Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

David Watson: Yeah, there is always a number of items to close out that take time after the primary portions of the job are complete and it really was a great event earlier this week to see our customer cadence successfully reach commercial operations, success for them is a success for us. But not only do we need to complete punch list items and close out with our customer, but we have to settle up matters with suppliers, subcontractors, the OEM and other parties that have been involved with the project. And these efforts can take multiple months, and in some cases, even quarters. So and these are just a natural final steps on any major projects such as Guernsey, which is our largest in history. So at the end of the day, we’re always committed to delivering the best possible project result each and every time and there is expected to be additional revenue given that we still got several months to go.

Chris Moore: Got it. And from an excess margin standpoint likely not anything additional at this point in time or any thoughts there?

David Watson: The accounting, ultimately, we’ve got a lot of closing out to do. So base off of the current accounting as of 4/30, the margins are what they currently are.

Chris Moore: Got it. Switch to Trumbull. From my understanding it’s kind of a guesstimate at this point in time, but just trying to get a sense as to when you might be — when you would get to peak there, is that something that could happen later in fiscal ’24, is that more likely a fiscal ’25 timeframe?

David Watson: Yeah. Trumbull is off to a good start. It’s meeting our expectations as it’s ramping up and is expected to ramp up throughout the year. This one has a little bit of a longer timeline and isn’t expected to finish till the beginning of 2026. And so peak activity, it’s always difficult to determine when given the supply chain, the cadence of a project and everything else that may or may not be in our control, would probably be more of a fiscal year 2025 activity versus during the current fiscal year.

Chris Moore: Got it. And maybe let’s just go back to the gross margin for a second. So in terms of the things that are going to drive the margin from here, obviously the Gemma revenues has better margins than some of the other businesses. So Trumbull ramping would be the key one at this point in time?

David Watson: Yeah, I mean back to margins and back to backlog, where we really are excited about the number of opportunities that we’re looking at and I realize that you’re looking at what margins related to Gemma will be in the current fiscal year with the one major project that’s in-house, which is the Trumbull job, but keep in mind, we do have a number of non-disclosed jobs that we’re working on. So Gemma continues to be the core driver for our revenues and for our business and that shouldn’t change this year.

Chris Moore: Got it. And maybe just you’ve talked about the debt ceiling bill, so within there, they are talking about the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline to be expedited just trying to get a sense as to how that might or might not impact Argan?