Dycom Industries - Q4 2023
March 1, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Dycom Industries fourth quarter 2023 results 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'll need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Mr. Steven Nielsen, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for attending this conference call to review our fourth quarter fiscal 2023 results. Going to slide 2. During this call, we will be referring to a slide presentation, which can be found on our website's investor center main page. Relevant slides will be identified by number throughout our presentation. Today, we have on the call Drew DeFerrari, our Chief Financial Officer, and Ryan Urness, our General Counsel. I will turn the call over to Ryan Urness.
Ryan Urness (VP, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary)
Thank you, Steve. All forward-looking statements made during this conference call are provided pursuant to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all comments reflecting our expectations, assumptions, or beliefs about future events or performance that do not relate to historical periods. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from current projections, including those risks described in our annual report on Form 10-K filed March 4th, 2022, together with our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are made solely as of the original broadcast date of this conference call, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Steve.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Thanks, Ryan. Moving to slide 4 in a review of our fourth quarter results. As we review our results, please note that in our comments today and in the accompanying slides, we reference certain non-GAAP measures. We refer you to the quarterly report section of our website for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their corresponding GAAP measures. For the quarter. Revenue was $917.5 million, an organic increase of 20.5%. As we deploy gigabit wireline networks, wireless wireline converged networks, and wireless networks, this quarter reflected an increase in demand from 4 of our top 5 customers. Gross margin was 16.5% of revenue and increased 278 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.
General and administrative expenses were 7.8% of revenue, All of these factors produced adjusted EBITDA of $83.1 million, or 9.1% of revenue and earnings per share of $0.83 compared to $0.03 in the year ago quarter. Liquidity was strong at $757.8 million, improving sequentially, and operating cash flow was $246.2 million in the fourth quarter. During the quarter, we repurchased 210,000 shares of our common stock. Going to slide 5. Today, major industry participants are constructing or upgrading significant wireline networks across broad sections of the country. These wireline networks are generally designed to provision gigabit network feeds to individual consumers and businesses, either directly or wirelessly using 5G technologies.
Industry participants have stated that their belief that a single high-capacity fiber network can most cost effectively deliver services to both consumers and businesses, enabling multiple revenue streams from a single investment. This view is increasing the appetite for fiber deployments, and we believe that the industry effort to deploy high-capacity fiber networks continues to meaningfully broaden the set of opportunities for our industry. Increasing access to high-capacity telecommunications continues to be crucial to society, especially in rural America. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes over $40 billion for the construction of rural communications networks in unserved and underserved areas across the country. This represents an unprecedented level of support. In addition, substantially all states have commenced programs that will provide funding for telecommunications networks even prior to the initiation of funding under the Infrastructure Act.
We are providing program management, planning, engineering and design, aerial, underground, and wireless construction and fulfillment services for gigabit deployments. These services are being provided across the country in numerous geographic areas to multiple customers. These deployments include networks consisting entirely of wired network elements and converged wireless wireline multi-use networks. Fiber network deployment opportunities are increasing in rural America as new industry participants respond to emerging societal initiatives. We continue to provide integrated planning, engineering and design, procurement and construction and maintenance services to several industry participants. Macroeconomic conditions, including those impacting the cost of capital, may influence the execution of some industry plans. In addition, the market for labor remains tight in many regions around the country. Automotive and equipment supply chains remain challenged, particularly for the large truck chassis required for specialty equipment.
Prices for capital equipment continue to increase. It remains to be seen how long these conditions may persist. We expect demand to continue to fluctuate amongst customers, but are encouraged that several have newly initiated or reiterated their commitment to programs of significant size and duration. Within this context, we remain confident that our scale and financial strength position us well to deliver valuable service to our customers. Moving to slide six. During the quarter, organic revenue increased 20.5%. Our top five customers combined produced 65.8% of revenue, increasing 24.4% organically. Demand increased from four of our top five customers. All other customers increased 13.6% organically. AT&T was our largest customer at 22.5% of total revenue, or $206.6 million. This was our eighth consecutive quarter of organic growth with AT&T.
Lumen was our second-largest customer at 12% of revenue, or $110.3 million. Lumen grew organically 64.6%, excluding operations sold to Brightspeed from the year ago period. This was our fourth consecutive quarter of organic growth with Lumen. Revenue from Comcast was $98.7 million, or 10.8% of revenue. Comcast was Dycom's third-largest customer. Frontier was our fourth-largest customer at $97.5 million, or 10.6% of revenue. Frontier grew 152.8% organically. Verizon was our fifth-largest customer at $90.5 million, or 9.9% of revenue. Verizon grew 17.6% organically. This was our second quarter of organic growth with Verizon.
This is the third consecutive quarter where our top five customers grew organically in excess of 20%, and the 16th consecutive quarter where all of our other customers in aggregate, excluding the top five customers, have grown organically. Of note, fiber construction revenue from electric utilities was $74.9 million in the quarter and increased 30.4% year-over-year. We have extended our geographic reach and expanded our program management and network planning services. In fact, over the last several years, we believe we have meaningfully increased the long-term value of our maintenance and operations business, a trend which we believe will parallel our deployment of gigabit wireline direct and wireless wireline converged networks as those deployments dramatically increase the amount of outside plant network that must be extended and maintained. Going to slide 7.
Backlog at the end of the fourth quarter was $6.141 billion versus $6.116 billion at the end of the October 2022 quarter, an increase of $25 million. Of this backlog, approximately $3.459 billion is expected to be completed in the next 12 months. Backlog activity during the fourth quarter reflects solid performance as we booked new work and renewed existing work. We continue to anticipate substantial future opportunities across a broad array of our customers. During the quarter, we received from Lumen fiber construction agreements in Nevada, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa, and Florida. For Brightspeed, construction and maintenance agreements in Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. From Charter, rural fiber construction agreements in Missouri and Tennessee. Various utility line locating agreements in Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, and Georgia.
Various rural fiber construction agreements in Washington, Nevada, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia. Headcount was 15,410. Now I will turn the call over to Drew for his financial review and outlook.
Drew DeFerrari (SVP and CFO)
Thanks, Steve. Good morning, everyone. Going to slide 8. Contract revenues were $917.5 million, and organic revenue increased 20.5%. Adjusted EBITDA was $83.1 million, or 9.1% of revenue, compared to $43.3 million, or 5.7% of revenue. This reflects an improvement of 337 basis points compared to Q4 '22. Gross margin was 16.5% of revenue, compared to 13.8% in Q4 '22. The increase of 278 basis points reflects improved operating performance at a higher level of revenue in the current period. G&A expense of 7.8% improved 53 basis points compared to Q4 '22 from improved operating leverage and tight management of costs.
Net income was $0.83 per share, compared to $0.03 per share in Q4 last year. The increase in earnings reflects higher adjusted EBITDA, lower depreciation and amortization, and higher gains on asset sales, partially offset by higher stock-based compensation, interest expense, and taxes. The effective income tax rate of 22% this quarter was slightly below our expectation. Looking ahead to Q1, we expect an effective income tax rate of approximately 26%. Going to slide 9. Our financial position and balance sheet remain strong. We ended Q4 with $500 million of senior notes, $332.5 million of term loan, and no revolver borrowings. Cash and equivalents were $224.2 million, and liquidity was strong at $757.8 million.
Our capital allocation prioritizes organic growth, followed by opportunistic share repurchases and M&A within the context of our historical range of net leverage. Going to slide 10. Cash flows from operating activities were strong at $246.2 million in Q4. Capital expenditures were $62.3 million, net of disposal proceeds, and gross CapEx was $65.2 million. Capital expenditures net for the full year of fiscal 2023 were $183.6 million. Looking ahead to fiscal year 2024, we expect net CapEx to range from $220 million-$230 million. During Q4, we repurchased 210,000 shares of our common stock for $20.2 million.
The combined DSOs of accounts receivable and net contract assets was 108 days, a decrease of 4 days sequentially as we had solid collections from customers during the quarter. Going to slide 11. As we look ahead to the quarter ending April 29, 2023, we expect contract revenues to increase mid to high single-digit as a percentage of contract revenues as compared to Q1 of last year, and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA percentage of contract revenues to increase modestly compared to Q1 of last year. We also expect $10.6 million of net interest expense, reflecting higher market interest rates compared to the prior year period and an increase in interest income. Lastly, we expect a 26% effective income tax rate and 29.8 million diluted shares. I will turn the call back to Steve.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Thanks, Drew. Moving to slide 12. This quarter, we experienced solid activity and capitalized on our significant strengths. First and foremost, we maintained significant customer presence throughout our markets. We are encouraged by the breadth in our business. Our extensive market presence has allowed us to be at the forefront of evolving industry opportunities. Telephone companies are deploying fiber to the home to enable gigabit high-speed connections. Increasingly, rural electric utilities are doing the same. Dramatically increased speeds for consumers are being provisioned, and consumer data usage is growing, particularly upstream. In fact, during the fourth quarter, gigabit connections doubled to over 25% of all broadband subscribers. Wireless construction activity in support of newly available spectrum bands continues this year. Federal and state support for rural deployments of communications networks is dramatically increasing in scale and duration. Cable operators are increasing fiber deployments for rural America.
Capacity expansion projects are underway. Customers are consolidating supply chains, creating opportunities for market share growth and increasing the long-term value of our maintenance and operations business. As our nation and industry navigate economic uncertainty, we remain encouraged that a growing number of our customers are committed to multi-year capital spending initiatives. We are confident in our strategies, the prospects for our company, the capabilities of our dedicated employees, and the experience of our management team. Operator, we will open the call for questions.
Operator (participant)
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Steven Fisher with UBS.
Steven Fisher (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thanks. Good morning. Steve, it sounds like you still have a positive view of the bigger picture cycle on fiber investments. Can you just maybe give us some sense of how you see the rest of the year playing out after Q1? To what extent do you think that range of outcomes has narrowed a bit now that your language is a bit more positive than last quarter? I'm curious how you kind of see the net of some customer puts and takes on some of their comments.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Sure, Steve. There, the, obviously there's been lots of commentary in the industry about how calendar 2022 finished and how people are thinking about calendar 2023. Looked at some research just this week that had about 6.6 million homes completed in 2022, an expectation of about 7.5 million homes this year, so a nice increase. I think that's something that we certainly see as an opportunity in the business for us to grow. I think we also are encouraged about in customer commentary on their earnings calls or analyst days where they either initiated or reiterated commitments to programs of pretty significant size and duration.
The, you know, it's a year, obviously, no guarantees, but, we feel pretty good, in this year, based on, everything that we see.
Steven Fisher (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. I guess from a margin perspective, it seemed like some of the customers were maybe pulling back on the number of fiber passages just because the costs were higher. I'm curious how you see that playing out through your margins. Are you Kind of passing along dollar for dollar inflation, and that's maybe a drag on the margin %. Can we expect maybe some acceleration in margins over the course of the year, as it seems like you should now be done with that challenging legacy projects, you're getting higher scale of revenues. Just curious how you see the margin trajectory from here.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Yeah, I think Steve, with respect to kind of our customers cost to pass, I mean, there's lots of inputs into that calculation. We're certainly one of them. I think it at least in our experience, This is not for any specific customer, generally, their costs reflect the mix of types of work that they're performing. Aerial work is obviously less expensive than buried work. Work for to serve multiple dwelling units is comparable to aerial. You know, from our perspective, we are comfortable with where we are with customers. We're having good conversations, I don't think we would characterize them any more than that.
We have seen, you know, fluctuation in the overall number of cost per homes passed over time. I think with respect to margins, I mean, we certainly will have less margin headwind, as we've talked about before, out of this closing out of this large customer program. We've had good conversations about the cost of the business right now in a period of time where labor's tight. You know, no guarantees, but again, we feel optimistic about this year.
Steven Fisher (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from the line of Adam Thalhimer with Thompson Davis.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research and Senior Research Analyst)
Hey, good morning, guys. Great, great quarter.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Morning, Adam.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research and Senior Research Analyst)
Hey, Steve, the unnamed customer, this is actually your best quarter from them, and it was a January quarter. Is there anything lined up for this year that would cause you to expect growth there?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
You know, again, Adam, I just reiterate what we were talking about with Steve, is that there have been a number of customers that have publicly talked about expanding their programs, either in markets that they currently serve or in expansion markets, and we're pleased to participate where we can provide good, valuable service.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research and Senior Research Analyst)
I was hoping to get some color on Brightspeed. Curious if the revenue that you reported in Q4 was kind of legacy maintenance work, and then you also had a bunch of new territories announced with them. I'm curious if they're kind of on the path to be. I guess the question is, are they on a path to be a top five customer?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Well, I don't know that we ever speculate, Adam, who's gonna be in or out. We hope everybody goes up and that we get our fair share of the business. The states that we announced this quarter are really an extension of our current maintenance agreements. You might recall a couple quarters ago, we talked about some fiber awards with them in four states. Those projects are underway. They are very focused on deploying fiber, and a very experienced management team. We've worked with them when they were with other folks in the industry. You know, we're working hard to meet their expectations every day.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research and Senior Research Analyst)
Got it. I'll turn it over. Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from the line of Alex Dwyer with KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Alex Dwyer (Assistant VP, Equity Research)
Hi, guys, this is Alex on for Sean this morning. Thanks for taking our question. I guess your CapEx this year came in higher than the high end of your range for this year. I think you guys were waiting on a pretty sizable equipment order as of last quarter. Then in your CapEx guide for this upcoming year reflects quite a bit of growth. Can you just talk about what this increase in spending kind of tells us about your growth expectation and maybe the equipment supply chain conditions?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Sure. We were pleased that in the fourth quarter, Alex, that we received a little bit more equipment than what we had expected when last we talked. I think we had said on last call, if it all showed up, we'd be happy to put it to work. We got, you know, we certainly did receive a little more than we expected. You know, we have a positive bias on investing in the business. Organic growth, supported by CapEx is always a good use of the cash flow that we generate in the business. I think I just checked yesterday, we have in excess of $86 million of capital equipment on order right now. We continue to order equipment.
You know, delays are, or deliveries are long cycle, so we're trying to anticipate where we need to order equipment and continue to try to meet the needs of the customers by investing in the business.
Alex Dwyer (Assistant VP, Equity Research)
Got it. I just wanted to ask about cable. It looks like the passings in CapEx growth expectations for 2023 are pretty robust across a couple of your key customers. just curious what you're seeing from the cable companies, if there's any change in how you're thinking about the cable opportunity set going forward?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Sure. There's certainly been some pretty good increase in expectation around the technical upgrades to their equipment, to facilitate capacity expansion. That's less construction intensive, but something that we're pleased to participate in. I think there that generally the cable industry has been reasonably aggressive or maybe really aggressive around fiber deployments in rural America. There's lots of state level funding that's available prior to the BEAD funding, and we're encouraged with the opportunities that we're seeing for cable operators as they edge out their networks into rural America.
Alex Dwyer (Assistant VP, Equity Research)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from the line of Brent Thielman with D.A. Davidson.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Hey, thanks. Good morning, Steven, Drew, team. Steven, I mean, this is the best January quarter margins I think we've seen since 2018. I guess I'm wondering, are the inflationary headwinds you've seen in past quarters effectively negligible at this point when you look at it from a year-on-year comparison? Have you crossed that line where, you know, that's sort of effectively.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Yeah.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Beyond you?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
I mean, certainly, I mean, labor's still tight. It's a little bit easier to secure than it was last summer. I think what I point you to, more than that, Brent, was we had pretty solid November, December period. Then January's weather, not everywhere, but generally, was unseasonably good. It'll allow us to really address a substantial amount of work. So good solid performance in the first couple of months, and then just really much better weather on average. Not in California, not in kind of the Rocky Mountains, but what's in the bulk of the country, just a little better environment in which to operate.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Yep. Okay. I guess a question on cash flow. I guess to the extent that, you know, you do see growth moderate from 20% to 5%-10%, or effectively what the guidance is suggesting. Should there be any change to potential sequence of cash flows in fiscal 2024, maybe compared to what we saw in 2023? Also, is there a maintenance CapEx level to think about for your business as we think about what you're putting in here in 2024 versus past?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Let me take the second question, then I'll pass it to Drew. I think historically, maintenance CapEx is somewhere around 40% of the spend. It's a little harder to identify in the current environment, Brent, because we did extend useful lives of some of our assets just because we couldn't get replacements. We've always had a pretty, we have a well-maintained fleet, so we were able to do that. I think it may be a little bit higher number now, still there's substantial proportion of the CapEx that is for growth. Drew?
Drew DeFerrari (SVP and CFO)
Yeah, Brent. If you look at the balance sheet, and where we're thinking the outlook is on revenue, We do see some growth there. With DSOs, they got better this quarter. They were at 108 days. We continue to work on that as a factor. You know, this is after a year where we had 20% organic growth and that.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
To put a point on it, Brent, $677.8 million of organic growth.
Drew DeFerrari (SVP and CFO)
Right. Yeah. It can certainly, you know, put some demands on working capital. We finished the year strong in terms of cash collections. We're able to improve on the DSO sequentially. Pleased with that.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. Do you anticipate those DSOs continue to come down?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Well, look, in a business that's grown as rapidly as we have and with customers that are growing their own infrastructure to support kind of these growth rates, we're all working hard to get the bills in and get the cash in. We can always do better.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Yep. Okay. Thank you, guys.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from a line of Noelle Dilts with Stifel.
Noelle Dilts (Managing Director, Equity Research)
Hi. Thanks. Steve, you know, this conference call seems to me to have a decidedly more positive tone than you did at the third quarter. You know, it turned out that your fourth quarter guidance, you know, was conservative from both a revenue standpoint and a margin improvement standpoint. Can you kind of help me understand, you know, the key factors that sort of changed and that drove some of the outperformance relative to, you know, the time of the third quarter call and what's driving some of that confidence? I understand, you know, you said several of your customers have reiterated plans, but I'm curious if there's anything, you know, a little bit more specific that helped to drive, you know, the outperformance. Thanks.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Well, I think, Noel, first, as we talked about with respect to the weather, it year over year, the weather was a bigger factor as we got deeper into the quarter. As we've always said, our fourth quarter is hard to forecast because January is, you know, has two holidays in our calendar, the week between Christmas and New Year's, as well as the, you know, the potential risk that you get a bunch of bad weather broadly across the country in the back half of January. I would tell you that the revenue got on a year-over-year basis and against expectation, was really outperformed the deeper we got into the quarter.
I think we were encouraged, as the quarter went by. With some analyst day presentations from some customers as well as their comments on their calls. Specifically, you know, for example, with Lumen, as they reassessed the program and then disclose that they expect to spend $250 million incremental this year over last on the Quantum Fiber program. I just think we had a number of data points that came in either late in the quarter or subsequent to the end of the quarter.
Noelle Dilts (Managing Director, Equity Research)
Sure. Okay. On Lumen, that was one of my other questions. You know, they've been pretty vocal about pausing the Quantum Fiber build, or they actually use the word stop spending kind of in their fourth quarter. You, you know, come out with 65% growth with Lumen. It doesn't seem like it's really hitting your numbers. You know, how do I sort of reconcile their comments that they're basically, you know, at least paused for a period of time, but it really doesn't seem to be touching, you know, what you're seeing in your numbers at all?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Well, I think it's important to remember that we provide other services for Lumen, so we're actively employed in supporting their network, you know, across a large part of the country. I think the other thing that as we looked at their comments, I think it was pretty clear that they had reassessed how they had been planning their fiber build. And then as that completed, they have, you know, have targets for this year that we're pleased to help accomplish. I guess the way I would put it is they may have stopped in the approach that they were taking. To the extent we were working on projects that fit the new approach, then we clearly wanted to continue.
Noelle Dilts (Managing Director, Equity Research)
Right. Okay, great. Then last, I was hoping you could comment just on AT&T. They've reiterated their 30+ million home target for 2025, but have talked about sort of a slower pace of core passing. There may be some you know, differences in how they're defining those homes. Obviously they've talked about this JV build with BlackRock. Could you maybe talk about how you're thinking about how the opportunity compares, when you look at the core opportunity versus the JV? Thanks.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Yeah. I think again, I think again, Noelle, we do lots of things for AT&T. As we talked about last quarter, we started a pretty sizable locating contract for them at the first of the year. We've added a couple hundred employees for them. In terms of the fiber passings, I mean, we may see some moderation in our business. We don't work for them everywhere. They're a big customer. We're still encouraged with the commitment that more generally the customers have made to the targets that you've set forth and generally frame those as those are the targets they'd like to hit or more, if that makes sense in their business.
Noelle Dilts (Managing Director, Equity Research)
Mm-hmm. Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from the line of Christian Schwab with Craig-Hallum.
Christian Schwab (Senior Research Analyst)
Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just to follow up on the previous question on Lumen, and their new approach kind of targeting, more NFL cities, if I understand what they're conveying correctly. I just want to make sure that what I heard there, Steve, is that new approach and that new shift, you feel extremely well-positioned to benefit from. Is that what I heard?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Yeah. We widely support Lumen in their efforts, not only on this program, but in other areas. As we always say, Christian, we've got to earn the business every day. We feel like we're in a good position to provide valuable service to the customer, again, one day at a time.
Christian Schwab (Senior Research Analyst)
Yeah, understood. Then as far as the follow-up on the line of questioning, the first line of questioning on the top line growth. You know, all of our checks versus your competitors, public and private, are extremely excited about their growth opportunities and wireline for the broad cross-current of things that you highlighted, and are looking for, you know, strong double-digit growth rates. Is that something we should be assuming, you'll see as well?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Well, I think, Christian, as always, it's a big industry. Depends on the size of the entity you're talking to and which particular pocket of demand they're addressing. I think we still, you know, we certainly see good growth opportunities. We've got to execute against them. I think as we work our way through the year, there will be increased opportunities that are resulting out of government funding, not just the BEAD program, which may be late in the year, but certainly some of the ARPA funds are still coming into the economy, RDOF funds, and it's not to be underappreciated the amount of state-level activity that is where funds are coming out based on state programs. I think there's lots of opportunities. We're not giving guidance for the year.
We had a really strong quarter, again, a strong quarter and a strong year, so the comps may be a little tougher, this year compared to last, but we're still optimistic on our prospects.
Christian Schwab (Senior Research Analyst)
Okay, great. No other questions. Hopefully you can bring better weather to Minnesota as soon as possible and do more work here. Talk to you later, Steve.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
That may be a global warming opportunity for you, Chris, but I'm not sure we can change Minnesota weather.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from the line of Alex Rygiel with B. Riley.
Alex Rygiel (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you. Good morning, Steve. Very nice quarter. Can you remind us what you believe the industry can provide and Dycom-like services deserve as it relates to gross margin and EBITDA margin?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Alex, we'll focus our comments on EBITDA margin. There have certainly been periods of time where we've had broadly distributed growth, where EBITDA margins have approached 15%. We're not there now. We have opportunities to improve the business. We're working hard to do that. I think we've had good control around our G&A. We've had some inflationary impacts certainly over the last year or so in the cost of goods. We've got lots of work to do. We're continuing to do that. I think there's nothing structural that says we can't get back there. It's, you know, it's gonna be the result of a sustained effort to do that.
Alex Rygiel (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
You highlighted your maintenance and operations business. I suspect that's increasing as a percentage of total. Is that accretive or dilutive to your margins right now?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Alex, we always think about any activity that we provide customers as a function of the amount of capital that we invest. If we have the similar levels of capital in a maintenance and operations business compared to a construction or a capital-related business, they'll have about the same returns. I mean, there are some activities we do where projects are small, and so DSOs are lower, and we perform well in those businesses too. I think it's really a function of the capital that's required that ultimately drives margins. Of course, we have to perform in order to earn those margins.
Alex Rygiel (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
One last one, if I could. In some years, your customers start slowly in the new year, sometimes driven by economic uncertainty or other reasons. It sounds like January started out strong. Any comment on February and any risk that maybe you, because of the favorable weather, you've gotten sort of ahead of your customer plans?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
You know, the weather really isn't an effect on customer plans. I mean, what we got done in January had to be planned and permitted and ready to go long before January. I really think that was just the opportunity to get out and execute the work. With respect to the April quarter, this is another one that is back-end loaded. April's weather obviously is better than February and March. I would say February's weather generally was a little more challenged than January. Certainly there's been some more weather impacts in California. This is a quarter that always resolves itself or, you know, performs based on how we do in April, just because more daylight, better weather, and just more to get done.
Alex Rygiel (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Very helpful. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Alan Mitrani with Sylvan Lake Asset Management.
Alan Mitrani (Managing Partner)
Hi, thank you. I have a couple, just quick housekeeping questions and then a main question. Drew, can you talk about tax rate for the year as opposed to just the quarter? Where do you expect that to be?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Yeah, Alan, I mean, we provided it for the quarter, but typically that's based on annual analysis. If you look back at this past year, we did have some credits that came through. That's why it came in lower. I think that 26% range has generally been, you know, the planning target.
Alan Mitrani (Managing Partner)
Okay, that's fair. Brightspeed, the contracts were for 1-year contracts versus 3-year for Lumen. Is this more the nature of the ownership or the kind of assets they have? Can you just talk about the durations of the contracts you highlighted?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Yeah, Alan, I'm not gonna get in to characterize, you know, any individual customer's behavior, but it's not unusual when you have an ownership change, and there are a lot of things that they're working on for them just to extend the agreements that we have with them as they work on, you know, other things that are a priority. I wouldn't read a lot into that one way or another. Just, anytime there's a transaction, there's a lot of things for the customer to work on.
Alan Mitrani (Managing Partner)
Okay. thank you. wireless revenues in the quarter?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Yeah, it was a little bit less than 5% of total, and growth rate of about 4% year-over-year. I think this is a year, Alan, in 2023 that we see, you know, a solid year, but we are seeing much less small cell activity. So that's having some impact on the growth rate.
Alan Mitrani (Managing Partner)
To understand, you're spending CapEx at, like, 20%+ year-over-year on a net basis this year, probably this coming year, and you're back and your revenues grew 20%+, but it seems like you're seemingly guiding to, and where the street is and all the rest, you know, and backlog is only growing as well, mid-single digits, and yet your revenues are up 20%+. Can you help us with that disconnect and where revenues are going to? Because it sounds like the way it should be, hearing competitors and customers, things should be building through the year, given all the money coming from the government as these results come out, although mindful of Alex's question as it relates to customer cadence and, you know, higher cost of capital and all the rest with an economic slowdown.
I'm just trying to reconcile the 20-plus % revenue growth and CapEx spends with the single-digit backlog growth and seemingly single-digit guidance as it heads out. Can you help us with that?
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Yeah. I mean, with respect to the revenue guidance, again, on the April quarter, Alan, as we mentioned earlier, anytime you have a growth year like we did last year, the comps get a little bit harder. As we've talked about before, there can be fluctuation amongst customers, as programs come in and then other programs moderate. We're trying to give you a kind of a reasonable view of where we see the business. With respect to backlog, as we've always talked about before, the way we calculate backlog, total backlog, is loosely correlated with the next 12 months revenue. I'd probably point you more to the growth that we've seen in the next 12 months backlog, which I think is consistent with a, you know, a view that we have some good opportunities this year.
Alan Mitrani (Managing Partner)
Okay. Then finally, on Noelle's question. Last time you guided in November, I mean, you blew those numbers away, you blew your cautiousness away. Now this quarter you're guiding. I realize January was better, so maybe you got a little weather effect. If you look seasonally, your revenues this quarter weren't really any different than seasonality, you know, for over many years. This coming quarter, you're guiding to a quarter of what you'd normally do from a seasonal perspective. Is it just the cautiousness as April goes, so goes the quarter or? Help us understand that.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Well, with respect to last quarter, there was better year-over-year and against expectation revenue performance in December and January. We certainly had, you know, unseasonable weather in January, which means that the normal patterns of sequential revenue growth from the January quarter into April are gonna be different when you have a stronger January than what you would expect, right? I mean, typically, what you don't get done in January has to get done or most likely has to get done in the April quarter. The other thing is, if you know, we provide lots of detail on our trend schedule. There is fluctuation amongst customers. As that works that way into the business, there can be some timing issues around programs that are moderating and programs that are coming in.
In an industry environment where we had a great organic growth year last year, we just don't wanna get ahead of ourselves this year.
Alan Mitrani (Managing Partner)
Okay, thank you.
Operator (participant)
That concludes today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to Steven Nielsen for closing remarks.
Steven Nielsen (President and CEO)
Well, we appreciate everybody's time and attention, and participation in the call, and we'll look forward to speaking to you at the end of May, after the April quarter. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.