Matrix Service Company (NASDAQ:MTRX) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Kevin Cavanah : So I do believe that our balance sheet position is going to improve as we move through the rest of the year. I think that’s going to come from a couple of places. Number one is the improved financial results, just producing positive earnings is going to produce positive cash. Secondly, if you look at the mix of work we’re going to do, Certainly, there’ll be increases in repair and maintenance work that’s reimbursable that we’ll have to fund, but I think that will be more than offset by just the timing of cash flows on the capital projects. So I think that we’ll be able to build cash. And I think our initial focus on the use of that cash is going to be more internal making sure that we’ve got the right equipment needed for us to support that business.

And as we’ve said before, we’ve been focused on really returning the company to profitability before we get too aggressive on either any other actions such as M&A, stock buyback, dividend, entity of that stuff. So those will be things we consider in the future, but focus this year is really about rebuilding the company’s profitability, getting back to the financial targets that we’ve set.

Operator: Our next question comes from John Franzreb with Sidoti.

John Franzreb : John, congratulations on another great bookings quarter. I want to start right there. You mentioned in your prepared remarks that you’ve relocated — reallocated resources from procurement to execution, does that kind of suggest that we should think that the incoming booking profile will be a little bit more muted in the next quarter or two as you move to execution, especially in light of the fact that you also mentioned there are some large projects out there you think that are certainly near-term opportunities?

John Hewitt: I don’t think, we have not taken our foot off the gas pedal as it relates to continuing to book projects and awards. These things have a tendency to come in, in like waves on the ocean. And we’ve certainly had a strong wave here in the past couple of quarters. And we’ve seen it coming, right? So we appreciate the timing of when our clients are going to be making decisions on some of these larger projects. And so we’re not taking our foot off the gas pedal, right? We’re continuing to pursue projects, to build backlog. We’re looking out into the future. How we’re going to continue to take a bigger share of that market related to our storage, brand position in that market. And but to effectively chase some of that work, we do engage our project teams and to — not only to help plan and create the estimates and the budgets for that work, but also to talk to our clients, our potential client, about the projects about how we’re going to execute it.

Very important for us to put our project and field management in front of our clients. But yes, they will — they are starting to transition over into the execution phases we continue to have proposal specific people that that’s what they do for the organization. And so that doesn’t change. And so they will combine with our business development teams are continuing to pursue projects to build backlog out in the future.

John Franzreb : And clearly, the under-absorption issue has been a problem for some time. Kevin certainly said that the second half of the year is where we’ll probably migrate to a much better situation. It seems to me that’s largely going to be led by storage and to a lesser extent, the utility business, but the process will be lagging a bit. Can you kind of review the outlook on the process side, when do you expect that business maybe to turn the corner? I know the expectation is for it to be down this year, but what’s the depth and duration of that?