Good day, and welcome to the Lindsay Corporation Fiscal First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Randy Wood, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal 2026 first quarter earnings call. With me today is Sam Henrickson, our Chief Financial Officer. Once again, I'm very proud of our team's execution in the quarter, despite external headwinds impacting our business. While ongoing trade uncertainty, low commodity prices, and high input costs have negatively impacted customer profitability and sentiment, our team's focus on price and cost management and operational efficiencies gained through our diversified global footprint helped us deliver solid profitability and maintain earnings quality in the quarter. In our domestic U.S. irrigation business, customers continue to delay large capital purchases due to high input costs and low profitability. In our international business, we're encouraged by the strength and opportunities in the project market, including the Middle East and North Africa. Our ability to help growers globally improve productivity and optimize resources remains a key differentiator for Lindsay and has supported performance amid a challenging macroeconomic environment. Subsequent to the end of our fiscal first quarter, we announced a supply agreement to provide zomatic irrigation systems and fieldnet remote management and scheduling technology in the MENA region. This project is valued at approximately $80 million in total revenue, with approximately $70 million of revenue realization this fiscal year. This announcement reflects our ability to compete and win large-scale projects globally, but also demonstrates Lindsay's role as a trusted partner in advancing sustainable agriculture while supporting localized production and enhancing food security. We're very proud of our team's commitment to delivering transformative projects in our international markets and look forward to executing this important project in the region. Our infrastructure segment delivers solid performance in the first quarter with total revenues up 17% year-over-year. Increased road construction activity supported segment performance in the quarter and we continue to see solid interest in our Road Zipper Solutions product. Moving forward we expect further momentum as infrastructure funding and road project activity advance. Turning to our market outlook, as we mentioned last quarter, in North America, we expect softer market conditions to persist in the near term. Market indicators suggest the current trough environment will persist until there's greater clarity around international trade impacts and an improvement in customer profitability. The U.S. administration has announced a $12 billion farmer bridge assistance package designed to offset trade-related pressures on U.S. farmers. The program includes one-time payments of approximately $44 per acre for corn and $31 per acre for soybeans. While this support will be appreciated by growers, we don't expect it to drive significant incremental demand in the short term. Within our international markets, we remain encouraged by the overall outlook for future growth and market fundamentals in Latin America, including Brazil. Elevated interest rates and ongoing constraints on credit access for growers continue to weigh on near-term equipment investment in the region tempering what otherwise remains an attractive long-term growth opportunity within our infrastructure segment we continue to see opportunities develop across systems sales leasing and road safety products and our sales funnel remains strong as previously communicated we do not see a large road zipper project exiting the funnel in fiscal year 26. this creates a difficult comparison particularly in q2 where we shipped a large $20 million project last year. We do have incremental opportunities for smaller projects and other segment growth to offset half of that total, with the majority coming in the second half of the fiscal year. Road safety funding in the United States remains steady, and we remain very excited by the long-term potential of our road separate leasing model, which continues to gain traction and supports a more stable and balanced margin profile over time. With that, I'd like to now turn the call over to Sam to discuss our fiscal first quarter financial results.

Thank you, Randy, and good morning, everyone. It is a privilege to join you today for my first earnings call as Chief Financial Officer at Lindsay Corporation. I'm excited to continue partnering with this talented team as we drive our strategy forward, deliver on key initiatives, and create meaningful long-term value for our shareholders. I look forward to building on the strong foundation already in place. Now, let me walk you through our financial results for the quarter. Total revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 were $155.8 million, a decrease of 6% compared to revenues of $166.3 million in the same quarter last year. The decline in revenue was driven by lower volumes in our irrigation segment as continued uncertainty around trade, lower commodity prices, and higher input costs continued to weigh on farmer sentiment. Lower volume in irrigation was partially offset by year-over-year growth in our infrastructure segment. Operating income for the quarter was $19.6 million, a decrease of 6% compared to $20.9 million in the prior year period. Operating margin for the quarter was 12.6%, consistent with the prior year. Despite a lower revenue base, our solid operating margin performance for the quarter reflects continued execution of our operational strategy coupled with effective cost and pricing management. While near-term irrigation market conditions in North America are expected to remain soft, we anticipate that our business will continue to show resilience. Net earnings results for the quarter were $16.5 million, or $1.54 of net earnings per deluded share, marking a slight decline compared to net earnings of $17.2 million, or $1.57 per deluded share in the first quarter of last year. The difference in net earnings when compared to the prior year period was largely attributable to lower operating income and a slightly higher effective tax rate. These were partially offset by an increase in other income. Turning to our segment results. Irrigation segment revenue for the first quarter were $133.4 million, a decrease of 9% compared to segment revenues of $147.1 million in the prior year. North America irrigation revenues of $74.3 million decreased by 4% compared to $77.7 million in the prior year. Within our North American markets, the impact of lower overall unit sales volume was partially offset by higher average selling prices compared to prior year. In international irrigation markets, we delivered revenues of $59.1 million compared to $69.4 million in the first quarter last year. The decrease was primarily attributable to two factors. First, the timing of project revenues in the MENA region is difficult to predict. First quarter results were impacted by the timing gap between last year's project and the recently awarded new project in the region. Secondly, sales volumes in Brazil were lower than anticipated as this key market continues to be constrained by elevated interest rates in an unfavorable credit environment which is weighing on investor activity for growers in the region. These declines were partially upset by approximately $1.5 million of favorable effects of foreign currency translation compared to the prior year. Total irrigation segment operating income for the first quarter was $23 million, a decrease of $1.8 million compared to $24.7 million in the first quarter last year. Segment operating margins of 17.2% of sales grew compared to 16.8% of sales in the first quarter of last year. Despite lower segment revenues, our irrigation margin profile continues to reflect resilience in a down cycle market. In our infrastructure segment, revenues for the first quarter increased 17% to $22.4 million, compared to $19.2 million in the prior year. The increase was driven by higher sales of road safety products, while road zipper system revenues were similar compared to the prior year. Infrastructure segment operating income for the first quarter increased 9% to $4.5 million compared to $4.1 million in the prior year. Infrastructure segment operating margin for the quarter was 20.1% of sales compared to 21.5% of sales last year as revenue growth was offset by higher operating expenses. Turning to the balance sheet and liquidity. Our total available liquidity at the end of the first quarter was $249.6 million, which includes $199.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and $50 million available at our revolving credit facility. Free cash flow for the quarter was impacted by an increase in working capital to support business growth and elevated capital expenditure levels. We also utilized our strong free cash flow conversion to opportunistically buy back shares in the open market, In the first quarter, we deployed $30.3 million into share repurchases, exhausting our original authorization. During the quarter, we were pleased to announce the authorization of a new share repurchase program of up to $150 million. Our team has strategically maintained a very robust balance sheet, and this authorization provides us with the ongoing flexibility to continue returning capital to our shareholders. We are pleased with our strong financial position and balance sheet, which enable us to deliver shareholder returns while continuing to invest in future growth opportunities and innovation. As this concludes my remarks, and at this time, I will turn the call over to the operator to take your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw the question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Nathan Jones with Stiefel. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. I guess I'll start with North America irrigation. You know, it's still down a little bit, but it seems to be bottoming out here. Does it feel to you like we're getting to the trough of the market here? Are there, you know, risks that we could take another leg down here or, you know, I know Dalmont's commented that they kind of think we're at replacement level. Is that kind of your feeling about the market where, I mean, obviously there's a lot of external headwinds that you can't control, but they think they'll all be lining up about as bad as they could get at the moment, which is probably a good thing in itself that if it can't get any worse, just any commentary you might have about how you're thinking about the domestic irrigation market here.

Yeah, good morning, Nathan. This is Randy. I'll take that one. And we would agree that we are bouncing along the trough here, and there's been some, you know, announcements on incremental funding that's always good news, not enough to move the needle. And I don't think when we talk to customers that they see a lot of upside until there's more certainty on profitability. So in the near, near term, we don't see it getting progressively better, but I would say also we don't see it get progressively worse. So I do believe bouncing along the bottom of the trough here is how we characterize it.

Thanks for that. I guess the pipeline on international projects here, nice to see the 80 million one-corp. Can you talk about opportunities for other projects? Could we see some more of those come through this year? I think they've been, most of the ones you've done over the last few years have been with one customer. Are there opportunities outside of that, are there things in the funnel that are coming from outside of that, just any commentary around that, please?

Yeah, I would say in the region we have had some repeat business, which we view as a good thing. If you execute well, you get the opportunity for that repeat business, but we've also attracted new clients in the region. So it's a combination of recurring business with repeat customers and some new customers that we've pulled in as well. And I think the language around projects is the same as it's been for the past couple of years. We do see a robust funnel. We see a multi-year runway on projects like this one in this part of the world. And not all of them are in the same country or the same part of a country. We see a broad spectrum of opportunities across the MENA region for the same drivers around food security and stability for those countries in that part of the world. So we do see a good runway here, Nathan, and whether there's another one in 2026 is up in the air. I think the same caveat always applies. These are complex, large, difficult negotiations. Even when you have a deal, you move into credit logistics. So it's never easy. It's never quick. But I would say there are more opportunities in the market. And, again, our track record is a good one. So we'll fight and win for the ones that we want to pull across the finish line. And when we are in a position that the project's locked in, credit secured, that's when you'll hear us talk more about it. Until that time, we'll continue to comment on the positive elements of the funnel and the long-term growth potential in that part of the world.

And I guess one more from me. You guys have had an elevated CapEx lot in fiscal 25 and planned again in fiscal 26 as you're doing a lot of upgrades in Lindsay and around some of your plans. Can you talk about how that's gone, where you are in that process, what contribution that's already generating to profitability, and how we should think about the improved throughput, improved efficiency that you'll gain from that this year and as we head into next fiscal year as well?

Yeah, I'll start on kind of the narrative on what we're doing and where we are, and Sam can comment more specifically on how that might impact some of your models, Nathan. But we in Lindsay, Nebraska right now have activated our large tube mill investment. This is a world-class tube mill improving safety, efficiency, productivity. Testing has gone extremely well, and I expect in the next 30 days we'll turn that over to full production once we get certification from our vendors. That project's gone extremely well, and it will change the way that we produce tubing and really decrease our reliance on labor, which was a key part of some of these investments. We have a second investment in our galvanizing facility that will completely re-engineer that process for us, make it safer, more efficient, more environmentally friendly, and that investment we'll continue to make throughout this calendar year, and we would expect around the end of calendar 2026 we would see that operation potentially kicking off and going into production. And I'll turn it over to Sam for a little more narrative on the numbers.

Yeah, so if you think about margins, you know, this is an ongoing project. It's not been finalized, so there's no impact from a margin perspective. in the first quarter, and as Randy alluded, you know, in the short term, once completed, incremental depreciation will offset productivity gains at the current demand level. We expect to see improvements in margins from operating leverage once demand picks up following the completion of the project. And then following, again, the installation, we also expect to get back to normalized capital spending levels.

Awesome. Thanks for taking my question.

Thank you Nathan.

Our next question comes from Brian Drabb with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to ask maybe a similar question to what Nathan was getting at, but can I ask if this new $80 million MENA project is with the same customer in the same country as the June 2024 $100 million project announcement?

We would acknowledge, Brian, that this is a repeat customer in the same part of the Okay.

And then can you comment, Randy, at all on the margin that you're expecting with this new $80 million order?

I would say overall we would acknowledge project margins generally are going to be diluted to the overall business. It does create a lot of operational efficiencies and absorption through the facilities. So if we characterize it, the margin profile in this project will be as good as or better than the prior project. I think that's about as directional as we'd want to get, Brian.

Okay. But a little bit below segment average or overall irrigation margin?

Slightly below, correct. And that's consistent with the projects of this size.

Yeah, understood. I just wanted to check on this one specifically. And then just I'm curious if the big, beautiful bill, I think you mentioned in the slides, I'm not sure there was a lot of commentary in the prepared remarks, but I'm just wondering, did you see any demand related to accelerated depreciation? Is that a narrative that you're hearing from the customer base? And do you expect that to drive any demand going forward?

I would say we didn't see a lot of significant impact and we didn't anticipate it. I think some of the negative macro market drivers just overwhelmed a little bit of potential incremental benefit from the bill and accelerated depreciation, so not a significant contributor.

Right. Okay. Thanks for those answers. Thank you, Brian.

Our next question comes from Ryan Connors with North Coast Research. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I wanted to – you talked about the cycle earlier in North America in the first question there from Nathan, but I wanted to kind of come back to that and look at it from a bit of a different angle. So we were down 4% irrigation in North America in the first fiscal quarter here. Is that kind of reflective of how we should maybe be thinking of a reasonable run rate for the balance of the year, or do things get better or worse? Just kind of curious how you think that the 1Q print on North America, what that tells us about the balance of the year specifically, and then also if you could maybe unpack that on a price versus volume basis as well, that might be helpful.

You bet, Ryan. I'll cover the first part and kind of turn over to Sam for the second part. And I think we characterize North America as flat to down on a full year basis and whether that 4% carries forward or it degrades slightly, improves slightly. As you know, The tricky part for us in Q4 is going to be storm volume. And last year was a relatively light storm volume year. The year before that was relatively high. So if we kind of split the difference, I think the run rate that we saw through Q1 could be pretty consistent with what we see the rest of the year. So we're planning for flat to down in our spending, our inventory, our supply chain, and we'll react up or down if we have to. But I think that's probably a good starting point.

And then, yeah, the price versus volume.

Yeah, so, again, if you think about pricing, you know, we caught up that average selling prices in North America were up during the first quarter. We have a history of, you know, price stewardship, and we expect to be able to continue maintaining solid margins. Pricing is one key contributor. In addition, of course, there's cost management, there's productivity gains across the organization that are contributing to maintaining this margin profile despite the current top end situation.

Yep, okay. And then kind of a – maybe while I have use there, Sam, a bit of a below-the-line item, pretty nice contribution from the interest-other-income line, as you mentioned. Is there any color you can give us around what drove that and how we should think about modeling that line over the balance of the year? Is that something that should continue, or are we going to kind of revert back to normal there?

So I can't go into very specific details, But I would say interest income, of course, is driven by the regional mix of funds at the interest rates in various regions. And that's why we have seen an increase year-over-year in Q1. I'm not going to speculate on the interest rate environment, but that's what's the key driver for this improvement in Q1.

Got it. And then lastly, you know, we haven't really talked much about infrastructure here in the Q&A. And I wonder, Randy, if you can kind of unpack for us this lull in road zipper. I mean, obviously it's a lumpy business and there are lulls from time to time, but is there anything we should read into that in terms of, you know, is the low-hanging fruit plucked to any degree in terms of the tam there or just any color you can give us on how you're thinking about the fact that we're into a pretty light heat year, it looks like, on road zipper.

Yeah, and I don't think we're anywhere near plucking all of the easy-to-pick fruit or addressing the cap on the TAM. This is a Lumbee project-oriented business, and I think just like the irrigation business, the good news for us is we're at the table. We're engaged with our sales funnel. We're talking to specific customers about specific bridges, about specific project sites, where Road Zipper is going to allow them to solve a problem better than any other option in the market. It just takes time. So this is a very different type of business, and I think as you model it out, you look at the historical lumpiness, some of the big projects that we've dumped in to prior fiscal periods, we love them. When they hit it, it just creates a really difficult comp the next year because they're not – we can't calendarize one every second quarter, every fiscal year. So this is us being transparent, I believe, in what we think we see in the market, and as we start to get better clarity on fiscal 27, fiscal 28, that's where we see more of these road zipper projects landing right now and if that changes where we see some accelerating because incremental funding is available will certainly be transparent and clear with you but I think the narrative we've shared indicates what we see this year but it's not an indication that the market is any better any worse any softer than it has been it has been lumpy project business it's can continue to be lumpy project business again the good news is with our shift left strategy we've got better visibility both short and long term and I think that's where we're willing to be

more transparent and open with you guys so you can kind of work that into your models as well but we see long-term growth opportunities for roads that are well into the future I appreciate it thanks for your time thank you Ryan our next question comes from Brett Kearney with American Rebirth Opportunity please go ahead hi good morning Randy and Sam thanks for I know the most recent project when you have Middle East, North Africa includes your field net capabilities. Obviously, I think those are incorporating all the pivot sales you make in North America at this point.

But just curious what you're seeing as you look to the international irrigation project funnel today, what kind of adoption appetite there is, an opportunity for you all with some of your technology offerings in some of these regions I characterize it this way that when you're making these significant investments these are huge agro operations where there has been basically nothing and in the Mideast it's essentially desert that they're converting to be these highly productive highly efficient you know farms and with the size of investments they're making they want every piece of technology that's available to them and And this isn't a normal technology adoption curve where you start with small equipment and you migrate towards large equipment. They're starting with the biggest tractors, the biggest planters, the biggest combines, and they want every technological advantage that they can find to be as efficient as they can be in their production, in their consumption of water and energy. So I think this has really been a shift in the last five to ten years where the technology has proven itself, where it brings real value to our customers. And, again, at these investment levels, I think the customers are intelligent, they're smart, and they want every advantage that they can bring to the table, and certainly FieldNet, FieldNet Advisor, and the advantage that it creates for our growers is an important part of that mix.

Thanks, Clint. Thanks so much, Randy.

You bet, Brett.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Randy Wood for any closing remarks.

Thank you all again for joining us today. We appreciate your ongoing support and we look forward to updating you on our second quarter earnings call. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you for attending today's presentation. The conference is now concluded. You may now disconnect.