Matt Meister
Analyst · Wells Fargo
Thanks, Brian. We are pleased with our first quarter performance. In the quarter, we saw strong quarter growth in FoodTech at 22% year-over-year. Revenue met our forecast, and both earnings per share and free cash flow exceeded our expectations. On a year-over-year basis, revenue increased 1% at FoodTech, while declining 28% at AeroTech. FoodTech margins were in line with guidance, with operating margins of 13.3% and adjusted EBITDA margins of 18.7%. AeroTech margins were ahead of expectations with operating margins of 9.3% and adjusted EBITDA margins of 10.7%. The better than forecasted margins were the result of favorable equipment mix, better-than-expected aftermarket revenue and good cost control. Earnings in the quarter also benefited from lower interest expense as continued strong cash flow reduced our debt balance. Additionally, corporate expense, M&A and restructuring costs were slightly favorable to guidance. As a result, JBT posted adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $0.90 or GAAP EPS of $0.84. Free cash flow for the quarter significantly exceeded our expectations at $78 million, driven by continued strong collection of accounts receivable and customer deposits. The robust cash flow performance improved our bank leverage ratio to 1.9x and increased overall liquidity to $496 million. We expect to expand our balance sheet to support an increase in sales in the back half of the year to achieve full year free cash flow conversion just above 100%. As we look ahead to full year 2021, while we are benefiting from strong commercial activity, challenges in the operating environment are expected to increase further as we work through extended vendor lead times, worldwide constraints on logistics and inflationary pressure, specifically on metals as well as COVID travel and access restrictions in Europe and Asia Pacific to increase the cost of doing business. With that in mind, we have refined our full year 2021 guidance. Given the strength of orders and outlook for FoodTech, we have raised top line growth to 9% to 11%, up from our previous guidance of 5% to 8%. However, while we expect to be able to mostly offset inflationary input costs with sourcing actions and pricing, the operational challenges I mentioned previously are expected to exert downward pressure on margins. Therefore, we have lowered full year margin guidance by 25 basis points, with operating margins of 14.25% to 14.75% and adjusted EBITDA margins of 19.25% to 19.75%. Our guidance for AeroTech is unchanged with projected revenue growth of 0% to 5%, operating margins of 10.75% to 11.25% and adjusted EBITDA margins of 12% to 12.5%. Due to existing pricing commitments and current market conditions, in the short term, AeroTech is limited in its ability to adjust prices to offset inflationary conditions. Therefore, although AeroTech exceeded margins in Q1, we have held our full year margin guidance. We are holding our forecast for corporate costs at 2.7% of sales, while lowering interest expense to about $11 million. Altogether, this increases the full year adjusted EPS range to $4.40 to $4.60. Our GAAP EPS guidance is now $4.20 to $4.40 with M&A and restructuring costs of $8 million to $10 million. Now in terms of Q2, we expect revenue of $325 million to $340 million at FoodTech, and $105 million to $115 million at AeroTech. Our second quarter guidance for operating margins are 13.75% to 14.25% at FoodTech with adjusted EBITDA margins of 19% to 19.5%. For AeroTech, operating margins are forecasted at 8.75% to 9.25% with adjusted EBITDA margins of 10% to 10.5%. For the quarter, we expect corporate costs of $12 million to $13 million, M&A and restructuring costs of $4 million and interest expense of about $3 million. That brings second quarter adjusted earnings per share guidance to $0.90 to $1 and $0.80 to $0.90 on a GAAP basis. With that, let me turn the call back to Brian.