategy and ESG initiatives. Carrie will review our operational highlights, and then George will provide an overview of our first quarter financial results and 2021 guidance. We then will close with a question and answer session. Management may also make forward-looking statements during the call regarding future events, anticipated future trends, and the anticipated future performance of the company. We caution you that such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. These risk factors are described in our Form 10-K for fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 and other SEC filings. Please refer to our earnings press release for Parson's complete forward-looking statement disclosure. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. Management will also make reference to non-GAAP financial measures during this call, and we remind you that these non-GAAP financial measures are not a substitute for their comparable GAAP measures. I now will turn the call over to Chuck.

Thank you, Dave. Welcome to Parson's first quarter 2021 earnings call. We're pleased with our performance in the first quarter. The quarter was marked by strong bookings and significant margin expansion. with overall results in line with internal expectations and historical seasonal patterns. For the first quarter, we reported a 170 basis point year-over-year increase in adjusted EBITDA margin. We had a 1.2 times book to bill ratio and a $61 million improvement in our free cash flow. Adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA margin exceeded our expectations. and revenue and cash flow results were in line with guidance we provide in our last earnings call. We had another strong quarter of contract bookings with six wins over $100 million. In addition, we had a great start to the second quarter with contract wins totaling approximately $1 billion to date. We've maintained our healthy balance sheet, supporting continued investments in our organic and inorganic growth strategy. We ended the first quarter with a net leverage ratio of approximately 0.7 turns. Our low leverage and liquidity position enable us to continue our strategic investments in accretive acquisitions, in technology, and in our workforce. As I previously indicated, we're driven by our core values. Over the past year, we've taken steps to enhance our commitment to ESG, including at the board level. We expanded the charter of our Corporate Governance and Responsibility Committee with additional responsibilities overseeing our ESG program. This reflects our belief that ESG excellence is a critical component of continued growth, resiliency, and most importantly, long-term shareholder value. We've also linked a portion of our annual executive compensation to our six core values, with specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing workforce diversity. In today's press release, you'll also notice that Parsons continues to win distinguished awards for its hiring, diversity, and ethical business practices. We're proud of our culture and our employees and the accomplishments they've made to deliver customer mission success while also improving the quality of life in the communities in which we live and work. As covered in our April 20th press release, I've announced my retirement after 39 years of Parsons and 13 years as CEO. I'm very excited that the Board of Directors unanimously appointed Kerry Smith, our President and COO, to succeed me on July 1st. At that time, I'll become Executive Chairman of Parsons Board and will ensure a seamless transition. Carrie's been responsible for global operations and driving growth in both of our segments since January of 2019. Her deep knowledge of our business, customer relationships, and proven performance makes her the natural choice to continue to execute on our long-term strategy and deliver exceptional solutions to our customers and value to our shareholders. Carrie and I are aligned on our vision for the company. I know she'll continue to build on our 77 years of success and continue to forge ahead to transform Parsons into an industry-leading global technology company, supporting a more sustainable, safer, and connected world. In summary, we produced strong bookings and significant margin expansion with results in line with our expectations. We won large contracts, maintained our healthy balance sheet, and continue to be recognized for our longstanding and industry-leading ESG initiatives. Finally, I want to thank our shareholders, analysts, employees, and customers for their extraordinary support. Your commitment to Parsons has been extremely important to our success, and we look forward to continuing our partnership. With that, I'll turn the call over to Carrie to discuss our first quarter operational highlights. Carrie?

Thank you, Chuck. First, I'm excited and honored to be the next CEO of Parsons, and I appreciate the trust that you and the board have in me to execute on our vision for the company. I want to personally thank you for the direction you've taken Parsons and how we're positioned today as a global advanced technology firm. Going forward, I will continue transforming Parsons to a solutions integrator, moving up the value chain, and ensuring top positions in high growth, high demand markets. As Chuck indicated, Our results were in line with the guidance we communicated on our last earnings call. We achieved strong margin expansion and continued to win large awards, leveraging our technology, agility, and ability to consistently deliver mission success for our customers. During the first quarter, we posted our largest quarterly critical infrastructure book-to-bill ratio in more than two years at 1.4 times. In our federal solutions segment, we achieved a 0.9 times book-to-bill ratio. While our new business awards have been notable for many quarters, what is also important is the type and size of business that we are winning. We've won larger, higher-value contracts that are solutions business in both segments. In federal, this is evidenced by our recent $618 million cyber and intelligence win, which occurred just after the first quarter ended. The $618 million win with the General Services Administration is our largest ever in our cyber and intelligence business unit. The scope provides our mission customers an end-to-end solution that leverages our cyber reconnaissance capabilities and an infinite amount of publicly available data streams to enable real-time situational awareness, mission planning, and rehearsal and execution. We won this significant deal by leveraging the capabilities from our acquisitions and incorporating our joint all-domain capabilities to create a unique solution that adapts to the pace of the evolving threat. Now I'll turn back to quarter one awards, which included a $600 million ceiling contract with the United States Postal Service to support their ongoing modernization efforts to ensure continuous mail service. Based on our 17 years of historical experience supporting USPS, Parsons anticipates realizing $140 million in contract value. A $114 million contract by the Public Works Authority of Qatar to provide program and construction management supervision. An $80 million award by the architect of the capital for program management. This was a re-compete, which transitioned from a multiple award contract to a single award contract to Parsons. A $69 million contract by the United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory to develop disruptive technology that will provide the United States warfighters with a technology advantage. And I also want to highlight a first quarter win that reinforces our commitment to deliver a sustainable world. We won the $75 million giant mine contract, which is one of the largest environmental remediation projects in Canada. This project will improve the safety, health, and prosperity of local citizens by containing arsenic trioxide waste stored underground and by excavating and relocating contaminated soil. In addition, we won four multiple award IDIQ contracts. each representing new work for persons with Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers. The ceiling values of these contracts are $12.6 billion, $2 billion, $250 million, and $100 million with advanced technology scope that includes information technology, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and information operations. In terms of our Braxton acquisition, we are very pleased with their performance. and the strong cultural alignment to Parsons and the integration progress, which will be largely complete this summer. The very talented Braxton team exceeded their first quarter revenue and profitability targets, and we've identified three new opportunities, over $100 million, that we're able to collectively pursue. Looking forward, we're excited about the momentum building around a potential American jobs plan and the proposed FY22 defense budget. There appears to be bipartisan support for an infrastructure bill, although the amount and timing is uncertain. Key areas where persons operate that are anticipated to be included in the bill are roads and bridges, public transit, passenger and freight rail, airports, ports and waterways, water and wastewater, emerging contaminants, and resilience. On the federal side, our cyberspace and missile defense portfolios align well with the Biden administration priorities as outlined in the proposed FY22 budget request and the interim national security strategy. There is unwavering commitment to renewing America's technology-driven advantage and investing in advanced systems that would be useful against near-care competitors. The biggest threats today to our national security include pandemics and biological risks, the climate crisis, cyber and digital threats, violent extremism and terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the changing distribution of power throughout the world. Parsons has and is developing solutions to counter each of these threats. Parsons' diversified and differentiated portfolio is combined with our combined federal solutions and critical infrastructure businesses. There are very few companies that have our collective credentials. We bring our federal capabilities like cyber, artificial intelligence, and cloud-enabled solutions to our critical infrastructure customers. And we also leverage our expansive critical infrastructure capabilities, including design, construction management, and environmental planning and remediation to our federal customers. Parsons is fortunate to operate in well-funded and enduring markets, and we believe we're well-positioned to achieve our revenue growth, margin expansion, and free cash flow targets as outlined at our investor day on March 11th. Our addressable markets are large and growing in both segments. We have a strong pipeline of opportunities, high win rates, and a solutions portfolio that's aligned to our customers' needs. With that, I'll turn the call over to George to discuss our financial highlights. George?

Thank you, Carrie. As noted earlier by Chuck and Carrie, first quarter results were in line with guidance provided on our last earnings call. Total revenue for the first quarter decreased 10% from the prior year period, excluding $51 million of net lower pass-through revenue and $13 million of adverse impact from COVID. Total revenue would have been down 4% from the first quarter of 2020 and down 7% when excluding $31 million from the Braxton acquisition. I should also note that first quarter 2020 revenue represents an all-time record high for Q1. SG&A expenses increased $4 million from the first quarter of 2020, driven by higher compensation costs related to equity-based incentive programs. First quarter of 2021 adjusted EBITDA of $69 million increased 14% from last year, and adjusted EBITDA margin increased 170 basis points to 7.9%. These increases were driven by higher contract profitability including contributions from our higher margin Braxton acquisition. I'll now turn to our operating segments, starting first with federal solutions, where first quarter revenue decreased by $26 million, or 5% year-over-year. Excluding $11 million of net lower pass-through revenue and $16 million of adverse impact from COVID, total net federal solutions revenue was relatively flat as compared to the first quarter of 2020. and down 7% on an organic basis. The decrease in organic revenue, excluding COVID and pass-through revenue, was driven by contract transitions. Federal Solutions adjusted EBITDA increased 1% from the first quarter of 2020. An adjusted EBITDA margin increased 50 basis points to 7.1%. These increases were driven by higher contract profitability and contributions from Braxton. Now a few words regarding our critical infrastructure segment. First quarter revenue decreased by $71 million, or 14% year over year. Excluding approximately $40 million of lower pass-through revenue and a benefit of $3 million associated with reduced COVID impacts, total net critical infrastructure revenue was down 8% from the first quarter of 2020. Critical infrastructure adjusted EBITDA increased by $8 million, or 27% year-over-year, and our adjusted EBITDA margin increased 280 basis points to 8.7%. These increases were driven primarily by lower SG&A costs and higher contract profitability. Next, I'll discuss cash flow and balance sheet metrics. Our net DSO at the end of the first quarter was 71 days. compared to 64 days at the end of the first quarter of 2020. During the first quarter of 2021, we used $66 million in operating cash flow, compared to a use of $119 million in the prior year period. The $53 million improvement was driven by a decline in working capital and lower payments on our pre-IPO executive compensation plans. Capital expenditures totaled $4 million in the first quarter, compared to $13 million in the prior year period. As noted earlier by Chuck, our free cash flow improved by $61 million from the first quarter of 2020. Our balance sheet remains very healthy. We ended the quarter with a net debt leverage ratio of 0.7 times. Regarding awards, we reported contract awards of $1 billion in the first quarter, representing a book to bill ratio of 1.2 times. On a trailing 12-month basis, our book-to-bill ratio is 1.1 times. Our backlog at the end of the first quarter totaled $8.2 billion, up 5% from last year, and continues to represent approximately two years' annual revenue. Now let's turn to our guidance. We are reiterating all of our 2021 guidance ranges provided on February 24th based upon our financial results for the first quarter of 2021 and our outlook for the remainder of the year. As we indicated last quarter, we expect sequential improvements in revenue at adjusted EBITDA through Q3 and then down sequentially in Q4. For operating cash flow, we expect sequential improvements as we move through the balance of the year. Other key assumptions in connection with our 2021 guidance are outlined on slide 9 in today's PowerPoint presentation located on our investor relations website. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Chuck.

Thanks, George. To summarize, we deliver strong bookings and significant margin expansion with results in line with our expectations. We also had a strong start to the second quarter with a major contract win in our cyber and intelligence business unit. As we look ahead, we're excited about our future with our positions in growing and enduring markets in both segments. Revenue growth will accelerate while margin expansion and free cash flow conversion will continue. These are driven by benefits from our technology solutions aligned with the Biden administration's infrastructure and defense priorities. We'll also benefit as we move beyond headwinds from COVID and pass through revenue and leverage our robust balance sheet for accrued acquisitions. Again, I'd like to extend my congratulations to Carrie as she prepares for her new role in the coming months. Thank you, and now we'll open the line for questions.

As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press the pound key. Again, that is star then 1 to ask a question. Our first question comes from Joseph Denardi with Stievel.

Thanks. Good morning. Chuck, just on the cyber contract you announced after the quarter, can you give us the duration for that?

Yeah, Joe, and thanks for the question. Carrie, why don't you go into a little detail, not only about the duration, but some of the things we're doing on that contract.

Yeah, sure, Chuck. So it's a five-year contract. The contract is for C4ISR exercises, operations, and information services. Their purpose is really to position the United States for national security in the Indo-Pacom region, which is becoming increasingly important. We're really excited that we were able to leverage our cyber reconnaissance capabilities, along with real-time situational awareness, targeting, mission planning, and execution. This contract will broadly support the Department of Defense Intelligence community, as well as the combatant commanders.

That's great. And then, Chuck or Kerry, can you just talk about kind of your positioning relative to the infrastructure market? I know a lot of that, what's going on there is still very fluid, but can you talk about kind of what you're monitoring, how well positioned you think you are given some of the priorities and, you know, any sense of timing on when you think that could actually benefit your business?

Sure, Joe. As we've mentioned in the past, it's really been – well over 15 years since we were really bullish about an infrastructure bill. And we're more bullish about this one than any of the ones before. And that's because there's broad support on both sides of the aisle for physical infrastructure that we do. And you look at our infrastructure work, about 75% of that is oriented to transportation. So we think of roads and highways and bridges and rail and transit systems and airport improvements. About another 17% to 18% is in environmental remediation, and that's obviously a high priority for the Biden administration. And another 11% to 12% is in the area of water and wastewater treatment. So we're really well aligned and positioned. I think it would be reasonable to assume that sometime maybe towards the end of Q3, early Q4, we'd see an approval of that bill. Perhaps sooner, but I think it's more likely to be towards the end towards the end of Q3. And Carrie, anything you'd like to add to that?

Sure. At a top level, $2 billion of our $4 billion in revenue is centered around infrastructure. And if you break that down further, $1.2 billion of that is based in the United States that will benefit from the infrastructure bill. I also want to highlight that we're seeing growth in Canada as well as the Middle East as well in infrastructure projects. And our Middle East group has a very strong year in 2020 and is postured for a strong year in 2021 as well. When you look and you break down the plans, the Biden plan at $2.3 trillion or the Republican plan at $568 billion, there is that persons placed in have bipartisan support. So transportation infrastructure or the hard infrastructure is supported by both groups, including bridges, highways, rail, public transit, passenger and freight rail systems, resiliency, airports, and road safety. We're involved in each of those areas. Other areas that are received by persons support include broadband electrical grid and water and wastewater treatment, as well as PFAS, PFAS, emerging contaminant elimination. So we're quite excited that we feel persons will receive support regardless how the bill ends up.

Is it fair to say that the 5% to 7% revenue CAGR you talked about at Investor Day, that infrastructure would provide pretty meaningful upside to that? And then Can you just talk about kind of risk management on the infrastructure side, given the labor market and, you know, concerns around inflation? Can you talk about how you balance those risks against what looks to be a pretty exciting opportunity for you all over the next couple of years?

Thank you. Yeah. So as we described in Investor Day, we did not put in the assumption of an infrastructure bill into our forecast. So one would expect that to have – have an increase, significant increase to those rates as the bill gets defined and approved. And typically, you know, it's six to 12 months after a bill is approved before you start seeing upticks. In terms of risk, you know, the bulk of the work we do in that market is either fixed price design or cost reimbursable, program management, construction management. So the Any sort of escalation on materials is not that significant. In terms of labor availability, one of the things we pioneered going back 20 years, Joe, was the ability to shift work to where the people were available. Almost all of our infrastructure work involves multiple offices in multiple states and sometimes even foreign countries. to execute that work. So we tend to move the work to where the people are, and we don't anticipate any issues around that either. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Sheila Carley with Jefferies.

Hi. Good morning, everyone, and Chuck, congratulations on your retirement again, and Carrie on your promotion, of course. So I guess on... Federal Solutions first. You guys can hear me, right?

Yes.

Okay, cool. On Federal Solutions, the book to bill was about 0.9 times. Revenues contracted 7% organically. I think your full year guide is about up one organically for FS. How do you think about the ramp up as we progress through the year, returning to growth in that segment? Yes.

As we've typically had in the past, we tend to start slower, and that's predominantly due to a lot of jobs just haven't really gotten going yet in the year. If you look at 2020 as a basis, we had a lot of pass-through costs that we didn't really have this year. And so I think the ramp will look very similar to prior years. The really great thing is that we've got so many great winds that have come in even right after the end of the quarter that really gives us a great deal of confidence in the growth of that unit. And we've gone through the COVID headwinds. You know, we still have those that will continue this year due to the late starts in Antarctica and Kwajalein Island. We still have the low margin last year of low margin pass-through revenue runoff. So the great news is we're continuing to drive those margins up as a result of that work, those strategic moves that we made. Carrie, is there anything you'd like to add on the federal ramp?

Yeah, thanks, Chuck. And thank you, Sheila, for the congratulations. I appreciate it. A few things relative to federal specifically that give us confidence. The FAA program is returning in 2021. to the 2020-19 pre-pandemic levels. We're currently 90% staffed. We'll be fully staffed by the end of May. So that will ramp up an additional $40 million as we start to head into Q2. Also, we mentioned the strong book to build. I would highlight that first, for the $1 billion that we've received since Q2 started, nearly all of that is in federal market. There were some delays last year, and we're starting to see those awards pop out. Finally, QRC Technologies, which is where it delivers a very high margin, has its highest growth in Q2 and Q3, and that's based on historical year-over-year information. And we'll have a full year of Braxton this year.

Well, thank you for that, Color. And then just going back to the cyber business, can you remind us how big it is? I think it's about $400 million of sales. So you've got, you know, I think the contract you announced, It's over five years, $600 million or so. So could that imply 20% growth to that business? I guess what are you seeing in terms of growth in cyber and what's your visibility like there?

You want to take that, Carrie?

Sure. So, yes, Sheila, cyber is around a $400 million business unit. On the new work, the way that we're going to kind of book it, because we try to be conservative when we have new contracts, we'll book the first year, and we'll make sure that we're realizing that revenue. If you recall, our second largest cyber and intelligence contract was the Combatant Commander Mission Support for $590 million. We did the same thing on that contract, and we're fortunate that we are seeing the growth on that contract. This is another one that's under GSA FedSTEMP. So we're very optimistic that we'll be able to drive the volume through that vehicle as we proceed forward, but we will take a conservative booking to start. We're also focused on other single award contracts that we've received, one a year and a half ago in the classified area, and voting up to the ceiling there. So we see growth coming in the cyber and intelligence area.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Toby Sommer with Truth Security.

Good morning. I wonder if you could benchmark for us what the impact was on the company's infrastructure business the last time we had a kind of quote unquote infrastructure bill in 2009. The dollar values of the kind of direct infrastructure related monies in the package unveiled by the current administration seems to be substantially larger and maybe understanding that historical relationship would help us understand the potential consequence of the current discussion.

Yeah, so if you look at that last bill, that drove our, especially our transportation business, to really lead to corporation in terms of revenue growth and profit bookings expanded our margins during that era. And I might note that during that era, we had twice as many competitors for the large programs in the U.S. that we have today just due to consolidation in the industry. There's been a lot of merger and acquisition activity. So I don't recall the specific growth rates yet, Toby, up the top of my head, but they were significant. And as you point out, it had a fairly long tail. I mean, that revenue growth that we got through 2009, we had record years of profits and revenues in 2008, 2009, and 2010, all as a result of that bill, even as other parts of the business had curtailed a bit due to the global financial crisis. So, It was material. George, is there anything that you'd like to add going back to that era?

No, that's exactly right, Chuck. I would say if you were to put a number on it, Toby, we, as Chuck suggested, we realized probably a 10% CAGR top-line growth for about a three- to four-year period.

And that was with a shorter bill duration than this one. Right.

Yeah, yeah. Just a follow-up question, sort of something that's been asked. The revenue trajectory in organic growth has trended down some recently, and you did convey some good contract awards and signings here. Is the pipeline of bids submitted due to be awarded either to yourselves or potentially an alternative provider, is that looking pretty robust right now? What's the outlook for the next several quarters? Because we've heard mixed takes on that from other public competitors.

Well, as we stand today, and I'll have Terry get a little more color on this, but We're looking at 14 contracts awaiting award over $100 million that represents several billion dollars of awards. And if you look at our pipeline, we're standing right now with outstanding proposals awaiting adjudication at about $6.7 billion. which is relatively flat to Q4, but well up over Q3 2020, where we were down below $5 billion at that point. So it's a very robust pipeline, and we're seeing it in both segments. Carrie, any additional color you'd like to provide on that?

Yeah, so the pipeline is at $38 billion. Within the $38 billion, we have 72 bids greater than $100 million that will award within 2021 or 2022. And then if you look out to 2024, that number increases to 90 bids over 100 million. As Chuck mentioned, 6.7 billion awaiting notice of award. And this year, we plan to submit 24 billion in bids versus 12 billion last year. I'll add to Sheila's initial question. She asked about revenue confidence in the federal market. Also, a few points I would add to that. I mentioned the FAA program for federal, but in critical infrastructure, We're looking to consolidate Edmonton sales starting in Q2 for $28.3 million additional. And I'd like to highlight again the strong book to build that we've had in critical infrastructure with the record in the last two years occurring within the last two quarters of 1.3 times and 1.4 times. So we're bullish on the pipeline and our prospects.

You know, I think one other thing that I would just mention is you remember at our – Q4 earnings call, we talked about how there was kind of a logjam building in awards out of the IC business, primarily due to people not being in place in the new administration. And that logjam seems to have broken through towards the end of Q1 and definitely started Q2.

And last question for me. Do you think that we're likely to have a budget in place for you know, on time, or would you guess that the odds are we'll have a CR to start things out?

You know, I think what our planning is that, you know, we always plan that the potential exists to start with a CR, so we're not surprised by that. And I think it's too hard to predict at this point. I think a lot more midsummer as we see how some of the discussions go on the infrastructure bill. to really get a good handle on whether or not we'll be starting with the CR. If so, how long that CR is likely to go. But I'm fairly positive that we'll have, if we don't, that we either will not start with the CR, or if we do, it'll be relatively short.

Our next question comes from Gavin Parsons with Goldman Sachs.

Hey, good morning, and congrats to both Chuck and Kerry.

Thank you, Gavin. Thank you, Gavin.

Carrie, I just wanted to follow up on your comment that I think you said you'll submit $24 billion of bids this year versus $12 billion last year. Is that right?

Yes.

What's the enabler behind that? I mean, is that the fact that you've scaled up over the years the integration of M&A, shifting more than a proposal to federal solutions from critical infrastructure? And then how much of that is a lower kind of P win, but that could be significant upside drivers if you do actually capture them?

So we have one major repeat that we'll be submitting this year, which is our team's repeat. Our three contracts were consolidated into one. That bid's already gone in. We anticipate that being awarded in June of this year, so that's significant. We also saw a big drop in intelligence RFPs last year. So our typical bid volume with the intelligence community is a couple of billion a year. Last year, we only submitted 173 million. So that's a significant change. And then the third area is bidding bigger and larger jobs.

Yeah, and Gavin, to that last point, if you remember from Q4, we said that that 24 billion, we're not bidding twice as many contracts. we're bidding contracts that on average are twice as large as we used to bid. And that's largely as a result of the great acquisitions that we've done in an uptick in large infrastructure bids.

Got it. That makes sense. And then, George, just thinking about margins throughout the year, I know you mentioned revenue and EBITDA up in 2Q, 3Q, down in 4Q. But if I just assume no margin expansion for the rest of the year, year over year, can I get at or above the guidance for the year? So does this 1Q strength point to a potential upside, or is this just slightly more normal seasonality than last year's light 1Q? Thanks.

Yeah, Gavin, good question. I would say it's more normal seasonality. We did have, as we have outlined in our comments, higher margins in Q1. We do, though, anticipate that we will hit our guidance. We don't see much upside. Last year we had some performance-free pickups, which were somewhat outsized, that we don't anticipate repeating this year. So we think we'll probably run slightly lower through the balance of the year, but we do plan to hit our guidance targets.

And just a couple other additions. Our equity and earnings is usually back and loaded. I mentioned QRC's best quarters are usually Q2 and Q3. We'll have a full year of Braxton, and we did achieve an 18.2% margin in Q1 with Braxton. And our improved contract profitability has been continuing.

Okay. Thanks very much.

Our next question comes from Kaivon Rimmer with Cowan.

Thank you so much. And let me join the others and congratulate Chuck and congratulations, Carrie. So you mentioned that the bid log jam is starting to break. As you know, the normal pattern for the sector, at least the federal solutions, is that Q2 is better than Q1 and Q3 is enormous or very, very big. Could you give us some color as you look at things today, you know, how you see that? Is that the pattern you see? And is there room for catch-up? Because others have also said that things were slow and lots of reasons why things didn't get done. Do you think we're going to see catch-up so we'll have, we have potential for a better than normal Q2 and Q3?

Certainly, as it relates to our specifics, we have a couple of big bids that we expect to close in Q2 or early Q3. But to that catch-up, you know, Carrie, you might want to provide a little more color on that, and could it be a real upside?

Yeah, to your point, Kai, you know, Q3 is usually our strongest, particularly IDIQ, and trying to use any of your funds to... So I would say we still expect strongest in Q3, and obviously we're bullish on Q2 given what we've seen since the beginning of April.

Terrific. And could you give us just a little more color on the Teams Award? How big is that? And if you win it, given it's consolidating three pieces, what sort of upside does that have in terms of revenues?

So the Teams Award took our three major contracts. It was our systems engineering contracts. It was our weapons and missiles contract. And it was our facilities and lifecycle support contract. And it bundled those into a single contract called Teams Next Gen. On the Teams contract, which we've been performing close to 40 years with MDA, we did have a hiring freeze last year and were unable to hire. They have lifted that hiring freeze this year, so we are able to hire. And as we get the new award, which will be, I'll probably keep the number confidential since it's still in bid. But as we get the new award, there's the potential for more upside work. And we're starting to see MDA has some new tasking that we've been able to perform.

Terrific. And then the last one, on the infrastructure bill, Could you give us any color in terms of, you know, if it really passes, let's say, by early Q4 roughly, how long will it take, do you think, for revenues to flow through to Parsons?

Yeah, so traditionally what we've seen, Kai, and it usually takes about six months for the money to get obligated and, you know, cities and counties and states and certain federal agencies to apply and get the upticks and get the RFPs out. The quickest upticks occur where we're already an incumbent. And we have several programs on the infrastructure side where the initial contracts were awarded, but they had anywhere from several hundred million dollars to a billion dollars of additional work they want to do awaiting funding. So those customers we're already working with to get their funding application in. So those will be the quick hits, and then there'll be others that take a little longer, but usually six to 12 months you start to see an impact. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Josh Sullivan with the Benchmark Company.

Hey, good morning. Chuck, thank you for your leadership and congratulations. And congratulations to Carrie and look forward to your vision. Thank you, Chuck. Just the trends towards larger contracts, you know, how much of that is driven by, you know, your business development initiatives versus the structure in which the customers are awarding contracts? And have you seen, you know, material change under the new administration with regard to that?

You know, Kai, I'll have Terry go into a little more detail on this, but if you go back to our strategy of focused M&A in certain high-technology, high-growth markets, we started off seven, eight years ago as a supplier to larger companies and not a prime. And by weaving together those acquisitions into providing a critical mass of high-end capability, That's allowed us to go after prime contracts on the federal side. So that was part of this very strategic move on our federal side. On the infrastructure side, we've always been a large project firm, but what customers have done is taken things like bridges and and appended it with the on-ramps and off-ramps on both sides. So to get a more efficient capital project executed, they've rolled more and more nearby projects into the large projects to get them executed at one time. So both of those things have – so it's our strategy and, too, moves by both our federal and critical infrastructure customers to make larger contracts are playing together here. Carrie, anything you'd like to add on that?

I agree with what Chuck said. Our M&A strategy has been very deliberate. It's how do we develop end-to-end solutions across our key growth markets of cyber and intelligence space, ISR and missile defense. And by doing that, we're able to bid and win larger jobs. We also tend in the federal space to play on the leading edge. So we're seeing new opportunities, new large scope contracts come out. There has been some bundling if you look at efforts over within the intelligence community. And then the FedSim deals have been very large. So we've been intentionally focused on those because we can provide the end-to-end capabilities. On the infrastructure side, we've done the same migration from a service company to a solutions integrator over the past four years. And we've really moved into technology-led infrastructures. So the ability to provide smart infrastructure is and look at areas such as what are coming out in the proposed American Jobs Plan as far as infrastructure modernization. Then finally, I would highlight our internal research and development investment, which has increased 20 times over the last four years.

Got it. Got it. And then do you anticipate any overlap between, you know, where the defense budget priorities are and any of the potential infrastructure bills that are coming out? You know, Parsons, you know, you guys appear to be well positioned, I would think, for overlap on things like cybersecurity. But then could it also bring about any complications on funding sources or anything of that nature?

You know, don't anticipate any or foresee any complications. from the work that we do, conflicts of interest, et cetera. I mean, usually, if you think about cyber, our approach has been design it in, so it's actually a natural. But, Carrie, anything that you see in that area?

I think it's complementary for us. So we're a fortunate company that we have both portfolios under the same company. So if you look at areas like resiliency and you apply cyber resiliency – You can do it, obviously, on the defense side, which we are heavily, but it also applies to the entire critical infrastructure side. And there will be funding going into that area. Areas like emerging contaminants as well. We're doing emerging contaminant PFAS, PFAS elimination work on both the federal and the critical infrastructure business units. And then if you look at areas like smart intelligence, how do you leverage the data that you're getting from sensors? That applies whether you're designing a smart base on the federal side or a smart city on the critical infrastructure side. So I feel that Parsons is uniquely positioned to be able to benefit from both.

Yeah, no, I would agree. Do you think that cybersecurity aspect of infrastructure, do you think that naturally resides on the infrastructure side or on the defense side?

So the way we approach the marketplace is we use our critical infrastructure account managers because they have the domain knowledge. So, for example, if you're putting cybersecurity in an airport or a port, they take the lead from a customer perspective, and then we bring in the technology from our federal side.

Thank you for the time.

Our next question comes from Mariana Perez-Mora with Bank of America.

Good morning, everyone, and congratulations both, Carrie and Jack. Thank you.

Thank you, Mariana.

So would you mind reminding us what is embedded on your previous or like current mid-single digit growth expectations for critical infrastructure so we understand how incremental diet and policies would add to those?

So as I think we said in our Q4 call, we looked at critical infrastructure. We did not include an infrastructure bill in our low to mid single-digit organic growth forecast for that unit once the low-margin revenue pass-through concluded this year. And that was based on the strength of the markets we saw in the U.S., Canada, and the Middle East. Obviously, a large infrastructure bill in the U.S. has an uptick on that. And as we see this bill, which will be towards the end of this year, then we'll We look at our out-year growth expectations.

At the midpoint of the range, as we showed at the Investor Day, in 2020, we had at $2 billion, and then we were growing to $2.3 in 2023. We had both units growing, both mobility solutions and connected communities.

Perfect. And then what are the main drivers of the margin expansion of that segment?

So if you look at what we've been implementing to date, the primary drivers have been the runoff of low margin pass-through revenues. And so that continues to aid that unit's margins this year. Also, we consolidated a lot of our back office operations between federal solutions and critical infrastructure that also made us more efficient from an overhead and G&A perspective. But it's also the big pipeline margins. As I mentioned earlier, there's been, on the one hand, a huge consolidation of the players that we compete against in that space. So that's naturally led to higher margins. And now if we look at an uptick with additional spend from an infrastructure bill, I would expect that to be accretive beyond even what we've forecasted to date.

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from Louisa Palma with William Blair.

Chuck, Carrie, and George, good morning. Good morning. Congrats, Carrie and Chuck, on the passing of the torch.

Thanks, Louie.

Yeah, thanks, Louie. And first, I want to confirm, is high single-digit slash low double-digit organic revenue growth in 2022 and 2023 in accordance with your Analyst Day projections?

Well, what we said is once we got out of COVID and the low-margin revenue runoff, obviously we have tailwinds to our organic growth at that point. Plus, we had some rather large contracts that were starting up. And, you know, I think what we've always said is over the longer term, take out any year-to-year anomalies, we've SANS and infrastructure, Bill, we've seen the infrastructure business growing in the low to mid single digits and the federal solutions growing in the mid to upper single digits. Obviously, year-to-year growth can be higher than that after, you know, as a result of COVID, et cetera. George, anything that you'd like to add to that?

I'd agree with that. It probably balances out, Louis, maybe about 6% or 7% of the enterprise growth.

Great. And, George, as a follow-up, does the margin profile for your recent strong bookings on the critical infrastructure and federal side, do those bookings instill confidence that the margin expansion can continue?

Yes. You know, Louie, we have experienced, even since going back to the IPO, we've experienced consistent improved margins on the intake on our awards compared to what we're running off. That's one of the incremental drivers in seeing margins creep up in the past, and we expect that that will continue.

Awesome. Thanks, Chuck, Terry, and George. Thank you.

As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star, then one, on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Joseph Donati with Stiefel.

Thanks. Just a quick follow-up. On the $24 billion in contract value you anticipate bidding on this year over the next 12 months, how do you handle kind of large ceiling value contracts in that number? Like, for example, I think in March – you announced that you want to see it on a $12.6 billion contract. How would something like that be reflected in the $24 billion? Thank you.

Sure. Well, I don't think there are any $12 billion ceilings in the $24 billion. And that one was kind of a win that came. It wasn't a long-term pursuit. You know, it came up, we pursued it, we won it. But generally, we're quoting the contract ceilings, and for the most part, those are within the range of, you know, they're not outsized wins. You know, Carrie, you might want to provide some color on that $24 billion.

Sure. Well, Joe, we did win four multiple award contracts this quarter. One of them was a $12.6 billion ceiling with Defense Intelligence Agency. The way we book those is as we win task orders. So it's only the single award contracts that we book. Okay. Thank you.

That's all the time we have for questions today. I'd like to turn the call back to Dave Spilly for closing remarks.

Thank you for joining us this morning. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to give me a call. And we look forward to speaking with many of you over the coming weeks. And with that, we'll end today's call. Have a great day.

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