General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Cai von Rumohr: Got it. And with all of these deliveries in the fourth quarter, maybe, Jason, can you give us some color in terms of the cash flow profile? I mean, do we have just a momentous fourth quarter cash? And is there any upside to the 105%?

Jason Aiken: The way I think you need to think about that, Cai, is when it comes to Gulfstream, we have a sequence of progress payments that occurs from the time of the initial order through delivery and entry into service. So, the vast majority of the cash receipts associated with an aircraft order and aircraft delivery are in-house before the actual airplane is delivered. So, while there’s obviously an implied set of progress payments, final delivery payments would occur at that point. When those aircraft enter into service, it’s not an outsized level of cash, one way or the other. So, the bigger issue is you’ve got an ongoing sequence and series of progress payments associated with all of the orders in the order book.

And with the significant order volume that we’ve had over the past 2, 2.5 years, that is sort of a machine that’s just churning those progress payments over time as we continue to make progress on each of those airplane builds as well as the certification process.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Myles Walton from Wolfe Research.

Myles Walton: Thanks. Good morning. And congratulations on retirement, Howard. Miss you. In terms of the — the outlook for Aerospace orders, could you just comment, Phebe, what you’re seeing for the rest of the year? Obviously, the second quarter was probably helped a little bit because of the anomaly you mentioned in March around the banking crisis. And then also if you can comment on churn in the backlog, I think your net book-to-bill was a couple of hundred million lighter than your gross book-to-bill. So maybe just talk about any cancellations.

Phebe Novakovic: Yes. So, the demand in the second quarter was at the same level as the demand in the first quarter. It felt very, very similar. As you quite rightly note, we had a three-week hiatus coincident with the banking — many banking crisis. But the demand levels have remained about the same. And as we enter Q3, we have a very strong pipeline. And so far, activity is quite good in Q3. We had six defaults in the quarter, but nothing that is notable to us. And the backlog is holding up very, very well.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jason Gursky from Citigroup.

Jason Gursky: Congrats, Howard. I look forward to getting some postcards from our in distant places. Phebe, just sticking with Gulfstream for one last question, hopefully here. On the pipeline and kind of what you see from a bottom-up perspective, can you give us a little flavor from a geographic perspective and customer type? How is high net worth doing versus corporate? And are we beginning to see some green shoots in geographies outside the United States?

Phebe Novakovic: Yes. So, the United States was strong, has been strong, particularly with the Fortune 500. I would say that high net worth is about the same. And the Mid East is pretty good, as is Asia, but it’s really the Fortune 500 that are really driving the demand. These are long-established customers as well as new Fortune 500 customers.

Jason Gursky: Okay, great. And then, Jason, over to you on Technologies. It sounds like you’ve got a robust pipeline of opportunities in front of you. Can you talk a little bit about the mix of that? We had some margin degradation here in the quarter. I’m just kind of curious, as you look out at that pipeline, do you see anything that would suggest we’re going to see a departure in any — either higher or lower from a margin perspective as you bid on this work and bring it in?