Shelly M. Chadwick
Analyst · Seaport Research Partners
Thanks, Jugal, and good morning, everyone. During my comments, I will reference the slides posted on our website this morning, starting on Slide 10. In the second quarter, value-added sales, which exclude the impact of pass-through precious metal costs, were $269 million, down 2% organically from prior year and up 4% sequentially. This year-over-year slight decrease was largely driven by lower precision clad strip shipments and semiconductor demand from China. Excluding the impact of these items, value-added sales would have been up 2% versus the prior year. Strength in aerospace and defense, energy and semiconductor sales outside of China are driving the year- over-year sales increase. When looking at earnings per share, we delivered quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.37, down 4% from prior year, but up 21% sequentially. Moving to Slide 11. Adjusted EBITDA was $55.8 million or a second quarter record of 20.8% of value-added sales, down 3% year- over-year with 10 basis points of margin expansion despite the lower volume. This decrease was driven by lower volume, partially offset by strong operational performance and structural cost improvements. Favorable pricing was realized in the quarter, offsetting unfavorable mix from hydroxide shipment timing. Moving to Slide 12. Let me review second quarter performance by business segment. Starting with Performance Materials, value- added sales were $168.5 million, down 3% year-over-year, but up 5% sequentially. The year-over-year decrease was driven primarily by lower precision clad strip shipments as the expected inventory correction continues. Excluding precision clad strip, sales were up 3%, driven by strength in energy and aerospace and defense. Adjusted EBITDA was $41.5 million or 24.6% of value-added sales, down 4% compared to the prior year period. This decrease was driven by lower volume and unfavorable mix, partially offset by strong operational performance. Looking out to the second half of 2025, we expect to see continued strength across the aerospace and defense and energy end markets. In addition to higher volume, we expect to see continued strong operational performance and cost management. Now turning to Electronic Materials on Slide 13. Value-added sales were $76.1 million, down 6% from the prior year, driven by lower semiconductor sales to China. Excluding this impact, the remainder of the semiconductor market was up 6% from prior year, signaling market strength with improving demand across many subsectors. EBITDA, excluding special items, was $17.8 million or a record 23.4% of value-added sales in the quarter, up 4% from the prior year with 230 basis points of margin expansion. This record margin and year-over-year increase was driven by continued operational performance, including the impact of our cost improvement initiatives and strong price mix despite lower volume. As we look out to the remainder of the year, we expect the semiconductor market to improve in the second half and continue the momentum seen during the quarter. While some uncertainty remains around our semiconductor sales to customers in China, we are confident that our balanced and global semi portfolio will help offset some softness there. And as demonstrated so far this year, we expect to deliver considerable margin expansion as demand increases and the impact of our improved cost structure takes hold. Turning to the Precision Optics segment on Slide 14. Value-added sales were $24.4 million, down 5% compared to the prior year and up 14% sequentially. The year-over-year decrease was driven largely by order timing in the defense market. EBITDA, excluding special items, was $2.2 million or 9% of value-added sales in the quarter, approaching double-digit margins with 950 basis points of sequential improvement. The increase was driven by improving performance and the impact of the structural cost changes. This quarter brings the second consecutive quarter of improved results, and we expect to continue this trend as new business initiatives advance and we continue to improve our business performance. Moving now to cash, debt and liquidity on Slide 15. We ended the quarter with a net debt position of approximately $413 million and approximately $257 million of available capacity on the company's existing credit facility. Our leverage remains below 2x as cash flow generation is an important focus. We delivered approximately $36 million of free cash flow during the quarter, bringing our year- to-date conversion to more than 70% of adjusted net income. While continuing to invest organically, we also repaid $26 million of debt and repurchased 100,000 shares at an average of $78 per share, further demonstrating our balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation. As we look out to the remainder of the year, we are well on our way to deliver free cash flow that exceeds 70% of adjusted net income with strong first half cash generation and second half cash initiatives on track. Lastly, let me transition to Slide 16 and address the full year 2025. We are pleased with our business performance in the first half of the year, having delivered strong results despite a volatile macro environment, and we are encouraged by improving market dynamics and new business opportunities won as we look to the second half of the year. With that, we expect Q3 will be similar to slightly better than Q2 and we are on track to deliver a strong Q4 with improving demand and the timing of defense shipments. As a result, we are affirming our initial guide of $5.30 to $5.70 adjusted earnings per share for the full year. This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the line for questions.