DLH Holdings (NASDAQ:DLHC) Q2 2021 Earnings Call

0:00 Good day and welcome to the DLH Holdings Fiscal 2021 Second Quarter Earnings Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Witte, Investor Relations Advisor. Please go ahead.

0:36 Thank you, and good morning, everyone. On the call with me today is Zach Parker, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Kathryn JohnBull, Chief Financial Officer. The company's earnings release and PowerPoint presentation are available on our website under the Investor page. I would now like to provide a brief safe harbor statement, which is also shown on slide two of the presentation. This call may include forward-looking statements that relate to the company's outlook for fiscal 2021 and beyond. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from these statements. Please refer to the risk factors contained in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. On today's call, we will be referencing both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures.

1:23 and reconciliation of our non-GAAP results for our reported GAAP results is included in our earnings release and in the investor presentation on DLH's website. President and CEO Zach Parker will speak next, followed by CFO Kathryn JohnBull, after which we'll open it up for questions. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Zach. Please go ahead, Zach.

1:44 Thank you, Chris, and good morning to everyone. And a special thanks to the troops within DLH that continue to drive Great performance, productivity, and quality to our customers, our managers, and to our shareholders. During these difficult times, I just can't say enough about the courage experienced and delivered by our workforce. I'd like to welcome the shareholders to the second quarter conference call. We've continued to post solid results this fiscal year, and I remain optimistic about the quarters to come. Starting with slide three, I'll first provide a high-level overview of the quarter and some color on the outlook for fiscal 21.

2:31 The second quarter was certainly one of accomplishment, with revenue rising 12% to a new record $61.5 million, as we continue to benefit from strong performance from our recent IVA acquisition, Our AMS business unit and solid results across the board. The sales increase was followed by higher operating margins at 7.5% and earnings of 2.6 million or 19 cents per share. We were also able to resume our debt prepayments this quarter as Kathryn will review in a moment. and closed out the period with a backlog just shy of 610 million.

3:20 And then, of course, shortly after the end of the quarter, we announced that DLA had once again won our VA CMOP medical logistics contract, adding over 200 million in contracted value over a five-year period. With that in tow, we will have a backlog in and around 800 million This will certainly set the foundation for growth beyond. Turning to slide four, I'd like to update our investors on DLH's business outlook given the variety of issues impacting our industry. Again, first of all, I want to expand on the comment I made a moment ago about the CMOP and our recent award. As many of you likely already know, we have served this program under the VA for over two decades, so the win was certainly not unexpected by us. However, the award had been delayed due to several reasons during the procurement process.

4:26 at the VA considered proposals from various tiers of small businesses for potential set-aside contract. Ultimately, they moved through each of those set-aside tiers from consideration and evaluated proposals from large business, only the large business tier. That competition was eventually awarded to DLH. As a reminder, this program functions as a virtual extension of the VA's Medical Center Pharmacy. Last year, we processed over 120 million prescriptions from seven locations nationwide. While this mail-order service has always been important for our veterans, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to demonstrate its value at a level that the VA had not experienced before, and we are thrilled to continue to provide Prescriptions, medications, and med-surg products to our various service members in this fashion.

5:24 We're of course waiting for the VA to make a decision on the other part of the pharmacy support for the CMOT and that acquisition has not restarted. The contract when finalized will likely also be worth in the neighborhood of 250 mil over five years. So we look forward to that acquisition beginning. On another front, as you know, as the country continues to make progress with COVID-19 vaccinations and, of course, various states move towards reopenings and increased mobility, several of our programs that have experienced revenue erosion over the recent year attributed to COVID-19 may begin to see a resurrection in the fall timeframe.

6:15 As you may recall, Our digital transformation team under Helene Fisher's operation had implemented a new system that reduced costs, increased efficiencies through a major business process reengineering effort. While that achievement reduced our Head Start-related revenue once implemented entering the fiscal year, We did not anticipate further reduction due to COVID-induced reductions in a couple of very key processes. Both of those key processes involve travel, site reviews, inspections, and things of that nature. The program will truly benefit as restrictions are eased. and we're again hopeful that perhaps by fall timeframe we'll start to recover that revenue stream and help to deliver a higher quality to our grantees across the nation.

7:12 In the meantime, we continue to qualify and pursue a strong set of growth opportunities from strategically small opportunities to very large opportunities.

7:22 Unfortunately, like

7:24 Much like our VA CMO procurement, several of the large procurements are continuing to slide to the right and continue to be delayed. The good news, the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, has recently issued some new directives to these federal agencies intended to improve these timelines and to also drive greater accountability into the contract procurement process. We welcome those changes. to help accelerate our organic growth prospects. While both political parties are dedicated to our veterans and healthcare issues, we are also seeing positive momentum in terms of additional investments tied to areas where DLH plays a pivotal role. And we believe that the company is very well positioned for solid organic growth this year and next.

8:18 At the same time, I've been remiss if I didn't speak to the strong digital transformation deal flow opportunities within our sector as market valuations and an interest in adding technology applications are heightened interest within the mergers and acquisitions front. There is a demand across the board for next generation capabilities that leverage artificial intelligence, data analytics, cloud computing, and the types of services that we have been continuing to build. And I think the global pandemic has only accelerated the trend towards some of the network modernization, ensuring convenience and security for individuals performing critical work under the fluid global environments.

9:07 While the economy is improving and the impact from COVID-19 subsiding, some things are here to stay. including a greater reliance on telecommuting and staycations, leading to new opportunities for companies like DLH and the advanced technology service offerings. With valuations near all-time highs, it takes a focused effort to look at the numerous opportunities and decide what strategically aligns with the company that is something that we would value. We always thought that the corporate culture was a key part of any transaction. We'll continue this in the future, and we'll continue to examine potential deals for near-term and longer-term value creation.

10:00 Overall, the outlook for Fiscal 21 remains very positive for DLH, and we believe the coming quarters offer a great opportunity for the company to report solid top-line results and strong underlying performance. Our competitive position, leveraging our expanded capabilities and long-term client relationships at key mission critical federal agencies, leaves us very optimistic about the future, and I couldn't be more proud of the team that we have assembled here today. We're making it happen and taking DLH to the next level in terms of service, performance, and shareholder returns. With that, I'd like now to turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Kathryn JohnBull. Kathryn.

10:48 Thank you, Zach, and good morning, everyone. We're pleased to continue posting positive results this year. Turning to slide six, we posted record revenue for the three months ended March 31st, 2021 of $61.5 million versus $54.8 million in the prior year's second quarter. This variance reflects the impact of roughly $7.4 million in sales tied to the acquisition of IBA, offset in part by a reduction in travel-related revenue on programs impacted by ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Given the lower infection rates and progress with vaccinations, the constraint on that part of our business has begun to lessen, and as Zach mentioned, we believe it will continue to do so in the quarters to come.

11:35 Turning to slide seven, income from operations was $4.6 million for the fiscal 2021 second quarter versus $3.8 million last year. Operating margins improved to 7.5% from 7% in fiscal 2020. reflecting favorable program mix and operating leverage achieved. We reported net income of approximately 2.6 million or 19 cents per diluted share versus 2.1 million or 16 cents a share last year. DLH recorded a provision of 1.9 million for tax expense during the fiscal 2021 second quarter and fiscal 2020 second quarter respectively. Interest expense in the current year quarter increased to $1 million versus $0.9 million for the three months ended March 31st, 2020, due to higher outstanding debt levels reflecting the acquisition of IBA.

12:33 Turning to slide eight, EBITDA for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 was $6.6 million versus $5.6 million in the prior year period. As a percent of sales, EBITDA rose to 10.8% this quarter versus 10.2% last year. A reconciliation of gap net income to EBITDA is provided in our earnings statement and is included in the back of our presentation. Slide 9 gives an updated snapshot of our debt position at the end of the second quarter. As of March 31st, we had $62.8 million of debt outstanding under our credit facilities versus $77.4 million at the end of last quarter. We generated approximately $14.6 million of operating cash during the quarter and paid down roughly $14.7 million of debt.

13:24 As a reminder, the strong cash flow this quarter was due to delayed collections from Q1 in part, largely reflecting transition in certain contract payment terms. continue to anticipate strong cash flow this fiscal year and estimate debt of between 50 and 52 million at the end of fiscal 2021, resulting in a stronger balance sheet and a much lower leverage ratio. The improvement in our leverage ratio during the current quarter reduced the interest rate on our outstanding debt by 50 basis points. This concludes my discussion of the financial statements. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to our operator to open the call for questions. We will now begin the question and answer session.

14:12 To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please take up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Brian Kinslinger with Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.

14:47 Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Can you tell us, maybe I missed it, what the organic growth rate was? And then on the male outpatient pharmacy program, how much larger do you expect that annual revenue contribution to be at peak compared to the prior contract? And will you need to hire more resources to deliver any increased scope?

15:07 Great question, Brian, and welcome, and we thank you for your call. I'll take the second part and pass the first part over to Kathryn real quick. We're excited about the potential for the renewal of the CMOP contract. Its very nature is one that is somewhat demand-responsive to the needs and the challenges faced by our veterans on the health front. We've had, as you've seen, pretty good real growth over the recent couple few years. And the COVID-19 challenge has increased that burden, not only from the health standpoint, but the protocols associated with going to the VA medical centers and hospitals, you know, with a lot of the restrictions for hanging out, for instance, in hospitals.

15:59 In the lobbies or in the areas where they're providing those deliveries have led to an increase in the mail order process. So what remains to be seen is how, if at all, any of that will be ratcheted back in the outdoor use. Every indication is that they're here to stay, that the quality and the productivity at which the mail order system is delivering the services relative to the in-house has proven to be of tremendous value for the VA and our veterans. And we expect that with the new leadership, they're going to continue to go down this path. So we think the upside is a good bet that we'll continue to build on that and As we continue to have a larger group of veterans living and meeting the demands, we expect it to grow as opposed to plateau. So we're looking forward to that.

17:02 At the same time, the VA is expanding. Thank you for joining us today. in a major assembly line sort of environment. So they really take on that risk associated with large groups, but they've managed it very well. They've had a very, very, very low rate of infection, and we look to that to continue.

17:55 With regard to the numbers that we quoted on- Sure, yes, yes,

18:00 perfect. So for the period and year today, Brian, as we mentioned, The organic revenue is down slightly. Of course, there's growth in the business, as you already referenced in the CMOP part of the business, as well as in the COVID support parts of the business and other places, but those are the two highlights. But that has been offset by the deferral of revenue on the site monitoring, compliance and monitoring programs that we discussed. So we do expect there's some pent-up demand there, just as a function of the COVID protocols. And as things continue to improve, we expect that there'll be some recovery of that. Of course, the customer's got to work through exactly how they'll reschedule those programs and those site visits. But from that perspective, we see the pause on those site inspections as beginning to ease in this second half of the year.

18:57 Great. Were there any changes to the economics of the CMOD contracts, such as either lower pricing or efficiencies you need to deliver to the customer?

19:09 For this particular one, the medical logistics, the solicitation did have some differences, some different characteristics than the previous one. These were things that we were fully aware of and were looking forward to. A little bit of a mixed change, but we did not give him the nature of the work and the complexity of the work. We did not see the need to drive any particular cost or investments into business down. There will be a fair amount of some of the costs that will ease because we've implemented a number of things historically that do not need to be implemented in this next year or two. So a little bit of softening in that regard, but nothing material.

19:56 Great. And my last question is, Several, and I may have missed if you mentioned this, sorry, several defense IT contractors have been talking about delays in procurements. There's just so much volume of submissions industry-wide coupled with challenging evaluation process. Is DLH experiencing the same on their submissions and their contracts that are going through the procurement cycle? Thanks so much.

20:20 Yes, no, great question. And the answer is absolutely yes. You know, we, as I've mentioned briefly in my comments, opening comments, we too have experienced that. You know, we build a strong new business pipeline. We've bolstered that with the addition of Jackie Everett to our business development team, and she's bringing on resources to help qualify and position us to bid some opportunities. and the trouble is, as you've pointed out, my peers are experiencing the same as I am where while our CMOP has been on, some of our contracts have been on social source extensions for several years, we're seeing the same for some opportunities that we literally thought we would have been bidding and winning in 2019 and we have yet to get those solicitations.

21:12 The acquisition community is very upfront about the fact that they have On the government side, they've lost a lot of talent to help move these contracts and these procurements along. They've been working to incentivize bringing in new blood because they lost a lot through attrition and retirement and just have not been able to make that up in a very cost-effective way. But they're addressing it, and when I mentioned the OMB has put into place some new initiatives One in particular is focused on what they call PALT, which is an acronym for Procurement Administrative Lead Time. So they're raising accountability and a focus on that effort so that they can get these procurements in place and contracted in a timely fashion.

21:59 But it has been brutal for us. It has been the number one headwind towards stunting our organic growth through business opportunities because we just can't wait to get those proposals submitted. We think we've built some really tremendous solutions. We've added our capabilities through M&A, but we've got most of our Thanks for taking my questions. The next question comes from Chris Beliska with Noble Financial.

22:58 Please go ahead.

23:00 Hi, good morning, Zach and Kathryn. I'm sitting in for Joe Gomes. Thanks for taking my call this morning and my questions.

23:09 Welcome, Chris. Thanks for joining us.

23:12 Glad to be here. And let's see, a couple questions that we had have already been addressed. But, Kathryn, maybe you can answer one about accounts receivable. There was some improvement in the quarter. Are you satisfied with those results, or were you expecting more? And the timing on getting the accounts receivable down further, please.

23:36 Yeah, so there was progress, as you noted, during the quarter, and I'm pleased with the progress made, but you know me well enough to know I'm never satisfied. So I do think there is additional progress that we will continue to make as we work with... Paying Offices, and get an understanding of how to transition for all of their requirements. But I'm expecting by the time we complete our process of addressing changing customer needs, they've had some transition in their own points of contact and people responsible for managing things. And I do see roughly $3 million that I think will be kind of If you want to consider a permanent transition just because of some additional layers that the customers have added as we've recompeted some of these contracts.

24:24 So as compared to last year and on a steady state revenue, I think I'll end up with about a $3 million level of AR higher. But all that in the context of I'm currently sitting at around 60 days sales outstanding. I see a path to getting closer to 50, so that should free up some pretty strong operating cash flow and get us back in a realm of what I consider to be appropriate for our business.

24:54 Thank you. And then the next question on the VA logistics contract, the protest, can you give any more detail about Who's protesting and what the argument is and when they'll be decided? Timeline, please.

25:12 Yes, just a little bit of color. Obviously, these are very procurement-sensitive information, so I really can't give you much more than what is public. The protests of this nature are made public through a few channels. There has been only one company that has protested. It is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business, which means they were in that first tier for priority for the award. And there's some public information out there with regard to what their particular position is on the protest. The norm, I should probably say there really is no norm to expect on the timing of these My personal assessment is, based upon the nature of this one, it is not one that usually results in a long protracted protest period.

26:10 Right. It's usually the type of adjudication involved here is usually relatively timely. Of course, in the federal government space, that still could be 90 days, 120 days before resolution. So that's about how we're mapping this one right now. I can tell you that in the meantime, the contracting officer has notified us They're intent to put into place an extension to take us out through pretty close to the end of the fiscal year, August-September timeframe, so that they can get this adjudicated, and then we would begin the phase-in period of that contract.

26:56 And I would just add in context, of course, the protest cycle is unfortunately these days kind of a normal part of the awards and procurement cycle. So we don't view it as anything particularly significant.

27:11 Okay, great. Thank you. Last question then on the Head Start program, the revenue decline there, was that all related to travel reimbursement or are there other reasons for the revenue decline in the Head Start business?

27:26 Yeah, there have been a couple of major factors, right? And yeah, I touched on the fact that we had, you know, late last fiscal had started the new contract. An exciting part of the completion, one of the most attractive features of that operation for us was the ability to design from re-architecting, fully testing and integrating a very, a completely new I.T. modernization process. We completely transformed both the operations and protocols for executing the business, and it was really a full-fledged digital transformation effort under the previous contract. With the key objectives of that modernization, we're not just modernizing and transforming for the sake of transformation, but to drive efficiencies.

28:24 And so in our new bid that we won, announced at $150 million, that was about 30 or 35 mil over five years more cost-effective than before. We believe that great success in executing digital transformation efforts should result in benefits to the ultimate customer and the users. We've done so by implementing all these new mobile-friendly technologies, substantially reducing what was labor-intensive before by implementing new methods of digital visualization and things of that nature. So we understood that. That, of course, was in our plan as we went forward and was, again, arguably five, six million more cost-effective on an annual basis. But we did not factor in COVID in 2020, and of course, still rearing this ugly head on our revenue now.

29:33 So we do expect that the haircut that we've experienced over the recent couple of quarters, Helene is working very closely with the government leadership. There has been recent turnover with the new administration at the top. They're getting their arms around. We've got outstanding new leadership in place, we believe, leadership that has great intimate understanding of the program, having come up through the program, and she sees the benefit of implementing our new system. So we're optimistic that by this fall, I'd love to see it be sooner, but sometime by this fall, that most of the states, and we're in all 50 states, And as states start to allow more mobility and access, we expect to start to realize that revenue back again, certainly by our first option year period before it comes to completion.

30:36 And Chris, just echoing that and reinforcing part of what Zach referred to, that cost effectiveness in a re-compete cycle is an important part of our value proposition as we implement technology enablement. So as Zach said, that was completely expected. But as you're looking at like for like, period to period, remember that the COVID restrictions really came in at the very tail end of Q2 last year. So Q2 last year is essentially kind of normal but for the impact of the value delivered in the technology enablement. So it makes period-to-period comparisons a little bit challenging, a little bit difficult. But in terms of the soundness of the program, we do expect that, however unexpected and undesirable this pause has been.

31:32 In terms of the long-term view of the program, we're greatly encouraged. You hear almost every day in the headlines about the need to really reinforce and help to recover some of the education gaps that happened during this year of everybody being at home. And we think that Head Start provides a great channel for doing that. So our commitment, our enthusiasm for the program is as strong now as it's ever been. But that doesn't mean we're not looking forward to the backlog starting to clear and really starting to pick back up the normal momentum.

32:05 Right. Thank you. That makes sense. Thank you very much. Those are my questions.

32:10 You bet. Thank you. And say hello to Bill for us. I'm sorry, Joe. As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star then 1 to be joined into the queue. There appears to be no callers in the queue. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Parker for any closing remarks.

32:42 Thank you. And let me just say thank you again to the shareholders and the current investors and interested parties. We again remain very, very excited about the future of the company. We really believe that we've got just a great trajectory with opportunities to continue to deliver some not only sound performance for our current clients, but also to build that client base. We're also excited about having, you know, at the end of this fiscal year with a very balanced portfolio. and that portfolio covers all three of our marketing focus areas identified in our 10Q and we're really excited that as we look both organically and acquisitively that we can continue to be very selective with high probabilities of success and we look forward to delivering on that in the near future. So thank you for your participation and have a blessed day.

33:43 Bye for now. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.