Christopher Farkas
Analyst
Thank you, Lynn, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with the key drivers of our second quarter 2022 results by segment. Starting in Aerospace & Industrial, where we delivered another strong performance as sales and operating income increased 8% and 7%, respectively. Within the segment's commercial aerospace market, sales grew more than 20%, reflecting strong demand on both narrowbody and widebody platforms. On a related note, we recently announced that we won a significant award on the future Airbus A350 F aircraft to provide custom electric actuation technology for the main deck cargo door and also secured demonstrator technology on the Airbus UpNext program. We've been stating that we've been working with Airbus to strengthen our relationship and content, and we're really pleased to share these first-of-a-kind wins for our actuation technology with Airbus. Within the segment's industrial markets, our results principally reflected increased sales of industrial vehicle products, most notably serving off-highway and specialty vehicle platforms. Turning to the segment's operating performance. Our results reflected favorable absorption on strong sales as well as the benefits of our operational excellence initiatives, which more than offset any supply chain and inflationary pressures on margin. It's also worth noting that the segment's results included an incremental $1 million in R&D investments where we'd otherwise demonstrated 40 basis points in year-over-year operating margin expansion. Next, in Defense Electronics. Our performance again reflected the timing of defense revenues based upon the supply chain challenges impacting the industry. As a result, we experienced lower-embedded computing revenues in Aerospace Defense supporting various fighter jet and helicopter programs as well as reduced sales of tactical communications equipment in Ground Defense. Within the segment's commercial aerospace market, due to the timing of orders, results reflected forward instrumentation sales normalized in the second half of the year. To the second half, our second quarter results [Audio Gap] A&D revenues, which we expect positive based on increased volumes in the second half. Next, in the Naval & Power segment. Our results reflected lower Naval Defense revenues, mainly due to the timing of production on the CVN-80 aircraft carrier and Virginia-class submarine programs. Those offset -- those impacts were offset by higher CVN-81 carrier and Columbia-class submarine revenues as these 2 programs continue to ramp up. In the Power & Process market, our results reflected double-digit sales growth in both Nuclear Aftermarket and process, where we continue to experience very strong demand. And these increases more than offset the wind-down of production on the CAP1000 program. Regarding the segment's profitability, we delivered 270 basis points in year-over-year margin expansion, reflecting improved mix in the Naval Defense and process markets as well as the benefits of our operational excellence initiatives. To sum up the second quarter results, overall, Curtiss-Wright operating margin was slightly above expectations at 16.1%, up 50 basis points year-over-year and up 340 basis points sequentially. Next, turning to our full year 2022 guidance. I'll begin on Slide 5 with our end market sales outlook. As Lynn mentioned earlier, our overall guidance now reflects a $40 million contribution from the SAA acquisition, and we now expect total Curtiss-Wright sales growth of 4% to 6%. We continue to expect organic sales growth of 3% to 5%, unchanged from our prior guide, but we updated the growth rates in several of our end markets. I'll begin in our A&D markets. In Aerospace & Defense, we now expect sales growth of 9% to 11%, which principally reflects the contribution from the SAA acquisition. In addition, we now expect a more favorable outlook for our actuation sales within the A&I segment and a slightly lower but positive growth rate within the Defense Electronics segment. Turning to Ground Defense. Our tactical communications equipment remains a high priority for the U.S. Army to support its modernization efforts. However, the business is sensitive to both ongoing supply chain delays and funding delays caused by the continuing resolution, and our updated guidance reflects a push in sales out of 2022. As a result and despite a strong second half forecast, we now project our Ground Defense market to be slightly down on the year before recovering in 2023. Wrapping up our A&D sales. Our guidance remains unchanged in both Naval Defense and Commercial Aerospace, though it's worth noting that both of these end markets continue to experience very strong order activity, which bodes well for our performance in 2022 and long-term outlook. Outside of our A&D markets, we raised our growth outlook for the Power & Process market to a new range of 4% to 6% based on the strong year-to-date performance and increased demand for both our Nuclear Aftermarket and industrial valve products. As a result, we've raised our growth outlook for our overall commercial markets to a new range of 5% to 7%. Continuing with our outlook by segment on Slide 6. I'll begin in Aerospace & Industrial, where we continue to project strong growth in both commercial aerospace and general industrial market sales. Our updated top line guidance now reflects growth of 6% to 8% due to improved demand within our Aerospace Defense market, supporting the F-35 fighter jet and higher electromechanical actuation sales in Ground Defense. The segment's operating performance continues to reflect strong growth in operating income and margin driven by improved sales and the benefits of our operational excellence initiatives. Next, in the Defense Electronics segment. We've revised our current year sales growth expectations to reflect the supply chain challenges impacting our aerospace and ground defense markets. Despite a growing backlog, we now expect overall segment sales to be flat year-over-year. And as a result, we lowered our guidance for operating income to reflect reduced sales volumes. However, we raised our margin assumptions slightly for lower R&D spending. Regarding the R&D spending, it's important to note that we shifted $2 million to development contracts as we were able to secure an increase in customer-funded programs. We view this reimbursement as a positive development, and it's important to note that the segment continues to receive the highest levels of annual investment to ensure that we remain aligned to the DoD's top priorities, including cyber, encryption and hypersonics, to name just a few. And lastly, in the Naval & Power segment, we now expect strong sales growth of 7% to 8%, of which 3% to 4% is organic. This increase is driven by an improved order book underlying our Power & Process markets and the contribution from the SAA acquisition. Full year segment operating income is now projected to grow 6% to 8%, while segment operating margin remains a strong 18% to 18.2%. I would note that while SAA increases our operating income guidance, it will be dilutive to overall Curtiss-Wright margin in year 1 and particularly during the first 6 months of integration as is typical for a new acquisition. So to summarize our outlook, we expect total Curtiss-Wright operating income to 5% to 7% overall on a 4% to 6% increase in sales. We continue to expect operating margin to improve 10 to 30 basis points, ranging from 17.1% to 17.3%, including a $6 million increase in R&D investments, the CAP1000 wind-down headwinds and first year margin solution on the SAA acquisition. Continuing with our financial outlook on Slide 7. We raised our full year 2022 adjusted diluted EPS guidance by $0.05 to a new range of $8.10 to $8.30, which represents 10% to 13% growth year-over-year. Our updated EPS guidance reflects both higher organic operating income and some accretion from SAA, partially offset by a $4 million increase in interest expense due to higher rates, use of our revolver for the SAA transaction and some new financing, which I'll address shortly. Overall, I'm pleased to say that our updated 2022 outlook aligns with our May 2021 Investor Day projections for continued profitable growth as we expect to deliver operating income growth and excess of sales growth while also generating double-digit EPS growth. To aid in your quarterly modeling and based on the timing of defense sales, including SAA, we now expect third quarter sales to grow by mid- to high single digits sequentially compared with the second quarter 2022 adjusted results and diluted EPS to grow by high single digits sequentially, followed by a very strong fourth quarter performance. Turning to our full year free cash flow outlook. Our guidance remains unchanged for the range of $345 million to $365 million, including a contribution from SAA. Thus far in 2022, the timing of revenues, advanced payments on naval contracts and higher inventory levels have resulted in lower-than-expected first half free cash flow performance. Looking forward to our expectations for a strong second half, I wanted to provide some color on a few underlying drivers. First, we're expecting a strong second half ramp in revenues, and this leads to both higher billings and collections and a substantial liquidation of inventory levels upon product shipment as we've seen historically. Second, we expect a significant amount of cash advances tied to the recent second quarter surge in naval orders. And third, we're expecting a large cash payment upon the final delivery of our CAP1000 reactor pooling pumps to China, which we expect in the fourth quarter. This milestone would mark the completion of our contract production in the substantive conclusion of the 7-year program of China. Beyond this, the management team is very focused on free cash flow generation. We're accelerating the frequency of collection calls and information flow on working capital and are aggressively working to mitigate any exposures on the full year. We remain on track and expect to exceed our long-term adjusted free cash flow conversion target of 110% again in 2022. Next, I'll expand on the recent financing actions that Lynn highlighted at the start of the call. And although we have more than sufficient liquidity and our leverage ratios remain in line with a strong investment-grade rating, given the current interest rate environment, we've taken several steps to get ahead of further potential rate hikes. In May of 2022, we amended and upsized our revolver. We entered into a new 5-year agreement with a syndicate of financial institutions, increasing the size of our revolving credit facility by $250 million up to $750 million while also expanding the accordion feature to $250 million both at very attractive rates. In July, we took the opportunity to further strengthen our balance sheet by taking advantage of the current pricing in the private placement market. On July 29, we circled $300 million in a note offering at competitive rates, consisting of $200 million and 4.49% 10-year notes and $100 million in 4.64% 12-year notes. We opted for a delayed draw feature for up to 3 months to provide us with some additional short-term flexibility. We intend to use the proceeds from these new notes and our upsized revolving credit facility to support our balanced capital allocation strategy and internal growth initiatives. And also, as a reminder, we have $200 million in notes coming due in the first quarter of 2023. Overall, we remain very pleased with the flexibility and conservative nature of our capital structure, which provides further confidence in our ability to drive strong financial performance and long-term value for our shareholders. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Lynn to continue with our prepared remarks. Lynn?