Foster L B Co (FSTR) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good day, and welcome to the L.B. Foster Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Lisa Durante, Director of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to L.B. Foster's second quarter of 2026 earnings call. My name is Lisa Durante, the company's Director of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations. Our President and CEO, John Kaffel, and our Chief Financial Officer, Sean Riley, will be presenting our second quarter operating results, market outlook, and business developments this morning. We'll start the call with John providing his perspective on the company's second quarter performance. Sean will then review the company's second quarter financial results. John will provide perspective on market developments and company outlook in his closing comments. We will then open up the session for questions. Today's slide presentation, along with our earnings release and financial disclosures, were posted on our website this morning and can be accessed on our investor relations page at lbfoster.com. Our comments this morning will follow the slides in the earnings presentation. Some statements we are making are forward-looking and represent our current view of our markets and business today. These forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revisions to these statements in light of new information, except as required by securities laws. For more detailed risks, uncertainties, and assumptions relating to our forward-looking statements, please see the disclosures in our earnings release and presentation. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial metrics and encourage you to carefully read our disclosures and reconciliation tables provided within today's earnings release and presentation as you consider these metrics. So with that, let me turn the call over to John.

Thanks, Lisa. Hello, everybody. Thanks for joining us today for our second quarter earnings call. Before I commence my remarks, I want to welcome Sean Riley, who was promoted CFO effective June 1st. Also present with us on the call is Bill Tallman, who was appointed COO on that same day. Congratulations to both Sean and Bill on your promotions. So I'll begin on slide five, covering the key drivers of our second quarter results. As you can see from the earnings release, we delivered another solid quarter with cash generation of $17.9 billion, reaching the highest second quarter level since 2017. Net debt was reduced by $13.5 million, or 24.2% during the quarter, and by $35.2 million, or 45.5%, compared last year. As a result of lower debt levels and improving profitability, our growth leverage was cut by over 50%, from 2.2 times last year to 1.0 times at quarter end. As expected revenue in the second quarter declined by 3.5%, as sales were pulled forward to the first quarter, which results in top-line growth in the quarter of 23.9 percent so all in sales for the six months increased by 7.6 percent over last year reflecting the strong start to the year during the quarter we continued strategic shifts in the uk with the announcement of exit of certain non-core product lines within our two engineering business incurring 2.6 million of exit related costs. Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter was down 4.7% from last year, driven by higher personnel costs, including incentive-based compensation expense. This is due to the strong year-to-date performance, with adjusted EBITDA increasing by 19.6% compared to last year. So in summary, we're pleased with the second quarter and first half of the year. Along with our current robust backlog, we remain confident about the second half of the year. I'll cover the market outlook and financial guidance for the year after Sean runs through the financial details for the quarter. Over to you, Sean.

Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. I'll begin my comments on slide seven, covering the consolidated results for the second quarter. Our business can experience variability from quarter to quarter, given the timing of customer orders and shipment. On a year-to-date basis, our results continued to outperform last year, reflecting strong underlying demand across our business. Net sales for the quarter were $138.6 million, a 3.5% decline from last year due to the timing of customer orders within our rail products business. Consolidated gross profit was flat in the quarter, with gross margins improving 80 basis points to 22.3%, driven by favorable business mix. Gross profit for the quarter included a $2.1 million charge related to the two product line exit. Last year, gross profit included a $1.1 million charge associated with the exit of our automation business in the UK. I'll provide more color on the segments later in the presentation. SG&A in expense totaled $24.1 million, increased by 1.7 million or 7.7 percent compared to last year as john indicated the primary driver of the increase was attributable to higher employment costs including 1.1 million dollars in variable incentive-based compensation associated with our strong year-to-date performance sgna expense in the second quarter includes a 0.5 million dollar charge related to the two product line exit and other non-recurring costs adjusted ebitda was 11.7 million dollars, down 4.7 percent versus last year, driven by SG&A expense. The higher effective tax rate for the quarter was due to UK pre-tax losses where we do not recognize a tax benefit. As John highlighted, second quarter cash flow was 17.9 million dollars, an improvement of 7.5 million dollars over last year due to lower working capital. Lastly, consolidated orders improved slightly compared to the prior year while the backlog was lower by 8.8 percent due in part to an ordered cancellation in the third quarter of last year. Sequentially backlog improved 17.4 percent from the first quarter and illustrates the variability that can occur within the business on a quarterly basis. The financial profile of our results on slide eight highlight the seasonality in the business over the last three years with sales and adjusted EBITDA concentrated in the second and third quarters in line with typical construction seasons. We anticipate 2026 having a similar pattern for sales. However, our free cash flow has deviated from historical trends with the strong cash generated in the second quarter due to lower working capital. I'll cover the segway performance on the next couple of slides starting with rail on slide nine. Second percent compared to last year, driven by order timing in rail products. Partially offsetting rail products was global friction management, where sales increased 18.1 percent as this growth platform continued to perform well. Technology services and solution sales were also up 66.9 percent due to short-term project work in our UK business. Rail margins of 20.6 percent were up 70 basis points driven primarily by favorable sales mix despite incurring an additional 1 million dollars of exit costs turning to rail orders and backlog q2 orders were down 1.9 percent due to the timing of large orders in rail products global friction management and technology services and solutions continued to perform well with orders of 27.8 percent and 126.4 percent respectively The growth in technology services and solutions was due to U.K. short-term project work. Rail backlog was up 8.2 percent due to a large order received in our U.K. business late last year. Turning to infrastructure solutions on slide 10, net sales decreased $1 million, or 1.5 percent, compared to last year. Steel product sales declined $2 million, primarily due to lower volumes in our threaded water well product loss. This was partially offset by a $0.9 million improvement in precast concrete, reflecting continued demand across this key growth platform. Infrastructure growth profit increased $0.3 million, with margins up 80 basis points to 24.1%. This was due to variable sales mix and manufacturing efficiency. Infrastructure orders increased $2.5 million or 4% due to improved order intake in the protective coating businesses. Partially offsetting was pre-cut concrete orders that declined $7.4 million or 15.4% versus last year. Infrastructure backlog totaled $104.7 million at quarter end, a decrease of $34.5 million from last year. 19 million dollars of this decline was associated with the summit pipeline coding order that was canceled in q3 last year precast concrete backlog was also lowered by 16 million dollars due to lower order activity and quicker turn projects as we have discussed order activity can be lumpy our infrastructure backlog in july increased by approximately 10 from june with increases in both steel products and precast concrete. Next, I'll cover some of the key takeaways from our year-to-date results on slide 11. Sales in the first half increased 7.6% to $259.7 million, driven by growth in both segments. Rail increased 12.9% driven by strong sales growth in our global friction management and technology, services, and solution businesses, delivering 27.4% and 46.7% growth, respectively. Infrastructure sales increased 1.4% led by precast concrete, which increased 7.8% over last year. Year-to-date, gross profit increased $5.5 million due to higher volumes and favorable business mix, with gross profit margins expanding 60 basis points to 21.8%. percent. SDNA costs increased $3.8 million over last year, attributable to higher employment costs, including $2.3 million in variable incentive-based compensation expense associated with our strong year-to-date performance. Variable incentive expense includes $0.5 million for accelerated stock compensation associated with retirement eligible employees. Adjusted EBITDA was $16.8 million, up 19.6% versus the prior year, driven by higher sales volumes and gross profit improvement. Operating cash flow was $7.4 million, variable $23.2 million, compared to last year, due to higher profitability and lower working capital needs. Orders declined by 2%, reflecting modest decreases in both segments. I'll next cover liquidity and leverage metrics on slide 12. The chart highlights the significant progress we have made in strengthening our balance sheet through debt reduction and profitability expansion. Net debt of $42.2 million was down $35.2 million compared to last year, while our gross leverage ratio was reduced by more than half to one times. Our capital-like business model has enabled the company to generate substantial cash flow, enabling us to invest in the business while maintaining a strong financial position. We have approximately $71 million in federal NOLs available, which should continue to minimize the cash taxes paid for the next several years. Turning to capital allocation on slide 13, managing our debt and leverage at reasonable levels remains our top priority. At the end of the second quarter, our gross leverage ratio for our revolving credit agreement was one times, well within our targeted range of 1 to 1.5 times. While seasonal working capital requirements may increase debt during the second half of the year, we expect to stay within our targeted leverage range. We remain committed to investing in our growth platforms with capital spending targeting organic growth initiatives within our pre-cast concrete business. We expect capital spending to be approximately 2.7% of sales in 2026. Share repurchases remain an important component of our capital allocation strategy. Since early 2023, we have repurchased more than 1 million shares, representing 9.3% of shares outstanding. While we did not make any open market repurchases in the second quarter, we have $28.7 million remaining to spend on buybacks over the next two years. Finally, with our strong balance sheet and available borrowing capacity, we will continue to evaluate acquisitions that complement our portfolio, with a primary focus on the pre-test concrete market. I'll finish my remarks with some additional teller on order rates and backlog on slides 14 and 15. As we have noted previously, order activity can be lumped from quarter to quarter given the project-based nature of many of the end markets we serve. We believe trailing 12-month metrics provide a meaningful view of underlying demand trends. On a consolidated basis, the trailing 12-month book-to-bill ratio at the end of the second quarter was 0.96 to 1, which represents a modest improvement from the first quarter but below the prior year levels. The year-over-year decline was driven by infrastructure with a trailing 12-month book-to-bill ratio of 0.85 to 1, primarily due to the summit order cancellation impacting steel products, as well as softer precast orders. Rail order activity remained healthy with a ratio of 1.03 to 1. Turning to slide 15, consolidated backlog was $246.1 million at the end of the quarter, down $23.8 million from last year. This is primarily driven by the $19 million summit order cancellation, as well as lower precast concrete order levels. The rail backlog improved 8.2% from the prior year due to a large order received in the UK. I'll close by saying we are very pleased with our 2026 results, including our cash flow generation, debt levels, and our strong year-to-date sales and EBITDA growth. Thanks for the time this morning. I'll now hand it back to John for his closing remarks. Back to you, John.

Thanks, John. Great job. I'll begin my closing remarks on slide 17, reviewing developments in our key end markets. starting with rail the federal programs that fund our customers repair maintenance projects remain active with no significant disruptions evident today importantly a significant portion of available chrissy grants remains available and we continue to expect those funds to support future growth project activity for infrastructure and markets developments remain favorable as well starting with steel products market conditions remain favorable and are supported by continued strength in the domestic energy market, which has benefited our protective coding businesses. In precast, robust civil construction activity across key geographic markets continues to support demand for our products, providing a positive outlook for the business. In summary, we are encouraged by the strength of demand across the entire business. While the broader geopolitical and macroeconomic environment remains dynamic, We have not experienced a material impact on demand for our offerings. We will continue to monitor these conditions closely and remain focused on executing our strategy. Turning slide 18, I'll begin by highlighting the significant progress we have made over the past several years and the strong execution our teams continue to deliver. Following our 2025 accomplishments, we carry that momentum to 2026 and are very pleased with our performance through the first half of the year. Our year-to-date results reflect solid year-over-year growth and profitability improvements and sets the stage for a strong second half. While order activity can fluctuate, as Sean talked about, our current backlog is up 246.1 million, positions us well for a strong second half of the year, and reaffirmation of the full-year financial guidance. Before we move to the Q&A, I'd like to take a moment to recognize some important leadership transitions. First off, Greg Lippert has announced plans to retire at the end of the year following an outstanding career at the company. We are grateful for his many contributions and leadership he has provided over the years and wish him well in retirement. At the same time, I'm excited to announced several internal promotions including bill thomas moved as chief operating officer and sean rally's appointment to chief financial officer as i mentioned at the start of the call additionally jason bolan has been appointed to succeed greg lippard as svp of rail and will work closely alongside him to ensure a seamless handoff we're also promoted tj current to Controller and Principal Accounting Officer, Rich Burnside to Senior Vice President of Supply Chain, and Brendan Vernon to Senior Vice President of IT. I'd like to congratulate each of these leaders on their new roles and once again thank Greg for his contributions to the company. Thank you for your time and continuing interest in L.B. Foster. I'll turn it back to the operator for the Q&A session.

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star-11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, press star-11 again. One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. And our first question will come from the line of Laura Mayer with B-Rally Securities. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning, John, Sean, and Bill. Thanks for taking the question.

Thanks, Laura. Good morning.

My first question, backlog grew pretty materially quarter over quarter, driven by rail. Can you call out a large order in the UK? Can you size that order? And what's the revenue recognition timeline on that?

Sure. Well, thanks for recognizing. And sequentially, our orders did improve significantly between Q1 and Q2. And bidding activities has been as strong as we've seen it in recent periods of recent time. So we're very encouraged with what's going on. And that continues in July as well, as far as orders continuing for a strong start into Q3 as well. The UK, we had a nice order there, and I think, Sean, if you want to give a little details on that. Yeah, perfect. Thank you, John.

That order goes out quite a bit of time, a couple years, and it is currently about 15 million pounds.

Great. And for my second question, how much of the backlog converts in the second half of 26 versus 2027 given guidance implies roughly $280 million to $320 million in second-half sales, and how much visibility does current backlog give you towards the midpoint?

You know, our backlog is project-related, but many of those projects are third- and fourth-quarter type projects for us. So I'd say at least 80% will execute this year. And, of course, we'll continue to get more orders to fill out the balance of Q3 and Q4, but we get at least 80% that we'll execute between now and then in the year.

Great. Thanks. I'll pass it on.

Thanks, Laura.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 11. Our next question will come from the line of Julio Romero with Sudoti. Your line is open.

Thanks. Hey, good morning, everyone. Hi, Julio. Hi. Very nice operating cash flow here in the second quarter. Can you discuss what's implied for the second half, both on an operating cash flow and a free cash flow basis?

Yeah, let me start, and I can have Sean, he's anxious to add some colors to this. Well, first of all, thanks for recognizing the cash flow, which is not typical in a Q2 for us, because we usually are building up a lot of inventories and working capital for a big Q3 push. But that wasn't the case. Our team's really delivered in the quarter, that's $17.9 million. And I think I mentioned that we haven't seen results like that since 2017. So that's absolutely fantastic. So, you know, with our debt down to 1.0 times, coming off 2.2 times we were just a year ago. So we feel very strong about where we're at in the balance sheet. And as far as the balance of the year, John, you want to give a little color what the thinking is?

Yeah, yeah. Perfect. Thank you, John. And good morning, Julio. We are holding our guidance. So we have free cash flow of low-end 15, high-end 25, midpoint 20 million. Year-to-date, we have just a little under a million dollars of free cash flow. So the majority of that free cash flow will come in the second half. And we still are targeting capital spending at right around 2.7% of sales. So at the midpoint, about $15 million of cap spend. So that's kind of how it's developing.

Okay, perfect. And then my follow-up is, you talked a little bit about the backlog earlier.

Just how much of the, I guess, your guidance range is implied here, both on a sales and even the basis is kind of based on the rail products, order timing, hitting, what's not baked in that and kind of what's the expectations for free for precast um for the infrastructure solution segment i should say based on the guidance ranges thank you yeah i mean they're both you're you know we have strong bidding activity uh across the board right now and in orders orders coming in are are solid even on the precast side with the great american outdoors actors you know towards the end of that uh program so um we're very encouraged with what we're seeing today as far as activity and infrastructure is strong as well and the piece that we're sort of really see pick up now is on the energy side which is supporting our two business coding business the inline and offline coatings that we have businesses in Birmingham as well as down in Texas so that looks very good too this is going to be I think it's really building up to a strong end of the year and a great start to 2027.

Perfect. And then actually one more, if it's okay to squeeze it in, is the TS&S portion of the rail segment looks like the sales were up year over year. I know part of that is based on UK, but can you give us an update on the commercialization of the Rockfall monitoring product line? I think that was It's supposed to be a driver on volume side this year.

Yeah, we don't talk much about that. There's a lot of work happening behind the scenes, however. So we do have two sites up and running right now in the Pacific and the West, one in Canada, one in the West Coast of the United States. And both those installations are performing extremely well. And the customers, our customers are looking to expand that some this year as well. So it looks like the biggest tranche probably will come into 27 beyond.

Great. I'll pass it on. Thank you.

Thanks, William.

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. John Castle for any closing remarks.

Thanks, Sheree. I'd like to finish the call with where I kind of left with my closing remarks, and that's these recent promotions. So I mentioned six promotions, and what we really don't talk much about is the company, is the people. So our nation just celebrated 250 years, and L.B. Foster's been around for almost half of it, so 124 years. We'll celebrate our 125th year next year. And it's all about the people. That's where we are able to make this operating cash. This is where we're able to make the profits and our shareholder returns to our people. We make a large investment in our people. And really, as we promote, you know, we always look internal. And, you know, these six promotions are just a great testament to the people we have. their focus on not just a job but a career and they're willing to give what's what's required really separate our company from our competition so i'd like to recognize the foster employees today not just the ones that we talked about the promotions but the ones that are continuing to do the work day in and day out to manage through you know a really tough working environment if you will in many cases, but we have a lot of wind in our sails today. Our people are making it a very special place to be. So thanks to our LB Foster employees and thanks to the listeners today and your support and the LB Foster company. Have a great day.

This concludes today's program. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.