Cactus, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the CACDIS Quarter 2 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during the session, you will need to press star, one, one, or your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star, one, one again. We suggest that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Alan Boyd, Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. We appreciate you joining us on today's call. Our speakers will be Scott Bender, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Jay Nutt, our Chief Financial Officer. Also joining us today are Joel Bender, President, Stephen Bender, Chief Operating Officer, Steve Tadlock, CEO of FlexDeal, and Will Marsh, our General Counsel. Please note that any comments we make on today's call regarding projections or expectations for future events are forward-looking statements covered by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to review our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements we make today are only as of today's date, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statements. In addition, during today's call, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Scott.

Thanks, Alan, and good morning to everyone. I'm pleased to report that revenues and margins in both of our segments improved despite -to-date declines in our industry's North American land activity. I'm very proud of our associates' continued commitment to customer execution that's led to this consistent record of outperformance. Some second-quarter total company highlights include revenue of 290 million, adjusted EBITDA of 104 million, adjusted EBITDA margin of 35.7%. We increased our cash balance to 247 million, and yesterday we announced that our board approved an 8% increase in the quarterly dividend to 13 cents per share. Before we move into the financial review, I'd like to take this opportunity to formally introduce the newest member of our leadership, Team Jay Nutt. Jay joined us as Chief Financial Officer in June and has immediately brought value and helpful perspective to our company given his extensive global financial leadership experience.

We're delighted

to have him. I'd also like to thank Al Keefer for his outstanding service as interim CFO these past few months. I'll now turn the call over to Jay, who will review our financial results. Following his remarks, I'll provide some thoughts on our outlook for the near term before opening the lines for Q&A. So Jay.

Thank you for your kind words, Scott. I'm privileged to have the opportunity to join an industry leader such as Cactus. I appreciate the confidence that the leadership team has placed in me, and I look forward to helping guide the company's continued growth while sustaining industry leading returns. As Scott mentioned, we had a solid quarter, resulting in total Q2 revenues of 290 million and total adjusted EBITDA of $104 million. For our pressure control segment, revenues of 187 million were up .9% sequentially, driven primarily by shipments of production equipment to a large customer who had not previously used Cactus, combined with customer efficiency improvements leading to increased product sold per rigs followed. Operating income increased $4 million, or .7% sequentially, with operating margins increasing 20 basis points. Adjusted segment EBITDA increased $4.7 million, or .7% sequentially, with margins increasing by 30 basis points. The operating and adjusted EBITDA margin improvements were due to higher operating leverage on the increased volume. For our spoolable technology segment, revenues were up .7% sequentially, due largely to the resilience of international shipments and higher domestic customer activity. Operating income increased $13.6 million sequentially, primarily due to a smaller expense resulting from the remeasurement of the flex steel earn-out liability. Adjusted segment EBITDA increased $3.7 million, or .4% sequentially, while margins increased by 170 basis points, resulting from favorable operating leverage and lower input cost. Corporate and other expenses were $5.9 million, up $400,000 sequentially on higher stock-based compensation. On a total company basis, second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $104 million, up .7% from the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the second quarter was 35.7%, compared to .8% for the first quarter. Adjustments to total company EBITDA during the second quarter of 2024 included non-cash charges of $5.9 million in stock-based compensation and a $2.9 million charge related to the final remeasurement of the flex steel earn-out liability. Depreciation and amortization expense for the second quarter was $15 million, which includes $4 million of amortization expense related to the intangible assets booked as part of the flex steel acquisition. During the second quarter, the public or class A ownership of the company averaged 83%, and ended the quarter at 84%. Gap net income was $63 million in the quarter versus $50 million during the first quarter. The increase was driven by the stronger operational performance on the higher revenue achieved, combined with a smaller quarterly change in the remeasurement of the earn-out liability. Book income tax expense during the second quarter was $18 million, resulting in an effective tax rate of 22%. Adjusted net income and earnings per share were $65 million and 81 cents per share, respectively, compared to $60 million and 75 cents per share in the first quarter. Adjusted net income for the second quarter was net of a tax rate of 26%, applied to our adjusted pre-tax income. During the quarter, we paid a dividend of 12 cents per share, resulting in a cash outflow of approximately $10 million, including related distributions to members. Additionally, we made early cash TRA payments and associated distributions of $18.2 million. We elected to make this early payment of the majority of our 2023 TRA liability to minimize the interest expense on the liability, and we expect to pay the remaining balance in the third quarter upon completion of our tax filings. Due to our strong operating earnings and disciplined working capital management during the quarter, we increased our cash and cash equivalence balance by $52 million, notwithstanding the aforementioned payments, and we closed the quarter with a cash balance of $247 million. Net cap X was approximately $7 million during the second quarter. In a moment, Scott will give you the operational outlook. Some other considerations when looking ahead to the third quarter include an effective tax rate similar to the second quarter rate of 22%, and we estimate that the tax rate for adjusted EPS will continue to be approximately 26%. Total depreciation and amortization expense during the third quarter is expected to be approximately $15 million, with $7 million associated with our pressure control segment, and $8 million associated with spoolable technologies. We are reducing our full year 2024 net cap X outlook to be in the range of $35 million to $45 million due to the timing of our international expansion efforts. As noted, the remeasurement period for the flex steel earn-out payment is now complete, and the final payment of $37 million is expected to be distributed in the third quarter. Finally, the board has approved an 8% increase in the quarterly dividend to 13 cents per share, which will be paid in September. That covers the financial review and outlook, and I'll now turn the call back over to Scott.

Thanks, Jay. I'll now touch on our operational expectations for the third quarter, our reporting segment. Based upon preliminary revenue for July, we expect pressure control revenue to moderate mid-single digits versus the second quarter due to the combination of lower average US land drilling activity and less visibility in the production equipment shipments. From speaking with our customers, we believe that most of the decline in US land drilling activity levels is now behind us, although the potential for further rig reductions remains as operators continue to pursue and complete consolidated transactions. We may see some offset to the consolidation activity via expected drilling efficiency increases of the newly combined businesses. Adjusted EBITDA margins in our pressure control segment are expected to be essentially flat at 33 to 35% for the third quarter as cost efficiencies are offset in part by increased ocean freight costs. This adjusted EBITDA guidance excludes approximately three million of stock-based comp expense within the segment. I'm pleased to announce that the first shipments of our next-generation wellhead system have now arrived at our US branches and are presently being staged for customer shipment. This roll-up will enhance our manufacturing cost profile in the coming quarters while adding features for our customers and maintaining self-safetrial status as the industry-leading wellhead system. Regarding our spluable technology segment, we expect third quarter revenue to be flat, to slightly down from the second quarter. This guidance reflects our expectations of a stable North American business that continues to outperform -to-date activity reductions combined with lower international shipments due to the timing of deliveries achieved in a strong second quarter. We expect adjusted EBITDA margins in this segment to be approximately 39 to 41% for the third quarter, which excludes a million of stock-based comp in the segment. As a result of operating discipline by our team, input costs were lower than expected in the second quarter, and we're beginning to realize the benefits of using the Cactus supply chain to source certain components of our flex steel product. Regarding our international expansion plan, pressure control product qualifications is progressing well, but at a slower pace than we anticipated. We still expect to achieve product qualification in 2024, remain focused on establishing a Mideast business, and are dedicating significant resources to these efforts in both segments. We will continue to take a disciplined approach to evaluating strategic opportunities. Adjusted corporate EBITDA is expected to be a charge of approximately four million in the third quarter, which excludes around 1.5 million of stock-based comp. I remain very pleased with the market positioning of Cactus, our portfolio of high-margin, high-return products and services, and the commitment of our organization to exceed customer expectations. I'm eager to responsibly roll out our latest generation wall head system to customers and to enable them to achieve reduced drilling times while enhancing safety and reliability. In addition, we'll complete prototype testing of our new Frac valve design, which should significantly reduce maintenance costs. As we prepare to make the final earn-out payment for the sellers of FlexDeal, I am reflecting on the value that we've generated for our stakeholders by incorporating that business into Cactus. Over the last 12 months, our spoolable technology segment has generated $164 million of adjusted EBITDA, which equates to a multiple of approximately four times the total consideration paid for the business, including the upcoming final earn-out payment. I continue to believe that we are still in the early phases of growth for that segment. We'll remain focused and responsible stewards of capital and are allocating capital and investing in the business with a focus on long-term value generation while rewarding shareholders, as reflected in our decision to raise the dividend by 8%. In summary, our primary objectives for the next 18 months include meaningful supply chain contribution from our new non-section 301 manufacturing facility to enhance the cost and risk profile of our supply chain, increased deliveries of our next generation wall head system, introduction of our next generation Frac valve, continued customer additions and increases within our existing customer base for our spoolable business, supported by the introduction of new products and services and international expansion in both segments. And so with that, I'll turn it over to the operator so that we may begin with Q&A. Operator?

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to 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 remember that we suggest you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first line... Our first question, I'm sorry, it comes from the line of Luke Lemoy with Pipe Sandler. Your line is now open.

Yeah, hi, good morning. Hey, I'm doing great, how are you?

I'm great, thanks.

Scott, you noted the international momentum in spoolables. I wanted to see if you could expand on that a little bit. I think that's a good point. And then also in spoolables, if you could just talk about how... You know, what traction you're getting with some of the larger diameter stuff as far as gathering and takeaway lines, that'd be helpful as well.

All right, very good. I'm going to let, if you don't mind, Mr. Cadlock respond to that.

Yeah, sure. Sure, good, Luke. On the international efforts, we've added key personnel. We're very focused on growth in this area. I think in, historically, while FlexDeal had more of an international presence than Cactus, actually, it really wasn't an area of focus, and it was sort of, if the order came, they would certainly take it, but it wasn't something they were really going out and trying to grow. So we're changing that philosophy, seeing a lot of increased quoting activity as a result. We're adding installation equipment to facilitate the growth as well, so we feel like we're just scratching the surface on international. I think on the larger diameter, we are definitely seeing more interest in our larger diameter SKUs as people recognize the benefits of the rapid installation and the enhanced corrosion resistance, and so I think that's progressing nicely, both in the midstream area, but also even some E&P operators that are sort of changing the way they do their takeaway and gathering. Okay,

and then just to follow up, Scott, I always appreciate your market outlook in the US, and you did note that you think most of the recount is behind us. Could you just expand maybe upon the back half of the year? Do you see it pretty flatish, oscillating around this level, and any kind of indication maybe for the start of 25, that you see right now?

Yeah, I know you all have good memories. So last time I told you that contrary to maybe some of the published reports at the time, I saw the US land grid count in the 550 to 575 range. I think, Alan, we bottomed it 560 and have rebounded slightly to 568. You know, I absolutely feel like the worst is behind us, but we are scaling our business based upon the 550 range. Do I think we're gonna go below 550? No. Am I seeing indications from customers that we're gonna go below 550? The answer is no as well, but I'm still very concerned about, and you all should be, about natural gas prices. And I'm probably a little less concerned in 24, because I'm getting ready to answer your 2025 question. I'm a little less concerned about the reduction and overall recount following consolidation. I think we've really only seen evidence of that in one case, and it hasn't been meaningful. So I do think that we're gonna get better natural gas support in 2025, but offsetting that, I think we're gonna see more effect from consolidation efforts. Now I need to add something about consolidation, because from our perspective, it's not all bad news. So if you see the, I'm giving you a long-winded answer, I'm sorry. If you see, if you're concerned about recounts, and you know, we've always used that as a proxy because it's easy. We've seen shipments of well-hut equipment per rig, per month go up. Hence the comment I made about efficiency. So sometimes people see efficiencies and they say, well, they're gonna be able to drill less wells. That's not what I meant. What we do is we measure every month, the number of housings we ship against, the number of rigs we service, and we've seen a very meaningful increase. I think a better proxy for our business is wells drilled than our recount. And just further, I've said before that long-term consolidation is probably a friend. On the one hand, on the other hand, you know that customers with larger recounts have much more leverage in terms of pricing. So I think it's probably too early, but next quarter, I think I'll have a much better idea. We're just now beginning to poll our customers about their plans for 2025. So if you stand by, I'd rather give you correct information than merely speculation.

Okay, no, perfect. Definitely appreciate all the detail and I'll turn it back.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of David Anderson with Barglaze. Your line is now open.

Thanks, hey, good morning. Hey, Scott. So while I stew over that sort of complicated North American outlook you just provided there, maybe I could follow up a little bit on what Luke's question was on the international side. I'm also kind of curious about the spooble international business. How are you kind of driving that? Are you bundling that with your other, kind of with the pressure control? Are you going to the same markets? I'm just kind of curious about the strategy of building up that international business and kind of secondarily, do you have like a target for us of kind of how much of your business you think will be international, say, I don't know, the end of 25? I know you have this stuff coming on in Saudi. I think that's more of a 26 timeframe, but just sort of in your mind, how does international grow as a portion of your business over the next few years? Just kind of bigger picture, thanks.

Are we talking, David, we're talking, I assume we're talking about spooble.

Well, I was originally talking about spooble, but I'm kind of bringing into the broader, kind of your overall international efforts overall. So I'm curious how spooble fits in, but then bigger picture, kind of how does international overall fit over the next few years, from what you can tell.

Okay, Steve, you want to talk about spooble?

Yeah, and I think there is a question in there. Are we bundling? We're not really bundling, but we do have some resources that are shared internationally that are in the region, and they have both experience in Wellhead, some of them more experience in Wellhead, and some more experience in spooble. So they work together, and obviously you have channel partners in certain areas over there as well. So they hit up the same ones. In terms of spooble growth, I think we had had a presence in terms of, or we've had sales continuing with one large customer, if you could probably guess, in the Middle East, but we feel like we can make further inroads with that customer just by being more responsive, frankly, and dedicating more resources and equipment there. And similar in other areas like Latin America, and even over in Australia, where we have a Wellhead operation, we're looking to grow in that area as well. So I think it's a holistic approach to how we're trying to grow spooble, and we're trying to leverage any benefit that we have from the cactus relationships, but we're also bringing in new people and using the existing resources. As far as how big it could be, I mean, we really, on the spooble side, there's a lot of potential for growth there, large projects, consistent projects. So I don't see why it couldn't be similar to North America at some point. It's just, it's gonna take time to get there.

Yeah, I mean, and let me just expand upon that, because we just had a board meeting, and you won't surprise you when I tell you our board asked the same question, and I told them that it's my expectation, it remains my expectation that in the next few years, we'll have to expand capacity, because there are a lot of international, there's a lot of international activity. When it comes to international, I think as much as we stand apart in the US, I think we stand apart even more internationally because of the larger diameter and higher pressures. You know, frankly, I think I told you this when we bought spooble that I felt like the runway was even greater, and I still feel that the runway is even greater, notwithstanding our efforts from the well-hut side internationally. So your question about what do I see in terms of international for the next, did you say 25? Next

couple, yeah, just kind of the next couple, you're 25, 26, just sort of curious, so how much does this grow, just a bigger picture.

I'm gonna tell you right now, my objective is 40% of our revenue.

Wow, okay, interesting. My follow-up question is a completely different change of subject here. By the way, Dave, Dave,

Dave, I think it's nice when we say one question, one follow-up. It doesn't mean one question with six parts. Anyway, go ahead. I think I'm gonna- You want me

to go back into the queue? Happy to go back into the queue if you like, but it's a good question, so, Eddie. Oh, okay,

I'm just, hi. I'm no-

All right, so, all right, my question is, all right, so the US administration, there's a change in the US administration, you know, it seems like we would see likely increased tariffs on Chinese goods once again. Just, can you just refresh us a little bit? You have a lot of your manufacturing out of China. I know it impacts some of that in terms of costs. Is there anything you would do differently this time around if this happened again? Do you ramp up US manufacturing? Are there other levers you can pull? Or is it really not that much of a big deal because your competitors are faced with the same thing, so it's all kind of a push in terms of costs?

Yeah, I would say the latter. So that, for example, I think I may have mentioned that the plant that we're finishing right now and should begin to ship in the fourth quarter is capable of taking care of our international business, although we intend to manufacture in both locations. So we built the plant with that in mind. In terms of increased tariffs, you know, I think worst case scenario, I don't want to make political comments, but likely scenario is maybe, I don't know if it's likely. One scenario is that there's a 10% duty on top of everything, which certainly won't hurt us any more than it hurts our competitors. Because, you know, frankly, we make more of what we sell in the US than any of our competitors make in the US, and we're more capable of making product in the US. So I'm not, you know, look, I don't like for costs to go up, but I'm not nearly as bothered when it affects our competitors to the same extent. So worst case scenario is, I'm sure you all heard that one of the candidates claimed that tariffs were gonna go to 60%. I think that we are much, much better positioned to deal with a 60% tariff on Chinese product than anybody else.

Let's hope it doesn't get there. Thanks a lot, Scott, I appreciate it.

Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. All right, our next question comes from the line of Jeff LeBlanc with TPH. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Scott and team. Thank you for taking my question. For my first question, I wanted to see if you could expand upon the drilling efficiencies you previously referenced, particularly given the even more holistic view on the market and the fact that operators typically include lateral lengths when they're on the market. When they talk about efficiency gains, so any way you can quantify the magnitude. I know you qualitatively referenced it before. Thank you.

I can quantify it to the extent that we track it. Alan, I think over the, was it over the quarter or over the year it's up about 10%.

Yeah, quarter over quarter, it was around 10% for us, but that metric is pretty lumpy. You know,

but you know, what we do is we look at the number of well heads we ship versus the number of rigs we serve and we compare that quarter to quarter to measure efficiencies. So that's why I said the better proxy is wells. That I know that everybody believes these longer laterals and you know, that certainly is the case. It takes longer to drill a longer lateral. But I can't argue with the stats. The stats showed a 10% increase in well head shipments against the same number of rigs. So it's just a fact.

Well, thanks for that color and I'll turn the call back over to the operator. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much. I'm moving for our next question. Our next question comes to the line of Aaron Jaro with JP Morgan Securities LLC. Your line is now open.

Yeah, good morning. I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I'm intrigued about, you know, one of the drivers of the 2Q beat was a significant order from a large customer who's new to CAC. I was wondering if you could give us some more details on that and thoughts on, you know, how this relationship is going and other follow on opportunities here.

Do I have any competitors that are gonna have access?

Maybe.

So the answer has got to be no. I can't tell you this except to tell you that it's a customer that has historically been a CACTIS customer for WellHeads but has not historically been a production tree customer. We internally feel like customers are now becoming more discriminating when it comes to production. Okay. Than they were over the last several years. So I think it's a question of, I mean, they like the fact that we build our own valves and they like the fact that we control the delivery of those valves, not just the quality. So I think that Joel will join me in saying that we're more optimistic about growth in our production segment than we've been in some time.

Yeah, we've seen a lot more activity, a lot more inquiries for the product. I think a lot of our bigger customers become much more risk averse. So they're looking for an API monogram product with aftermarket service.

Great, great. And just, you know, maybe a follow up, one of the things we're thinking about as we think about, you know, 2025 and thinking about kind of the margin profile of Cactus, you'll have a new manufacturing facility which I think is gonna be low cost. And then you'll have a new frac valve as well as the new generation wellhead product. And if we remain in called a lackluster environment in North America, you know, not a huge call on shale volumes as we sit here today, how do you think about how margins could, you know, behave in this kind of environment with some of the self-help and new product introductions?

Yeah, I feel very optimistic. But I wanted to say this to you, and I've said it before. So we are going to roll out, particularly the wellhead product in a responsible manner, which means that we need to turn our existing inventory before we open up the tap. So I think that, you know, Joel feels like it'll be, it's not that the product's not ready because the product is ready. And if we needed to ship it tomorrow, we could, but we don't wanna create, we have through our careers, Joel's career and my career, we have always been very, very sensitive to obsolescence. So we have a great product in our existing product. This is a better product, but we wanna make sure that we don't impact financially our returns. So you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to bear with us and trust that we're gonna introduce it in a responsible fashion. But the short answer is, I think that even in an anemic 2025, that our margins are gonna hold up very well.

Great, thanks for that color.

All right, thank you so much. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Scott Gruber with Citi Group, your line is now open.

Hey, Scott. Yes, good morning. Morning. Wanna come back to the question on, you know, picking up the production tree share, you know, with a large customer in the US. I guess my question is, you know, when you look at the dozen or so large EMPs and majors that are obviously increasingly dominating the industry, you have strong share in well heads. Can you give us a sense for kind of what percentage of that cohort, you know, does the production tree share not match the share on the well head side?

So let me just see if, let me clarify your question. You're asking me theoretically if our market share for well heads with these customers is, I'm gonna, and you know, we don't report market share, except that if you were in the room, I'd pat you on the head and tell you not to worry about it. But let's say that that number was 40%. You're asking what our market share is for production valves as comparison, as compared to that?

Yeah, I'm wondering with Delta, in between those two numbers and how much of an uplift you could get if the shares aligned.

There is a pretty significant disparity between our market share for production valves. And so, you know, I'm looking at Joel and looking at Stephen, we've never really measured it, but I would be surprised if our market share for production valves is half.

I agree.

Gotcha. And then, yeah, just theoretically, if a customer's using you for well heads, but not for production trees, and then they start using you at the same, you know, share their workload for production trees, kind of what's the approximate revenue opportunity? Does it match the well head size? Any sense of scale?

No, I wouldn't say it matches the well head. It's probably, I'm thinking the average production tree, and 40% of a well head.

Okay. Okay, just to scale.

It ain't chicken feed.

That sounds like a good opportunity. Okay, I'll keep it to one and one's follow up. Okay, thanks.

You know, hey, by the way, you know you can always call me.

Thanks, yeah, I appreciate it.

All right, thank you so much for that. All right, I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Scott Bender for closing remarks.

Okay, thank you all for participating. I think that, what do we have? Allen, 10 times more people than we had last time? I guess Patterson. Look, I think 2025 for us is an exciting time. Despite the fact that we don't, we're not planning for any sort of explosive growth, but you know how unpredictable this business is. Here's what I can tell you. Our costs will be lower. Our productivity will be higher. And our focus is extremely, I think laser sharp, and that's why I summarized my remarks with I want you to know what our objectives are for this year. And everybody in this organization knows what our objectives are. So they're clear. And we remain the largest shareholders. And you can be sure that we're gonna do what's best for our shareholders and for the family. And I'll leave it at that, but thank you for your continued support. Have a good day.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.