Tricia Fulton
Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Josef, and good morning, everyone. Let's begin on Slide 6, with a review of our second quarter consolidated results. While our global sales for the quarter were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery we saw from most end markets and customers was faster than we originally thought it would be. April and May were difficult months from both a production and demand perspective, but we saw strong recovery in June orders and further growth in orders in July. APAC sales were a bright spot, showing growth in Q2 over last year of 3%, as we continue to take market share in China. EMEA sales for the quarter declined 14% due to limited production capacity resulting from COVID-19, but was offset by a resilient ag market coming out of the shutdown, which has also continued into Q3. The Americas were more heavily impacted, down 30% due to the significant falloff in the Electronics segment in Q2, which was a clear trough in that segment. The remainder of the year for Electronics should rebound from Q2 levels. As previously mentioned, our pipeline for opportunities in this segment is significant and will drive growth in 2021 and beyond. Operational profitability was solid as a result of the cost reduction actions we took that included limited layoffs in our U.S. operations, compensation reductions by the Board and corporate officers, and the measures executed across our operations to reduce costs in light of the lower demand. Those I've referred to are decremental margin of 32% on adjusted operating income. Our cost containment measures led to better-than-expected decrementals and adjusted EBITDA margin declined just 150 basis points to 22.6%. Please turn to Slide 7 for a review of our Hydraulics segment second quarter operating results. Consistent with prior periods, I want to point out that cost not directly allocable to the segments, such as CEO transition cost and amortization, are not included in our operating segment numbers. They are accumulated in our Corporate and Other segment reported in the tables in the back of our earnings release and slides. Sales for the Hydraulics segment declined 9%, excluding the impact of foreign currency, which had a $1.6 million unfavorable impact. From a geographic perspective, excluding the effects of currency, we saw 6% year-over-year growth for the quarter in the APAC region, reflecting strength in China as we take market share. This was offset by a 17% decline in the Americas and a 14% decline in the EMEA market, excluding the impact of foreign currency. The primary driver for the decline in the Americas and EMEA regions were softer end market demand due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gross profit was impacted by the lower sales volume, but gross margin benefited from the cost management initiatives, down only 60 basis points from last year to 36.7%. Operating income was also down on the lower topline, but operating margin expanded 30 basis points to 21.5%, as a result of the cost containment efforts that reduced FDA expenses by $2.8 million. Please turn to Slide 8 for a review of our Electronics segment second quarter operating results. This segment was heavily affected in the quarter by the COVID-19 impact, with Q2 revenue down 43% from last year. Many OEMs shut down operations for some period during the stay-at-home conditions. On top of that, the oil and gas end market has been severely impacted, due to supply imbalance and the dramatic fall off in demand. We also continue to experience some carryover from our intentional shift in customer base, which involve changes in certain contractual obligations. As previously referenced, although we immediately implemented many cost saving measures and aligned our variable workforce to the lower demand, margins were nonetheless impacted by the large and immediate volume decline. Gross margin dropped only a couple of percentage points to 42.1%, but operating margin contracted 16.1 points to 5.5% of sales. This segment utilizes significant engineering effort related to future OEM projects, and we continue to invest to support these customer focused solutions. Encouragingly, we saw improvement in orders in June, and there are select markets such as recreational, marine that are seeing relatively strong demand throughout COVID. Please turn to Slide 9 for a view of our first-half consolidated results. Sales were down 13% compared with the same period last year, excluding the unfavorable currency impact. For the first six months of 2020, sales to the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions were 43%, 28% and 29% of the consolidated total, respectively. Due to the uncertainty of COVID-19, we booked a goodwill impairment charge related to our faster business unit in Q1. This resulted in a GAAP loss per share of $0.99. Non-GAAP cash earnings per share were $1.11. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin declined just 80 basis points to 23.1%, reflecting our cost management efforts as well as production efficiencies during the first six months of 2020. Please turn to Slide 10 for a first-half review of our Hydraulics segment operating results. Sales in the Hydraulics segment declined 11% compared with the prior year period. Margins expanded despite the lower revenue. Gross margin increased by 60 basis points to 37.5%, and operating margin improved 30 basis points to 21.1%. This was the result of production efficiencies realized from the consolidation of our operations in Sarasota last year, and the rapid actions taken to align cost with demand during this unusual COVID-19 pandemic. These achievements position us well in the economic recovery, when we see topline growth in our end markets, which will drive further margin expansion. Please turn to Slide 11, for a first-half review of our Electronics segment operating results. Sales for the Electronics segment decreased 29% compared with the previous year. The decline was primarily due to a COVID-related reduction in demand, the falloff of the oil and gas industry and the intentional shift in customer base. Gross profit included a $900,000 nonrecurring benefit from the release of customer contractual obligations, resulting in a gross margin of 45.3%, a decline of just 50 basis points. Operating margin contracted to 13.3% for the 2020 year-to-date period, primarily due to reduced leverage of our engineering fixed cost base. Please turn to Slide 12 for a review of our cash flow and capitalization. In the first-half of 2020, we generated $40 million of net cash from operating activities and $35 million of free cash flow, up from $21 million of free cash flow in the first-half of 2019. In our second quarter this year, we generated $25 million of net cash from operating activities, resulting in approximately $23 million of free cash flow. Year-to-date CapEx is $5.2 million, down significantly from last year when we were investing in the manufacturing consolidation project and the engineering center of excellence. We are expecting CapEx to be in the range of $12 million to $15 million for the full year. We are continuing to invest in high priority and critical projects, but deferring other investments until economic conditions improve. Regarding capitalization, in the second quarter, we reduced our gross debt by $7 million, and our net debt by nearly $17 million. During the first-half of 2020, we reduced our gross debt by $13 million and our net debt by approximately $28 million. At the end of the second quarter, our net-debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio remained at 2.1 times, consistent with the trailing quarter and yearend 2019. We continue to have ample liquidity. At the end of the quarter, we had $37 million in cash, over $205 million available on our revolving credit facility and the $200 million accordion, which is subject to certain pro forma compliance requirements. Last quarter, we talked about our scenario analyses, which considered annual sales declines ranging from 15% to 25%, and demonstrated that we can continue to cover our operating cash needs. We validated that with our performance this quarter. These analyses also indicate that we can expect to maintain compliance with the covenants under our credit facility and remain cash flow positive for the year under all scenarios. With that, let me turn the call back over to Josef to conclude our prepared remarks.