Stantec - Q4 2022
February 23, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Welcome to Stantec's fourth quarter and year-end 2022 earnings results webcast and conference call. Leading the call today are Gord Johnston, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Theresa Jang, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Stantec invites those dialing in to view the slide presentation, which is available in the Investors section at stantec.com. Today's call is also webcast. Please be advised that if you have dialed in while also viewing the webcast, you should mute your computer as there is a delay between the call and the webcast. All information provided during this conference call is subject to the forward-looking statement qualification set out on slide 2, detailed in Stantec's management's discussion and analysis, and incorporated in full for the purposes of today's call. Unless otherwise noted, dollar amounts discussed in today's call are expressed in Canadian dollars and are generally rounded.
With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Mr. Gord Johnston.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Good morning, and thank thank you for joining us today. We're very pleased to report record Q4 and full year 2022 adjusted earnings per share of CAD 0.82 and CAD 3.13, respectively. Our results reflect a solid execution of our multi-year strategy and clearly demonstrate the resilience, growth, and demand that we're seeing for our business. The outperformance of our guidance for the year was attributable to a very solid fourth quarter, where we achieved double-digit organic net revenue growth above our expectations. For the full year, we generated an all-time high of CAD 4.5 billion in net revenue. All of our regions and business units delivered organic net revenue growth in the high single- to low double-digit range, demonstrating the strength of our diversified business model.
This also shows how well-positioned we are to address the trends of increasing investments towards aging infrastructure, reshoring of domestic production, and climate change. Particularly notable, Environmental Services net revenue grew by almost 50%, primarily through acquisition, but also from nearly 10% organic growth. Importantly, the top line increase of 23% was exceeded by bottom line growth of 29%. Looking at our results by region. Both public and private investment continued to drive high activity levels in the U.S. In 2022, we grew U.S. net revenue by 26% overall, with over 9% organic and 13% acquisition growth. Our work on large-scale Water security projects in the Western U.S. helped drive double-digit organic growth in Water. In Buildings, we continued to see activity levels rebound with investments flowing into healthcare, civic, industrial, and the science and technology sectors.
Energy & Resources had strong organic growth, with acceleration of activities related to renewable energy and mining projects, as well as reservoir and dam projects, all related to the energy transition and energy security. We also delivered solid organic growth in Infrastructure from work on projects in transportation, as well as in industrial and residential land development activities. Our results reflect how well-aligned our U.S. business is with the major trends and government funding sources available. Canada continued to perform very well with sustained year-over-year growth that exceeded our expectations. Net revenue was up almost 8% organically for the year. Similar to the U.S., both private and public spending was robust in Canada. We had solid performance in Environmental Services, with ongoing demand for permitting work and archaeological services. Power transmission and distribution and energy transition work continued to spur growth in Energy & Resources.
Our Buildings group continued to drive growth with projects in healthcare and mixed-use commercial. Infrastructure captured opportunities in community development in Western Canada, bridge work across Canada, and in recovery efforts associated with the flooding in British Columbia in late 2021. In global, we generated over 35% net revenue growth, 11% organically, and 28% from acquisitions. Our industry-leading Water business continues to be a significant pillar for us, capturing long-term framework agreements in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. We saw strong demand for our services in community development, in mining driven by strong pricing for metals, and in Environmental Services for field work. We are exceptionally pleased with each of our regions and business units, which are all benefiting from the themes that we've been discussing.
Beyond our excellent financial results, I'd like to express how proud I am of our achievements and commitment to sustainability and enhancing our communities. We were recently provided with great recognition from Corporate Knights, as we were ranked in their Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World. Out of nearly 7,000 corporations that Corporate Knights reviewed, we were ranked first among our peers and number seven overall. We've now been included in the Corporate Knights Global 100 for four consecutive years. I'll turn the call over now to Theresa to review our financial results in more detail.
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Thank you, Gord. Good morning, everyone. Starting with our Q4 results, we had an exceptionally strong finish to the year, which drove our full-year results to outperform our expectations. We grew gross revenue by 28% to CAD 1.5 billion and net revenue by 23% to CAD 1.1 billion.
Organic net revenue growth was 10.6% for the quarter, with strong growth achieved in each of our regions and business units. Canada and the U.S. were particularly strong as we benefited from a longer field season in Canada due to milder than typical weather and building momentum in the U.S., where several business units achieved over 20% organic growth for the quarter. Project margin was very solid at 54.9%, and adjusted EBITDA reached 17%, a 150 basis point increase over Q4 2021. This drove fourth quarter EPS to CAD 0.66, compared with CAD 0.15 in the prior year, and adjusted diluted EPS of CAD 0.82, compared with CAD 0.57 last year, an increase of 44%.
For the full year 2022, we generated gross revenue of CAD 5.7 billion and net revenue of CAD 4.5 billion, an increase of 24% and 23% respectively. Project margin was a solid 54.2%, a 20 basis point increase, and adjusted EBITDA increased by 26% to CAD 724 million. We achieved our highest ever adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.2%, and this is at the high end of the range we set for 2022. We also advanced our 2023 real estate strategy. In 2022, we achieved approximately CAD 0.34 per share of cost savings relative to our 2019 real estate costs, largely achieving our 2023 target of CAD 0.35-CAD 0.40 a year early. We estimate that on a pre IFRS 16 basis, these savings would have increased adjusted EBITDA margin by more than 110 basis points.
In terms of square footage, we have thus far reduced our footprint by 28%, also largely in line with our target of 30% from a 2019 baseline. As a result of our strong performance, our full year diluted EPS reached CAD 2.22, and our adjusted diluted EPS was CAD 3.13. Both of these are also record highs with respective increases of 23% and 29%. Operating cash flow for the year came in at CAD 304 million, and levered free cash flow was CAD 76 million. DSO at the end of December was 81 days, a five-day reduction from the third quarter.
As we expected, with the completion of Cardno financial migrations, cash flows began to normalize in the fourth quarter of 2022, which was moderated by stronger than anticipated revenue growth in the fourth quarter, driving additional net working capital investments. This also brought our net debt to adjusted EBITDA down to 1.6x, which is in the middle of our target range. We closed the year with adjusted ROIC of 10.5%, driven by stronger than anticipated Q4 earnings and reflecting a 20 basis point increase over 2021. With that, let me turn the call back to Gord for our 2023 outlook.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Thanks, Theresa. At the end of 2022, we had CAD 5.9 billion in backlog, an increase of 15% year-over-year, 10% organically, and which represents approximately 12 months of work. Our backlog does not yet include any meaningful contribution from U.S. stimulus spending, we expect this to provide further tailwinds in 2023 and beyond. On the strength of our backlog, as momentum builds for investment spurred by government stimulus around the world, we feel very confident that 2023 will be another strong year for Stantec. Even with the high comps from 2022, we expect to deliver strong organic net revenue growth in the range of mid to high single digits. Looking now to the U.S. With over 50% of our revenues generated in the U.S., we expect this region to continue as a key driver for 2023.
After delivering almost 10% organic growth in 2022, we expect another solid year, with organic growth to be in the high single to low double digits. Funding from the IIJA is expected to be slower in the first half of the year and to accelerate in the second half, bolstering our Infrastructure business unit. Buildings continue to see great opportunities in both healthcare and adaptive reuse. In Water, increasingly frequent and extreme climatic events are driving investments in resilient infrastructure to protect against flooding, hurricanes, and storm surges. Investments spurred by the IRA is expected to accelerate renewable and other energy transition projects like the Qcells project that we announced last week. At CAD 2.5 billion, this is the largest solar panel manufacturing investment in U.S. history, and passage of the IRA was a major driver in helping this project move forward.
The Qcells project is also a prime example of the growing trend towards reshoring production and de-risking supply chains, bringing production closer to demand. Another great example of streamlining supply chains is our recent announcement on being selected as the prime consultant on the multi-billion dollar World Logistics Center project in California. Stantec is ideally positioned to provide multidisciplinary expertise to these major projects, and we're confident in the opportunities that they'll bring. After a very strong year in Canada, we expect continued high levels of activity in 2023. Organic net revenue growth is expected to moderate relative to 2022 to the low single digits. Specifically, we see our Water business continuing to grow with several major projects ramping up.
We expect continued strong demand to support the energy transition and the need for increased community development. We expect high levels of activity in our Environmental Services and Buildings group to remain stable over the year. Our global business has meaningfully grown in recent years, both organically and through acquisitions. We see ongoing strong demand in 2023 and anticipate organic growth to be in the mid to high single digits. In the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, our Buildings business is expected to have strong organic growth due to the need for healthcare, science and technology and commercial mixed use development. Growth will also be driven by high levels of activity in our Water business, where regulatory drivers are a strong factor. We also expect to see increases in community development in the U.K., where we're one of the top three planning consultancies.
With a long lead time for development and permitting in the U.K., this sector continues to push forward. Transportation activities will lead the growth in Australia, as will the raising of dams, mining and overall energy transition initiatives. Overall, we expect to drive another solid year of net revenue growth. The 7%-11% range shown here will come primarily from organic net revenue growth. It also includes some contribution from the acquisitions we completed in 2022, but no other acquisitions are factored into this outlook. In 2023, we're targeting an adjusted EBITDA margin between 16% and 17%. Our goal is to deliver adjusted EPS growth between 9% and 13% over 2022. Further gains may come from M&A as our M&A pipeline remains full, and we have the balance sheet strength to capitalize on opportunities that fit strategically for Stantec.
With a favorable market backdrop, an engaged workforce, a full M&A pipeline, and a healthy balance sheet, we're very optimistic for 2023 and the years ahead. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for questions. Operator?
Operator (participant)
Thank you. 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, press star one one again. One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. Today's first question will come from the line of Jacob Bout with CIBC. Your line is open.
Jacob Bout (Research Analyst)
Good morning.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Morning, Jacob.
Jacob Bout (Research Analyst)
Wanted to square 2023 guidance with your backlog in the fourth quarter. Specifically in the U.S., it actually, the U.S. backlog actually dipped quarter-on-quarter. You're guiding to, you know, some pretty solid organic net revenue growth. Hearing your commentary, is this kind of a first half, second half type story? Maybe just a bit more detail on the flow of the IIJA, the trillion plan projects. You expect that to ramp second half, I think is what you said?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yeah. Absolutely. The IIJA funding, you know, we're starting to see clients putting out proposal calls now. We do have a little bit of that work already in the backlog, and we are generating revenue from it. We're not actually, you know, a couple of things about the U.S. backlog, not concerned about that at all. You know, certainly our, the U.S. backlog did drop a bit in Q4, but we had, you know, 13.5% organic growth in the U.S. in the quarter. We're drawing down that backlog. I think you would've seen the same in global that our backlog actually dropped a little bit in Q4. Again, you know, not concerned.
You know, Q4 is always a bit of a lower quarter for us for backlog growth, and I think that coupled with the extremely strong organic growth that we had in Q4, you know, naturally drew that backlog down a little bit. As we talk to our business leaders, as we look at our pipeline of opportunities, we're not concerned with the backlog, and we feel very solid with our projections for 2023.
Jacob Bout (Research Analyst)
Okay. My second question is just on the reduction of the real estate footprint. You're saying if you accomplish your 2023 targets or essentially, you accomplish that, how far do you think you can take this? It sounds like you're around 28%. You're targeting 30%. Can you take it to 35%, or how are you thinking about that right now?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Yeah. You know, we think 30% is achievable, and again, that had been based on the, you know, the footprint we had back in 2019. That remains the target. As we, you know, begin our work on, you know, the next phase of our strategic plan, we are now starting to evaluate what else is possible, given, you know, acquisitions we've done in recent years, but also considering, you know, office occupancy and, you know, what the, what the landscape looks like for real estate in various locations. You know, I do think that there is more is possible, but that will come in the form of our, you know, kind of our next strategy for optimization.
Jacob Bout (Research Analyst)
Okay. Thank you.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Thanks, Jacob.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Benoit Poirier with Desjardins. Your line is open.
Benoit Poirier (VP and Industrial Products Analyst)
Good morning, Theresa. Good morning, Gord, and congratulations for the strong finish. Just looking at your organic growth outlook by region, it remains pretty bullish across the board, and I would expect the U.S. Infrastructure Bill and the Water program to bring momentum for the foreseeable future. How should we be looking at your ability to raise margin beyond the 16%-17% level that you assume in 2023?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Hi, Benoit. You know, I think 16%-17% remains an appropriate target for us. You know, I've always said that there are, you know, there's not one thing that one dial we turn that will give us increased margin. It's many things being done right all the time. You know, what you saw in the fourth quarter of this past year was, you know, increasing utilization, which, you know, is always, you know, one of the best ways for us to improve our margin. You know, we do feel good about achieving that range again in 2023.
Again, you know, there's always that out sort of pushing against that, whether it's, you know, inflationary impact on our overall cost structure and so on. We have to remain pretty diligent and focused on keeping our costs down, in ensuring that we are, you know, as highly utilized as possible. I think that that is the right range for us.
Benoit Poirier (VP and Industrial Products Analyst)
Okay. Maybe could you talk about your ability to staff given the strong demand that you're seeing, right now?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yeah. You know, one of the things that as we went into the global pandemic, one of the things that we had stated was that we wanted to continue to be a net attractor or a net importer of talent during these periods of uncertainty. We can say now that for full year 2021 and for full year 2022, we hired more staff than who left us through voluntary resignations. We do continue to build the backlog to build our headcount to service that. You saw a little bit of that in Q4, you know, due to the high organic growth rates.
In addition to that, you know, we're working hard with our innovation groups to look at how we can use digital products to generate more revenue per employee. Thirdly, we're looking to continue to expand our growth in our integrated delivery centers in both Pune, India and in Manila, in the Philippines. You know, I think there's a lot of different levers that we're looking to use to continue to service that backlog that we've got.
Benoit Poirier (VP and Industrial Products Analyst)
Okay. Very quick one, last one, just in terms of backlog. Given the big announcement that we've seen over the last couple of weeks with Qcells and the World Logistics Center, would it be fair to expect, or what kind of backlog could we expect in Q1 2023, just on the back of these announcements?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
You know, we do think that our backlog in Q1 will certainly increase over where we were in Q4 of 2022. You know, those aren't the only jobs that are coming in. You know, we've acquired some additional jobs, just new projects in Europe and in other regions as well. You know, we do expect that the overall backlog in Q1 will be up over Q4 last year.
Benoit Poirier (VP and Industrial Products Analyst)
Okay. Thank you very much for the time.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Thanks, Benoit.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Yuri Lynk with Canaccord, your line is open.
Yuri Lynk (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Good morning. Nice quarter.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Morning, Yuri.
Yuri Lynk (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Morning. Gord, I don't recall Stantec putting up sequential EBITDA margin improvement in the fourth quarter versus the third, which is what you did at the end of last year. Was there anything? I know you came out on the top end of organic growth. Is that the reason? I mean, it was better utilization. Was there anything noteworthy in the fourth quarter that would have driven the margin up where we normally see it decline sequentially? In conjunction with that, I mean, your guidance kind of implies that Q1 and Q4 will be bigger contributors than I think in the past. Is there a change in your earnings profile?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, Yuri, maybe I'll take a crack at that. Q4 EBITDA certainly was, I would say, atypical in terms of it increasing relative to Q3. I think, you know, a couple of factors. You're right, you know, increasing utilization certainly played a role in that. We point to the longer field season we had in Canada and certainly the northern parts of the U.S. as well, where, you know, winter didn't show up for a while. It allowed us to stay more highly utilized for longer.
As we've been saying really throughout 2022, you know, we were expecting to see a ramp up of utilization in the U.S. as these projects, you know, kind of got going and started to reach that part of the cycle where we have, you know, many more of our workforce working on those projects. That's in part what we saw as well. You know, beyond that, in trying to keep our costs down, we didn't have a big impact on, you know, our share-based comp, which historically has had, you know, a bit of a revaluation bump and has caused that expense to go up in the fourth quarter. We didn't see that this year.
A couple of things like that really drove it. As far as, you know, what we expect, sorry, there's one more thing that comes to mind in Q4 that is a bit unusual, and it relates to, you know, the uptake on our employee benefit costs, where year-over-year it was actually very similar. For whatever reason, uptake was higher in the first three quarters of the year and lower in the fourth quarter, and that had a bit of an impact on a quarter-over-quarter basis.
When we look at, you know, Q1, Q4, which is looking to be a little bit higher than than what we've traditionally seen, still are expected to be slightly lower quarters than than the second and third quarter. Some of that is just our growing global footprint, where seasonality is less of an issue. I think we're seeing the effects of that. Again, just, you know, continued levels of activity that we're seeing in the U.S. that will come from these various funding sources. That's the primary driver for the slight shift, I would say, in the seasonal patterns.
Yuri Lynk (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, that makes sense. My follow-up question, just to Gord, you talked about the bookings and the backlog. Obviously you burned a lot in the quarter, I get that. The absolute level of bookings was, you know, well below what we've seen the last four quarters. Anything to call out there in terms of booking activity or, you know, maybe any more of a cautious stance on behalf of your clients?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
No, not at all, actually. I think it's, a lot of it is just, you know, seasonal type work. Things are a little bit slower and, you know, people getting things papered in the quarter. I, you know, I do think that we'll see that rebound here back in Q1. We've already got a number of significant project announcements in our different regions. No, no concern at all with that.
Yuri Lynk (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, thanks.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Great. Thanks, Yuri.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. That will come from the line of Devin Dodge with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Devin Dodge (Industrials Analyst)
Thanks, good morning, Gord. Good morning, Theresa.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Morning.
Devin Dodge (Industrials Analyst)
I wanted to come back to one of your earlier comments. You know, I think you've made good progress on expanding the workforce in 2022. Do you expect a similar level of net additions in 2023 in order to meet that mid to high single-digit organic growth in your guidance? Can you touch on maybe the general labor environment in terms of availability and the level of wage inflation that you're seeing?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Right. We, you know, we are of course active. We continue to actively hire. I think another thing that we've seen is that voluntary turnover rates have begun to stabilize, we're not, you know, losing as many people there. I think, you know, anecdotally, we also see that, you know, we continue to be, you know, between 2%, 3%, even 4% below many of our competitors in terms of voluntary turnover rates. That's a positive. We also are being very fortunate in the number of people that we're able to onboard.
What's interesting is that both at a junior level, at an entry level, but also at very senior levels, we're attracting because of the strength of the brand and some of these big project awards that we've brought in the door, we're getting some very senior people joining us from our competitors as well. You know, we're feeling good about the hiring. Again, in addition to the hiring, you know, we're seeing the benefits of that innovation program as we talked about and also our integrated delivery centers in Pune and Manila. Do you wanna talk about wage inflation?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
What we had established for our overall salary increases this year was in that sort of 4%-5% range. Certainly higher than we have seen in past years. That's what we've incorporated into our salaries and raises effective January 1.
Devin Dodge (Industrials Analyst)
Okay. Good color. Thanks for that. Maybe another question just for Theresa here. In working capital, we saw good progress on DSO in Q4, but still a fairly meaningful working capital usage in 2022. Just wondering how we should be thinking about working capital as we look out to 2023.
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Sure. Yeah, we did see DSO come down as we expected. I think that when you, when you look at our working capital and how it shifted from, say, Q3 to Q4, you know, you saw a meaningful progression where it moved from WIP into AR, right? It starts to go from WIP into AR, and then the cash comes in the door. That is, you know, the movement that we saw that I think is very encouraging and tells me that we are, again, we're on the right track. You know, we still are targeting, you know, a DSO level of less than 80 days, 80 days or less, I should say. That, you know, remains an appropriate target for us.
I think that will start to see, again, the working capital continue to normalize as we go through, 2023 here.
Devin Dodge (Industrials Analyst)
Okay. Should we expect working capital to be a source of funds in 2023?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Sorry, I just missed the last part of your question. The sound's not great, unfortunately.
Devin Dodge (Industrials Analyst)
Working capital, Are you expecting it to be a source of cash in 2023?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Sorry. Am I expecting working capital. I'm really sorry. The sound on this speakerphone is really terrible.
Devin Dodge (Industrials Analyst)
Is it a source of cash or a use of cash in 2023?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Okay. Sorry. Well, I mean, it ought to be a source of cash given what we're expecting. The only reason I'm hedging on that a little bit is that, of course, it's gonna depend on the rate of growth. As you grow, it requires a, you know, a greater investment in working capital. So I would. You know, maybe the right way to say it is, you know, all things being equal, it should be a source of cash. If we continue to grow at a, you know, at a, at a rapid clip, you might see it more neutral just based on the need to continue to invest in that working capital as the revenue grows.
Devin Dodge (Industrials Analyst)
Okay, understood. Congrats on the good results. I'll turn it over.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. That will come from the line of Michael Tupholme with TD Securities. Your line is open.
Michael Tupholme (Director of Equity Research)
Thank you. Good morning.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Morning, Michael.
Michael Tupholme (Director of Equity Research)
I guess first question is just regarding the organic net revenue growth outlook. Calling for fairly solid organic growth in 2023 in the mid-to-high single-digit range. Can you talk about some of the puts and takes that would lead you to the higher end of that range versus the lower end of that range? Can you also touch on how you see organic growth in 2023 looking across your various business units?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Sure. You know, we talked about some of the different regions. You know, U.S. core organic growth in the high single to low double digits. You know, that's off a pretty strong comp this year already. When you look at the opportunities that we're seeing there, you know, we talked about, you know, Qcells supported by IRA. You know, there's other opportunities like that we continue to be in discussions with. Certainly, the CHIPS and Science Act continues to drive semiconductor opportunities, and we're in discussions on a number of those as well right now. You know, of course, the big one is the IIJA and the supports that that's gonna give to Infrastructure overall.
Really a big part of, as we look at organic growth that next year, all the backdrop is there, but some of it is really just how fast that stimulus spending starts to flow, how fast the clients can get those proposals out, how fast we can, you know, get working and generating revenue. We're, you know, we're working with a number of clients now on, you know, as they're beginning to position, but that'll be, that'll certainly have an impact there. Then, you know, when we look in Canada, good opportunities here in Canada off a high comp as well, but we don't see that same level of general support in Canada. You know, we see continued solid growth there, but, you know, we've guided to that low single digits.
Globally, though, you know, we see great opportunities, and we're guiding to the mid to high single digits off a already very strong 2022. You know, we're looking certainly at opportunities at, in Water in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, as we've talked about. Interestingly, in the U.K., we're beginning to see some recompetitions coming out for AMP8, and we see, you know, great opportunities there where we feel like we're positioned very, very well. You know, I think overall, we're feeling really good about 2023 and our guidance.
Michael Tupholme (Director of Equity Research)
That's helpful. Thanks, Gord. I know some of this touches or relates to some of the government programs and spending in the U.S., but are you as bullish on the outlook for the broader earth environmental energy transition related work that, you know, as bullish as you have been in the past on that front?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Absolutely. You know, a lot of the energy transition work, again, will be supported by IRA. Even absent that, in other regions around the world, we're seeing, you know, a lot of interest in solar and wind, pump storage and so on. Yeah, we're very, very positive on both what that means for our environmental business, but also our larger, design-focused business as well.
Michael Tupholme (Director of Equity Research)
Okay, perfect. You mentioned just briefly at the end of your prepared remarks that you do have a full M&A pipeline. I know you typically get asked about this in one way or another every quarter, is it possible to expand on that a little bit? Perhaps talk in a little bit more detail about what the pipeline looks like, where you're most focused right now as far as acquisition opportunities, how active you think you might be this year, and what you're seeing in terms of valuations.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yeah. We, you know, we see great opportunities for M&A activity really in all of our regions, Canada, the U.S., and global. We're looking at, you know, we're always talking to firms that are both, you know, various sizes, smaller firms, larger firms, different lines of business. You know, sometimes it's a bit lumpy, and we have to see, you know, what firms might come available, when we can get our valuation, you know, to coincide. You know, we're always in different levels of conversation with firms around the globe. You know, we certainly are hopeful that there'll be some things that we'll be able to transact here in 2023.
Michael Tupholme (Director of Equity Research)
Okay. Sorry, just one follow-up on that, Gord. Again, I know it's hard to predict what opportunities will look like. Are you more focused on the smaller and medium-sized opportunities, or should we expect there's a possibility of something on the larger side as we saw with Cardno, for example?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yeah. You know, there's some very solid opportunities both in that small to medium size that we're always engaged with, but also from a larger perspective. I think that what we've seen through Cardno is, you know, that we feel we're very comfortable, you know, taking on a firm of that size or larger and successfully integrating into Stantec. We're absolutely looking at those firms as well.
Michael Tupholme (Director of Equity Research)
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Great. Thanks, Michael.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. That will come from the line from Frederic Bastien with Raymond James. Your line is open.
Frederic Bastien (Managing Director and Head of Industrial Research)
Good morning, Gordon and Theresa, congrats to you and the team for the strong results.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yep. Thanks very much.
Frederic Bastien (Managing Director and Head of Industrial Research)
My questions revolve around the most, your most important asset which goes home at night every day. Appreciate that, attracting and keeping talent is always a top priority for Stantec. Can you comment on how that might have changed in the past 12 months, specifically, you know, is labor availability getting better? Are you seeing some of the cost pressures that you were experiencing, maybe, you know, a year ago getting better or easing?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yeah. You know, a couple of things there. Certainly, you're right, our primary asset is our people, and they, you know, we want to ensure that all of our Stantec employees are engaged, they feel connected to the company and our long-term growth plans. We feel really good about that. You know, from a labor availability perspective, we are seeing greater opportunities there. Certainly, as we continue to grow our digital product offerings, you know, we're seeing with some of the reductions in some of the tech companies, there are additional, very strong resources that are available in that space.
Overall, you know, I mentioned that earlier that both from a junior employee perspective, but also at very seasoned people who often will bring teams with them, we're having great success in attracting those people.
Frederic Bastien (Managing Director and Head of Industrial Research)
In some ways, that's the best, that's your best acquisition strategy really is to, you know, to be able to recruit—
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Absolutely.
Frederic Bastien (Managing Director and Head of Industrial Research)
— people for nothing really.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yes.
Frederic Bastien (Managing Director and Head of Industrial Research)
I wouldn't say nothing, but it's different cost.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
You're right.
Frederic Bastien (Managing Director and Head of Industrial Research)
Now, when discussing with potential targets, are you finding that their expectations are getting, you know, are they getting more reasonable given the volatile environment that we're in?
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yeah. You know, it certainly is still a competitive environment for talent, but we are seeing people's expectations moderate a little bit. You know, we're not seeing some of the, you know, people coming to us as often with, you know, 20%, 30%, 40% salary increases or request for that because other firms aren't offering those anymore. I think we're seeing some moderation there.
Frederic Bastien (Managing Director and Head of Industrial Research)
Okay, great. Thanks. I'll pass it on.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Great. Thanks, Frederic.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. That will come from the line of Sabahat Khan with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Sabahat Khan (Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thanks, and good morning. Just I guess a question on kind of the puts and takes in terms of EBITDA for 2023. It looks like in Q4, the gross margin was a little bit down, but then it more than made up by SG&A. Just wondering how we should think about, you know, 2023. Should we just look at the full year run rate for those two metrics as we think about 2023, or was there anything in Q4 that we should keep an eye on that might continue as it relates to kind of those two line items?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Yeah. You know, I'll start by saying that, you know, for broadly, when we think about ranges for project margin or gross margin, that 53%-55% is, you know, the right range for us. It's going to move around a bit based on, you know, our project mix. And of course, you know, we are kind of in a nice spot now where we can be a little bit more selective, and I think that's why you've seen that margin, you know, move up a little bit year-over-year. It's, you know, it's still, you know, our focus in terms of project delivery, project margin in that 53%-55% range.
EBITDA, as I said earlier, in that 16%-17% range is the appropriate target for us. In Q4, you know, there were a couple of things that were a bit atypical, I would say, particularly compared to Q4 of 2021. In 2021, you know, in the fourth quarter, we had, you know, increased share-based comps. We had onerous lease costs that were higher than we had this year. A couple of things like that that made the, you know, that made the, the admin and marketing as a percentage of net revenue higher in 2021 than in Q4 of 2022.
When you look overall, though, on a year-over-year basis, that admin and marketing percentage was actually quite consistent, at around 39%, maybe 39%+, a few basis points. You know, again, we like to think of that as being in that 37%-39% range, excluding, you know, unusual things like onerous lease costs and that kind of thing. That again is what will drive to that 16%-17% EBITDA margin.
Sabahat Khan (Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, great. Just I guess one on the regions. It sounds like the U.S., obviously a lot of bigger picture tailwinds. Maybe if you could just provide a little bit of color on Canada, maybe a bit more color by end markets. You know, which ones do you expect strength in this year versus the ones that might be tougher comps and maybe what are the other, the regions or the bigger funding mechanisms that are driving demand in that market? Just a bit more color there.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yeah. You know, we see some great opportunities still in Canada without question. You know, our ES group, our Environmental Services group had a really strong year in 2022. We expect that to continue in 2023. A lot of environmental work, a lot of permitting work, a lot of archaeological work. That's very strong. Our community development group, we see very strong as well. It's interesting, I was meeting with some leaders in the overall residential development market about several weeks ago in Toronto. You know, as we talk about over the last decade, on average in Ontario, we brought about 70,000 residential properties to market on an annual basis.
Going forward with the immigration commitments that the government has made, for the next 10 years in Ontario alone, you know, we'll need up to 150,000 residential properties per year. Strong, you know, long-term backdrop for affordable housing, additional properties there. Certainly our Water group, I think you're gonna see this year very, very busy. You know, we've announced a couple of very, very strong projects that we've got before in Ontario and in Saskatchewan and certainly in British Columbia. We feel really good about that. On the Building side, lots of healthcare work ongoing. I think it's pretty broad-based really across the end markets that we feel good about Canada.
We don't see that sort of approaching double-digit, you know, mid, sort of high to single- to double-digit growth like we see in the U.S., Canada's gonna have a good year, but it won't. From our perspective, we don't think it'll be as strong as the U.S. will be.
Sabahat Khan (Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thanks very much.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yes, thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Will come from the line of Maxim Sytchev with NBF. Your line is open.
Maxim Sytchev (Managing Director)
Hi, good morning, Gord and Theresa.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Morning, Max.
Maxim Sytchev (Managing Director)
Most of the questions have been asked. I just wanted to circle back to, obviously the amount of people that you guys are hiring right now. I'm curious to hear if maybe you changed some of the onboarding practices just to make sure that people get up to speed as soon as possible. Just any comments there. That's it. Thanks.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Yeah. No, absolutely right. From a, an onboarding perspective, you know, we're always looking to, you know, how can we make that more efficient? You know, there's certain things that we need to do as we bring people on. You know, welcome them to ensure that they feel part of the Stantec enterprise. You know, it depends also on where they are in their career progression. You know, one thing that we did mention is that we're in addition to hiring at that junior intermediate level, that we've been very successful the last couple of years. We're also hiring at the more senior level. The more senior folks can come on and hit the ground a little bit quicker. You know, we have to teach them the Stantec systems and so on, but they're ready to go.
The more junior folks need a little bit longer typically to ramp up because they need to, you know, they have to understand the workforce, understand what our expectations are of them. You know, we are looking to bring these folks on in larger groups, which allows us to be more efficient in those onboarding processes.
Maxim Sytchev (Managing Director)
Okay, that's super helpful. Actually, maybe I'll squeeze in one more for Theresa. In terms of the kind of the approach to share buybacks, is it fair enough that right now sort of the focus is on organic investments and M&A?
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Yeah. I mean, the philosophy really hasn't changed, Max. You know, we will always look to share buybacks to the extent that it's opportunistic, with the priority on M&A, as it has been historically. You know, a couple of things as well, with, you know, the share buyback tax that's gonna be in effect in Canada starting next year is, you know, something longer term that will again kind of impact the overall valuation metrics when we look at share buybacks. We do, at this point, we don't believe that the new rules in the U.S. will affect our share buybacks in 2024. Again, philosophically, M&A is the first priority, share buybacks, when the opportunity makes sense.
Maxim Sytchev (Managing Director)
Okay. That's great. Thank you so much.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Thanks, Max.
Operator (participant)
Speakers, I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Gord Johnston for any closing remarks.
Gord Johnston (President and CEO)
Well, great. I just wanna say, you know, thanks, very much for everyone for joining us today. Should you have any follow-up questions, well, please feel free to reach out to Jeff Newkirk in our IR group. Have a great day everyone. Thanks very much.
Theresa Jang (EVP and CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you all for participating. This concludes today's program. You may now disconnect.