Jon DeGaynor
Analyst · Stephens. Your line is open
Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Let me begin on Page 3. In 2019, we continued our transformation and positioning of the Company for strong future growth. Our 2019 adjusted sales of $830 million resulted in an adjusted gross margin of 26.5%, translating to an adjusted operating margin of 5.8%. Adjusted EPS for the year was $1.47. Excluding the impact of divested product lines, our 2019 sales were $793 million with an adjusted gross margin of 27.2% and an adjusted operating margin of 5.6%. Divested product lines contributed approximately 37 and $0.09 to our 2019 adjusted EPS. We are announcing that we have been awarded two additional OEM MirrorEye programs with peak annual revenue of $50 million at relatively modest take rates. With these awards, the customer platforms on which we have been awarded MirrorEye programs represent approximately 75% of the North American OEM Class 8 production volume. In Europe, we have received approximately half of the business that has been awarded to date, which represents approximately one-third of the European OEM production volume, with a couple of OEMs yet to make sourcing decisions. These additional awards solidify our position as the global market leader in camera mirror systems for the commercial vehicle industry. As a result of our success with our customers, our awarded business backlog, excluding the impact of external factors, grew by over 6%, driven by another year of strong business awards. As a tangible signal of our confidence in the transformation of the Company, we are announcing an additional $50 million share repurchase, and this morning, we are providing guidance for our expected performance in 2020. Despite reduced volume expectations due to production declines in our end markets and continued investments in advanced technologies, we expect operating margin to remain relatively stable in 2020. Bob will provide additional detail on our revenue and adjusted EPS guidance, and I will discuss some of the operational improvements we expect later in the call. Turning to Page 4, I want to take a few minutes to reflect on the breadth and depth of the transformation within the organization in 2019. During the year, we took actions to rationalize our portfolio and optimize our manufacturing footprint in order to focus our management and technical resources to drive future performance. For example, we announced the divestiture of our noncore switches and connectors business and the subsequent closure of our Canton manufacturing facility. Additionally, we completed our strategic review of the switches and controls business within our electronics segment, culminating in the decision to move that product line to trend. We expect this move to drive 50 basis points to 100 basis points of consolidated margin improvement for the Company. These activities will streamline our operations, right size our cost structure, and focus our resources on areas of future growth. In 2019, we continued to invest in technologies and systems that will improve our total supply chain. We expect these investments will lead to improved efficiencies in our manufacturing facilities, as Stoneridge transformation and performance actions have been the foundation for growth. Our business awards in 2019 demonstrate the progress we are making. We will continue to make investments in the necessary resources to take advantage of the opportunities these awards represent. Finally, as we will discuss later in the call, we continue to transform our leadership team to drive our long-term strategic goals. The initiatives that we undertook challenged the organization in 2019, and contributed to financial performance that was below our expectations. However, because of the actions we took in 2019 and the continued investments we will make in 2020, we are strengthening the foundation of the Company and transforming our product portfolio and technical capabilities to position the Company for strong profitable growth for years to come. Page 5 summarizes our key financial metrics in both the quarter-to-quarter and year-over-year periods. Before we discuss the metrics in detail, it should be noted that for comparison purposes, we have removed the estimated financial impact of the businesses we divested earlier this year from both the current and comparable periods. Year-over-year sales declined by approximately 3.5%, due in part to the negative impacts of the GM strike, foreign currency exchange rate, and reduced production volumes, particularly in European commercial vehicle market. Adjusted operating margin declined by approximately 200 basis points, driven by these externalities, as well as increased tariffs, premium electronic component costs, and some increased operating costs, particularly in the second half of the year. I will provide additional detail on the call regarding our expectations to reduce the impact of tariffs and component costs, and drive improvement in our facilities. Page 6 provides additional detail on our quarter-over-quarter results from both the sales and operating income perspective. Revenue in the fourth quarter was negatively impacted by declines in production in some of our key end markets, as well as the impact of the GM strike, which began at the end of the third quarter and continued into the fourth. In addition, our Shift-by-Wire programs continued to ramp down in the fourth quarter. Excluding the impact of the GM strike, Shift-by-Wire program reductions, and the negative impact of foreign currency, our core portfolio sales increased by 1.3% quarter-over-quarter. Quarter-over-quarter adjusted operating margin declined by 330 basis points. The continued ramp down of Shift-by-Wire resulted in reduced operating income of approximately 140 basis points or $2.8 million versus to the fourth quarter of 2018. The impact of the GM strike, as well as the negative impact of foreign currency movements, reduced operating margin by 110 basis points or $2.2 million in the quarter. Manufacturing costs related to the closure of our Canton facility reduced operating margin by 100 basis points or $2.1 million in the quarter. In contrast to prior quarters, we are starting to recognize the impact of our initiatives to reduce tariff costs and electronic component premiums, as we reduced those expenses by almost $1 million relative to the comparable quarter last year. In addition, due to external factors and non-recurring costs, our fourth-quarter results underperformed expectations, due to increased overtime and indirect labor cost versus the comparable quarter. As a management team, we are committed to managing the factors that we can control, and efficiently and effectively responding to externalities to appropriate cost reduction actions. Turning to Page 7. We expect reductions in component costs and tariffs to continue as we move into 2020. In these areas, we are forecasting $2 million to $3 million and $1 million to $2 million of improvement, respectively. We continue to focus on improving our overall supply chain to reduce premium freight expediting cost and quality related costs. As a result of the actions we have taken in 2019 and the initiatives in place in 2020, we expect significant improvement in these areas, driving $3 million to $4 million of reduced costs in 2020. We expect these specific actions to drive $8 million to $12 million of operating improvement in 2020, resulting in approximately flat gross profit on reduced sales, which translates to gross margin improvement of approximately 130 basis points, based on the midpoint of our [Audio gap]. We remain committed to driving top quartile financial performance, and the first step in achieving that target is improving our facilities to drive gross margin improvement across the Company. As I discussed previously, we will continue to invest in the necessary resources to develop the products that will drive our growth and support the significant number of new programs in our long-range plan. As a result of those incremental DNB and SG&A costs, we are guiding to a midpoint of approximately flat operating margin relative to 2019. Bob will provide additional detail on our revenue and adjusted EPS guidance later in the call. Turning to Page 8. We recently welcomed Kevin Heigel to the team as vice president of operations. Kevin's background aligns well with our strategic plan, as he brings experience developing and implementing operations and supply chain strategies for companies of our size. Kevin is responsible for continuing to improve our operational efficiency and manufacturing processes. In less than two months at Stoneridge, Kevin has already instituted programs and actions that are driving the $8 million to $12 million of gross margin improvement I just outlined. Turning to Page 9. Shifting our focus to one of the several opportunities that will drive future growth. This morning I want to provide an update on our MirrorEye program. I'm pleased to announce our third and fourth OEM MirrorEye awards with a combined estimated $50 million of peak annual revenue, based on relatively low penetration rates. Both programs are expected to launch in 2023. To expand on each of the programs, the first award is the largest MirrorEye program to date, and the largest single program award in company history at an estimated $46 million of peak annual revenue. This award for a global OEM has assumed take rates of 10% in North America and 25% in Europe. The second award is focused in North America and assumes a much smaller take rate with peak annual revenue of $4 million. With these awards, the customer platforms in which we have been awarded MirrorEye programs represent approximately 75 %of the North American OEM Class 8 production volume. In addition, we have won approximately half of the business that has been awarded in Europe, which represents approximately one-third of the European OEM production volume, with a couple of OEMs yet to make sourcing decisions. We invested in MirrorEye because we believe it will be transformational for the industry. Industry dynamics, including expected government regulations around fuel economy and safety in both North America and Europe, are leading our customers to suggest take rates may be higher than originally thought and quoted. Based on the changing market dynamics, one of the OEMs that has awarded us a MirrorEye program believes that take rates could approach 100% by 2025. Over the past couple of months, I have met with a number of our fleet partners. Their feedback has been favorable to the technology platform, and has provided important recommendations for complementary capabilities. The fleets with whom we are working are disciplined in their approach to adoption of new technologies, but each is suggesting that the longer-term plan concludes full penetration of their fleets. In response to the feedback from the fleets, we continue to work with a major global OEM for pre-wire vehicles from MirrorEye systems. With multiple fleets interested in pre-wired vehicles, we have begun negotiations with other OEMs to give them the ability to offer this feature and bridge the gap between current production and the start of OEM production. Finally, it was announced yesterday that we were awarded the 2019 Truck Writers of America Technical Achievement Award from MirrorEye. This is a significant achievement that further validates how important and transformational MirrorEye will be for the commercial vehicle industry. MirrorEye will change the commercial vehicle industry, and Stoneridge is driving that change with our OEM and fleet partners. Turning to Page 10. This morning we are updating our long-term revenue targets to reflect current market conditions and improved long-term expectations for MirrorEye. Reduced production forecasts, as well as the negative impact of movement in exchange rates, reduces our previously provided 2021 revenue target by almost $100 million. Additionally, the continued momentum in OEM MirrorEye awards has shifted some of our expectations for retrofit sales to OEM applications, including pre-wire options. As a result, we expect that some of our existing fleet partners will offer an OEM solution, which may delay some of the MirrorEye retrofit revenue previously included in our 2021 target. The expected shift from retrofit applications to OEM applications does not change our expectations for the total market opportunity for MirrorEye. In fact, based on the feedback we are getting from our fleet and OEM partners, we've increased our expectations for MirrorEye opportunities in the future. Relative to our midpoint of $760 million of revenue in 2020, our 2021 target would represent approximately 12% revenue growth next year. Turning to Page 11. I want to expand on the overall opportunity that we see for MirrorEye. Beginning with the launch of our first OEM program in late 2020, we expect a significant increase in OEM MirrorEye revenues, as we launch subsequent awarded programs. At quoted penetration rates, our awarded programs represent $76 million of peak annual revenue. However, given the recent comments by our customers, market dynamics could drive penetration of up to 100%. Our expectation is that penetration rates will exceed quoted rates in the medium to long term. Should penetration rates improve to double current quoted rates or just 30%, peak annual revenue would be approximately $150 million. Should camera mirror systems become standard equipment, similar to backup cameras in the U.S. passenger car market, peak annual revenue would be approximately $0.5 billion on the programs that we have already been awarded. Retrofit opportunities would be incremental to the OEM business, outlined in this slide. We began ramping up our investment in the capabilities, resources, and technologies to capture the growth opportunity we saw in the vision and safety space, starting in 2017. We continued to invest over the last several years, and expect approximately $15 million of investment in advanced technologies and related capabilities in 2020. Unlike prior years where these investments were a bet on the future, we will begin to see the return on our investments in 2020 as MirrorEye and other advanced technology programs begin to ramp up. 2020 is an inflection point for MirrorEye, and thus for Stoneridge. In addition to MirrorEye and awarded programs we have discussed, we are investing our advanced resources in technologies and products that are complementary to the MirrorEye platform. Turning to Slide 12. Part of the transformation of the Company over the last years has been the holistic review of products, systems, and services from around the Company. We seek to combine capabilities in ways that have never before been considered within Stoneridge. Our connectivity solutions are paving the way for conversations around B2X solutions, and when combined with MirrorEye, our video and connectivity capabilities are introducing opportunities for video recording and transmission as a way to help our fleet partners collect and manage critical information. We expect that our full suite of in-cabin commercial vehicle electronics will enable us to develop advanced user interface devices, help drivers detect and avoid vulnerable road users, and provide driver monitoring capabilities to improve driver awareness and enable smart, active safety systems. Our commercial vehicle products give us the ability to work with our customers to develop and define the solutions that will drive future growth for the Company and be transformational within the commercial vehicle industry. Turning to page 13. I'm pleased with the transformational initiatives we took in 2019 to drive the Company forward. As an organization, in the leadership team, we made significant progress toward our long-term goals and strengthened the foundation for profitable growth. At Stoneridge, we will continue to execute on our long-term strategy, drive continuous improvement, and refine our capabilities to deliver shareholder value. With that, I'll turn it over to Bob to discuss our financial results in more detail.