CoreCivic, Inc. (NYSE:CXW) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Damon Hininger: Well, if that’s, you’re getting at a level of precision that’s probably not, our guidance is a range, so I would say it’s approximately that level. But if they’re up slightly, they’ll be toward the high end of that that range, and if they’re down slightly, they’ll be toward the low end of that range. But I think given the range that we have out there, we’re pretty comfortable. Here we are beginning of November, have somewhat decent visibility on the rest of November and December, and certainly know what October was. So feel that it’s approximately equal to, I’d say, that number you just mentioned.

Greg Gibas: And then regarding the California facility, I think it was up March 31, 2024 about 25 million of the contributor. Any visibility on what will happen with that contract or that facility and when we might get a better picture?

Damon Hininger: Yes. It’s a great question. This is Damon again. And, our team is actively working on it, and I have nothing to announce today, but I will tell you that, we’ve had good discussions, with multiple jurisdictions on the path going forward. So hopefully, as we get to, February, I can give you another update on that front. But, there definitely is interest by a couple of different jurisdictions.

Greg Gibas: And I guess just last one for me, more of a broad kind of question, but, really great to see that leverage reduction continue into the quarter. And as we get close to that targeted range, how are you thinking about maybe capital allocation once you hit that range, once you’re at like, 2.5 or something like that, like, how would it change?

David Garfinkle: Yes. Good questions, Greg. So we expect to continue to both buy back stock and pay down debt at the same time. It’s we’re not applying a formula to that allocation. We’ll obviously react to prospects in the business, share price, things like that. As we just mentioned, there’s really no limitations under our under our debt agreements. We’re obviously a conservative management team and prudent with our leverage ratio, and it is a target, 2.25, 2.75. We’re not there yet. Now we’ve made significant progress and are just a hair above it. So, we’d expect to get there in the short-term, but we’ll allocate our free cash flow both toward, debt reduction and stock buybacks.

Operator: This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Damon Hininger for closing remarks.

Damon Hininger: All right. Thank you so very much, and thank you all for joining our call today. We appreciate giving you an opportunity to ask questions and give you all an update. I look forward to our call coming up in February of next year. Have a good day.

Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.