Dave Naemura
Analyst · Bank of America
Thanks Mark. I'll get started with a brief summary of our performance in the quarter. Adjusted net earnings for the second quarter were $116 million, an increase of 11.5% from $104 million in the prior year period. This translated to adjusted net earnings per share of $0.72, an 18% increase compared to $0.61 in the prior year period. Revenue grew 7.2%, with core revenue up 1.6%. Our non-EMV core growth was mid-single digits on a difficult compare, particularly for our Diagnostics and Repair businesses, where prior year core growth was over 50%. Growth was primarily driven by GVR, which grew mid-single digits on an overall core basis with growth in both developed and high-growth markets. GVR growth was driven by environmental, aftermarket and our CNG business. Our compressed natural gas business has grown greater than 65% year-to-date off a relatively small base. And although not core yet, DRB continued to demonstrate strong growth of high 20s. Adjusted operating profit for the second quarter was [$167 million], an increase of 10% compared to the prior year period. Gross margin expansion of almost 100 basis points reflected continued effective price cost management and the benefits of DRB and other higher-margin solutions. These favorable items helped offset production inefficiencies from a very back-end loaded quarter, driven by timing of supply, which I will elaborate on further in a bit. The increase in operating profit and strong execution drove incremental margin of nearly 30% and modest adjusted core operating margin expansion. Excluding the $0.02 or $3 million dilutive impact of our energy transition investments, our incremental margin is high 30s. Looking at the top line performance of our two platforms. In our Mobility Technologies platform, core revenue was 3.5%, reflecting growth in GVR in developed and high-growth markets, particularly in North America, more than offsetting the sunsetting EMV impact of nearly $15 million in the quarter. Total growth in Mobility Technologies was 11% as DRB continues to increase market share and increase share of wallet, while benefiting from their industry-leading position and a very strong market backdrop. DRB has continued to outperform our expectations during this first year of ownership and will become core near the end of Q3. In our Diagnostic and Repair Technologies platform, core revenue declined 3.6% in the quarter as a result of both a difficult compare against the 57% growth in Q2 of the prior year and also normalization of Matco to a more typical growth and operating profile, but still above pre-pandemic levels. The demand backdrop remains healthy as technician employment and auto repair remain at high levels. As Mark referenced, we did experience some labor and other production challenges that prevented us from reducing backlog as much as we had anticipated, which remains an opportunity in the second half of the year. Looking at total company sales regionally, North America core revenue grew low single digits due to GVR growth in non-EMV applications more than offsetting a decline in EMV. Developed markets overall grew low single digits as strength in North America was partially offset by a mid-single-digit decline in Western Europe. High-growth markets, which are typically lumpy, grew low single digits with strong double-digit growth in India, being partially offset in other areas, including Eastern Europe and China. We anticipate increased lumpiness in high-growth markets due to the broader macroeconomic and geopolitical factors as well as timing of tender orders. That may impact growth rates some in the near-term, but overall, we remain confident in this profitable growth initiative in the middle and long-term, given the attractive long-term secular drivers. Moving on to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with a cash balance of just under $130 million and had $14 million of borrowings under our $750 million credit facility. Our net leverage was 3.3x adjusted EBITDA at the end of the quarter and temporarily elevated due to the large cash outflow year-to-date related to share repurchase and acquisition activity and a temporary shift in the timing of free cash flow generation from first half to second half of the year. The quarter became significantly back-end loaded given supply chain issues and this lack of linearity shifted free cash flow from Q2 to Q3. Further, we saw additional working capital build in inventory. We maintain our commitment to investment-grade credit ratings and expect that our leverage will end the year below 3x net leverage, with our targeted range being between 2.5x and 3x net. We will also have capacity for further free cash flow deployment in 2022, which will fund the announced acquisition of Invenco and also additional share repurchase of approximately $100 million. These assumptions, of course, are influenced by market conditions and further M&A opportunity. In Q2, we refreshed our repurchase authorization back up to $500 million and subsequently have deployed $31 million against that. Our total year-to-date share repurchase stands at $288 million as of today. These assumptions on leverage and capital deployment capacity do not consider any additional capital raise through divestiture activities. Today, we disclosed assets for sale, and those being considered are the Hennessy and GTT operating company. These businesses comprise about $175 million of annual revenue at a combined growth rate that is below the non-EMV fleet average. The impact of selling these businesses will be accretive to enterprise gross margins and operating margins by greater than 60 and 40 basis points, respectively. We anticipate the proceeds from divestiture will be used for some debt reduction and then also providing further available capital for deployment on M&A and/or share repurchase, which would more than offset the reduction in EPS resulting from removing these businesses. In our full year 2022 guide, we have assumed approximately $0.12 to $0.13 of contribution from these combined businesses. Returning to adjusted free cash flow conversion. On a year-to-date basis, our conversion is 23%. We talked previously about the poor linearity we experienced in Q1, which is typically a low point for free cash flow generation, and we saw further deterioration in Q2. We anticipate that this dynamic will normalize over the second half of the year, but we also are seeing some upward pressure on our working capital levels, mostly in inventory as we build stock to satisfy demand. We anticipate that a combination of these factors will have some impact on our full year free cash flow conversion, and we will more likely be around the 90% range rather than the typical 100% portfolio generates. Turning to the outlook assumptions. For full year 2022, we are maintaining our core revenue guide of low to mid-single-digit growth, with non-EMV growth of high single digits, as EMV is still expected to be approximately a $50 million headwind. We also continue to expect core operating margin expansion of 30 to 60 basis points, reflecting our leveraging of VBS to dynamically adjust our cost structure to effectively adjust to demand levels and offset inflationary impacts. Our confidence in delivering these results reflects continued execution on our profitable growth initiatives and price cost management and the resiliency of our portfolio through the cycle. The full year EPS guide is unchanged and adjusted earnings per share range of $3.20 to $3.30 and does not contemplate the impact of noted divestitures. We anticipate that the Invenco acquisition will close in Q3 and that it will be neutral to EPS in 2022 and accretive in 2023 by mid-single-digit cents per share. Taking a closer look at some of our other assumptions, we now expect full year 2022 weighted average share count to be approximately 161.4 million, which reflects the impact of the share repurchase activity conducted to date in 2022, but not the additional 100 million that I previously referred to. Interest expense is anticipated to be $68 million, reflecting an increase in interest on the variable portion of our debt. Our guide also reflects the current foreign currency translation rates and the strengthening of the U.S. dollar since our last guide, which has had a $0.02 dilutive impact to the full year since our last update. Our assumption on the full year effective tax rate remains at 23%. Moving on to the third quarter of 2022. We expect core revenue growth of low single digits with non-EMV core growth of high single digits. This contemplates a supply environment similar to what we experienced in Q2, still not normal, but more stable than what we experienced in previous quarters. Adjusted core operating margin is expected to be 20 to 40 basis points. As Mark stated, this translates into adjusted earnings per share of $0.85 to $0.90 in the quarter. Before turning it back to Mark, I'd like to call your attention to Slide 8. We presented this slide last quarter to better dimensionalize our conviction in our ability to offset the impact of the EMV decline in 2023 and most importantly, how we expect to have a rebaseline core revenue growth rate of mid-single digits at accretive margins post the EMV sunset, which we continue to expect completes in 2023. Our conviction in accelerated growth and returns has not changed, and we continue to make progress on many fronts. The profitable growth initiatives and platform strategies continue to progress. We have deployed further capital to share repurchase and announced the acquisition of Invenco, demonstrating progress on the capital deployment section of this slide. Also, the disclosure of our plans to divest Hennessy and GTT demonstrates progress on the continuing evolution of our portfolio towards markets with attractive growth and margin profiles. With that, I will turn it back to Mark.