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4fd21f6000d0498acf967931216d39ec | Sorry, I've been jumping between calls. So apologies if this was asked. But I just wanted to better understand kind of your exit run rate, if you commented on July trends at all. And just wanted to kind of get further clarification on this recovery kind of pushing out into 2021, if that was kind of just your view on CO... | Got it, Kristen. Just a couple of things to update you. We did say at the beginning of the Q&A session that 1/3 of our headwinds were offset by respiratory and that we feel like we're about $10 million ahead there. We did say that and the Electives and Pain Management in that March-April time frame, we're only at 25% o... | direct | [
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309e98f322bed13c3a4d45dc8f51e468 | There were no questions asked in this transcript. | There were no answers provided in this transcript. | direct | [
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569d0004af6634185ccecaa704d805da | My question is about the distribution profit margins look very good. And so I wondered if that was just the $16 million of profit if that was covering of fixed cost? And if that is sustainable? Is this revenue level? Or is there some sort -- it sounds like demand was strong in all kind of categories. But was there any ... | Yes. Well, let me take a stab at that and then Jeff weigh in. First, the business performed, we get great operating leverage, this business is seasonal as we've discussed in the past. So Q2 and Q3 are the stronger quarters. But then the margin averages out as you know Q4 to Q1 are just softer quarters, and while we're ... | intermediate | [
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a9bf574569598654c1009b2e7e552ea0 | I wanted to ask too about -- about some of the dewatering and the growth that you saw there, how much of that growth was from price and how much of it was from volumes when we talk about the organic growth? | On dewatering? I don't have the specific price volume on the dewatering product line. But overall, we've had pricing actions in the low single-digits earlier this year. And then really most of it would be a volume pick up.
Yes, it's more volume Walt, for sure than price. You recall last year in the second quarter that... | intermediate | [
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c712ba3ca4b1a438a65f6b496b2a6699 | Okay. And is that the same for the groundwater too that most of that growth is volume related? | Yes. The volume is -- we look at this more by -- we look at it more qualified geography than we do by individual product line. But the volume change in water call it four times the price change. About that.
Yes, and that generally will hold through across product lines. | direct | [
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cc11720a3de766a152f170bf0082f43e | And then just a quick one and I'll let someone else have a shot at questions. But the legal expense of $2 million, what was that related to? And is that a recurring charge? Or is that a one-time expense? | Yes. It was a combination of things. It is -- we view it as one-time. Walt, it was transaction related as well. So as you know, we did these water treatment transactions in the second quarter. There were at a cost for that banker fees. There were also legal fees for that. And then there were just other legal matters th... | direct | [
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3c8c6109ded75998453468148b0a9887 | So just some thoughts on price cost inflation. How are you guys thinking about the pricing environment, efficacy of what you're pushing through, when do you think parity can come back into the system? Obviously, inflation pressures have been rampant. And at some point they'll likely bounce out. Just some thoughts on, w... | Well, I would say, Mike, that we talked about price versus inflation. And generally, I would characterize what is happening in distribution and dealing as we're in it -- we're advanced. We're seeing greater price than we are inflation. It's really in Water Systems and more specifically, it's more in the US, Canada and ... | intermediate | [
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2e6280f5bc119ae14eeb8882a1d8851a | And you mentioned the Headwater margins very impressive, maybe just some thoughts on sustainability there. Obviously you're going to have seasonal upticks based on the revenue levels, but at a high level how are you thinking about the sustainability? | Yes. The first half margins in Headwater are about 7.5%. Last year's second half margins in Headwater Mike, were about 3.9%, so just at the very low end of our expected range. So we expect that to be meaningfully better in the second half this year. I think something in the high end of our expected range, 4% to 6% for ... | direct | [
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0cd7b93ffc22c8ca63c923ce5a61a9ba | And then, on the water side, obviously really strong momentum. It seems like basically pretty broad-based there. Anything that you're worried about inflation impacting demand or some, sort of, air pocket developing. It seems like the momentum is pretty consistent here and you feel pretty good about the trajectory on a ... | Yeah. Again we're a short-cycle business. So we learned about it later than most people. But the -- to your point, I mean we've got almost 45 days of incremental open orders than what we normally see in the past. So we've got plenty to work our way through. As the supply chain go down, we're going to be continuing to c... | direct | [
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264bcc3ef4f58792150caa46a49ff724 | With respect to your comment Gregg around this open order number, I don't remember you guys historically sharing that. So can you put a little more context around that? You mentioned 45 days of for the lack of a better word I'm going to use the word backlog. So 45 days of backlog if you will. What is a more normal numb... | Yeah, Matt to your point, it isn't something that we normally talk about because we're normally a short-cycle business; we're selling and filling orders on a pretty rapid basis. So typically at the end of the second quarter if you look back 2018, 2019 for the company for our manufacturing business it'd be about $35 mil... | direct | [
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4b84ae99d5134754f2ff0a2471fd52b0 | And then to that point, do you get the sense that that type of number in the incoming order rates you're seeing is that truly indicative of demand? Or do you get the sense that your end customers are concerned about their ability to get product given what's going on from a supply chain standpoint and instead of orderin... | I'm sure that there's some of the latter. But one of the things we have is -- again, it's an indicator for one of our product lines in the US market is our distribution business itself. The sell-through of Franklin and Headwater is greater than the purchase rate that Headwater is buying. So they're clearly drawing down... | direct | [
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3f113789825030759e35eb855761246d | And then, I want to follow-up on price. If we can maybe just do a recap of the pricing you've already put in place and the magnitude -- the magnitude is what I'm talking about. The pricing you already had in place and what this next wave set for August 1 contemplates in terms of magnitude? | Yeah. So, all of our water businesses Matt all of our businesses have made at least one many have made two and now three price increases. In the case of what we're talking about in the United States where I think the spread is the highest and actually went negative in the second quarter. There was a 3% price increase, ... | direct | [
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d2b450696064f5ceff9682511b5d093b | Can you just maybe just talk a little bit about the Puronics and Aqua acquisitions and how they're being integrated? And can you -- are they going to the Headwater as well already? Or is that the plan going forward? Thanks. | Yes. Sure, Chris. So we're integrating the four companies that we've acquired in water treatment over the last couple of years, three in the last eight months. And we'll have, of course, on a common platform. But the Headwater is a customer, but one of the reasons for the Aqua Systems acquisition is Aqua Systems is dee... | direct | [
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06b9281c2589477232e48616b3761a13 | And can you just maybe just talk a little bit about the M&A opportunities that are out there? And are you holding off at this point, just given the recent acquisitions or still a lot of opportunity? Thanks. | Yes. We've always looked at acquisitions -- John, would use the word opportunistically. We look at acquisitions across our segments and standing up new business. So, we're certainly engaged and we have identified a number of properties that, if they were available, we would like to pursue. I'm also -- those of you who ... | direct | [
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52e9c5a78b8660d01926c6b9b4c99e4d | You mentioned in the earnings release the -- with the improvement in natural gas prices that you're looking to sell assets or divest some assets in the Haynesville and Austin Chalk. And I was just curious, how much are you talking about there, is this sizable? The reason I'm asking is the balance sheet is in good shape... | Hey, Pearce, this is Jeff. Yeah. I think the press release didn't convey this the right way, I apologize that. The press release is just meant to convey that with the uptick in natural gas prices, we're seeing more traction in getting our existing assets into play in the Chalk and in the Haynesville. So it's just -- th... | direct | [
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1555cf35ff164b94c10ed0a4f064c715 | How should we think about Q4 production and are there any guardrails you can provide around 2021 production? | Well, Pearce, what I'd say is that I think we're still comfortable with the updated guidance that we've put out in mid-year, which I think kind of puts us in the -- implies a mid 30s kind of MBoe per day level for 4Q. And then as normal course, we will come out with '21 guidance in February when we have our next confer... | intermediate | [
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d431da675df455f8849cc6a47cc6a36e | I was just kind of wondering, you kept that distribution flat like $0.15 and now that your leverage is at like a 0.5 turn, your utilization rate is around 31%. When are you guys thinking about potentially increasing that payout ratio a little bit more? And, I guess, what kind of metrics are you looking for in order to ... | Harry, this is Jeff. I'll start. Thanks for the question. Look, we have always -- a lot of our core investors really value stability and a decent amount of foresight into the distribution. So, we wanted to set that $0.15 a quarter, $0.60 a year level as something that we thought was very sustainable across a pretty wid... | intermediate | [
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83573e85c1a8f65469176eebf0922bc2 | Any update on where your base decline sits right now and where you expect it to be kind of next year? | I don't think there is any update. I mean, as we've long said that the base decline across the asset base is in the high 20%s, low 30%-ish that may be coming down just a tad with some of the roll-off that we've seen already, but it's still in that neighborhood. One interesting statistic that I won't comment too much on... | direct | [
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85aef145835804e6fb379c1a07666cce | I'm curious, if you look at the share price today and some of the other players in -- that are publicly listed minerals businesses, even with kind of how crazy this environment has been, I think you can pay in a lot of scenarios, this being a really, really attractive kind of pricing environment or just that the assets... | Hey. Good morning, Andrew, and thanks for being on the call. This is Jeff. I'll start. Yeah. I'll tell you, I think that there's still just a disconnect out there. We are probably seeing a few more assets come to market both in kind of the small to larger packet sizes, but I'd say with all the work that we've done to g... | direct | [
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205fc90ea597831b03a368dfc33dd4dc | And then maybe just one more question on the Austin Chalk acreage or even maybe an update on kind of the PepperJack play, I know it's been some time since that's been brought up, but I kind of recall that that was a possible kind of more conventional type wet gas play. Just curious -- I know you guys are working really... | Well, this is Tom. Let me take a stab at the Austin Chalk. We are pretty excited about what we're seeing in what was the old -- what I would call the core part of the old Brooklyn field, which has some very good production since the '90s through the last decade. And literally, we have hundreds of old units that are a 1... | intermediate | [
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10f612fa83a257875fe1b5e16e00bed1 | Perhaps for Tom, maybe staying where you just ended effectively and really drilling down on the first question in Q&A regarding your comments on taking advantage of the relative strength in natural gas prices to market -- or aggressively market your extensive acreage positions. With regard to the Haynesville specifical... | Our next area of rank in terms of net revenue points would be Louisiana, and we are a bit leaner there, but we -- in some areas, we have some concentration. And as a matter of fact, we have just recently made some trades in Louisiana to incent some of our key operators to drill four, five wells pretty soon that weren't... | intermediate | [
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55a8c701a6491f91cf99938371b2bbd2 | And then as my follow-up with regard to the 2,000 barrels of equivalent volumes that were shut in when XTO did offset completions. Does that carry over into Q4 or does it really clean up in Q4? | Derrick, this is Jeff. No, that will carry over into Q4. They're going to -- there'll be at least 13 wells and they'll be completing those kind of through the -- way through sort of the -- into the end of the first quarter of next year. But, we'll continue to see some of those offset locations shut in as they're fracki... | direct | [
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90a3b925c54241c63ddb4976b6910b42 | After a successful disposition of Barrow Hanley and Copper Rock, I just wanted your perspective on the potential for similar exits with your two other traditional matter affiliates, which could actually improve your business mix, and more importantly, your organic growth rate further? | As we've mentioned, when we announced those divestitures, pro forma regards to divestitures, we have a very strong business mix now with a strong record of producing positive flows. And the Liquid Alpha segment, too, had positive flows this quarter, may not happen every quarter, but we do like the diversification that ... | intermediate | [
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a36dc83f67cb58f483faad56d0d7ed12 | And just as my follow-up on Landmark, I think many of us were already running with a 2-quarter delay on the Landmark fundraising cycle after the May 1Q earnings call. Does this 2-quarter delay equate to 1Q 2021 when we should start seeing the first closes? Or is this actually incremental to what you were saying on the ... | To the extent there is confusion, we definitely want to clarify that we were just reiterating the prior discussions that we've had last earnings call, that is the same 2-quarter delays. Initially, we had been saying that the second half of 2020 is when we would expect fund rating to pick up pace. And what that means is... | direct | [
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0692c1d7eb6199f1a15b811f06b320fc | First one, just on the accretion with the divestitures and the paydown and buybacks. I don't know if you I know you guys, when you announced the transaction, you mentioned like sort of the net income impact, and I just want to make sure that, that correlate to the economic net income. I just kind of want to know like t... | Mike, yes, if I understood the question correctly, yes, the guidance that we gave last week was that, yes, we would lose the EBITDA and the earnings from the affiliates that we are divesting. But by deploying those proceeds in paying down debt and repurchasing shares, we expect double-digit accretion to the ENI per sha... | direct | [
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37778c5e6233d4697959aae1980170d5 | And then just on some of the pro forma like expense ratio guidance that you gave, just given the timing of these transactions, is that like a pretty good base for us to be thinking for 2021? | Yes. Yes, the guidance that we've given on the ratios in the investor deck, that's pretty good from my 2021 perspective. Some of the ratios, particularly the OpEx ratio, that does obviously vary depending on the revenue and what the market does. But with that qualifier, they're generally good based on what we know so f... | direct | [
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b0cfb3415cdc95ebd636e290238b0bf0 | I just want to come back to the Quant & Solutions business. I was just hoping you can open the curtain there a bit more on the Quant & Solutions business dedicating. And maybe just give us some color around the diversity and the mix of strategies that they have. And maybe just more specifically, if you were able to hel... | Mike, yes, it's one of the largest businesses we have, especially on a pro forma basis, it's more than half of our revenue or EBITDA. That's a very diversified business with a variety of strategies, and we're continuing to see new strategies. So some of the larger strategies, for example, as a regional strategy, emergi... | intermediate | [
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99f1dca1a8706ebf98c884a559fc8328 | Okay. And just in the quarter, it looked like about $300 million inflows or so into the Quant & Solutions. Imagine all that's at Acadian. There was a negative revenue impact associated with those inflows on Page 14, it looks like $6.8 million negative revenue annualized impact there. I guess that's just the redemptions... | Yes, certainly, Mike. And then I would say that what you see on the revenue side, it's a little bit of happenstance, if you will, that the we are not seeing any kind of fee compression or any particular strategies that are outflowing in a recurring way. It's just a function of whether we have the combination of inflows... | intermediate | [
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42fac7d63739b152fdf6cd3cea49277d | Maybe shifting to Landmark. Maybe similar to Acadian. Any a sense of the cadence or pace of fund raising there? And specifically, what I mean by that is, assuming market ran multiple products, not so the same size. So if you think of that a fundraising starting funds started to close hit in the first quarter, say, of 2... | Yes. Thanks, Rob. Yes, I guess, somewhat similar to Acadian, Landmark is also a very diversified business. The core strength is obviously the secondary aspect, which they are one of the pioneers in that business. But also because they are one of the pioneers in the business, it's diversified. So the will be primary str... | direct | [
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832ed4599c31b8a8517a8771d17a2f08 | And maybe as a follow-up. With the pending transaction for fourth quarter, is there any later color on kind of one in the fourth quarter? Are they closing October one versus December 31 so they had some information on that buyback heading into the year, at least in the fourth quarter. So any sense that sort of happenin... | Yes. I would assume almost toward the year-end could happen sooner, but I would assume December. | direct | [
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1170fe48d38d5dcf328e73c2aef3c19c | So first question on expenses. The operating expense ratio was 43.4% in the second quarter. Your guidance is 45% to 48% for the year. So I know you're giving us a ratio here and not actual numbers, but that seems to imply higher expenses in the second half relative to the second quarter. Is that a reasonable assumption... | Yes, certainly. Thanks, Chris. The ratio is again, it's a range of evolve assumptions regarding the revenue. But in the second quarter, you'll see that, compared to the first quarter, the dollar amount of expenses was lower. And some of that was driven by T&E, third-party vendors, some slowdown in recruitment that we h... | direct | [
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f6f6a7a0c72c1db3a946b3f4a2808e75 | Is there any light you can shed on possible performance fees in the second half? I know traditionally, Q4 tends to be a pretty strong quarter for you guys as it relates to that. Is that something we should still be modeling for? And then kind of an unrelated follow-up. What are your thoughts on the pro forma tax rate o... | Yes. On the performance fee, yes, you're right that we would expect, generally, performance fees still to come in, in Q4. And it's generally, there is always something. It's always hard to predict, of course. But Q4 would be the right quarter to model some performance fee. So not that we know. We would will run with it... | intermediate | [
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0ef754d1527c41877acadbebb0bc9a0e | Just one in terms of the seed capital, plans for seed capital investments. Wondering if you could just share with us any updated thoughts on any specific areas which you're looking to invest in? | Again, yes, on the seed capital, as we said, it's a similar approach as to our overall business that we are focusing our business on the growing parts of the industry. So you would expect our seed portfolio also to be reflective of that. So it would be primarily Acadian and Landmark in terms of seeding new strategies t... | direct | [
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da61847f18462330c71ee3d36969390b | Just want to see if you could share with us any comments on your unfunded institutional pipeline. | I see. Got it. Yes, we generally have not share any specifics on pipelines in the sense that maybe, we always, as you would expect, have some won but not funded, and they eventually are funded, but the times vary. So we're reasonably satisfied with our pipeline. I would say that it's not very different from what we nor... | intermediate | [
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f37a4259f897f4e24ff995c9c30e69ed | Just given the strategic shift, can you talk about how big a piece of the puzzle do you think the non-U.S. domicile flows is going to be to growth? Basically, how should we be thinking about that piece? | Yes, John. Yes, the non-U.S. continues to be an important market, both for Acadian and Landmark, in particular, because those are those products are in demand, both in the U.S. and overseas. I would say that with regards to TSW, probably less so because one of the larger strategies there is international, which is more... | intermediate | [
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38629bed0c23187edca5c85a3354c39b | And then I know adding new clients is more complicated due to COVID. But can you give us any color on how maybe existing clients may be looking at adding new strategies? | Yes, that's an interesting dynamic. You touched on, John, that we're seeing those two that adding new clients is logistically a little bit more challenging than before when you were able to go see a client in person. But by the same logic, any clients that do need to allocate more are generally going to their existing ... | direct | [
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701487442ffe298eb1ebc5a7ea0678be | Now, Jim, I'm not trying to put any words in your mouth, but I did hear something and I was surprised in the prepared remarks. You said that given the valuation currently at Diamond, if the -- your downside was at maximum $2 of value in overall Loews shares today. But typically, when people talk like that, it presents ... | So my outlook is that the offshore drilling business is going to come back at some point in time. What I'm pleased about with respect to Diamond is that it has a fleet that is very strong and capable. And when the recovery comes, which it eventually will, I believe that Diamond will be able to do well in that environme... | direct | [
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b9dac35aef686a9b9c0134c65cc0c50e | And if the cost of financing Diamond outlasts -- is greater than the drought can support, would Loews be willing to bridge finance Diamond to get it through the drought? And your ownership stake would change, of course, in that situation? | So Diamond has added four and half years of backlog at attractive rates. We believe that Diamond, based on the way it's financed, has a very strong runway, and we believe that Diamond can do well in improving environment, which I think is coming. As for additional investments, we'll have to wait and see just what the o... | intermediate | [
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e6f7116cb6cf85490879e280895b9371 | OK. I might be wrong in my timing a little bit, Jim, but I think four years ago, you raised some debt, I think, at about 2% yield. My numbers might not be completely right, mostly the reason was is you couldn't believe the opportunity in the market to raise cheap financing and so you issued some paper. Obviously, we ar... | No, not really. The -- our -- we have -- the coupons that we have for Loews' debt range from 2 5/8% to 6%, we don't feel that additional debt at the Loews' level will make a significant difference for how we operate the business. So notwithstanding the low rates, Loews is not looking to raise any more debt. For our sub... | direct | [
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635f69f4cfcb2e9d996185c3d3d0378d | And I understand that you want all the businesses to be freestanding and supporting themselves. But at some point, does it make any economic sense for Loews to be an intermediate lender to the subsidiaries because Loews' cost of capital is much lower than theirs, and they would take a loan from you and you would take a... | So as you know, from time to time, we have provided financing for our subsidiaries. But as a general principle, we want our subsidiaries to finance themselves. And they all know and understand that and have structured their -- the finances in such a way that they can get that outside financing. | intermediate | [
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f4c7c2e169e1ec9f9b8a032cec560ae1 | I just wanted to check in with you on the capital allocation as you guys just discussed. Ted you just brought it up and John in your opening comments you mentioned that you obviously slowed down the share buybacks over the past few months, which makes sense given the uncertainty with the pandemic and in overall energy ... | I think that's a reasonable interpretation of my -- of our comments, yes. | direct | [
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387cd03326c84616247ed3706408e030 | Maybe following up then on that. You mentioned the buyback you're evaluating dividend, you're focused on deleveraging and other opportunities, which I take are acquisition that being a focus for both you and the Board. Are you able to maybe rank those in order of preference. Maybe it sounds like buybacks at the top of ... | It's very difficult to do that right? Because it changes day by day. At the moment I think you're right, what's at the top of the list. But you know, I think that we have it on the short-term review constantly. So if there is a lot of value today, I think our stock and our peer and the whole industry is very undervalue... | intermediate | [
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bf66a4279ce8723a5aa3582d0a7d5863 | Just on the chartering, you guys have always been partial to fix some ships on time charter. How has charter demand been here over the past couple of months especially given the stronger market of late? Are you seeing opportunities to put some ships on charter here for the medium to long-term? | Well I'm not exactly sure where we are at to provide. So, but on the time chartering side, we have seen more activity and opportunities and we have also seen rates recover from where they were like six months back. So we are looking at some opportunities at the moment to see if we can charter all the two ships as we al... | intermediate | [
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58b1aa296cd764a4ca1557d42fc77f2b | This is maybe something that Tim was going to address before he got cut off. But in the press release you talked a little bit about the benefits of the ton mile expansion from the US exports and sort of the negative impact on volume demands whereas VLGCs from the curtailment of OPEC. But just talked about the spread to... | Yes, I think again the -- if we have an increase in the Middle East, it's more positive than negative, it might affect as you say the naphtha LPG spread, but on the other hand then LPG seems to find again new users when the price of that deal go through what -- which it will eventually when more to use. So I think over... | direct | [
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cb900b49a193ce91e6a9a4b6c52343d3 | Yes. Good morning and great outlook in this tough environment right now. So Peter, I guess when we look at the slowdown or the geopolitical risk in China, does that impact more on the High-End side or the Mainstream side. Is there any way to discern where the biggest impact will be? | Yeah. It is now more what I would describe as broad-based. I have basically spent the first half of August in China and if you look back two or three months ago, the trade war was obviously going on, but it really wasn't present in the active dialogue. Now it's on the tip of every, almost every customers, Tom. So it's ... | intermediate | [
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402d25171e8d60c25b273f4047c3925e | Okay. I guess just one more following up on that. Have you seen it impact here for key new customers for the two Chinese facilities as well? | Seeing no impact in the FPD business at all. In fact, if I look at FPD, we can say with pretty good confidence that that market through the end of the calendar year, not just the end of our fiscal year is going to be very strong. So no impact in FPD. One of our, in fact our largest Chinese IC customer has Huawei as a v... | direct | [
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9ee3b1d69b630a2ad7a45128292c7629 | Okay, that's very helpful. And then John, a question about the cost structure. With the delay in spending on the last tranche of capex, does that mean that the cost structure that we're seeing next quarter doesn't fully represent the true cost of China that those costs will go up over the next couple of quarters? | Well, the delay is a tool that's going to be delivered during 2020. So the depreciation associated with that would come in 2020, Tom. So yeah, to the extent that into the future, it's not reflected in next quarter, but that would also bring revenue with it. | direct | [
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942567a0e0f069fd2d12db3ced85d8e7 | Okay. Is that a meaningful slug or is it too amortized over multiple years that isn't too great on a quarterly basis? | No, it's amortized over a long period, so the impact of that tool alone wouldn't be material. | direct | [
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75dc498f7f0e6591afd944160b22a968 | Okay. And then finally just a question for Chris. When you look at the High-End, it's roughly two-thirds of flat panel, one-third of the IC business that you have. Is that ratio fixed based on your tool-set or can the High-End portion go up with demand if need be? | I don't think it's fixed based on the tool-set, Tom. I think it can -- the High-End portion can go up, I think particularly on the IC side, perhaps more than the FPD side and maybe some -- a little more constrain on FPD, but on the IC side definitely we have capacity at the High-End to deliver a larger fraction of our ... | direct | [
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cc855155c07a41e758a73ad328d95e7b | Hi, good morning. This is Brian Chin on for Patrick Ho. Thanks for letting us ask a few questions and congratulations on the results. Maybe the first question for you. Looking at that $630 million fiscal '20 sales target, I'm kind of curious how much flat panel sales out of the China facility is sort of assumed in that... | Yeah. So Brian, we -- 15 months ago, right, when I think we set the target out there. We looked and said we expected about $150 million of incremental revenue coming from the combined China factories. We did not quantify the split between FPD and IC. Coming out of the current year, we do not expect the China factory to... | intermediate | [
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0c648e21e38cf5ef4d3b31e39e88ad7d | Okay. All right. Thanks, Peter. I appreciate the color. If you can, just taking [Phonetic] against that $630 million topline target for next fiscal year, can you remind us again sort of what the capex assumption is against that revenue level? And also, what you envision through the full year what the gross margin and/o... | Well, I think what we have historically said was, we expect maintenance capex to be about $50 million, right. But now you've heard we pushed some capex that was expected this year into next. So you can kind of work the simple math on that yourself. John also commented, we see this quarter as being the inflection point ... | intermediate | [
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cadb16339559509a8ae17f59d1be4fe7 | Okay. So, maybe I think, less than a $0.10 impact perhaps through the full fiscal next year? | One would hope, we expect to be profitable in China overall after this quarter. | fully_evasive | [
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2871897694d6439c66b49b0c9aafe528 | Okay. Got it. Maybe one more thing. In terms of the IC side, just curious if there is a way to quantify what that drag was on the top from a revenue perspective in fiscal 3Q and/or expected in fiscal 4Q? And also, Peter, do you have any sort of commentary about how the memory IC masks business is trending. There has ob... | Yeah. Our IC revenues in China went back to Q1 levels. So we lost the growth in Q2, in Q3. Again, it's a very fluid dynamic market. We are not expecting as John said in his guidance the market to deteriorate more than it has on the IC front. So that's the best I can do to -- again, you can do that simple math and you'l... | intermediate | [
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d050f6e98a904ee4fcf3a7cee6bbd058 | Got it. So not necessarily improve till next calendar year, but not necessarily be a drag, incremental drag in the business either? | Yeah, not necessarily -- not changed materially, right, because our customer base is in memory pretty diverse, right. We have the best-we think, at least we have the best photomask technology for memory globally. We do, as I think others expect NAND to recover in advance of DRAM. But again, it's tough to know exactly w... | intermediate | [
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8caddc703a3ad9851000cc5795b5a261 | Hey, guys. Just a quick one here on guidance, so I'm just trying to get a sense of you had a really strong bookings quarter. Things seem to be opening up, and a decent beat on the top line. So on a modest guidance raise, is this just -- as we think about conservatism, I know you have 85% visibility into your business. ... | Yeah. Thanks, Luke. Andrew, why don't you take that? OK. Sure. So the year-over-year growth rates have been stronger than we had anticipated. I would say that in terms of conservatism, given we're a new public company, those bookings results make us very comfortable with our guidance, but we'd like to see another quart... | intermediate | [
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a4407ed01c8ef0df19b147942cbdf89e | All right. That's fair. Yeah, I fully get that. And so when I think about the margin trajectory here and the pacing through the year between services and the software piece, any dynamic that you want to call out and from a modeling perspective? | So we talked about it briefly last call. So the first quarter and the fourth quarter are high quarters for software bookings, given the renewal cycles in software. The services, we expect to kind of grow sequentially throughout the year, given the kind of profile of the bookings that are coming in. Historically, if you... | direct | [
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e3a7968cd42ce3833aa8f96191c0736f | OK. Great. If I could sneak one last one in on the Shanghai office, I know you guys are opening that one. Where are you on that being on? And when can we start expecting more of a meaningful contribution from that area? | Thanks, Luke. The office is open. It opened at the very end of last year, and we started hiring then. So we have a small but growing team there. And so as you'd expect, we've got some growing to do as we go forward. We do have a nicely growing business in Asia Pacific and in China, partly due to the fact that we get so... | intermediate | [
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538dedebcc3ee1a9a1effe131b9b1ce9 | Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. William, I wanted to ask around the biologics simulator description that you gave. And my curiosity is whether you as a management team have visibility into either how your clients are applying your software between biologics and small molecule and applications? Or if... | Yeah. So if you go way back, Simcyp started focused on small molecules. And we've been adding functionality related to biologics over the last, I don't know, five years or so. So in some ways, the latest release is a culmination of that. And it's not the final state, so we'll continue to innovate. We are doing a lot of... | intermediate | [
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7df2667b7c16e60c27497da75ea594b5 | Got it. That's helpful. Thank you. And then I guess kind of similar questions about the Secondary Intelligence product that you announced this week. It sounds like that's very unique in the market, newly launched. Is that something that you expect to have rapid uptake? Or is that something that you need to kind of seed... | Yeah, great question. No, great. Thanks for that question. So we believe that the Secondary Intelligence product is the only software we're aware of, of its kind that predicts. And what it does is it predicts safety issues that are derived from secondary pharmacology. So this would be the action of a drug on targets th... | direct | [
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6337fc3106568895c736fe18a5a86676 | Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Andrew or William, first one would be on -- I think in your prepared remarks, you had an interesting comment in there on clinical trial delays from last year and sort of the lingering impact on the services business. I was wondering if you could expand on that a little bit, sor... | Yeah, it's a great question. As we pointed out, the market is somewhat disrupted due to COVID and the fact that there were delays in clinical trials in 2020 for parts of 2020, that are still working their way through the drug development cycle and have resulted in delays to certain projects that we have. We haven't los... | intermediate | [
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c36dc7697b3d8c88294e891f8350f1d0 | OK. All right. That's fair. And then a follow-up on the last couple of questions on some of the new product introduction, Secondary Intelligence, the new Simcyp nodule. I'm wondering how should we think about the cadence of new software introductions or new solutions going forward? Is this a couple of new launches a ye... | Yeah, I think it would be a challenge for any software company to do a couple of products a quarter. So I guess you should think more around a couple of a year is something that I think we could be proud of. These products are, I think, extensions of our existing business, but pretty sophisticated extensions. Particula... | direct | [
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e1b78e956a35eb36a7a86300073644cd | OK. And then one last one, one last quick one for me. Andrew, I think you mentioned a 5% increase to head count in the quarter. Is that just sort of early in the year bump up? Or are you anticipating sort of a similar cadence through the rest of the year? How do you think about SG&A and sort of head count additions as ... | Yeah, I think that's a similar -- I think the best way to look is similar cadence for the rest of the year. | direct | [
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8913c23c72da22bfeae13a7430f21868 | Hey, thanks, guys. I have a couple of questions about mix. I think in the past, you've talked about your revenue mix being mainly in clinical, with much smaller chunks in discovery, preclinical and post market. Assuming I've got that right, if you look at your recent bookings, are you seeing any shift in that mix? Or s... | The mix is consistent with the previously discussed mix. No changes there. | direct | [
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b5e97c4aa72aacd24b49b4f449adb56f | Great. Thanks, Andrew. And maybe a similar one, how about mix between large and small clients? Is that fairly stable? Or are you seeing any change? | I mean -- I can answer that. What we're seeing is growth in both areas. We're seeing growth in more of the mid-teens in large clients and higher growth rates and uptick with the small clients. We had a record number of new logos in the first quarter. | direct | [
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bc645fde8b642904d9d8291e7bf8938b | All right. Thanks. And then maybe one more, Bill. Can you just talk a little bit about how you guys have played a role in COVID work? Should we view that as at all a material contributor, if you think back to the last couple of quarters? And therefore would you expect it to be a headwind or a tailwind as you move throu... | Yeah. Thanks, John. The way I think about this is that the business was really resilient throughout COVID. So I'm really proud that we were able to continue serving our clients without really skipping a beat. We did work on, I forget what we have said last year, more than 30 COVID projects last year. But a lot of that ... | direct | [
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39116fcbadb247859f5efc1a2d8c517f | Can you just talk about what drove the higher third-party water purchases in the quarter? | Sure. It's kind of what I said in my prepared remarks, we're seeing significant refresh rates for certain fracs. And in the 200,000 and potentially up in the 300,000 barrel refresh rates per day. And we just don't have the capacity to serve that with all of our JMA waters we define some third-party water. The nice thin... | direct | [
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775256d0781d138096e8fa53e4bac5ce | And then just, I guess, following up on water sales in general, they're obviously still lagging somewhat. How long before you think water sales can reach pre-pandemic levels again? | Yes. It's always a tough question to answer. We've certainly seen a lot of improvement over Q3 and Q4 -- Q2 and Q3. Q1 is always a pretty slow quarter just in general in the oil and gas markets as these guys start to ramp things up for the year. I think toward the back half of the year is where we could potentially see... | intermediate | [
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dd33a7f9d54aa45bbf0978dc2a104ca2 | Just on Trio. I guess when can we expect Trio to return to positive gross margins? Obviously, been pressured for, I think, five or six consecutive quarters. So when are you expecting an improvement there? | Well, we certainly had quite a bit of improvement in our Q1 numbers. We don't give exact margin guidance for our Trio facilities, but with another quarter of increased pricing and another quarter of solid domestic demand, outlook remains improving for Trio going forward, and I'll leave it at that. | intermediate | [
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0f1f26f9a90e6c3dbf82be0ad800fbf5 | It seems like you've been reducing Trio exports for a long time. How much export do you still have? And does it go to near zero? | No. It doesn't go to near zero, but we really have cut back on kind of the abroad sales. Most of our international sales are now into Mexico and Canada. They represented about 10% of our overall Trio sales in the first quarter. There'll be a little bit of seasonality to that, but that's probably a pretty standard run r... | direct | [
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7ddee1a8be8627b7622ddeccf948d4a5 | And is the Delaware Basin drilling activity recovering ahead of the other basins? I'm not an oil expert, but I thought oil drillers in general, were keeping a lid on spending since the spike that we had -- spike down that we had in oil back in 2020. | Yes. This is Brian. I think, John, that's right. I think the Delaware Basin has seen a quicker response to the WTI price bounce back. And so we're certainly seeing that in -- on the water demand side. | direct | [
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d6818706753f6a73c8e4c07d7e1e300f | Hi. And John, congrats on the first earnings call here. I just wanted to pick up on your commentary that you left off with and it sounds like significant growth focus here. If we look at the results for the quarter, SG&A, is still a bit elevated, keeping the gross margin guide unchanged. It seems like you're -- you may... | Well, let me address the discussion around the investments, first off, and kind of a focus on growing the business. We will remain balanced in the way we do our investments as far as our organic approach versus accretive acquisition approach. But internally we are investing in sales specialist in some of our other prod... | intermediate | [
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a2ceefda1f3b854fa6cd07f003d2ce78 | Yes, it does. Yes, thank you for all the detail on those. And then just shifting gears, obviously, there are a lot of things going on and going right for your business. One of the things has been top of mind for investors though some of the dynamics around wallboard and wallboard pricing, specifically, yourselves and y... | Well, Mike, as you know, we pride ourselves on being service leader, and so we believe that we get paid for that. We have a fairly complex mix of business, and so across those end-use commercial and residential markets, we feel like we are not in a position to give up a tremendous amount of price at the moment. At the ... | intermediate | [
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9b357bf2d4e30bd94aba27f7e8fe248c | I guess the question is on the US business, you kind of give us the view, under the old same-store sale calculation what that would look like. Are you seeing any substantial regional variations within that 5 odd percent number of one part of the country carrying or lagging versus the average ? | Hi, Keith. The same trend that's been going forward, you're looking at the coastal regions, the southern regions are stronger and the center part of the United States is a little softer. We've done some things in our business in the middle of the country and very proud of what our team has been able to accomplish there... | direct | [
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b22b0539b1665cdfa5dbae13f6e0adcc | And I guess -- as you look at your commercial backlog, is that -- are you seeing any signs of weakness on quotation bid activity, things of that nature in commercial ? | Not yet. Commercial still remains very strong. Solid pipeline. | direct | [
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3f0bad0f886870fc2000d96d299fff92 | Okay. And I guess, final question on Canada. At what point, what month, quarter however you want to do it? Where do you reach the point where Canada started really turning down on it? Or the anniversary, I guess is my question. | I'm going to let Lynn answer it because I don't think I was here when that start. So, go ahead Lynn.
I'd say comps get easier in the back half of the year, Keith, with respect to Canada.
Yeah. Fiscal -- sorry, fiscal Q3.
Yes, correct. | direct | [
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43210b00d4b8f6478df771291cd24490 | I wanted to revisit -- so the gross margin guide 32.2% for the year. If I look back historically July has always been your lowest gross margin quarter of the year and you put that number this year, you put up 33.3%. So I guess I want to get a sense for -- still going with the 32.2% for the year. Is there anything that ... | Yes, sure. On the 32.2% Kevin, we believe the best just a prudent guide. I don't see anything coming at us that would drive that down in the balance of the year. And like we've discussed, we continue to make that -- maintain that guide, just we believe that it's prudent, we will strive to beat that. | direct | [
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2b3481e23d219e8ce29495b35739e0aa | Okay. Got you. And John, I think you mentioned to an earlier questions, something along the lines of top-line sales remaining similar. I just wanted to get some -- as we look ahead, we want to get some clarity on that. What that's in reference to? Is that the 9% sales you grew this quarter? Or is that you grew -- it lo... | Yes. I'm speaking mostly toward our organic number. So I would expect low to mid single-digit type growth on the organic side of volume. Not -- I'm not 100% convinced yet on what's happening with steel pricing and/or really the wallboard situation. But I think from a volume perspective, the pipeline looks low mid singl... | direct | [
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71c15ddce196d61a8072ef7656cc2247 | Good morning. Just 3.4% organic growth. Can you just talk about how you think that performed against the industry? In other words, were you able to achieve your 1 or 2 points growth above the market? | I don't think we have all the numbers yet, but we think we're growing above the rate of the market slightly. I don't think 3.4% is dramatically greater than the market, but I do think we're doing better organically. Our mix of steel business in the quarter was definitely something that dragged us back on the top-line a... | direct | [
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1c268f629953ed041c30a4962ce2a841 | Okay, great. And then you called out favorable price cost in the quarter. Are you able to quantify this? And then what's your expectation for that for the balance of the year? | Yes. So I would -- as you know, we don't provide the gross margin by product category. I would provide a little bit of color and say that our steel gross margin was down due to the fact that we were selling through higher price inventory, price declines were particularly marked in the month of July for steel business. ... | intermediate | [
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30d867887a0b75717a317111ac11b52f | Hi, Good morning. This is actually Christine Cho on for Matt. My first question is actually on ceilings. I was wondering noting that price was a positive contribution of about 5% in the quarter, what is your expectation on the ability to continue to push price in the segment? | I would tell you it's pretty dependent upon the mix of what we sell. We are very focused on driving a higher value through our ceilings business with architectural specialties. Again, I mentioned a little bit of investment there as well, on sales people and engineers in that space, but I think that that's about normal.... | intermediate | [
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95506c4328ec29ce92c937d264d3fbde | Got it. Thank you. And then just going forward, how are you thinking about your strategy, maybe a little bit more color on your strategy for tuck-in acquisitions and greenfields throughout the rest of the year and potentially more color on 2Q ? | Well, as we mentioned we're disciplined in our approach, we're focused on delevering the business. But when the right opportunities in the right markets and some sort of significant strategic component come along, we're certainly going to continue to do acquisitions. I would expect it to be mostly small tuck-ins and gr... | intermediate | [
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0254a972bb774213a22cb09987dd3f60 | Yeah, hi. Good morning. Earlier in the call, you had mentioned 10% EBITDA. I didn't quite catch if you're referring to an expectation for a reported level of 10%, if you're referring to a contribution margin, could you clarify that? | Yes, sure. So we always strive to be at 10% that's been kind of our stated goal and we believe that that 10% adjusted EBITDA margin continues to be a good goal. What I was referring to is the guidance with respect to the 10% to 15% incremental margin that we've also provided as guide on previous calls and we continue t... | direct | [
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66da531d447dbd83b254f9385a2fe52b | Okay. Sounds good. And then in terms of the growth that you've been seeing here in the last few quarters, 3%, 4%, 5% kind of volume growth and now price mix seems to be waning a bit, how do you think about those dynamics relative to the 10% to 15%? Is there a revenue -- organic revenue growth target that you need to ac... | Well, I would tell you that, yes, obviously, in the near-term, we need to maintain a reasonable growth level that low single-digit type organic growth level and we don't see any reason why we wouldn't be able to achieve that kind of a level to achieve the flow-through that we're talking about. Obviously, if there is a ... | direct | [
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02e0b3d5abba6eb48d7a1bcc9b19f734 | Okay. And then last question on Canada. Can you discuss specifically what actions you've taken up there in terms of rightsizing that business today to improve the profitability, even if the growth just sort of flattens out from going down right now? | Sure. I was just there. And I can tell you that our team has done a fantastic job. I was there last week. We've reduced our head count over 13% in that -- in Canada. At the same time, we've strengthened relationships with a lot of the customers. It's unfortunate, what we're going through up there in single-family with ... | direct | [
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23b1ace967c71541a5952a3da0a30f2e | Hi. This is Noah Merkousko on this morning for Trey Grooms. How are you guys doing ? So first question kind of talking about what you've seen on wallboard volume and pricing trends in August, it sounds like pricing has been relatively stable, has that continued in August? | Yes, it has.
Yes. So let me give you a little bit more context on a year-over-year basis, our sales per day were higher in each month in the quarter and we see that positive momentum continue into August. In addition, our sales were sequentially higher or stable each month during the quarter and we see that continuing... | direct | [
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e37c4a5e562a3ad5ae5383c94ec999e7 | Got you. That's helpful. And then just a quick follow up here from a price cost standpoint, is it fair to say you're pretty well caught up there and any color and expectations for the remainder of the year would be helpful? | I think we are caught up. I think steel remains a little bit under pressure just because I think for the balance of this year, the rate of decline is definitely slowing in steel, just the raw material itself. You can see that if you look at the commodity market. But steel really seems to be the only place that may have... | direct | [
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36e1bee27a0d3fbd20e39c1161a027ea | Can you maybe just dig in a little bit just around COVID and the pantry loading that you talked about. Just maybe the impact you've seen on business in April, does that benefit continue, at least on the consumer side? And then I know you talked a little bit on the commercial side already. But obviously, as restaurants ... | Sure. Good questions. So we did see a little bit of pantry loading and volume increase in the very beginning of April. There were still states that had just started closing in April, so we saw pantry loading at that time. We see the trend leveling off. But I would say that as these stay-at-home orders and travel restri... | direct | [
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63cce7b685523da19d7af64e672951b4 | And I guess just thinking about the commercial side, how much inventory -- I don't know how much that impacts the demand on your side that you think the distributors are holding. And maybe, I don't know, if you think about that in months. Is that a few months of maybe excess inventory that they have or do they move thr... | Typically, it's a month to month and a half of inventory. We are working with a lot of our distributors that, specific for our example, airline distributors, with their travel restrictions. We're working with them to try to move the inventory that they might have in-house to other locations such as food banks or places... | direct | [
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33a6f6baa186eb572b94c480cf04a166 | And then just thinking about the 9% growth that you were seeing just for that. Can you maybe just dig in a little bit about what was driving that? Is that newer account wins? Is that a factor of pricing in the marketplace? Can you maybe just dig in a little bit more? Because that was obviously some pretty solid growth. | It's a combination, really. There was no one specific thing. Some of it was new business that we picked up last year, especially in private brands. We've had good success with our oven roast never fried Fisher distribution as I mentioned. So we saw growth there. We saw some growth with new distribution in other areas o... | direct | [
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45d5b9aed87141f9edae98ac181382dc | OK. Great. And then maybe if we can just move on to the margin front real quick. I don't know if there's a way to quantify maybe a margin benefit in the period, if there was one, just due to the extra volume coming through. And then maybe on the reverse side of that, the higher compensation, safety measures are coming ... | I'll start with the impact of volume on gross profit. So as you know, our gross profit dollars increased by -- let me just look out here, OK, by about $4 million and roughly 25% of that is just related to manufacturing efficiencies. And the other $3 million is just generated from the additional volume that we sold. | intermediate | [
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20b2a653706d7d267799e6670a61db9b | Of the COVID, maybe the extra volume coming in from COVID. I was just wondering if that played anything material on the margin front. So a little bit, I guess. | No, it's proportional to what we saw with sales. | direct | [
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72acad64fb1f8a95c70ad7898e9d2874 | Exactly. OK. Great. And then maybe just going forward, just with the new measures in place and then also the pay increases. | So yeah, as far as the business going forward again we're going to watch foodservice. It's unfortunate because we had a lot of good new distribution in our foodservice channel leading up to COVID-19, especially with noncommercial places that don't sell food as their main priority. And so a lot of that has stopped now w... | direct | [
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"fully_evasive"
] | A |
d0e6b804d8f8b4933e9cd1f7571dff08 | Congratulations on a great quarter again. And your interest expense keeps going down partially as you pay down debt over time. Do you think you might be debt-free within two or three years? | Well, that's -- it depends what time of the year you're talking about, Tim. We'll always be drawing on a revolver from time to time. And just as a reminder, that revolver usually peaks near the end of our third quarter. So at that time of the year, I'm sure there'll be some debt. I think we have about three years left ... | intermediate | [
"direct",
"intermediate",
"fully_evasive"
] | B |
243c8f8bb6404764fc5cd05611f22f3f | The special dividend, this is a little bit earlier in the year than when you usually announce a special dividend. Does that -- and you have higher inventory now for seasonal reasons. So does that just mean you're that profitable of a company that you can pay a special dividend earlier in the year? | Well, we want to be cautious about this. Obviously, we had, as Jeff mentioned, the second best quarter we've ever had in our history. And for that to be a third quarter, it's pretty unusual and remarkable. But we felt like given the performance in the quarter, it made sense for us to go ahead and pay a spring dividend.... | intermediate | [
"direct",
"intermediate",
"fully_evasive"
] | B |
c959bcb0ddd39db780968f200ac4cfb7 | The headwinds you face from losing a recipe nut customer, have those annualized now or is that no longer a headwind starting with this next quarter? | Yes, that's really annualized now. We're seeing some stable and actually growth in the recipe nut category, as I mentioned before, because people are staying at home and cooking. But we've cycled against the loss distribution on the shelf that we experienced. So you should see those numbers normalize for Fisher going f... | direct | [
"direct",
"intermediate",
"fully_evasive"
] | A |
53d8e7d91ea4969a09f79c503cccb42d | Some competitors like Smucker's have put out announcements saying they're cutting promotional activity and just focusing on getting product on the shelves. Are you considering a similar move? And how do you see the competitive environment changing in recent months? | Yes. So from a retail perspective, we're doing the same thing. A lot of it is actually being initiated by retailers who want to limit the number of people in their stores during this crisis. And so they're reducing their promotional activity and just focusing on the key staples and the key high-volume items that consum... | direct | [
"direct",
"intermediate",
"fully_evasive"
] | A |
6726d4a86530abb197451e0a35d580f6 | Yes. Thank you. When you sell ingredient nuts to -- for the use in power bars and stuff like that, do you sell fried ingredient nuts or oven roasted never fried ingredient nuts? | For the ingredients, it's anything from raw materials to roasted products. The oven roast never fried is our -- is in our branded portfolio, our Fisher branded portfolio. So we don't really use that or offer that type of product in the ingredient channel. It's not a focus for us. But you're right, our businesses do use... | direct | [
"direct",
"intermediate",
"fully_evasive"
] | A |
1a3bfa712f95b9f2f28d62bf38a25e6a | Are your oven roasted never fried healthier than what goes into those bars? | Well, if it's a dry roasted nut that goes into a bar, it would be just -- it would be very similar to our oven roast never fried. Correct. | direct | [
"direct",
"intermediate",
"fully_evasive"
] | A |
adb14244c6d405a0a118a4a74e05bd45 | So perhaps just first, high-level question. As you think about the transmission opportunities reported here, how would you characterize the ATC opportunity looking at the MISO futures that were recently released, etc., in your words? | Yeah. Great, Julien, great to hear from you. You know, there's certainly a great deal of need for transmission to connect renewables. We know that, and a lot of those are going to be in the ATC area. So we see that as very solid. I don't think it's anything too notably different than how we've had it modeled. Transmiss... | direct | [
"direct",
"intermediate",
"fully_evasive"
] | A |
54e68a2b1560a95c2b46630e98198b54 | OK. All right. Fair enough. And then as you think about the backdrop of this Wisconsin settlement, I appreciate the comments in your prepared remarks. But how do you think about the rate base associated with that settlement? And where does that position you, if you can yet, against your larger 5% to 7% range, if you ca... | Yeah, Julien, this is Robert. I think that puts us right squarely where we want to be with that growth of 5% to 7%. We see good rate base growth based on the modeling that we've shared with all the analysts to date, and this is consistent with that. So just the whole process with the rate review agreement in principle,... | intermediate | [
"direct",
"intermediate",
"fully_evasive"
] | B |
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