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Text: What we will say today is based on the current plans and expectations of Comfort Systems USA.
Those plans and expectations include risks and uncertainties that might cause actual future activities and results of our operations to be materially different from those set forth in our comments.
Joining me on the call today are Brian Lane, President and Chief Executive Officer; Trent McKenna, Chief Operating Officer; and Bill George, Chief Financial Officer.
Brian will open our remarks.
We are happy to report a fantastic third quarter.
We earned $1.27 per share on revenue of $834 million.
Same-store revenue grew by 9% compared to the third quarter of 2020, as work and bookings are returning as COVID challenges decrease.
Our backlog was over $1.9 billion this quarter, which is a $270 million same-store increase over this time last year.
Our free cash flow continues to be strong, and yesterday we increased our dividend by 8%.
Our essential workforce continues to perform at an outstanding level, and we are grateful for their strength and perseverance during these challenging times.
During the third quarter, we closed our acquisition of Amteck, which focuses on electrical projects and service in Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas.
Amteck brings an exceptional set of capabilities and relationships and a strong reputation in industrial markets, such as food processing.
We are thrilled to have them as part of Comfort Systems USA.
I'll turn this over to Bill to review our financial performance.
This will be pretty brief.
Revenue for the third quarter of 2021 was $834 million, an increase of $120 million or 17% compared to last year; same-store revenue increased by a strong 9%, with the remaining increase resulting from our acquisitions of TEC and Amteck.
Gross profit this quarter was $159 million, a $12 million improvement compared to a year ago while gross profit percentage was 19.1% this quarter compared to 20.6% for the third quarter of 2020.
Our gross profit percentage related to our Mechanical segment was strong at 20.1% and margins in the Electrical segment have increased significantly compared to last year.
SG&A expense for the quarter was $95 million or 11.4% of revenue compared to $91 million or 12.7% of revenue for the third quarter in 2020.
On a same-store basis, SG&A was down approximately $2 million, primarily due to tax consulting fees that we incurred in the prior year.
Our year-to-date 2021 tax rate was in the expected range at 24.1%.
Net income for the third quarter of 2021 was $46 million or $1.27 per share.
This compares to net income for the third quarter of 2020 of $50 million or $1.36 per share, as last year included a $0.17 benefit that resulted when we settled tax audits from past years.
Excluding that discrete item from last year, our earnings per share increased by 7% compared to the record level of a year ago.
For our third quarter, EBITDA was up significantly to $82 million, an increase of 15% over the prior year.
And through nine months, our EBITDA is $188 million.
Free cash flow in the first nine months was $139 million, as compared to $199 million in 2020.
The COVID-induced work slowdown and some temporary tax benefit created unprecedented cash flow last year.
Our cash flow this year is robust through nine months and we expect continued good cash flow, although we are likely to continue to deploying some net working capital to start new projects in many places.
In addition, we will be paying the federal government an extra $16 million of payroll taxes next quarter that were deferred under the CARES Act in 2020.
Ongoing strong cash flow has allowed us to reduce our debt faster than expected, while still actively repurchasing our stock.
Since the beginning of the year, we have repurchased 346,000 shares which is almost 1% of our outstanding shares at an average price of $73.69.
Since we began our repurchase program in 2007, we have bought back over 9.6 million shares at an average price of less than $22.
Brian mentioned that we closed the acquisition of Amteck.
Amteck is reported in our Electrical segment and it is expected to contribute annualized revenues of approximately $175 million to $200 million and earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization of $14 million to $17 million.
However, because of the amortization expense related to intangibles, the acquisition is not expected to contribute to earnings per share for the next few quarters.
That's all I have on financial Brian.
I am going to spend a few minutes discussing our backlog and markets.
I will also comment on our outlook for the remainder of 2021 and full year 2022.
Backlog at the end of the third quarter of 2021 was $1.94 billion.
Our sequential same-store backlog was up slightly, which is great by the end of the third quarter due to the heavy backlog burn this time of the year.
Year-over-year our backlog is up by over $500 million or 36%.
Same-store backlog increased by 19%, a broad base increase.
We believe that the impact on activity levels related to COVID-19 have now stabilized and we expect to continue seeing good trends in work availability in the coming quarters.
Industrial customers were 43% of total revenue in the first nine months of 2021.
We think this sector which includes technology, life sciences and food processing will remain strong for us, as Industrial is heavily represented in new backlog as well as in our recent acquisitions.
Institutional markets, which include education healthcare and government are strong and represented 33% of our revenue.
The commercial sector is also doing well but without changing mix it is now a smaller part of our business at about 24% of revenue.
Year-to-date, construction was 77% of our revenue with 46% from construction projects for new buildings and 31% from construction projects in existing buildings.
Service was very strong this quarter and our increasing service revenue was 23% of our year-to-date revenue with service projects providing 9% of revenue and pure service including hourly work providing 14% of revenue.
Year-to-date service revenue was up by 11%.
And with our continuing strong margins our service earnings were up by a similar amount.
Service has rebounded as buildings are open and profitable small project activity is back.
Overall, service continues to be a great source of profit for us.
Our backlog is at record levels.
Project development and planning activities with our customers are continuing.
We are paying more for materials but so far our teams have coped successfully with challenges in material availability and cost.
We are closely monitoring material shortages and costs and are taking steps to add additional protections on new work.
Vaccine mandates by certain customers have post challenges in our ability to pursue certain work.
All the staff are maintained scheduling on work that is subject to such mandates.
So far we have been able to meet our customers' requirements.
However, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA is drafting an emergency regulation on vaccinations and it is impossible to predict the scope, timing and impact of the new regulation on us, or our industry or on the US economy.
The underlying trends in customer demand and opportunities are very positive.
And so despite challenges, we continue to anticipate solid earnings and cash flow for the remainder of 2021 and we feel that we have good prospects for 2022.
Over the last few years, we completed a series of transformative acquisitions that have built upon our unbroken history of profitability and cash flow to increase our scale, deepen our exposure to complex markets, including industrial, technology and pharma and expand our recurring service revenue.
Each investment has strengthened and expanded our unmatched nationwide community of skilled workers.
We are also experiencing increasing benefits from our substantial and ongoing investments in training, productivity and technology.
These acquisitions and other investments have laid the foundation for the current strong results and gives us confidence as we move forward.
Above all, we are mindful of the ongoing challenges that our employees across the United States continue to confront and we are deeply grateful for their perseverance.
We are committed to providing our workers and thus our customers with unmatched resources, opportunities and support.

user
compname reports q3 earnings per share $1.27.
q3 earnings per share $1.27.
backlog as of september 30, 2021 was $1.94 billion.

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