Matrix Service Company (NASDAQ:MTRX) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 9, 2023 10:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Kellie Smythe - Senior Director of Investor Relations

John Hewitt - President & Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Cavanah - Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

John Franzreb - Sidoti

Brent Thielman - D.A. Davidson

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Matrix Service Company Conference Call to discuss results for the Third Quarter of Fiscal 2023. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to today's host, Ms. Kellie Smythe, Senior Director of Investor Relations of Matrix Service Company. Please go ahead.

Kellie Smythe

Good morning, and welcome to Matrix Service Company's third quarter fiscal 2023 earnings call. Participants on today's call will include John Hewitt, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Kevin Cavanah, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The presentation materials we will be referring to during the webcast today can be found under Events and Presentations on the Investor Relations section of matrixservicecompany.com.

Before we begin, please let me remind you that on today's call, we may make various remarks about future expectations, plans and prospects for Matrix Service Company that constitutes forward-looking statements for the purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in subsequent filings made by the company with the SEC. To the extent we utilize non-GAAP measures, reconciliations will be provided in various press releases, periodic SEC filings and on our website.

I will now turn the call over to John Hewitt, President and CEO of Matrix Service Company.

John Hewitt

Thank you, Kelly. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to open the call with congratulations to our operations team for being recognized for contractor safety achievement at 5 separate refineries by the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Association. These safety recognitions represent a strong commitment and leadership our people bring to the workplace every day. Thanks to all our employees for making safety a critical parts of your mission.

Our business update; we continue to see very strong award momentum as reflected in total project awards of $309 million in the third quarter. This resulted in a book-to-bill of 1.7, our seventh consecutive quarter at or above 1.0. Year-to-date, we have been awarded $862 million in projects, up 35% over the same period in the prior fiscal year. This has resulted in a book-to-bill of 1.3 or greater in each of our segments and consolidated book to bill of 1.5. We are seeing positive trends in our business as event projects, build backlog and execute with our transformed organization. Bidding activity remains robust across all segments, and we're confident the strong award cycle will continue. At the end of the quarter, project backlog was $832 million, a 42% increase from the start of the fiscal year with backlog of across each of our segments. Timing of awards aside, our proposal activities suggest that we will return to a more normalized backlog of more than $1 billion in the near term. Keep in mind that many of the larger projects we're putting into backlog may take upwards to 6 months before they have a material impact on revenue and a rare instances perhaps longer.