Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE:J) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Robert Pragada: Yes. Yes, Steve, thanks for the question. That’s a good clarification. So the first part of your question is yes, those $275 million and the $40 million are still very much in play. I’d say on the $40 million, that’s not the — the $9 million was what was incurred in the first quarter. And so the balance would be over the course of the next 3 quarters, and we’re indexing probably more in the first half than the second half. So hopefully, that clarifies that. But yes, we’re still on track within the numbers that we highlighted in the previous quarter. The $17 million is not included in that. The $17 million is our costs that are with us. They’re recoverable. That’s why we moved them into the segment.

Claudia Jaramillo: And Steve, I’ll add to the $275 million, we’re also on track. And for that, it’s a $51 million that I mentioned in my prepared remarks.

Steven Fisher: Okay. That’s helpful. And then the 14.6% margin for P&PS, is that on the same basis as the 13.7% in Q1? I assume it is. And if so, and then how quickly do we get above that 14.6% to kind of deliver it for the full year given the lighter side in Q1?

Robert Pragada: Yes. Steve, the answer to the first question is yes. And I’d say within the next few quarters.

Steven Fisher: Okay. So in other words, Q2, we should still be expecting it to be below that? Or…

Robert Pragada: No, no, no, no. It will sequentially increase over the next few quarters to where Q4 will be above where we were last year.

Steven Fisher: Okay. I’m just.

Robert Pragada: For the year. Yes.

Steven Fisher: For this year?

Robert Pragada: For this year. This year will be higher than the last year, year-on-year total.

Steven Fisher: Right. This year, you’re guiding to 14.6%, right? Do I have that right?

Robert Pragada: Better than 14.6%. So last year was 14.6%. And then this year will be better than 14.6% full year.

Steven Fisher: And if you’re 14.7% for the quarter, you got to start being better than 14.6%. So I guess I’m just trying to figure out how quickly we get better than 14.6%. Is that…

Claudia Jaramillo: It will be a gradual increase.

Robert Pragada: And we’ll see that within our reported financials. That’s why that — Steve, that’s why I said a few quarters.

Operator: We’ll take our next question from Jerry Revich at Goldman Sachs.

Unidentified Analyst: This is Adam on for Jerry today. Can you talk about — can you talk a bit more about what drove the 280 plus margin decline in PA Consulting even with revenues higher sequentially? And then what drives visibility on the margin ramp through the balance of the year?

Robert Pragada: Sure. So what drives — I’m going to answer the second part first, Adam. The pipeline as well as the — we call it stock of work in PA, but its backlog, is driving the optimism there as well as the team really does have better arms around the variable cost structure of the entity. Similar to Jacobs, it’s a people business, asset-light and services-oriented. The drop was probably driven a little bit by some volatility with our clients in December. And the discretionary spend of — and it was kind of more in the U.K. business and around what was going on within U.K. government, defense and security as well as the public sector work. And so that was — that kind of — if it stops on a dime, we can’t make those variable cost actions. And so we ended up seeing that in the quarter. That has since kind of returned and then we’re managing our variable costs ahead of it, similar to what we did in mid last year.

Unidentified Analyst: And then on the top line, solid growth this quarter, high-single digits, but the comps get a little harder from here. How are you thinking about the organic growth outlook in the balance of the year amid some of the things going on in the U.K. market?

Robert Pragada: Yes. I think we’re still in that kind of mid-single digits to mid-high singles. [indiscernible] for 3 years. 3 years has been double-digit growth. And so we’re still growing. I think we’re probably kind of in that mid-single-digit growth now.

Operator: And next, we’ll move to Chad Dillard at Bernstein.

Charles Dillard: So I wanted to spend a little more time on just like what you’re seeing from a booking standpoint, in People & Places. So first place is just like on the semiconductor side. So it sounds like there’s a number of grants to be announced by the U.S. in March. To what extent do you think that could potentially unlock with more activity from a design standpoint. And then just like what are you seeing from like a domestic versus international perspective, just for semi design?

Robert Pragada: Yes. So let me answer the first one, Chad, just writing some notes on. On the grants that are coming out, I would probably — similar to what I said to Mike Dudas is that those grants are being utilized predominantly in the R&D side, right? Because these larger facilities need to get to full production and so the larger IDM or the integrated device manufacturers are probably thinking more about the semiconductor buy cycle, right, and timing their output or the start-up of those large plants. So those grants then go to where technology advancements are happening, and that’s happening at the tool OEMs. And so actually those — that’s kind of driving our bookings right now as well, those tool OEMs. The great thing here about Jacobs is we’re inside the technology of the tool and understand the facility requirements for them.