Leidos Q4 2024 Earnings Results & Report

Leidos EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $2.37
• Consensus EPS: $2.24
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.13
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A
• EPS Beat Rate: 8 of last 8 quarters

Leidos Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $4.37 billion
• Expected Revenue: $4.13 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$231.35 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) is a technology, engineering and services company that provides solutions to government and commercial customers. The company operates primarily in the defense, intelligence, civil and health markets, supporting customers with mission-critical systems, digital modernization, cybersecurity, data analytics and technical services.

Its offerings include defense and intelligence technologies, command-and-control systems, transportation and infrastructure solutions, health information technology, aviation and security services, and scientific and engineering support. Leidos also provides managed services, logistics, systems integration and mission operations for complex government programs.

Leidos is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, and serves customers primarily in the United States, with operations and business activities in international markets. The company traces its origins to Science Applications International Corporation and became an independent public company in 2013 following a corporate reorganization. Thomas A. Bell has served as Leidos’ chief executive officer since 2024.

Leidos Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Leidos delivered FY24 results above the high end of guidance, achieving 6.6% organic revenue CAGR, a 12.9% adjusted EBITDA margin, 100% free cash flow conversion, reducing gross debt leverage to 2.2x, and repurchasing $850 million in shares.
• The company unveiled its “NorthStar 2030” growth strategy, targeting high-growth pillars—IT modernization, transformational warfighting capabilities, and public-private partnerships—aligned with the new administration’s efficiency agenda.
• Leidos booked $7.6 billion in Q4 net bookings (a 1.7 book-to-bill ratio) and grew FY24 backlog by 18%, marking its strongest December quarter and best annual book ratio since 2020.
• Key Q4 awards include a multi-billion dollar VA medical disability exam contract, a $2.6 billion TSA logistics follow-on, a $4.1 billion Air Defense IDIQ, and a $670 million hypersonic glide-body task order, underpinning future revenue streams.
• For FY25, Leidos forecasts $16.9–17.3 billion in revenue (+up to 4%), adjusted EBITDA margins in the mid-to-high 12% range, EPS of $10.35–10.75, operating cash flow of ~$1.45 billion and capital expenditures near $230 million.

Presentation

[Operator]

Greetings. Welcome to Leidos' fourth quarter fiscal year 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the form of presentation. Please note this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'll turn the conference over to Stuart Davis, Investor Relations. Stuart, you may begin.

[Stuart Davis, Head of Investor Relations at Leidos]

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Tom Bell, our CEO, and Chris Cage, our CFO. Today's call is being webcast on the investor relations portion of our website, where you'll also find the earnings release and supplemental financial presentation slides that we're using today. Turning to slide two of the presentation, today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it, and as such, does include risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our press release for more information on the specific risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Finally, as shown on slide three, we'll discuss GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation between the two is included in today's press release and presentation slides.

[Stuart Davis, Head of Investor Relations at Leidos]

With that, let me turn the call over to Tom Bell, who will begin on slide four.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Thank you, Stuart, and good morning, everyone. I'm happy you could join us to discuss another outstanding quarter for Leidos, capping off a very strong year delivering 2024 results above the high end of our prior guidance. Leidos' excellent recent performance also allowed us to reach and exceed the three-year performance targets we set out at our investor day in 2021. I'm very pleased we were able to overdeliver on those cumulative commitments. Against the targets set then, we delivered an organic revenue growth CAGR of 6.6%, well above our goal. We delivered an adjusted EBITDA margin for 2024 of 12.9%, 240 basis points above our goal. And we drove free cash flow conversion of 100% exactly on our commitment. This delivered cumulative operating cash flow to our target of $3.5 billion.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Our excellent multi-year performance enabled us to take our gross debt leverage ratio down from 3.4 times to 2.2 times today. And now our strong balance sheet and core financial engine give us the financial flexibility to deploy capital to support tangible growth initiatives and drive brilliant shareholder value. All on this call will be aware that since 12 November, our stock has traded down about 25%. As a result, we repurchased an additional $400 million worth of shares in the fourth quarter. That brought our open market repurchases for 2024 to $850 million, significantly exceeding our initial commitment. As always, I want to thank each of our 48,000 Leidosians who bring our bold vision for Leidos to life every day. Their passion for our customers' mission, their fortitude, resilience, and ingenuity enable us to deliver exceptional value to our shareholders even in the most dynamic of environments.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Turning to slide five, in addition to delivering exceptional performance last year, 2024 was a year of deep strategic thinking. We're calling our new growth strategy North Star 2030. North Star 2030 keys on a specific group of growth pillars where we know customer needs are growing, market profitability is robust, and Leidos' differentiation is evident and accelerating. We'll fully unpack our North Star 2030 strategy for you at our upcoming investors' day, but undertaking this strategy effort last year is proving to have been timed perfectly. I mention all this now because a natural question today might be, how does North Star 2030 hold up to the priorities of this new administration? And the answer is incredibly well, and you'll recall that our strategy process last year was grounded in a 10-year future-backed Leidos proprietary hypothesis of the future.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

That work detailed macro-domestic and geopolitical megatrends that we predicted would occur over the next decade. Now we see those megatrends coming through at pace, and therefore we are even more confident our growth pillars position us for success today and in the future because they are all grounded in one unifying theme. Leidos exists to make our customers' outcomes smarter and more efficient. Everything we do for every one of our customers is linked to that statement. We were created to leverage innovation for our customers, to meet the immense and enduring national security challenges faced by America and its allies, from protecting the homeland to deterring and winning battles abroad, and driving government efficiency is fundamental to everything we do, and of course, that's what's needed to expand America's economic strength.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

All that is what we're all about, and that's exactly what our new administration is all about too. Therefore, we view the new administration's priorities as an opportunity for Leidos. Over the past months, the administration and the Department of Government Efficiency have begun to unveil an agenda to transform government operations and ensure taxpayer dollars are invested more wisely. This has given us increased confidence in our strategy. The new administration has signaled a focus on eliminating regulations, streamlining procurement, and moving to more outcome-based contracting, all of which are exactly in line with the mission and work of Leidos to make government smarter and more efficient. Three current focus areas are right in our wheelhouse: IT modernization, transformational warfighting capability, and increased privatization. First, the new administration has said that IT modernization is low-hanging fruit for government efficiency. We totally agree.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

The federal government's ability to reduce costs, bridge outdated and disparate data silos, and facilitate the adoption of enabling technologies like Trusted Mission AI hinges on having modern, adaptable IT systems. As the leading provider of IT software solutions for the federal government, we have a proven track record of modernizing and simplifying our customers' complex IT environments while integrating Trusted Mission AI and robust cybersecurity. This allows agencies to achieve their mission objectives smarter, faster, and cheaper. For example, the Disability Case Processing System we built for the Social Security Administration has improved processing time of disability claims by over 90%, reducing backlog by over 50%, and increasing the accuracy of benefit calculations by 20%. Leidos is delivering significant cost savings to the SSA through these customer efficiency enhancements and proven anti-fraud tools. In addition, just last year, we also transformed the SSA's national 1-800 number.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

In just 48 days, we reduced wait times by almost 75% for over 80 million callers each year. The administration's focus on IT modernization also affords us a great refreshed opportunity to accelerate adoption of our existing Defense Enclave Services program. To date, we've successfully transitioned only three Defense Agency and Field Activities, or DAFAs, and their 32,000 users, each on time and on budget. As a result, those DOD offices now enjoy better user experiences and better service delivery, but even more importantly, they are now operating seamlessly within a single, robust, cybersecure, efficient, integrated DOD IT system, but there are 11 DAFAs and nearly 330,000 additional users originally envisioned to be served by this program that are yet to be migrated.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

We look forward to helping our new Secretary of Defense greatly enhance user efficiency, harden IT assets, and reduce costs by completing the remaining migrations to DISA's standardized, unified, and secured IT network. In turn, this will enable DOD reinvestment of real savings into critical warfighting capabilities, so speaking of critical warfighting capabilities, secondly, administration leadership has indicated that the Pentagon's top-line budget should focus on the right kind of programs with increased investments in cost-effective and high-performance systems. In anticipation of these demands, we've positioned ourselves as a positive disruptor, rapidly transforming innovative ideas into market-ready solutions essential for next-generation warfighting capabilities. For example, we lead the way in maritime autonomy. We recently developed an unmanned undersea multi-mission vessel in less than 18 months, with a price that is, to the best of our knowledge, significantly lower than all comparable offerings.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

This success has enabled the Navy to expand our program's size and scope, allowing us to enhance underwater ISR capabilities and develop multi-sensor UUVs and other unmanned platforms. We also designed and deployed a small unmanned surface vehicle called Archer. Archer is equipped with a modular mission bay designed for anything: contested logistics, ISR, or weaponry, and we did all that in less than nine months. Archer provides the U.S. and our allies with immediate access to flexible, advanced maritime designs with proven long-endurance, robust autonomous capabilities. Additionally, we're developing a new class of small cruise missiles, advancing from concept to successful demonstration flights in under two years, and we're achieving dramatic cost savings for this critical capability through a modular design featuring open architecture that incorporates the best, most affordable subsystems and technologies using digital twin philosophies and AI optimization.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

These groundbreaking developments highlight our defense system team's focus on delivering affordable mass warfighting capabilities with unmatched speed, efficiency, and efficacy, which the DOD needs today to prevail across increasingly complex and contested domains. Third, leaders are calling for expanded public-private partnerships for essential citizen services to create more efficient and effective outcomes. We have deep expertise and success here too. For instance, for decades, we've partnered with the Veterans Administration to transform the delivery of healthcare to our nation's deserving veterans. With our proprietary capabilities to anticipate demand and our ability to innovate at scale, we have established the largest, most flexible network of first-class medical and mobile clinics. This has allowed us to increase veteran throughput by more than 300% and halve the average exam timeline. And we've delivered all this efficiency while consistently exceeding VA targets for both timeliness and, critically, quality of care.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

As part of this, we're very proud to deliver excellent care coordination for homebound veterans and those in remote locations, bringing first-class care to where the veteran is across all 50 states. These capabilities magnify Leidos' differentiation and recognition as a top-managed health services provider for our federal customers. But our VA work is just one of many examples of successful privatization. Another case study of our success in public-private partnerships is the Future Flight Services program for the FAA. Through this program, we provide critical services to general aviation pilots. By providing this service, we've saved the Federal Aviation Administration more than $2 billion by significantly modernizing underlying technology, all while maintaining at or above 99.9% system availability. 2025 will be an exciting year as we implement our new North Star 2030 strategy, and we're already seeing great traction in our robust growth ambitions.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

In the fourth quarter of 2024, we had net bookings of $7.6 billion, delivering a book-to-bill ratio of 1.7, our highest ever for a December quarter, and 2024 overall was our best growth year since 2020, with an overall book ratio of 1.4 and a year-over-year backlog growth of 18%. I'm very proud of the quality of our backlog achieved through many significant wins, all aligned to durable markets and critical customer missions, which in turn enjoy bipartisan political support. Let me walk through a few key awards in the quarter. First, the VA has awarded us a two-year multi-billion-dollar award for medical disability examinations. This award underscores our ongoing ability to deliver excellence for the VA and our nation's veterans, and it aligns with financial expectations we outlined to you on our last earnings call.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Second, we won a $2.6 billion follow-on for our integrated logistics software work for the Transportation Security Administration. This eight-year award comes with significant increases to our contract size and scope and continues to position us very well with the new administration's determined focus on homeland security. Third, we received a $4.1 billion sole source IDIQ for our IFPC Enduring Shield Air Defense System. So far, we've only booked one task order under this IDIQ to provide systems for the Defense of Guam. But this IDIQ provides us and our customer all the top-line room they need to ramp up production of this critical capability for years to come. And fourth, we secured a $670 million task order to advance our nation's long-range hypersonic weapon, specifically our development and production of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body and its thermal protection system.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

So in summary, 2024 was a great year for Leidos. But all that success is just prologue for our exciting future. Enabling disruptive progress is core to our work of making all our customers' outcomes smarter and more efficient. Pure American entrepreneurial spirit was forged at our founding and is alive and growing here today at Leidos. Our passion is to look at problems differently and seek innovative solutions and outstanding customer results. And this drive and culture serve us incredibly well in today's environment. Our new administration is moving quickly with its efficiency agenda, and Leidos is positioned to be a major contributor to the success of that agenda.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Building on the bold vision of our North Star 2030 strategy, and in light of the new administration's priorities and the core competencies I've outlined, we've developed a set of fast-paced initiatives in the spirit of DOGE to make our customers' outcomes smarter and more efficient. And over the next 90 days, we will continue executing a purposeful campaign we've already begun to work with our customers, administration officials, and elected representatives on these initiatives for a smarter, more efficient U.S. government now. Now is the time for us to act with pace in this new landscape. We are exceptionally well placed to be a critical part of the solution, and so seizing this opportunity remains our top corporate priority. As a result, we look forward to holding our investor day this summer.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

I'm super excited about our proven track record of performance in dynamic environments, our strong foundation for executing a successful 2025 and beyond, our bold vision for Leidos and our North Star 2030 strategy, and our outstanding outlook. With that, I'm going to pass the call over to Chris to walk through our 2024 results and give you our enhanced financial outlook for 2025. Chris? Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to echo Tom's remarks on the remarkable journey we've been on. This team has rallied to overdeliver at every turn this quarter, this year, and over the past three years. These accomplishments are rooted in a meaningful cultural transformation in how we manage and operate our business, which enabled us to deliver outstanding results while building a path to a better future.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

We delivered industry-leading margins, and we invested to strengthen internal functions, enhance technical capabilities, double down on business development, and reward our employees. Now, let me walk you through our financial performance for the fourth quarter and full year. Please turn to slide six. Revenue for the quarter was nearly $4.37 billion for a robust organic growth rate of 9.7%, although the quarter did include an extra week as part of the normal periodic true-up of our 4-4-5 financial calendar. For the year, total revenue grew 7.9% to $16.66 billion, or $212 million above the high end of our prior guidance range. Adjusted EBITDA was $508 million for the fourth quarter, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 11.6% was up 20 basis points year over year.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

The fourth quarter margin includes the cost of enhancing some of our employee benefits in light of our strong performance, which rippled through the segment margins as well. On a full-year basis, adjusted EBITDA was $2.15 billion, and adjusted EBITDA margin increased 210 basis points to 12.9%, putting us right at the upper end of the high 12 guide from last call. Our margins have benefited from a fundamental shift in our portfolio. Currently, 43% of our portfolio is fixed price, up from 39% in 2023. As Tom touched on, we view the move to more outcome-based procurement as a continued area of opportunity for Leidos. Non-GAAP net income was $316 million for the quarter and $1.4 billion for the year, which generated non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.37 and $10.21, respectively.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

For the year, non-GAAP diluted EPS was up an impressive 40%, almost $3 above 2023 and $0.21 above the high end of our prior guidance range. The primary driver of the robust EPS growth in 2024, the best in our history, was consistently strong EBITDA generation. Growth was propelled further by our capital deployment, as lower share count and interest expense more than offset a slightly higher tax rate. Turning now to an overview of our segment results and key drivers. In the interest of time, I'll focus on the quarterly figures on slide seven. The full-year comparisons are shown on slide eight. National Security and Digital revenue growth accelerated to 5.5%, spurred by strong business development results in the last two quarters. Segment operating income margin slipped a bit to 9.7%, with normal variations in profitability across multiple fixed-price programs.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Still, margin of 10.2% for the year was above initial expectations, and we look for profitability to continue to increase through repeatable offerings and higher margin growth pillars. Health and Civil revenues and profitability remained strong. Revenues were up 16.4% from the prior quarter, and non-GAAP operating margin was 21.6%. These results were driven by high demand in our managed health services, as well as excellent program execution across the portfolio. With the VBA MDE recompete in hand, we remain confident in our ability to win our fair share by continuing to bring innovative solutions to the VA to more efficiently serve our veterans. Commercial and International revenues increased 12.3% year over year, with growth across all business areas. Non-GAAP operating margin for the quarter was 7.9%, down 80 basis points from the prior year quarter due to a product mix within SES and increased investments in growth.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Building off this strong top-line finish and sunsetting the challenges faced this year in the U.K., we fully expect margins to improve and stabilize going forward. Lastly, Defense Systems revenues increased 6.7%, spurred by this year's wins like Diablo and Wide Field of View, as well as additional production on our IFPC Enduring Shield program. Segment non-GAAP operating margin was 3.5%, which included a $21 million write-off associated with an airborne surveillance asset and investments in our proliferated low Earth orbit space architecture. Though a short-term pause on the margin momentum built in the second and third quarters, we believe this provides a cleaner and more focused foundation as we enter 2025. Turning now to cash flow in the balance sheet on slide nine. Operating cash flow for the quarter was $299 million.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

DSO for the quarter was 59 days, in line with the third quarter of 2024. For the year, operating cash flow was $1.39 billion, $42 million above our prior guidance. Netting out capital expenditures, free cash flow was $213 million in the quarter and $1.24 billion for the year, which was up 30% compared to 2023. In the fourth quarter, we repurchased $406 million worth of shares and paid $53 million in dividends. As Tom mentioned, we significantly exceeded our $500 million annual share repurchase commitment, keeping our promise to deploy capital in a shareholder-friendly manner. As of quarter end, we had $943 million in cash and cash equivalents, $4.7 billion in debt, and a leverage ratio of 2.2 times gross debt to adjusted EBITDA.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Our healthy balance sheet and financial performance led S&P to enhance our investment grade rating to BBB flat and Moody's to change their outlook to positive, with the potential to upgrade to Baa1 within the next 12 months. These moves strengthen our position as we prepare for the maturity of a $500 million bond this May. We are still weighing our options, but given our below target leverage, our current intention is to refinance this debt. Now on to the forward outlook on slide 10. Coming off a record-breaking 2024, we're even more confident in our market positioning and pathways for profitable growth. Recent wins create a strong growth footing, and our pipeline is robust. We submitted $8.3 billion of proposals in the quarter and have $25.6 billion of bids awaiting adjudication.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

With broad-based momentum building, we are confident in our ability to navigate any macro uncertainties from a position of strength. Getting to the specifics, for 2025, we expect revenues between $16.9 and $17.3 billion, reflecting growth of up to 4% over fiscal year 2024, consistent with our prior messaging of low single-digit growth, but off of a much higher 2024 baseline. Our guidance accounts for the ongoing continuing resolution and a continued pivot away from low margin work. We anticipate fairly balanced revenue growth across the segments. We're guiding 2025 adjusted EBITDA margin in the mid- to high-12% range, stronger than our prior expectations. We remain committed to margin expansion over the long term and see potential for higher profitability in all of our segments over time.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

We're guiding non-GAAP diluted EPS between $10.35 and $10.75, which assumes an effective tax rate of 23.5% to 24%, and share repurchase activity roughly consistent with last year. In terms of cash, we expect operating cash flow of approximately $1.45 billion. From a free cash flow perspective, we're targeting capital expenditures of approximately $230 million, or about 1.3% of revenues. This generation provides plenty of capital to allocate while also funding growth investments. With that, Operator, we're ready for questions. Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star 11 on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, simply press star 11 again. As a reminder, please limit yourself to one question before getting back into the queue.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question coming from the line of Matt Akers with Wells Fargo. Your line is now open. Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for the question. And one thing that came up on a couple of the other conference calls this quarter, maybe some of the disruption around the new administration, some of the DOGE efforts. I think there was a period where they had sort of tried to pause federal spending at some point a couple of weeks ago. Just curious if you saw any disruption, I guess, kind of in Q1 so far, and if so, if that's kind of behind us or you're still keeping an eye on that. Thanks for the question, Matt. Good to hear your voice. The short answer is not really.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

There's been some, let's call it, disturbances in the force, perturbations, customers that are obviously trying to understand the environment themselves. And that caused some day-long, two-day-long pauses in contracting vehicles, but then that picked right back up. So we think our customers are adapting to the current environment. They're figuring themselves out, and they're proceeding at pace. Yeah, Matt, the only thing I'd add is that we did take the opportunity to carefully evaluate our portfolio and come up with a playbook. Should those disruptions last longer, as Tom mentioned, we haven't seen that, but we stand ready to maneuver in this environment adroitly. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question coming from Mariana Perez Mora with Bank of America. Your line is now open. Good morning, everyone. Hey, Mariana. So my question is about a focus on border security and the Iron Dome.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

You guys have capabilities across the board from screening solutions to counter UAS or air defense systems. How do you see that playing out and where Leidos can actually have an opportunity from this project? Thanks, Mariana. Yeah, both that you mention are, again, right in our wheelhouse. And in fact, just yesterday afternoon, I was up on Capitol Hill working one of them. I won't tell you which one. But both of them are areas where we've prepared some big ideas that we have been putting forward to the administration and to the senior stakeholders. As you say, Iron Dome and the executive order on Iron Dome play to everything we do. All the capabilities that are requested in Iron Dome for America, from space surveillance and understanding to counter effects for incoming cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons, is right in our wheelhouse of what we do.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

So that's one of the reasons we are really focused on it, because the Space Development Agency has asked for RFI responses within 30 days, and our team is laser-focused on answering that mail with compelling, really adroit, to use Chris's word again, opportunities to satisfy that need quickly and affordably for our customers. On border security, obviously, border security is a huge area of focus for this administration, and it plays, again, right to our wheelhouse, from the equipment at airports to the equipment on borders and the equipment necessary to see low altitude UAVs coming across borders. Everything I just spoke of is, again, right in Leidos' wheelhouse. So again, another reason we're so optimistic that this environment and this administration's priorities present tremendous opportunities for Leidos' growth in the future.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

We're focused on seeding that field with our ideas, the ideas we've had for a long time for better, faster, cheaper solutions to these customer challenges. We're finding now, in this environment, a very, very receptive set of stakeholders who want to hear from us and are eager to advance that conversation at pace. So very exciting times indeed. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Good morning, guys, and thank you. Thank you. Tom and Chris. Just lots of focus on profitable growth. A lot of that is driven by your health segment and the fixed-price exposure there, which is fairly high. Maybe can you talk about VBA since you've tackled DOGE head-on? The VBA recompete was awarded earlier this year.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

How we think about that next phase of the program, both the top-line and bottom-line contribution, and what the additional provider, if it changes the outlook at all? Thanks, Sheila. Yes, we're very excited to have booked that substantial award for the continuation of our work there, and as I said in my prepared comments, the award we received gives us the confidence we can liquidate that order profitably in line with what we held out to you last quarter. Yes, there is a new entrant into a few of those regions. That's a participant we dealt with in one of the regions already. Obviously, we're looking forward to our scope, our technology to continue to allow us to have the volume and the profitability of that business that has satisfied our customers to date, and so over time, we'll have to adjust to a playing field that changes.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

But for 2025 and 2026, we feel very confident in our ability to execute that program along the lines that we have held out. I will say, though, this: North Star 2030 and its growth pillars don't just rely on our growing, our medical exam business. The growth pillars, as I said in my prepared remarks, are all about where we know strong customer demand is growing, robust profitability exists, and Leidos' differentiation is evident and accelerating. Those are the three things that we picked our growth pillars for. Those are the areas in Leidos we're now investing differentially in because we know that's going to bring us differential top-line and bottom-line results across a wider suite of capabilities within Leidos.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

And so we're very excited about North Star 2030, its growth pillars, broadening the number of programs that are high top-line growth and bottom-line growth, and very excited about that. Chris, anything you'd like to add? Yeah. No, I mean, Sheila, obviously, the teams have been building towards this recompete for some time, and we've been innovating and investing to drive efficiencies into our process. So we want a competitive position. As Tom mentioned, another new entrant, that's fine because the demand signal is very robust. And this has always been a game around who can deliver outcomes timely with high quality and stand ready to take on increased capacity. And that's where Leidos has been positioned. So teams have done excellent work there, and we're already looking ahead a couple of years down the road to make sure we're a step ahead for the follow-on.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Inevitably, in this business, there's always a follow-on. So you always got to continue to prepare for that. But for this year, it gives us a great platform to continue the momentum that you've seen out of the health business, and that's our expectation. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question coming from Gautam Khanna with TD Cowen. The line is now open. Hi. Good morning, guys. Hi. Hey, you guys obviously guided 2025 and have a longer-term view as well with the North Star roadmap. I was wondering if you could opine directionally on bookings this year and maybe the growth reacceleration in 2026 and beyond.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Where do you think we end up kind of mean reverting back to, given the strong performance last year creates a tough compare for this year, but kind of more regular looking out beyond 2025, organic growth, and however else you want to take it?

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Thanks, Gautam. And good to hear your voice and pleasure to meet you. Thanks for initiating coverage of us. Let's see. Obviously, we're very proud of the December quarter reported at a 1.7 book-to-bill ratio. And typically, the weakest quarter gives us tremendous wind in our sales coming into 2025 and 2026. And the 1.4 on the whole year, our best year since 2020, again, gives us great confidence. The business development team at Leidos has been fundamentally retooled. We have a new approach to how we're pursuing market opportunities and positioning Leidos for win. That includes technologies like AI in our proposal activities.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

And so we're deploying AI internally and externally to have better outcomes. And I think that's what you're seeing. So while our Chief Growth Officer will be retiring in a couple of months, and we thank him for helping us win back our chutzpah in this area, we're going to be not missing a beat and continuing to improve our performance. Now, obviously, right now, we're dealing with a Continuing Resolution. So anytime you have a Continuing Resolution situation, that suppresses the amount of orders we see coming out immediately. But we're very hopeful that as the reconciliation package and the budget package moves its way through the Administration and the Congress, that this year will normalize and new orders will start to come in, and we're very excited about the future. The key to our longer-term top-line and bottom-line growth is the quality of these wins that I articulated.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

2024 has a bunch of programs with very long legs and very long opportunities for single award IDIQs to have new task orders for many years to come. So it's not just winning awards. It's also then on-contract growth, another area where we in Leidos have been investing in our expertise at unlocking on-contract growth within program offices. Chris, anything you'd like to add? I would. Obviously, you're trying to get at the heart of the matter, Gautam, and looking ahead to our investor day. We feel the story will be compelling. Those financial expectations are set. We've spent time building that up. You can believe that we see the pace of activity accelerating as it relates to our growth.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

And when we have an opportunity to sit down with you all and go through that, I think you'll see our momentum that Tom just talked about on business development, coupled with our ample capacity from a cash generation and quality balance sheet perspective, we are very well positioned to build significant momentum over the next four years. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question coming from Louie DiPalma with William Blair, your line is now open. Good morning. Hey, Louis. Hi, Louis. Hi. You discussed several positive wins for the Dynamics Leidos business with IFPC Enduring Shield and Common Hypersonic Glide Body. I was wondering, what is taking place with MACH-TB 2.0? Kratos put out an announcement, and they listed you as a teammate. And I was wondering, did you transition from being the prime in that program to a subcontractor? Yes.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

On MACH-TB 2.0, we're subbed to Kratos and happy to do that. And yes, you're right. We were prime on 1.0. But there's ceiling available still to us on 1.0. And so we're not letting go of our opportunity to serve our customer there. And there's significant role work share that exists for us as a sub to Kratos on 2.0. So we know Kratos very well. We like working with them, and we feel this relationship will help us advance this capability for our nation at pace. And in the end, that's what it's all about. Great. And thanks. And on your April earnings call, you indicated that you secured a multi-billion-dollar classified takeaway that was under protest. Can you update the investors on the call on the amount of awards that are under protest?

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Was this specific contract put into backlog over the past two quarters? So the answer is we prefer not to indicate how much is under protest because talking about protests isn't our jam. But the answer to your second question is no. We don't put contracts under protest in our backlog. Those are still waiting in abeyance. Okay. So that particular contract still hasn't been adjudicated? Correct. Okay. Thanks. And one last one, if I may. For your Enduring Shield IFPC system, it's obviously gaining traction. Is that system viable to be deployed domestically? And it seems that it's meant for cruise missiles and counter drones, but do you think that there's a market for that domestically, or is it better suited overseas? And if it's not viable domestically, what products in your portfolio could fit into the Iron Dome initiative?

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

I know that you provide the sensors for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, so that is definitely suited. But what else could be applicable? Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for that, Louie. So the answer is, of course, it can be deployed along any border that you are worried about cruise missiles or unmanned vehicles being a threat. So domestically, internationally, any country's borders. And yes, that is a big part of our Iron Dome value proposition to our customers. Thanks, Louie. Thanks. Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Colin Canfield with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open. Hey. Thanks for the question. It's great to be back. Can you level set us on what you're assuming for FY26 budget request? Feedback from the DC that we're getting is that it looks like 10% nominal is probably a good base case.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

With SASC leadership looking for $200 billion year-on-year increase. So maybe talk us through kind of what you're expecting in terms of top line for FY26 request and how you think about that flowing through to your programs. Thanks. Thank you, Colin, and welcome back. Appreciate you reinitiating guidance on us. The answer is I don't expect anything at this point. And I know that sounds a little bit cavalier, but we're in a world where there are many different agendas moving, and exactly where the DOD budget ends up is one of those factors. I think there is bipartisan support that the world isn't getting to be a safer place and that the defense budget needs to go up. But we're focused not only on what top line growth that gives us in new opportunities, but also helping unlock savings in the rest of the defense budget portfolio.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

I mentioned in my prepared remarks the Defense Enclave Services opportunity to not only make these DAFAs more cybersecure and more resilient, a better user experience, but unlock tremendous savings for the new Secretary of Defense to deploy for growth in weapons that are the pointy end of the spear, and so we're focused not only on the top line and what it'll be for 2026, 2027, but we're also focused on unlocking savings that can be reinvested by the new Secretary of Defense and this administration in that future to augment whatever top line growth they get. We'll know more about what exactly we expect in 2026 and 2027 in six months or so, but obviously, between now and then, we're focused on our growth pillars.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

We know that those growth pillars are independent of specific top line growth because they are enduring existing customer demand that we know is growing over time. So we feel very good about the strategy we've laid out to grow in 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028. Thanks. I want to keep it to one, but just picking on that FY 2026, 2027 comment, are you suggesting that the proposal is going to be a two-year budget deal like we've seen in the past? There are people on Capitol Hill that are talking about that, but I'm not basing my expectations that that'll come to pass. We'll see. Thank you. And our next question coming from the line of Gavin Parsons with UBS. Your line is now open. Hey, guys. Good morning. Good morning. Hey.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

In terms of the long-term kind of EBITDA and cash flow outlook, when the VBA contract transitions to its next iteration, will you be able to still grow EBITDA and free cash flow through that contract transition? Yeah. Hey, Gavin. Chris here. So, absolutely, but as Tom talked about, I mean, we're already building momentum in other areas to complement what happens with VBA, and that mission is not going away, but we imagine that there'll be an opportunity to continue to innovate there to drive more efficiency and automation through the whole delivery chain, but absolutely, our expectations will be growing EBITDA over the time horizon, and as we've been alluding to, we'll give you our point of view through 2028 on where we see the business going.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

But the growth pillars are robust, and there are plenty of other areas that will build momentum in the health and civil business along with our other segments. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question from the line of Scott Mikus with Melius Research. Your line is now open. Good morning. Hi, Scott. I have a question on the guide. In 2024, you did $10.21 in EPS. And if my math is correct, I think you had a $0.20 impact from the 2Q charge, the UK business, and roughly a $0.11 impact from the asset write-down this quarter. So if I add those back, the guidance implies almost no underlying EPS growth. I'm just kind of wondering, is that conservatism based on the change in administration or any sort of color you can provide? Yeah. Hey, Scott. Thanks for that. And you're right.

[Stuart Davis, Head of Investor Relations at Leidos]

Of course, we don't expect some of those things to repeat. Of course, running a business of this size and complexity, you always have to allow for the fact that there's things in the portfolio you have to manage through. I would say that as the year unfolds, we want to give ourselves the opportunity to invest in the pivot year for the future while delivering great performance. And if that allows an opportunity to increase those expectations over time, we will. I mean, I think the other thing I point you to, we detailed the debt that we do expect that we'll be refinancing. The interest rate environment is a little bit higher. So we'll see. It's a small headwind on interest and taxes that factor into the EPS guide as well. But yeah. So I think you sleuthed it out.

[Stuart Davis, Head of Investor Relations at Leidos]

The only other thing I'd add, we had an excellent year on EACs on balance, aside from those two larger things that you pointed out, and the goal of the team is to continue to do that, but there's always variability in the portfolio you have to allow for. Okay, and then, Tom, you mentioned that the new administration wants to increase privatization, so although a new competitor has been added to the VBA contract in some of your regions, do you think that that increased competition could be offset by a greater share of exams being outsourced? Well, that'll be up to the new administration and the new cabinet-level appointees and agency, the people running the agencies. What we're focused on is making sure we maintain and grow our market penetration by providing excellent service to veterans, allowing us to have availability for more veterans faster and cheaper.

[Stuart Davis, Head of Investor Relations at Leidos]

And we're excited about that. If opportunities present themselves for increased privatization in any of our markets, we will be there very eager to help our customers think that through. Thanks for taking the questions. You bet. Thank you. Our next question coming from Seth Seifman with JPMorgan. Your line is now open. Hey. Thanks very much. And good morning, everyone. Hi, Seth. Wanted to ask about the growth pillars you think about for North Star 2030, Tom, and the extent to which you think about the challenge of getting not just growth, but profitable growth when you've got some new competitors coming into the space with very low cost of capital that are evaluated primarily on their ability to deliver very fast growth and kind of the extent to which you're thinking at all or how you're thinking about the challenge that poses to delivering profitable growth. Yeah.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Thanks, Seth. We certainly are aware of these new entrants into the marketplace, and we welcome them, and in fact, we work with them in many occasions, so we see them as part of the ecosystem that we're eager to work with to deploy better, faster, cheaper solutions for our customers. That being said, our growth pillars, again, are all founded on areas we know we have differentiated capability, and we know we can accelerate away from the pack, so we're looking at growth pillars where we know we have something others don't, and yes, others might have low cost of capital and ability to build it over time, but we have these capabilities now, and so we're very focused in our growth pillars around those markets and those customer needs and those areas where we know we have a differentiated capability.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

And we're very excited about our ability to accelerate away from the pack in those areas. So not overly concerned, and at the same time, looking for us to deploy our unique brand of partnership. We're always open to partners. We've always been open to partners, and we'll remain open for partners as we try to solve our customer problem in different ways. Great. That's very helpful. Thanks. Thanks, Seth. Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of David Strauss with Barclays. Your line is open. Hi. Good morning. This is Josh Korn for David.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Thanks for taking the question. Sure. I wanted to ask you, you mentioned earlier a pivot away from low margin work next year. I just wanted to dig in a little bit on what exactly does that mean, and are there implications for mix by contract type? What sort of work does that involve? Thanks.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Josh. And yes, the corollary to our growth pillars is areas where we're going to de-emphasize in the portfolio. We're not turning and walking away from any business we have today. Because of our robust financial results we've been able to invest inside Leidos, we have the ability to continue to invest in all areas of the business while we over-invest in these growth pillars that I've mentioned. That being said, we're also looking at areas where we're not going to continue to invest and over time allow to atrophy. No knee-jerks here. No student body left kind of moves. Over time, we'll simply leave that work for other people on recompetes.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

And so look for a gentle, purposeful approach to investing in the growth areas, continuing to invest in areas we know where we can grow as we always have, and then de-emphasizing some of these areas that are low margin work and really not something that our customer rewards our innovation, our technology, and our ability to make their outcomes smarter and more efficient. So that's the long-term playbook over the next three years. Yeah. Josh, you can think of things like infrastructure support services, big O&M jobs, things like that. If we're not technically differentiated, you'll see us shift our focus, as Tom mentioned, to the things where there are better opportunities for Leidos, and the pipeline there remains very robust. And better top line and bottom line growth. Great. Thank you. I'll stick to one. Thanks, Josh. Thank you.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

Our next question coming from the line of Peter Arment with Baird. Your line is now open. Good morning, Tom. Chris, nice results. Thank you. Hey, Tom. Tom, just to circle back kind of on this whole cost plus versus fixed price. And it was mentioned earlier, I think Chris mentioned 43% of Leidos is now a fixed price, but a large percentage of that is in health and civil. How do you think about when you look at your other national security segments and defense about opportunities to grow your fixed price mix there, just given in the environment of those? Thanks. We are always open to and eager for outcome-based contracting, whether that's fixed price or whether that's privatization, whether that's paying for a service at a fixed rate. There's different tunes you can play within that song. But I'm eager to grow that.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

I think we excel at that today. I think we've got a demonstrated track record of providing dramatic cost reductions for our customers and great profitability and revenue growth for our shareholders. And so the Leidos team is all about that. That's because we can unlock technology. When we own the outcomes, we own the inputs and the technologies that we can deploy into these areas that allow us to differentially serve our customers and have better results for them. And so we're very excited about it and leaning into it. DOGE, the administration, I'm very happy that the conversations have begun around increased privatizations and increased opportunities for outcome-based contracting because I think that's an area that Leidos can excel. Yeah.

[Thomas A. Bell, CEO at Leidos]

We've seen some of it, Peter, in the defense space, less than we'd like, but in our digital modernization business, for example, of cost per user or cost per person on the network. And of course, some of the things we talked about in our defense systems area, in support of Iron Dome and some of those opportunities will ultimately be a fixed price production outcome. So again, we're up for it. We invested robustly in our program execution capabilities. And so this is a direction that we want to be on. Appreciate all the color. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Peter. Thank you. There are no further questions in queue. This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back to Stuart Davis for any closing remarks. Thank you, operator, for your assistance on today's call.

[Operator]

Thank you all for your time and interest in Leidos. We look forward to updating you again soon. Have a great day. Please ensure that that's not a conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Stuart Davis, Head of Investor Relations
• Thomas A. Bell, CEO