Cactus Inc

NYSE:WHD

Earnings Call Analysis

Cactus Inc.'s Mixed Q3 Results and Q4 Outlook

In the third quarter, Cactus Inc. reported revenues of $288 million and adjusted EBITDA of $103 million, marking an 11% decrease from the prior quarter. EBITDA margins stood at 35.8%, down 190 basis points, influenced by a reduction in activity levels. Pressure Control revenues dropped 8.4% due to decreased customer activity, with margins falling by 250 basis points. Spoolable Technologies revenues were relatively stable, with only a slight 1.2% decline. The company celebrated having no bank debt after clearing the last $155 million from the FlexSteel acquisition. Q3 GAAP net income rose to $68 million, driven by lower inventory step-up expense and decreased amortization of purchase intangibles, while adjusted net income was $64 million or $0.80 per share. A stable quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share was maintained. For Q4, they anticipate Pressure Control revenue to dip slightly in low-single digits sequentially, expecting adjusted EBITDA margins between 30% to 32%. Furthermore, Spoolable Technologies is projected to see revenues between $90 to $95 million, a 10% to 15% drop from Q3.

Revenue Trends and Segment Performance

Total Q3 revenues came in at $288 million, with the company experiencing a mixed performance across its business segments. In the Pressure Control space, revenues dipped by 8.4% to $182 million due to decreasing customer activity, contributing to an operating income drop of 12.3% and margin contractions. Spoolable Technologies saw a slight sequential revenue decline of 1.2% to $105 million, explained by product mix variances. However, operating income significantly leaped by $45.8 million, primarily due to the favorable remeasurement of the FlexSteel acquisition's earnout liability and a reduced inventory step-up expense.

Profitability and Margins

Overall company profitability as measured by EBITDA showed a downturn, with adjusted EBITDA shrinking by 11% to $103 million. The culprit was a reduced operating leverage leading to a 190 basis points decrease in EBITDA margin compared to the previous quarter. The Pressure Control segment's margins notably suffered from lower activity levels, while Spoolable Technologies grappled with transient increases in product input costs affecting cost of sales.

Financial Health

The company prioritizes its balance sheet health, as evidenced by paying down the remaining $55 million of bank debt in the quarter. This discipline resulted in lower net interest expenses, contributing to an enhanced GAAP net income of $68 million, in comparison to $32 million in the previous quarter. Importantly, the company expects a stable depreciation and amortization expense and forecasts an effective tax rate of around 21% for Q4 2023.

Outlook and Guidance

For the upcoming quarter, the company anticipates Pressure Control revenues to dip slightly, projecting a low-single-digit sequential decline due to anticipated reductions in the average industry rig count. However, they expect stability in rental revenues. The Spoolable Technologies segment is estimated to see a revenue decrease of 10% to 15% due to declines in U.S. land activity and seasonal factors. Nonetheless, the company remains optimistic about cash flow generation and its future, with signs of increased activity levels from customers for 2024 and benefits from E&P customer consolidation.

Dividends and Shareholder Returns

The board approved a continuous quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, underscoring its commitment to shareholder value. Moreover, a share buyback program remains in effect. Management emphasizes a strategy that keeps dividends 'sacred', underscoring the healthy cash flow of the business, which signifies a strong commitment to shareholder returns.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q3

[Operator]

Welcome to the Cactus Inc. Quarter 3 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Alan Boyd, who is Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please stand by. Go ahead.

[Alan Boyd, executive]

Thank you, and good morning. We appreciate you joining us on today's call. Our speakers will be Scott Bender, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Tadlock, our Chief Financial Officer and CEO of FlexSteel. Also joining us today are Joel Bender, President; Steven Bender, Chief Operating Officer; and Will Marsh, our General Counsel. Please note that any comments we make on today's call regarding projections or expectations for future events are forward-looking statements covered by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to review our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements we make today are only as of today's date, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statements. In addition, during today's call, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings release. With that, I will turn the call over to Scott.

[Scott Bender, executive]

Thanks, Alan, and good morning to everyone. We were pleased with the company's execution in the third quarter and encouraged by October's preliminary results despite the declines in the U.S. land rig count during the period. As expected, pressure control revenues decreased quarter-over-quarter, while spoolable Technologies revenues remained relatively flat. Both segment sales outperformed the reduced activity levels, once again reflecting our value proposition. Some third quarter total company highlights include revenue of $288 million, adjusted EBITDA of $103 million, adjusted EBITDA margins of 35.8%, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share. And as previously announced, we are pleased to have no bank debt after repaying the last of the $155 million of debt raised to finance the FlexSteel acquisition earlier in the quarter. I'll now turn the call over to Steve Tadlock, our CFO and CEO of FlexSteel, who will review our financial results. Following his remarks, I'll provide some thoughts on our outlook for the near term before opening the lines for Q&A. Steve?

[Stephen Tadlock, executive]

Thank you. As Scott mentioned, total Q3 revenues were $288 million. Pressure Control revenues of $182 million were down 8.4% sequentially, driven primarily by decreased customer activity. Operating income decreased $6.7 million or 12.3% sequentially, with operating margins declining 120 basis points, primarily due to lower operating leverage. Adjusted segment EBITDA decreased $10.5 million or 15% sequentially, with margins falling by 250 basis points due to the reduction in activity and the aforementioned operating leverage. -- poolable Technologies revenues of $105 million were down 1.2% sequentially due to product mix. Operating income increased $45.8 million, primarily due to the quarter-over-quarter change in the remeasurement of the earn-out liability associated with the FlexSteel acquisition, where we recorded a $5.1 million gain in the quarter compared to an $18.1 million loss in Q2 as well as by a reduction in inventory step-up expense, which was 0 in the third quarter versus $19.3 million in the second quarter. Operating income was also inclusive of $4 million of intangible amortization expense. Adjusted segment EBITDA, which excludes all of the above noncash charges, decreased $1.8 million or 3.9% sequentially with margins decreasing by 110 basis points due to a transient increase in product input costs that impacted the cost of sales this quarter. On a total company basis, third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $103 million, down 11% from $115 million during the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 35.8% of revenues, down 190 basis points from the second quarter due to lower operating leverage. Adjustments to total company EBITDA during the third quarter of 2023 included approximately $1.1 million in transaction-related fees and expenses, noncash charges of $4.4 million in stock-based compensation, a $5.1 million gain related to the FlexSteel earnout liability and a $0.3 million gain due to the revaluation of the TRA liability. Depreciation and amortization expense for the third quarter was $15 million. Total depreciation and amortization expense during the first -- fourth quarter is expected to be approximately $15 million, $7 million of which is associated with our Pressure Control segment and $8 million of which is associated with spoolable technologies. $4 million of the $8 million total spoolable technologies D&A is related to the intangibles acquired from FlexSteel. We expect this expense to remain stable for the next several quarters. Net interest expense during the third quarter was approximately $1.4 million, decreasing sequentially due to the reduced debt level. Income tax expense during the third quarter was $18 million, up from $10 million in the second quarter. Tax expense increased due to increased income from operations. During the third quarter, the public or Class A ownership of the company averaged 82% and ended the quarter at 82%. Barring further changes in our public ownership percentage, we expect an effective tax rate of approximately 21% for Q4 2023. GAAP net income was $68 million in the third quarter versus $32 million during the second quarter. The increase was driven by lower inventory step-up expense, decreased amortization of purchase price intangibles, the change in remeasurement of the earn-out liability and decreased interest expense. We prefer to look at adjusted net income and earnings per share, which were $64 million and $0.80 per share, respectively, during the third quarter versus $67 million and $0.84 per share in the second quarter. Adjusted net income for the third quarter applied a 26% tax rate to our adjusted pretax income generated during the quarter. We estimate that the tax rate for adjusted EPS will be 26% during the fourth quarter of 2023. During the third quarter, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, resulting in a cash outflow of approximately $10 million, including related distributions to members. The Board has approved a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share to be paid in December. Additionally, we made cash TRA payments and associated distributions of approximately $32.7 million related to 2022 tax savings provided by the TRA. As previously announced, we also paid down the remaining $55 million of bank debt in the third quarter. We ended the quarter with a cash balance of $64 million. Net CapEx was approximately $8 million during the third quarter of 2023. Our full year 2023 CapEx outlook is now in the range of $35 million to $40 million at the low end of our prior guidance. That covers the financial review, and I'll now turn the call over to Scott.

[Scott Bender, executive]

Thanks, Steve. I'll now touch on our expectations for the fourth quarter by reporting segment. During the fourth quarter, we expect Pressure Control revenue to be down low single digits sequentially due to the anticipated decline in the average industry rig count quarter-over-quarter despite projected gains in Cactus rigs followed from today through the end of the year. We also expect U.S. land drilling activity will be up approximately 5% from today's levels in Q1 of 2024. For reference, our October total revenues were up over 10% from September, though our Q4 guide incorporates holiday seasonality. In addition, we expect our rental revenues to remain stable in Q4 from Q3 levels despite forecasted declines in industry completion activity. Adjusted EBITDA margins in our Pressure Control segment are expected to be 30% to 32% for the quarter, inclusive of Pressure Control, SG&A and general corporate expenses. This adjusted EBITDA guidance excludes approximately $4 million of stock-based compensation expense within the segment as well as transaction-related expenses. Margins are expected to be approximately flat to down sequentially on modestly lower operating leverage. As mentioned last quarter, we've implemented supply chain initiatives in response to reduced year-to-date activity levels, which should positively impact inventory costs early next year. In the first half of next year, we also plan to introduce several new product enhancements, which has served to generate additional benefits for our customers as well as support our operating results. Our testing for a potential Mideast customer continues to progress on schedule. We're also actively continuing our work on ownership structures in the region and still expect customer acceptance in first orders in late 2024. We'll share more with you on these efforts in the first half of next year. Switching over to our spoolable technology segment. We expect revenue of $90 million to $95 million during the fourth quarter, a decrease of approximately 10% to 15% versus the third quarter due to the year-to-date U.S. land activity decline and seasonal impacts on the business as shipments depend to a meaningful degree on our customers' installation contractors and on completion activity. We expect adjusted EBITDA margins in this segment to be approximately 38% to 40% for Q4, moderating slightly from Q3 levels on lower operating leverage. Note that this margin guidance excludes approximately $1 million of stock-based comp in the segment. As previously announced, we're very pleased to report that our ownership of FlexSteel has progressed to the point where we're ready to transition to a new leader of this business. Steve Tadlock, currently our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has taken over as CEO of FlexSteel. Steve brings over 10 years of experience with our company, several years of experience as a Director and Chairman of Polyflow, a spoolable pipe business sold to Baker use in 2018. I'm confident Steve is the right person to lead FlexSteel in the next phase of our ownership and would like to thank him for his outstanding contributions to Cactus as our CFO while we matured as a public company. Next week, Steve will begin to transition as CFO duties, [Indiscernible], while we undertake a search for a permanent CFO. Now retired in 2016 from Baker Hughes as Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer; and a support of Cactus and an advisory capacity since our IPO in 2018. This remains a very exciting time at Cactus. We're very pleased with the initial financial and operational results of the FlexSteel business and are excited to have introduced an additional highly differentiated product to our portfolio. That diversifies our revenue streams both from industry and cycle timing perspectives. Our work on adding capacity in the Mideast is progressing on schedule. In addition, we've undertaken significant efforts to diversify our low-cost supply chain in recent months, which will reduce potential geopolitical risk to our business and further solidify our position as a low-cost manufacturer. Despite these various growth and supply chain initiatives, we expect to generate meaningful cash flow in the coming quarters to return to shareholders and to allow us to pursue attractive inorganic growth opportunities. While fourth quarter activity levels for Cactus and FlexSteel are expected to be down, we're encouraged by indications received from customers regarding planned 2024 activity. Additionally, I'm pleased to see the recent wave of consolidation occurring among our E&P customers. Larger, well-capitalized and disciplined E&P companies benefit our industry by reducing breakeven costs with their larger manufacturing type development programs while providing consistency and returns that attract investor capital under the energy sector. These customers also tend to gravitate to premium equipment and service providers such as Cactus. So I'm confident we'll be the beneficiary of further consolidation over time. With that, I'll turn it back over to the operator, and we may begin Q&A. Operator?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Scott Gruber with Citigroup.

[Scott Gruber, analyst]

So a couple of moving pieces here in Pressure Control margins tend to dip in 4Q as the service activity slows, but that tends to reverse in the new year, but then you'll also see the benefit of the inventory initiatives and now it sounds like some product enhancements. So with the backdrop of modest rig count recovery, kind of think about the base expectation for where pressure control margins can go, say, by 2Q, 3Q of next year is mid-30s type number reasonable? Given the inventory initiatives and product enhancements.Â

[Stephen Tadlock, executive]

Yes, let me... This is Steve. We obviously don't like giving guidance ahead of time. I think that is probably not an unreasonable assumption with some recovery and activity and what we're doing on the other side of things, the cost side of things with Joel's efforts and that's reasonable.

[Scott Gruber, analyst]

Got you. And then I know the earn-out liability for FlexSteel moves around some with the activity outlook. Just where does that stand today? And that paid 1 year post close, correct? That's a 1Q payment. Is that all right?

[Stephen Tadlock, executive]

That's paid in 3Q of '24. And it's going to keep moving around. Unfortunately, it's just accounting, we have to revalue it every quarter. Right now, it's at $18.9 million.

[Operator]

The next question comes from David Anderson with Barclays.Â

[John Anderson, analyst]

So Scott, a near-term question and a little bit of a longer-term question. Just on the near-term question, it feels like we've seen a bit of a change in behavior over the last couple of months from a customer [Indiscernible] I've had. I was just wondering kind of what you're seeing there kind of on the margin...

[Scott Bender, executive]

Wait. Wait. David. David, hold on. A change in behavior from what?

[John Anderson, analyst]

Well, just from your customer, from your customer, from the E&P just in general. We've seen like the fourth quarter slowdown we've seen a little bit. The seasonality is a little bit more pronounced. I'm just curious if you've seen anything kind of on the margin. Is it the privates that are kind of pulling back a little bit? Is it your bigger customers you're talking about budget exhaustion? I'm just kind of curious what's happening on the margin, if there's been any changes you've seen.

[Scott Bender, executive]

Yes. I would say the privates are pulling back.

[John Anderson, analyst]

Okay. So just -- is that kind of the near-term thing there?

[Scott Bender, executive]

Yes. I think we're all pretty encouraged by our larger customers in terms of what they tell us now in terms of their plans.

[John Anderson, analyst]

Okay. So if we look into kind of 24 and beyond, one of the things we hear quite a bit from the E&P is the push for more efficiencies, whether or not that's through longer laterals or more subsurface analysis. So shales kind of moving this manufacturing mode. And I was wondering how this changes on your business mix. Effectively, your business is driven by the well count, spread across wellheads, pressure control and on the production side. I'm just wondering how your revenue opportunity kind of evolves in a mature shale. -- like the mix is going to shift a little bit. So I'm just wondering how that changes the revenue opportunity at all. And I also note that those 2 businesses are probably where you have the most market share opportunity. Can you just kind of talk about how you see that mix potentially shifting in a more mature kind of manufacturing mode show?

[Scott Bender, executive]

Okay. So not surprisingly, I may not answer your question directly, but this shift towards longer laterals is being addressed by this comment we made about some new products that we're introducing next year. So we believe that in response to this tendency for longer laterals, we have a product that we're going to introduce into the first quarter, second quarter that will enhance customers' productivity in longer laterals. And so the hope is that it will make our product even more attractive. Not much I can do about the rig efficiencies, except to support them and further develop the moat around our products. In other words, you've got to play with the cards you're dealt. So we intend to.

[John Anderson, analyst]

But it also does fit into kind of those 2 markets where you have more market share opportunities, right? I mean I would think particularly on the spoolable side as you're kind of already showing that as this kind of matures, that should be an area where you can gain share.

[Scott Bender, executive]

I believe you're right.Â

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Kurt Hallead with Benchmark.

[Kurt Hallead, analyst]

So Scott, at the risk of you not directly answering this question as well, I'll take the chance anyway.  So look, in the context of providing a teaser on product enhancements going into next year, you provided some color around an enhancement around the longer laterals. So just wondering if you might provide maybe a couple of additional teasers on what we could be looking for and just in a broader context on what these enhancements are going to address.

[Scott Bender, executive]

Yes. So Kurk, I hate to answer this question, but I'm going to answer it anyway. So the product enhancements, not surprisingly involve both our rental business and our wellhead business. In our rental business, we expect the product enhancements to have a meaningful impact on our maintenance costs and our repair costs. So we've finished prototyping. We've been spending, I guess, the last 9 months, almost a year, prototyping a new frac valve design. And we'll be introducing that next year. And so I'm very hopeful that you're going to see some margin impact from that. In terms of wellhead as we actually started from a relatively clean sheet of paper. We've got a new wellhead that's going to be highly -- even more highly value engineered, if you catch my drift as well as adding features that are, as I mentioned earlier, responsive to this tendency towards longer laterals. So that's all I...

[Kurt Hallead, analyst]

A follow-up here for Steve and congrats on your new role, Steve. Just kind of curious in the context of -- as you've entered into this new role, right, is there a significant shift in strategy direction? What do you see in terms of opportunities now that you're sitting in that seat.

[Stephen Tadlock, executive]

No, I wouldn't say there's a shift. I think the company was in a good direction. And -- and I think really my job is just to keep it going in that direction and help shepherd the growth. We're really excited about it. I think the quality of the people. I mean, obviously, I've spent a lot of time with people over there in the last, I guess, 9 months now, but spending even more time in the last month. I'm just really impressed with the people and the product and the processes that they have in place. So it's really just infusing a little bit more of the Cactus culture and taking it from there.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Stephen Gengaro with Stifel.

[Stephen Gengaro, analyst]

I'm trying to think it's something you won't answer. I think first, and this might be a category actually, but given what you mentioned about the privates maybe pulling back a little bit. I think last quarter, you referenced that on the wellhead side that your share was probably at an all-time high. Are you continuing to see kind of similar numbers on the shares that...

[Scott Bender, executive]

Gosh, Stephen, I thought that was going to be the very first question. And we had this discussion collectively before the call thinking we're trying to divorce ourselves from discussing market share. But let me patch you on the back and say do not worry about market share. Telling you what the market share is. Will that satisfy you? Telling you that to worry about it?

[Stephen Gengaro, analyst]

That works for now.

[Scott Bender, executive]

In other words, don't factor a market share loss into your numbers.Â

[Stephen Gengaro, analyst]

Got you. No, I understand that makes sense.

[Scott Bender, executive]

Let me say more that let me just tell you even more, I think that this tendency towards consolidation is I've always said it's going to be constructive. I still believe that it's going to be constructive.

[Stephen Gengaro, analyst]

That was one of the follow-ups I was going to ask about, so that's helpful. We won't count that. The repairs around work, but the movement of the balance sheet back to be positive cash, honestly, very rapidly post a large transaction with FlexSteel. You're going to probably start building cash over the next year. Can you talk about either your approach? Well, just basically, what's the approach to capital allocation from here as capital build?

[Scott Bender, executive]

My first choice. First of all, we consider the dividend to be pretty sacred to us. That's why we kind of started at a low level and it moved up slowly. We announced the share buyback, which is still in place. My first choice is inorganic growth. I want to grow this business, and I want to grow it primarily internationally. So to do that, we need cash. Fortunately, since I've been in this business for 4-plus decades, this has always been a highly positive cash flow generating business, and it still is. So I think we'll have plenty of currency to do what we want to do, including taking care of our shareholders on a quarterly basis.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] At this time, I'm showing no further questions. I'd like to now turn it back over to Scott Bender for closing remarks.

[Scott Bender, executive]

Thank you all for joining us this quarter. I look forward to speaking to you next quarter and trusting what I'd tell you, we're working hard to provide for industry best shareholder returns. Have a good day. Thank you for your participation in today's conference.

[Operator]

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.