Earnings Call Excerpt
Sterling Construction Company Inc (STRL)
Q4 2007 Earnings Call
March 14, 2008 10:00 am ET
Executives
Jim Allen - CFO
Pat Manning - Chairman and CEO
Joe Harper - President and COO
Analysts
Rich Wesolowski - Sidoti & Company
Craig Bell - SMH Capital
John Rogers - D.A. Davidson
Presentation
Operator
Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Sterling Construction Fourth Quarter 2007 Conference Call. At this time, I would like to inform you that this conference is being recorded, and that all participants are currently in a listen-only mode. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Jim Allen. Please go ahead, sir.
Jim Allen
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is Jim Allen, the Chief Financial Officer, and I would like to welcome you to the Sterling Construction Company conference call to discuss the results for the fourth quarter and year ended December the 31st, 2007, which we released this morning.
I am joined today by Pat Manning, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Joe Harper, our President and Chief Operating Officer.
Now the really exciting part of this conference call: I must remind you that this call may include certain statements that fall within the definition of forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such statements, including our 2008 guidance, are subject to risks and uncertainties, including overall economic and market conditions, competitors, customers, and suppliers’ actions, and weather conditions and other risks identified in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Accordingly, any such statements should be considered in light of these risks.
Although we may give guidance about future results, this is only a statement of management’s beliefs at the time the statement is made. Predictions that we make may not continue to reflect management’s beliefs, and we do not undertake to publicly update guidance. It is the company’s current policy to provide guidance only on an annual basis. We do not issue guidance about quarterly results.
Turning to the financial results, I am very pleased to report the company achieved another record year in 2007, in terms of revenues, profits, working capital and stockholders’ equity. Revenues were up 23% to $306 million, and pre-tax income from continuing operations increased 16% over the $22 million of the prior year.
Net income from continuing operations was up 14% to $14.5 million. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were $1.22 in 2007. Last year we earned $1.08 per diluted share. The results were achieved on a record fourth quarter, which was much drier than the first three quarters of 2007. The first three quarters were much wetter than normal, and primarily was the reason the gross margin for 2007 of 11.1% was 4% lower than in 2006.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
