The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

CUB Reports FY3Q11 Results

[The stock is down a whopping 10% today as I’m typing and was down much more earlier in the day; amid this week’s bloodbath in the broad market, it’s hard to tell how much of this is company-specific. Fears that the federal government will cut defense are surely weighing on the share price but these fears are largely misplaced, IMO, for reasons I’ve mentioned in previous posts.

FY3Q10, the year-ago period, was unusually strong for the reasons discussed in this PR (also see #msg-53598437), so almost all of the FY3Q11 numbers were down YoY excluding the effect of acquisitions. Still, FY3Q11 EPS of 0.78 beat the analysts’ consensus, FWIW. CUB does not hold quarterly CC’s or issue guidance. (There was an accounting restatement for FY2010 but it was immaterial, so I doubt that it’s a factor in today’s sell-off.)

Please see the prologue of #msg-53598437 for the reason I think CUB is a beneficiary of The Global Demographic Tailwind.]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cubic-Corp-NYSE-CUB-Reports-iw-4069502280.html?x=0&.v=1

›Friday August 5, 2011, 6:00 am EDT

SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire -08/05/11)- Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB) today reported its financial results for the third quarter ended June 30, 2011. While sales and earnings were lower than the unusually high third quarter of last year, third quarter earnings were the highest quarter in the nine-month period this year and the second highest quarter ever. Sales, operating income and earnings per share for the nine-month period were all higher than last year, and total backlog at June 30, 2011 was up by $338.6 million compared to last year end.

Net income attributable to Cubic shareholders for the third quarter was $20.8 million or 78 cents per share this year compared to $22.7 million or 85 cents per share last year. Sales for the third fiscal quarter decreased from $331.3 million to $319.9 million. Operating income was $26.8 million in this year's third quarter compared to $32.6 million last year. Cash flow from operations was $51.9 million in the quarter.

In the third quarter of 2010, the company had made a significant delivery of virtual small arms training systems to a U.S. government customer which resulted in a spike in quarterly sales and operating income for the defense systems segment. In the current year, the deliveries of these systems occurred throughout the year, resulting in sales and operating income more evenly spread across the quarters. The third quarter last year also included a large gating system installation for a customer in Southern California by the transportation systems segment, adding to sales and operating income for the quarter. Sales from the transportation systems segment usually come from the development of systems over a period of time, resulting in the revenue spread more evenly over the period of performance.

For the nine months ended June 30, 2011, sales increased to $938.3 million compared to $846.5 million last year. Operating income was $82.0 million for the first nine months compared to $79.1 million last year. Net income attributable to Cubic shareholders was higher for the first nine months, increasing from $57.4 million or $2.15 per share last year, as restated, to $60.7 million or $2.27 per share this year. Cash flow from operations was $96.2 million for the nine-month period.

During the third fiscal quarter of 2011, the company identified errors in its consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2010, for the nine months ended June 30, 2010 and for the three months ended September 30, 2010. The company has restated its previously reported consolidated statements of income and cash flows for the nine months ended June 30, 2010 to record the impact of changes in exchange rates on U.S. dollar denominated money market investments that are held by its wholly-owned subsidiary in the United Kingdom that has the British Pound as its functional currency. These investments were purchased during the quarter ended March 31, 2010 and the company historically recorded the impact of changes in exchange rates on these investments in other comprehensive income as they were treated as an economic hedge. Upon reviewing the accounting treatment for these investments, management determined that these changes in exchange rates did not meet the requirements for hedge accounting treatment and therefore should have been recorded in other non-operating income.

As a result of these errors other non-operating income was understated by $5.0 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 and non-operating income was overstated by a similar amount for the quarter ended September 30, 2010. The company evaluated the materiality of the errors from a qualitative and quantitative perspective and concluded that they were material to the interim periods previously presented and has restated these amounts. The company also concluded that since the understatement of non-operating income in the quarter ended March 31, 2010 approximated the overstatement in the quarter ended September 30, 2010, these errors were not material to the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2010. The restatements had no impact on the consolidated financial statements for the nine months ended June 30, 2011 or any interim financial statements within that period.

Transportation Systems Segment

Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) sales in the third quarter this year were $107.4 million compared to $111.2 million last year. Operating income for the quarter decreased in the third quarter this year to $13.6 million from $14.6 million last year. The large gating system installation in the third quarter last year described above contributed to the decrease for the quarter. Partially offsetting these decreases were higher quarterly sales and operating income from work on contracts in Australia and the U.K.

For the nine-month period, CTS sales increased to $293.6 million this year from $276.7 million last year, and operating income was $41.9 million compared to $40.7 million last year. The nine-month sales and operating income this year were higher from work on contracts in Australia and the U.K.

Defense Systems Segment

Sales from Cubic Defense Systems (CDS) were $86.4 million in this quarter compared to $108.5 million in last year's third quarter. Operating income for the third quarter decreased from $11.6 million last year to $6.3 million this year. The delivery of small arms training systems in the third quarter of last year mentioned above resulted in significant sales and income for that quarter. Sales also decreased in the communications business for the third quarter this year but operating income increased in the communications business related to higher margins on sales of a mini-common data link product. Partially offsetting the overall decreases in CDS sales and operating income in the current quarter were higher sales and operating income from air and ground combat training systems.

For the first nine months of the year, CDS sales increased from $247.5 million last year to $285.9 million this year due to increased sales from the training systems business, partially offset by decreased sales from the communications business. Operating income increased from $23.6 million last year to $25.7 million in the first nine months of this year due to increased operating profits on increased sales in the training systems business and improved margins in the communications business.

Mission Support Services Segment

Mission Support Services (MSS) sales increased to $125.9 million from $111.3 million in last year's third quarter. The acquisition of Abraxas Corporation (Abraxas) in December 2010 added $15.0 million to sales for the third quarter of this year [i.e. sales in this segment would have been flat w/o the acquisition]. Sales were also higher from homeland security related contracts and in support of instruction and maintenance of flight simulators, but were lower from training and education contracts due to delays in contract awards, and services insourcing. Operating income from MSS increased to $8.0 million in the third quarter of this year compared to $7.6 million last year as a result of a settlement received in the quarter related to a dispute over contract terms in 2010. Partially offsetting this increase was decreased operating income on decreased sales from training and education contracts. Abraxas incurred an operating loss of $0.3 million in the quarter, after deducting $2.6 million of intangible asset amortization.

For the first nine months of the year, MSS sales increased from $320.9 million to $357.8 million. Operating income decreased slightly from $18.7 million last year to $18.2 million in the first nine months of this year. The operating loss of Abraxas was $1.8 million since its acquisition, which included amortization of intangible assets of $5.5 million, as well as acquisition costs of $0.7 million that were incurred in the first quarter.

Backlog

Total backlog was $2.825 billion at June 30, 2011 compared to $2.486 billion at September 30, 2010. Abraxas added $120.1 million to total backlog as of June 30, 2011. [The backlog is roughly unchanged since 12/31/11.].

Financial Condition

The company continues to maintain a strong liquidity position, ending the period with $339.0 million in cash and short-term investments, and total debt of only $16.2 million.

Cubic Corporation is the parent company of three major business segments: Defense Systems, Mission Support Services and Transportation Systems. Cubic Defense Systems is a leading provider of realistic combat training systems, cyber technologies, asset tracking solutions and defense electronics. Mission Support Services is a leading provider of training, operations, maintenance, technical and other support services. Cubic Transportation Systems is the world's leading provider of automated fare collection systems and services for public transit authorities. For more information about Cubic, see the company's Web site at www.cubic.com.‹