Q1 2023 CSW Industrials Inc Earnings Call
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Greetings and welcome to the CSW industrial fiscal first quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone for require operator assistance during the conference, please pass star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Adrian Griffin, vice president of the investor relations and treasurer. Thank you, Miss Griffin. Thank you.
Thank you, Devon, and good morning, everyone. Joining me today are Joseph Arms, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of CSW Industrials, and James Perry, Executive Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer. We issued our earnings release, presentation, and Form 10Q prior to the market's opening today, which are available on the investor portion of our website at www.cswindustrials.com.
This call is being webcast and information on accessing the replay is included in the earnings release.
During this call, we will make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ because of factors discussed today in our earnings release in the comments made during this call, as well as the risk factors identified in our annual report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements.
I will now turn the call over to Joe Arms.
Thank you, Adrian. Good morning. And thank you for joining our fiscal first quarter conference call.
And our fiscal first quarter, our team performed remarkably, delivering record revenue, record EBITDA and record EPS....
Today we are proud to report record revenue of $200 million or 24% growth over the prior year period.
Of the 39 million in total revenue growth, 78% was organic, with the remainder coming from the shoemaker acquisition that we closed in December 2021.
EBITDA reached a quarterly record of 50,000,000, a 21% growth compared to the prior year period. EBITDA reached a quarterly record of 50,000, a 21% growth compared to the prior year period.
Finally, record EPS with $1.88.
a 26% growth rate over $1.49 as adjusted in the prior year period.
We are particularly pleased with these comparative results and light of the extraordinary performance in the fiscal first quarter of last year. In the fiscal first quarter of last year.
As you will recall, in last year's fiscal first quarter, we delivered growth in excess of 75% of revenue and over 100% in EBITDA.
While demand remains solid in the end markets we serve, I cannot overstate the importance of operational excellence in driving this performance.
Drivers that led to our strong first quarter performance include, first, we protected our profitability with disciplined prime actions offsetting ongoing inflation.
Primarily in raw materials and logistics.
We will continue benefiting from our pricing initiatives consistent with the high value nature of our products and our commitment without standing customer service.
Second, our strategic investment in raw materials and inventory continued to allow us to meet the strong customer demand underlying our record revenue.
While supply chains constraints moderated or even improved sequentially,
Inplation persists in specific materials and uncertainty remains in the logistics sector. And uncertainty remains in the logistics sector.
Our supply chain team will continue to diligently monitor, monitor and react to, evolving market dynamics to ensure that we are the single most reliable supplier to our customers.
Third, acquisitions continue to contribute to our success as we add complimentary product categories that are existing in markets served.
Shoemaker contributed $9 million of inorganic revenue growth in the second full quarter of our ownership.
As we have discussed previously, our acquisition economics typically do not include cost synergies due to the strength of our existing margin profile and our compensation strategy. focus on the
So we depend on operational excellence as an essential part of our success.
In fact, in this fiscal first quarter, our operating expenses as a percent of revenue were down over 200 basis points as compared to the same prior year period.
In addition to consolidating true air's operations and director's seals just this April , our true air and shoemaker leadership teams continue to actively assess manufacturing and commercial synergies. And actively assess manufacturing and commercial synergies.
Consistent with our growth strategy, we continue to evaluate our portfolio of opportunities and seek attractive bolt-on acquisitions and our existing end markets.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge that our team members are directly responsible for these results.
At CSWI, having the best team members, is a strategic advantage.
And our partnership with employees results in high productivity, creativity, and creativity.
Excellence in customer service and collaboration.
I would like to extend my thanks to each member of the CSWI team for their hard work and dedication to serving our customers and each other well.
Transitioning to a discussion of our segments.
Each of our three segments achieved record, orderly revenue.
Our contractor solution segment achieved record sales of $138 million, a $27 million or 25% increase.
including organic growth of $19 million.
The strength of this segment lies in leveraging our distribution network and selling high value products.
Our true air manufacturing facility in Vietnam returned to full production during the fiscal first quarter in line with our expectations.
The steady production of shipping of grills, registers, and diffusers coupled with recently stabilizing material and freight cost provides confidence and our ability to meet customer needs. safety cover reaches 85 cents but it has almost the too high and expensive cost lighter material and perhaps it throat more effective and lidtive and easily smarter and easily fast. A few days later, poor transport driver sowder control personnel take into account our security officer backs the steps of the traffic you
Our engineer building solutions segment continued to expand, reporting record revenue of $29 billion, an increase of 11 percent.
During the past two years, this team is intentionally focused on high growth geographies and new product development supplemented by an enhanced go-to-market strategy..
For a second consecutive quarter, this segment's backlog reached an all-time high.
as we were awarded jobs in multifamily residential.
institutional and commercial categories.
The increased quantity and quality of products within our backlog reflect our intentional curation of opportunities.
While the macro construction indices suggest solid growth potential.
For calendar 2022, the American Institute of Architects.
is now predicting 9.1% growth in total non-residential spending.
which compares to their January prediction of 5.4% growth.
Together, these provide a tailwind through our fiscal 2023 and into early fiscal 2024.
Our specialized reliability solution segment gained momentum and achieved record revenue of $36 million. The growth of $10 million or 40% as demand continued in all in market serves.
evidenced by incremental unit volumes and supported by the cumulative benefit of the pricing strategy we deployed last year.
In fact, in the current period, Specialized Reliability Solutions revenue exceeded its revenue in the same period two years ago, which was our fiscal 2020 by 88%, or nearly $17 million.
We expect continued strength in this segment, albeit at a moderating growth rate as compared to these exceptional results.
We are well positioned to win in our end markets and the demand for our products continues to be solid.
Our team continues to demonstrate the ability to effectively manage despite a challenging operating environment.
Our business model remains resilient with ample opportunity to drive profitable growth and most importantly, to deliver long-term shareholder value.
At this time, I'll turn the call over to James for a closer look at our results. We're closer look at our results.
And I will then conclude the prepared remarks with a strategic outlook and a sustainability update.
Thank you, Joan. Good morning, everyone.
Our consolidated revenue during fiscal first quarter 2023 was $200 million.
24% increase is compared to the prior year period.
Consolidated growth profit in the fiscal first quarter was $86 million, representing 25% growth. With the incremental profit resulting primarily from the cumulative benefit of the implemented pricing initiative, which continued during the fiscal first quarter, the shoemaker acquisition and increased unit volumes.
Gross profit margin was 43% compared to 45% in the prior year period as adjusted to remove the $3.9 million purchase accounting effect related to the TrueAir acquisition.
This margin decline primarily resulted from the timing impacts of material and freight cost increases.
and implement our pricing initiatives.
Our reminder audience that we anticipated this trend within our Call of the Breven News and discussed it on our earnings column may of this year.
I'll note we did not make any adjustments to our reported earnings in the current fiscal quarter.
Consolidated even dog increased 21% to $50 million as compared to the prior year period.
while Consolidated EBITDA Margin was approximately 25% in the current and prior year periods.
Reported net income attributable to CSWI in the fiscal first quarter was $29 million, for $1.88 per diluted share.
Compared to $21 million or $1.30 in the prior year period.
In the prior year period, adjusted for approximately $3 million of True Air Purchase Accounting Effect.
prior adjusted net income and EPS for $23 million and $1.40, non-sense, respectively.
Our contractor solution segment with $138 million of revenue accounted for 69% of our consolidated revenue in delivered $27 million or 25% total growth as compared to the prior year of quarter. Comprived of organic growth of $19 million and in organic growth of $9 million from the Tumaker acquisition.
Organic growth resulted from the cumulative benefit. Vipament are pricing initiatives, partially offset by a slight decrease in unit volumes as compared to last year's exceptionally strong performance in the same quarter. Vipament are pricing initiatives, partly offset by a slight decrease in unit volumes
As compared to the prior year period, increased net revenue in the HVACR and architecturally specified building products in markets or the offset the net revenue decrease primarily in the plumbing and market.
Segment Ibadah was $43 million.
Or 31% of revenue compared to 39Million dollars or 36% of revenue in the prior year period.
The decline in margin primarily resulted from the timing impacts of material and freight cost increases in implement or pricing initiatives as I mentioned in my earlier remarks.
Our engineer building solution segment, Ipida, was $5 million, a 17% margin.
Bidding and booking trends remain strong.
In fact, our fiscal first quarter bookings and backlogs increased by approximately 74% and 14% respectively as compared to last year's first quarter.
As if the end of the fiscal first quarter are booked to Bill Ratio for the trailing 8 orders with 1.35 times to 1.
And, as Joe mentioned in his opening remarks,
We entered July with a record backlog in this segment.
This entire organization is focused on converting our strong backlog into revenue growth and margin expansion.
Our specialized reliability solution segment posted another very impressive quarter of organic revenue growth of $10 million, or 40%, due to incremental unit volumes driven by improving in-market dynamics.
and numerous price initiatives during the last year.
Segment EBITDA and EBITDA margin were $7 million and 19% in the fiscal 2023 first quarter, compared to $2 million and 9% in the prior year period.
I would like to highlight that this quarter is the third consecutive quarter of mid to high TNT Dividend Marching for this segment.
In line with our expectations, as capacity utilization increases, operational practices improves, and input cost inflation moderates.
Transitioning to the strength of our balance sheet.
We did the fiscal first quarter with $16 million of cash and reported cash from operations of $17 million compared to $19 million in the prior year period.
As working capital use of cash, primarily consisting of incremental strategic inventory investments to support strong demand and higher cash receivable due to higher revenues, and also improve profit.
The decision to hold more inventory over the last year has proven beneficial, as we are better able to meet customer demand when, at times, our competitors cannot.
At this time, we expect our current levels of inventory to be sufficient throughout the remainder of this year. And while the balance of inventory will fluctuate from quarter to quarter, we don't currently anticipate the same level of incremental investment in inventory in the remainder of fiscal 2023. In the remainder of fiscal 2023.
We ended the fiscal first quarter with $264 million outstanding on our revolver, a $21 million dollar increase compared to our fiscal year end.
Our leverage ratio as of quarter end was approximately 1.7 times, well within our stated range of 1 to 3 times.
As of the end of the fiscal first quarter, we had liquidity of approximately $152 million through our cash on hand, and $136 million of revolving borrowing capacity.
As Joe mentioned in his opening remarks, our M&A strategy remains active and our capital allocation decisions remain focused on maximizing shareholder value on a risk-adjusted returns basis.
This disciplined approach favors our current platforms, serving the same customers and end markets through our extensive distribution channels.
The strength of our balance sheet provides ample capacity, tagged precisely and quickly on acquisitions with opportunities arise. The strength of our balance sheet provides ample capacity,
As part of our broad capital allocation strategy, we remain committed to opportunistic share repurchases guided by our intrinsic value model.
During the fiscal first quarter, the company repurchased 288,000 shares for an aggregate purchase price of $30.5 million under our current $100 million share repurchase authorization.
Since the inception of the current authorization and through July 31, 2022, CSWI has repurchased 462,000 shares for an aggregate purchase price of $50 million.
CSWI initiated our inaugural share report just for you. Min intervals told Canon you
And since that time, has cumulatively returned $131 million to shareholders through the purchase of 1.9 million shares.
We remain committed to strong free cash flow generation.
We've been working capital management and it's efficient liquidity to support us strategic objectives.
We expect our cash flow conversion metrics to return to historic norms by the end of this fiscal year.
The company's effective tax rate for the fiscal first quarter was 24.5% on a gap basis.
The company continues to expect a 25 to 27% tax rate for full fiscal 2023.
As we look to the remainder of fiscal 2023, we continue to expect to have strong revenue growth across all three segments and at the consolidated level, which when coupled with meaningful operating leverage will result in strong year-over-year EBITDA and EPS growth.
We expect to benefit from continued stability in our raw material and freight costs.
As we look at the cadence of earnings across the three remaining quarters of this fiscal year.
We expect our second and fourth fiscal quarters as the strongest of the three remaining quarters, with the third quarter being our seasonally lowest quarter.
and all remaining quarters expected to be well in excess of the comparable prior year periods.
We do not expect as much variability between quarters as we've historically produced, due to the acquired GRD businesses demonstrating less seasonality.
As we look at our segments, we expect revenue growth in our contractor solution segment to continue outpacing the categories we serve.
Margins are in sharp focus as we've managed through the variables that impact our business such as the stability of the supply chain and raw material cost.
With the Engineer Building Solutions backlog at all time highs, our team remains focused on execution and expects to outperform the construction in market while producing solid margins.
Our specialized reliability solution segment expects to continue delivering another year of strong top-line growth in improving margins.
With that, I'll now turn the call back to Joe for closing remarks.
Thank you.
Thank you James.
We have enjoyed an impressive start to our fiscal year with record revenue, EBITDA and EPS.
and growth in each of these metrics exceeding 20%.
We have effectively mitigated inflation with discipline price actions.
And our strong balance sheet provides flexibility for capital allocation that enhances shareholder value.
During last quarters call, we discussed our fiscal 2023 outlook.
Reflecting upon our historical revenue cager and adjusted EBITDA margin from fiscal years, 2017 through 2022.
On the heels of such a strong fiscal first quarter.
We now expect to outperform these metrics in fiscal 2023, and now expect total revenue growth to be in the high teens.
and an adjusted EBITDA margin in excess of our historical average of 20.3%.
and I am confident in our team's ability to deliver on these heightened expectations.
As broad economic concerns have come into focus, it's worth reiterating.
that CSWI has performed very well during economic downturns.
Diversification is inherent in our business model given the breadth of the in-markets we serve.
We are relatively insulated from its cyclicality as our consumable products are used either in maintenance, repair, or in replacement applications or to extend the reliability, performance, and lifespan of critical assets. In life span, of critical assets.
We are poised to continue to outperform the end markets we serve.
Over the past several quarters, we have provided examples of our commitment to ESG principles and corporate sustainability, providing insights regarding four specific efforts in the social realm.
First, our commitment to safety in a zero incident workplace, including publicly reporting, are TRIR.
Second, the partnership with our employees for a safe, secure and dignified retirement through our distinctive, profit sharing program. Pr payoff.
Third, our efforts to remain as an employer of choice.
to retain quality talent and maintain turnover rates lower than industry averages.
And four is our community engagement, such as our secondary education scholarship programs. And so we are going to be a community engagement. And so we are going to be a community engagement.
Today I am pleased to announce that we have updated the corporate sustainability portion of our CSWI website with two newly adopted policies.
The first is our human rights policy.
which affirms in writing our existing practices and commitment to respect internationally recognized human rights principles aimed at promoting and protecting human rights in all of the countries in which we operate.
Additionally, we have published our environmental health and safety policy.
which recognizes our corporate responsibility to protect the health and safety of our employees.
and the environment.
CSWI's environmental stewardship efforts include efficient use of resources,
Promoting Sustainable Conception.
and minimizing the impact of our operations.
on the environment.
We expect a publicly disclosed information relating to environmental key performance metrics, and progress in the future.
I would also like to welcome Anne Motsenbacher, who joined our Board of Directors in June .
and brings extensive executive experience.
executive leadership experience and strong strategic financial acumen to the company's board.
Game through serving in numerous executive leadership roles over a 36 year career with JPMorgan Chase.
Through this experience, and strengthen the Board's perspective on strategic growth for multinational corporations, as well as risk management and operational excellence.
And disappointment demonstrates our continued commitment to excellence.
Independent and diversity on our board.
My colleagues hear me say this often. CSWI, we must and we will succeed.
But at CSWI, how we succeed matters.
Achieving these outstanding first quarter results represents the product of our commitment to be good stewards of your capital. To be good stewards of your capital...
and our goal of delivering long-term shareholder value.
As always, I'd like to close by thanking all of my colleagues and fellow shareholders here at CSWI, who collectively owned 4% of CSWI through our Employees.Gownership plan. And so, I'm going to go through our Employees.Gownership plan. And so, I'm going to go through our Employees.Gownership plan.
as well as well with all of our other shareholders.
with our continued interest in and support of our company.
But with that, Devon, we're now ready to take questions.
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your hands up before pressing the star keys. One moment please what we pull for questions.
Our first question comes from line of John , 10-1 Tago. With CJS securities, please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning and thanks for taking my question. Congrats on a really, really nice quarter. My first one is on just the sequential thoughts. I was wondering if you could break down what you're looking at on a volume and net pricing basis as we go into the second quarter. It looks like on the engineer building products, the backlogs and momentum is taking up. I was wondering if you're seeing the same thing in the other two businesses as well.
Yeah, John , good morning. It's James and thanks for the con words and thanks for being on the call this morning. You know, it's always hard to project volume a little bit. As we looked at our first quarter specialized reliability solutions, we are seeing unit growth and pricing growth. We expect for that to continue. The tailwinds in that business are really strong. The performance there has been very good. So I think in that case, unit volume up and pricing continuing to hold over the last year, we kind of
We're still absorbing some of the impact of pricing and issues in the last couple of quarters as there. Yet earphone engineering building solutions, as you well know, as you build back log, it takes a while for that to come through. We're starting to see some of that. We are seeing some good demand in that space, unit volume picking up, margins you're seeing in a nice place. So I think this next quarter, we see more continuance of that same theme. In contractor solutions on the pricing side, obviously again, as we lap the year, we'll continue to see the impact of nice pricing initiatives that we've had in place.
and have some margin opportunity as the pricing has fully taken hold now. This quarter we did a couple pricing initiatives in various product lines during the fiscal fourth quarter. In terms of units, a little early to say what this quarter looks like. Some of the product lines have a tailwind to them. It was a slight decrease in Q1. I think number one, that business does have a backlog. There were some back orders, product that we were waiting to get in and if some of that had come in just a couple weeks earlier, that may have been a slight increase.
So, you know, as some of that, as temperatures pick up and if some of that mini split, installation picks up and that's a good tailwind force as well. But overall, when you look at units, we have, in that business, it's hard. There's so many skews. You know, it's different than the OEMs, you know, a unit to unit, to some degree for us. The skews can be so different. But I think we have our opportunity to continue to see top-line growth without question. How much of that price versus volume, you know, will kind of take each quarter of the time? The skews can be so different.
Understood. It sounds like on the balance you're expecting sequential improvement though.
You're expecting the functional movement though. Yeah.
Great. And just again to clarify on the volume, decline in contract solutions, we mentioned that was in plumbing. It was all supply chain related with them, demand or anything like that.
Yeah, John , this is Joe. Yeah, we think demand is holding up pretty well. It's, as James said, we had back orders. And so that would suggest that, you know, demand was a little bit higher than what the revenue might or what the unit volume might suggest. But no meaningful we we expect growth to moderate. I mean, there's no question about that. But no, no, no.
No concerns around the growth of this time. OK. And then just to touch on the share we purchased as we saw in the quarter, I think that's nice to see, should we take that as an indication that there are no near-term fields in the MNAP High Plan or that you're just at that much... in the MNAP High Plan or that you're just at that much...
to be that confident in your ability to have leverage It's the right one, it was done, the right choice at the moment.
Yeah, it's absolutely the latter, John . We can do both. We can do the acquisitions and buy back our stock. We have this kind of rigorous intrinsic value financial analysis that we do. Stock price was down and that accelerated our repurchase a bit. And so we just really thought that was a great place on a risk adjustment basis to invest our capital. And in no way does that limit our ability to take advantage of acquisition opportunities.
Okay, great. What are you seeing in the acquisition pipeline today in terms of valuation and just the kinds of industry that you are looking at? You can's see the
Yeah, you know, I think that the acquisition pipeline is still strong. We have opportunities in front of us and haven't seen a meaningful change in valuation. And so, activities not picked up because of a decline in valuation. But there are still opportunities out there that we're pursuing aggressively and we would expect to continue to add product line extensions throughout the fiscal year.
Just one last one for me, James. What do you think on an interesting expense for the rest of the year just given rising rates and use of capital?
Yeah, you're going to see, you know, obviously some of that depends on the revolver balance and then some of that's going to depend on acquisition opportunities obviously. So it's hard to, you know, you've got to make your own assumption on that respect. We've got some internal forecast of course. But yeah, you know, we forecast things along with the expected curve out there, the rates continue to move up a little bit. You know, we're on a LIBOR-based grid. The leverage has stayed at a very attractive level on that grid for us. But in terms of interest rates, you know, I think if you plug in, you know, the normal interest rate curve you're seeing, that gives you a part of the equation.
And then the other is going to be your own assumption on whether we pay down debt through cash flow or we're going to consume some of that cash flow and even some of the revolver based on acquisition opportunities that Joe talked about. And then, you know, the good thing for us right now is, you know, absent opportunities, we have the opportunity to pay down debt, we're obviously looking for opportunities. But as EBITDA continues on this type of rate of growth and pace as we've talked about with the margins that we guided to and the high-teens revenue growth that we guided to and the release and in Joe's comments,
We have the opportunity for, while debt could creep up through acquisitions, we have the opportunity for leverage to keep coming down because the EBITDA is so attractive now.
Got it. Thank you guys, and good work.
Thank you, John . Thanks, John .
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Julio Romero with Sidoti. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning, everyone. I wanted to stay on the residential. I wanted to stay on the residential.
you know contractor solution side, you know
What are you seeing or hearing from your customers regarding game inventory levels?
Thank you spoke about a little bit of a backlog in during the first quarter, but just have you heard about any destocking risk at all from your customers.
Yeah, good morning to Julio's James. Thanks for being on. Appreciate the support. Yeah, I think we all read the same things that like we did, our customers have stocked up a little bit given the supply chain questions. And just like we don't want to be out of something, they don't want to be out of something if it's needed in the field. So you saw some stocking up on their balance sheet as we did the same thing. And so a little bit of what appears to be softness is not really demand from the consumers being soft. It's just.
Yeah, there may be a little bit of de-stocking. It doesn't feel like anything was pulled forward in the last quarter necessarily. So you may see a little bit of de-stocking as people go through it, as the supply chain seems to have a little relief to it. But at the same time, I don't think it's a dramatic shift that we've seen yet because that supply chain can turn pretty quickly. So just as we are going to be very cautious to kind of relieve inventory, because those things still take a couple months to get across the ocean, it may not be three or four months, maybe now it's two to three.
There's a little bit of that. Nothing dramatic though I would point to. The other thing I would say, Julio, this is Joe, is that as you look regionally, there are regions that are up double digits. There are regions that are down double digits. That seems to me to be an effect of weather and temperature. And not necessarily an overall demand statement. We're still pleased with the demand. We see, obviously, again, unit growth will moderate.
from what we've had over the last year or two, but revenues continue to grow nicely because of pricing and at the end of the day, we have a very resilient line of products that are used in replacement of units in repair and maintenance and cleaning and those types of things which are all
opportunities for us to sell to our customers and sell through that's very different from the capital intensive businesses that require the purchase of a unit.
Okay, that's very helpful and then...
Okay, that's very helpful. And then, you know, within the
Residential portion of your portfolio. Can you just give us a quick refresher on the break out between your exposure and new housing construction versus preparing a model?
Yeah, really what we, the way we always characterize that, Julio, is that the industry, again, which is driven primarily by the capital equipment guys, we tell you it's 80% replacement and 20% new build. We index even more so toward the replacement market because, again, repair, maintenance, cleaning, those types of things. And so it's, at the margin, new housing construction is helpful, but that is not the meat and potatoes for this.
Well, certainly on that one, the notice and effectiveness is very efficient. I think that, yes, because of the specialized nature of our products, because of the low cost, high value that our products represent, I think there's an opportunity for us to certainly maintain our margins as a...
inputs rise and so you know we we feel like that is truly a specialized business and the margins reflect that and we'll continue to reflect that over the long term.
Okay, very good. And then just last one for me is if you could just speak to your capital spending expectations for fiscal 23.
Yeah, you know, it's hard to project that necessarily. Obviously, as Joe talks about, we've got kind of an intrinsic value model on our share price. So, you know, if we think that that's below where it should be and have opportunity, then we would repurchase that. You know, we did 30 million last quarter of use 50 of the 100 million under the program at this point.
You know, we raised our dividend this last quarter, so that's a little bit that goes back to the shareholders. And then as Joe talked about, and we've both chatted a little bit about, you know, it comes up to M&A opportunities. We do have several active opportunities. We've seen M&A opportunities that we've passed on this year, so we're being very disciplined about that. So from that perspective, you know, that's kind of a question mark on what comes across the table and what makes sense for us. And lastly, from a CAPEX standpoint, I think in line with historical norms is pretty, you
It's pretty expected here. Other than right now, we don't have any ERP implementations. You know, we did our last large, J-D-AIDS implementation for now when we brought true air on at the beginning of the fiscal year. So some of that's behind us, so that's in the depreciation phase. We have a few businesses, some of the smaller businesses, not on that yet, and those are in the planning stages. But so, you know, CapEx could be on the lower end of the range we've had historically, because we don't have as much IT CapEx from that respect.
From a business capex perspective, we always say, Joe and I, that we challenge our business leaders to find good growth and expansion opportunities beyond just the maintenance and repair. We see some of that on the horizon. We see growth opportunity here across our segments where some investment would really have some nice attractive quick returns. But the normal capex type range of a couple percent of revenue is probably a good starting point.
Very helpful. Appreciate you taking the questions. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up question from the line of John . 10-1-10. Please proceed with your question.
Thank you and I appreciate the presentation.
My second or my follow-up question is just on the margin commentary. I think last quarter there was a little bit of confusion just with the 20% plus, given that you did 21% already in the prior year, in a year where you had a lot of input pricing headwind.
It sounds like you're in excess of 20% should be well in excess of 20% just given you're expecting to be sequentially higher in Q2. Is that fair to say and how should we think about that commentary specifically?
Yeah, John and James, I appreciate the follow-up. Yeah, the first part of that, I want to be sure you and others have heard it is, you know, we've kind of shifted to a high teens revenue guidance on the heels of a really strong Q1, which still implies, you know, a nice high teens-ish type growth of the final three quarters. So, so really pleased with that outlook. From a margin perspective, yeah, I think you're looking at it appropriately. You know, what we're indicating is, we expect to be an excess of the historical 20%.
I think way of opportunity to be a decent amount above that. You know, obviously some of that comes down to what costs come through and do we see changes there. You know, as you well know, you've got a little bit of a year-over-year challenge these first couple quarters because you're still working with numerator and denominator that we've been able to raise prices to cover cost increases. As some of those costs have started to subside a little bit, you've got a little margin expansion opportunity there, but you know, we're just maybe a few months into some of that slowing down, we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves.
and assume that you know, freight rates are exactly where they are the rest of the year and input costs are exactly where they are the rest of the year. But yeah, I think you're looking at it the right way. The opportunity to do better than kind of right on the 20% is certainly there certainly what we're challenging ourselves internally to accomplish.
Okay, great. Thank you, guys.
Okay, great. Thank you guys. Thanks, John .
There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Joe Arms for closing comments.
Yes, and I just want to say thank you for joining our call today. We appreciate your interest in and support of our company and look forward to speaking to you again. Next quarter, thank you.
We're joining our call today. We appreciate your interest in and support of our company and look forward to speaking to you again next quarter. Thank you.
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines of this time. Thank you for your participation and we have a wonderful day. Thank you. Thank you.
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Greetings and welcome to the CSW Industrial's fiscal first quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone for require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Adrian Griffin, vice president of Investor Relations and Treasurer.
Thank you, Ms. Griffin. You may begin. Thank you, Devon, and good morning, everyone. Joining me today are Joseph Arms, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of CSW Industrieels, and James Perry, Executive Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer.
We issued our earnings release, presentation, and form 10Q prior to the market's opening today, which are available on the investor portion of our website at www.cswindustrials.com. This call is being webcast and information on accessing the replay is included in the earnings release.
During this call, we will make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ because of factors discussed today in our earnings release and the comments made during this call, as well as the risk factors identified in our annual report on form 10K and other filings with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements.
I will now turn the call over to Joe Arms. Thank you, Adrian. Good morning. And thank you for joining our fiscal first quarter conference call.
In our fiscal first quarter, our team performed remarkably, delivering record revenue, record EBITDA, and record EPS.
Today, we are proud to report record revenue of $200 million, or 24% growth, over the prior year period.
Of the 39 million in total revenue growth, 78% was organic, with the remainder coming from the shoemaker acquisition that we closed in December 2021.
EBITDA reached a quarterly record of 50,000,000, a 21% growth compared to the prior year period.
Finally, record EPS with $1.88.
a 26% growth rate over $1.49 as adjusted.
in the prior year period.
We are particularly pleased with these comparative results and light of the extraordinary performance in the fiscal first quarter of last year.
As you will recall, in last year's fiscal first quarter, we delivered growth in excess of 75% of revenue in over 100% in EBIT.
While demand remains solid in the end markets we serve, I cannot overstate the importance of operational excellence in driving this performance.
Drivers that led to our strong first quarter performance include, first, we protected our profitability with disciplined price actions offsetting ongoing inflation.
Primarily in raw materials and logistics.
We will continue benefiting from our pricing initiatives consistent with the high value nature of our products and our commitment to outstanding customer service.
Second, our strategic investment in raw materials and inventory continued to allow us to meet the strong customer demand underlying our record revenue.
While supply chains constraints moderated or even improved sequentially, inflation persists in specific materials and uncertainty remains in the logistics sector.
Our supply chain team will continue to diligently monitor and react to evolving market dynamics to ensure that we are the single most reliable supplier to our customers. Third, acquisitions continue to contribute to our success as we add complementary product categories and our existing end markets served.
Shoemaker contributed $9 million of inorganic revenue growth in the second full quarter of our ownership. As we have discussed previously, our acquisition economics typically do not include cost synergies due to the strength of our existing margin profile and our compensation strategy.hos
So we depend on operational excellence as an essential part of our success.
In fact, in this fiscal first quarter, our operating expenses as a percent of revenue were down over 200 basis points as compared to the same prior year period. In addition to consolidating TrueAir's operations into rector seals just this April , our TrueAir and Shoemaker leadership teams continue to actively assess manufacturing and commercial synergies.
Consistent with our growth strategy, we continue to evaluate our portfolio of opportunities and seek attractive bolt-on acquisitions and our existing end markets.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge that our team members are directly responsible for these results. At CSWI, having the best team members is a strategic advantage. And our partnership with employees results in high productivity, creativity, excellence and customer service and collaboration. That are importantly a point of income for customers themselves. So, the momentum of the outside forward of a congressional? for the embrace capability of amen. It is that our solidarity with massive presence in our law denies 25 development for outcomes of customers servants and collaboration. you
I would like to extend my thanks to each member of the CSWIT for their hard work and dedication to serving our customers and each other well. Transitioning to a discussion of our segments.
Each of our three segments achieved record orderly revenue.
Our contractor solution segment achieved record sales of $138 million, a $27 million or 25% increase.
including organic growth of $19 million.
The strength of this segment lies in leveraging our distribution network and selling high-value products.
Our True Air manufacturing facility in Vietnam returned to full production during the fiscal first quarter in line with our expectations.
The steady production of shipping of grills, registers, and diffusers coupled with recently stabilizing material and freight cost provides confidence and our ability to meet customer needs. our ability to meet customer needs functionality.
Our engineered building solutions segment continued to expand, reporting record revenue of $29 billion, an increase of 11%.
During the past two years, this team is intentionally focused on high growth geographies and new product development supplemented by an enhanced go-to-market strategy. A strategy.
For a second consecutive quarter, this segment's backlog reached an all-time high.
as we were awarded jobs in multifamily residential.
institutional and commercial categories.
The increased quantity and quality of products within our backlog reflect our intentional curation of opportunities.
while the macro construction indices suggest solid growth potential.
For calendar 2022, the American Institute of Architects.
is now predicting 9.1% growth in total non-residential spending.
which compares to their January prediction of 5.4% growth.
Together, these provide a tailwind through our fiscal 2023 and into early fiscal 2024. Our specialized reliability solutions segment gained momentum and achieved record revenue of $36 million. The growth of $10 million or 40% as demand continued in all in market serves.
evidenced by incremental unit volumes and supported by the cumulative benefit of the pricing strategy we deployed last year.
In fact, in the current period, specialized reliability solutions revenue exceeded its revenue in the same period two years ago, which was our fiscal 2020 by 88% or nearly 17 million.
We expect continued strength in this segment, albeit at a moderating growth rate as compared to these exceptional results.
We are well positioned to win in our end markets and the demand for our products continues to be solid. The demand for our products continues to be solid.
Our team continues to demonstrate the ability to effectively manage, despite a challenging, operating environment.
Our business model remains resilient with ample opportunity to drive profitable growth and most importantly to deliver long-term shareholder value.
At this time, I'll turn the call over to James for a closer look at our results, and I will then conclude the prepared remarks with a strategic outlook and a sustainability update. I will then conclude the prepared remarks and a sustainability update.
Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone.
Our consolidated revenue during fiscal first quarter 2023 is $200 million.
24% increase is compared to the prior year period.
Consolidated gross profit in the fiscal first quarter was $86 million, representing 25% growth. With the incremental profit resulting primarily from the cumulative benefit of the implemented pricing initiatives, which continued during the fiscal first the shoe maker acquisition and increased unit volumes.
His profit margin was 43%. Heard to 45% in the prior year period as the justice removed the $3.9 million purchase accounting effect related to the true air acquisition.
This margin's climb primarily resulted from the timing impacts of material and freight cost increases.
This margin's plan primarily resulted from the timing impacts of material and freight cost increases in implemented pricing initiatives.
Our reminds our audience that we anticipated this trend within our Calls to Brevenuse and discussed it on our earnings column may of this year. here should be successfully ready for the actual loss in this pandemic. Let's go ahead and add aial event to the next event, so Newark Academy of Truth and Newasti Times has been coming strong This is a Friday take on a double check on a you
I'll note we did not make any adjustments to our reported earnings in the current fiscal quarter.
Confelidated EBITDAB increased 21% to $50 million compared to the prior year period.
while Consolidated EBITDA Margin was approximately 25% in the current and prior year periods.
Reported net income attributable to CSWI in the fiscal first quarter was $29 million or $1.88 per limited share.
Compared to $21 million or $1.30 in the prior year period.
In the prior year period, adjusted for approximately $3 million of Truera purchase accounting effect.
Prior your adjusted net income in EPS, we're $23 million dollars and $1.49 dollars respectively.
Our contractor solution segment with $138 million of revenue accounted for 69% of our consolidated revenue and delivered $27 million, or 25% total growth as compared to the prior year quarter, comprised of organic growth of $19 million and inorganic growth of $9 million from the Chewmaker acquisition.
Organic growth resulted from the cumulative benefit of the implement of pricing initiatives partially offset by a slight decrease in unit volumes as compared to last year's exceptionally strong performance in the same quarter.
As compared to the prior year period, increase net revenue in the HVACR and architecturally specify building products in markets or the offset the net revenue decrease primarily in the plumbing and market.
Segment Eva Dot was $43 million.
or 31% of revenue compared to $39 million or 36% of revenue in the prior year period.
The Declanium Margin primarily resulted from the timing impacts of material and freight cost increases in implement or pricing initiatives as I mentioned in my earlier remarks.
Our Internet of Building Solutions, was $5 million, a 17% margin.
Bidding and booking trends remain strong. In fact, our fiscal first quarter bookings and backlog increased by approximately 74% and 14% respectively that's compared to last year's first quarter.
As of the end of the fiscal first quarter, our book to bill ratio for the trailing eight quarters is 1.35 times to 1.
And, as Joe mentioned in his opening remarks,
We entered July with a record backlog in this segment.
This entire organization is focused on converting our strong backlog into revenue growth and margin expansion.
Our specialized reliability solution segment puts in another very impressive quarter of organic revenue growth of $10 million or 40%. Due to incremental unit volumes driven by improving in market dynamics.
and numerous price initiatives during the last year.
Segment EBITDA and EBITDA margin were $7 million and 19% in the fiscal 2023 first quarter, compared to $2 million and 9% in the prior year period.
I would like to highlight that this quarter is the third consecutive quarter of mid to high 18 Dividend Marchant for this segment.
In line with our expectations, this capacity utilization increases, operational practices improves, and input cost inflation moderates.
Transitioning to the strength of our balance sheet.
We did the fiscal first quarter with $16 million of cash and reported cash lift from operations of $17 million compared to $19 million in the prior year period.
As working capital use of cash, primarily consisting of incremental strategic inventory investments to support strong demand and higher cash receivable due to higher revenues, cost that improved profit.
The decision to hold more inventory over the last year has proven beneficial, as we are better able to meet customer demand when, at times, our competitors cannot.
At this time, we expect our current levels of inventory to be sufficient throughout the remainder of this year. And while the balance of inventory will fluctuate from quarter to quarter, we don't currently anticipate the same level of incremental investment in inventory during the remainder of fiscal 2023.
Beated the fiscal first quarter, which $264 million outstanding on a revolver. A $21 million dollar increase compared to our fiscal year end.
Our leverage ratio as of quarter end was approximately 1.7 times, well within our stated range of 1 to 3 times. As of the end of the fiscal 1st quarter, we had liquidity of approximately 152 million dollars through our cash on hand and 136 million dollars of revolving borrowing capacity.
As Joe mentioned in his opening remarks, our M&A strategy remains active and our capital allocation decisions remain focused on maximizing shareholder value on a risk-adjusted returns basis.
This disciplined approach favors our current platforms, serving the same customers and in markets through our extensive distribution channels.
The strength of our balance sheet provides ample capacity, tagged precisely and quickly on acquisitions with opportunities to rise. The strength of our balance sheet provides ample capacity, tagged precisely and quickly on acquisitions
As part of our broad capital allocation strategy, we remain committed to opportunistic share repurchases guided by our intrinsic value model.
During the fiscal first quarter, the company repurchased 288,000 shares for an aggregate purchase price of $30.5 million under our current $100 million share repurchase authorization.
Since conception of the current authorization and through July 31, 2022, CSWI has repurchased 462,000 shares for an aggregate purchase price of $50 million.
CSWI initiated our inaugural share repurchase for a UNFSCO 2018.
And since that time, as cumulative in return, $131 million to shareholders through the purchase of $1.9 million shares.
We remain committed to strong free cash flow generation, through to working capital management, and sufficient liquidity to support our strategic objectives. We expect our cash flow conversion metrics to return to historic norms by the end of this fiscal year.
The company's effective tax rate for the fiscal first quarter was 24.5% on a gap basis.
The company continues to expect a 25 to 27% tax rate for full fiscal 2023.
As we look to the remainder of fiscal 2023, we continue to expect to have strong revenue growth across all three segments in an empty consolidated level, which, when coupled with meaningful operating leverage, will result in strong, year-to-year EBITDA and EPS and
We expect to benefit from continuous stability in our raw material and freight costs.
As we look at the cadence of earnings across the three remaining quarters of this fiscal year.
We expect our second and fourth fiscal quarters as the strongest of the three remaining quarters, with the third quarter being our seasonally lowest quarter.
And all remaining quarters expected to be well in excess of the comparable prior year periods.
We do not expect as much variability between quarters as we've historically produced due to the acquired GRD businesses demonstrating less seasonality.
As we look at our segments, we expect revenue growth in our contractor solution segment to continue outpacing the categories we serve.
Margins are in sharp focus as we manage through the variables that impact our business, such as the stability of the supply chain and raw material cost.
With the engineered building solutions backlog at all-time highs, our team remains focused on execution and expects to outperform the construction in market while producing solid margins.
Our specialized reliability solution segment expects to continue delivering another year of strong top-line growth in improving margins. With that, I'll now turn the call back to Joe for closing remarks.
Our reliability solution segment expects to continue delivering another year of strong top-line growth and improving margins. With that, I'll now turn the call back to Joe for closing remarks. Thank you, James.
We have enjoyed an impressive start to our fiscal year with record revenue, EBITDA, and EPS, and growth in each of these metrics exceeding 20%.
We have effectively mitigated inflation with disciplined price actions.
and our strong balance sheet provides flexibility for capital allocation that enhances.
Shareholder value.
During last quarter's call, we discussed our fiscal 2023 outlook.
Reflecting upon our historical revenue CAGR and adjusted EBITDA margin from fiscal years 2017 through 2022.
On the heels of such a strong fiscal first quarter, we now expect to outperform these metrics in fiscal 2023, and now expect total revenue growth to be in the high teens.
and an adjusted EBITDA margin in excess of our historical average of 20.3%.
And I am confident in our team's ability to deliver on these heightened expectations.
As broad economic concerns have come into focus, it's worth reiterating.
that CSWI has performed very well during economic downturns.
Diversification is inherent in our business model given the breadth of the end markets we serve.
We are relatively insulated from its cyclicality as our consumable products are used either in maintenance, repair, or in replacement applications or to extend the reliability, performance and lifespan of critical assets. We have critical assets. We have critical assets. We have critical assets. We have critical assets.
We are poised to continue to outperform the end markets we serve.
Over the past several quarters, we have provided examples of our commitment to ESG principles and corporate sustainability, providing insights regarding four specific efforts in the social realm.
First, our commitment to safety in a zero incident workplace, including publicly reporting, are TRIR.
Second, the partnership with our employees for a safe, secure, and dignified retirement through our distinctive profit sharing program.
Third, our efforts to remain as an employer of choice.
to retain quality talent and maintain turnover rates lower than industry averages.
And four, it's our community engagement, such as our secondary education scholarship programs. I'm glad.
Today, I am pleased to announce that we have updated the corporate sustainability portion of our CSWI website with two newly adopted policies.
The first is our human rights policy.
which affirms in writing our existing practices and commitment to respect internationally recognized human rights principles aimed at promoting and protecting human rights in all of the countries in which we operate.
Additionally, we have published our environmental health and safety policy, which recognizes our corporate responsibility to protect the health and safety of our employees.
and the environment.
CSWI's environmental stewardship efforts include efficient use of resources, promoting sustainable consumption, sustainable Business-children in business, which supports Spe sole providing
and minimizing the impact of our operations.
of our operations on the environment.
We expect to publicly disclose information relating to environmental key performance metrics, targets, and progress in the future.
I would also like to welcome Anne Mottsenbacher to join our Board of Directors in June .
and brings extensive executive experience, executive leadership experience and strong strategic financial acumen to the company's board.
gained through serving in numerous executive leadership roles over a 36-year career with JP Morgan Chase. Through this experience, Ann strengthens the board's perspective on strategic growth for multinational corporations as well as risk management and operational excellence. Ann's appointment demonstrates our continued commitment to excellence.
independence, and diversity on our board. My colleagues hear me say this often at CSWI, we must and we will succeed.
But at CSWI, how we succeed matters.
Achieving these outstanding first quarter results represents the product of our commitment to be good stewards of your capital.
and our goal of delivering long-term shareholder value.
As always, I'd like to close by thanking all of my colleagues and fellow shareholders here at CSWI. We collectively own 4% of CSWI through our Employees.Gownership plan.
as well as well with all of our other sheriffs who have continued interest in and support our company.
With that, Devon, we're now ready to take questions. Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tunnel indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your hands before pressing the star keys.
With that, Devon, we're now ready to take questions. Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions.
Our first question comes from the line of John Tanwantago with CJS Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning and thanks for taking my question. Congrats on a really, really nice quarter. My first one is on just the sequential thoughts. I was wondering if you could break down what you're looking at on a volume and net pricing basis as we go into the second quarter. It looks like on the engineer building products, the backlogs and momentum is picking up. I was wondering if you were seeing the same thing in the other two businesses as well.
Yeah, John , good morning, James. And thanks for the con words, and thanks for being on the call this morning. You know, it's always hard to project volume a little bit. As we looked at our first quarter, and specialized reliability solutions, we were seeing unit growth and pricing growth. We expect for that to continue. The tailwinds and that business are really strong. The performance there's been very good. So I think in that case, unit volume up and pricing continuing to hold over the last year as we come up.
we're still absorbing some of the impact of pricing initiatives in the last couple of quarters is there. Yeah, the Airpoint Engineer Building Solutions, as you well know, as you build backlog, it takes a while for that to come through. We're starting to see some of that. We are seeing some good demand in that space, unit volume picking up, margins you're seeing in a nice place. So I think this next quarter we see more continuance of that same theme. And Contractor Solutions on the pricing side, obviously, again, as we...
Lap the year will continue to see the impact of nice pricing initiatives we've had in place It starts to see you know some of that spread between pricing and cost one thing that you know I've mentioned a couple of times was the timing of cost and pricing You know if you think about it, you know you bring something over in a container from from Southeast Asia It's a few months before that pricing works its way through so as we've seen container pricing come down as we've seen raw material pricing Come down those costs are now in inventory a few months later. So I think you're gonna see that spread
were waiting to get in and if some of that had come in just a couple weeks earlier, that may have been a slight increase. That can literally move a couple percent here or there pretty easily. You have some geographies that were cooler in the first quarter and you've seen a little pick up in temperature in the northwest and the northeast here in the second quarter. Those are big markets for our mini-split. We have a lot of accessories in that mini-split market that impact the unit volumes. That market's been a hair softer so you have unit as well as some margin there in those products. As some of that, as temperatures pick up and if some of that mini-split
Great. And just again to clarify on the volume, decline in contract solutions, you mentioned that was improming. It was all supply chain related with them, demand or anything like that.
Yeah, John , this is Joe. Yeah, we think demand is holding up pretty well. It's, as James said, we had back orders and so that would suggest that, you know, demand was a little bit higher than what the revenue might or what the unit volume might suggest. But no meaningful, we expect growth to moderate. I mean, there's no question about that, but no, no, no, no.
No concerns around, you know, growth at this time. Okay, and then just to touch on the share we purchased as you saw in the quarter, I think that's nice to see. Should we take that as an indication that there are no near-term fields in the M&A pipeline or that you're just at that much, that's that confident in your ability to have leverage and it's the right moment that it was on the right choice in the moment. Yeah, it's absolutely the latter, John . But we can do both, we can do the acquisitions and buybacks.
Okay, great. What are you seeing in that acquisition pipeline today in terms of evaluation and just the kinds of industry that you're looking at?
Yeah, you know, I think that the acquisition pipeline is still strong. We have opportunities in front of us and haven't seen a meaningful change in valuation. And so, activity is not picked up because of a decline in valuation. But there are still opportunities out there that we're pursuing aggressively. And we would expect to continue to add product line extensions throughout the fiscal year. And so, the fiscal year.
Okay, great. Just one last one for me, James. What do you think on an interest sensor the rest of the year just given rising rates and use capital? Yeah, you're going to see, you know, obviously some of that depends on the revolver balance and then some of that's going to depend on acquisition opportunities, obviously. So it's hard to, you know, you've got to make your own assumption on that respect. We've got some internal forecast, of course. But, yeah, you know, we forecast things along with the expected curve out there that rates continue to move up a little bit. You know, we're on a live war-based grid. The lever just stated a very attractive level on that grid for us.
continues on this type of rate of growth and pace as we've talked about with the margins that we guided to and the high-teens revenue growth that we guided to in the release and in Joe's comments. We have the opportunity for, while debt could creep up through acquisitions, we have the opportunity for leverage to keep coming down because the EBITDA is so attractive now. Thank you guys, you've made great work.
on this type of rate of growth and pace as we've talked about with the margins that we guided to and the high teams revenue growth that we guided to and the release and in Joe's comments, we have the opportunity for while debt could creep up through acquisitions, we have the opportunity for leverage to keep coming down because the EBITDA is so attractive now. Got it. Thanks, guys. You've done great work. Thank you, John . Thanks, John . So, to sum it all up, you had said that Everything has changed over the past couple of weeks now now so extantgod games, Go pag Desert In other Dos And down And down
Thank you. Our next question comes from line of Julio Romero with Sedotti. Please proceed with your question. Hey, good morning, everyone. Wanted to stay on the residential, you know, contractor solution side. You know, I love you. you know.
What are you seeing or hearing from your customers regarding inventory levels? I think you spoke about a little bit of a backlog entering the first quarter, but just have you heard about any de-stocking risk at all from your customers?
Yeah, good morning to Julio's James. Thanks for being on. Appreciate the support. Yeah, I think we all read the same things that like we did, our customers have stocked up a little bit, given the supply chain questions. And just like we don't want to be out of something, they don't want to be out of something if it's needed in the field. So you saw some stocking up on their balance sheet as we did the same thing. And so a little bit of what appears to be softness is not really demand from the consumers being soft. It's just...
Yeah, there may be a little bit of destocking. It doesn't feel like anything was pulled forward in the last quarter necessarily. So you may see a little bit of destocking as people go through it as the supply chain seems to have a little relief to it. But at the same time, I don't think it's a dramatic shift that we've seen yet because that supply chain can turn pretty quickly. So just as we're going to be very cautious to kind of relieve inventory, because those things still take a couple months to get across the ocean. It may not be three or four months, maybe now it's two to three.
There's a little bit of that. Nothing dramatic though I would point to. The other thing I would say, Julio, this is Joe, is that as you look regionally, there are regions that are up double digits. There are regions that are down double digits. And that seems to me to be an effect of weather and temperature. And not necessarily an overall demand statement. So we're still pleased with the demand. We see, obviously, again, unit growth will moderate.
from what we've had over the last year or two. But revenues continue to grow nicely because of pricing. And at the end of the day, we have a very resilient line of products that are used in replacement of units, in repair and maintenance and cleaning and those types of things, which are all opportunities for us to sell to our customers and sell through.
that's very different from the capital intensive businesses that require the purchase of a unit. Okay that's very helpful and then
different from the capital intensive businesses that require the purchase of a unit. Okay, that's very helpful. And then, you know, within the rest of the... Okay, that's very helpful. And then, you know, within the rest of the...
Residential portion of your portfolio. Can you just give us a quick refresher on the break out between your exposure and new housing construction versus preparing a model?
Yeah, really what we, the way we always characterize that, Julio, is that the industry, again, which is driven primarily by the capital equipment guys, we tell you it's 80% replacement and 20% new build. We index even more so toward the replacement market because, again, repair, maintenance, cleaning, those types of things. And so it's at the margin, new housing construction is helpful, but that is not the...
notice and effectiveness there? Well, certainly on that one, the notice and effectiveness is very efficient. I think that, yes, because of the specialized nature of our products, because of the low cost, high value that our products represent, I think there's an opportunity for us to certainly maintain our margins as inputs rise. And so, you know, we feel like that is truly a specialized
business and the margins reflect that and we'll continue to reflect that over the long term. Okay, very good. And then just last one for me is if you could just speak to your capital spending expectations for fiscal 23. Yeah, you know, it's hard to project that necessarily. Obviously as Joe talked about, we've got kind of an intrinsic value model on our share price. So, you know, if we think that that's below where it should be and have opportunity, then we would repurchase that. You know, we did 30 million last quarter of use.
table and what makes sense for us. The last thing from a cat-ex standpoint, I think along with the historical norms is pretty expected here. Other than right now we don't have any ERP implementations. We did our last large, shaded, or implementation for now when we brought true air on at the beginning of the fiscal year. So some of that's behind us, so that's in the depreciation phase. We have a few businesses, some of the smaller businesses not on that yet, and those are from the planning stages.
So, you know, CapEx could be on the lower end of the range we've had historically because we don't have as much IT CapEx from that respect. From a business CapEx perspective, we always say, Joe and I, that, you know, we challenge our business leaders to find good growth and expansion opportunities beyond just the maintenance and repair. And we see some of that on the horizon. We see growth opportunity here across our segments where some investment would really have some nice, attractive, quick returns. But the normal CapEx type range of a couple percent of revenue is probably a good starting point.
Very helpful. I appreciate you taking the questions. Thank you. Thanks, Sue. Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up question from the line of John . Tan Wan Tang, please proceed with your question. Thank you, and I appreciate the pronunciation. There's not a question about it here, so it's just sitting there.
My second or my following question is just on the margin commentary. I think last quarter there was a little bit of confusion just with the 20% plus given that you did 21% already in the prior year. In a year where you had a lot of input pricing had went. In a year where you had a lot of input pricing had went.
You know, it sounds like your in X to the 20% should be well in X to the 20% just giving your expecting to be sequentially higher. In Q2, is that fair to say and kind of how should we think about that commentary specifically?
Yeah, John , it's James. I appreciate the follow up. The first part of that, I want to be sure you and others have heard it, is we've kind of shifted to a high teens revenue guidance on the heels of a really strong Q1, which still implies a nice high teens-ish type growth of the final three quarters. So, really pleased with that outlook. From a margin perspective, yeah, I think you're looking at it appropriately. What we're indicating is we expect to be in excess of the historical 20%. I think we have opportunity to be a decent amount above that.
Obviously some of that comes down to what costs come through and do we see changes there? You know as you all know you've got a little bit of a year-over-year challenge these first couple quarters because you're still working with numerator and denominator that we've been able to raise prices to cover cost increases. As some of those costs have started to subside a little bit, you've got a little margin expansion opportunity there, but you know we're just maybe a few months into some of that slowing down. So we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves and assume that you know freight rates are exactly where they are the rest of the year and input costs exactly where they are the rest of the year, but...
Yeah, I think you're looking at it the right way. The opportunity to do better than kind of right on the 20% is certainly there and certainly what we're challenging ourselves internally to accomplish.
Okay, great. Thank you guys. Thanks, John .
There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Joe Arms for closing comments. Yes, and I just want to say thank you for joining our call today. We appreciate your interest in and support of our company and look forward to speaking to you again next quarter. Thank you.
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.