MasTec, Inc. (MTZ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. Welcome to the JPMorgan Energy Power Renewables and Mining Conference. Thank you all for attending. My name is Drew Chamberlain, clean energy analyst here. Very excited to be joined by MasTec's CFO, Paul Dimarco; well, thank you very much for being here.

No, I appreciate it. It's the first time here, and thanks, everyone, for the interest today.

Well, great. I think it's probably best to just get kicked off with the topic of du jour. I mean what do you think about what's in the Senate right now? What are your customers saying from their latest read on the IRA and what are all the possible implications to MasTec?

Well, I think the biggest takeaway that we'd like to share is our customers have been really steady throughout the process. And I think it really comes back to the underlying drivers. The drivers for their business today are the need for more power generation in our country. And today, the primary source of that, until a few years down the road, is going to be through renewable energy. So what we're really seeing is a wait-and-see approach. We're not seeing any pause in activity. We're talking about jobs that are already out into '27. It's kind of what we're working on in terms of a procurement cycle today. So the customers have been really steady. We're not seeing any change in interaction from bookings or project execution. And I think it's indicative of just that underlying demand environment, right? Renewables is the really only viable choice for incremental load growth in our country today, and that's evident by the confidence they're getting from their off-takers in terms of moving projects forward with whatever set of circumstances they ultimately have to deal with. The current construct for our customers and the sophistication of their supply chains and the robustness of their platforms is perfectly acceptable. There are some things and puts and takes that can make it better, but we're not hearing any alarm bells from them in terms of delays of projects or cancellations. We feel really good about our understanding of their needs, where they are from a development perspective and their ability to continue to move these projects forward in the ordinary course. And then as we get to the back end, we're not talking in big heavy terms today about pull forward, but obviously, if there's an earlier exploration of certain subsidies that will be a conversation, and we'll try to find ways to help our customers take advantage of that.

And I guess just on that last point, I mean, is it becoming more of a conversation today? I mean I appreciate -- it doesn't have to be an action item yet, but is it something you're talking about? And is it something that you're actively planning for? Because you consider the robustness of your backlog, your teams must be -- I think you've talked about being fairly booked out into '26 and then even somewhat beyond. So what are they saying? And how do you prepare for that?

Yes. I mean you have to be thinking about it because we're already -- the general consensus is already a decent level of growth on top of the strong growth that the industry has seen over the past couple of years. So for us, we have to be thinking about our services, how are we more productive with our labor, how can we be more efficient as we deliver projects, what can we do to help customers achieve that? I think we're in the more conceptual planning component. What projects will ultimately be need to pull forward for what duration of time is still to be determined. How else can we help them qualify for things, how can we help drive efficiencies through the execution. Those will all be ongoing conversations, but there's enough work that has to come in today to get projects started in the previously anticipated time frame for 2026 and 2027, but that's still the predominant focus. And I think we'll be continuing to ramp up conversations about pull forward, once we actually know what the final legislation provides for.

Yes. Yes, it makes sense. All right. We can step back a little bit on this renewables business. I mean, clearly, it is somewhere along the lines -- somewhere along the time line of a structural change, clearly. And the execution has materially performed much better over the last 4 to 6 quarters, I mean, can we talk about what's changing and what you think you can do to continue to further improve this business?

Sure. I mean, when we look at -- and we can step back a little bit to the IEA acquisition, but it was effectively a merger of 2 very equivalent-sized firms, both in terms of the renewable exposure and in terms of the civil infrastructure exposure. It was a heavy lift, but what we predominantly were challenged with in the back half of 2023 was the level of diligence around factors that could impact project timing. That was obviously -- that was a clear focus for us coming out of that period of difficulty. And I think what the team really showed was our legacy business had a very strong handle on interfacing with our customers to understand the things that the customer had to do to bring a project to be shovel-ready. And the expansion of our backlog very consistently over the last 1.5 years, I think, is indicative of how far we've come in that regards from a consolidated operating framework. We are a single business today. It is MasTec renewables, like if anyone was at ACP recently, like that's how we're branded. The legacy entities are licensing and operating companies, but we are one face of the customer. We have unified services across the value chain from business development through project commissioning. It is -- there's always opportunities to enhance that, but that's how we are interfacing with our customers and with our suppliers. And I think the continued improvement in execution is indicative of that further integration and consistent execution across the business, right? You're always going to have areas where you're performing better, project managers who may be utilizing better processes or protocols, procurement continues to embed itself further in the organization, but it's about bringing that consistent framework across all customers, across all projects that we're seeing continued value being driven through. And I think what's most indicative of that is it's the consistency of performance. None of the 3 most recent quarters where we've seen improved margin profile, it wasn't because of big exceptions or closeouts. It was about things, projects executing much more consistently. No big onetime benefits, but also no projects fading as they came to completion either. And I think that's also a really good indication of where the business is from a maturity perspective. We have work still to do. We think that's why we talk about further margin expansion opportunities for that segment. But we're really proud of the both -- how both sides have embraced because this isn't like MasTec legacy, just took everything we did and dropped it into IEA. There was a lot of really good practices and people at IEA that are an integral part of this business today.

Yes. We were able to meet with the team at ACP and heard them talk a lot about something that I believe you mentioned on the 1Q call was going deeper with your customer relationships, right, and working further into the early stages of their pipeline of projects and understanding what could be coming down years ahead? I mean, can you talk about how much impact that has on your visibility, your ability to price accurately? And then what type of competitive advantage that creates going into it? I mean a time period where we don't know how long a tax credit is going to be and there could be some real barriers on to when projects need to be completed?

Yes. I think it's been a very important component of our success since the acquisition. And I think it's an incredible value driver for our customers. This isn't something that we go around marketing to anyone that's building a renewables project, it is a very thoughtful evaluation of the customers' desire to have a deeply integrated relationship with their contractor. And that's built over a number of quarters. It's a level of consistent engagement, not just at the business development level, but with executives of the customer and MasTec and it's a commitment on both sides to be aligned around the long-term strategy on how we're going to help them deploy a significant portion of their portfolio. I think it adds a lot of value for the customer, number one, because they have -- we're there early, we're helping them understand constructability, we're helping them understand ways to value engineer projects. It clearly helps us a lot with resource allocation and planning because it helps us understand where customers may be more aggressive or conservative in their overall project planning. Someone may underestimate the time it takes them to close financing or the time it takes them to work through local permitting. When you have that cadence of consistency, you understand that, and you can help them refine those estimates to be more accurate going forward or at least to better assess your revenue projections as you look out into the future. So I think to the extent that projects move around, it gives us great visibility in terms of how we can repivot. We're not trying to find a new customer. We're already talking about these jobs knowing what the cadence is if something is accelerating, if something is slowing down. So I think it's been a really important component of our success. And I think our customers, more importantly, are really happy with how we are engaging with them and the value that it's driving for their business as well.

Okay. We can move on from the renewable business there. Maybe let's turn to the topic du jour at MasTec these days, and that's probably on our inbound is the pipeline business. I mean, I just -- maybe I'll leave it open-ended and you can kind of update us on maybe a little background on where the pipeline business was, some of the large projects in the past, what the setup looks like for 2025 and then kind of where we're going to go beyond from there?

Sure. I mean this, it's always been a business we've liked a lot. We've been, I think, the largest pipeline contractor for most of the last decade and been able to participate in really every major pipeline project that's been executed in the United States; again, going back to at least 2015. We obviously hit a challenging patch post the pandemic where there was a lot less project activity. We didn't waver on our commitment to that space being deeply integrated with those customers. We did think it was important to continue to support it, but we obviously saw a need to grow the rest of the business as well. I think the current environment is marked by 2 things. One, just the more positive investor sentiment to drive capital into that space coming out of the pandemic again, there was a lot of negative investor sentiment around exploration and production of incremental oil or gas, where those companies were expected to return capital to shareholders, not reinvest in their infrastructure. And that sentiment change alone has driven a lot of positive developments in the near term for the industry. Our customers are generally the folks that are moving the product. They move forward with a new pipeline, when they have demand to move product across it. And the recent investment decisions that we've seen in this space are indicative of just that, right? Our customers going out and pulling the industry around the need to move product from one point to another and having really strong feedback, right? That's because more is being -- more is either being expected to produce or needs to be moved. And we're seeing that benefit already. We're seeing customers acknowledge the fact that there have been -- there has been a contraction in capacity, right? A number of firms have either deemphasized or exited the pipeline infrastructure landscape. So to the extent that the expectations are around increased infrastructure growth are true, there's going to be some capacity challenges from a personnel and from an equipment perspective. I mean equipment manufacturers, they also can have to reallocate production around where the demand, what types of product is being demanded. So there are some specialized pieces of equipment that are in shorter supply today than they would have been in prior cycles, so -- or when there was just more capacity available or more consistent demand. So we're seeing really good cadence with customers. They're talking to us about projects earlier than they would have in prior cycles. I think there's a good visibility for a multiyear demand opportunity at a minimum. And we're really kind of, depending on which estimate you want to take, 3 or 4 years out from seeing any new load growth from gas-fired generation. So today, we're seeing projects that are moving product either because of basis differentials and bottlenecks or over to the Gulf Coast for exportation. There will be a second driver of demand, which is the need for additional gas-fired generation, again, 3, 4 years down the road. So we see a really good durable cycle here. The dialogue with customers is increasing in terms of proactiveness. And I think our positioning over the last decade and where we sit today from a -- from not just an equipment perspective, but project supervision and craft labor to execute it, I think we're really, really well equipped to help this industry grow.

Just talk a little bit about that last point there. The durability of this cycle, right? I think there's a lot of speculation in the market and people that we talk to are worried about or wondering, excited about what '26, '27 looks like. But how much do you think about -- and obviously, I think it's worth saying that these are a little bit shorter cycle projects than maybe a renewable project. So things could hit backlog and be recognized fairly quickly. How do you think about -- do you see a spike in '26, '27 and then it comes back down? Or is this something you really think extends for a longer duration than that?

I mean we're sitting here in almost July, right, of '25. And I think on the Q1 call, we had the confidence to say that we think '26 is at least back to the levels of 2024, which for us was $2.1 billion of revenue in the segment versus we're doing -- we expect to do just under $1.9 billion for 2025, which we increased at Q1 up from $1.8 billion. So we're talking about double-digit growth in the early parts of 2025 for next year. I think as this demand plays out, we're hopeful to be able to capitalize on more opportunity, but to be talking about 2026 levels specifically today and even 3 months ago, I think is should be really -- a really strong indicator of how positive we are on the dialogue with our customers. And I mean, frankly, some of the backlog that we won in the first quarter is already work that we're executing on in 2026. We think backlog will continue to grow over the course of the year. And I think '26 should grow into '27, and then we'll see is '27 the peak, is '28 the peak? I think it's too early to say, but really good dialogue, again, around multiple project opportunities with customers talking about it, yes, this segment has a historical propensity to move quickly from project execution to construction. We are seeing that change a little bit, where customers are talking to us more proactively about the work they need because of the concerns around capacity for the industry overall.

Can you talk a little bit about your expectations for the margins in that segment and how they can grow as revenue grows and what the operating leverage profile can be there?

Yes. So we've been consistently targeting high double-digit margins for that segment. We have achieved that at points in the past. What allows you to do better than that? It's really all about resource efficiency. It's moving crews and equipment and the ordinary course from the completion of one job after the right amount of rest and maintenance onto the next one, right? Any extended period bleeds into that margin opportunity and if you're moving at a very efficient pace from one job to the next, then yes, you'll have higher opportunities for margin performance. The returns in that segment for the capital that's required at that high-teens profile are very strong. So to the extent that we can work more proactively with our customers to better time the cadence for resource needs, the better opportunity we'll have to drive margins higher over the course of the cycle. The guide for this year in the mid-teens is solely because of operating leverage and that's holding on to resources for the cycle that's coming and putting us in a position to take advantage of these -- of the demand that we expect in the back half of this year into 2026 and beyond. So I think there's definitely a possibility to drive it up. We don't think we need pricing to do that. We think it's all about labor and equipment utilization.

Okay. And then I think can you talk a little bit about how much competition has changed in that business? Obviously, challenging business. The reason the margins are higher, reason people have gotten out of it. Can you just talk a little bit about how much it's changed? And then how comfortable you feel, on your last point there about, where you are labor-wise, equipment-wise, resources wise to be ready for '26, '27, '28 maybe?

Yes. I mean, the industry has always tried to stay balanced in terms of procurement. So on every major project, there was generally always some diversity of supply. So there are good competitors out there, both on the union and nonunion side. One of the gating items is project supervision. I think our commitment to the space, the work that we've won and executed on in a period where other firms weren't as successful. Our performance from a quality and safety perspective on those projects, that resonates with project executives, right? So if people are looking for where to hang their hat, I think our track record and commitment to the business is a leg up for us. There's good competition. I think we'll see how -- there's definitely more capacity on the union side than nonunion. So you could see some blurring of what side of the business is required to execute different projects. That could morph from where it's been over time. I think it's a great relief valve for the industry, though. We are double breasted, so we have capabilities to perform both union and nonunion construction projects in that space. But I think that's what we'll have to see play out. How does the industry leverage the overall capacity at the sacrifice of some cost to make sure the work is completed.

Okay. Before we move into pipeline, I want to see -- or sorry, move away from pipeline. I want to see if there's any questions from the audience? Great. Okay. Power Delivery. Greenlink, obviously, a great project win there last summer, been a lot of talk about what's next from there. So maybe give us your view on the market, what's active out there bidding wise? Where you see this going?

Yes. So I mean we've been pretty consistent with our messaging is that today, we feel like we can handle another similar-sized project of annual revenue contribution successfully. So we will be disciplined with that additional capacity. It's not chasing another job. It's finding the right job with the right customer to be successful, like we feel like we've set up with the Greenlink project. We're actively trying to build additional capacity. But in the near term, the procurement methodology there is to make sure that we're putting the right emphasis on the projects that we feel have the most chance for success with us as the contractor EPC provider whatever the scope is. There is a number of jobs that will continue to work through the procurement process. There's been a couple that have been awarded this year. There's a couple that will be late '24 -- I'm sorry, late '25, maybe early 2026, that we think we're really well positioned on. We've got to be competitive. We've got to put our best foot forward and ultimately prove that to the customers that we are the right provider for these incredibly important projects for them. That's where the -- that's where we are, right? There's a consistent cadence of projects through at least 2028 and that our teams are tracking that will continue to expand this cycle, right? We're really -- we've seen kind of 2 or 3 major awards after a very long dearth of any major interstate pipeline activity. I think we'll be in a cycle going forward where there's multiple projects a year. So we have to enhance our capacity, right, through utilizing projects like Greenlink to better equip existing employees. How are you cross-training employees on your infrastructure projects so they can get exposed to that bigger project, more complicated project management activity while you're also looking at how do you supplement it from external perspectives, whether that's through M&A or from acquiring additional talent resources in the field. So it's two-pronged. It's going through the procurement cycle, but also we're not sitting around just trying to get what is the next job. It's how do we build the right capacity to support what is expected to be a continuing expansion cycle around large transmission.

Okay. And it's probably fair to say that that's longer time horizon for bookings and execution of projects. I mean, these are products that can last, what, 8, 10 years, and EPCs come in a little later. So do you think the real bookings opportunities and executing on these projects is...

I mean everyone will be a little bit different. But like Greenlink as an example, we announced the award in Q2 of last year, and we really -- there was some work in the fourth quarter, but really didn't start in earnest until Q1. So a 2- or 3-quarter lag is not uncommon, right? Converse to pipeline where we historically, we've seen that quick return. And the procurements in advance of that contractual signing are much longer. I mean, they could be a multiple quarters to years long procurement cycles. So these are all very far advanced. The ones that we're talking about towards the end of this year, they're very far advanced with -- they can slide a quarter or 2, but I think they should be in that late '25 or early '26 time frame.

Okay. So we're 25 minutes into this, and we have yet to use the words data centers. So maybe we'll let you have the floor and say whatever you want about the MasTec offering to data centers and what that can be.

Yes. So I mean, listen, it's an explosive opportunity across the globe, frankly. What we've tried to do is evaluate the service offerings that we have at MasTec today and package those in a way that we can bring the totality of services to either a developer, hyperscaler or a general contractor who has turnkey scope on a facility. And when you look at that, we can really do the vast majority of the work outside some of the inside plant services like low-voltage electrical or the final installation of servers and kind of the brains at the end of the day. So that's site preparation; facility erection; substation construction; utility interconnectivity, whether that's communications, whether utilities or power. Our Communications segment has the central office business, which is basically the inside wiring of a facility. So we're bringing those totality of services to the customer. And then we've done all of those in some form or another today across a diverse set of clients. And we're trying to find the best way to make that more transferable across the country. So we may be working with the GC who has a need in a new geography. Well, they prequalified us from all those services, so that's easily transferable to a new geography for them. We've evaluated -- we've been asked, and so far, we haven't taken this tack, but we could fully turnkey -- be full turnkey provider for a data center as well. There would be certain trades we would subcontract out, but we have a lot of those capabilities in-house. We have a general construction management business in the company today that, that dovetails into very easily. So it's -- there's a couple of different paths. I think the totality of services really resonated. We've expanded again in our customer base, in our geography over the past year and our scope of services because when we rewind to 2024, we were talking about civil site work and that was really what we had done. So we're continuing to grow the base. The individual business -- the individual work streams reside in the different segments. So we don't have a data center P&L, but the work continues to expand and the customer base continues to expand. So we feel really good about that as a good growth driver across the business going forward.

Okay. And last for me. Can we talk a little bit about the balance sheet? So one, obviously, capital allocation priorities. But maybe just more so a holistic or higher level, Paul Dimarco, on the health of your balance sheet right now. I mean obviously, what you've done year-to-date has been a lot different than what you've been able to do the last couple of years, buying back stock, deploying capital maybe a little bit more flexibly than you have been able to historically. So maybe just talk a little bit about that as well.

Yes. We think the balance sheet -- I'll start with the latter question. We think the balance sheet is in a position that gives us full flexibility to take advantage of whatever strategic opportunity is out there. Whether it is taking advantage of a dislocation in the share price and repurchase some stock like we did in March and April or M&A or strategic investments, we feel that we're positioned today with where the balance sheet is to do whatever activity is best for the overall growth and returns of the company. In terms of our priorities, organic growth and investing in the business is still going to be #1. We will be acquisitive, albeit focusing on complementary M&A that has a relatively lower level of integration risk and doesn't distract our operations from their core goal today of continuing to execute and drive margin expansion. So it will be things that we expect to help us achieve our margin goals and our return objectives more quickly. It's not going to be something just to grow. And then from a shareholder return perspective, there, our perspective hasn't changed. We will buy back stock when we think there is a meaningful discount to fair value, and particularly if it's something we can take advantage of that we've been very consistent with that over really the totality of Jose's tenure, which aligns with most of my time with the business. And I think that's going to be a tertiary opportunity for us, hopefully. If we're executing, hopefully, we're redeploying capital in a much more traditional fashion with M&A, and I didn't mentioned strategic investments, but sometimes customers need help, right? We've invested very successfully in projects in the past or helped customers get things across the finish line. Sometimes that's an important component, and we're definitely in a position to be able to do that today. So we think we have full optionality. It's about the return it generates, and again, putting the business in a position to achieve our near-term goals more quickly.

Great. I think we're out of time here. So thank you very much, Paul.

Thank you everybody.