Prompt:
Human: Information required by SEC Regulation G relating to these non-GAAP financial measures are available on the Investors section of our website, www.
fortive.com, under the heading Financial Information.
We completed the divestiture of the automation and specialty business on October 1, 2018, and accordingly have included the results of the A&S business as discontinued operations for historical periods.
All references to period-to-period increases or decreases and financial metrics are year-over-year on a continuing operations basis.
We are pleased with our third quarter results as strong execution across the portfolio delivered a top line performance that was significantly better than our initial guidance as well as a return to year-over-year growth in adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings per share.
For the quarter, we reported adjusted diluted net earnings per share of $0.94, an 8% increase year-over-year.
While the operating environment remained challenging in Q3, we continued to successfully navigate the near-term headwinds by leveraging the Fortive Business System.
We increased core operating margins by 160 basis points and generated another quarter of strong free cash flow while prioritizing growth investments across our portfolio to drive continued share gains.
On October 9, we completed the successful spin-off of Vontier Corporation, a global industrial technology company focused on mobility infrastructure.
I'm extremely proud of the effort and the focus shown by our team throughout the year leading up to the separation, and I am very excited about the future opportunities that lie ahead for both companies.
The ability to maintain our readiness and execute this complex transaction despite the obvious challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of our people and the power of FBS.
As separate companies, Fortive and Vontier are both well positioned to execute against their strategic priorities to generate increasing value for all our stakeholders.
With the spin-off of Vontier complete, Fortive is well positioned as a provider of essential technologies for connected workflow solutions across a range of attractive end markets.
We have strong established positions with leading brands that benefit from long-term secular growth drivers and have opportunities to increase recurring revenue.
We have a long track record of disciplined capital allocation, significant balance sheet capacity and free cash flow and substantial opportunities for both organic investment and strategic M&A across the portfolio.
Most importantly, we have the Fortive Business System, the cornerstone of our culture, and an enduring source of competitive advantage that underpins our commitment to continuous improvement.
Since Vontier was part of Fortive throughout the third quarter, the financial results that we will discuss today include the Vontier businesses.
Also, the guidance that we provide today will be for Fortive's continuing operations only.
With that, let's turn to the details of the quarter.
Adjusted net earnings were $338.5 million, up 8.8% from the prior year, and adjusted diluted net earnings per share were $0.94.
Total sales increased 2.3% to $1.9 billion, with core revenue essentially flat, reflecting significant sequential improvement from the prior quarter.
Acquisitions contributed 220 basis points of growth, and favorable foreign currency exchange rates increased growth by 20 basis points.
Adjusted gross margins were 51.8% in the third quarter, increasing 50 basis points year-over-year.
Gross margins benefited from 50 basis points of price, the growing contribution of our higher-margin software businesses and disciplined supply chain execution.
We also generated 160 basis points of core operating margin expansion, resulting in an adjusted operating profit margin of 22.7% for the quarter.
Our ability to drive strong core OMX, despite the significant ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic reflected the solid execution of our teams and the disciplined application of FBS.
We continue to effectively manage the business through this uncertain environment, flexing cost actions as needed while also investing in our strategic product development and innovation priorities to position us well for the future.
During the third quarter, we generated $455 million of free cash flow, representing conversion of 134% of adjusted net earnings and an increase of 31% year-over-year.
This performance took our year-to-date free cash flow up to approximately $1.1 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of approximately 48%.
Despite a challenging environment over the past few quarters, our operating companies continue to use FBS to manage their working capital effectively in the short term, increasing inventory turns and limiting the headwinds from the sequentially improving top line.
Turning to our segments.
Professional Instrumentation posted a total revenue increase of 0.9% despite a 3.5% decline in core revenue.
Acquisitions contributed 370 basis points, while favorable foreign exchange rates increased growth by 70 basis points.
Core operating margin increased 90 basis points, resulting in segment-level adjusted operating margin of 22.8%.
Industrial Technologies performed well in Q3 driven in particular by the North American businesses of both Gilbarco Veeder-Root and Matco.
Total revenue increased 4.5%, including a 5.5% increase in core revenue.
Core operating margin increased 290 basis points, resulting in segment-level adjusted operating margin of 25.9%.
Note that the growth rates shown on the slide reflect consolidated Fortive Q3 growth, which includes the results of the Vontier businesses.
That said, we will focus our operating company color primarily on the businesses that remain with Fortive.
In Asia, core revenue declined low single digits despite mid-single-digit growth in China.
Strength in China was broad based, highlighted by mid-teens year-over-year growth at Fluke, double-digit growth at Advanced Sterilization Products and greater than 20% growth in Sensing.
Western Europe core revenue declined mid-single digits in Q3, highlighted by low double-digit growth at ASP.
ASP has reported year-over-year growth in each quarter of 2020 thus far, driven by solid sales execution.
Accruent also delivered a strong quarter in Western Europe led by Meridian, its engineering information management solution, reflecting the momentum the company has built in the region.
While point-of-sale remained negative for both Fluke and Tektronix, the point-of-sale trend improved throughout the quarter, and revenue at these businesses increased mid-teens versus the prior quarter.
North America core revenue grew low single digits in Q3, showing broad-based sequential improvement versus Q2.
Growth in North America was led by a strong quarter for the Vontier businesses.
At new Fortive, a number of the software businesses continue to perform well with growth across Intelex, eMaint and Censis; Industrial Scientific's iNet business; and Qualitrol also performed well.
As in Western Europe, Fluke and Tektronix saw improving point-of-sale trends, though still negative as we turn the corner into Q4.
In recent quarters, we have laid out a framework for analyzing our portfolio with businesses organized into groups based on the relative sensitivity to pandemic-driven disruption and resulting deterioration in end market demand.
As shown on Slide 11, the relative performance of these groups largely played out as expected in the quarter.
Group I, which represented approximately 20% of new Fortive revenue in Q3, continued to show significant resilience, posting low single-digit growth.
The group's performance again reflected a solid contribution from the software businesses, highlighted by high single-digit growth at Intelex, which is seeing continued robust growth in North America and is benefiting from the successful execution of the company's expansion into Western Europe.
Elsewhere, Censis posted low-single-digit growth, underpinned by the momentum of its SaaS offerings.
Accruent also benefited from the resilience of its SaaS business, which increased slightly in the quarter with continued growth in annual recurring revenue based on improving churn and increased net retention.
Fluke Industrial Imaging had another strong quarter, although its growth moderated as some of the initial COVID-related demand began to level off.
Gordian saw slowing in project work among state and local governments and higher education customers, leading to a low single-digit decline for the quarter.
Meanwhile, despite continued strong order flow, EMC registered a mid-teens decline due to certain COVID-related supply chain issues and some customer delays.
Group II, which represented approximately 32% of new Fortive revenue in Q3, recorded a low single-digit decline.
ISC's iNet subscription business posted a high single-digit growth, while Fluke Health Solutions showed mid-single-digit growth driven by ventilator tester tailwinds and support from Landauer's high recurring revenue business model.
ASP reported a mid-single-digit decline due to a mid-single-digit decline in North America and pressure in Japan, which saw a resurgence of COVID cases and an associated reduction in elective procedures.
However, we are very pleased to see this partially offset by strong growth in both China and Western Europe in the quarter.
We now estimate that elective procedures in the U.S. are back to approximately 90% of pre-COVID levels and are back to approximately 95% in both China and Europe.
Group III, which represented approximately 12% of new Fortive in Q3, saw a high single-digit decline in the quarter.
While the Sensing portfolio declined by mid-single digits, this represented sequential improvement versus the second quarter.
Semiconductors and electronics continue to be a bright spot for Sensing, which also benefited from COVID-related tailwinds in medical end markets.
Elsewhere in Group III, Accruent's professional services and licenses business lines saw an ongoing negative impact from continued delays in accessing customer sites.
Group IV, which represented approximately 36% of new Fortive Q3 revenue, declined by high single digits in the quarter but saw a meaningful sequential improvement and performed ahead of our forecast.
Both Fluke Industrial and the Tektronix Instruments business saw broad-based sequential improvement.
Fluke Industrial decreased by low single digits, paced by Fluke Calibration, which registered mid-single-digit growth.
The performance of the Tek Instruments business was highlighted by Keithley, which recorded mid-single-digit year-over-year growth.
The business also saw improved order activity as the quarter progressed, including initial orders for the new six and eight-channel versions of the six Series oscilloscope.
While we are encouraged by what we saw at both Fluke Industrial and the Tektronix Instruments business in the third quarter, we remain watchful of key macro trends as we continue to work our way toward a return to year-over-year growth in both businesses.
Since the end of the second quarter, we have continued to reduce our net debt with our strong free cash flow and the proceeds received from the Vontier separation.
Including the recent proceeds from Vontier, our net debt is now approximately $2.8 billion, down from over $5.1 billion at the end of 2019.
As we look ahead, we expect to continue to generate solid free cash flow, which will enable us to reduce our net debt further.
We also expect to monetize our remaining 19.9% stake in Vontier in a tax-efficient manner, with timing subject to market conditions.
While Q3 saw a continuation of the better operating performance that started as the economic lockdowns lifted back in the spring, we remain watchful of macro conditions in light of the continued fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Q4, we expect the total revenue will increase zero to 3% on a year-over-year basis.
We also expect to deliver incremental margins of approximately 35%.
Finally, we are planning to execute approximately $30 million of strategic productivity initiatives before the end of the year, in line with our prior expectation that some of the temporary actions we executed early in the year would be made permanent as we turn the corner into 2021.
The resegmentation highlights the strong position we have assembled to provide essential technologies for connected workflow solutions across a range of attractive end markets.
This view also helps to frame how we think about our portfolio from the perspective of both organic and inorganic opportunities.
Details on the segments are as follows.
The Intelligent Operating Solutions segment includes Fluke, Industrial Scientific, Intelex, Accruent and Gordian and represents approximately 40% of new Fortive total revenue.
This segment provides solutions to accelerate field and facility safety, reliability and productivity as well as operating intelligence to a range of end users and addresses a total available market of greater than $15 billion.
Precision Technologies segment includes Tektronix, Pacific Scientific EMC and the Sensing businesses, which will now also include Qualitrol and represent approximately 35% of new Fortive total revenue.
This segment provides mission-critical technologies that enable our customers to accelerate the development of innovative products and solutions and addresses a total available market of greater than $10 billion.
The Advanced Health Care Solutions segment includes Advanced Sterilization Products, Fluke Health Solutions, Censis and Invetech and represents approximately 25% of new Fortive total revenue.
This segment provides solutions that enhance patient safety, prevent hospital infections, deliver operating efficiencies and accelerate healthcare system innovation and addresses a total available market of greater than $5 billion.
Importantly, we will report on this basis from the fourth quarter onward and plan to issue supplemental financial information in the coming weeks that aligns with this resegmented view of the portfolio so that you can rebase your models.
Before we wrap up, I want to quickly express my appreciation to the Fortive and Vontier teams for their continued effort and strong execution in 2020.
This has undoubtedly been an extremely difficult year, but our performance in the third quarter highlighted once again how our continued -- our team continues to rise and meet the challenge.
With the strong support of FBS, we managed to complete our final preparations for the spin-off of Vontier while also navigating the challenging macro environment to deliver improved top line performance and another quarter of strong free cash flow.
While we face an uncertain environment in the near term, we will continue to benefit from the increasingly resilient portfolio that we have established through our efforts to continue to transform the portfolio over the last four years.
With our consistent free cash flow, strong M&A pipeline and an expanding set of organic innovation capabilities, we are well positioned to capitalize on the many opportunities ahead of us.
That concludes our formal comments.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
compname posts qtrly rev from continuing oper up 2.3% to $1.9 bln.
qtrly diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations $0.61; qtrly revenue from continuing operations up 2.3% to $1.9 billion.


Prompt:
Human: Our speakers are Jim Owens, H.B. Fuller, President and Chief Executive Officer; and John Corkrean, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
First, a reminder that our comments today will include references to organic revenue, which excludes the impact of foreign currency translation on our revenues and the impact of acquisitions or divestitures.
We believe that discussion of these measures is useful to investors to assist their understanding of our operating performance and how our results compare with other companies.
Unless otherwise specified, discussion of sales and revenue refers to organic revenue, and discussion of EPS, margins or EBITDA refers to adjusted non-GAAP measures.
Many of these risks and uncertainties are, and will be exacerbated by COVID-19 and the resulting impact on the global business and economic environment.
Last evening, we reported another quarter of strong revenue and earnings growth.
Organic revenues in the second quarter were up 19% year-over-year, adjusted EBITDA was up 21% and adjusted earnings per share of $0.94 increased 38% versus last year.
We overcame significant supply chain disruptions and moved quickly to raise prices in the quarter.
We achieved an all-time record quarter in revenue as we met increasing customer demand and gained market share.
Throughout the quarter, H.B. Fuller experienced raw material and container shortages, but because of strong support and global collaboration with key suppliers and the ingenuity of our technical and supply chain teams, we made certain to keep our customers supplied.
H.B. Fuller's ability to assure supply of critical adhesives and provide innovative solutions that customers need remains a competitive differentiator for our company, which is evident in our top-line growth.
H.B. Fuller's revenue growth was broad-based across segments and geographies.
Organic revenues increased in each segment versus the second quarter of 2020, including strong double-digit growth in both Engineering and Construction Adhesives segments, and very solid growth in Hygiene, Health and Consumable Adhesives against a very strong second quarter of 2020.
Revenues also grew in each geography, including organic growth of 19% in the Americas, 27% in the EMEA and 9% in the Asia-Pacific region.
Importantly, our revenues are also up from pre-COVID levels.
Total organic revenues increased by 9.5% versus the second quarter of 2019, which had no COVID-19-related impacts with double-digit growth in HHC and Engineering Adhesives and mid single-digit growth in Construction Adhesives.
Strong volume leverage in the quarter, coupled with pricing benefits and operational efficiencies we're driving in the business offset significantly higher raw material costs and drove a 21% increase in EBITDA dollars year-over-year.
Raw material input cost increased in the second quarter by about 10% from the end of 2020 with some raw materials increasing more rapidly than we forecasted.
We have implemented $150 million of annualized price adjustments to date and we'll implement an additional $75 million in the third quarter.
We're prepared to do more as necessary.
These price adjustments will offset the impact of raw material increases in this fiscal year.
Suppliers have made good progress in restoring capacity for the commodity and specialty chemicals we purchase.
However, the rate of recovery going forward will likely be uneven until inventory levels are rebuilt to fully meet demand.
Our planning assumptions anticipate that the current supply volatility will lessen and pricing will begin to stabilize in the fourth quarter.
We now expect the year-on-year raw material inflation to be over 10% and expect that our pricing will fully offset raw material increases by the end of the third quarter.
We expect gross margin headwinds in the third quarter, which is seasonally slower for volumes, and we will see additional pricing and margin benefit in the fourth quarter, which is typically our strongest volume quarter.
Our global sourcing expertise, our innovative chemistries and our operational agility were more critical than ever this quarter, and continue to provide competitive differentiation.
And the actions we have taken on price and to drive efficiencies across our business enabled us to seamlessly serve our customers and achieve our profit targets in the quarter, while at the same time increasing our debt paydown over last year's level, in line with our target for $200 million of debt reduction in 2021.
Now, let me move on to discuss performance in each of our segments in the second quarter on Slide 4.
Hygiene, Health and Consumable Adhesives' second quarter organic sales increased 3.3% year-over-year, which is an outstanding result considering the comparison to a very strong quarter last year when the business grew 7% organically.
Sales increased versus last year across the majority of our HHC markets with strong growth across our packaging applications, beverage labeling, multiwall bags and tape and label.
HHCs segment EBITDA increased by 11%, significantly more than the top-line growth and EBITDA margin was strong at 14.7%, up 70 basis points versus last year.
Margin improved driven by strong volume leverage, restructuring benefits and good expense management.
Construction Adhesives' organic revenue was up 23% versus last year with strong growth in both flooring and commercial roofing as share gains and improving demand drove significantly improved top-line performance versus 2020.
Even compared to a strong non-COVID impacted second quarter of 2019, organic revenue was up 4%.
Contributions from the pricing adjustments we have implemented in this segment were under-represented in the second quarter as we fulfilled prior Construction Adhesives orders in backlog following the temporary disruption from the effects of Storm Uri.
We have already begun to see increased pricing roll through in the first few weeks of the third quarter and expect additional pricing realization in the P&L over the rest of the year.
Construction Adhesives EBITDA increased 4% versus last year as strong volumes were offset by higher raw material costs, unfavorable mix and some temporary manufacturing costs that were required to return to normal service levels after the extreme weather event in the first quarter.
Engineering Adhesives' results were extremely strong with organic revenue up nearly 40% versus last year, reflecting share gains and improving end market demand.
Sales increased versus last year in all 14 of our Engineering Adhesives end markets with exceptional growth in adhesives for automotive, recreational vehicles, woodworking, electronics and insulating glass.
And looking back to the non-COVID impacted second quarter of 2019, organic revenues were up 11%.
We expect continued strength and double-digit full year growth in this segment.
Engineering Adhesives' second quarter EBITDA grew 42% year-on-year, driven by exceptional volume performance.
We expect EBITDA margins to improve in the coming quarters as pricing actions are fully implemented and offset the impact of raw material cost increases.
Looking ahead at our full year results, our planning assumptions are that economies will continue to open up as vaccines are rolled out around the world.
Raw materials will be tight through most of the year and pricing will remain elevated as supply chains begin to normalize and demand continues to be strong.
We anticipate continued strong demand and share gains in each of our business units to drive strong volume growth in 2021 versus 2020.
Revenue in most of our end markets will exceed 2019 levels.
Overall, when considering our strategic pricing actions, coupled with the solid volume growth in HHC, continued improving performance in Construction Adhesives and strong demand in Engineering Adhesives, we now expect full-year double-digit revenue growth versus 2020.
I'll begin on Slide 5 with some additional financial details on the second quarter.
Net revenue was up 22.7% versus the same period last year.
Currency had a positive impact of 3.9%.
Adjusting for currency, organic revenue was up 18.8%, with volume up 17.4% and pricing up 1.4%, with most of that pricing realized in the second half of the quarter.
All three GBUs had strong growth versus 2020, as well as compared to the non-COVID impacted second quarter of 2019, which we believe validates the strength of our top-line performance.
When compared to Q2 2019, organic revenue increased 9.5% for the total company with strong organic growth for all three GBUs.
Adjusted gross profit was up 17.4% year-on-year, and gross profit margin was down 120 basis points as volume growth and pricing gains were offset by higher raw material costs.
Adjusted selling, general and administrative expense was down 130 basis points as a percentage of revenue, reflecting volume leverage, savings associated with our business reorganization, and general cost controls, offset by higher variable compensation than last year.
In total, adjusted operating income margin improved by 20 basis points year-over-year.
Net interest expense declined by $1.3 million, reflecting lower debt balances.
The adjusted effective income tax rate in the quarter was 26.8% compared to 27.6% in the same period last year.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of $122 million was up 21% versus the same period last year, driven by strong volume growth, pricing gains and restructuring savings, partially offset by higher raw material costs and higher variable compensation.
Adjusted earnings per share were $0.94, up 38% versus the second quarter of last year, reflecting strong income growth and lower interest expense associated with our debt reduction.
Cash flow from operations in the first half of the year of $80 million compares to $108 million in the same period last year, reflecting working capital requirements to support strong top-line performance, as well as higher raw material costs.
We continue to reduce debt, paying down $62 million in the first half of 2021 compared to $51 million during the same period last year and keeping us on track for our full-year debt paydown plan of $200 million.
Regarding our outlook, based on what we know today, we now expect full-year revenue growth to be in the low double-digits.
As you will recall, we increased our adjusted EBITDA guidance range last quarter to $455 million to $475 million and this guidance remains unchanged, given our expectations for the continued strong volume growth and accelerating pricing offsetting raw material cost increases that we now expect to exceed 10% for the fiscal year.
Based on the seasonality of our business and the timing of raw material and price increases, we expect revenues in the third quarter to be up about 15% versus the third quarter of 2020 as we continue to deliver strong top-line growth.
EBITDA margin in the third quarter is expected to be about 100 basis points lower than the second quarter on a sequential basis.
As pricing actions are fully implemented, margins will improve in the fourth quarter, which is also our strongest quarter from a volume standpoint.
We expect cash flow to be strong for the rest of the year, allowing us to maintain our target to pay down approximately $200 million of debt during 2021.
During our last conference call, I outlined the three critical priorities we set for 2021 in the current supply constrained inflationary COVID recovery environment.
These three priorities are volume growth, price and greater productivity, and we executed well against each of these key imperatives in the second quarter.
Our first priority is to drive volume growth by supporting our customers in the current high-demand and supply constrained environment.
Volume growth and share gains are our foundation for creating durable shareholder value.
Our 19% second quarter organic revenue growth is even more significant than it appears, considering our HHC business had a very strong quarter of 7% organic growth in the second quarter last year.
And our business, overall, grew 9.5% compared to pre-COVID levels in the second quarter of 2019.
Our second imperative is to strategically manage pricing, aligned to the value we deliver, in this inflationary environment.
We implemented $150 million in price increases, effective from March 1 through July 15, and we're planning an additional $75 million in price increases later in Q3.
We are also delivering on our third priority to release greater productivity and capacity through our operational excellence programs.
In the second quarter, we out-delivered competitors and supported customers and our factory labor and overhead, as a percentage of revenue in the second quarter, decreased versus the second quarter last year.
COVID-19 has changed how businesses operate and supply constraints and pricing volatility are challenges that are impacting our industry today.
In this environment, H.B Fuller's strategic priority, the benefits of our robust global operations and supply chain, our culture of collaboration and market-based innovation and the speed and agility we have developed across our company is delivering results for our customers and for our shareholders.
We will continue to navigate the challenges of a constrained supply environment, grow our business and build on our rising leadership position in the global adhesive industry and we will continue to deliver strong results for our customers and for our shareholders.
Operator, please open up the call so we can take some questions.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
q2 adjusted earnings per share $0.94.
full year 2021 revenue growth is anticipated to be in low double-digits versus 2020.
full year adjusted ebitda in range of $455 million to $475 million remains unchanged.
expects 2021 raw material cost increases to exceed 10% on a full year basis versus 2020.


Prompt:
Human: Today, I am joined by Bill Furman, Greenbrier's executive chairman; Lorie Tekorius, CEO and president; Brian Comstock, executive vice president and chief commercial and leasing officer; and Adrian Downes, senior vice president and CFO.
This past month has been an eventful time in the world and at Greenbrier.
On March 1, Lorie Tekorius assume the role of Greenbrier's CEO.
Last week, our board of directors appointed Lorie as our newest director.
As we begin today's call, I want to first congratulate Lorie on the new positions at Greenbrier.
And we're proud of the board's development of Greenbrier, how we have managed this very important transition.
I'm pleased that I now serve as executive chairman through the remainder of our fiscal year and as a board member and investor until 2024.
With Lorie's appointment, we've expanded our board's gender diversity, four of our 11 directors are female.
Further, three of the directors identify as people of color.
Omicron is still a factor in our operations, as you will hear today, but things are getting much better.
Just so those impacts begin to add, the war in Ukraine has impacted the economies everywhere we operate.
We are witnessing a true tragedy and I pray for a swift end to the conflict and to all of the human suffering.
While the war creates challenges for everybody in the near term, it also provides opportunities for major shifts in freight corridors and transportation roads that will enhance Greenbrier's business as the world enters a reordered state.
History demonstrates the integral role of railroads to support civilian life and economies and a heightened manner during wartime.
The current war in Europe has created direct pressure on the availability and cost of commodities ranging from minerals to food, to fertilizer, to crude oil as well as coal and natural gas.
Railroads and railway suppliers will help meet the challenge of keeping civilian life and economies functioning during the crisis.
The commodity markets are traditionally leading indicators for expansion in rail freight.
Most commodities shipped by rail are experiencing upward pricing pressure from demand constraints due to either sanctions on Russia or reduced production from Russia and in the Ukraine.
We expect rising global commodity prices and shifting trade patterns to elevate railcar demand in North America and Brazil and elsewhere in the world.
Already changing energy policies in North America and Western Europe are creating opportunities for rail transport of oil, ethanol and other products.
The impact will be similar in fertilizers and other items needed to produce food.
Finally, the rising cost of diesel creates a distinct opportunity for model shift from road to rail.
Freight rail is one of the most sustainable and fuel-efficient modes of surface transportation.
U.S. freight railroads with diesel-electric power generation are three to four times more fuel efficient than trucks.
Think about that for just a moment.
One ton of freight can be moved by rail almost 500 miles per gallon of fuel.
Additionally, moving freight by train instead of trucks reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75% per tonne travel and it reduces congestion on wear and tear on bridges and byways.
As more freight ships to rail, in many cases, this will induce longer railcar dwell tough times and lowered railroad velocity.
In turn, railroad congestion causes the need for more railcars to make railroad service more efficient, notwithstanding the increase in demand we expect in major commodities like fertilizer, food steps, and other products.
We recognize the role and responsibility our industry must play in times of crisis and as the geopolitical landscape shifts.
The cruel irony is this war in Ukraine is that there will be ultimately beneficiaries.
Now we can't choose the exogenous factors that affect our business, but we have almost always have to be ready to meet the challenges and opportunities that come with them.
Greenbrier has proven the ability to thrive on adversity and seize opportunities.
I'm sure this legacy will continue for years to come under Lorie's leadership.
With that, I'll hand the call over to Lorie to discuss our strong performance during the quarter.
Before I discuss our results for the quarter, I'd like to express my gratitude to Bill and the rest of the Greenbrier Board for the opportunity to serve as CEO.
We have an outstanding team at Greenbrier who works hard and smart every day.
While it's difficult to predict the specific opportunities or challenges that may arise, I know that Greenbrier team has the experience, knowledge, and tenacity to make the most of any situation with a focus on increasing shareholder value.
Greenbrier posted strong results this second quarter.
And while not all of our operating segments performed as expected, our business is highly diverse and in the aggregate, performed very well.
In the quarter, we delivered 4,800 railcar units, a 17% increase from the prior quarter, driven by our core North American market.
Our lease fleet utilization increased to 98% and our leasing team generated robust cash proceeds and gains through regular lease fleet optimization and monetization transactions.
Our leasing business is operating ahead of our expectations as we achieve growth at scale.
Our strong quarterly performance was achieved as the omicron variance of COVID-19 reached peak levels in the United States.
Sadly, in February, Charles Wallace, a longtime employee in our maintenance services group passed away due to COVID.
Charles is survived by a son and four sisters.
We send them our condolences for their loss.
Further, we experienced significant absence here another quarter as approximately 12% of our workforce contracted the virus.
Recently, the infection rates have declined, and we're hopeful the worst of the pandemic is now behind us.
Our manufacturing gross margin percentage was below our expectations in the quarter, impacted by supply chain and labor issues.
Our global sourcing team continues to do an exceptional job of mitigating severe disruptions to support increasing production rates and simultaneously minimizing production delays.
We have avoided any line shutdowns across our network due to material availability.
Additional expenses were incurred in connection with sourcing spot materials and expediting delivery.
Operating momentum is increasing, and we expect improved performance in the coming quarters due to improved pricing and overhead absorption on higher production.
In Europe, the situation is fluid.
The period leading up to and the subsequent war in Ukraine has created a highly disruptive environment for many European manufacturers.
Our operations have been impacted by rapidly rising energy costs and now finished steel and components in our supply chain.
Ukraine and Russia are among the biggest suppliers of iron ore, finished steel, and wheelsets to European mines and welders.
As Bill mentioned, railroads are integral to supporting the economy during wartime.
Our management team is working together with our customers and suppliers to maintain production and ensure the best outcomes for all parties.
Our maintenance service business continued to be impacted by higher material costs and labor shortages during the quarter with the omicron variant having an outsized impact on the network of smaller workforces.
We are beginning to see improving financial results on the action plan implemented to mitigate these headwinds in Q1.
We expect to sustain our momentum in the second half of the year as we remain focused on executing our plans while also looking for additional opportunities to reduce costs and improve margins.
Our leasing and management services group had another strong quarter, driven by increased fleet utilization and regular asset optimization and monetization transactions.
Our owned fleet has grown by over 25% from the end of fiscal 2021 to around 11,000 units.
And in addition to managing our lease fleet, our management services, or GMS group, continues to provide creative railcar solutions for over 25% of the North American rail freight fleet.
Within GMS, we're launching an initiative to redevelop the service platform used to manage equipment and data.
One of the goals with this important initiative is to ensure scalable support for our leasing and syndication business as well as our external customers as we continue to execute on our leasing strategy.
Looking ahead, we see strong operating momentum continuing throughout fiscal 2022 and beyond.
We've been able to maintain our market-leading positions through disciplined execution and by maintaining our strong liquidity position.
These were hallmarks of our management team's plans at the start of the pandemic and they continue to service well.
There is no doubt that the market backdrop will remain dynamic, particularly with the war in Europe.
Inflation, supply chain issues, and the continuing human impact of pandemic will persist for some time.
We are managing the business accordingly and maintain our optimistic market outlook.
We expect our operating metrics to continue to improve as we move through the next several quarters and beyond.
As we've said before, the market recoveries won't follow a straight line, and there will be challenges along the way.
We're managing our business to get ahead of these challenges wherever we can to continue to provide solutions to our customers and ultimately, deliver value to our shareholders.
As I said before, our leadership team has the experience, knowledge, and tenacity to make the most of any situation.
And with that, I'll hand the call over to Brian Comstock to provide an update on current railcar demand environment and our leasing activity.
Greenbrier's secured new railcar orders of 8,500 units valued at $930 million.
With deliveries of 4,800 units in the quarter, the book-to-bill increased to 1.8 times.
Orders through the first half of the year are already over 85% of fiscal 2021 activity.
New railcar backlog of 32,100 units has a market value of $3.6 billion and provides multiyear visibility.
This is Greenbrier's largest backlog in six years.
Historically, when our backlog reaches this level, it includes several multiyear orders.
In this case, there are a few multiyear orders, which illustrates the strength of the overall demand environment.
From an operations perspective, this means that a greater portion of our backlog is scheduled to enter production in the short term and translate to revenue sooner.
Also, as production space becomes more valuable, we expect multiyear orders to follow and pricing could continue improvement.
As a reminder, our new railcar backlog does not reflect 3,200 units valued at $180 million that are part of Greenbrier's refurbishment program.
Because of the large scale and nature of this activity, this work occurs at our manufacturing facility that absorbs production capacity while contributing to overhead absorption.
Our refurbishment program is an important part of ensuring rail remaining the most environmentally friendly lot of surface transport.
I'm excited about this growing partnership with our customers to sustainably repurpose North America's aging railcar fleet.
Fleet utilization ended the quarter at 98%.
Lease pricing and terms continue to improve sequentially, and we are seeing strong demand for new and used leased equipment.
As part of our enhanced leasing strategy, GBX Leasing, closed our inaugural asset-backed securitization by using -- by issuing $323 million in investment-grade rated notes with a blended coupon rate of 2.9% and an anticipated repayment date of January 2029.
Our capital markets team executed well this quarter and syndicated 1,400 units, the highest level of activity in nearly two years.
Syndication is an important source of liquidity and profitability, and we expect to continue strong syndication activity in the second half of the year.
As many of you know, syndication and asset disposition are important activities for leasing that will continue to grow into the future.
Looking ahead, I remain optimistic about the momentum that has been building, especially in light of the strong demand environment in North America.
Greenbrier is well-positioned for a period of strong growth.
I believe the combination of market forces, the ability of our focused management, and experienced management team to capitalize on them will deliver results in its early phase of this railcar cycle, which is substantially better than we've seen in previous cycles.
Today, I will discuss highlights from the quarter, and we're also affirming guidance for fiscal year 2022.
Second-quarter highlights include revenue of $683 million, deliveries of 4,800 units, which includes 400 units from our unconsolidated joint venture in Brazil.
Aggregate gross margins of 8% reflects continued effects from ramping of new railcar production, the impact of the omicron variant, mitigation of supply chain, labor shortages, and an additional warranty accrual for certain older railcars.
Selling and administrative expense of about $55 million was higher sequentially, reflecting increased employee-related costs, consulting, travel, and legal expense from higher levels of business activity.
Net gain on disposition of equipment was $25 million.
This activity was part of our ongoing optimization and monetization of our leasing portfolio.
Non-controlling interest provides a benefit of $1.6 million, primarily resulting from the impact of line changeovers and production ramping at our Mexico joint venture.
This improved sequentially, and we expect our Mexican JV to be profitable in the second half of the year.
Net earnings attributable to Greenbrier of approximately $13 million or $0.38 per diluted share, and EBITDA of about $52 million or 7.6% of revenue.
In the quarter, we recognized $2.1 million of gross costs, specifically related to COVID-19 employee and facility safety.
This expense increased almost 75% sequentially and was our highest level in the last 12 months.
Greenbrier's liquidity increased to $804 million at the end of Q2, consisting of cash of $587 million and available borrowings of $217 million.
Because of the strength of our balance sheet, we are well-positioned to navigate any market dynamics.
We expect to receive a large portion of our $106 million tax receivable in fiscal Q4, reflecting delays in processing with the IRS.
This refund will be in addition to Greenbrier's available cash and borrowing capacity.
In the quarter and shortly after the quarter, Greenbrier entered additional interest rate swaps to fix long-term floating rate debt for the next several years, reducing the risk of increasing interest expense and a rising interest rate environment.
At the end of the second quarter, effectively all of our outstanding leasing debt was at fixed interest rates and approximately 90% of our corporate non-leasing long-term debt was fixed.
Together with executing on over $2 billion of new and refinanced borrowing facilities over the past year, including the ABS lease financing completed in Q2, this positions Greenbrier quite well as we move forward.
On March 31, Greenbrier's board of directors declared a dividend of $0.27 per share, our 32nd consecutive dividend.
Based on yesterday's closing price, our annual dividend represents a dividend yield of approximately 2.3%.
Since reinstating the dividend in 2014, Greenbrier's returned nearly $380 million of capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Based on current business trends and production schedules, we're affirming Greenbrier's fiscal year 2022 outlook to reflect the following: deliveries of 17,500 to 19,500 units, which includes approximately 1,500 units from Greenbrier-Maxion in Brazil.
As a reminder, in fiscal 2022, approximately 1,400 units are expected to be built and capitalized into our lease fleet.
These units are not reflected in the delivery guidance provided.
We consider a railcar delivered when it leaves Greenbrier's balance sheet and is owned by an external third party.
Selling and administrative expense guidance is unchanged and expected to be approximately $200 million to $210 million.
Gross capital expenditures of approximately $275 million in leasing and management services, $55 million in manufacturing, and $10 million in maintenance services.
Net of proceeds on equipment sales of $150 million, leasing capex is expected to be $125 million.
Gross margin percent is expected to increase sequentially in Q3 and Q4 with Q4 margins between low double digits and low teens.
To close, I want to add that I shared with you as expressed by our colleagues earlier.
Specifically, Greenbrier will successfully navigate the challenges we face in the second half of the fiscal year.
Greenbrier's highest backlog in more than half a decade, ample liquidity, and a strong balance sheet make this possible.
Despite delivering effects of the multiyear pandemic and the impacts of war on a stressed global supply chain, we are better positioned than at any point in time to achieve our ambitious goals.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
q2 earnings per share $0.38.
q2 revenue $683 million.
sees 2022 deliveries of 17,500 - 19,500 units including about 1,500 units in greenbrier-maxion.


Prompt:
Human: My name is Matt Eichmann.
I'm joined by Pete Watson, Greif's president and chief executive officer; Larry Hilsheimer, Greif's chief financial officer; and Ole Rosgaard, Greif's chief operating officer.
We will take questions at the end of today's call.
In accordance with Regulation Fair Disclosure, please ask questions regarding issues you consider important because we're prohibited from discussing material nonpublic information with you on an individual basis.
Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question before returning to the queue.
Actual results could differ materially from those discussed.
As always, we appreciate your interest in Greif.
The team delivered excellent results despite a challenging operating environment that was complicated by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures beyond our control.
Fiscal 2021 was an exceptional year with record financial results.
We significantly de-levered our balance sheet, improved our shareholder returns, achieved top decile colleague engagement, and were recognized as a leading workplace in the United States.
Looking ahead, these accomplishments have us positioned for an even stronger future as our fiscal 2022 guidance points to performance in line with the commitments we established in 2019.
Finally, in this past year, we made meaningful enhancements to our already strong sustainability performance and have embedded ESG deeper into our business strategies.
I'd like to ask Ole Rosgaard, our chief operating officer, to make a few comments regarding ESG that's on Slide 4.
I hope you and your families are well.
In my mind, sustainability is not an afterthought or corporate function, rather it's a leadership focus that creates business value by reducing risk and costs and bringing new market opportunities to growth.
We achieved several notable ESG accomplishments in 2021.
For example, we diverted a minimum of 90% of waste from landfills at more than 140 of our global facilities, increasing our global diversion rate to roughly 85% from about 70% last year.
Even more impressive, at year end, 50 of our global facilities had achieved zero waste to landfill status.
We launched our fourth Colleague Resource Group to provide professional development opportunities and further foster a more representative and inclusive culture across Greif.
And finally, we linked ESG KPIs to the Greif business system, improving our performance management capability to further drive this critical work.
The takeaway here is that Greif's strong ESG focus is core to our plans for sustainable value creation.
I look forward to sharing additional highlights with you in the future.
And now, back over to Pete to discuss our business results on Slide 5.
The global industrial packaging business delivered an outstanding fourth quarter result.
Our overall global primary product line was strong and benefited sales by almost 3% versus the prior year.
and EMEA and ongoing recovery in our industrial end markets.
Global steel drum volume fell by 1.5% per day versus the prior year.
The biggest shortfall was in APAC, reflective of our decision to implement strategic pricing actions and supply chain disruptions that negatively impacted our customers' operations.
Fourth quarter global steel drum volume was also impacted by performance in EMEA where volumes, where steady through most of the quarter but did slow in October as customers in this region faced their own set of supply chain disruptions.
The Americas region recorded strong mid-single-digit growth during the quarter.
Generally speaking, our industrial end markets remain healthy.
Customers report solid order backlogs and strong underlying demand, but they do face external supply chain disruptions.
Across GIP, we see little indication of customers building inventory, but some are carrying more stock than normal due to supply chain disruptions, impacting their ability to ship to their customers.
GIP's generally stronger volumes and higher average selling prices resulted in significantly higher segment sales and gross profit year over year.
GIP's fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA rose by roughly $47 million due to higher sales, partially offset by higher raw material, manufacturing, and transportation costs.
The business also benefited from a $3 million dollar FX tailwind.
Looking ahead, we expect GIP's fiscal 2022 profits to be lower year over year, while we do anticipate volume growth, contribution from new capex projects, and beneficial efficiency gains.
Profits will be lower as the unprecedented run-up in steel costs provided a roughly $100 million tailwind to GIP's fiscal 2021 results that will not recur.
We anticipate GIP's normal profit cadence through the year to persist.
Paper packaging's fourth quarter sales rose by roughly $120 million versus the prior year due to stronger volumes and higher published containerboard and boxboard prices.
Adjusted EBITDA rose by roughly $10 million versus the prior year due to higher sales that were substantially offset by higher raw material, manufacturing, and transportation costs, including a significant $50 million -- $51 million drag from higher OCC index cost and an $8 million natural gas cost spike not contemplated in our guidance.
The business benefited from a $4 million legal settlement tailwind reported in SG&A that will not recur.
Volume demand across our paper business remains strong that our combined mill backlogs exceed eight weeks.
Fourth quarter volumes in our CorrChoice sheet feeder system were up 2.4% today versus the prior year.
The demand for durables, e-commerce growth, and the OEMs auto supply chain all remained very solid, and we see no slowdown on the horizon.
Fourth quarter tube and core volumes were up 7% per day versus the prior year.
Demand was strong in most key end markets, including film, paper cores, textiles, and protective packaging.
Looking ahead into fiscal 2022, we expect significantly higher profits in paper packaging due to strong demand and continued flow through published price increases.
Big picture, our team delivered excellent fourth quarter results despite significant external challenges.
Fourth quarter net sales, excluding the impact of foreign exchange, rose 35% versus the prior year quarter due to stronger volumes and higher selling prices.
Adjusted EBITDA rose by 57 million, including a 7 million combined tailwind from FX and a one-time legal settlement.
Keep in mind our adjusted EBITDA result overcame an OCC index headwind of 51 million and roughly 40 million of non volume related transportation and manufacturing inflation, including an $8 million unforecasted natural gas cost spike.
Interest expense fell by 9 million versus the prior-year quarter due to lower debt balances.
We also benefited by reaching a lower interest rate tier in our credit facility as a result of our substantial debt repayments.
Our fourth quarter GAAP and non-GAAP tax rate were both roughly 11%.
Fourth quarter adjusted Class A earnings per share more than doubled to $1.93 a share.
For fiscal '21, we delivered adjusted Class A earnings per share of $5.60 a share, a 74% improvement versus the prior year and a significant beat relative to our Q3 guidance.
Part of the earnings improvement came from a lower-than-anticipated non-GAAP tax rate of 18.1%, which benefited from reserve releases due to audit settlements, and statute of limitation expirations.
We estimate the lower tax rate relative to the guidance we shared at $0.15 at -- to fiscal '21 results.
The lion's share of our year-over-year earnings improvement came from disciplined operational execution.
Fourth quarter adjusted free cash fell roughly $79 million versus the prior year.
While profits improved significantly, capex rose and working capital dragged on cash flow primarily due to higher raw material costs than we anticipated in our forecast.
Working capital was also negatively impacted by lower-than-anticipated October volumes outside the U.S. while customers struggled with external challenges and ordered fewer drums.
That said, our team is controlling what it can with strong results and trailing 12-month average working capital as a percentage of sales, improved by a significant 140 basis points to a -- year over year to 10.8%.
Our core capital priorities are clear and remain consistent: reinvest in the business as needed to create value and support growth, return excess cash to shareholders via an attractive and growing dividend, and de-lever our balance sheet and maintain a compliance leverage ratio between two to two-and-a-half turns.
Our balance sheet is in great shape.
We anticipate spending between 150 million and 170 million in capital expenditures in fiscal '22 and target growing our dividend in '22 as mentioned in previous calls.
We are in the midst of our strategic planning process to determine the focus and extent of growth activities going forward to prudently leverage our strong balance sheet for the benefit of our shareholders.
We are pleased to introduce fiscal '22 guidance, excuse me, that delivers on the commitments we made more than two years ago.
Our guidance reflects the considerable improvement we've made in the base business over the last several years, including the successful Caraustar integration and synergy capture, and demonstrates Greif's resilience in overcoming the unforeseen and considerable external challenges presented by COVID and dramatic inflationary headwinds well beyond our control.
At the midpoint, we anticipate generating $6.15 of adjusted Class A earnings per share in '22.
Overall, we expect lower profits in GIP in fiscal '22 to be more than offset by higher profitability and EPS, highlighting once again the benefit of our diversified portfolio.
Interest expense will be significantly lower in fiscal '22 as a result of our aggressive de-leveraging, and we expect it to evolve further when we move to refinance our 6.5% 27 senior notes sometime in the first half of calendar '22.
We anticipate '22 adjusted free cash flow between 400 million and 460 million.
In addition to increased capital expenditures, we anticipate significantly higher cash tax in fiscal '21, mainly due to additional pre-tax income.
We anticipate working capital revert to a cash source.
It was a $222 million use in '21 as raw material cost inflation accelerated.
Now, a few reflective comments for your consideration.
From my perspective, the Greif of today is a far different company than the Greif of six years ago.
Our margin profile has stabilized and grown, profits have increased significantly, and our transparency and communication has improved and been applauded.
Our capital allocation strategy has been steady, disciplined, and predictable.
We have delivered on what we promised, and we continue to derive even greater value for our shareholders.
Despite these improvements, we continue to trade at a discount to our historical metrics in the broader market.
As an example, assuming a historic free cash flow of 11% in the midpoint of our '22 free cash flow guidance would imply a combined market cap of roughly $3.9 billion, or an increase of roughly 30%.
So, while we don't get to vote when it comes to our valuation, our opinion is that we deserve a closer look, given the discount present in our stock today.
Now, I'm going to take a minute and go off-script.
As most of, if not all of you are aware, today is Pete Watson's last earnings call.
Pete embodies the leadership and has a personal connection with many of Greif's colleagues that developed through personal contact.
He is a humble and respected leader who leans on his athletic coaching background for the skills in building a cohesive team.
As he took leadership at Greif, many things were broken.
Since taking the helm in November of 2015, the results have been extraordinary.
In safety, steady improvement, in colleague engagement, we improved dramatically to be a top decile in gallops industrial sector.
Those engaged colleagues have delivered outstanding customer service and driven incredible improvement in doubling our NPS scores over that period.
That focus on virtuous service profit chain has lead to financial improvement that has been exceptional.
From 2015 to 2021, [Inaudible] and EBITDA have essentially doubled.
Adjusted EBITDA earnings per share has gone from $2.18 to $5.60 with no stock repurchases.
And adjusted free cash flow, which was $70 million in 2015 has averaged nearly $30 million in the last three years and will exceed $400 million in '22.
Pete has worked diligently to ensure this succession plan and left Greif in good leadership hands going forward to secure his legacy as an outstanding leader.
You certainly did go off-script and much appreciated.
And again Larry, I appreciate your comments and thoughts.
You are a good man.
As Larry talked about, today is my final earnings call as president and chief executive officer of Greif.
You know, it's a great company.
It's been my distinct honor to serve our global Greif team.
And I'm extremely proud, as Larry talked about, of what we've all accomplished together over the last six years.
I'm incredibly grateful to all our colleagues for their passion and dedication to excellence and also for their commitment to our team and our customers.
And while fiscal 2021 is a record year for our company, I'm even more excited for what lies ahead.
We are well-positioned to benefit from ongoing strength and improving trends at our key end markets and our extensive global portfolio, our differentiated service capability, and our sharp focus on operational execution allows us to best serve our customers' needs and generate significant shareholder value.
I, along with the rest of the board, are confident in Ole Rosgaard's ability to lead Greif going forward.
His operational background, strategic mindset, and passion for team building and serving customers will be advantageous to Greif's future.
I look forward to the company thriving under his leadership.
It has certainly been a pleasure working with all of you, and we certainly appreciate your interest in Greif.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
q4 earnings per share $1.93 excluding items.
sees fy 2022 adjusted free cash flow $400 million - $460 million.


Prompt:
Human: Our conference call slides have been posted on our website and provide additional information that may be helpful.
Sales totaled $367 million this quarter, a decrease of 14% from the second quarter last year.
Acquisitions added two percentage points of growth this quarter, while changes in currency translation rates decreased sales by approximately one percentage point.
Net earnings totaled $29 million for the quarter or $0.17 per diluted share, including $30 million or $0.20 related to the impairment charges associated with selling the Alco business.
After adjusting for the impairment and other tax adjustments, net earnings totaled $62 million or $0.37 per diluted share.
During the second quarter, we entered into negotiations to divest the U.K. valve business, Alco, which has significant exposure to oil and gas natural gas markets.
Alco operations contributed $7 million of sales and $2 million of operating losses year-to-date, which have been included within the Process segment.
Based on the negotiations to sell, our investment in Alco was revalued in the second quarter, and we recorded noncash impairment charges of $34 million after tax, including $24 million of previously unrecognized foreign currency translation losses recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income.
The $24 million loss reserve for previously unrecognized foreign currency translation is recorded in other current liability at the end of the second quarter and will be cleared through accumulated other comprehensive income in the third quarter, as the divestiture was finalized in early July.
Our gross margin rate was 49.8% for the second quarter, approximately three percentage points below the second quarter last year.
Primarily due to the effect of product and channel mix, as sales in the Contractor segment increased, while sales in the Industrial and Process segments declined double digits and also due to lower factory volumes and changes in currency translation rates.
Realized pricing was favorable.
Without recovery in sales volumes, unabsorbed factory costs will continue to weigh on gross margin rates in the second half, so strong realized pricing partially offsets the favorable effect.
Changes in product and channel mix can affect gross margin rates.
Our global procurement team has been working closely with our supply chain to keep our lines running throughout the quarter.
Given the growth in certain products in the Contractor segment, particularly products for the home center channel, the supply chain for some components is stretched and we are monitoring the situation closely.
Operating expenses, excluding the effect of the impairment, decreased by $12 million from the second quarter last year, as reductions in volume and earnings based expenses more than offset higher product development costs.
The reported income tax rate was 31% for the quarter, 13 percentage points higher than the second quarter last year, primarily due to nondeductible impairment charges.
After adjusting for the effect of the impairment and excess tax benefits from stock option exercises and other nonrecurring tax benefits, our tax rate was 19% for the quarter or one percentage point lower than last year.
Cash flows from operations totaled $143 million year-to-date as compared to $164 million last year as a result of lower revenues.
Capital expenditures totaled $33 million year-to-date as we continue to invest in manufacturing capabilities as well as the expansion of several locations.
Cash dividends totaled $58 million year-to-date.
We also completed an acquisition for $27 million in the second quarter, which will be a part of the Process segment.
For the full year 2020 capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $80 million, including approximately $50 million for facility expansion projects.
We completed share repurchases of $17 million net of share issuances during the quarter, bringing our total share repurchases net of issuances to $62 million for the year.
We may make further opportunistic share repurchases going forward.
A few final comments, looking forward to the rest of the year.
On Page 11 of our slide deck, we note our six-week booking average by segment.
These are the six-week average bookings through last week, July 17.
Based on current exchange rates and the same volume and mix of products and sales by currency as last year, the effective exchange is currently expected to be negligible on sales and a headwind of approximately one percentage on earnings in 2020.
Unallocated corporate expenses are expected to be approximately $30 million for the full year 2020 and can vary by quarter.
The effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 20% to 21% for the full year, excluding the effect of onetime items and any impact from excess tax benefits related to stock option exercises.
And given the wild environment in the second quarter, I'll focus my commentary on our operational status, our strategic focus, sales trends as we progress through the quarter and make a few observations on end markets.
Our major factories and distribution centers remained fully operational during the second quarter.
High-risk employees remained at home, and we've dealt with the positive COVID-19 cases that we have experienced at various facilities without disruption.
By reducing our use of temporary labor in certain factories and flexing our workforce to areas of greater need, we've largely been able to survive the quarter without resorting to lay offs or pay reductions.
We had enough work in all of our major factories to keep our full-time people productive.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the resolve our employees have shown and continue to show throughout this pandemic.
Consistent with what we told you during the first quarter call, we've continued full speed on our growth initiatives.
Any expense reductions in the second quarter were the result of variable expenses, such as rebates and incentives as well as reduced spending on travel and prudent discretionary expense management.
Spending on our initiatives for 2021 and beyond have continued as usual.
This may put pressure on our short-term financial results, but will position us to capitalize when market conditions normalize.
Consolidated order trends improved sequentially throughout the quarter.
However, the improvement has not been consistent between the segments.
After a terrible April, our Contractor business rebounded with a very strong June, resulting in low single-digit growth for the quarter.
Professional paint channel improved, as paint stores opened up to foot traffic.
And the Home Center business has been on fire for most of the quarter, resulting in operational challenges to meet the demand spike.
The outlook for the Contractor business is positive for the second half of the year.
Our Industrial business, on the other hand, experienced marginal improvement after the business tanked in April.
Access to customer facilities is slowly improving and quoting activity has increased in many sectors or we're yet to see a significant bounce back in orders.
Automotive is weak globally, industrial production is down, oil and gas is weak, and uncertainty continues to weigh in to weigh on the capital equipment appetite of most end users.
The outlook for Industrial remains cloudy, and I'm not overly optimistic about the second half.
Our Process business didn't drop as severely in April.
And despite being down double digits for the quarter, we've seen some positive end market trends.
Within this business, we have stronger end markets such as semiconductor and environmental and weaker end markets such as our lubrication business, which has performed comparably to our Industrial segment.
With a wide range of end market exposures, our outlook for the second half remains uncertain.
I'm comfortable that our approach of continuing to invest in our growth strategies, such as new product and new market development, will position us nicely to drive strong results once things normalize.
We used a similar approach during the 2008, 2009 crisis and our investors were subsequently rewarded and we look to repeat this again.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
qtrly earnings per share $0.17.
qtrly adjusted earnings per share $0.37.


Prompt:
Human: I'm Patrick Suehnholz, Greenhill's head of investor relations.
Joining me on the call today is Scott Bok, our chairman and chief executive officer.
These statements are based on our current expectations regarding future events that, by their nature, are outside of the firm's control and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions.
For a discussion of some of the risks and factors that could affect the firm's future results, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K.
We reported fourth-quarter revenue of $106.7 million, an operating margin of 39% and net income of $1.05 per share.
For the full year, we had revenue of $301 million, an operating margin of 15% and net income of $0.45 per share.
Our quarterly revenue was up 20%, and earnings per share was up 133% from the same period last year.
For the full year, our revenue was down 14%, and earnings per share was down 68%.
In sum, we had a strong finish to the year, resulting in respectable full-year results on the top and bottom line, all consistent with our commentary on the past couple of quarterly investor calls.
While industry data shows a decline in global transaction activity versus the prior year, and almost all of our competitors have reported declines in advisory revenue, the primary driver in our reduced revenue for the year was that lower revenue in Europe more than offset increases in revenue in North America, Australia and the rest of the world.
By type of advice, we benefited from significant improvement in restructuring advisory revenue relative to recent years as our recently enlarged team gained increasing traction throughout the year.
Our capital advisory team had another strong performance though fell short of the prior year's record revenue level.
And in M&A, results were relatively strong nearly everywhere other than in Europe.
By industry sector, we had good results in consumer products, financial services and media, offset by weaker results in energy, healthcare and technology.
With respect to costs, our compensation ratio for the year was 59%, slightly above our target level as a result of lower revenue for the year.
For the quarter, the compensation ratio was an unusually low 42% in order to offset unusually high ratios in the first two quarters of the year.
Our management objective, as always, is to achieve a reasonable compensation ratio on a full-year basis while also ensuring that our team is appropriately compensated at competitive levels relative to their individual performance.
Our non-compensation operating expenses for the quarter were $21 million, which was $3.7 million higher than the same period last year due to some foreign currency-related losses compared to gains the prior year along with a charge for an uncollectible account receivable from a client in financial difficulty.
For the year, our non-compensation operating costs were very similar to last year as the above-mentioned unusual costs were in aggregate about the same size of the unusual cost the prior year when we incurred an accounting charge related to the earnout on our acquisition of Cogent.
We continue to monitor non-compensation expenses closely and are hopeful to achieve a lower annual level in dollar terms in 2020.
Our interest expense for the quarter was somewhat lower than for the same period last year as the incremental cost of an increased level of borrowing was more than offset by the impact of lower market interest rate and a lower coupon premium on our debt following our favorable refinancing early in 2019.
We expect our interest expense to continue to decline going forward.
Our effective tax rate was 33% for the quarter and 40% for the year.
Our tax rates for both periods were negatively impacted by the fact that we had a significantly lower than typical portion of our revenue and profit in lower tax rate jurisdictions, particularly the U.K., and a higher than typical portion of our revenue and profit in higher tax jurisdictions, particularly Australia and Brazil.
Our rate for the year was also negatively impacted by an unfavorable difference between the grant price and market price on vesting restricted stock units.
We continue to expect a rate generally in the mid-20% range going forward.
In terms of capital returns, we've continued to aggressively repurchase shares given our view that the market is underestimating our earnings potential as well as the fact that our stock trades at a valuation multiple below that of our peers and far below its typical historic valuation multiple level.
During the quarter, we purchased 1.5 million shares and share equivalents at an average price of $15.98 per share.
For the full year, we purchased 3.8 million shares and share equivalents at an average price of $18.04 per share.
For 2020, our Board has authorized $60 million in purchases of shares and share equivalents, which compares to $69 million we spent for such purchases during 2019.
In the quarter to date, we have repurchased 345,723 shares of common stock at an average price of $16.47 per share for $5.7 million in total, meaning we have repurchase authority of $54.3 million left for the remainder of the year.
We also declared a quarterly dividend for the quarter of $0.05 per share.
We ended the year with cash of $114 million and debt of $365.6 million, meaning we had net debt of $251.6 million.
As of yesterday, our cash balance was up to $133.9 million despite the incremental share repurchases in January with the debt amount unchanged.
Our required principal payment obligations are modest until maturity of our debt in 2024.
But based on our business outlook, as described below, we are aiming for significant deleveraging during 2020 alongside the additional share repurchases referred to above.
We enter 2020 with a favorable outlook across all of our businesses.
The environment for M&A activity currently feels positive across the regions that performed well for us in 2019, and our current book of assignments in Europe indicates the potential for a very substantial rebound in revenue there this year.
In restructuring advisory, we ended 2019 with a much improved level of monthly retainer fees and a much larger backlog of assignments that should get to completion during 2020.
Recent tightening of credit availability and increasing cost for borrowers with weaker credit ratings should also be a positive factor for this business.
In capital advisory, the continued growth of pools of private equity capital and the increased market liquidity available to chief investment officers that are invested in those funds should result in a continuing favorable operating environment for that business as well.
I'll close with a few words on our strategy.
We remain focused on building a business with increasingly diversified revenue streams and greater aggregate revenue.
That was the purpose of our acquisition of capital advisory specialist Cogent Partners almost five years ago, that was the purpose of the recent expansion of our restructuring advisory team, that was the purpose of last year's expansion in Singapore and France, and that is the purpose of our continuing recruitment of M&A specialists across various industry sectors.
Recruiting will continue to be key to our growth plans as well the continued development of talent internally.
In the past year, we added a net five client-facing managing directors, such that we have 79 today, and we increased our total professional headcount by 11%.
We have all the tools needed to continue to successfully implement our strategy.
Our culture makes our firm a great place to work, leading to both recruiting success and very high retention rates for strong performers.
Our brand for high-quality and independent advice has been built over decades of client service, and our team collectively owns 48% of the economic value of our firm through common stock and restricted stock and is, thereby, highly incentivized to generate strong results and create value for all shareholders.
Now I'm happy to take any questions.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
compname reports q4 earnings per share of $1.05.
compname reports fourth quarter earnings per share of $1.05 and full year earnings per share of $0.45.
q4 revenue $106.7 million versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $86.9 million.
board authorized up to $60 million of purchases of shares and share equivalents in 2020.
qtrly earnings per share $1.05.


Prompt:
Human: We certainly appreciate your time today and your interest in Graham Corporation.
Joining me on the call are Dan Thoren, our president and CEO; and Jeff Glajch, our chief financial officer.
You should have a copy of the third quarter fiscal 2022 financial results, which just released a few minutes ago.
If not, you can access the release as well as the other slides that will accompany our conversation today at our website, grahammanufacturing.com, and I also want to point out that we also have now ir.
grahamcorp.com to access the investor information.
These documents can be found on our website or at sec.gov.
During today's call, we will also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures.
We believe these will be useful in evaluating our performance.
We have provided reconciliation of non-GAAP measures with comparable GAAP measures in the tables that accompany today's release and the slides for your information.
I am starting on Page 3.
As you might imagine, having just assumed the role of CEO in September, reporting this fiscal third year -- third quarter's results is a little bit rough.
Revenue has increased to $28.8 million, but we had a loss of $0.35 per share.
The loss was driven by Navy project cost overruns in our Batavia operations as a result of decisions we made during the quarter to ensure timely execution of our high-profile submarine and carrier projects.
The multiple decisions that led to the loss were for long-term gain over short-term pain and were not made lightly.
Our Navy business is very important for our future.
We had to protect this business and ensure our customers knew we were committed to hitting their need dates, even though we took a significant financial hit in the quarter and over our fiscal year 2022.
Jeff and I will provide more detail on subsequent slides.
As a result of the quarter loss, we were out of compliance on our financial covenants, which required suspending our dividend.
Jeff will talk more about the waiver we obtained and the coming amendment of our credit facility.
While this was a disappointing quarter and has been a very challenging year, we are deeply committed to our strategy to diversify beyond refining at petrochem with our defense work.
The pivot toward defense has been successful, as indicated by bookings and revenue.
Our defense revenue is now over half our total revenue.
We had a huge bookings quarter at $68 million.
Over half of these bookings were at Barber-Nichols.
Now that we have the bookings, we have to execute this work profitably.
Final point on this page is that Barber-Nichols' performance is exceeding our expectations.
They are building a larger backlog and delivering strong margins.
Jeff will provide more detail in the financial discussion.
But first, I'd like to provide more detail on our Navy challenges in Batavia.
We'll move to Slide 4.
So let me first address what led up to our third quarter performance.
To date, Graham manufacturing has been very successful in winning the trust and confidence of the U.S. Navy and its prime shipbuilders with its high-quality heat exchange and vacuum products used in the nuclear Navy power plants.
Navy orders and backlog continue to climb and have now significantly exceeded our commercial backlog and will soon exceed our commercial revenue.
As of December 31, 2021, our Navy backlog in Batavia was over $100 million.
Those orders come with big expectations.
As we have worked over the last two years to continue to win new business and meet those expectations, a perfect storm brewed in our third quarter.
There were several events that led to our need to readjust in Q3.
After getting started on Colombia, there was a Navy wide reset of quality requirements that caused delays with welder and quality recertification.
This was followed by the impact of COVID-19, the ongoing limited skilled workforce in the welding trades, and the sheer magnitude of work running through our shop combined with first article learning curve, all of these items caused us to get behind on our Navy jobs.
We do continue to have first article challenges.
This is quite typical with defense projects, and we would have expected this on the Columbia project.
We've reviewed this with you in the past.
Now while the CVN-80 work is not a true first article job for us, the lack of process documentation from the previous work combined with severe labor challenges and use of contract welders new to the equipment caused challenges on the carrier work as well.
Even as we work to catch up on hours, our equipment became the pacing item associated with our nation's most strategic ship and submarine build schedules.
The pressure to expedite was extreme.
Let's turn to Page 5.
The chart on Page 5 shows our labor plan with blue bars, our actual labor, application in gray bars, and the resulting deficit of hours caused by actual being less than our planned hourly expenditure.
The depth of our deficit occurred around May of 2021.
In past calls, we talked about redirecting commercial welders to Navy and hiring contract welders to address this deficit.
In third quarter, we redirected even more commercial welders, outsourced more commercial work, hired more contract welders and even added some of our new welders that completed our training programs.
These actions help to reverse the Navy labor deficit, but they came at additional costs.
Outsourcing commercial work results in less margin.
We also realized less third quarter revenue as the outsourced suppliers were not able to ramp up quickly.
The contract welder costs were high, the specialized training required by the Navy took a long time and retention of the contract welders was poor.
Ultimately, we've been able to reduce our Navy program labor deficit by doubling our Navy workforce, mitigating the schedule slips and keeping our customer relationship strong.
The deficit should be erased in the first half of fiscal '23, but we expect to start reducing high-cost contract welders as we enter the next fiscal year.
In the end, the actions we took to stay on track in the last quarter resulted in revising estimates on labor hours and material, and we booked loss conversion costs that were recorded in the quarter and impacted our results as well.
Jeff will cover that detail in the financial briefing.
Certainly, we've learned a lot from this experience and have or will institute corrective and preventative actions to ensure that we continue to grow our Navy business and can deliver quality products in a timely fashion and earn a fair return for our efforts.
Our customers have been very appreciative of our efforts and we do not see any negative consequences if we hold current deliveries.
This equipment is built into the bowels of these ships, and they will never come out.
Thus, quality is paramount and Graham has not disappointed.
As we catch up on these programs and reduce our labor deficit, we can reclaim margins by eliminating contract welders, reassigning our commercial welders back to our commercial product and reduce the outsourcing that we're doing today.
Our people pipeline continues to be critical, and our welder training program will be continued.
Looking back, we could have done a better job in predicting and mitigating the situation with better developed FP&A, financial planning and analysis, and project management skills.
We are adding new talent with defense expertise in Batavia to better manage these processes.
In fact, we're adding a new position and Batavia will have a Navy business leader beginning February 28.
As we look forward, our processes need to advance to enable our ability to document and optimize all of our fabrication processes to prevent a recurrence of this first article issues that we've seen.
We see opportunities to increase future profits with investment in time-saving automated welding, and we're evaluating current contract margins and revisiting pricing on future production opportunities.
In summary, our Batavia defense business was hit by a perfect storm at a very inopportune time.
We made decisions to protect our strategic Navy business.
It cost us in the short term, but proved our dedication to our customers for the long term.
As Dan mentioned, our third quarter performance was quite disappointing.
Sales were $28.8 million, up $1.6 million over last year's third quarter.
Barber-Nichols contributed $12 million in sales in the quarter, helping to offset the weak sales quarter of our legacy Graham manufacturing business.
Our Batavia operations were impacted because of its need to focus on catching up and executing the two large Navy projects.
Those projects will both require more labor and material costs to complete that were projected at the start of the quarter.
The additional labor hours to complete the projects impacted the quarter's revenue since we did not move the projects as far along as expected.
The added labor and material costs, including the use of higher cost contract laborers required us to record increased reserves.
The sum of all these items impacted both revenue and gross margin.
The impact of the cost increases and required fully burdened contract costs in the quarter were $2 million.
In addition, the delayed revenue was approximately $6 million, and the delayed operating profit is approximately $750,000.
Furthermore, to get back on schedule with the Navy projects, we reallocated our commercial labor to Navy work, which resulted in increases in cost estimates for those jobs, which have now been outsourced.
All of the above items contributed to an adjusted EBITDA of negative $2.6 million in the quarter and an adjusted net loss of $0.27 per share.
On the positive front, with the addition of Barber-Nichols, we had 58% of our sales to the defense industry, as well as 5% or $1.5 million to the space industry.
If we can move on to Slide 7.
The impact of the third quarter results on top of a challenging first half of the year have yielded an unacceptable loss even as sales increased 16% or $11.3 million to $83.1 million.
There is a bright light within the results, and this has been the contributions of Barber-Nichols, which we acquired on June 1.
In the seven months since the acquisition, BN has contributed $31.9 million in sales, offsetting significant declines in refining and petrochemical markets.
In fact, our diversification into defense, which is less cyclical than our commercial business, has resulted in 52% of our year-to-date revenue coming from that industry.
The shortfall in commercial sales in the first nine months of the fiscal year reflects the very low order levels, which we saw in the second half of fiscal 2021.
The two Navy projects in our Batavia operations will continue to convert over the next three quarters, and we expect this to be behind us by mid fiscal 2023.
As of December 31, we recorded all known expected costs on these large projects.
We are also implementing expanded processes within our project management group to better review all of Batavia's major projects.
The year-to-date impact of increased cost on these two jobs is approximately $4.5 million.
In addition, the delayed revenue was approximately $12 million and the delayed operating profit is an additional $1.5 million.
These latter amounts will be recognized over the next three quarters as the jobs are completed.
We've had to outsource more commercial work and have also had cost challenges on a couple of projects.
This, too, has impacted financial results.
The increased cost of outsourcing and higher costs has impacted the commercial business by $3 million.
All of the above items contributed to an adjusted EBITDA of negative $5.4 million year-to-date, and a year-to-date net loss of $0.70 a share and an adjusted loss of $0.60 per share.
Barber-Nichols again, is a strong positive in the first three quarters.
In the seven months since the acquisition, BN sales are on track at $31.9 million, and EBITDA margins are well ahead of expectations.
I have noted in previous calls, that we were expecting $45 million to $48 million in sales and low double-digit EBITDA margins.
The sales number is on target, and we are now seeing mid-teen EBITDA.
In fact, through seven months since the acquisition, BN has achieved our targeted EBITDA for the full fiscal year.
So its Q4 EBITDA will represent overachievement compared with our expectation.
Moving on to Slide 8.
And given the weak financial performance in the first three quarters, we have failed to meet our debt covenant related to debt-to-EBITDA and fixed cost charges.
This miss was due to the EBITDA loss.
We were given a waiver by our lender for Q3 and are proactively in negotiations to amend our existing bank agreement.
Because of the covenant misses, it was necessary to suspend our dividend.
And as part of the waiver agreement, we have agreed not to utilize more than $15 million of our revolver.
I want to be clear that the issues we are seeing are P&L profit issues and not liquidity issues.
We have sufficient liquidity from cash we are generating from operations to work through our challenges.
In fact, in January alone, lowered our revolver debt from $9.75 million to $6 million.
We expect to lower it further between now and the end of March.
Conversations with our lender have been very positive.
I've been pleased with the bank's willingness to understand the details and not overreact to the numbers.
They understand the near-term challenges are primarily related to profitability and delayed revenue.
While there are certainly some significant cost -- cash cost increases, the costs booked in Q3 and the elongation of project revenue and profit recognition into future quarters have doubled down the impact on our year-to-date P&L.
The bank and I both expect the lending amendment to be completed by the end of Q4.
Onto Slide 9, some very good news on the order front.
As Dan noted, orders in Q3 were $68 million.
Just over half of this came from Barber-Nichols, which most of their orders coming from key defense projects.
They also continue to bring in a nice level and variety of space orders.
On the commercial side, Graham manufacturing saw another strong quarter of aftermarket and short-cycle orders.
Those are promising since historically, an increase in those areas has often been a precursor to a recovery in capital investment by our customers.
We also booked a significant refinery order in China.
Our backlog at the end of Q3 is a record $272.6 million, with both Barber-Nichols and the legacy Graham business having a nice step-up in their respective backlogs during the quarter.
Defense represents 77% of total backlog.
This defense backlog extends over the next 6 years, though much of it converts in the next three to four years.
Additionally, we are seeing growth in our commercial backlog.
The commercial backlog was quite low entering the fiscal year.
It has grown from $33 million at the end of March to $63 million now.
About one-fourth of that increase occurred when we added BN, the rest was due to orders received in the first nine months of the year.
Another positive feature of the commercial backlog and its growth is that it has a much shorter conversion cycle than the defense backlog generally 12 to 18 months.
We've had a rough fiscal 2022, but the future looks far better.
Moving on to Slide 10.
We have lowered our guidance for fiscal 2022.
Our revenue guidance is now $120 million to $125 million, which implies $37 million to $42 million in Q4.
We expect a breakeven adjusted EBITDA in Q4.
While this is below our prior expectations, it's far better than Q3 results, and we believe we have turned the corner on many of the challenges we have faced this fiscal year.
I will now pass the call back to Dan to talk about our strategy going forward.
We are now on Slide 11.
At a high level, we have been talking about a strategic pivot toward defense for many years, and we have been making good progress.
The long-term visibility of strategic naval programs provide stability and an ability to invest intelligently in our business, and it offsets the cyclicality and challenges of our refining and petrochemical markets.
The acquisition of Barber-Nichols strengthened the strategy and brought additional market experience to our company.
As with any new venture, we have had some lessons learned and opportunities to further strengthen our strategy.
I'd now like to give you some insight on how our strategy is evolving going forward.
Let's turn to Page 12.
Graham Corporation is a related group of mission-critical engineered product companies that win on superior quality, performance and customer trust.
Our corporate role is to strengthen our member companies with best practices, leader rotation and board expertise while providing value-enhancing services and core in any collaboration to win large programs.
In fact, we are filling out critical leadership positions in upgrading talent for what the future of Graham Corporation requires.
Our board took on this requirement themselves last year after the BN acquisition, and they began a search for director candidates with strong defense experience.
Our Batavia operations, which we are referring to as Graham manufacturing, will continue to serve the Navy refining and petrochem markets with high-quality, highly engineered heat transfer and vacuum systems.
It is expanding into new energy and we'll now put more focus on aftermarket opportunities to be a life cycle partner with our customers.
Internally, we are restructuring for significant Navy growth and we'll be leveraging our large installed base for growth capital.
Our strengths will help us realize our goals.
In Batavia, we want to realize strong margin in all of our markets, improve our operational effectiveness and develop capabilities to provide more value to our customers.
We need to establish roles and responsibilities to align with the structure designed to be responsive analytical and forward thinking.
And we need to create an organization that is accountable and that can diagnose problems, evaluate alternatives, improve, develop, reshape and quickly redirect as required.
Importantly, we need to make sure our people are provided the tools, materials and information they need to do their jobs well.
Barber-Nichols continues on its path of intelligent full life cycle turbomachinery systems in identified high-growth potential markets.
BN has structured people, technology and customer relationships mostly in place.
They are moving to the next level in teams, processes and improvement to optimize business performance, while working even closer with customers developing new product to ensure year-over-year growth.
Our future opportunities will be the result of proper execution of our plans that will get us beyond these short-term issues.
We believe this is the inflection point.
We have no doubt hit bottom.
So I am confident we can go up from here.
I realize that we have to prove to you that we can drive earnings and generate cash.
As Jeff noted, we already have in the first month of 2022 -- in the first month of 2022, I'm sorry.
As we look to our future, we see the BN acquisition as a model that we will look to repeat.
There were several novel approaches utilized that we believe can entice the best and the brightest, small independent companies to join us.
We are an organization in the midst of dynamic change.
We serve great markets.
We have the confidence of the customer.
We have the orders and the backlog to prove it.
We have been challenged on execution, but have identified the issues and put corrective actions in place.
We have a plan for growth.
We believe we have a strong business model with excellent earnings, power and cash generation.
While we have several quarters of work to get these projects out the door, we are on the upward trend of the curve.
And then Jeff and I will answer questions from the audience.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
compname reports q3 loss per share $0.35.
q3 loss per share $0.35.
sees q4 revenue $37 million to $42 million.
qtrly revenue of $28.8 million, up 6% over prior-year period.