Earnings Call Transcript - PKOH Q2 2025

Operator, Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Park-Ohio Second Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. Today's conference is also being recorded. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. A list of relevant risks and uncertainties may be found in the earnings press release as well as in the company's 2024 10-K, which was filed on March 6, 2025, with the SEC. Additionally, the company may discuss adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income, and EBITDA as defined on a continuing operations or consolidated basis. These metrics are not measures of performance under generally accepted accounting principles. For a reconciliation of EPS to adjusted EPS, operating income to adjusted operating income and net income attributable to Park-Ohio common shareholders to EBITDA as defined, please refer to the company's recent earnings release. I'll now turn the conference over to Mr. Matthew Crawford, Chairman, President and CEO. Please proceed, Mr. Crawford.

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

Thank you very much. Welcome. Thank you for joining us this morning. We are very proud of the accomplishments during the second quarter. The strength of our business model is the broad and diverse nature of our businesses, combined with our strong operating leadership. Additionally, our transformation over the last several years is, and will allow us to be more profitable through the business cycle. Most importantly, we stand ready to absorb improving backlogs and new business with meaningful operating leverage. We believe strongly that the remainder of 2025 will continue to provide solid performance while building momentum for an even stronger 2026. Thank you, especially to all of our Park-Ohio team members. I'll now turn it over to Pat.

Patrick W. Fogarty, CFO

Thank you, Matt. Before I get into the details of our second quarter results, I want to discuss a few recent events. First, we recently refinanced both our senior notes and our revolving credit facility. As it relates to the senior notes, we completed a private offering of $350 million of senior secured notes due in 2030, which bear an interest rate of 8.5%. We used the net proceeds from the offering, along with cash on hand to redeem all $350 million of the senior notes, which were due in 2027, and to pay related fees and expenses. In addition, we entered into an amendment to our existing revolving credit facility, extending its maturity date by 5 years. In connection with these refinancing activities, we received upgraded ratings on the new senior secured notes from Moody's, S&P Global, and Fitch Ratings. In addition, many institutional investors continued their support of Park-Ohio, which led to the successful completion of the refinancing. We appreciate their commitment and continued support. These actions provide us with the future liquidity to execute our long-term goals, which include sales growth, higher operating margins, and reduced net debt leverage. And lastly, our capital equipment orders in the second quarter were approximately $85 million, an all-time quarterly record and included an order from a major steel producer totaling $47 million for induction slab heating equipment for high-silicon steel production. The order demonstrates our ability to utilize our world-leading technology to engineer and manufacture high-tech induction heating and melting solutions for our customers. The new order, which will ship from our Warren, Ohio facility beginning in 2026, enables the most uniform heating profile available in today's markets. Turning now to our second quarter results. Second quarter revenue totaled $400 million compared to $405 million last quarter and $433 million last year. The year-over-year decrease reflects lower customer demand across certain end markets, most notably in our Supply Technologies segment in certain North American industrial markets. We took numerous countermeasures in each segment to enhance profitability, including variable cost reductions to align with current demand, targeted restructuring activities, and reductions in discretionary spending. As a result of these actions, profitability improved on a sequential basis in the second quarter compared to the first quarter with adjusted EPS increasing 14% to $0.75 per diluted share and EBITDA as defined increasing 4% to $35 million. The sequential profit improvement was driven by higher gross margin percentage in the second quarter of 17% compared to 16.8% last quarter and 16.9% a year ago. We continue to focus on gross margin improvement through the implementation of value driver initiatives in each business. We generated $35.2 million of EBITDA in the quarter, an increase of $33.9 million in the first quarter. As a percentage of sales, our EBITDA margin was 8.8% in the quarter. On a trailing 12-month basis, our EBITDA as defined totaled $144 million. SG&A expenses were $46.8 million in the quarter, down from $47.4 million last year and $48.2 million last quarter, reflecting our cost containment efforts. Interest costs totaled $11 million during the quarter compared to approximately $12 million last year, driven by lower average interest rates in the current year and lower average outstanding debt balances. Our effective income tax rate was 17% in the quarter, which reflects the ongoing benefits from research and development tax credits and other tax planning initiatives to reduce our overall effective tax rate worldwide. As a result, we have lowered our expected full year effective tax rate to range between 17% and 19% to reflect the impact of these tax strategies. During the quarter, we used operating cash of $14 million, primarily driven by higher working capital and CapEx, including technology-related investments and growth CapEx in multiple businesses. We expect significant operating and free cash flow in the second half of the year, driven by increased profitability and reduced working capital levels. For the full year, we continue to expect higher year-over-year free cash flow and expect free cash flow to be approximately $20 million to $30 million. Free cash flow during the second half of the year is expected to significantly improve and total approximately $65 million. Our liquidity continues to be strong and totaled $189 million as of June 30, which consisted of approximately $46 million of cash on hand and $143 million of unused borrowing capacity under our various banking arrangements. Turning now to our segment results. Supply Technologies net sales of $187 million in the second quarter approximated our first quarter net sales and were lower than net sales in the prior year quarter due to lower customer demand in certain key end markets, including power sports, heavy-duty truck and industrial equipment, partially offset by increases in the electrical and semiconductor end markets. Geographically, sales in Europe were stronger year-over-year, which was more than offset by lower sales in North America and Asia. Sales in our fastener manufacturing business were down year-over-year, reflecting lower auto production during the quarter. Adjusted operating income in this segment totaled $17 million compared to $19 million last year. Adjusted operating margins were 8.9% in the quarter compared to 9.5% a year ago due to the lower sales levels. On a year-to-date basis, sales in the segment were $375 million and operating margin was 9.1% compared to 9.6% last year. Operating margins above 9% in this business are at historically high levels, and we expect continued efforts to increase our margin profile in this segment by implementing operational improvements to drive growth and profitability, including investments in technology and warehouse optimization. In our Assembly Components segment, sales in the quarter were $95 million compared to $103 million a year ago. The year-over-year decrease in sales was driven by lower unit volumes in our fuel rail and extruded rubber products, customer delays on new product launches across several automotive platforms, and favorable pricing that ended in 2024, on certain legacy programs. Segment adjusted operating income of $6.1 million increased sequentially from the first quarter and was lower than the second quarter of last year due to the lower sales levels. In this segment we continue to win new business as over $50 million of incremental business across all product lines will begin to launch in the second half of this year and throughout 2026. The incremental business will positively impact future sales and margins in this segment. In our Engineered Products segment, sales were $118 million compared to $127 million a year ago due primarily to lower sales in our Forged and Machine Products Group, driven by lower railcar demand and closure of a small manufacturing operation last year. In our Industrial Equipment Group, sales were similar year-over-year as aftermarket sales continue to be strong and production of new capital equipment stable in most of our global locations. During the second quarter, new equipment bookings were at an all-time quarterly high and totaled $85 million, which was driven by the one equipment order totaling $47 million that I mentioned earlier. Our capital equipment backlog continues to be strong, totaling $172 million, an increase of 19% compared to backlogs at the end of last year. During the quarter, adjusted operating income in the segment was $6.4 million compared to $7.3 million a year ago. The decrease in profitability year-over-year was driven by the lower sales in our Forged and Machine Products Group. Year-to-date, net sales in this segment were approximately $240 million and similar to prior year net sales levels, and operating income was approximately $10 million in both periods. And finally, corporate expenses totaled $7.8 million during the quarter compared to $7.6 million a year ago. I'll conclude my comments with an update on our current expectations for the rest of the year. Given the current environment and uncertainty around tariffs, we continue to assess the impact of both added costs for direct imported raw materials and other components and lower end market demand in each of our businesses. We are working with our customers and suppliers to mitigate the impact of such tariffs and expect to fully recover our tariff costs, which we estimate to be $25 million to $35 million in 2025, primarily in our Supply Technologies segment. Additionally, we believe many of our businesses are well positioned to benefit in the long term from the current environment due to higher production activity and localized sourcing back into the United States. In addition, the refinancing of our senior notes will result in higher interest in the second half of the year, which will reduce our adjusted earnings per share by approximately $0.20. As a result, we now estimate that our 2025 adjusted EPS will be in the range of $2.90 to $3.20 per diluted share. Our net sales are expected to be in the range of $1.62 billion to $1.65 billion. We expect our free cash flow to be $20 million to $30 million in 2025, compared to $15 million last year, with the increase due to strong free cash flow of approximately $65 million for the remainder of the year. Now, I'll turn the call back over to Matt.

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

Great. Thank you very much, Pat. We'll now turn the floor over to questions.

Operator, Operator

Our first question is from Steve Barger at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Robert Stephen Barger, Analyst

Matt, the press release talked about being in the late innings of a portfolio transformation leading to higher profitability. First question is, do you have any other lines of business that are earning less than acceptable returns right now? And what's the plan for that? And then second, do you have an operating margin target you can talk about? Like is the expectation that you'll be consistently above 6%? Or what are your thoughts on that?

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

I'll let Pat address the targets shortly. I want to emphasize that our transformation started with exiting certain parts of our portfolio that we believed were hindering our goals, whether due to being too cyclical, requiring too much capital, or being overly reliant on a small customer base. We eliminated a few of these businesses because they didn't provide the long-term sustainability we aimed for. The next phase of that transformation involved looking internally for consolidation opportunities. In this regard, we’ve highlighted several initiatives, most notably the shutdown of over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space in the U.S. This wasn't because we thought our customers would be better served overseas, but primarily due to the intention of consolidating facilities. A prime example is the merging of our large forging operations by closing Craft Forge and integrating it into our Canton Forge facility, creating a center of excellence. Now, we are in the next stage of our journey, which involves restructuring our traditional capital allocation approach. We believe our maintenance capital expenditures are at a historic low for the business, yet we are aiming for substantial capital investment numbers. These investments will focus on enhancing our long-term competitiveness, particularly in technology, which will allow all our businesses to be more competitive going forward. This should also result in significantly greater operating leverage as we return to the growth trajectory we are used to. Apologies for being lengthy, but my point is that while we do have some underperforming assets, such as our Forge Group—which has historically been a cornerstone of our margin profile and is currently underperforming—we believe that improving this business over the next year will substantially boost our overall earnings. However, I still view it as a strong long-term component of Park-Ohio; we just have some work to do to restore it to its previous performance over the past two decades. I hope that answers your question and reflects my perspective.

Robert Stephen Barger, Analyst

I think it does answer my question. And I guess the follow-up to that before Pat comments on the margins is when you talk about these investments in the context of deleveraging, which was also in the press release, do you anticipate that more of that comes on a net basis from higher EBITDA going forward or from actual debt reduction from free cash flow?

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

Yes. I mean from a practical standpoint, the answer right now is robust cash flow in the back half of the year, largely from harvesting working capital as well as our EBITDA, which isn't where we want it to be. But again, we're seeing some light at the end of the tunnel on some of our underperforming assets. So that's the tactical answer to your question. The answer to your question, I think, in how we think about allocation is, no, we expect what I would consider to be slightly elevated CapEx as we invest in these types of things, not by historic standards, but by where, again, our current maintenance CapEx profile is. But that will be paid for not only, I think, out of aggregate cash flow, it will be paid for, I think, out of the business unit cash flow. So our businesses across the board are profitable enough and generate enough cash flow to sustain their own investment cycle. So no, we expect to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time. And while we're not forecasting anything about 2026 at this time, we will deleverage and continue to invest in those optimization investments that we just profile.

Patrick W. Fogarty, CFO

Yes, Steve, and I'll comment now on the margin profile that we expect in each of our business segments. As you know, Supply Technologies has continued to improve their margin profile and are now bumping up a 10% operating income margin. We expect that to continue on that path, but we're happy with where the margin profile is in that segment. In Assembly Components, we believe there's opportunity to improve the margin profile by 200 basis points at a minimum. As part of the consolidation of several facilities recently, we believe we haven't seen the necessary absorption in some of our facilities. We haven't lost any market share. So we expect continued improvement in not only the restructuring that was completed but also in some of the value driver initiatives that we have in place, including vertically integrating a rubber mixing operation. So a lot of the things that will improve our margin profile in that segment will come to fruition as volumes continue to increase. We're excited about the $50 million of incremental business. We're quoting a lot of different programs in each of our product lines will expand our high absorption levels and improve profitability. So we like the path that we're on in that segment and believe the margins will continue to improve. In Engineered Products, historically, our highest margin segment of our business, Matt talked about the Forged and Machine Products Group. We continue to put a lot of time and effort on improving the margin profile there. We're happy with the progress we've made in the Industrial Equipment Group. Keep in mind, the Industrial Equipment Group represents new equipment builds as well as aftermarket products and services, high-margin aftermarket products and services. So as we grow that business, we expect the margin profile to continue to grow, and we expect operating income margins in that segment to exceed double-digit margins. There's a lot of initiatives in place to do that, and we're confident in our ability to progress towards those levels.

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

Steve, maybe I could put a little bit of a bow on it. We've been asked a lot recently in the context of debt refinancing about EBITDA targets. We've talked about 10% being an EBITDA target. One of the questions we got back is, well, geez, you guys are almost there now. You get a leg up from this improved performance out of the Forge Group, you're there. And I thought Pat made a great question. He goes, well, then it will be time to set a new target. So that's, I think, how we think about the aggregate business and our really short-term goals.

Robert Stephen Barger, Analyst

One more for me, just a follow-up, and I'll get back in line. Pat, when you talk about 200 basis points for assembly and then double-digit in Engineered, what is the internal time frame that you put on that just so we can have a frame of reference as we watch the results come in?

Patrick W. Fogarty, CFO

Yes, we view our goals as long-term, meaning they won't be achieved overnight or within the next 12 months, but we are making good progress. The timeline will depend on how quickly volumes increase with the new business, both in assembly components and Engineered Products.

Operator, Operator

The next question is coming from Dave Storms from Stonegate.

David Joseph Storms, Analyst

Just want to start with some of the EP backlog. That just seems to keep on climbing. Any sense of what the drivers are here? Are customers ordering ahead? Are there other things that we should be keeping an eye out for?

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

Well, it's really been fantastic. Today, we're highlighting our capital equipment business, which is important because the order activity is robust. Despite some execution issues, the Forge Group has historic high backlogs as well. These long-cycle businesses provide us some comfort as we look ahead to 2026. On the equipment side, there are several drivers for our global business. The regional investment cycle in manufacturing, defense, aerospace, automotive, and energy are significant factors for many of our operations worldwide. Recently in North America, we have seen substantial investments in electrical steel. This was in motion before tariffs but now there is a clear demand for higher-grade steels, especially electrical steel for battery technology. This applies not only to car batteries and electric vehicles but to battery technology in general. There is a reinvestment cycle underway that involves unique steels, high-strength steels, and more efficient steels, including electrical steel. We believe this investment cycle is gaining traction, and we have unique manufacturing processes supported by either patent pending or patented technology. We have been seeing this trend develop for some time, and it is beginning to manifest more significantly in unique sectors.

David Joseph Storms, Analyst

Understood. Very helpful. Turning to Supply Tech. Your press release outlined a couple of the growth drivers that you're seeing reshoring trends, growth in Europe. I guess, can you help us understand maybe what inning we're in with some of those reshoring trends and maybe a timeline, maybe how far out we are from an inflection point to really see some growth there?

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

Yes. We're very early innings, to be honest with you. I think that there is no doubt in the order book today, we have activity across the board based on reshoring activity. I think I said on the last quarter call, and I'll say it again now, today, we think of that more as an incremental opportunity and operating leverage for each of our businesses. Two things can be true at once, I'd like to say. We can be not building new plants in America, but we can also be seeing a lot of business activity at our customers that will bring us significant operating leverage in our current facilities. So I would say it's early innings. I think that if you sort of think a little bit about tariffs in particular, keep in mind that the North American market has been strong for a while. I mean we've been an outlier globally for the last couple of years. So I think that there's a lot of momentum, I think, built up behind investment in industrial policy in the U.S. before tariffs came. Certainly, tariffs are causing people to rethink supply chains. The reason I say it's early innings is because until we get some clarity around these tariffs and until customers really can plan their business, I hesitate to say they'll make huge decisions on reshoring. Having said that, it has definitely begun.

Patrick W. Fogarty, CFO

Yes. Dave, one of the additional comments I'd make, and this doesn't relate to onshoring, but it relates to some of the growth initiatives that we have within Supply Technologies. You hear a lot about the data center build-out that is occurring around the world. Keep in mind, we service customers like Lenovo, like IBM, chip makers like Applied Materials, data center infrastructure customers like BordMartex, Vertiv, Schneider Eaton. We service a lot of those businesses and the growth in our European operations is starting to see the benefit of some of that activity. We expect that to continue. We picked up 4 new customers in the last 12 months to service the data center activity that's occurring around the world. We view that as a very big opportunity for Supply Technologies, and we're just scratching the surface right now with some of these initial orders that are coming through.

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

Dave, my comments are about the broader business, but I want to highlight that Supply Tech really offers a range of services related to the products they provide. This includes reshuffling the supply chain and understanding market opportunities for our customers. We believe that amidst the marketplace chaos, we will be well-equipped to assist our customers in addressing these challenges. You can expect to see more of this as we move into 2026, especially as we gain more clarity on tariffs.

David Joseph Storms, Analyst

I really appreciate that commentary. And that actually brings me to my last question around the new customers that you have added, are you finding that those are new customers coming into the market because they're finding that they need the support? Or would you characterize that as more capturing market share that was already there and you're just expanding your market share footprint?

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

I would say today that we are seeing increased activity among our current and former customers who are looking to address challenges in their supply chains, whether those issues are related to tariffs or not. The activity we're seeing involves people who we know well reaching out to us for help with their problems. Since COVID, delivery and quality have become much more critical, and I believe that marked the beginning of this shift. There is now a heightened sense of urgency, particularly influenced by geopolitics and tariffs. However, the key contacts I have in mind are our valued customers and partners who are actively seeking our assistance.

Operator, Operator

We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments.

Matthew V. Crawford, CEO

Great. Well, thank you very much for your time today and your interest and your questions. There's never been a time that I've been more excited, not just about the company, about our leadership team, but also our positioning relative to our portfolio and our ability to outperform through the current and future business cycles. So great time to be there. We are happy to get the debt refinancing behind us and focus on creating value for our shareholders. So thank you very much.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.