Encore Wire - Q3 2021
October 26, 2021
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good morning, and welcome to the Encore Wire reports third quarter results conference. My name is Brandon, and I'll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, during which you may dial star one if you have a question. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn it over to Bret Eckert. You may begin, sir.
Bret Eckert (CFO)
Thanks, Brandon. Good morning, and welcome to the Encore Wire Corporation quarterly conference call. My name is Bret Eckert, Chief Financial Officer of Encore Wire. With me this morning is Daniel Jones, President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board. In a minute, we will review Encore Wire's financial results for the three months and nine months ended September 30th, 2021. After the financial review, we will take any questions you may have. Before we review the financials, let me indicate that throughout this conference call, we may be making certain statements that might be considered to be forward-looking. In order to comply with certain securities legislation, and instead of attempting to identify each particular statement as forward-looking, we advise you that all such statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today.
I refer each of you to the company's SEC reports and news releases for a more detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties. Also, reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures discussed during this conference call to the most directly comparable financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP, including EBITDA, which we believe to be useful supplemental information for investors, are posted on our website. I'll now turn the call over to Daniel for some opening remarks. Daniel?
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on the call. If you're interested in Encore Wire, we appreciate your continued investment, confidence, and support. The health and safety of our employees and their families remains our top priority, and we are following CDC guidelines in maintaining safe working conditions while we continue to serve our customers. The strong earnings in the third quarter ended September 30th, 2021, are a testament to the grit and determination of our employees to serve our customers, coupled with exceptional performance by our suppliers and vendors. We remain laser-focused on fulfilling the core values of our company. Unbeatable customer service, nimble operations, and quick deliveries coast to coast.
Encore's one location, vertically integrated business model, strong management team, and deep raw material supplier relationships have allowed us to remain fully operational while maintaining our high standard for fill rates to meet customer demand. By continuing to adapt to the evolving needs of our customers, we were able to increase copper volumes sold both over the third quarter of 2020, as well as on a year-to-date basis over 2020 comparative levels. We believe we can sustain this volume growth compared to prior period levels for the remainder of 2021. Copper unit volumes increased 7.9% and 13.3% for the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2021, compared to the commensurate periods in the prior year.
COMEX copper prices remained fairly stable throughout the quarter before pulling back slightly to end the quarter. However, all other raw material costs continued to rise during the quarter. The upward volatility positively impacted and supported current market spreads. Copper spreads increased 181.1% on a comparative quarter basis and 155.1% on a year-to-date basis. We believe Encore Wire remains well positioned to capture market share and incremental growth in the current economic environment. As we address the near-term challenges, we remain focused on the long-term opportunities for our business. We believe that our superior order fill rates and deep vertical integration continue to enhance our competitive position. As orders come in from electrical contractors, our distributors can continue to depend on us for quick deliveries. I'll now turn the call over to Bret to cover our financial results.
Bret?
Bret Eckert (CFO)
Thank you, Daniel. Net sales for the third quarter ended September 30th, 2021, were $716.3 million, compared to $339.7 million for the third quarter of 2020. Copper unit volume, measured in pounds of copper contained in the wire sold, increased 7.9% in the third quarter of 2021 versus the third quarter of 2020. Gross profit percentage for the third quarter of 2021 was 37.8% compared to 15.7% in the third quarter of 2020. The average selling price of wire per copper pound sold increased 95.5% in the third quarter of 2021 versus the third quarter of 2020, while the average cost of copper per pound purchased increased 48%.
Net income for the third quarter of 2021 was $175.5 million versus $21 million in the third quarter of 2020. Fully diluted net earnings per common share were $8.51 in the third quarter of 2021 versus $1.02 in the third quarter of 2020. Net sales for the nine months ended September 30th, 2021 were $1.905 billion, compared to $896.1 million for the nine months ended September 30th, 2020. Copper unit volume measured in pounds of copper contained in the wires sold increased 13.3% in the nine months ended September 30th, 2021 versus the nine months ended September 30th, 2020.
Gross profit percentage for the nine months ended September 30th, 2021 was 33.2%, compared to 15.1% for the nine months ended September 30th, 2020. The average selling price of wire per copper pound sold increased 91% in the nine months ended September 30th, 2021 versus the nine months ended September 30th, 2020. While the average cost of copper per pound purchased increased 55.6% for the same period comparison. Net income for the nine months ended September 30th, 2021 was $399.8 million versus $52 million in the nine months ended September 30th, 2020. Fully diluted net earnings per common share were $19.31 in the nine months ended September 30th, 2021 versus $2.51 in the nine months ended September 30th, 2020.
Aluminum wire represented 9.1% and 7.5% respectively of our net sales in the quarter and nine months ended September 30th, 2021. Aluminum wire volumes have increased for both the quarter and nine months ended September 30th, 2021 compared to the comparative periods in the prior year. The favorable market conditions in the third quarter and nine months ended September 30th were driven by rising raw material prices and continued demand for our products. In addition, production challenges across the sector, including inconsistent access to raw materials, disruptions in the distribution network, and access to skilled labor created unique market conditions in the second and third quarter of 2021. We expect these conditions will abate in the future, but we are unable to predict the timing of that abatement or whether such abatement will be gradual or abrupt. Our balance sheet remains very strong.
We have no long-term debt, and our revolving line of credit remains untapped. In addition, we repurchased 393,379 shares in the open market during the quarter and declared a $0.02 cash dividend. Our two-phased expansion plans announced last year remain on schedule. The new service center opened in Midway and is fully operational today. Phase 2, which is focused on repurposing our now vacated distribution center to expand manufacturing capacity and extend our market reach, is on schedule for an early 2022 opening. As announced in July 2021, current market conditions have afforded us the opportunity to accelerate our capital expenditure plans and incrementally invest across our campus. We believe these investments will broaden our position as a low-cost manufacturer in the sector and further increase manufacturing capacity to accelerate growth.
The incremental spending in 2021 through 2023 will expand vertical integration in our manufacturing processes to reduce costs, as well as modernize select wire manufacturing facilities to increase capacity and efficiency. Capital expenditures are now expected to range from $115 million-$125 million in 2021, $150 million-$170 million in 2022, and $120 million-$140 million in 2023. We expect to fund these investments with existing cash reserves and operating cash flows. I will now turn the floor over to Daniel for a few final remarks.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Thank you, Bret. The results in the third quarter ended September 30, 2021 further attest to the strength of our one campus vertically integrated low cost business model, which has proven successful since inception and is thriving under the current market conditions. We remain focused and nimble, adapting to changing customer needs and fluid market dynamics. Throughout the third quarter of 2021, sales prices and margins remained strong as we successfully navigated raw material price volatility and availability challenges. Our steady, enduring relationships with suppliers and vendors positioned us favorably in the market, allowing us to maintain our overall low cost structure. I want to take a brief moment to recognize our employees and associates for their hard work, perseverance, and hustle during these unprecedented times. Our performance this year could not have happened without their extraordinary efforts and contributions.
These results have allowed us the opportunity to incrementally invest in our team as we continue to position Encore Wire as an employer of choice in the sector. I also want to thank our stockholders for their continued support. Brandon will now take questions from the listeners.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, sir. We'll now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please dial star one on your phone keypad. If you'd like to be removed from the queue, please dial the pound sign or hash key. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset first before dialing. Once again, if you have a question, please dial star one on your phone keypad. From Sidoti & Company, we have Julio Romero. Please go ahead.
Julio Romero (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you. Good morning, Daniel and Bret.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Hey, buddy.
Bret Eckert (CFO)
Good morning.
Julio Romero (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
My first question would be on pricing. Can you speak to the selling prices you realized as you exited the September quarter? Maybe talk about if selling prices as you exited the quarter were, you know, higher or lower than the overall quarter average.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
You wanna take that one, Bret?
Bret Eckert (CFO)
Let me start, and then I'll jump it to you if that works for you. Julio, great question. I think as you navigated through the quarter, and we had said in the last call, we felt that, you know, margins probably peaked in June, and I stick with that statement, although, you know, it was gradual. If you looked at what copper did overall during the quarter, I think that aligned pretty consistently with what the sales price had done over the quarter. It was fairly steady with a gradual change from the peak in June.
Julio Romero (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. I was hoping you could speak to the competitive environment a bit. You know, obviously, the reliability piece is working well for you guys. I mean, is there a sense of urgency for some of your other competitors to maybe try to improve their reliability, or is that just not the way that they operate?
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
You know, the overall market, Julio, is still dealing with quite a few challenges as far as, you know, labor shortages throughout the industry. There's persistent supply chain issues. You know, the input costs across the board are up. To speak just a little bit to the, you know, pricing in the quarter, you know, when you start the month off, and you can pick any of the three months of the quarter, and you see the volatility as much as $0.35 or $0.40 a pound on just copper. In the past, you know, obviously copper is the biggest or the easiest thing for folks to track and what have you. The pricing piece of it is more today and continues to be focused on the delivery side.
When you look at what the competitors are doing or not doing, you know, we're more focused really on what we're able to do, more than what they're doing in the market. We've built some brand preference, if you will, as much as can be built based on the service piece. That's where we're, you know, making it happen. I mean, the execution at the distributor level and the contracted job site level is where we're making it happen. You know, quite frankly, it's just not as hot of a topic to talk about what the competitors are doing or not doing at this moment. I mean, we're just, you know, we're just doing our thing and the execution is really where it's at.
Julio Romero (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Got it. I guess maybe if I could ask that another way. I mean, what part of the reliability value prop would you say is the most difficult for your competitors to replicate?
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Well, that's a deep question there. I don't know. I don't know what they're, you know. I don't think it's any one issue for them to address, really. I think they're all doing very well. I haven't heard of any, you know, complete shutdowns or walkouts or, you know, really haven't heard anything in the market that's leading to any issues that I could speak to. I think they're all doing very well. You know, I'm sure they're writing orders and shipping and doing the things that they do. You know, it's a pretty robust market for the residential piece, as you know.
You know, as that starts to kind of maybe drift for toward more normal numbers, you know, it's time for the commercial to take off, and the industrial piece has been pretty strong with, you know, crude oil coming back to about $80. I don't know specifically what to tell you. I don't have anything bad to say about any of them. I think they're all probably doing real well in this market.
Julio Romero (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. I guess just last one for me is, you know, it was very nice to see you know, repurchase some shares at these levels. If you could give us a quick refresher of, you know, how you think about repurchases and then more broadly, a refresher on your overall capital allocation priorities.
Bret Eckert (CFO)
You want me to take that one, Daniel?
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Yeah.
Bret Eckert (CFO)
Just kicking it off, Julio, great question. You know, as we said before, you know, when we look at our use, highest and best use of cash, you know, we continue to look towards three triggers. First is CapEx. You know, can we take out costs from the system or from the process, or and/or can we expand manufacturing capacity and efficiency? That's continued. That's what we've done from the very start and inception, and how this campus was built under Daniel's leadership, and that's the continued focus today. You know, the next step would be looking at, you know, in no particular order, share repurchases, you know, and then something with the dividend.
Those really are the three uses of cash that we've always focused on, given the fact that we've never done an acquisition in our history. As was disclosed in the 10-Q, we had authorized through the board. It's in the 10-K as well.
For the repurchase of up to 1 million shares, I think that authorization expires in March of 2022.
Julio Romero (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. Very nice quarter, gentlemen. I'll hop back in queue.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Appreciate the support.
Operator (participant)
From D.A. Davidson we have Brent Thielman. Please go ahead.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Thank you. Good morning. Hey, Daniel. Maybe on the supply or raw material side, I mean, anything, whether it's purchasing copper resins or anything else that you use in the manufacturing process, are you seeing anything ease up for you in particular right now, or is it all pretty tight?
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
You know, it's better than it was, but there's still pockets of, you know, obviously challenges to get things in here. You know, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, we've got a fantastic purchasing department, and they're very good at what they do. We've built relationships over many years, and you know, we rely on it and push it and, you know, all those things. You know, one of the things that you know sticks out is on the supply chain execution piece, you know, we're really good at matching each quote real-time. We're, you know, our personality is not to put a price out there, and wait and see what happens.
Every quote that comes through is a real-time quote that we're matching up to the moment, you know, supply chain cost increases, you know, a penny here, a penny there. You know, aluminum, I think year-to-date, is up almost $0.60 a pound. Natural gas is doubled. Plasticizer is up $0.40 or $0.50 a pound. I mean, everything that we touch, you know, diesel's up $0.60-$0.70 a gallon. Everything is more expensive than before. It forces discipline in this industry, which you've heard me say before.
You know, you can dilly-dally with some quotes and put a price out there and leave it for a couple of days if you want to, but in this market, that's not what we do, and it doesn't work for us. You know, the challenge each day of getting raw materials in here and, you know, down to, shipping expense items, stretch film, pallets, wheels, you know, whatever it might be, we're just super attentive to detail. We've got a fantastic team. We've got one campus, you know, you just do what you gotta do to get the stuff in here. You know, it's not a roll your sleeves up and get after it.
You know, Bret and I spend, you know, part of our time during the day chasing things down, and they can certainly get here. You know, spare parts for equipment, anything you can think of, propane for the forklifts, whatever it might be. It's a team effort. You know, you know, we go in and try to support the purchasing team and see what we can do to help. You know, quite frankly, with our balance sheet, with our cash position, we're able to do some things that maybe other folks are not able to do, and we take advantage of that any chance that we can. Certainly don't mind spending money as long as it's gonna lower cost or increase our service level where we can charge more.
It's a long answer to your question, but the supply chain piece, I think really what it comes down to, you know, again, is that execution on matching up that supply side to that real-time quote.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. I appreciate that, Daniel. I guess when I look at the volume growth over the last couple of quarters, it's a little challenging, I think, from our side because you had so much disruption a year ago when you try to compare it. You've also got the service center investment, which presumably is kinda helping you out right now, too. I guess maybe just taking a step back, Daniel. I mean, what does the market feel like today? I mean, what sectors are strong and driving the growth? How much is the service center investment sorta helping you today? I mean, any you know, qualitative commentary you can offer around that I think would be really helpful.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Yeah. I mean, the backlog and the quote volume remains, you know, remarkably high. Our success rate or hit rate on the quotes is fantastic. You know, the residential market, I think will probably, you know, get closer to normal, but it's still a very robust market for us, you know. Then, again, with, you know, crude being $83 or so, whatever it is, a barrel, that industrial sector has picked up pretty strong.
You know, the commercial construction market, even though I don't think you see it yet in some of the reports that are lagging maybe, you know, as that commercial continues to gain some momentum, that's really a good use of some of our larger products and from a pounds per foot standpoint, you know, every market that we ship into seems to have some type of supply chain disruption. You know, structural steel, switchgear, we've even mentioned and experienced challenges for PVC raw materials. I mean, everything we ship into is experiencing volatility with some forced discipline, which is allowing us to, you know, execute and charge for it. The solar or photovoltaic market is really hot right now. It's a good market.
The utility market is, you know, gearing up obviously for grid upgrades. You know, we're seeing good numbers come in really across the board. If you had to pick one that was not as good as others, it'd be the commercial piece, which is, you know, a veiled positive because when it comes, it comes pretty quickly, typically right behind that residential industrial piece. Really kind of across the board, we're seeing, you know, good things happen.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
That's great. Daniel, maybe a last question. I think I know what kind of answer I'm gonna get here, but you've got a war chest here in terms of the balance sheet and probably gonna get even bigger. I guess, you know, among the different things you're already doing right now in terms of putting money to work in the business, you know, are you evaluating some new sectors? You spit off a few there on the utility side. You know, are there new areas that you're looking hard at that you're not in now that, you know, could present an opportunity now that you've got, you know, a balance sheet with so much cash on it that you can go after? Just any thoughts there would be great.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Yeah. It's like you've been sitting in the office up there with us or something, Brent. Yeah, you know, we're pedaling as fast as we can, and we've got our eyes on some stuff out in front of us. You know, moving as quickly as we can is the best way to put it. You know, the key for any of these expansions, anytime we you know, spend the money that we're spending, is to lower cost or increase, maximize our service offering. All those things are very easily done. The key is getting the right guy or girl in the right spot to make it happen. That's where we're at. Things are going along great.
We've had some fantastic additions to the team and that's probably all I should tell you.
Brent Thielman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
That's great. Congrats on a tremendous quarter.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Yeah. Appreciate your support.
Operator (participant)
Yeah. Once again, if you have a question, please dial star one. Standing by for anything further. From Baldwin Anthony Securities, we have Bill Baldwin. Please go ahead.
Bill Baldwin (Founder and Director of Research)
Yeah. Good morning, Daniel and Bret. Fantastic execution again this quarter.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Thank you, sir.
Bill Baldwin (Founder and Director of Research)
On your CapEx guide that you laid out, the 2023 was increased pretty materially. Is that kind of pulling things forward that had been in the original schedule for 2024, but due to the cash flow generation, you decided to move that up to 2023? Is that kind of what's going on there, just acceleration of perhaps longer-term plans coming in now to the three-year plan?
Bret Eckert (CFO)
I'll take that, Daniel. Bill, it's a great question. Really, it's just a little bit of balancing. You know, as we look out and we've got a list of projects, obviously, we announced some of those in July. But as you kind of navigate that cash spend piece of it, you know, there's always those amounts that is it gonna hit, you know, in November and December, or is it gonna trickle into January, February? You get your estimates in and kind of clarify those based on lead times for machine orders, getting the right contractors in here for the work we need done, it was just a little bit of balancing from that standpoint. It's probably a little of both.
Bill Baldwin (Founder and Director of Research)
Oh, okay. Thank you.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
Thanks, Bill.
Operator (participant)
Standing by for any further questions.
Daniel Jones (President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board)
All right. Well, Brandon, you've done a great job, and appreciate you folks calling in and supporting us and look forward to the next quarter call. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.