Cactus Q2 2024 Earnings Report

Cactus EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.81
• Consensus EPS: $0.72
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.09
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.84

Cactus Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $290.39 million
• Expected Revenue: $276.76 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$13.63 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -5.00%

Cactus Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2024
• Date: 7/31/2024
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, August 1, 2024
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Cactus (NYSE:WHD), together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and leases pressure control and spoolable pipes in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Middle East, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Pressure Control and Spoolable Technologies. The Pressure Control segment designs, manufactures, sells, and rents a range of wellhead and pressure control equipment under the Cactus Wellhead brand name through service centers. Its products are sold and rented primarily for onshore unconventional oil and gas wells for drilling, completion, and production phases of the wells. This segment also provides field services to install, maintain, and handle the equipment. The Spoolable Technologies segment designs, manufactures, and sells spoolable pipes and associated end fittings under the FlexSteel brand name. Its products are primarily used to transport oil, gas, and other liquids. This segment also provides field services and rental items through service centers and pipe yards, as well as offers equipment and services internationally. In addition, the company offers repair and refurbishment services. Cactus, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Cactus Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Cactus reported Q2 revenue of $290 million, adjusted EBITDA of $104 million at a 35.7% margin, increased its cash balance to $247 million, and approved an 8% dividend increase to $0.13 per share.
• Pressure Control segment revenue rose 6.9% sequentially to $187 million, driving a 7.7% increase in operating income and a 30 bps lift in adjusted EBITDA margin on higher operating leverage.
• Spoolable Technology segment revenues grew 4.7% sequentially with a 9.4% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a 170 bps margin expansion supported by favorable operating leverage and lower input costs.
• For Q3, the company expects mid-single-digit revenue declines in Pressure Control and flat to slightly down spoolable revenues, with adjusted EBITDA margins broadly stable at 33–35% and 39–41%, while lowering full-year net CapEx guidance to $35–45 million.
• Cactus is rolling out its next-generation wellhead system and new frac valve design, advancing international product qualifications, and targeting approximately 40% of revenue from international markets over the next few years.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Cactus Quarter 2 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised.

[Operator]

To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. We suggest that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Alan Boyd, Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Alan Boyd, Director of Corporate Development and Head of Investor Relations at Cactus Inc.]

Thank you, and good morning. We appreciate you joining us on today's call. Our speakers will be Scott Bender, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Jay Nutt, our Chief Financial Officer. Also joining us today are Joel Bender, President, Steven Bender, Chief Operating Officer, Steve Tadlock, CEO of FlexSteel, and Will Marsh, our General Counsel.

[Alan Boyd, Director of Corporate Development and Head of Investor Relations at Cactus Inc.]

Please note that any comments we make on today's call regarding projections or expectations for future events are forward-looking statements covered by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.

[Alan Boyd, Director of Corporate Development and Head of Investor Relations at Cactus Inc.]

We advise listeners to review our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC.Any forward-looking statements we make today are only as of today's date, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statements. In addition, during today's call, we will reference certain Non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these Non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Scott.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Thanks, Alan, and good morning to everyone. I'm pleased to report that revenues and margins in both of our segments improved despite year-to-date declines in our industry's North American land activity. I'm very proud of our associates' continued commitment to customer execution that's led to this consistent record of outperformance. Some second quarter total company highlights include revenue of $290 million, Adjusted EBITDA of $104 million, Adjusted EBITDA margin of 35.7%.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

We increased our cash balance to $247 million, and yesterday we announced that our board approved an 8% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.13 per share. Before we move into the financial review, I'd like to take this opportunity to formally introduce the newest member of our leadership team, Jay Nutt.Jay joined us as Chief Financial Officer in June and has immediately brought value and helpful perspective to our company, given his extensive global financial leadership experience.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

We're delighted to have him. I'd also like to thank Al Kiefer for his outstanding service as interim CFO these past few months. I'll now turn the call over to Jay, who will review our financial results. Following his remarks, I'll provide some thoughts on our outlook for the near term before opening the lines for Q&A. So, Jay?

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Thank you for your kind words, Scott. I'm privileged to have the opportunity to join an industry leader such as Cactus. I appreciate the confidence that the leadership team has placed in me, and I look forward to helping guide the company's continued growth while sustaining industry, industry-leading returns.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

As Scott mentioned, we had a solid quarter, resulting in total Q2 revenues of $290 million and total Adjusted EBITDA of $104 million. For our Pressure Control segment, revenues of $187 million were up 6.9% sequentially, driven primarily by shipments of production equipment to a large customer who had not previously used Cactus, combined with customer efficiency improvements, leading to increased products sold per rigs followed. Operating income increased $4 million, or 7.7% sequentially, with operating margins increasing 20 basis points.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Adjusted segment EBITDA increased $4.7 million or 7.7% sequentially, with margins increasing by 30 basis points. The operating and adjusted EBITDA margin improvements were due to higher operating leverage on the increased volume. For our Spoolable Technology segment, revenues were up 4.7% sequentially, due largely to the resilience of international shipments and higher domestic customer activity.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Operating income increased $13.6 million sequentially, primarily due to a smaller expense resulting from the remeasurement of the FlexSteel earnout liability. Adjusted segment EBITDA increased $3.7 million or 9.4% sequentially, while margins increased by 170 basis points, resulting from favorable operating leverage and lower input cost. Corporate and other expenses were $5.9 million, up $400,000 sequentially on higher stock-based compensation.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

On a total company basis, second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $104 million, up 8.7% from the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the second quarter was 35.7%, compared to 34.8% for the first quarter. Adjustments to total company EBITDA during the second quarter of 2024 included non-cash charges of $5.9 million in stock-based compensation and a $2.9 million charge related to the final remeasurement of the FlexSteel earnout liability.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Depreciation and amortization expense for the second quarter was $15 million, which includes $4 million of amortization expense related to the intangible assets booked as part of the FlexSteel acquisition. During the second quarter, the public, or Class A, ownership of the company averaged 83% and ended the quarter at 84%.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

GAAP net income was $63 million in the quarter versus $50 million during the first quarter. The increase was driven by the stronger operational performance on the higher revenue achieved, combined with a smaller quarterly change in the remeasurement of the earn-out liability. Book income tax expense during the second quarter was $18 million, resulting in an effective tax rate of 22%.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Adjusted net income and earnings per share were $65 million and $0.81 per share, respectively, compared to $60 million and $0.75 per share in the first quarter. Adjusted net income for the second quarter was net of a tax rate of 26%, applied to our adjusted pre-tax income. During the quarter, we paid a dividend of $0.12 per share, resulting in a cash outflow of approximately $10 million, including related distributions to members.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Additionally, we made early cash TRA payments and associated distributions of $18.2 million. We elected to make this early payment of the majority of our 2023 TRA liability to minimize the interest expense on the liability, and we expect to pay the remaining balance in the third quarter upon completion of our tax filings.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Due to our strong operating earnings and disciplined working capital management during the quarter, we increased our cash and cash equivalents balance by $52 million, notwithstanding the aforementioned payments, and we closed the quarter with a cash balance of $247 million. Net CapEx was approximately $7 million during the second quarter. In a moment, Scott will give you the operational outlook.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Some other considerations when looking ahead to the third quarter include an effective tax rate similar to the second quarter rate of 22%, and we estimate that the tax rate for adjusted EPS will continue to be approximately 26%. Total depreciation and amortization expense during the third quarter is expected to be approximately $15 million, with $7 million associated with our Pressure Control segment and $8 million associated with Spoolable Technologies.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

We are reducing our full year 2024 net CapEx outlook to be in the range of $35 million-$45 million due to the timing of our international expansion efforts. As noted, the remeasurement period for the FlexSteel earnout payment is now complete, and the final payment of $37 million is expected to be distributed in the third quarter.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

Finally, the board has approved an 8% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.13 per share, which will be paid in September. That covers the financial review and outlook, and I'll now turn the call back over to Scott.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Thanks, Jay. I'll now touch on our operational expectations for the third quarter by reporting segment. Based upon preliminary revenue for July, we expect Pressure Control revenue to moderate mid-single digits versus the second quarter due to the combination of lower average US land drilling activity and less visibility into production equipment shipments.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

From speaking with our customers, we believe that most of the decline in US land drilling activity levels is now behind us, although the potential for further rig reductions remains as operators continue to pursue and complete consolidating transactions. We may see some offset to the consolidation activity via expected drilling efficiency increases of the newly combined businesses.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Adjusted EBITDA margins in our Pressure Control segment are expected to be essentially flat at 33%-35% for the third quarter, as cost efficiencies are offset in part by increased ocean freight costs.This adjusted EBITDA guidance excludes approximately $3 million of stock-based comp expense within the segment. I'm pleased to announce that the first shipments of our next generation wellhead system have now arrived at our US branches and are presently being staged for customer shipment.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

This rollout will enhance our manufacturing cost profile in the coming quarters, while adding features for our customers and maintaining SafeDrill status as the industry-leading wellhead system.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Regarding our Spoolable Technology segment, we expect third quarter revenue to be flat to slightly down from the second quarter, and this guidance reflects our expectations of a stable North American business that continues to outperform year-to-date activity reductions, combined with lower international shipments due to the timing of deliveries achieved in a strong second quarter.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

We expect Adjusted EBITDA margins in this segment to be approximately 39%-41% for the third quarter, which excludes $1 million of stock-based comp in the segment. As a result of operating discipline by our team, input costs were lower than expected in the second quarter, and we're beginning to realize the benefits of using the Cactus supply chain to source certain components of our FlexSteel product. Regarding our international expansion plans, Pressure Control product qualifications is progressing well, but at a slower pace than we anticipated.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

We still expect to achieve product qualification in 2024, remain focused on establishing a Middle East business, and are dedicating significant resources to these efforts in both segments. We will continue to take a disciplined approach to evaluating strategic opportunities.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Adjusted corporate EBITDA is expected to be a charge of approximately $4 million in the third quarter, which excludes around $1.5 million of stock-based comp. I remain very pleased with the market positioning of Cactus, our portfolio of high margin, high return products and services, and the commitment of our organization to exceed customer expectations.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

I'm eager to responsibly roll out our latest generation wellhead system to customers and to enable them to achieve reduced drilling times while enhancing safety and reliability. In addition, we'll complete prototype testing of our new frac valve design, which should significantly reduce maintenance costs. As we prepare to make the final earn-out payment to the sellers of FlexSteel, I am reflecting on the value that we've generated for our stakeholders by incorporating that business into Cactus.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Over the last 12 months, our Spoolable Technology segment has generated $164 million of adjusted EBITDA, which equates to a multiple of approximately 4x the total consideration paid for the business, including the upcoming final earnout payment. I continue to believe that we are still in the early phases of growth for that segment.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

We will remain focused and responsible stewards of capital, and are allocating capital and investing in the business with a focus on long-term value generation, while rewarding shareholders, as reflected in our decision to raise the dividend by 8%.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

In summary, our primary objectives for the next 18 months include: meaningful supply chain contribution from our new non-Section 301 manufacturing facility to enhance the cost and risk profile of our supply chain, increased deliveries of our next-generation wellhead system, introduction of our next-generation frac valve,

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

continued customer additions and increases within our existing customer base for our spoolable business, supported by the introduction of new products and services and international expansion in both segments. So with that, I'll turn it over to the operator, so that we may begin with Q&A. Operator?

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please remember that we suggest you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question, sorry, comes from the line of Luke Lemoine with Piper Sandler. Your line is now open.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

Yeah. Hi, good morning.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Good morning.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

I'm doing great. How are you?

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

I'm great, thanks.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

Scott, you noted the international momentum in spoolables. Want to see if you could expand on that a little bit. And then also in spoolables, if you could just talk about how, you know, what traction you're getting with some of the larger diameter stuff as far as gathering, and take away lines, that'd be helpful as well.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

All right. Very good. I'm gonna let, if you don't mind, Mr. Tadlock, respond to that.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

Yeah, sure.

[Steve Tadlock, CEO at Cactus Inc.]

Sure. Hey, Luke. On the international efforts, we've added key personnel. We're very focused on growth in this area. I think historically, while FlexSteel had more of an international presence than Cactus, actually, it really wasn't an area of focus. It was sort of if the order came, they would certainly take it, but it wasn't something they were really going out and trying to grow.

[Steve Tadlock, CEO at Cactus Inc.]

So we're changing that philosophy, seeing a lot of increased quoting activity as a result. We're adding installation equipment to facilitate the growth as well. So we feel like we're just scratching the surface on international.

[Steve Tadlock, CEO at Cactus Inc.]

I think on the larger diameter, we are definitely seeing more interest in our larger diameter SKUs as people recognize the benefits of the rapid installation and enhanced corrosion resistance. And so, I think that's progressing nicely, both in the midstream area, but also even some E&P operators that are sort of changing the way they do their takeaway and gathering.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

Okay. Then just to follow up, Scott, always appreciate kind of your market outlook in the U.S. And I mean, you did note that you think most of the rig count is behind us. You know, could you just expand maybe upon the back half of the year? Do you see it pretty flattish, you know, oscillating around this level? And any kind of indication, maybe for the start of 2025 that you see right now?

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Yeah, I know you all have good memories. So last time I told you that, contrary to maybe some of the published reports at the time, I saw the US land rig count in the 550-575 range. I think, Alan, we bottomed at 560 and have rebounded slightly to 568. You know, I, I'm, I'm, I, I absolutely feel like the worst is behind us, but we are scaling our business based upon the 550 range.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Do I think we're gonna go below 550? No. Am I seeing indications from customers that we're gonna go below 550? The answer is no as well. But I still very concerned about, and you all should be, about natural gas prices.I'm probably a little less concerned in 2024, 'cause I'm getting ready to answer your 2025 question. I'm a little less concerned about the reduction in overall rig count following consolidation. I think we've really only seen evidence of that in one case, and it hasn't been meaningful.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

So I do think that we're gonna get better natural gas support in 2025, and but offsetting that, I think we're gonna see more effect from consolidation efforts. Now, I need to add something about consolidation, because from our perspective, it's not all bad news. So if you see the... I'm giving you a long-winded answer. I'm sorry. If you see, if you're concerned about rig counts, and you know, we've always used that as a proxy, 'cause it's easy.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

We've seen shipments of wellhead equipment per rig, per month, go up, hence the comment I made about efficiency. So sometimes people see efficiencies, and they say, "Well, they're gonna be able to drill less wells." That's not what I meant. What we do is we measure every month, the number of housings we ship against, the number of rigs we service, and we've seen a, you know, a very meaningful increase. I think a better proxy for our business is wells drilled than, than our rig count.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

And, just further, I've said before that, long-term consolidation is probably, a friend, on, on the one hand. On the other hand, you know that customers with larger rig counts have much more, leverage in terms of, of pricing.So, I think it's probably too early, but next quarter, I think I'll have a much better idea. We're just now beginning to poll our customers about their plans for 2025. So, if you stand by, you know, I'd rather give you correct information than merely speculation.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

Okay. No, perfect. Definitely appreciate all the detail, and I'll, I'll turn it back.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of David Anderson with Barclays. Your line is now open.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Uh, thanks.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Hey, David.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Hey, good morning. Hey, Scott. So while I stew over that sort of complicated North American outlook you just provided there, maybe I can follow up a little bit on what Luke's question was on the international side. I'm also kind of curious about the spoolable international business. How are you kind of driving that? Are you bundling that with your other kind of with the pressure control?

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Are you going to the same market? Just kind of curious about the strategy of building out that international business. And kind of secondarily, do you have, like, a target for us of kind of how much of your business you think will be international, say, I don't know, the end of 2025? I know you have this stuff coming out in Saudi.I think that's more of a 2026 timeframe, but just sort of in your mind, how does international grow as a portion of your business over the next few years? Just kind of bigger picture. Thanks.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Are we talking, David? I assume we're talking about spoolable.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Well, I was originally talking about spool, but I'm kind of bringing to the broader, kind of your overall international efforts overall. So I'm curious how spoolable fits in, but then bigger picture, kind of how does international overall fit over the next few years from what yous can tell?

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Okay, Steve, you wanna talk about spoolable?

[Steve Tadlock, CEO at Cactus Inc.]

Yeah, and I think there was a question in there, are we bundling? We're not really bundling-

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Yeah

[Steve Tadlock, CEO at Cactus Inc.]

But we do have some resources that are shared internationally, that are in the region, and they have both experience in wellhead, some of them more experienced in wellhead, and some more experienced in spoolable. So they work together and, yeah, obviously, you have channel partners in certain areas over there as well, so they hit up the same ones. In terms of spoolable growth, I think we had had a presence in terms of, or we've had sales continuing with one large customer who you could probably guess in the Middle East.

[Steve Tadlock, CEO at Cactus Inc.]

But we feel like we can make further inroads with that customer just by being more responsive, frankly, and dedicating more resources and equipment there.Similar in other areas like Latin America and even over in Australia, where we have a wellhead operation, we're looking to grow in that area as well. So I think it's a holistic approach to how we're trying to grow spoolable, and we're trying to leverage any benefit that we have from the Cactus relationships, but we're also bringing in new people and using the existing resources.

[Steve Tadlock, CEO at Cactus Inc.]

As far as how big it could be, I mean, we really, on the spoolable side, there's a lot of potential for growth there, a lot, large projects, consistent projects. So, you know, I don't see why it couldn't be similar to North America at some point. It's just gonna take time to get there.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Yeah, I mean, I, you know. And let me just expand upon that because we just had a board meeting. And, it won't surprise you, when I tell you our board asked the same question, and I told them that, it's my expectation, it remains my expectation that in the next few years, we'll have to expand capacity because, there are a lot of international-- there's a lot of international activity.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

And, when it comes to international, I, I think as much as we stand apart, in the U.S., I think we stand apart even more internationally because of the larger diameter and higher pressures.So, you know, I frankly think I told you this when we bought spoolables, that I felt like the runway was even greater, and I still feel that the runway is even greater, notwithstanding our efforts from the wellhead side internationally. So your question about what do I see in terms of international for the next, did you say 2025?

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Yeah, just like-

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

20.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Next couple, yeah, just kind of the next couple years, 2025, 2026. Just sort of curious how, how, how much does this grow? Just a bigger picture. Yeah.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

I'm gonna tell you right now, my objective is 40% of our revenue.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Wow! Okay. Interesting. My follow-up question is completely different, change of subject here. If there is-

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

By the way, Dave.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Yes.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Hey, Dave, realize when we say one question and one follow-up, that doesn't mean one question with six parts and one follow-up at least. Anyway, go ahead.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Do you want me to go back into the queue? Happy to go back into the queue if you like, but it's a good question, so anyway.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

No, it's okay. I'm just... I, I know.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

All right. So, my question is, so the US administration, there's a change in US administration, you know, it seems like we would see likely increased tariffs on Chinese goods once again. Just, can you just refresh us a little bit? You have a lot of your manufacturing out of China. I know it impacts some of that in terms of costs. Is there anything you would do differently this time around if this happened again?

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Do you ramp up US manufacturing? Are there other levers you can pull, or is it really not that much of a big deal because your competitors are faced with the same thing, so it's all kind of a push in terms of costs?

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Yeah, I would say the latter.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Okay.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

So that, for example, I think I may have mentioned that the plant that we're finishing right now and should begin to ship in the fourth quarter is capable of taking care of our international business, although we intend to manufacture in both locations. So we built the plant with that in mind. In terms of increased tariffs, you know, I think worst case scenario, I don't wanna get-- I don't wanna make political comments, but likely scenario is maybe I would-- I don't know if it's likely.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

One scenario is if there's a 10% duty on top of everything, which certainly won't hurt us any more than it hurts our competitors.Because, you know, frankly, we make more of what we sell in the U.S. than any of our competitors make in the U.S., and we're more capable of making product in the U.S. So I'm not, you know... Look, I don't like for costs to go up, but I'm not nearly as bothered when it affects our competitors to the same extent.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

So worst case scenario is, I mean, I'm sure you all heard that one of the candidates claimed that tariffs were gonna go to 60%. I think that we are much, much better positioned to deal with a 60% tariff on Chinese product than anybody else.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Let's hope it doesn't get there. Thanks a lot, Scott. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. All right, our next question comes from the line of Jeff LeBlanc with TPH. Your line is now open.

[Jeff LeBlanc, Director of Equity Research at TPH]

Good morning, Scott and team.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

LeBlanc.

[Jeff LeBlanc, Director of Equity Research at TPH]

Thank you for taking my question. For my first question, I wanted to see if you could expand upon the drilling efficiencies you previously referenced, particularly given that you have a more holistic view on the market and the fact that operators typically include lateral lengths when they talk about efficiency gains. So any way you can quantify the magnitude? I know you qualitatively referenced it before. Thank you.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

I can quantify it to the extent that we track it. Alan, I think over the—was it over the quarter or over the year, it's up about 10%.

[Joel Bender, President and Member of the Board at Cactus Inc.]

Yeah, quarter-over-quarter, it was around 10% for us, but that metric is pretty lumpy, you know.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

But, you know, what we do is we look at the number of wellheads we ship versus the number of rigs we serve, and we compare that quarter-over-quarter to measure efficiencies. So that's why I said the better proxy is wells. Then, I know that everybody believes these longer laterals, and, you know, too, that certainly is the case, takes longer to drill a longer lateral. But I can't argue with the stats. The stats showed a 10% increase in wellhead shipments, against the same number of rigs. So it's just, it's just a fact.

[Jeff LeBlanc, Director of Equity Research at TPH]

Well, thanks for that color, and I'll turn the call back over to the operator. Thank you.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Okay, thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you so much. We'll move for our next question. All right, our next question comes from the line of Arun Jayaram with J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. Your line is now open.

[Arun Jayaram, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC]

Yeah, good morning.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Hi, how are you?

[Arun Jayaram, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC]

I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I'm intrigued about, you know, one of the drivers of the 2Q beat was a significant order from a large customer who's new to Cactus. I was wondering if you could give us some more details on that, and thoughts on, you know, how this relationship is going and other follow-on opportunities here.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Do I have any competitors that are gonna have access to?

[Arun Jayaram, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC]

Maybe.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

So the answer has got to be no. I can't, I can't tell you this except to tell you that, that it's a customer that has, historically been, a Cactus customer for wellheads, but has not historically been a production tree customer. We internally feel like, customers are now becoming more discriminating when it comes to production than they were over the last several years.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

So I think it's a question of, I mean, they like the fact that we build our own valves, and they like the fact that, we control the delivery of those valves, not, not just the quality. So, I think that Joel will join me in saying that we're more optimistic about growth in our production segment than, we've been in some time.

[Joel Bender, President and Member of the Board at Cactus Inc.]

Yeah. Yeah, we've seen a lot more activity, a lot more inquiries for the product. I think a lot of our bigger customers become much more risk averse, so they're looking for an API Monogram product with aftermarket service.

[Arun Jayaram, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC]

Great. Great. And just, you know, maybe a follow-up. One of the things we're thinking about, as we think about, you know, 2025 and thinking about kind of the margin profile of Cactus, you'll have a new manufacturing facility, which I think is gonna be low cost, and then you'll have a new frac valve as well as the new generation wellhead product.

[Arun Jayaram, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC]

And if we remain in what we call a lackluster environment in North America, you know, not a huge call on shale volumes as we sit here today, how do you think about how margins could, you know, behave in this kind of environment with some of the self-help and new product introductions?

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Yeah, I feel very optimistic. But I wanted to say this to you, and I've said it before. So we are going to roll out, particularly the wellhead product, in a responsible manner, which means that we need to turn our existing inventory before we open up the tab. So I think that, you know, Joel feels like it'll be.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

It's not that the product's not ready, 'cause the product is ready. And if we needed to ship it tomorrow, we could, but we don't wanna create. We have, through our careers, Joel's career and my career, we have always been very, very sensitive to obsolescence. So we have a great product in our existing product.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

This is a better product, but we wanna make sure that we don't impact financially our returns. So you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to bear with us and trust that we're gonna introduce it in a responsible fashion. But the short answer is, I think that even in an anemic 2025, that our margins are gonna hold up very well.

[Arun Jayaram, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC]

Great. Thanks for that color.

[Operator]

... All right, thank you so much. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Scott Gruber with Citigroup. Your line is now open.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Hey, Scott.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup]

Yes, good morning. Morning. Wanted to, you know, come back to the question on, you know, picking up the production tree share, you know, with a large customer in the U.S. I guess my question is, you know, when you look at the dozen or so large E&Ps and majors, which are obviously increasingly dominating the industry, you have strong share in wellheads. Can you give us a sense for kind of what percentage of that cohort? You know, does the production tree share not match the share on the wellhead side?

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Let me, let me clarify your question. You're asking me, theoretically, if our market share for wellheads with these customers is, I'm gonna, you know, we don't report market share, except that if you were in the room, I'd pat you on the head and tell you not to worry about it. But let's say that that number was 40%. You're asking what our market share is for production valves as comparison, as compared to that?

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup]

Yeah, I'm wondering the delta between those two numbers and how much of an uplift you could get if the share is aligned.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

There is a pretty significant disparity between our market share for production valves. And so, you know, I'm looking at Joel, I'm looking at Steven. We've never really measured it, but I would be surprised if our market share for production valves is half.

[Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at Cactus Inc.]

I agree.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup]

Gotcha. And then, yeah, just theoretically, if a customer is using you for wellheads, but not for production trees, and then they start using you at the same, you know, share of their workload for production trees, kind of what's the approximate revenue opportunity? Does it match the wellhead side? Any sense of scale?

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Now, I wouldn't say it matches the wellhead. It's probably, I'm thinking the average production tree and 40% of a wellhead.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup]

Okay. Okay.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

It's, it's-

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup]

Just the scale.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

It ain't, you know, it ain't chicken feed.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup]

Yeah. That sounds like a good opportunity. Okay. I'll keep it to-

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Thank you.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup]

One and one follow-up. Okay, thanks.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

You know... Hey, by the way, you know you can always call me.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup]

Thanks, yeah. I appreciate it.

[Operator]

All right. Thank you so much for that. All right, I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Scott Bender for closing remarks.

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Okay, thank you all for participating. I think that what do we have 10x more people than we had last time? When we completed with, I guess, Patterson. Look, I think 2025 for us is an exciting time. Despite the fact that we don't, we're not planning for any sort of explosive growth, but you know how unpredictable this business is. Here's what I can tell you:

[Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.]

Our costs will be lower, our productivity will be higher, and and our focus is extremely, I think, laser sharp, and that's why I summarized my remarks with, I want you to know what our objectives are for this year, and everybody in this organization knows what our objectives are. So they're clear.We remain, you know, the largest shareholders, and you can be sure that we're gonna do what's best for our shareholders and for the family. I'll leave it at that, but thank you for your continued support. Have a good day.

[Operator]

All right. Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Alan Boyd, Director of Corporate Development and Head of Investor Relations
• Jay Nutt, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer
• Steve Tadlock, CEO

Analysts

• Arun Jayaram, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC
• David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays
• Jeff LeBlanc, Director of Equity Research at TPH
• Joel Bender, President and Member of the Board at Cactus Inc.
• Luke Lemoine, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler
• Scott Bender, CEO and Chairman at Cactus Inc.
• Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citigroup