Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. (PKOH) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Park-Ohio First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference is also being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. A list of the relevant risks and uncertainties may be found in the earnings press release as well as the company's 2025 10-K, which was filed on March 5, 2026, with the SEC. Additionally, the company may discuss adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income and EBITDA as defined. These metrics are not measures of performance under generally accepted accounting principles. For a reconciliation of EPS, adjusted EPS, operating income to adjusted operating income and net income attributable to Park-Ohio common shareholders to EBITDA as defined, please refer to the company's recent earnings release. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Matthew Crawford, Chairman, President and CEO. Please proceed, Mr. Crawford.

Thank you, and thank you all for joining our first quarter earnings conference call. I'm pleased with the momentum which is building across our business. Not only are we observing growth in many of our end markets, both traditional and new, this strength comes in products and services, which are our most durable and innovative offerings. We've worked hard to transform all aspects of our business over the last several years by carefully allocating capital towards our goals of faster growth, higher sustainable margins and more consistent cash flow. Our progress is beginning to connect to the results. We will continue to invest in people, products and processes where we can accelerate these changes. We are just at the beginning of seeing these improvements. Regarding our strategic review of Southwest Steel Processing, we will respect the long-term contributions of our partners and associates who have created incredible value over the last 25 years. This fully automated forging site is one of the finest of its type anywhere, and we will find a way to optimize the hard work and investment of the SSP Park-Ohio team while improving the overall results of Park-Ohio. Thank you to all of our associates for their contributions to the start of 2026, and I look forward to answering questions after Pat reviews the quarter. Thanks, Pat.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning. Overall, our first quarter results exceeded our expectations and are highlighted by sales growth across all 3 of our business segments on a year-over-year basis and sequentially. Sales in the quarter totaled $421 million compared to $405 million a year ago, an increase of 4%. Sales growth in Supply Technologies was driven by increased customer demand in several key end markets. In our Assembly Components segment, sales growth of 3% was driven by new program launches throughout last year and increased year-over-year demand from various automotive platforms in each of our product lines. In Engineered Products, sales growth was 4% year-over-year, driven by strong capital equipment demand from several end markets in North America and Europe and continued strong aftermarket demand. Our consolidated gross margin was 17.3% in the quarter, up 50 basis points compared to a year ago, driven by flow-through from the higher sales levels and profit enhancement initiatives implemented in several business units. Excluding restructuring and other special charges of approximately $1 million in both periods, consolidated operating income was $21 million, up 6% versus last year. Sequentially, adjusted operating income increased 4% compared to the fourth quarter. SG&A expenses were approximately $52 million or 12.3% of sales compared to 11.9% of sales a year ago. The percent to sales increase was driven primarily by general inflation and increases in personnel costs. First quarter interest costs were $1.3 million higher than a year ago due primarily to the higher interest rate on our senior notes that we refinanced in the third quarter of last year. The increase was partially offset by lower interest rates on our revolving credit facility compared to a year ago. Our effective income tax rate improved to 17% in the quarter compared to 20% a year ago, driven by higher estimated federal research and development tax credits. We expect our full year effective income tax to range between 17% and 20%. GAAP earnings per share from continued operations for the quarter was $0.58 per diluted share and on an adjusted basis was $0.65 per share, both exceeding our internal expectations due to higher levels of segment operating income. During the quarter, cash flow from operations was a use of $8 million to fund working capital, primarily to support sales growth during the current year. Capital spending totaled $12.5 million, which included investments in information systems, automation equipment to help drive higher levels of profitability and improve plant floor efficiencies and growth capital. We expect our full year CapEx to be approximately $35 million. Our liquidity continues to be strong and totaled approximately $200 million at the end of the quarter, which consisted of approximately $47 million of cash on hand and $153 million of unused borrowing capacity under our various banking arrangements. Turning now to our segment results. In Supply Technologies, net sales totaled $195 million during the quarter compared to $188 million in the first quarter of last year, an increase of 4%. Higher sales were driven by strong customer demand in powersports, semiconductor, aerospace and defense, electrical and agricultural end markets. Our supply chain business continues to benefit from the increased demand from the semiconductor, technology and data center sectors, which in total increased 13% year-over-year. In addition, aerospace and defense demand in the first quarter continued to be strong and increased 15% year-over-year. We expect continued growth in these end markets throughout the year in addition to improved demand from certain industrial end markets, such as heavy-duty truck and consumer end markets as they recover from historically low levels in the prior year. During the quarter, the construction of our new state-of-the-art North American distribution center remained on track and is expected to be operational in the third quarter of this year. We believe this state-of-the-art distribution center once fully operational, will result in a highly efficient service center with automated sorting, kitting and packaging and provide additional value-added services to our customers. Our fastener manufacturing business performed well in the quarter. Net sales grew 18% sequentially and were slightly down compared to sales in the prior year quarter. Global customer demand for our proprietary products is expected to grow, resulting from the expanded use of lightweight materials and global production of EV and hybrid vehicles. Adjusted operating margins continued to be at historically strong levels and were 9% during the quarter, slightly down compared to last year, primarily due to product sales mix and higher personnel costs. In our Assembly Components segment, sales for the quarter totaled $100 million compared to $97 million a year ago, an increase of 3%, driven by new product sales launched last year in each product line and higher customer demand from various automotive platforms. Adjusted operating income in the quarter totaled $5.3 million compared to $5.5 million a year ago. And compared to the fourth quarter of last year, sales increased approximately 10% and adjusted operating income increased 23%. We continue to focus on improving operating margins in this segment. Several initiatives such as increasing our rubber mixing production to support sales growth of our molded and extruded products and plant floor automation investments are expected to improve segment operating margins. In our Engineered Products segment, sales of $126 million reached their highest quarterly level in recent years and were up 4% compared to last year and up 8% sequentially compared to last quarter. The increase in sales was driven by our industrial equipment group, which continues to maintain strong backlogs. Higher sales of new equipment in North America and Europe and strong customer demand for aftermarket parts and services resulted in a very strong quarter for our industrial equipment business. The increased capital equipment sales in the quarter were driven by strong customer demand in defense, steel production, data center, oil and gas and industrial cooling end markets. New equipment bookings were strong in the quarter and totaled approximately $62 million in the quarter compared to a quarterly average bookings of $54 million last year, an increase of 15%. Backlogs as of March 31 totaled $196 million compared to $180 million last quarter, an increase of 9%. During the quarter, our adjusted operating income in this segment improved 35% compared to a year ago to $6.2 million and $3.6 million from the fourth quarter of last year. This segment is experiencing strong demand from the aerospace and defense, power generation, steel production and data center sectors. Key products supporting these high-growth end markets include transformers, power generators, induction heating and forging-related equipment and pipe bending equipment. For example, our industrial equipment, which includes induction hardening and melting and forging-related equipment is used to support a broad range of defense-related activities, including the production of munition shells, armored plate and the hardening of high-strength defense materials. And finally, within this business segment, we commenced a formal review of strategic alternatives for our Southwest Steel Processing business, which is included in our forged and machine products group. We have engaged an investment banking firm to assist us with our review, which may result in an ultimate sale of this business. With respect to our first quarter results, adjusted earnings from continuing operations, excluding Southwest Steel, would have increased from $0.65 per diluted share to $0.77 per diluted share. Turning now to our full year guidance. We are reaffirming our outlook provided last quarter, including net sales of $1.675 billion to $1.710 billion, an increase of 5% to 7% over last year. Adjusted EPS of $2.90 to $3.20 per diluted share, an increase of 7% to 19% over last year. EBITDA as defined of 8% to 9% of net sales and free cash flow of $20 million to $30 million. This outlook includes the impact of Southwest Steel, which is expected to generate $17 million in revenue and a net loss of $0.53 per diluted share. The outcome of the strategic review process with respect to this business represents potential upside to our current guidance. Now I'll turn the call back over to Matt.

Great. Thank you very much, Pat. And now we'll open up the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

This is Jacob Moore on for Steve today. First one from us is on backlog. It's really nice to see that up strongly again. And I think you gave some pretty good color on the end markets that's coming from, which seems pretty broad. Do any one of those end markets stand out to you right now? For example, are defense orders coming in stronger than usual or electrical infrastructure? Any color you could give there?

Yes, Jacob, this is Pat. I would comment on all of the above. I think when you look at our business, historically, our capital equipment business was very strong in the automotive, in the steel production space. But what we're seeing is continued interest in using our equipment for aerospace and defense applications, for data center-related activities. And in the first quarter, we saw an uptick in bookings relative to the oil and gas sector, which historically has been at pretty low levels. So we're excited about the diversity of the orders that we're getting and the quoting activity from many different end markets compared to historical end markets.

Jacob, I would only add, as you know, some of these jobs take a while to complete. So the backlog continues to have a significant amount of strength in battery steel and some of the big orders we talked about recently. I do think there's been a nice migration, as Pat mentioned, to other industries, which typically can be smaller dollar amounts, but can be executed a little more easily. So that's a good rotation. We love the big jobs. We love the innovation around battery steel, but a more diverse set of customers and some smaller jobs is great for our product mix. So I would also say that we talk a lot about power management these days. A big part of our business is making power supplies and transformers. So while we cut our teeth, I think, in maybe one of the most difficult places to learn the business, which is heating and melting of steel and other conductive metals. Increasingly, we're seeing demand for people who understand how to manage large amounts of power and need components related to it like transformers. So the backbone of this business without question is the induction business, but power supplies are important, too.

Yes. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. And Matt, to your point about longer-dated projects, the quick follow-up there would be just could you give us a sense for the expected conversion time line of the backlog? Just thinking about how much is shippable in 2026 versus '27 and beyond?

Great question. We've actually talked a little bit about the length of some of the conversions coming out of the last few years. So I think our speed of execution is better today than it's been probably for 4, 5, 6 years. So I've talked in the past about good backlog and bad backlog. I think we're in a much better position regarding execution than we've done in the past. We've made some really important investments in people and process at our key locations. Having said that, there's a number of projects, particularly the battery steel project that will take a couple of years to fully complete. But I would say, on average, the completion time is 9 months-ish. Pat, would you agree with that?

Yes. Yes, Jacob, the other comment I would add is that the diversity of our brands allows us to manage production in several manufacturing sites, whether it be here in North America or in Italy or in Spain. And so that allows for a quicker turnover. But to Matt's point, 9 to 12 months is a reasonable production time line for the backlog that we currently have.

Okay. Great. Yes, that's really helpful. And then last one for me before I jump back in queue. Just you guys said that you're in the early innings of electrical infrastructure spending. Could you maybe help us paint the picture for what you envision the middle and late innings could look like for Park-Ohio?

I'll let Pat address explicitly that end market since it's grown so explosively, both in the U.S. and globally. One of my comments, I think, about early innings is more broad-based, candidly, than electrical infrastructure. We're seeing stabilization and increasing demand in a number of end markets. So I don't just want to focus too much on that, aerospace in particular, defense in particular. So I'll let Pat talk some numbers, but I just want to be clear, this is more broad-based than just that end market, although there are some new names there that are particularly exciting.

Yes, Jacob, I would comment that going back 3 years, we saw very little activity on the electrical side in both Supply Technologies and in our Engineered Products segment. Today, that revenue base starts at about $150 million and continues to grow north of 10% per year. So it's unclear as to how much we could expect that to grow over the next 5 years. But clearly, the market is telling us there is a huge demand for our products in both Supply Tech as we manage different switchgear manufacturers needed for data center build-outs, but also on the industrial equipment that is providing power management-related equipment as well as different component parts for the cooling systems needed in these data center activities.

And our next question comes from the line of Dave Storms with Stonegate.

I wanted to maybe start with just the consolidated margin on the adjusted side. I know you've been talking about some of the supply tech automation initiatives. Just maybe any color as to what the time line is to really getting those completed and maybe what that could do to the consolidated margin? Any thoughts there?

Yes. I mean I would start by saying we are on the front edge of that. We're in a multiyear investment cycle around people, process and the use of information technology. So to be quite candid, I don't think we've seen much, if any, impact to some of those investments at this point. So I would say that's really probably more of a 2027 opportunity where it could start to move the needle. So no, we have not benefited from those, maybe a little bit later this year, but we view those as really being 2027 investments for Supply Technologies. And beyond, I mean, again, these are very durable investments. We're not just making ROI investments, we're fundamentally changing the way in which we manage information and in which we go to market for our customers and manage the sort of value add on the operations side as well.

Understood. I appreciate that. And then I know, Pat, in the prepared remarks, I think you called out some of the changes in AC between some program launches last year. I think your release mentioned volumes being a driver there. Just curious as to maybe what you're seeing in terms of the business acquisition environment in the remainder of 2026, given some of these new program launches and maybe potential for increased volumes there.

In terms of business acquisitions, Dave, I think our focus, at least within the Assembly Components segment, given the active quoting activity and the launches of new business that we're seeing that business that launched in 2025 and new business that is being launched in the current year, I would not expect any business acquisition activity within that segment, given our investments that we're making in the automotive space. The products that we sell in that space, as you probably remember, is fuel filler-related products, fuel rail products, molded and extruded rubber products, tremendous opportunities for us to grow organically in that segment. And so our current initiatives around margin enhancement are critical in this business, and we continue to be focused on that.

Yes, let me add a follow-on on that. Again, we are always looking for highly accretive, thoughtful acquisitions. ACG, though, I think, has been extremely focused on their product innovation, their vertical integration and their new business launches. So it has been a challenging environment. There has been huge new launches by every major OE, certainly here in the U.S. and globally. There has been challenges in the supply chain. I mean, the Novelis' fire, which has affected the Ford 150, the F-150 product line as well as others. So as well as I think the conversion and the shifting landscape for EVs, particularly in Europe and China. So we're metabolizing a lot right now. But at the same time, we're getting through these product launches. We are, again, launching and working inside of our best products and services. So the operating leverage in that business is really teed up, and we couldn't be more excited, I think, about the latter half of this year. To the extent SAAR holds up at all, I think our most exciting days are ahead. So again, we're always sort of on the prowl for the right kind of acquisition, but our best opportunities are right in front of us given the investments we've made there. Unlike Supply Technologies, many of those investments have been made over the last few years. So this is when we start to see the real operating leverage in the growth we're going to see in that business relative to the new business launches. And not only are they metabolizing a number of launch costs, they're also having to metabolize some of the challenges I just outlined in the -- navigating sort of the ups and downs of the industry, so to speak.

Understood. And I do apologize. I said business acquisitions, I should have said customer acquisitions or new business acquisition. So that was poor phrasing on my side. Maybe one more for me. And you mentioned the fire. Obviously, there's a conflict in Iran that we didn't have the last time we talked. Just curious as to what you're seeing on the supply chain side and if you're seeing any ripple effects that may be impacting your ability to procure materials.

Broadly speaking, the only impact we've seen so far are freight costs. So those are, of course, real and require being addressed. In some cases, the mechanics of addressing it are inside the customer relationships and some may have to be addressed separately. To date, that is all we've really seen in terms of impact. I, like most other people, suspect that if this goes on longer, we could see more material impacts to availability, but we're not hearing that from our supply base at this point.

And our next question comes from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

I just had a couple on the Southwest Steel strategic review. I mean, bluntly, the EPS drag that you called out seems pretty stark. I guess, do you think that the business can transact at that $45 million asset value you called out? And maybe relatedly, if it doesn't transact in an acceptable time frame for you, is there a plan B for getting out or downsizing it over time?

We're at the beginning of that journey, not the end. So Jacob, I'm reluctant to say more. I do want to comment that this business, and I alluded to it in my comments, over 25 years, the first 20 or 21 of them, this business was not only profitable but was meaningfully accretive to overall profits, so -- or overall margins, excuse me. So we have a good business there. The business model is outstanding. The equipment we have, the 2 fully automated forge lines. So this is a good business. And again, we've been penalized a bit with the rail market being down as much as it is for an extended period of time. We have tried to expand the product offering a bit with some limited success, but not fast enough. So this is not -- this is a good business. And I think we need to explore and think through what the right situation is for it because I agree with you. The purpose of the disclosure today was to let you know that we're -- we understand the drag and the size of the drag to point to the overall earning power of the underlying business without this $17 million in sales. But I don't want you to leave this call thinking that this isn't a tremendous business that has been profitable over a very long period of time. So I anticipate. And by the way, I will also say, and this will probably not be received totally well, the business is improving, which I know it is hard to say, but the earnings drag that's in it, but it is getting better every day, and we are executing at a higher level. So I'm -- I don't have an answer to your question other than to say this is a good business, a good business model with good employees and good customers and good partners. So I'm going to stop there and just say this business has inherent value, and we, again, have benefited from this company over a long period of time.

Okay. Yes, that is helpful. And maybe a follow-up to that is, if it does transact, do those proceeds go to debt pay down? And honestly, maybe that's just a broader question on your thoughts for incremental capital allocation going forward?

Yes. I think Pat and I have made it -- I hope we've made it abundantly clear over the last 2 to 3 years that reduction in leverage is a key priority of this company. We have set an intermediate goal of 3x net debt to EBITDA. And again, we're not going to forego critical investments in our business. We are spending somewhere between 2 to 3x our maintenance capital in the business right now for some of the investments we're doing. So I'd like to say the first parts of the trough is making us better at what we do every day in our key businesses. But right at the top of that list, our whole management team, not just Pat and I are aware, that it is a priority to allocate capital towards reducing the leverage in this company. So again, it's not our #1 goal because we've got plenty of liquidity, but it's not lost on us that, that is an important goal for our shareholders, of which our entire management team is, so.

And with that, there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Matthew Crawford for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you very much for the questions today and for your attention and most notably your support of Park-Ohio. We are quite anxious to continue through this year. Thank you.

Thank you. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful rest of your day.