DRS Technologies, Inc. F3Q08 (Qtr. End 12/31/07) Earnings Call Transcript

DRS Technologies Inc. (DRS)

Q3 FY08 Earnings Call

February 08, 2008, 09:00 AM ET

Executives

Patricia M. Williamson - VP. IR

Mark S. Newman - Chairman, President, and CEO

Richard A. Schneider - EVP and CFO

Analysts

Gary Liebowitz - Wachovia Capital Markets

George Shapiro - Citigroup

David Gremmels - Thomas Weisel Partners

Myles Walton - Oppenheimer & Co.

Peter Skibitski - Credit Suisse

Stephen Levenson - Stifel Nicolaus and Company

Steve Binder - Bear Stearns

Michael French - Morgan Joseph & Co

Yilma Abebe - JP Morgan

David Strauss - UBS

Presentation

Operator

Good day everyone and welcome to the DRS Technologies Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference call is being recorded.

At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I will turn the call over to Ms. Patricia Williamson, Vice President of Investor Relations with DRS. Please go proceed.

Patricia M. Williamson - Vice President. Investor Relations

Thank you, JD. Good morning and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to review DRS Technologies' financial results for the fiscal 2008 third quarter and nine month period ended December 31, which were reported earlier this morning.

Hosting today's call are Mark Newman, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of DRS Technologies; and Rich Schneider, the Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that we are providing a simultaneous webcast of this call to the public. An archive of this webcast will be available later today on our website. Today's remarks may include some forward-looking statements and certain non-GAAP financials. For more information on the Company's definition of these non-GAAP financials and their usefulness in interpreting DRS's financial results, please refer to today's earnings release and our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available on our website.

In accordance with the Safe Harbor provisions, please note the risks and uncertainties related to forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

I would like to now turn the call over to Mark Newman. Mark?

Mark S. Newman - Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks Pat and good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on the call today to discuss our fiscal 2008 third quarter and nine months results. As we reported in our news release this morning, we achieved record results for the three month period, demonstrating strong performance in all major metrics, including revenues, operating income, net earnings, and earnings per share.

The Company also generated a robust level of free cash flow, which we continue to apply to reducing our debt. New orders for products and services were $858 million for the quarter, bringing total bookings for the first nine months of the year to a record $2.9 billion, representing a 1.2:1 book-to-bill ratio. Funded backlog at December 31 was a new high at $3.6 billion and places us in a solid position going forward.

The Company