Earnings Sentiment

Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.

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Sentiment Distribution

   

Earnings Call Transcript Word Cloud

     

Bullish Statements during Earnings call

Statement
In Canada, we achieved greater than 8% organic net revenue growth which surpassed our expectations for the year
We're pleased to have achieved the targets we set out three years ago, by delivering approximately $0.38 of incremental adjusted EPS, and reducing our real estate footprint by over 30% from our 2019 baseline
We grew our employee base by 5% through organic hires another record, while maintaining our best-in-class employee retention rates
We're very pleased with our Q4 and full-year 2023 performance and we're really optimistic about the outlook here for 2024
Backlog has grown organically by 5% since December 2022 and continued to grow in each of our geographic regions with Global, posting double-digit organic growth
And we -- I wouldn't say it's easy, but we've been very successful of bringing this people on
Very impressive pace of organic hires
It was quite strong in the quarter
Increased earnings also reflect the successful completion of our 2023 real estate strategy
So, you're calling for mid to high-single-digit organic growth in the US, but the backlog there grew organically only 2%, but we kind of have the opposite story in global, where you have a very strong double-digit organic growth in backlog and you're calling from mid-single-digits, revenue growth
Market demand in 2023 was particularly robust in our water and environmental service business units and in the US with each delivering double-digit growth for the year
Our strong operational performance drove record high adjusted EBITDA of $831 million and an EBITDA margin of 16.4%
And as a result we delivered significant adjusted EPS growth of 17% achieving a record high of $3.67
Our US business achieved very strong results with over 18% growth in net revenue for the year more than 12% of which came from organic growth
In 2023, we achieved an organic growth in every one of our business units with water, building and energy and resources each delivering double-digit organic growth
The demand in the public sector and industrial projects as well as large-scale water security projects drove a 25% increase in organic growth for our water business
Our buildings business benefited from higher activity levels in healthcare, industrial and science and technology projects and energy and resources continue to support Puerto Rico's hurricane recovery including the upgrading of its power grid contributing to solid revenue growth
So overall, a very, very solid year for our US operation
So, we're in really good shape
We achieved record financial results and delivered our best year ever for organic net revenue growth
Our full-year diluted earnings per share reached a record high of $2.98, and our adjusted diluted EPS was $3.67 up 34% and 17% respectively despite the $0.24 unfavorable impact from the LTIP revaluation
Our ability to grow backlog in Q4, which is generally softer as a result of seasonality, clearly demonstrates the strength of the market
So there certainly is -- and as you know in previous years, we've been successful in passing along the majority if not all of that salary increases to our clients
Obviously, very solid organic growth environment
She's added tremendous value to the company and has ensured Stantec is in a very strong financial position
Strong demand for permitting and archaeological work drove growth for environmental services particularly in Western Canada for the midstream energy sector and in Ontario for large-scale transportation projects
2023 was a remarkable year for Stantec and I'm very proud of what we accomplished
While we're only two months into 2024, we are very confident in being able to achieve these targets
We closed out the year with a solid quarter of performance in Q4, contributing to another record year for Stantec
We have raised our net revenue growth target for the year to 11% to 15%, and expect organic net revenue growth to be in the mid to high-single-digits
       

Bearish Statements during earnings call

Statement
So we're seeing a number of employee owned firms beginning to struggle with funding some of those things as well
The other thing, that to keep in mind as well is that, there's often work that comes through MSAs that really don't come into backlog, until the past quarter’s a issues
This along with the quarter's 90 basis point impact from the revaluation of our long-term incentive plan contributed to the reduction in adjusted EBITDA margin to 15.7%
We talk about solar and wind and some things, when you are seeing some slowdown in some of the offshore wind projects and things seeing some stress in some of the suppliers, equipment suppliers
Also you're seeing in Western Canada, in Alberta, in particular a pause on new renewables
Project margin was right in the middle of our targeted range of 53% to 55%, but decreased 100 basis points compared to Q4 last year, in part due to changes in project mix in the US
Devin Dodge I wanted to pick up on Michael's last question there look the headwind from LTIP revaluation clearly a high-class problem to have
Maxim Sytchev I was wondering just impossible to get a bit more color on the energy market, which witnessed a slight retraction
So that -- it does make it hard for us
And you've seen I guess sort of negative spillover effect into your environmental and water business because I think typically there's some subcontracting going on right? Gord Johnston Yes
So, we're not concerned about that
And those ones particularly Morrison Hershfield as well as the number of other discussions that we have ongoing are just related to the other folks coming up through the organization those 30 somethings and 40 somethings with not having the ability to acquire shares in many major metropolitan areas, it's a struggle to buy a house
So that's our non-new renewable power assets slowing things there a little bit as well
I believe there's been some effort towards insulating this impact from near-term results
So, it shows up and then is worse through pretty quickly
   

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