Michael J. Schmidtlein
Analyst · Stifel
Thanks, John. For those of you following along on our webcast, I'm starting with Slide 5. Our second quarter net sales increased 3% over the prior year to $569 million from 1% increases in volume, price and currency translation. On a regional basis, our sales in Asia decreased 7% in the second quarter to $58 million, while Europe's second quarter net sales increased 4% to $223 million, and the Americas were up 4% to $288 million. In the Americas, 4% organic volume was the reason for the increase, with 1% pricing negated by an unfavorable currency impact of 1%. In Asia, volume declined 3% due to the completion of a large order last year from a customer, as well as an unfavorable currency impact of 3% along with lower pricing of 1%. Europe had a 4% currency gain and 1% higher pricing, partially offset by a 1% volume decline. On a product line basis, net sales for motive power were up 7% to $289 million while our reserve power decreased 2% to $280 million. Motive Power enjoyed a 6% volume gain and a 1% favorable currency, while reserve power incurred a 3% volume drop, offset by 1% in higher pricing. Please now refer to Slide 6. On a sequential quarterly basis, second quarter net sales were down by 5% to the first quarter, due primarily to lower organic volume. Asia was up 14%, while the Americas region was down 9%, and Europe declined 3% during their normal holiday months. On a product line basis, reserve power and motive power lines were both down 5%. Now, a few comments about our adjusted consolidated earnings performance. As you know, we utilized certain non-GAAP measures in analyzing our company's operating performance, specifically excluding highlighted items. Accordingly, my following comments concerning operating earnings and my later comments concerning diluted earnings per share exclude all highlighted items. Please refer to our company's Form 8-K, which includes our press release dated November 6, 2013, for details concerning these highlighted items. Please now turn to Slide 7. On a year-over-year quarterly basis, adjusted consolidated operating earnings decreased approximately $1 million with the operating margin down 50 basis points. On a sequential basis, our second quarter operating earnings were flat, but margins improved on lower volume and commodity costs. From a historical perspective, operating earnings remained strong at 11.1% of sales. The declines from the prior year reflect higher commodity costs. Our results, when compared to Q1, are encouraging as our second fiscal quarter is traditionally our weakest. Operating expenses, which have increased in the second quarter over the prior year and prior quarter rates, are expected to normalize in our second half with full year expenses comparable to prior year when measured as a percentage of sales. Our Americas business segment achieved an operating earnings percentage of 15.3% versus 15.8% in the second quarter of last year, primarily from the impact of higher commodity costs. On a sequential basis, Americas second quarter increased 210 basis points from the 13.2% margin posted in the first quarter as a result of receiving commodity cost, despite lower volume. Europe's operating earnings percentage of 6.8% was above last year's second quarter of 6.5%, but slightly below the first quarter rate of 7% due to lower volume. The operating earnings percentage in our Asia business segment decreased in the second quarter this year to 7.1% from 10.6% in the second quarter of last year, and from 10.3% in the prior quarter. Asia's operating earnings were $4.1 million for the second quarter, reflecting 7% lower revenue from the prior year, as discussed earlier. Please move to Slide 8. As previously noted on Slide 7, our second quarter adjusted consolidated operating earnings was $63 million with a decrease of 2% in comparison to the prior year, with the operating margin declining 50 basis points to 11.1%. Excluded from our adjusted operating earnings for the second quarter was approximately $2.2 million of pre-tax highlighted items. Our adjusted consolidated net earnings of $43 million decreased 4% from the prior year to 7.6% of sales for a 50 basis-point decline with the book tax rate decreasing to 27%. EPS decreased 5% to $0.87 on lower net earnings and higher shares outstanding. The higher average diluted shares result primarily from our convertible debt, which becomes dilutive when our shares rise above $40.60. This convertible debt dilution added over 1 million shares to our EPS calculation and decreased EPS by $0.02 in our second quarter. Our adjusted effective income tax rate of 27% for the second quarter was slightly lower than the prior quarter. We believe our tax rate for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 will be between 26% and 29%. And for the full year, we expect a 28% rate on our as adjusted earnings. Our as reported rate for the full year, will be positively impacted next quarter by an item, which I will describe later. Please now turn to Slides 9 and 10. As usual, we have provided information on a year-to-date basis similar to that of our second quarter on the prior pages. These 2 pages are for your reference and I don't intend to cover year-to-date results. Please now turn to Slide 11. Now, some brief comments about our financial position and cash flow results. Our balance sheet remains very strong. We now have [ph] $273 million on hand in cash and short-term investment as of September 29, 2013, with over $480 million undrawn credit facilities around the world. We generated over $91 million in cash from operations in our first 2 quarters of fiscal 2014. Even after $45 million of share buybacks and dividends through the second quarter, our leverage ratio remains near 0. As John mentioned, and as noted in our subsequent events footnote to the 10-Q and our press release recently announced, we recently announced the acquisition of [indiscernible] businesses for a combined price of $150 million. We these acquisitions, and nearly $50 million of authorized share buybacks, we expect our leverage ratio will still remain under 1.0x. Capital expenditures were $25 million for the first half of fiscal 2014, compared to $27 million in fiscal 2013. We expect to generate adjusted diluted net earnings per share of between $1 and $1.04 in our third quarter fiscal 2014, which excludes an expected net credit of $0.10 per share, net of our restructuring programs and acquisition activities, which will result from the removal of a valuation allowance on our deferred tax asset created by German net operating losses accumulated prior to our ownership in 2002. This guidance reflects slightly over $.03 of dilution caused by our convertible debts, converting with premium, which I previously mentioned becomes dilutive when our shares exceed $40.60. At current share prices, this will add up to 1.6 million shares to our diluted shares outstanding, making our expected average diluted shares outstanding for our second half to be approximately 49.75 million shares net of our expected share buybacks. We anticipate our gross profit rate in the third fiscal quarter to remain in the 25% range, as a result of lower lead cost. We expect to sustain our goal of 25% for our second half of fiscal 2014. In conclusion, we believe we remain well positioned to take advantage of future opportunities. Now, let me turn the call back to John.