General Dynamics Corp (GD) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending April 2, 2023

April 26, 2023 9:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the General Dynamics First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Howard Rubel, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Howard Rubel

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the General Dynamics First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Any forward-looking statements made today represent our estimates regarding the company's outlook. These estimates are subject to some risks and uncertainties. Additional information regarding these factors is contained in the company's 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filings. We will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. For additional disclosures about these non-GAAP measures, including the reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures, please see the press release and slides that accompany this webcast, which are available on the Investor Relations page of our website, investorrelations.gd.com.

On the call today are Phebe Novakovic, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jason Aiken, Executive Vice President, Technologies and Chief Financial Officer. With the introductions complete, I turn the call over to Phebe.

Phebe Novakovic

Thank you, Howard. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for being with us. As you can discern from our press release, we reported earnings of $2.64 per diluted share on revenue of $9.9 billion, operating earnings of $938 million and net earnings of $730 million. Revenue is up $489 million or 5.2% against the first quarter last year. Operating earnings are up $30 million and net earnings are flat against the year ago quarter. This increase in operating earnings was offset by a $31 million increase in the tax provision.

Recall that the first quarter 2022 tax provision was only 14%. Nevertheless, earnings per share are up $0.03 as a result of the stronger operating earnings and a lower share count. The operating margin for the entire company was 9.5%, 20 basis points lower than the year ago quarter. This reflected lower operating margins in Aerospace and Marine, which I will address in some detail later in these remarks. Revenue was $489 million better than first quarter '22. All of the defense units were up and Aerospace down slightly, less than 1% on fewer aircraft deliveries. We beat consensus by $0.05 per share. We have roughly $550 million more in revenue than anticipated by the sell side and lower-than-anticipated margins, leading to operating earnings basically consistent with expectations. The earnings per share beat was largely attributable to below the line items.