Q4 2022 Willdan Group Inc Earnings Call

March 9, 2023

Speaker 1: I.

Speaker 1: I F very.

Speaker 2: Greetings and welcome to the Well Done Group fourth quarter and full year 2022 Financial Results Conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad.

Speaker 2: It is now my pleasure to introduce your host. I'll catch off of investor relations. Please proceed.

Speaker 3: Thank you, Latonya. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Wildand Group's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 earnings call. Joining our call today are Tom Brizden, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Kim Early, Chief Financial Officer, and Mike Bieber, President.326

Speaker 3: The call today builds on our earnings release we issued after the market closed today. You may find the earnings release and the will then investor report that accompanies today's call in the press release and stock information section.

Speaker 3: of our investor relations website found at ir.worldend.com.

Speaker 3: Management will review prepared remarks and we will then open the call up to your questions.

Speaker 3: Stay tuned to the course of today's conference call, including answers to your questions.

Speaker 3: which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Legation Reform Act of 1995.

Speaker 3: The forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties and it is important to note that the company's future results could materially differ from those in any such forward-looking statements.

Speaker 3: Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially and other risk factors are listed from time to time. In the company's SEC reports

Speaker 3: including but that limited to the annual report on Form 10-K filed for the year end of December 31, 2021.

Speaker 3: Company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the board-looking statements made during the course of this conference call. Will then disclaim any obligation and does not undertake to update or revise any board-looking statements made today. In addition to GAAP results, we will then also provide non-GAAP financial measures.

Speaker 3: that we believe enhance investors' ability to analyze the business trends and performance. Our non-GAAP measures include net revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EPS. I'm now trying to call over to Tom Brisbane, Williams Chairman and CEO .

Speaker 4: Thanks Al, and good afternoon everyone.

Speaker 4: We believe 2022 was the end of the negative headwind associated with COVID and the start-up of the California IOU programs.

Speaker 4: As stated previously, we expected the second half of 2022 to show an upward trend and it did. The results reported for the fourth quarter were net revenue up 25%, profit up 52%, organic growth up 25%.

Speaker 4: We have begun our trend back to a growth company that we were before COVID.

Speaker 4: Let's first talk about why we are optimistic about 2023.

Speaker 4: For the first time since the 1970s, the U.S. federal government has passed legislation in energy to inject nearly $370 billion in the form of tax credits and loans.

Speaker 4: to facilitate a faster clean energy transition via the Inflation Reduction Act.

Speaker 4: This will result in trillions of dollars of new clean energy investments over the next decade and will have a direct and longer lasting impact on our fundamental lines of business.

Speaker 4: The beginning of this funding is supposed to hit the streets sometime this quarter.

Speaker 4: To take full advantage of federal incentives, we are already consulting with utilities and cities on using these federal programs and are pivoting our utility programs to be able to stack federal and utility incentives together to make them more efficient.

Speaker 4: more successful. Every state and utility are trying to maximize the amount of federal incentives for their customers.

Speaker 4: We have a successful engineering and financial services practice focused on cities.

Speaker 4: We are seeing a rapid growth in the number of cities that are also focused on maximizing their IRA benefits.

Speaker 4: We have a unique opportunity to bring our energy and infrastructure lines of business.

Speaker 4: to benefit these customers. This natural synergy between our lines of business is all incremental to our base case forecast.

Speaker 4: We are fortunate that we have been positioning.

Speaker 4: for this clean energy economy transition for several years and it appears that we are going in the right direction. There was an article about Will Dann in Sinking Alpha a few days ago and I thought the author was very accurate in his analysis.

Speaker 4: We did take these setbacks in 2020. In the beginning it was difficult to try to.

Speaker 4: 21 and 22 and a stock loss greater than 50% of its market cap.

Speaker 4: With the momentum from the fourth quarter and our backlog, the next three years look very exciting for Will now.

Speaker 4: Let me give you a few examples of how we are positioned for this transition. The following examples should demonstrate geography, capability, and experience.

Speaker 4: Our E3 business headquartered in San Francisco continues to grow at 20% plus.

Speaker 4: They provide high-end energy consulting to the entire country, helping develop the framework for the clean energy transition.

Speaker 4: They have been and will continue to be Willland's light in the future on where we move to the continued growth of Willland.

Speaker 4: Our energy business in the West.

Speaker 4: is significant because it is primarily in California, which is aggressive on clean energy.

Speaker 4: For example, we have held the contract with LADWP for 11 years and 3 recompetes.

Speaker 4: serving the largest municipal utility in the nation is an excellent credential.

Speaker 4: We also serve the four California IOUs in their quest to save energy and their transition to electrification.

Speaker 4: Specifically, we have amended the contract to allow us to continue with Southern California Edison.

Speaker 4: We had mutually downsized the contracts by 65% or about 100 million per year to reduce the risk for both of us.

Speaker 4: Through this amendment process, we have found a solution to the excessive ramp up costs.

Speaker 4: It is fair to say that FDE's approach to contracting was not anticipated by Wil

Speaker 4: We did not know about their significant adjudicatory matter.

Speaker 4: that they were dealing with in their energy efficiency programs.

Speaker 4: That matter, which we were not a part of, has been settled and we together with FCE are working on how to proceed with these programs going forward.

Speaker 4: We believe that new management at FTE's Energy Efficiency Group has the desire to save electricity and look to new ways to reduce carbon.

Speaker 4: The California IOU contracts are now expected to be positive contributors rather than negative dregs.

With Pacific Gas and Electric, we are working on all new construction for the state and the public sector, EE and electrification, energy efficiency I should say, and electrification in their territory. For San Diego Gas and Electric.

We were recently awarded an additional $11.6 million one-year contract to support small businesses statewide that are recovering from COVID. This is a customer service program where KWH delivery is not required. It is a professional services contract.

Our East Coast Energy Operations, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts.

The Carolinas are all well positioned for the next 3 to 5 years. For the first time ever in New York, most of the revenue is based on electrification measures, not energy efficiency.

Lighting energy efficiency is now only 20-25% of revenue, down from 100% five years ago.

During the 2020 to 2022 tough times,

We did a lot of right sizing and positioning.

Industrial EE, energy efficiency, is positioned to be profitable going forward with private wind Transformation arrests.

Argo Energy Engineering Room.

Our New York Energy Engineering wants significant work in 2022.

With this group, we expect 50% organic growth in 2023. We have the work with the dormitory authority of the State of New York, the New York City Housing Authority, the New York Power Authority, and more. They have an excellent backlog and a plan for execution.

Again, they are electrifying NYCHA housing as a way to decarbonize the grid and provide better living for the residents. Our performance engineering is back on track for 23 and has some exciting news that we can share in the near future.

In addition, we have won five performance engineering contracts in California based on our relationships with the city formed by our civil engineering group.

Our software business also came out of 2022 with a clear picture for 23. Their pipeline looks good and they will have news to share in the near future also.

Our software business also came out in 2022 with a clear picture for 23. Their pipeline looks good, and they will have news to share in the near future also. How do we move that?

Our engineering and financial services for cities was Will Vans Rock.

for 2022 just like E3. They grew, they were profitable, and we expect the same in 2023.

We expect these city relationships to really help us with the clean energy transition and future investments by the government.

Cities are an important customer for us and we have a 60 year long relationship in California. We are seeing energy as one more professional service that municipal governments will be buying.

In summary, 2022 is behind us. We have solved the major issues and look forward to 23.

We're off to a good start based on the first two months of this year.

I want to thank our employees for really doing a great job through some tough times.

well then has become more resilient again. I would also like to thank our shareholders for understanding and patience.

I will now turn the call over to Kim who will provide additional details on our financial results and outlook.

Thanks Tom and good afternoon everyone. Our Q4 performance reflected increasing momentum of gross revenue up by 23% and net revenue up 25% over the prior year. The numbers were driven by a surge in revenue under our California IOU programs as well as higher T&M revenues from energy planning.

reflecting the change in the mix of remnants.

While revenues and gross profits were at more than 20%, G&A expenses grew at a significantly lower rate than revenue. Lower stock-based compensation partially offset higher wages and salaries, while interest expense increased to $2.1 million for the quarter on the higher borrowing and higher average interest rates.

Our reported pre-tax income for Q4 was $2.2 million, up 350% from $400,000 to $80,000 a year ago.

The net loss of $425,000 in 2022 compared to a net loss of $890,000 for Q4 of 2021.

Adjusted EBITDA was up 25% to $11.8 million for the quarter. Adjusted earnings per share was 36 cents compared to 47 in Q4 of 2021 due to the lower tax benefit and a higher bill-to-bid share count.

For the full year, gross revenue increased 21% and net revenue increased 12%.

The significant increase in construction management activities was the primary factor behind the higher gross revenue and the differential in gross and net revenue growth rates. Such activities have a higher percentage of subcontracted services and material content which lead to a much smaller net revenue increase.

2022 also reflects higher revenues from engineering and consulting, partially offset by lower software licensing and direct and solo revenues.

Gross profits in 2022 increased 6% to $143.6 million for the year, with gross margins decreasing to 33.5% from 38.4% in 2021, primarily due to the greater mix of construction management and business.

along with lower software licensing revenue and the ramp-up costs under the California IOU programs.

G&A costs increased a modest 4% year over year, again with lower stock compensation partially offsetting higher salaries and wages and higher computer related expenses.

Facility expenses have been reduced by 14% since the pandemic, or 21% on a per capita basis.

Interest expense increased $1.4 million to $5.3 million per year due to increased borrowing in higher average interest rates.

While the pre-tax loss was reduced year over year by $952,000, even lower tax benefits resulted in the reported net loss for fiscal 22 of $8.4 million flat when compared to fiscal 2021. transparent Democrats took stock.

2022 suggested EBITDA was $23.3 million compared to $27.5 million a year ago.

Adjusted earnings per share was 88 cents in fiscal 22 compared to $1.55 in 2021.

Higher working capital levels resulting from the fourth quarter 2022 surge in California IOU revenue will be converted to cash in the course of the first half of 2023 with a significant amount of this cash already receiving Q1.

Our unrestricted cash balance was $8.8 million at the end of 2022, down $2.4 million from a year ago, with nothing outstanding under our line of credit.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2023, we're expecting net revenue growth between 7 and 9 percent.

We estimate our full year effective tax rate will be approximately 27% and that the weighted average shares outstanding will be 13.7 million.

Adjusted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $1.24 to $1.32 and adjusted to $1.25 to $1.25 in the range of $35 to $39 million.

Consistent with the historic nature of our business and the calibrated earnings model, we expect the year to start with a seasonably lower Q1 and to peak in the third quarter as we continue to ramp up our utility programs and we expand construction management activities to coincide with school closings and warmer weather.

The increased earnings and cash flow are expected to reduce our overall debt leverage below two times the adjusted EBITDA level, assuming no acquisitions during the year.

Operator, we're now prepared to accept questions.

Thank you. We will now conduct a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue.

For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Once again, that's star 1 at this time. One moment while we poll for our first question.

Our first question comes from Craig Irwin with Roth. Please proceed. Please proceed.

Good afternoon, it's Andrew on for Craig and thank you for taking my questions. Just a quick one for me, you guys alluded to it in your comments. Just provide some more details on the Integral Analytics backlog. I know you guys have been optimistic of a few contracts being inked in the near future, but

I understand it's a long sales cycle, so any additional caller there would be great.

Sure Andrew, this is Mike. We did not ink any of those deals in Q4, so the results were absent of new major software contracts.

the pipeline of opportunities has never looked better. We submitted a number of proposals and are in a number of discussions with customers right now and we're optimistic that we're going to have a very good first half of this year.

opportunities has never looked better. We submitted a number of proposals and are in a number of discussions with customers right now and we're optimistic that we're going to have a very good first half of this year.

Our next question comes from... You have fierce form.

Our next question comes from Chip Moore with EF Hutton. Please proceed.

Hey, good evening, everybody. Thanks for taking the question.

Some lot of great insight on some of the positive momentum you're seeing there and prepared remarks. Uh, thinking about guidance, maybe you can talk about visibility there. You touched on about sort of the progression moving through the year, but particularly as it relates to. California programs, and particularly the. Uh,

Get a little bit more specific on what you want to know about ST's amendment.

Well, any more detail you can provide on it, but really what I was trying to get at was just around visibility on the guidance and...

conservatism, potential for upside. And you talked about the IA pipeline, I guess, for instance, you know, what are you thinking in on software deals, for example?

Yeah, Chip, this is Mike.

We have almost all of the work that we expect to contribute in 2023 either under contract or in firm backlog.

It looks very good from that perspective. In addition, we continue to submit new proposals and see a number of new opportunities.

which might provide us upside if we're successful in winning those and starting to execute in the year. So from that perspective it looks very good coming into 2023. And we're carrying Q4's momentum into, as Tom mentioned, we've already seen it in the first couple months of this year.

From that perspective it looks good.

that looks good. We have been we've tried to...............

factor down significantly any contribution from software in the year. We have, I won't say that we have completely factored it out, but we've been very conservative with our estimates on new software licenses.

to contribute to guidance. Having said that, the pipeline looks very strong for IA and we're optimistic that even the first half of this year looks very good. That's a very helpful color. Appreciate it, Mike.

And then I guess my other question is more on the civil engineering side. It's been I think like you said you rock very resilient curious there I guess two questions first, you know any concerns on the broader macro environment and it seems like more you're seeing more opportunity related to energy transition and I

Yes.

We have not seen the effect of whether or not we're in a recession or a recession is coming yet.

We ask ourselves every day, what will 23 be?

As I said, we haven't seen it yet. To offset it though, we are thinking just like you said.

that this energy intersection at the cities of the IRA mine and our lines of business like what E3 does may, if we do see a recession, be able to see the

effect on our civil engineering business may be offset by the ramp up in energy. That's what we're talking amongst ourselves.

That's about all I can tell you. I mean it's an unknown at this point.

No, that's fair.

counterintuitive, they had a very strong Q4 and are entering...............

the first couple of months better than ever. So.

It has not translated into any slowdown at all right now.

That's helpful. And maybe I should sneak one last one in. I think back to as it relates to IRA and some of the tailwinds, I think you mentioned the growth you're seeing at E3 and how they're sort of your leading indicator on future direction. Just maybe expand on that and maybe where some of that direction might be.

Well...

Clean energy, economy, transition, grid modification, or whatever you want to call it, climate change.

E3 is the leading, let's call it...

technical consulting firm probably in the nation. I mean, they are the ones that the states call, the utilities call.

Where is the world going? How do I get there?

going, how do I get there? And they are

betting a lot on this electrification.

We know we've got to reduce our goal to read energy efficiency.

We have to electrify.

They see this money as being enough.

is you stack it on the utility incentives and federal money, enough to get the market to move to a clean energy economy. Now that is a 10 year deal.

and where do we fit into that and how do we capture that is what we're working on. We like where we are. We like working for the utilities, the private sector, the cities, and we have probably a deep understanding of where this transition is going because of what E3 does. I call it the practice read.

we've been doing for the last six, seven, eight years.

It's really gotten us a lot smarter. We understand the customers, what they need, and there's a lot of confusion in the market with it being.

I mean, they get called on by vendors selling them something every minute.

on how to get better, cheaper, faster, less carbon.

We're ready for it. I want to say completely ready.

But we're in pretty good shape. Yeah, no, pretty unique set of assets. Okay, I'll hop in. Thanks very much.

We're in pretty good shape. So. Yeah, no, pretty unique set of assets. Okay, I'll hop in. Thanks very much. Alright.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Mark Riddick with Sdodi. Please proceed.

Thank you. Good evening. So I was wondering if you could touch a little bit about the what we should be thinking about sort of how the the amendment would you know is there sort of any lumpiness into sort of where those changes would appear.

throughout the year as well as then as a follow-up. I know that there had been the hiring ramp up going into everything through the year, which is most of which was done early in 2022. Should we be thinking about anything different as far as any headcount changes that may come from that or?

or are you kind of where you need to be with the human capital there. Thank you.

Mark, the amendment has been signed, it's finalized with FCE and there should be no lumpiness associated with it actually. Just the opposite, it should remove the lumpiness out of those contracts. So a pretty steady, slow ramp throughout the year on the California IOU work.

Likewise, on hiring across the company, pretty slow, steady hiring throughout the year, not any major obstacle that we have to face in 2023.

Okay, great. And then as far as the timeframe as to maybe what you might be seeing as far as a pickup in some of the potential pipeline from the funding environment on state and local government levels.

that you may provide. Thank you.

On state and local what we've actually seen is a lot of energy efficiency work for state and local governments.

We do that work in our performance engineering group and they're entering this year with record backlog and a lot of momentum with cities that are trying to invest in upgraded infrastructure and energy efficiency.

The IRA money we think will be a future catalyst to that group of customers, but we haven't actually received a contract that is funded by IRA money. That is future growth opportunity for us right now. We have a number of discussions with customers trying to figure out how to access that money.

and best put it to use. But that is not what we're currently seeing right now. It's a future opportunity for us in 2023. And then one last thing for me. I was sort of curious as to whether or not, and this may be a little squishy, so forgive me, but I was sort of curious as to whether or not you've seen any weather impacts on the business.

Some of our people who go skiing a lot can't get into the resorts, but...

No, there's been no impact from weather.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. At this time I would like to turn the call back to Tom Brisbane for closing comments.

I'd just like to thank everybody for tuning in and we expect good results in the first quarter and we'll see you in about 90 days.

Thank you. Thanks a lot everyone. Thanks a lot everyone.

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a great day.

That.

I I have.

At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.

A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host. Our cash off of investor relations. Please proceed.

Thank you, Latonya. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Wildand Group's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 earnings call. Joining our call today are Tom Grisman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Kim Early, Chief Financial Officer, and Mike Bieber, President. The call today builds on our earnings release we issued after the market closed today.

You may find the earnings release and the will then investor report that accompanies today's call in the press release and stock information section.

of our investor relations website found at ir.willedin.com. Management will review prepared remarks and we will then open the call up to your questions. Statements made in the course of today's conference call, including answers to your questions.

which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Legation Reform Act of 1995.

The forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties and it is important to note that the company's future results could materially differ from those in any such forward-looking statements.

Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially and other risk factors are listed from time to time. In the company's SEC reports,

including but not limited to the annual report on Form 10-K filed for the year end of December 31, 2021. The company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the board-looking statements made during the course of this conference call. We'll then disclaim any obligation and does not undertake any legal action.

to update or revise any important statements made today. In addition to GAAP results, we'll then also provide non-GAAP financial measures that we believe enhance investors' ability to analyze the business trends and performance.

Our non-GAAP measures include net revenue,

adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS. I'll now turn the call over to Tom Brizman, US Chairman of the CDO.

Thanks Al and good afternoon everyone. We believe 2022 was the end of the negative headwinds associated with COVID and the start-up of the California IOU program.

As stated previously, we expected the second half of 2022 to show an upward trend and it did. The results reported for the fourth quarter were net revenue up 25%, profit up 52%, organic growth up 25%. We have begun our trend back to a growth company.

that we were before COVID.

Let's first talk about why we are optimistic about 2023. For the first time since the 1970s, the U.S. federal government has passed legislation in energy to inject nearly $370 billion in the form of tax credits and loans to the federal government.

to facilitate a faster clean energy transition via the Inflation Reduction Act.

This will result in trillions of dollars of new clean energy investments over the next decade and will have a direct and longer lasting impact on our fundamental lines of business. The beginning of this funding is supposed to hit the streets sometime this quarter.

To take full advantage of federal incentives, we are already consulting with utilities and cities on using these federal programs and are pivoting our utility programs to be able to stack federal and utility incentives together to make them more efficient.

full advantage of federal incentives, we are already consulting with utilities and cities on using these federal programs and pivoting our utility programs to be able to stack federal and utility incentives together to make them more successful.

Every state and utility are trying to maximize the amount of federal incentives for their customers. We have a successful engineering and financial services practice focused on cities. We are seeing a rapid growth in the number of cities that are also focused on maximizing their IRA benefits.

We have a unique opportunity to bring our energy and infrastructure lines of business to benefit these customers. This natural synergy between our lines of business is all incremental to our base case forecast.

We are fortunate that we have been positioning for this clean energy economy transition for several years and it appears that we are going in the right direction. There was an article about Will Dannon seeking alpha a few days ago and I thought the author was very accurate in his analysis. We did take these setbacks in 2020.

21 and 22 and a stock loss greater than 60% of its market cap.

With the momentum from the fourth quarter and our backlog, the next three years look very exciting for Will now.

Let me give you a few examples of how we are positioned for this transition. The following examples should demonstrate geography, capabilities, and experience. Our E3 business headquartered in San Francisco continues to grow at 20% plus. They provide high-end energy consulting.

and the entire country helping develop the framework for the clean energy transition. They have been and will continue to be Willand's light in the future on where we move to the continued growth of Willand.

Our energy business in the West is significant because it is primarily in California, which is aggressive on clean energy.

For example, we have held the contract with LADWP for 11 years and 3 reconvenes.

Serving the largest municipal utility in the nation is an excellent credential. We also serve the four California IOUs in their quest to save energy and their transition to electrification.

Specifically, we have amended the contract to allow us to continue with Southern California Edison.

We had mutually downsized the contracts by 65% or about 100 million per year to reduce the risk for both of us.

Through this amendment process, we have found a solution to the excessive ramp up costs.

It is fair to say that FDE's approach to contracting was not anticipated by Wil

that they were dealing with in their energy efficiency programs. That matter, which we were not a part of, has been settled, and we together with FCE are working on how to proceed with these programs going forward.

We believe that new management at FTE's Energy Efficiency Group has the desire to save electricity and look to new ways to reduce carbon.

The California IOU contracts are now expected to be positive contributors rather than negative dregs.

With Pacific Gas and Electric, we are working on all new construction for the state and the public sector, e.e. electrification, energy efficiency I should say, and electrification in their territory. For San Diego Gas and Electric.

Our East Coast energy operations, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, the Carolinas are all well positioned for the next three to five years. For the first time ever in New York, most of the revenue is based on electrification measures, not energy efficiency.

Lighting energy efficiency is now only 20-25% of revenue, down from 100% five years ago.

During the 2020 to 2022 tough times, we did a lot of right-sizing and positioning.

Industrial EE, energy efficiency, is positioned to be profitable going forward with private contractor clients.

Our New York Energy Engineering won significant work in 2022.

With this group, we expect 50% organic growth in 2023. We have the work with the dormitory authority of the state of New York, the New York City Housing Authority, the New York Power Authority, and more. They have an excellent backlog and a plan for execution.

Again, they are electrifying NYCHA housing as a way to decarbonize the grid and provide better living for the residents.

Our performance engineering is back on track for 23 and has some exciting news that we can share in the near future. In addition, we have won five performance engineering contracts in California based on our relationships with the cities formed by our civil engineering group. Our software business also came out in 2022 with a clear picture.

for 23. Their pipeline looks good, and they will have news to share in the near future also.

Positive news, then. Our engineering and financial services for cities was Will Vans Rock.

for 2022 just like E3. They grew, they were profitable, and we expect the same in 2023. We expect these city relationships to really help us with the clean energy transition and future investments by the government.

Cities are an important customer for us and we have a 60 year long relationship in California. We are seeing energy as one more professional service that municipal governments will be buying. In summary, 2022 is behind us.

We have solved the major issues and look forward to 23. We're off to a good start based on the first two months of this year.

I want to thank our employees for really doing a great job through some tough times. Well then, has become more resilient again. I would also like to thank our shareholders for understanding and patience. I will now turn the call over to Kim who will provide additional details on our financial results and outlook. Thanks Tom and good afternoon everyone.

Our Q4 performance reflected increasing momentum of gross revenue up by 23% and net revenue up 25% over the prior year. The numbers were driven by a surge in revenue under our California IOU programs as well as higher T&M revenues from energy planning services and our engineering and consulting segment. Gross profit also increased 24% consistent with the revenue.

compensation partially offset higher wages and salaries while interest expense increased to $2.1 million for the quarter on the higher borrowing and higher average interest rates. Our reported pre-tax income for Q4 was $2.2 million, up 350% from $400,000 to $80,000 a year ago.

The net loss of $425,000 in 2022 compared to a net loss of $890,000 for Q4 of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was up 25% to $11.8 million for the quarter. Adjusted earnings per share was 36 cents.

compared to 47 in Q4 of 2021 due to the lower tax benefit and a higher diluted share count.

For the full year, gross revenue increased 21% and net revenue increased 12%.

in 2021, primarily due to the greater mix of construction management business along with lower software licensing revenue and the ramp up costs under the California IOU programs. Back in the

G&A costs increased a modest 4% year over year, again with lower stock compensation partially offsetting higher salaries and wages and higher computer related expenses. Facility expenses have been reduced by 14% since the pandemic or 21% on a per capita basis.

Interest expense increased $1.4 million to $5.3 million per year due to increased borrowing and higher average interest rates.

2022's adjusted EBITDA was $23.3 million compared to $27.5 million a year ago. The earnings per share was 88 cents in fiscal 2022 compared to $1.55 in 2021.

From a balance sheet perspective, the $20 million drawdown of our term loan facility in Q1 financed a corresponding increase in working capital over the course of the year to support the growth in revenue. Higher working capital levels resulting from the fourth quarter 2022 surge in California IOU revenue will be converted to cash in the course of the first half of 2023.

7 and 9 percent. We estimate our full year effective tax rate will be approximately 27 percent and that the weighted average shares outstanding will be 13.7 million.

Adjusted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $1.24 to $1.32 and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $35 to $39 million. Consistent with the historic nature of our business and the calibrated earnings model, we expect the year to start with a seasonably lower Q1.

and to peak in the third quarter as we continue to ramp up our utility programs and we expand construction management activities to coincide with school closings and warmer weather. The increased earnings and cash flow are expected to reduce our overall debt leverage below two times the adjusted EBITDA level assuming no acquisitions during the year.

Operator, we're now prepared to accept questions. Thank you. We will now conduct a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star-1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star-2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue.

Our first question comes from Craig Erwin with Roth. Please proceed. Good afternoon. It's Andrew. I'm from Craig. Thank you for taking my questions. Just a quick one for me. You guys alluded to it in your comments. Just provide some more details on the Integral Analytics Backlog. I know you guys have been.

optimistic of a few contracts being inked in the near future, but I understand it's a long sales cycle. So any additional color there would be great. Sure, Andrew. This is Mike. We did not ink any of those deals in Q4, so the results were absent of new major software contracts.

Our next question comes from Chip Moore with EF Hutton. Please proceed. Please proceed.

Hey, good evening everybody. Thanks for taking the question.

I guess it's my first. Hang on a second, Chip. We're trying to decide who should answer that question. Yeah. Okay.

with that, I guess it's my first. Hang on a second, Chip. We're trying to decide who should answer that question. Yeah. Take your time.

Get a little bit more specific on what you want to know about ST's amendment. Well, any more detail you can provide on it, but really what I was trying to get at was just the visibility on the guidance and conservatism, potential for upside. You talked about the IA pipeline, I guess.

For instance, what are you baking in on software deals, for example? Yeah, Chip, this is Mike. Hey Mike.

on software deals, for example. Yeah, this is Mike.

We have almost all of the work that we expect to contribute in 2023, either under contract or in firm backlog.

We have almost all of the work that we expect to contribute in 2023, either under contract or in firm backlog. It looks very good from that perspective.

In addition, we continue to submit new proposals and see a number of new opportunities which might provide us upside if we're successful in winning those and starting to execute in the year. So from that perspective it looks very good coming into 2023. And we're carrying Q4's momentum into, as Tom mentioned,

you know, that we've already seen it in the first couple months of this year. So, from that perspective it looks good. We have been, we've tried to...

to contribute to guidance. Having said that, the pipeline looks very strong for IA, and we're optimistic that even the first half of this year looks very good. That's a very helpful color. Appreciate it, Mike.

And then I guess my other question is more on the civil engineering side. It's been, I think like you said, you rock very resilient.

I'm curious there, I guess two questions. First, any concerns on the broader macro environment? It seems like you're seeing more opportunity related to energy transition and IRA funding. I'm also curious about...

what you're seeing there, sort of those synergies and any potential to maybe expand that business outside some of your traditional California markets, given those tailwinds over time. Yes. sulphur446.com

We have not seen the effect of whether or not we're in a recession or a recession is coming yet. We ask ourselves every day, what will 23 be? As I said, we haven't seen it yet. We have not seen it yet.

To offset it though, we are thinking just like you said that this energy intersection at the cities of the IRA mining and our lines of business like what E3 does may, if we do see a recession, be a

effect on our civil engineering business may be offset by the ramp up in energy. That's what we're talking amongst ourselves.

That's about all I can tell you. I mean, it's an unknown at this point. Yeah, no, that's fair.

I can tell you. I mean, it's an unknown at this point. Yep, no, that's fair.

counterintuitive, they had a very strong Q4 and are entering 2023, the first couple of months, better than ever. So it has not translated into any slow down at all right now.

That's helpful. And maybe I'll sneak one last one in. I think back to as it relates to IRA and some of the tailwinds, I think you mentioned the growth you're seeing at E3 and how they're sort of your leading indicator on future direction. Just maybe expand on that and maybe where some of that direction might be. I just feel like being in the market.

Well, this clean energy economy transition grid modification or whatever you want to call it, climate change.

E3 is the leading, let's call it, technical consulting firm probably in the nation. I mean, they are the ones that the states call, the utilities call. Where is the world going? How do I get there? E3 is the leading, let's call it, technical consulting firm probably in the nation.

and they are betting a lot on this electrification. We know we have to reduce our goal to read energy efficiency.

We have to electrify. They see this money...

We have to electrify. They see this money as being enough.

is you stack it on the utility incentives and federal money enough to get the market to move to a clean energy economy. Now that is a 10 year deal.

and where do we fit into that and how do we capture that is what we're working on. We like where we are. We like working for the utilities, the private sector, the cities. And we have probably a deep understanding of where this transition is going because of what E3 does.

I call it the practice we've been doing for the last 6, 7, 8 years. It's really gotten us a lot smarter. We understand the customers, what they need, and there's a lot of confusion in the market with it being.

I mean, they get called on by vendors selling them something every minute on how to get better, cheaper, faster, less carbon. So we're ready for it. I want to say completely ready.

But we're in pretty good shape. Yeah, no, pretty unique set of assets. Okay, I'll hop in. Thanks very much.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Mark Riddick with Sdodi. Please proceed.

I was wondering if you could touch a little bit about the what we should be thinking about sort of how the the amendment would is there sort of any lumpiness into sort of where those changes would appear.

throughout the year as well as then as a follow-up. I know that there had been the hiring ramp up going into everything through the year, which most of which was done early in 22. Should we be thinking about anything different as far as any headcount changes that may come from that or are you kind of where you need to be with the human capital there? Thank you.

Mark, the amendment has been signed, it's finalized with FCE and there should be no lumpiness associated with it actually. Just the opposite, it should remove the lumpiness out of those contracts.

So, a pretty steady, slow ramp throughout the year on the California IOU work. Likewise, on hiring across the company, pretty slow, steady hiring throughout the year, not any major obstacle that we have to face in 2023.

actually seen is a lot of energy efficiency work for state local governments. We do that work in our performance engineering group and they're entering this year with record backlog and a lot of momentum with cities that are trying to invest in upgraded infrastructure and energy efficiency. The IRA money we think will be a future catalyst.

and what we're currently seeing right now. It's a future opportunity for us in 2023. Great. And then one last thing for me. I was sort of curious as to whether or not, and this may be a little squishy, so forgive me, but I was sort of curious as to whether or not you've seen any weather impacts on the business. I know we've seen some historical.

weather challenges. I wasn't sure if there was anything that would have had any impact on maybe what you've seen at least through the, you know, at the end of last year and maybe through the beginning of this year with some of the some of the historical work depends that we've seen this year. Thanks. Some of our people who go skiing a lot can get into the resorts but...

No, we've been going back for weather.

Thank you very much. Thank you. At this time I would like to turn the call back to Tom Brisbane for closing comments.

I'd just like to thank everybody for tuning in and we expect good results in the first quarter and we'll see you in about 90 days.

Thank you, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a great day.

Q4 2022 Willdan Group Inc Earnings Call

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