Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:APOG) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

But as Matt said, even if there’s continued revenue pressure on that business, that extends into our fiscal ’25 for some part of fiscal ’25, we still feel really good about the operating levers we have to pull still on margin from a productivity and a cost of goods sold. And then as you highlighted, we have part of that business while it has been coming down as a percent of our revenues, the larger project supply side of that business, it remains margin challenged. So that’s an area that we also have some levers to kind of further accelerate the higher margin parts of that business and deal with our costs and some of the margin challenges on the project side of that business.

Julio Romero: Got it. That’s very helpful there. Maybe turning to the Services segment. You obviously saw some strong orders there in the book-to-bill above 2x. What kind of level of inquiries are you seeing today within the segment? And then secondly, I think, Matt, you addressed this in your prepared remarks, but there’s a lumpy nature to orders within that segment. I guess, we shouldn’t expect that type of level of orders in the fourth quarter. And if that’s so, how should we kind of think about underlying demand for the segment?

Ty Silberhorn: Yes. I mean, Julio, I would say just because of the questions on the market, when we look at research firms forecasting calendar ’24 non-res construction, there’s a little bit wider spread than what we have seen in the last few years. So we’re seeing anywhere from minus 1%, minus 2% to plus 5%. So that still says that there’s some cloudiness there. And I think until people really get grounded on interest rates, not only — I think everyone feels the ceilings there. But until they see that first rate cut, I think it’s going to still cause some delays in project awards so that the developers, contractors feel more confident about locking in their cost structure for that project. So I think we’ll still see some lumpiness.

So I wouldn’t assume that Q4 is going to look like Q3 in terms of awards and net booking numbers in relation to that. But like I said before, we are seeing a little bit of a flight to quality. So we have seen some nice projects come into our Services segment for bids and quotes. So that continues to be a positive sign.

MattOsberg : And the only thing I would add, Julio, is really encouraging to see the diversity of project wins that we had in the quarter. So I think that reinforces that if people are looking for quality and we can provide that as we have in the past and to have a more diverse set of project wins come in, that’s encouraging to me.

Julio Romero: Got it. That’s helpful. If I could just ask one more here is just on — the cash flow was really impressive here in the quarter, just how much more runway do you have for working capital improvement? And do you foresee working capital being neutral in fiscal ’25?

MattOsberg : Yes. Great question, Julio. So if you recall back in fiscal ’23, I think what’s — there’s a couple of things benefiting us. One is, we’re doing some good things in fiscal ’24 and strong earnings growth helps that cash flow. The second, just from a comparability perspective, fiscal ’23, I think are — just some of the nature of what happened in the marketplace that year, our working cash flow — working capital went backwards a little bit. So I think you’re seeing a really strong recovery on a year-over-year basis compared to ’23 because of just some abnormal bad guys that happened in ’23. So if you’re thinking about year-over-year improvement, I think there’s — I wouldn’t assume we’re going to do that same type of improvement as I look ahead to fiscal ’25.

If you’re thinking about just sustaining and being able to kind of deliver at relatively high levels of cash flow, I think there’s a good possibility of us doing that. I think we’ve got some opportunity in working capital. But I think being able to sustain where we are at this high of a level is also a good outcome from a cash flow. But we’ll get into more of that as we get through our budget cycle and look into fiscal ’25.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Brent Thielman with D.A. Davidson.

Brent Thielman: Congrats on a great quarter. Really just one for me, lot has been answered here. But Ty, your balance sheet is in great shape. You’re throwing off a lot of cash. You’re obviously focused on growth prospects, organic and potentially inorganic. I guess, my question is, as you’re starting to look at those opportunities out there, is it all entirely within the non-residential market? Are you intrigued by some other opportunities because you’ve got this great LSO business producing great margins? And assuming there’s some good things there, I’d just be curious where we see this go?