Tony Trunzo
Analyst · William Blair. Please go ahead
Thank you, Jay, and good afternoon, everyone. Third quarter revenue of $1.62 billion was up 8% compared to Q3 last year, excluding $135 million from acquisitions and approximately $50 million of negative foreign exchange impact, revenue increased by approximately 3%. Gross margin for the quarter was 26.6%, compared with 28.1% in last year’s third quarter. Consolidated operating expenses grew by $21 million or 8% due entirely to $26 million of First Alert operating expenses. Operating income of $155 million declined 7% compared to last Q3 and diluted earnings were $0.42 per share, compared with $0.46 in Q3 of 2021. Included in our third quarter results was an $8 million benefit associated with the tax indemnification accrual release and $17 million of costs related to a litigation matter that arose prior to our spin-off from Honeywell, as well as the impact of the sale of ADI’s India operations. Products & Solutions third quarter revenue of $707 million was up 12%, excluding $112 million from acquisitions and approximately $30 million of unfavorable foreign exchange impact. Products & Solutions revenue declined by approximately 1% compared to last year Q3. Price realization added approximately $60 million to revenue year-over-year, while aggregate volumes declined by approximately 10%. Order activity slowed across Products & Solutions as the quarter progressed, as some customers and channels work to reduce inventory levels. We believe channel inventory normalization has further to go and this is reflected in our fourth quarter outlook. Products & Solutions gross margin in Q3 was 36.2%, down from 41.5% in the third quarter of 2021. Persistent inflationary pressures, need to source material from brokers and the effect of lower volumes and factory efficiency, all negatively impacted gross margin in the quarter. In addition, the inclusion of lower margin First Alert revenue reduced gross margin by approximately 200 basis points in Q3. Products & Solutions’ operating profit was $124 million or 17.5% of sales, compared with $157 million or 24.9% of sales last year. Operating expenses for Products & Solutions were up $27 million year-over-year due to the $26 million in First Alert costs, as well as planned increases in R&D investments, offset by lower other SG&A. We are actively managing operating costs, while ensuring we continue to invest in key growth and innovation initiatives. First Alert contributed revenue of $112 million and operating income of $4 million in Q3. Like the rest of Products & Solutions, First Alert gross margin was negatively impacted by inflationary cost pressures. We remain on track to exit 2022 at an annual cost synergy run rate of $10 million and to achieve run rate annual cost synergies of $30 million by the end of 2023. ADI continued its strong performance in Q3 with revenue up 5% to $911 million. ADI again saw strong activity in categories serving commercial markets including fire, video surveillance and access control. $23 million of revenue from acquisitions and approximately $22 million of unfavorable foreign exchange impact effectively offset each other during the quarter. ADI gross margin in the third quarter was 19.3%, up from 18.6% last year, reflecting improved product line margin, increased private brand’s contribution and the strong pricing environment. ADI Q3 operating profit of $78 million was up by $5 million or 7% versus last year. In October, we completed the sale of ADI’s operations in India, which comprise all at ADI’s APAC business. Proceeds from the sale were immaterial and the transaction generated a $4.5 million goodwill impairment that was recorded in other expense in Q3. Corporate costs were $47 million, down from $63 million in the prior year. In Q3 of 2021 impairment charges on our former headquarters added $9 million to corporate costs, while this year’s corporate costs benefited by $8 million due to a tax indemnification accrual release. Excluding these items, corporate costs were relatively flat year-over-year. Our 2022 corporate spending is tracking below prior year levels and below our forecast when we entered 2022. Turning to our outlook for the fourth quarter, we expect revenue to be in the range of $1.55 billion to $1.6 billion. Consolidated gross margin is expected to be in the range of 26.5% to 27.5% and GAAP operating profit is expected to be in the range of $130 million to $140 million. For the full year 2022, we now expect revenue to be in the range of $6.36 billion to $6.41 billion, implying year-over-year growth of 9% at the midpoint, consolidated gross margin is expected to be in the range of 27% to 28% and GAAP operating profit is expected to be in the range of $645 million to $655 million, implying 16% annual growth at the midpoint. Our full year outlook includes First Alert revenue of approximately $340 million and operating profit of approximately $15 million. For the fourth quarter, we expect First Alert to contribute revenue of approximately $115 million and operating profit of approximately $4 million. Included in First Alert’s full-year outlook is approximately $25 million of costs associated with integration, intangible amortization and inventory step up. We continue to actively review our cost structure, including initiating manufacturing optimization activity. These initiatives may result in a charge to our Q4 results that is not included in the outlook provided above. We believe there remains significant opportunity to drive operational and cost efficiencies with our manufacturing footprint. Additional outlook details can be found on page 11 of our earnings slides. I will now turn the call back to Jay for a few concluding remarks before we take questions.