Tricia Fulton
Analyst · KeyBanc, please proceed with your question
Thank you, Jeff stuff and hello, everyone slide five to nine I will review our first-quarter 2022 consolidated results. As Josef noted, we started the year off strong out of the gate, managing through the continued challenges of the global supply chain and broader macro environment. Net sales for 17% over the prior-year period as we executed our growth plans and continued to take market share, we delivered strong organic growth of 14% during the quarter, even with a 4.7 million foreign currency headwind. First-quarter gross profit of 83.6 million increased 8.2 million or 11% over the prior-year period from higher volumes. Our manufacturing strategy is driving results even though the benefits are being partially masked by the current macro environment. Our teams have spent a lot of time formulating plans for each business segment to maximize us in the region, for the region and make versus buy strategies. As we integrate the acquisitions we have made over the last 18 months, gross margin was 34.8% in the quarter, down 200 basis points from the year-ago period. While volumes and pricing we're up, increases in logistics, raw materials, and labor costs, compressed margin. Adjusted EBITDA was 59 million up 15% with associated margin of 24.5% compared with 25.1% from the same period a year ago. Higher volume was offset by the cost increases I just described. Our effective tax rate in the first quarter was 22.4%, compared with 23.2% in the prior-year period, reflecting levels of income in varying tax jurisdictions. Diluted EPS improved to $0.94 up 34%, while diluted non-GAAP cash EPS improved to a $1.18 up 19% for the first quarter over the prior-year period, reflecting higher sales, operational efficiencies, and strong operating leverage. Please turn to Slide 10 for a review of our hydraulic segment results. first quarter hydraulic sales of $137.1 million were up 15% over the prior-year period and benefited from improved demand and market share gains in the Americas and EMEA, despite the $4.5 million headwind from foreign currency exchange rates. Organic growth in this segment was 10% over the prior-year period, while acquisitions added $6.4 million. This is strong growth despite an estimated $6.6 million of sales delays due to supply chain shortages in this segment. Q1 hydraulics gross profit increased 12% and benefited from higher volume. Gross margin of 37.1% versus 38.1% last year benefited from price increases and fixed cost leverage on higher volume, offset by increases in material, logistics, labor costs, and unfavorable FX. Operating income increased 13% due to strong leverage and cost discipline, while margin modestly declined 50 basis points to 23.1% from the prior year period. Please turn to Slide 11 for review of our electronics segment results. Electronics sales were $103.4 million in the quarter, an increase of 21% over the year-ago period. Organic growth in the segment was up 20% in the first quarter. We're seeing strong demand from the health and wellness and recreational markets, and the growth was seen across all regions. For the quarter, we estimate that approximately 11 million of sales were delayed due to supply chain shortages. Electronics segment gross profit of $32.8 million in Q1 increased 9% from the prior-year period on higher volume. Electronics gross margin of 31.7% was down from 35% in the year-ago period, reflecting price increases and fixed cost leverage on higher sales that were more than offset by increases in raw material, rate logistics, and labor costs. Operating income for the electronics segment of $20.5 million was up 12% from the prior-year period, although operating margin contracted 160 basis points. The operating margin reflects the flow-through of gross margin, partially offset by fixed cost leverage on higher sales and disciplined cost management. Please turn to Slide 12 for review of our cash flow. Cash from operations was $14.7 million in the first quarter compared with $15.1 million in the prior-year period. We are carefully balancing our working capital requirements with our efforts to provide timely deliveries to our customers amidst significant demand and material shortages. We have increased inventories to address our backlog and maintain our top-tier lead times, which is helping us take market share. For the quarter, CAPEX was $5.6 million or 2.3% of sales compared with $5 million or 2.4% of sales in the year ago period. We are currently expecting CAPEX in 2022 to be between 3% to 5% of sales. Free cash flow was $9.1 million in the first quarter. Our free cash flow conversion rate was 76% for the trailing 12 months ending first quarter of 2022. This is lower than our more typical rate which was consistently over 100% from 2018 to 2020. We have made a conscious decision to invest in, and grow inventory, where demand dictates and this strategy is reflected in our working capital needs regarding our capital structure. On slide 13, we consistently demonstrate our ability to rapidly delver our balance sheet. Our strategy is to flex up leverage for strategic disciplined acquisitions and then quickly be levered using cash generated from operations. Our proforma net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA leverage of 1.79 times remains below our long-term goal of two times. We will continue to use cash to pay down debt as we reload for future acquisitions. Cash and equivalents were 33 million at the end of the first quarter compared to $28.5 million at the end of 2021. Total debt at quarter-end was $438.1 million compared with $445 million at the end of 2021, reflecting repayments net of borrowings on our credit facilities of $4.3 million in the quarter. Total liquidity at the end of the quarter was $192 million. As a reminder, our capital priorities remain debt reduction, organic growth through new products and technologies, acquisitive growth and distributions to shareholders. Now let's turning to slide 14, even in the face of much greater macro uncertainty, just two months after we first establish this full-year outlook, we are maintaining our guidance for 2022, which assumes constant currency using quarter-end breaks. We are considering the war in Ukraine, which has no clear timeline, broader, extended lock downs in major regions in China, the pace of inflation, timing and size of a potential recession, and the actions yet to be taken around the world by central banks. We will not include KMI in our expectations until the acquisition closes in the next few months. Although it is not material in size. Our outlook currently assumes our markets are not further impacted by inflation, the global pandemic, or the geopolitical environment. We are responsibly taking into consideration all these current events as we look forward. We continue to expect revenue in 2022 to be in the range of $930 million to $950 million, which implies an annual organic growth rate of approximately 8% at the midpoint of the range. In terms of quarterly revenue flow, our first quarter exceeded our expectations. There is less visibility as we look at the second half of the year. While we have the benefit of pricing strategies coming into play, we want to remain cautious until we get further into the year and our visibility comes more into focus. Our adjusted EBITDA margin outlook remains 23.5% to 25%, which at the midpoint approximates our adjusted EBITDA margin for the full-year of 2021. We will continue running our manufacturing strategy playbook, as Josef described, to find ways to offset the macro impacts. This implies that our expectations for adjusted EBITDA dollars remain in the range of $219 to $238 million or roughly a 7% annual increase at the midpoint of the range. We expect interest expense to be between $14 to $15 million at current borrowing levels and rates. The effective tax rate for 2022 is expected to be in the range of 21% to 23%. Depreciation should be between $24.5 million and $26.5 million. While outlook on amortization is approximately $28 million to $29 million. Our expectations for diluted non-GAAP cash EPS remain between $4.35 to $4.60 per share in 2022. This represents a 5% increase, over our 2021 results at the mid-point of the range. We're driving forward with our augmented strategy and delivering accelerated and profitable results while maintaining top quartile industry margins. As we address the highly unusual operating environment we're in, we are encouraged by the progress we are making in the success we're having with that, I will turn the call back to Josef Matosevic for some final comments.