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Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your ManTech second-quarter fiscal-year 2013 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will have a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time.
(Operator Instructions)
As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Stuart Davis. Please go ahead, sir.
- EVP of Strategy
Thank you, Nova, and welcome, everyone. On today's call we have George Pedersen, Chairman and CEO; Kevin Phillips, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Bill Varner and Dan Keefe, our two Group Presidents and Chief Operating Officers. In addition, Lou Addeo, Executive Vice President for Corporate Development and Strategic Acquisitions, will join us for the Q&A session.
During this call, we will make statements that do not address historical facts, and thus, are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results. For a full discussion of these factors, and other risks and uncertainties, please refer to the section entitled risk factors in our latest Form 10-K and our other SEC filings. We undertake no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements made on the call.
Now I'd like to turn the call over to George.
- Chairman and CEO
Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in today's call. The government service market is currently in an interesting phase, but we are beginning to see a path to growth and stability and planning. Secretary Hagel has vigorously defended the President's fiscal-year 2014 budget request, and he is obviously very much involved in doing the planning. We are in a phase at this point in time that they have to make hard decisions between now and 1 October, the beginning of the next fiscal year, but we are confident that they will get there.
Fiscal-year 2013 and 2014 could be a low point for certain base defense levels with out-year budget projection showing modest growth. Again, this will be decided sometime between now and the 1st of March when they have to make some decisions. The operation and maintenance accounts, which fund most of the service programs, have been impacted in 2013 under the cuts to date, but none of this is carved in stone at this point in time, and we see opportunities for growth, particularly in the marketplaces that we serve in cyber and other areas.
I personally am pleased with the way we are managing ManTech's business. Yes, there are difficulties because of sequestration, furloughs, CRs, the draw down in Afghanistan and all these other issues. But I think we and others in our industry are dealing well with them.
Our cyber and intelligence business is driving hard, and our control of indirect costs, as you will see, is driving our competitiveness and profitability. Even as we address the reduction in requirements for warfighter support, our reputation and contract portfolio in critical areas such as cyber, intelligence, information technology, healthcare are indicating we are on the right path. We also are very fortunate to have a strong balance sheet that supports our future growth plans.
The growth has been enabled by a marketing and business development focus, and a disciplined acquisition program over the years. We have always been able to use our cash in our balance sheet, and we have given Lou Addeo the mission of identifying acquisition candidates and strategies going forward. We will use our balance sheet to grow, we will do it wisely, and we are -- you'll see the numbers shortly. We are optimistic we can take advantage of this balance sheet financial condition and the experience we have had in doing acquisitions over the years -- we've been at it for 40 years.
Kevin will now provide you with details of our financial performance and our outlook.
- EVP and CFO
Thank you, George. Revenues for the second quarter were $605 million, compared to $639 million in the second quarter of last year. This difference is fully explained by the overseas contingency operation support in Afghanistan, which fell $41 million to $186 million for the quarter. The largest driver of the OCO decline was the completion of the mobile cell tower work. As a whole, are non-OCO business grew compared to last year, and our primary strategic thrust, including cyber, intelligence and healthcare, grew rapidly.
Labor revenue is essentially unchanged, and total revenues fell compared to the first quarter, when we had substantial deliveries of cloud computing systems under the AMBIANCE program. We expect to build the war solutions with a large material component throughout the life of the program, which will create quarterly fluctuations. But AMBIANCE continues to grow favorably in direct labor and in scope.
Prime contractor work was 91% of revenue for the quarter. There was some shift among contract type compared to the first quarter, with cost-plus contracts increasing to 73%, time and materials falling to 11%, and fixed-price falling to 15%. The primary driver of the change was the AMBIANCE deliveries in the first quarter, which were mostly fixed-price.
Moving on to the high-profile contracts that we track, the MRAP family of vehicle support work contributed $141 million in the quarter, down $2 million year over year. S3 revenues were $135 million for the quarter, down $8 million year over year. We will continue our support of the in-theater mission where we can offer a compelling value proposition to the Army. Case in point, we began the third quarter with a takeaway award on S3 for $180 million over the next two years, which will require support of 500 additional people in Afghanistan. This contract is currently [under protest].
We can think about our Business in three components, each with separate growth momentum and profitability. Our cyber and intelligence business is growing rapidly, and generates strong margins. Our OCO business, which is our least profitable work, is declining with the draw down in Afghanistan. The remaining business should be relatively stable, and generate corporate average profits. Looked at in these terms, cyber and intelligence revenues and profits are up double digits compared to the second quarter of 2012, whereas OCO revenues and profits are down double digits.
Operating profit was $38.7 million in the quarter, up $2.3 million compared to the first quarter despite lower revenue. This translates to an operating margin of 6.4%, which is 80 basis points higher than last quarter. Margin improvement reflected two primary factors. First, we had excellent award fees across our entire Business. The second and fourth quarters had the most award fee determinations for our current contracts, and our performance was excellent.
Second, we proactively manage our indirect structure, and our general and administrative expense is at its lowest level in three years, which increased profitability for our time-and-material and fixed-price contracts. We are extremely pleased with increasing profitability, and though there will be quarterly fluctuations, we believe that our operating margin troughed in the first quarter. With an effective tax rate of 38%, which is unchanged from last quarter, net income grew to $21.6 million and diluted earnings per share grew to $0.58.
Now on to the balance sheet and cash flow statement. During the quarter, we generated $32 million of operating cash flow, which is 1.5 times net income. With capital expenditures of $2 million, free cash flow was $30 million. DSOs remained steady at 76 days. On the financing side, we paid $8 million in dividends, and the Board has authorized a $0.21-per-share dividend to be paid in September, consistent with our intent to distribute $0.84 over the course of the year.
On to business development, so far the greatest effect from sequestration has been on contract awards. Sequestration has exasperated the award delays originally caused by a lack of acquisition capacity and increased protests. For example, within our pipeline, the government has awarded [only] 30% of the opportunities that they had expected to over the last four quarters. With that as a backdrop, bookings for the second quarter were $368 million for a book-to-bill ratio of 0.6 times. The book-to-bill ratio for our cyber and intelligence business was 1.5 times for the quarter, most of it from new business takeaways, which support continued growth through 2014. Of the $110 million in pending awards mentioned on our last call, a protest on a $25-million recompete was adjudicated in our favor, and is in the second-quarter total, and an $85-million award will be finalized in the third quarter.
There's been enough business development activity to support robust awards in the second half of this year. We have $4 billion in bids awaiting adjudication, which remain steady from last quarter. The key will be whether procurement shops can obligate the remaining funds while many of their employees are on furloughs one day a week through the end of September. Our total qualified pipeline is now $26 billion, down primarily in the healthcare arena, which reflects DOD direction on electronic healthcare record initiatives and a stricter focus by us on federal health IT. We still are pursuing about $1 billion of healthcare opportunities which offers tremendous growth potential for a $40-million business. Backlog at the end of the quarter stood at $5.3 billion, and funded backlog was $1.2 billion. Total backlog is down from last quarter, primarily as a result of the reductions in the scope of work for MRAP support on the CLSS contract.
We are adjusting the guidance that we gave on our last call to reflect the Army's decision to reduce the maintenance requirements for MRAP vehicles and stockage requirements for route clearance vehicles. Based on the requirements levied on us since May, we have begun to reduce our staff supporting MRAPs in Afghanistan. Compared to our first-quarter view, our in-theater staff levels on this contract will fall by 1,000 people by the end of the year. The Army's decision to reduce support was a significant shift, moving from a rapid ramp-up to a rapid draw down in the space of two months. As a result of this change, we now expect the MRAP family of vehicle contracts to generate around $400 million to $450 million for the year. The decision to reduce MRAP support levels quickly this year is causing us to reduce our enterprise-wide revenue guidance to $2.4 billion.
Consistent with the revenue revision, we now expect to achieve net income of $81 million and diluted earnings per share of $2.18. Operating margin will be about 6.1% for the year, which is up 20 basis points from our prior guidance. We expect margins to continue to increase as higher-margin work grows more rapidly, and lower-margin OCO work declines.
Looking beyond our OCO work, we are pleased with the vibrancy of the remainder of our Business. Within our guidance, cyber and intelligence represents roughly 30% of our Business with strong profitability. Conversely, the overseas work represents about 25% of our revenue with less of our profits. As OSO requirements diminish, the remaining business within ManTech will drive growth in revenue, earnings and cash flow.
Now our Presidents will speak to the performance and outlook of our two operating groups. Dan?
- Group President and COO
Good afternoon. As indicated in the earlier statements on this call, in May our customer provided direction to implement a draw down of mission support on our CLSS contract. Based on customer decision, [retro guard] requirements are now reaching the point of impacting our contract. In terms of the three main components that were combined into the CLSS contract, virtually all of the labor impact is tied to the MRAP component. Material purchases will diminish support of MRAP and route clearance vehicles. There are no changes anticipated in our support of SOCOM.
Since the last call, civilian furloughs have begun, and we have experienced a slight increase in ManTech personnel impacted by sequestration. Still, the direct sequestration impact is fairly minor, and we are able to manage through it.
In the second quarter, we won a prime position on the Decision Superiority support contract with SPAWAR. Under this $900-million multi-award IDIQ, ManTech will be positioned to provide full lifecycle support for command, control and decision support systems. Decision Superiority is key to winning in today's multifaceted battlefield. We look forward to leveraging our extensive experience providing lifecycle support to C4ISR and other Decision Superiority systems in support of SPAWAR.
As Kevin mentioned, we also began the third quarter with a $180-million two-year award under S3, which has been protested by the incumbent. This was a takeaway of existing work from an entrenched OEM competitor to provide specialized field service support. This work demonstrates ManTech's ability to offer our customers cost effective field support options that avoid costly OEM dependency.
Our business development strategy builds on our core competencies and excellent past performance in the areas of integrated logistics, C4ISR, enterprise IT, test and evaluation, and system engineering. In these areas we have multiple opportunities of scale pending award or in our pipeline that are not impacted by OCO.
Bill?
- Group President and COO
Thinks, Dan. I'm calling in from the Black Hat USA conference, which is one of the most important cyber security conferences in the world. General Alexander, Director of NSA and Head of US Cyber Command, gave the keynote address earlier this morning that highlighted the ongoing national debate on national security versus privacy, one of the concerns that we are helping our customers address. I also spoke on a panel today addressing the need for information sharing between agencies and the intelligence community, and the Department of Defense. Based on what I'm seeing out here, I am more convinced than ever that the market for cyber will grow, and that, as a true leader in cyber, ManTech is well-positioned to benefit from that growth.
The intelligence and cyber business showed strong growth in revenue and profit in the second quarter, and we also generated strong bookings. We had two large takeaway wins that are already fully staffed. On one of these wins we are running an integrated security program, and on the other win we're operating a 24-by-7 security operations center. Both of these wins are for major intelligence agencies.
In addition, we had a small but very strategic award for a large quasi-governmental organization that manages a key part of the nation's critical infrastructure. We are mapping their cyber strategy, and we look forward to implementation in 2014. I'm comfortable with our forecast of continued, robust organic growth in 2013, and I expect that to continue in 2014 as well.
Finally, I want to address the classified disclosures made by Edward Snowden. It is too soon to tell if there will be any fallout in terms of reduced mission scope for the intelligence community or for contractor support to that community. That said, ManTech is one of the preeminent providers of counter intelligence and insider threat support. We expect both counter intelligence and insider threat to receive more attention and funding, and that our capabilities will be a major discriminator on all intelligence work going forward.
George?
- Chairman and CEO
In summary, ManTech is well-positioned and performing well in our markets. Investments that we have made in key areas such as cyber, intelligence, healthcare, C4ISR and information technology have created a platform for growth, as the requirements that support [our operating] overseas contingency ramp down. We continue to be, as you will hear elsewhere in this, to operate in 18 countries with many people around the world, but the concentration in Afghanistan obviously is going to ramp down.
I think at this point in time we are ready to take your questions. How do we proceed?
- EVP of Strategy
Go ahead and give people some instructions. We can get started on the Q&A.
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
Tobey Sommer, SunTrust.
- Analyst
Thank you. This is actually Frank in for Tobey. Wanted to ask you on the cyber and intelligence piece of the business that continues to grow, do you think the growth rate there is being impacted at all by sequestration or do you anticipate any deceleration moving into 2014 due to that?
- Chairman and CEO
Bill, do you want to take a shot at that?
- Group President and COO
Sure. What we are seeing -- we are truly seeing some effects of sequestration but so far it has been very, very minor. If you think of a couple of people may be out of a 50 person program. We are seeing some of our customers do some very, very minor furloughs, once again, it is nothing that is affecting our numbers or our projections in any way. I think we would have our heads in the sand if we said that sequestration will not affect us at all, but I have to say so far it has not been anything major in the cyber and intelligence business. And we do believe that the need for cyber and intelligence work will continue and we also believe that we are extremely well-positioned in terms of a very important set of customers that we support.
- Analyst
Great, that's helpful and two quick numbers questions. What's the tax rate embedded in guidance and what was organic growth in the quarter?
- EVP and CFO
The tax rate is 37.8%. Organic growth in the quarter was down 6% organically, 5% total.
- Analyst
Great. If you can speak to the acquisition environment as you are seeing right now and as you look to deploy capital and offer your strong balance sheet, that would be great.
- EVP Corporate Development and Strategic Acquisitions
This is Lou Addeo. The acquisition environment is tentative. Supply in the market is low, there's some uncertainty in the market as to choices. The banking activity is increasing, nothing yet is tangible but we are not just waiting. In addition to examining work opportunities and banking, we are also doing outreach and spending time with public and private companies in readiness to support what we may ultimately be looking at. We have an unparalleled balance sheet and we are prepared.
- Analyst
Great, thank you very much.
Operator
Bill Loomis, Stifel Nicolaus.
- Analyst
Thank you. Kevin, is the S3 win that you had, that was stuff being protested which will be roughly $45 million a quarter? Is that in the guidance or no?
- EVP and CFO
No, we had projected a small amount, maybe $20 million in that number out of $40 million a quarter, but that's within the range of other capabilities and needs that can be offset with awards and ramp up on [all-hands].
- Analyst
And for S3 for the year you mentioned the MRAP work, where do you see the S3 work being for the year?
- EVP and CFO
S3 is holding fairly steady. It has been quarter to quarter. We haven't seen much demand change and as we mentioned, some of this other activity, if we get through protests, will actually increase the C4ISR type work. Dan, do you want to add anything to that?
- Group President and COO
No, and the piece of the work that is OCO, we have seen a leveling of procurements by the government. But as Kevin said, we project steady for the rest of the year.
- Analyst
Then just finally on cyber. Anyway, I know they are mixed up, a lot of your cyber clients are intel agencies, but would be just if the total is 30% intel and cyber what would be just cyber standalone, if you will?
- EVP and CFO
It is really hard to give the integration but I would say that cyber standalone is at least half of that number roughly given where we are today.
- Analyst
Thanks
Operator
George Price, BB&T Capital Markets.
- Analyst
Hi, great. Thanks very much for taking my questions. First, just to go back to cyber and intel, can you just remind us -- so cyber and intel business in 2012, how large was that and where do we stand right now in the AMBIANCE ramp in terms of run rate, revenue in the quarter?
- EVP and CFO
We don't speak to the specifics on AMBIANCE. In the quarter, I would say it has ramped up fairly nicely. Last year the cyber intelligence business represented somewhere less than 15% of our current run rate, probably closer to 20% less than our current run rate. So we have had good growth in that, but it is basically 15% to 20% less than the 30% number that we provided for cyber and intel.
- Analyst
Okay. And so cyber and intel grew 35% year-over-year, last quarter and forgive me, Kevin, if you gave the number, I don't think I have it handy. Did you give a number for the year over year growth for the business this quarter? I think you said double-digit but I don't know if you gave a specific number.
- EVP and CFO
I think on a year to date basis it is somewhere around 20%, so it would be somewhere around 7%, 8% this quarter based on that, the delta between the two, I think.
- EVP of Strategy
It is a little bit higher than that this quarter. The 15% to 20% number that Kevin was giving -- given was a full year number. And we are a little bit stronger than that first half of the year.
- EVP and CFO
Thanks.
- Analyst
Okay. But again, how much of that -- I don't know how much you can quantify it -- but how much of that is being driven by the ramp and the comparison of AMBIANCE and when does that anniversary as we move through the back end of this year and may be what would you expect a more -- hate to use the word normalized in this environment -- but more normalized kind of growth given the uncertainty, may be given some of the other wins that you had kind of exiting this year as you look into 2014?
- EVP and CFO
We would expect growth in 2014, I cannot give you a normalized number. I would say that in cyber the highest level, and in intel, the highest amount of proposal activity we have is in that area. A majority of the work that we are bidding on, say 80% of the bids that we have expected to be awarded over the next four quarters, is new work. So I think that, that growth pattern will be dependent on how those awards out, and how much work share we get in that arena.
- Chairman and CEO
Bill would be the best to speak about this, but we by no means have plateaued in AMBIANCE yet.
- Group President and COO
No, that's absolutely correct, thank you. We see plenty of opportunities in terms of new opportunities -- new things being added to the AMBIANCE contract very, very frequently. So I think that's going to offer strong growth well into the future.
- Analyst
Okay. That's helpful. Just a couple of clarifications if I could. First to Bill's question, just a moment ago, the recent S3 win that you talked about, so Kevin, did you say basically you've got about a $20 million, $25 million upside opportunity in go forward quarterly revenue from that?
- EVP and CFO
Roughly, yes. In terms of what we are building in, it has a $20 million to $25 million upside on top of what we provided. But we also have some other new business that has to come through to get to the 2.4 that we provided.
- Analyst
Okay. And last question is just higher level, when do you think, from a revenue perspective based on what you know now, the MRAP drags starts to dissipate or bottom out entirely, based on may be what the customer has told you to date?
- Group President and COO
This is Dan. I think the answer would depend in large part under the US ends up with the status of force agreement with Afghanistan and a long-term presence there. Even if we did pull out completely, there will be MRAPs in active iron brigades that we will maintain our CLFS contract. There is potential support that will follow for military sales of MRAPs and also the pre-position of MRAPs at various sites. So I think that obviously it is dependent on what happens and the nation decides in Afghanistan but even without that, there are opportunities for our MRAP workforce and our past performance which is very strong on that contract.
- Analyst
But based on what you see now absent of status of forces and any FMS, there's no reason it wouldn't track in line with the overall withdrawal, right?
- Group President and COO
Yes, the draw down will fall in line with as troops come out of there. The route clearance vehicles have to be there to support our forces and it's not a given on what will happen long-term in terms of what the agreement the US will make with Afghanistan.
- Analyst
Okay, great. Thanks very much for taking the time.
Operator
Edward Caso, Wells Fargo Securities.
- Analyst
Thank you for taking my question. Been reading articles about the Afghani's making it difficult to remove our equipment over land and we are flying the stuff out. Does this sort of delay in departure impact your opportunity and if there was an agreement on this $80 million exit fee, whatever, would that accelerate the departures and impact your outlook? My other related question is with the troops declining there, is there less support for your people on the ground and is there a cost impact to ManTech?
- Group President and COO
This is Dan. The second question first. There's not a cost impact as part of the contract. The government provides our support and so there's not a cost impact to us. With respect to your first question, as we retrograde from Afghanistan our responsibility is our employees and our people. The government has a responsibility to the equipment so how that flows out doesn't really impact our mission support.
- Analyst
The other question is around -- maybe while we are on Afghanistan, all the cell towers that you have built and that contract is now over, is there an asset on your balance sheet or was that completely expensed?
- EVP and CFO
The asset was completely expensed. We actually have it divested and we had a deferred tax gain this quarter from that.
- Analyst
Okay. And the last question is around healthcare. I think I heard sort of a quieter tone and a reduced outlook around healthcare which was a topic a few quarters ago. Did I hear that correctly? Is there sort of less emphasis now at ManTech on the healthcare sector?
- EVP and CFO
It is Kevin. No, there's not less emphasis. It is more of a focus on the pipeline, what pipeline we can reasonably go after because it is a fairly large area that we can basically go after. And there's only been limited resources so I think it is more of a refinement on our end of where we have best positioning within an identified pipeline from this point.
- Analyst
Great, thank you.
- EVP of Strategy
Bill, the healthcare reports up through you ultimately. Is there anything you want to say about the vibrancy about that business and our strength there?
- Group President and COO
I think I agree with Kevin's comments, Stuart. We've seen some -- our run rate is higher, certainly higher than it was last year in the second quarter. And we have been making sure that we really understand the pipeline and do a lot of work on pipeline development so that all the opportunities are qualified and real. But we believe strongly in the healthcare market. We still think that cyber and healthcare are two of the areas that will see the most growth in the future.
- EVP of Strategy
I think we might be ready for the next question.
Operator
Gautam Khanna, Cowen and Company.
- Analyst
Good afternoon, guys. George, first question, what do you plan to do with the cash?
- Chairman and CEO
As we have from the beginning, we've used cash as a mechanism and a tool to grow this Corporation via acquisitions. We basically think that as soon as we know what the appropriation bill will look like, and that won't happen until the earliest 1, October, we will again aggressively pursue acquisitions where they make sense. Lou has continued to be very aggressive in identifying candidates but we have been a little reluctant to move forward until we see the appropriation bill, you understand that scenario. But we see cash as a strength of the Corporation and it is basis for accelerated growth.
- Analyst
Should I interpret that as no desire to raise the dividend or supplement the buyback?
- Chairman and CEO
We review that continuously. Indeed the Board of Directors yesterday asked that question and it was determined that for the moment the amount that we are paying out in dividends is fair and reasonable, but we would certainly consider that. And we do consider that at every Board meeting.
- Analyst
Okay. And perhaps, Kevin, could you elaborate or I may have missed it, the in theater work related to CLFS and route clearance, what should we expect the step down to be as we move through the year? Will Q4 be near 60 to 80? Where do you think it is going to shake out so we have some sort of run rate into next year? Then relatedly, you've been a great job of taking down indirect cost, but could you just opine on what the draw down on that program or programs means for kind of competitiveness as you move forward and in your rate structure?
- EVP and CFO
Sure. So as it relates to the drop, it's still a fluid situation, I would say that the labor will come down more rapidly than we originally had expected of course. So as we enter Q4 we will see the full effect of that. The materials will be very much dependent on stockage requirements. We are going to try, based on the support of our customer, reduce the amount of stockage requirements we have, at the same time meet the operational tempo requirements. So we expect, against our first-half run rate, the amount of in theater work to go down in excess of $125 million for the second half of the year. Then next year the material components we earn is dependent on the requirements to support activities. That's a rough order and I think it will be fairly consistent between quarters. It might be a little bit further down in Q4.
As it relates to competitiveness, we have and will continue to be very focused on aligning our indirect structure to the business at hand and the business we are going after. I think we have the capability of doing that. The requirements will certainly go down as material procurements go down and I think that we will be able to adapt our infrastructure accordingly.
- Analyst
Okay, one last one. Is HBGary now in the black or are we still a quarter away?
- EVP and CFO
It is still in the black. It will be a 2014 positive -- not a 2013 positive -- I'm sorry, still in the red.
- Analyst
Still in the red. How much of a drag is it this year?
- EVP and CFO
It is running 1.4 loss this quarter. So it will be somewhere about $1 million a quarter, I think, in Q3 or Q4. It might pick up in Q4 based on bookings.
- Chairman and CEO
But that's a modest amount of money. It is investment and enormous upside so we don't consider that as a loss. We consider that as an investment.
- Analyst
Understood, thanks a lot, guys.
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
George Price, BB&T Capital Markets.
- Analyst
Hi, guys, thanks for taking another question. Kevin, you noted you had a debooking in the quarter driven, I think you said, by MRAP and the change of requirements there. That was pretty sizable. Can you specifically quantify that and was that the sole driver or was there anything else involved in that?
- EVP and CFO
We have some leakage we usually have on backlog, but it is pretty much the sole driver. It reflects the reductions in scope of work with man power reduction against the overall contract value that we had obtained in last year. So it is between $500 million and $600 million related to those scope changes by the customer.
- Analyst
Okay. And what's -- how would you kind of look at it in terms of risk of additional debooking? How comfortable are you on the assumption that you have in there now and will more have to come out?
- EVP and CFO
It is possible. We will have to evaluate what other programs might work in it but the up tempo is for 2014 and again, with our customers we will be evaluating that every quarter to see how that vehicle will be used going forward.
- Analyst
Okay. Okay. And a if I -- I'm not sure you'll be willing to take a stab at this question but I will ask it anyway. Do you overall, just given the puts and takes in the business, do you expect ex-any future acquisitions about where you stand now, top line growth in '14? Because if I kind of start with -- going into '14 and I start with maybe a modest quarter over quarter positive progression, more typically seasonal or seasonally typical, sorry. Even assuming some growth in the back half, it seems like there's a decent prospect for revenue being flat to modestly down even next year. What would you say to that?
- EVP and CFO
I think a lot will be dependent on the timing of reductions in theater opposing the good awards that we are having for new work, whether it is in cyber or core business and we will have to see how that plays out.
- Chairman and CEO
We continue to look very aggressively for acquisitions, but if you remember our policy as been we will not buy sales. We must get new technology, new customers and they must be accretive. And we are and we have specifically assigned we Lou the mission of finding those acquisition candidates and technology that meet that criteria. But we are being a little prudent and waiting to see what happens when we get the appropriation bill. We don't want a surprise that they zeroed out technology or something like that. But we are aggressively looking for acquisitions. We will continue to do so. We certainly have the cash flow to do that.
- Analyst
Great. Appreciate the time, thank you.
- EVP of Strategy
Nova, it appears that we have no further questions at this time. As usual, members of our senior team are available for follow-up questions. Thank you all for your participation on today's call and your interest in ManTech.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.