Frank P. Simpkins
Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Thank you, Carlos. Consistent with the prior discussions, I'll start by making some comments, and then I'll review the first quarter and additional detail. And as always, some of my comments are related to non-GAAP metrics. As Carlos pointed out, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, we delivered solid profitability during the September quarter with earnings per share of $0.48 per share, which included our nonrecurring charges of $0.05 and operating margin of 9.5%. The nonrecurring charges included a physical inventory adjustment of approximately $6 million and ATI acquisition cost of approximately $1 million and has unfavorably impacted our margin performance by about 110 basis points. In the September quarter, we experienced improved sales trends in our earlier cycle industrial business, which continues to gain momentum. However, the infrastructure business, which is generally mid-to late cycle, continued to lag as the underground mining sector remains weak globally and the energy market is still seeing some demand softness in the near term. However, I think it's important to highlight that the month of September is the first time in 15 months where Kennametal realized year-over-year sales growth. Also for each month during the quarter, the daily order rate increased sequentially, and in addition, our WIDIA products realized a positive year-over-year growth in all geographies. We also generated $20 million of free operating cash flow during the quarter compared with a $12 million outflow in the prior year. The September quarter is typically our seasonal low in terms of free operating cash flow generation. However, the current quarter generated the highest September quarter free operating cash flow in the past 10 years, due in part to our improved efficiencies and cash management strategies. As Carlos briefly mentioned, we also entered into an agreement for $605 million to acquire ATI's Tungsten Materials Business, which aligns our long-term growth strategies. This is expected to accelerate our plans for an advanced tungsten carbide facility in addition. And we expect them to close the transaction in the next 30 days. Also regarding our priority uses of cash, we remain consistent with our principles. We reinvested a combined $43 million in our business with $25 million of capital expenditures and $18 million in acquisitions, primarily related to the Emura transaction to acquire tungsten processing operations in Bolivia which furthers our strategy to balance our metallurgical sourcing. We also reduced our debt by $42 million from June 30. We have a $14 million payout on our dividends. And with anticipation of the ATI transaction, we tempered our share repurchases during the quarter to $4 million which were approximately 100,000 shares. We will continue to balance going forward with respect to our investment and shareholder return policies. Now I'm going to walk through the key items in the income statement. Sales for the quarter came in at $620 million, and this compares to $629 million in the same quarter last year. Our sales decreased by 2%, and reflected 3% organic decline, partly offset by a 1% favorable impact for more business days. And as I noted earlier, the September month was the first time in 15 months that reflected positive year-over-year growth. We are seeing improved demand from customers in our industrial end markets, and distribution sales for the month reflected double-digit growth from prior year. These factors are encouraging. Looking at the individual business segments, our Industrial segment sales of $338 million increased by 1% from the prior-year quarter due to a favorable impact of more business days and on an organic basis, it was flat. Sales were up 2% in general engineering, 2% in transportation and 1% in energy, offset by a 2% decline in aerospace and defense. General engineering increased due to improvements in demand from distribution channels. The transportation market benefited from increased demand in light vehicle markets in Europe, U.S. and China. And our energy sales reflected increased activity in industrial applications. The decline in aerospace and defense is due to the timing of orders on a year-over-year basis. On a geographic basis, our sales increased year-over-year by approximately 6% in Europe, remained flat in the Americas, and decreased by 5% in Asia, primarily driven by softness in India. As previously mentioned, WIDIA sales grew 4% organically, which reflected year-over-year increases in all geographic regions. Our Infrastructure segment sales came in at $282 million in the quarter, and they declined by 4% from the prior year, and that was driven by a 6% organic sales decline, partly offset by a 2% favorable impact for more business days. Sales declined by 8% in earthworks, 4% in energy, 1% in transportation, partly offset by an 11% increase in general engineering. Earthworks sales declined from persistently weak underground coal mining markets in China and the U.S. And this was partly offset by highway construction sales growth of 6% due to increased demand in all 3 regions. Further, energy sales decreased due to lower drilling activity in oil and gas in the U.S., partly offset by gains in production and completion applications. General engineering and transportation reflected higher volumes from integrators, as well as distributors. And geographically, sales grew 3% in Europe, offset by decreased sales of 7% in Asia and were 7% lower in the Americas. Now, turning to our operating performance. Our gross profit margin was 32% and this compares to 33.1% last year. Gross margin benefited from lower raw material cost, but was offset by lower organic sales and unfavorable mix and a nonrecurring physical inventory charge of $5.7 million related to our mining business. This inventory charge unfavorably impacted our gross profit margin by about 90 basis points. Our operating expenses declined $5 million year-over-year due to containment of discretionary spending, partly offset by the ATI acquisition charges, which were about $1 million. Our operating expenses as a percent of sales was 21.7% in the quarter, which is 40 basis points lower than the prior year. And this represents continued cost discipline globally from our team. Our operating income was $59 million compared to $64 million in the same quarter last year. The decrease in operating income was primarily due to the factors already mentioned. Our margin was 9.5% for the September quarter, and nonrecurring charges unfavorably impacted our operating margin by 110 basis points. Looking at the operating performance by business segment. Industrial segment's operating income was $40 million compared to $39 million in the same quarter of the prior year. And the Industrial operating margin was 11.8% compared with 11.7% in the prior year. The Infrastructure segment's operating income was $22 million, and this compares with $28 million last year. Our operating income decreased year-over-year due to reduced organic sales and a nonrecurring physical inventory adjustment of $5.7 million related to our mining business. Our infrastructure's operating margin was 7.7% for the quarter compared with 9.4% last year, and the nonrecurring physical inventory adjustment unfavorably impacted the margin by 200 basis points. Interest expense was up $1 million year-over-year in the September quarter to $7 million. The increase was due to higher borrowing rate for the 2.65 notes as compared to our bank revolver, partly offset by lower year-over-year borrowings. And we have full availability on the $600 million revolver as of September 30, 2013. Our effective tax rate came in at 24.6% for the quarter compared to 20.7% last year. The increase was primarily driven by a favorable effect tax audit settlement in Europe in the prior year, while the current year rate reflects a lower relative U.S. earnings contribution and a valuation allowance adjustment related to a state law change. And regarding earnings per share, we reported diluted earnings per share of $0.48 compared to $0.57 in the prior year and the current year included nonrecurring charges of $0.05. Cash flow from operating activities for the September quarter was $44 million compared to just $3 million in the prior year. Cash flow benefited from a year-over-year decrease in working capital. Our capital expenditures on a net basis were $25 million compared to $50 million in the prior year. And as I said earlier, our free operating cash flow was $20 million in the quarter compared with a $12 million free operating cash outflow in the prior year. So a $32 million swing year-over-year. We also purchased 100,000 shares of our outstanding shares, and as previously mentioned, we were not active in the market during the quarter due to the anticipated ATI transaction. But to date, under the amended repurchase program, we have purchased 6.7 million shares and approximately 10.3 million shares remain available for purchase under the program. We now expect to repurchase approximately 1.5 million shares in fiscal 2014. We remain confident in our ability to continue generating strong cash flow and we'll stay consistent with our capital structure principles. As always, we remain active on the acquisition front to identify and develop potential candidates. We continue to be highly disciplined in our capital allocation process to ensure that we invest in initiatives with the highest returns. Our balance sheet remains strong. At September 30, we have $3 million in short-term debt and full availability of our revolver of $600 million. Total debt stood at $706 million and our cash balance was $333 million with approximately 2/3 of the cash presently residing overseas. So on a net debt basis, our net debt was $373 million at quarter end, consistent with the $370 million at June 30. Our debt-to-cap ratio was 24 -- 27.4 compared to 29.2 at June 30 and our adjusted return on invested capital is 8.9%. We continue to actively manage our pension plans and enjoy the benefits of our adoption of a liability-driven investment strategy over 7 years ago, and our U.S.-defined benefit plans remain over 100% funded. Turning to our outlook. We have slightly refined our full year outlook due to a slower-than-anticipated recovery in our served end markets globally in underground mining, as well as oil and gas markets. However, it's worth noting that order rates have reflected increased activity primarily in the industrial end markets and distribution channels. Based on the current quarter and our fiscal 2014 forecast, we now expect the Industrial segment to perform slightly better than originally estimated, while the Infrastructure segment is anticipated to lag more than prior projections. So now, our current guidance for total sales growth reflects a shift from organic growth due to the anticipated currency impacts. As such, we expect fiscal 2014 sales growth in the range of 5% to 7% with organic sales growth ranging from 4% to 6%. Previously, we had forecasted sales growth ranging from 4% to 6% with organic sales growth of 5% to 7%. Based on a revised segment performance and the nonrecurring inventory charge for the first quarter, we narrowed our EPS guidance for fiscal 2014 to range from $2.90 to $3.05 versus the previous expectation of $2.90 to $3.10. We still expect to generate cash flow from operations between $330 million and $380 million for all of fiscal '14 based on anticipated capital expenditures of approximately $130 million to $150 million. And now we expect to generate between $200 million and $230 million of free operating cash flow for the full year. And our earnings are still expected to be somewhat consistent with our historical patterns with approximately 35% to 40% of earnings in the first half, and 60% to 65% in the second half of the fiscal year. And please note that our outlook does not reflect any impact related to the planned acquisition of ATI's Tungsten Material Business. We will continue to manage our business for the factors we can control in the near term. We remain committed to protecting our profitability, as well as maximizing our cash flow and returns. And in addition, we will remain focused on many growth opportunities and consistent execution of our strategies. Now I'll turn it back to Carlos for a closing comment.