Bob Krakowiak
Analyst · Stephens Inc
Thanks, Jon. Turning to Slide 9. Adjusted sales in the first quarter, excluding divested product lines, were approximately $190 million, an increase of 1.3% relative to the prior quarter. Adjusted operating income, excluding divested product lines, was $3 million or 1.6% of adjusted sales, which was a decrease of 190 basis points versus the prior quarter. The reduction in margin performance is primarily due to supply chain and commodity price headwinds negatively impacting operating margin by approximately 140 basis points. I will provide additional detail on segment performance and a brief discussion on our 2021 outlook for each segment on the subsequent slides. As Jon discussed earlier in the call, we are maintaining our revenue guidance with a midpoint of $780 million for the full year as we expect that production headwinds based on current IHS and LMC forecasts will be approximately offset by our first quarter performance as well as the expectation that our product portfolio will continue to outperform the market. Additionally, this morning, we are reducing our full year 2021 adjusted EPS guidance by $0.13 to a midpoint of $0.55, primarily due to externalities and an unfavorable product mix for the remainder of the year. I will discuss these drivers in more detail later in the call. Page 10 summarizes our key financial metrics, specific to Control Devices. Control Devices first quarter adjusted sales, excluding the divested soot sensor business, were approximately $98 million, which was in line with Q4 2020 adjusted sales. Adjusted sales increased by 1.8% compared to Q1 2020, primarily due to higher sales in our China end markets due to the shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adjusted operating income, excluding the divested business, was $10.8 million for the quarter or 11.1% of adjusted sales. Adjusted operating income decreased 140 basis points versus the fourth quarter of 2020, driven by lower gross margin primarily due to increased material, labor and expediting costs due to the temporary global supply chain-related issues resulting from the global pandemic. Adjusted operating income increased by 70 basis points versus the first quarter of 2020 primarily due to fixed overhead leverage offsetting the increase in engineering costs. As discussed earlier in the call, we continue to transform our manufacturing footprint and product portfolio to align with future growth opportunities. In the first quarter of 2021, we divested the soot sensor business and expect to complete the sales transition and exit by the end of this year. While we expect continued strong revenue performance, we also expect continued supply chain challenges to impact Control Devices for the balance of the year. We are working with our suppliers and customers to offset those incremental costs and drive margin improvement for the segment as we continue to focus on leveraging our existing cost structure to expand margin with revenue growth. Page 11 summarizes our key financial metrics specific to Electronics. Electronics first quarter sales were approximately $89 million, an increase of 5.6% versus the fourth quarter of 2020, which was primarily driven by higher sales in our off-highway vehicle end market as well as favorable foreign currency exchange rates. Adjusted operating income decreased by approximately $5 million relative to the fourth quarter of 2020, a decrease of 590 basis points primarily due to material cost headwinds and commodity price increases as a result of continued supply chain issues, unfavorable product mix as well as expected higher engineering costs related to advanced program development and program launches as we have outlined on prior calls. We continue to expect strong revenue growth in 2021 due to increased demand in our commercial vehicle and off-highway end markets as well as the launch and ramp-up of several large programs, including our first OEM MirrorEye program in the second half of this year. While sales are expected to shift from a weakening passenger car market to strengthening commercial vehicle end markets, we are forecasting a headwind in product mix primarily in the Electronics segment for the remainder of the year. That said, operating income is expected to improve with revenue growth despite supply chain-related cost headwinds, unfavorable product mix and the continued and necessary investments in engineering resources. Page 12 summarizes our key financial metrics specific to Stoneridge Brazil. Stoneridge Brazil's first quarter sales decreased by $1.9 million or approximately 14% relative to the fourth quarter of 2020 as a result of the challenging macroeconomic market conditions in Brazil resulting from the pandemic as well as unfavorable foreign exchange rates. During the quarter, adjusted gross margin improved by 200 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 due to lower material costs despite global supply chain disruption headwinds negatively impacting gross margin by 190 basis points. Adjusted operating income declined by $100,000 relative to the fourth quarter primarily due to lower SG&A leverage from reduced sales, offset by lower direct material costs. Despite continued macroeconomic challenges in Brazil, we expect revenue and operating margin to remain approximately flat in 2021 relative to last year. We will continue to utilize our local engineering resources to support our global Electronics business and remain focused on the ramp-up of local OEM business to offset historical economic headwinds. Page 13 summarizes our updated full year adjusted earnings per share guidance for 2021. On our fourth quarter call, we provided full year adjusted EPS guidance of $0.60 to $0.75. In March of 2021, we entered into an agreement with Standard Motor Products to sell the commercial vehicle soot sensor assets and ongoing production. We will support the transition to SMP through a contract manufacturing agreement and service agreement for the commercial vehicle products through the transition of the physical assets. We will retain product manufacturing for the passenger car product line and the assets will be sold to SMP at the end of our negotiated manufacturing obligations, which we expect to include -- to conclude by the end of this year. We expect the transition of all assets to be complete by the end of 2021. We have adjusted our 2021 guidance to exclude the net impact of the divestiture and exit of the soot sensor business. The divested commercial vehicle product lines have a significantly lower gross margin than the overall company. The passenger car product line will remain in our 2021 guidance, and reported results will include the remaining product line results as we ramp down that business in 2021. As a result of the acceleration in production to meet our obligation for passenger car products, we expect increased revenue related to this product line for the remainder of this year as well as incremental contribution margin in line with historical expectations for this product line of approximately 25%. We do not expect the net impact of the remaining business and the divested product -- production lines to significantly impact revenue or adjusted EPS for the remainder of the year. As discussed previously, first quarter adjusted EPS contributed $0.06 of outperformance versus the previous breakeven expectation for the quarter. We are expecting $0.07 to $0.08 of unfavorable product mix for the remainder of the year relative to prior year expectations. As discussed in detail earlier in the call, we are expecting temporary but incremental and continued supply chain headwinds for the remainder of the year. Currently, this is forecasted to negatively impact full year adjusted earnings per share by $0.07 to $0.08. As Jon outlined in his comments, we expect to continue our planned investments in engineering resources to support product development and future program launches, but we'll carefully monitor our operating expenses to ensure we are not only positioned for growth but structured for current and future market conditions. Finally, current foreign exchange forecasts suggest a small headwind for the remainder of 2021 relative to our prior outlook. As a result of these primarily external factors, we're reducing our full year adjusted EPS guidance by $0.13 to a midpoint of $0.55. From a timing perspective, we expect second quarter revenue and earnings performance to be slightly less than the first quarter as reductions in production forecasts will impact our top and bottom lines. As discussed earlier in our call, we expect temporary incremental supply chain costs of $5 million to $5.5 million for the full year, with approximately 3/4 of the impact occurring in the first half of the year and the balance in the second half. This results in adjusted EPS more heavily weighted towards the back half of this year. Turning to Page 14. Net debt increased by approximately $28 million in the first quarter, resulting in net debt of $98 million or 2.9x trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA. Our cash flow performance during the quarter is consistent with historical seasonality. We expect our net debt profile to return to a more normalized level of less than 2x net debt to trailing 12-month EBITDA by the end of this year. Stoneridge remains well positioned with relatively low leverage and significant available capital. Moving to Slide 15. In closing, I want to reiterate that we are pleased with our performance during the first quarter despite the continued macroeconomic challenges. That said, we expect continued and significant temporary supply chain headwinds related to the global pandemic, and we'll continue to respond decisively as the macroeconomic environment evolves. Stoneridge is committed to driving shareholder value, and that focus remains at the forefront of all of our strategic initiatives. With that, I will open up the call to your questions.