Earnings Call Transcript - REZI Q1 2024

Operator, Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome everyone to the Resideo First Quarter 2024 Earnings. Today's call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn today's call over to Mr. Jason Willey, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Willey, you may now begin.

Jason Willey, Vice President of Investor Relations

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Resideo's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. On today's call will be Jay Geldmacher, Resideo's Chief Executive Officer; Anthony Trunzo, our Chief Financial Officer. A copy of our earnings release and related presentation materials are available on the Investor Relations page of our website at investor.resideo.com. We would like to remind you that this afternoon's presentation contains forward-looking statements. Statements other than historical facts made during this call may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in Resideo's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. We identify the principal risks and uncertainties that affect our performance in our annual report on Form 10-K and other SEC filings. With that, I will turn the call over to Jay.

Jay Geldmacher, CEO

Thank you, Jason, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. I'm excited by the results the team delivered in the first quarter and the progress being made in transforming Resideo. For the quarter, we reported revenue at the midpoint and adjusted EBITDA at the higher end of our previously provided outlook. Our momentum within Products & Solutions continues to build, evidenced by a 180 basis point expansion in gross margin and 9% growth in segment adjusted EBITDA year-over-year. We continue to make great progress on our strategic priorities across our portfolio, operations and cost optimization initiatives. This is highlighted by our agreement to acquire Snap One, which we expect will enhance our transformation efforts across Resideo. For our ADI business, Snap One will expand product breadth and capabilities across audiovisual and smart living distribution while expanding our ability to serve our core security customers. The combination better positions the business in attractive growth categories, adds new high-margin proprietary products and services, and broadens ADI's customer base. We see opportunity to expand Snap One's Control4 and home automation offerings through tighter integration with products and solutions, extensive connected product offerings, specifically within safety and security. We also see an opportunity to leverage our supply chain expertise and Snap One's proprietary product design and development capabilities to drive efficiencies in both organizations. For Resideo as a whole, we expect the acquisition will be accretive to gross margin and to adjusted EPS in 2025. We've identified meaningful cost synergies between the two businesses and a path to quickly lower our post-closing leverage levels. Needless to say, the team is quite excited about the future integration of Snap One into Resideo, and we expect the acquisition to have a meaningful positive impact on our long-term value creation. We are leaving no stone unturned to unlock long-term value within our portfolio. In addition to the Snap One acquisition, we will continue to pursue opportunities to reposition the products and solutions portfolio toward higher margin, higher growth areas within our markets. We are also laser-focused on managing costs, and we continue to make progress on driving operational and expense efficiencies. These efforts helped us to expand products and solutions gross margin in the first quarter by 180 basis points, even as overall volumes declined slightly. We reduced overall residual operating expense by $13 million in the quarter, excluding restructuring. Combined with savings in our cost of goods, we are on track to hit the target we outlined last year for $125 million of gross cost savings for 2024. Looking at the businesses. We are ramping up new product introductions within Products & Solutions. Last week, we announced our latest first alert smoke alarms at retailers nationwide with advanced sensing technology that defines a new era of residential fire protection. At the ISC West show last month, we unveiled our first alert AI-enabled indoor camera, which will be available at ADI this summer. These introductions, coupled with our recently released video offerings and entire portfolio of professional offerings provide a growing suite of whole home awareness, safety and security products. In addition to smart home innovation, we are also leading the charge alongside utility providers and smart appliance brands to help bring consumers a more comfortable and efficient home. Earlier in the week, we announced a partnership with Baltimore Gas and Electric to work together to help predict, identify and proactively react to peak demand events and optimize energy use, all while maintaining customer comfort. Program participants can enroll their smart thermostats and receive financial incentives. This announcement builds upon the growing list of utility partners in our demand response offering. We see demand response as a continued source of growth for products and solutions and intend to meaningfully expand our presence in this market. We continue to expand our content and residential new construction, a market we expect to grow this year. Our growing depth and breadth of homebuilder relationships and success driving BRK branded safety products into this channel are examples of the significant incremental value we have created through the first third acquisition. We are leveraging Resideo's sales expertise and channel relationships with BRK's strong value proposition to meaningfully expand our position with customers. Products & Solutions adjusted EBITDA margin grew by over 300 basis points year-over-year, driven by gross margin expansion and lower operating expense. We have accomplished this profit expansion against the backdrop of lower volumes while continuing to invest in key long-term strategic initiatives. Products & Solutions margin improvement highlights the significant transformation work undertaken over the past four years. At ADI, we are increasing our digital capabilities and improving our customer experience. In the first quarter, e-commerce sales continued to grow, reaching 21% of sales. ADI's digital customer count also expanded in the quarter, demonstrating that our website and mobile app continue to be embedded into the integrators' purchasing process. ADI's exclusive brand sales grew 7% year-over-year, achieving a quarterly record. We continue to expand our exclusive offerings and have added resources to enhance customer awareness of these offerings. The acquisition of Snap One is an important part of our strategy to enhance the growth rate and gross margin for ADI and Resideo as a whole. Important drivers of both growth and margin opportunity are Snap One's portfolio of proprietary products, Control4 platform, and customer support offerings. We see significant opportunity in bringing together Snap One's broad capabilities with ADI's complementary offerings and extensive customer reach. With that, I will turn the call over to Tony to discuss our first quarter results and 2024 outlook in more detail.

Anthony Trunzo, CFO

Thank you, Jay, and good afternoon, everyone. In the first quarter, profitability exceeded our expectations, continuing the positive trends observed in recent quarters, supported by robust gross margins and cost reductions in our products and solutions. Margin growth persisted in Products & Solutions, marking our fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year gross margin improvement. Resideo's first quarter revenue was $1.49 billion, down 4% from the same period last year, and down 2% when excluding the impact of divesting our lower-margin Genesis wire business last fall. The operating income for the quarter reached $128 million, which included $7 million in restructuring costs. These initiatives are projected to generate $8 million in savings for 2024 and $13 million on an annual basis. Adjusted EBITDA was $137 million compared to $138 million in Q1 2023, with an expansion of adjusted EBITDA margin by 30 basis points. Fully diluted earnings per share stood at $0.29, while adjusted earnings per share were $0.47, compared with $0.38 and $0.51 for the previous year. With this quarter's results, we have adjusted our calculations for earnings per share to exclude stock-based compensation and the amortization of intangibles, providing a clearer view of the business and allowing for better comparison with our peers. Revenue for Products & Solutions in the first quarter was $620 million, down 6% from Q1 2023, though essentially flat when accounting for the Genesis sale. We believe that inventory levels in our HVAC distribution channel have mostly stabilized, and we anticipate our sell-in will closely follow sell-through trends moving forward. First Alert had a strong quarter, fueled by our BRK branded products in the residential new construction market. Our efforts to build relationships with homebuilders over the past few years are paying off, as BRK has achieved three consecutive quarters of double-digit year-over-year growth. The gross margin for Products & Solutions was 39.5% in Q1, an increase of 180 basis points compared to last year, marking our fourth straight quarter of margin growth. Improvements in raw material costs, labor efficiency, and freight costs have more than offset the effects of reduced volumes and labor rate inflation. As unit volumes and factory utilization improve, we believe that gross margins for Products & Solutions can expand further. This anticipated growth is expected to derive from fixed cost leverage on higher volumes due to our transformation initiatives, including the outsourcing of our San Diego facility and the sale of one of our Mexico facilities in early April. The first quarter operating expenses for Products & Solutions decreased by $13 million year-over-year, excluding restructuring costs. The cost reduction measures we've implemented over the past 18 months and our increased focus on expense management are yielding positive results for Resideo. Adjusted EBITDA for Products & Solutions rose by $12 million year-over-year to $140 million, with adjusted EBITDA margin improving by over 300 basis points. Moving to ADI, first quarter revenue was $866 million, a 3% decrease compared to the prior period, attributed to delays in large projects during January and February. However, we saw a pickup in project business in March, and we expect better revenue trends in the latter half of 2024, with exclusive brand sales at ADI increasing by 7% compared to Q1 2023. ADI's gross margin in the first quarter was 18%, down from 19.2% in Q1 last year, impacted by temporary pricing benefits seen earlier in 2023 and ongoing competitive pricing in a softer market. Adjusted EBITDA for ADI was $58 million, reflecting a 17% decline compared to Q1 last year, due to reduced gross margin and flat operating costs. Corporate expenses amounted to $33 million, an increase of $2 million compared to the first quarter last year. As mentioned in our last call, we have revised how we report segment and corporate costs, reallocating clearly identifiable costs back into the businesses that they pertain to. Cash from operations in Q1 was $2 million, compared to a cash use of $4 million in Q1 last year, aligning with our expectations. The first quarter is usually the weakest for cash flow as we account for accrued bonuses, 401(k) contributions, and customer rebates. Enhancing cash generation, especially in terms of working capital, is a key focus, and we anticipate generating at least $320 million in cash from operations in 2024. Regarding our outlook, we expect residential repair and remodel activities to be flat to down slightly year-over-year and predict residential new construction starts to grow in the low to mid-single-digit range. We have assumed that HVAC channel inventory levels will largely normalize in the first half of 2024. For the second quarter, we expect revenue to be between $1.51 billion and $1.56 billion, adjusted EBITDA in the range of $130 million to $150 million, and adjusted EPS between $0.43 and $0.53. For the entire year, we project revenue to be between $6.08 billion and $6.28 billion, maintaining our adjusted EBITDA forecast of $560 million to $640 million. Both revenue and adjusted EBITDA outlooks remain unchanged from what we provided in February. Adjusted EPS is projected to be between $1.90 and $2.30. We also expect to generate at least $320 million in operating cash flow for the full year of 2024. This outlook does not account for any effects from the proposed acquisition of Snap One, which we anticipate completing no later than the second half of 2024. We had a strong start to 2024, with first quarter adjusted EBITDA being at the higher end of our expectations and positive signs of market stabilization in key areas of products and solutions. Although ADI is currently encountering some market challenges, we believe our initiatives in digital transformation, exclusive brands, and expanding into adjacent categories will position us favorably as the market conditions improve for ADI. Before returning the call to Jay, I want to discuss the financial implications of our recent agreement to acquire Snap One. We expect the financing for this transaction to include an additional $600 million in new senior secured debt, a $500 million investment in perpetual convertible preferred stock from CD&R, and excess cash from our balance sheet. Upon closing, we anticipate our pro forma leverage to be around 2.2 times, compared to 1.4 times at the end of Q1. By leveraging cash from operations, ongoing growth in adjusted EBITDA, and possibly divesting non-strategic assets, our target is to reduce our leverage to about 2 times by mid-2025. Our strategy to maintain an investment-grade credit profile and strong credit ratings remains unchanged.

Jay Geldmacher, CEO

Thank you, Tony. In closing, we continue to make significant progress on our key strategic initiatives and remain focused on strengthening the business. Products & Solutions is benefiting from new innovative products and cost optimization with improving margins. Our recently announced acquisition of Snap One will add immediate value across our business in terms of accelerating key strategic initiatives and enhancing our overall profitability. We believe all of these efforts position us well for growth and profit acceleration when the market environment becomes more favorable. I want to thank the entire Resideo employee base for their outstanding efforts in the first quarter, and I'm excited to continue to build on the momentum together as we move through 2024. Operator, we are now ready for questions.

Operator, Operator

Your first question is from Cory Carpenter with JPMorgan.

Cory Carpenter, Analyst

I had one and then a follow-up. I was hoping you could start by expanding on order volume trends. It sounded like perhaps they took a step back this quarter after you talked about stability the last few quarters. But if you could just kind of flesh out the trends that you're seeing there and your expectations for the rest of the year.

Anthony Trunzo, CFO

Cory, it's Tony. Order trends have been pretty stable. I'm not sure if you're referring to the business as a whole or to one of the segments. But within P&S, order rates have been pretty darn stable. And that's what we indicated. So, we're starting to see that flatten out and the sell-in and the sell-through seem to be aligning. So that's a positive. We did see softer orders and softer daily sales averages in the first two-thirds of the quarter at ADI. March was a little bit better. Daily sales averages in March were roughly in line with where they were in the prior year period. That business definitely is seeing some softer market dynamics than maybe we've seen a year or so ago. But overall, I don't think there's a significant change really in the order patterns.

Jay Geldmacher, CEO

I'd add, Cory, this is Jay. There's definitely normalization in the HVAC inventory, which I'm really pleased about. I know that's something you guys have been asking about the last couple of quarters. And I'd also say that we're excited about the continuous growth of success with the first alert, specifically in the homebuilder channel, and that's very positive. I think we got ourselves from an operational standpoint structured correctly so that when this market does begin to turn back up, which it will, we're in a good spot to move forward for them there and to leverage up. The thing on ADI, Tony is right. I mean we mentioned it last quarter, market demand has slowed, but ADI sales and markets have historically been less volatile and they're diversified end markets and customer base. So yes, they have softness, but those are some of the things that I think will hold up well for them as we move forward through the year.

Cory Carpenter, Analyst

I have a follow-up for you, Tony. The guidance for Q2 came in slightly below expectations, but you reaffirmed your outlook for 2024. Is there anything specific regarding Q2 that you can highlight in terms of seasonality or other factors that we might not have factored into our models?

Anthony Trunzo, CFO

Cory, regarding our phasing, we were slightly below the consensus for Q2. However, we are not below our internal budgets or our expectations for the year. We appreciate the outperformance in Q1. While we remain cautious about the full year, we are quite comfortable with our position and are maintaining our guidance for the year.

Jay Geldmacher, CEO

Yes, I agree.

Operator, Operator

Your next question is from Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer.

Ian Zaffino, Analyst

I wanted to just ask you about the ADI guidance. What gives you confidence in the growth into the second quarter while the first quarter wasn't as strong? Also, you pointed to e-commerce, but e-commerce was only up, I think, 1% or so last quarter. So how do you get to where your guidance is for the second quarter?

Anthony Trunzo, CFO

Yes. To clarify, we did not provide specific guidance for ADI in Q2. Looking ahead for the year, we anticipated that the second half would be stronger for ADI, and it is indeed developing that way. The key indicators we rely on are our regular interactions with customers, whether through branches, trade shows, or our ongoing sales activities. These interactions give us insight into their project flows and bidding activities. Customers have indicated that there have been delays, but they expect these delays to ease as we progress through the year.

Jay Geldmacher, CEO

I'll also add too that as we mentioned, because they have experienced softness there's more competition out in the market right now because of the market softness. And so that ties into that. But I think everything that Tony mentioned, I think he's spot on. And I think that in terms of how we see it today, I think we feel good about what we put forward to you guys.

Ian Zaffino, Analyst

Okay. Good. That's helpful. And yes, so that's for the full year. I apologize. And then if we could turn to PMS. Maybe talk a little bit about First Alert; how is that doing inside the company now? And then how is it doing versus the legacy business?

Jay Geldmacher, CEO

Tony talked a little bit about it, and I just mentioned it a little bit, but the strength at First Alert BRK has been really good in the builder channel. I'm super excited about the progress there and the stickiness of being able to expand that. It maybe exceed my expectations. So, I'm very, very excited about that. I think in general, we'll continue to leverage that with the First Alert BRK in terms of that channel. And we talked about content and we've talked about that probably for the last 12 months of increasing overall content in R&C. And the BRK has helped expand that, and we'll have more opportunity beyond that to expand the content within the RNC channel.

Operator, Operator

At this time, there are no further audio questions. I will now hand today's call over to Mr. Willey for any closing remarks.

Jason Willey, Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to talking with you over the coming weeks. As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Have a good rest of your day. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.