Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator instructions) We'll have our first question from Brian Gesuale, Raymond James.
Brian Gesuale – Raymond James
Hey, guys, great job on the quarter.
Paul Cofoni
Thanks.
Bill Fairl
Thank you, Brian.
Brian Gesuale – Raymond James
Paul, I wonder if you could talk strategically a little bit. We've seen a lot of pressure on the public company valuations. Your fundamentals have really accelerated, and we've seen private multiples for acquisitions kind of remain high here. Can you maybe address potentially revisiting share buyback and looking at some of the alternative uses of capital here?
Paul Cofoni
Yes, Brian. We have noticed the same thing. There is, on the one hand, we expect, over the next year to year and a half that the valuations will come down as sellers come to grips with the new reality. On the other hand, there are sort of opportunities for us in the area of either share buyback or repayment of loan. Both of those we're evaluating currently. We have no decision that we've made at this time, but we – from time to time this matter comes up in front of our board, we have a thorough discussion, and there are some new realities here, and we will be discussing these with the board at upcoming board meetings.
Brian Gesuale – Raymond James
Great. Thanks. One follow-up. Tom, wondering if you could maybe take us through the interest expense line, the actual costs here. Looks like you guys made some very positive strides in reducing your cost of debt. Maybe take us through that and what we should expect going forward, because it looks like that's going to be a nice tail wind for you as you did mentioned some of the other headwinds out there for you?
Tom Mutryn
If I look at that one line, interest and other net, on our income statement, it is comprised largely of interest expense, but it also includes our interest in a joint venture, which we established a couple years ago. The sequential quarter change in our net interest expense other line from $6.7 million to $5.5 million was roughly half driven by a decline in the minority interest value of the joint venture and half driven by lower interest expense. Not to get too detail in the fourth quarter of last year the joint venture had a very nice award fees which we were able to recognize. Going forward, I would model interest expense similar to the first quarter of this year for the next three quarters.
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