Jon Painter
Analyst · Barrington Research
Thanks, Mike and thank you all for joining us this morning to review our first quarter results and to update you on our business outlook for 2019. Overall, we had a good start to the year, with excellent operating performance leading to a solid earnings per share beat as well as record revenue and bookings. Let me start with the Q1 financial highlights. We had record first quarter bookings of 184 million, up 1% from the record performance last year. We also had record revenue, which was up 15% to 171 million. Gross margin decreased to 41.2% due to purchase accounting and the inclusion of lower-margin revenues from our recent acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA was up 27% to 30 million or 17.5% of revenue. We generated $0.96 of GAAP diluted earnings per share, and our adjusted earnings per share was up 16% to $1.24. FX negatively impacted our earnings per share by $0.08. Cash flow in Q1, which is historically a weaker quarter, increased 37% compared to the same period last year to 10 million. And finally, we finished the quarter with net debt of 304 million and a leverage ratio of 2.33. If you take a look at slide 6, you can see FX had a meaningful negative impact on our Q1 results, while the acquisition of Syntron had a positive impact. Our internal revenue growth, which excludes FX and acquisitions, was up a healthy 6%, while internal revenue growth and bookings decreased 8% compared to the record first quarter of 2018. As you may recall, we had an extraordinary level of bookings in the first half of 2018, so we expected difficult comparisons the first half of this year. That said, I'm very pleased with the level of bookings in the first quarter. Our Parts and Consumables internal growth in Q1 was also excellent, with revenue up 4.5% and bookings up 3.6%. Moving on to our bookings and revenue performance generally. Slide 7 shows a positive uptick in bookings in Q1 compared to the previous three quarters to a record 184 million, thanks to contributions from our recent acquisition. I should also note that we ended the quarter with a record backlog of 200 million. Q1 revenue increased 15% to a record 171 million, due largely to the contributions of our acquisition but also strong performance for our stock prep product line in Europe and North America and our doctor cleaning and filtration product line in North America. Another high point of the quarter was our Parts and Consumables business, which saw significant increases in both bookings and revenue. Parts and Consumables bookings increased 17% to a record 120 million, thanks largely to contributions from our recent acquisition. Revenue from Parts and Consumables in the first quarter was also outstanding, up 18% to a record 113 million and represents 66% of our total Q1 revenue. At 66% of revenue, Parts and Consumables continues to make up a significant portion of our total revenue. I want to note that after analyzing Syntron's business, we determined it's best to categorize its aftermarket replacements and upgrade business as Parts and Consumables. Using this classification, Syntron had Parts and Consumables revenue making up 82% of its total revenue in Q1. Next, let me review our performance in the major geographic regions where we operate, and I'll start with North America. The packaging market in North America started the first quarter of 2019 in an environment of weaker demand and new capacity additions. This led to containerboard operating rates at 91% in the first quarter, down from 95% in the prior year quarter. The underlying strength of the US economy is a tailwind, but there is still enough uncertainty in overall demand that packaging buyers are being cautious in building up too much inventory. A big question in the North American market is what role China will play in importing North American liner to offset the fiber shortage they're experiencing in China. On the housing front, US housing starts were down around 10% in the first quarter compared to a strong Q1 of 2018. March's annualized rate of 1.1 million housing starts, however, is still fairly healthy. The market does appear to be firming up as interest rates have come down making new homes somewhat more affordable. That said, we are seeing reduced capital project activity in our wood processing segment compared to the high levels we saw last year as many producers rush to increase capacity and modernize their facilities. This combination suggests that the outlook for capital projects will be weaker than last year but still at a reasonable level. The picture is brighter in the mining and aggregates market, which are primarily served by our new Material Handling Systems segment. We're seeing a strong level of project activity for our conveying products at our mining customers based on healthy industrial activity in North America. We're also seeing good activity in the aggregate space, such as sand, gravel and crushed stone, for our vibratory feeding and conveying products. As you can see on slide 9, revenue increased to a record 110 million, up 30% compared to the first quarter of 2018. While our recent acquisition was the major reason for the revenue increase, our internal revenue -- growth in revenue, which excludes FX and acquisitions, was a very healthy 7%, making North America the strongest region in the world for us. Bookings in North America were up 13% to a record 105 million. An increase in bookings in our Doctoring, Cleaning, and Filtration product line, partially offset declines in our wood processing and stock prep product lines. That said, the largest contributor to our bookings increase was our recent acquisition. Excluding the impact of FX and acquisitions, our bookings in North America were down 9% from an extremely strong Q1 of 2018. Before leaving North America, I want to report on how our material handling acquisition performed in its first quarter as part of Kadant. Overall, the business did quite well and executed according to plan. The business had revenue of 21 million, bookings of 24 million and was $0.07 accretive to our adjusted earnings per share in the first quarter. The management team attended our global management meeting in March and came away with several synergies to pursue. Looking ahead, we expect a solid year in 2019. On slide 10, we show our revenue and bookings performance in Europe. Market conditions in Europe are about the same as they've been for the last few years. The region seems to be dragged down by slowing export activity as its most important trading partner, China, is working through its own economic headwinds. Weak manufacturing in industrial sectors compounded by the ongoing trade disputes between the US and China and ongoing Brexit uncertainty continues to contribute to a fairly lackluster economic environment. First quarter revenue was down 6% year-over-year as a result of FX despite solid growth in our stock prep and wood processing product lines. Excluding the impact of FX and acquisition, revenue was up 2%. Bookings in Europe were down 9%, but only down 2% when excluding FX and acquisitions. All of our product lines were down in Q1 except wood processing, where bookings increased 25% compared to Q1 of 2018. In particular, we booked capital orders for five machines in Eastern Europe for our rotary debarking equipment used in the wood processing mills with a combined value of approximately 2.6 million. Overall, the market in Europe is stable, and we expect market conditions to remain somewhat soft due largely to the high level of political uncertainty and relatively weak demand. Turning now to Asia. We see the impact of the proposed wastepaper ban and the slowing economy in China. Q1 revenue was down 15% compared to Q1 of 2018. Bookings decreased 4% compared to Q1 of 2018, but increased 56% sequentially. As we talked about on prior calls, the containerboard producers in China are facing fiber shortages resulting from the government's decision to dramatically reduce imports of wastepaper into China. The build-out of fiber processing capacity in Southeast Asia by Chinese producers in 2018 in response to the wastepaper ban is continuing. And there is now more project activity by Chinese producers outside China than within China. Malaysia has recently emerged as the hotspot for investment with two of China's larger containerboard producers recently announcing plans to add nearly 3 million tons of new capacity over the next few years. Containerboard producers inside China, on the other hand, are taking extended downtime due to a lack of fiber and slowing demand. Consequently, we expect reduced demand for both capital and parts from our paper industry customers in China this year. Despite the challenging market conditions, we did have a number of capital projects booked in the quarter in China, particularly in our stock prep product line, where we booked three OCC system orders with a combined value of approximately 9 million as mentioned in our last call. In addition, there continues to be OSB projects in the pipeline, which if secured should help to offset expected softer bookings for capital sold into the paper industry. Finally, a few comments on the rest of the world results. The market conditions in South America, particularly Brazil, are still restrained but stable. Our revenue in the rest of the world was 14 million in Q1, up 45% compared to the same period last year and 31% on a sequential basis. Bookings were down 33% compared to a relatively strong Q1 of 2018, however, were up 18% sequentially. I want to conclude my remarks with a few comments on our guidance for Q2 and the full year of 2019. Despite some volatility in China and weaker demand for housing in North America, we're encouraged by our solid start to 2019. Based on our Q1 results and our outlook for the remainder of the year, we are reaffirming our full year revenue and adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance and raising our GAAP diluted earnings per share guidance. For 2019, we now expect to achieve GAAP diluted earnings per share of $4.84 to $4.99 on revenue of 700 million to 710 million. We expect our adjusted earnings per share to be between $5.20 and $5.35. Mike will give you more details on our guidance in his remarks. For the second quarter of 2019, we expect to achieve GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.99 to $1.05 on revenues of 165 million to 170 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.07 to $1.13. I'll pass the call over to Mike for additional details on our financial performance. Mike?