Earnings Call Transcript - WCC Q1 2024

Operator, Operator

Hello, and welcome to WESCO'S 2024 First Quarter Earnings Call. Please note, this event is being recorded. I'll now hand the call over to Scott Gaffner, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, to begin.

Scott Gaffner, SVP, Investor Relations

Thank you, and good morning to everyone joining us today. Before we get started, I want to remind you that certain statements made on this call contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and, by their nature, are subject to uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Please see our webcast slides and the company's SEC filings for additional risk factors and disclosures. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of this date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update the information to reflect changed circumstances. Additionally, today, we will use certain non-GAAP financial measures. Required information on these measures is available on our webcast slides and in our press release, both of which are posted on our website at wesco.com. On this call this morning, we have John Engel, WESCO's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Dave Schulz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Now I'll turn the call over to John.

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. Our first quarter sales met our expectations, and our overall performance compared against a very strong first quarter a year ago was in line with our typical seasonal pattern and our full year outlook. Quoting, bid activity levels, and backlog all remain healthy and support our view for sequential growth as the year progresses. Our free cash flow generation, and it's something we're acutely focused on, was a record $731 million in the first quarter. We utilized a portion of this free cash flow to repurchase $50 million worth of common stock in the first quarter, and we've reduced our net debt, bringing our financial leverage down by 0.2 of a turn. Our financial leverage now stands at 2.6x EBITDA, and that's getting very close to our recently reduced target range of 1.5 to 2.5x. More importantly, and I want to highlight this, we generated more than $1.4 billion in free cash flow over the trailing 12-month period. Historically, WESCO has demonstrated the ability to consistently generate free cash flow of 100% of net income over time. With double-digit growth and significant supply chain disruption in 2021 and 2022 coming out of the COVID pandemic, we invested in net working capital, resulting in cash flow conversion that was well below our historical average. Our trailing 12-month cash generation results smooth out the inter-quarter effects that we experienced last year as supply chains normalized. I want to highlight that all three components of working capital, that is, accounts receivable, inventory, and accounts payable, contributed to this record $1.4 billion of free cash flow generation over the last four quarters, clearly highlighting the power of our distribution business model. In addition, during the first quarter, we announced the divestiture of our Integrated Supply business, which closed on April 1. We expect to use all of the after-tax proceeds of approximately $300 million to repurchase common stock starting in the second quarter. As Dave will discuss in more detail later in the call, we are reaffirming our previous full year outlook for organic sales growth, adjusted EBITDA margin, and adjusted earnings per share. We completed $20 million of annualized structural cost reductions late in the first quarter, and I think, as you all know, this is in addition to the $45 million of cost reduction actions we took in 2023. Our outlook for the year has been updated to reflect the divestiture of our Integrated Supply business on April 1 and our expectation to fully deploy these proceeds to share repurchases. Given the record free cash flow generation in the first quarter, we are also increasing our full year free cash flow outlook to $800 million to $1 billion or more than 100% of adjusted net income at the midpoint, which provides increased optionality for share repurchases, debt reduction and/or M&A in the second half. Finally, we expect to be within our target leverage range as the recently reduced target leverage range, that is, of 1.5 to 2.5x by year-end. We are laser-focused on continual improvement and making the internal investments to improve our performance and our capabilities. The long-term secular growth trends remain intact, and there are opportunities that will sustain WESCO's long-term growth and allow us to increase our share because of our unique global capabilities, our broad portfolio, and our scale. I'll now hand it over to Dave to take you through our first quarter results in more detail as well as our outlook for the rest of the year. Dave?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. Turning to Page 4 of our deck, organic sales were down approximately 3% versus the prior year, reflecting about a 1% benefit from price offset by lower volumes. Differences in foreign exchange rates were minor in the quarter, as shown by the other category on the sales walk. The volume decline was attributable to a very challenging comparison, sales up 12% in the prior year period and continued choppiness in certain end markets. On the lower half of the page, you can see the adjusted EBITDA impacts of lower sales, gross margin headwinds, and higher SG&A in the first quarter. Gross margin was down about 60 basis points, with approximately half of the decline attributed to lower billing margin due to mix. We continue to see a higher proportion of direct ship sales, which have a lower gross margin than stock sales. Direct ship sales, however, have a much higher return on net assets as we recognize the sale and profit with the product never hitting our inventory. The rest of the decline in gross margin was attributable to billing-to-gross margin adjustments, including a higher inventory adjustment compared to the prior year. The year-over-year increase in SG&A was primarily due to higher salaries and higher costs to operate our facilities. These increases were partially offset by the cost reduction actions taken last year. In total, adjusted SG&A represented 15.1% of sales, up 60 basis points from the prior year, with about 0.5 basis point increase driven by the impact of lower sales. Turning to Page 5. On a sequential basis, sales were also in line with expectations and were down 4% organically, primarily due to lower volumes. Differences in foreign exchange rates and the benefit of one extra work day contributed about 1.5 points to sales growth. Adjusted EBITDA was lower than the prior quarter, primarily due to lower sales. Billing margin was up sequentially, and gross margin was down 10 basis points due to billing-to-gross margin adjustments. Adjusted SG&A was up sequentially about 1%, reflecting the restoration of incentive compensation back to target. Turning to Page 6. This slide shows how WESCO has outperformed both our supplier partners and our distributor peers. We believe this is clear evidence of our share gains over the past few years. The chart on the left compares WESCO's 10-year organic growth to the average organic growth of our 10 largest publicly traded supplier partners weighted to the proportion of our purchases that they represent. You can see that WESCO has outperformed the supplier average since the middle of 2021. The chart on the right compares WESCO's year-over-year organic growth to electrical and data communications distributors in the Baird Distribution Survey, which is published quarterly. WESCO has outperformed its distribution peers in 9 of the 13 periods presented. We think these two data sets clearly demonstrate that our growth has exceeded our peers, indicating our market outperformance over the last three years. Turning to Slide 7. First quarter organic sales in our EES business were down approximately 2% on both an organic and reported basis. Construction sales were flat, reflecting large project shipments and strength in Canada, offset by continued weakness in solar due to a challenging comparable in the prior year. Industrial sales continued to be strong and were up low single digits over the prior year, driven by automation and a continued resurgence in oil and gas. OEM sales were down high single digits. Backlog was approximately flat on a sequential basis and down about 5% from the prior year, reflecting the continued reduction of supplier lead times. EES backlog remains at a historically high level. Adjusted margin was down from the prior year, with EBITDA margin down 70 basis points. The decrease in EBITDA margin reflects gross margin headwinds primarily from lower supplier volume rebates. SG&A was down slightly versus the prior year from the benefit of cost actions taken in 2023. Importantly, adjusted EBITDA margin was flat on a sequential basis. Turning to Slide 8. First quarter sales in our CSS business were down approximately 4% from the prior year on both an organic and reported basis. Enterprise network infrastructure, which comprises structured cabling, along with sales to Internet service providers, was down low single digits in the quarter. Sales to service providers in support of 5G, fiber, and satellite connectivity projects were down double digits in the quarter. This was partially offset by growth in structured cabling sales versus the prior year. Security sales were down high single digits. Recall that the prior year quarter was up low teens. Q1 sales were negatively impacted by lower spending with small and midsized contractors. The security market has contracted over the past few quarters, but we expect it will grow in the second half of this year, with strong secular growth in the out years. Data center sales were again primarily driven by growth with hyperscale customers and were up low single digits in the quarter. The growth opportunity of this business is exceptionally strong, given the step change in data center capacity needs, driven by artificial intelligence. As we discussed last quarter, CSS backlog is back to normal levels and was down 20% versus the prior year and up 9% sequentially. Adjusted EBITDA margin for CSS was down 140 basis points. The primary driver of the decrease was gross margin, including the impact of an inventory adjustment. While SG&A was relatively flat with the prior year, the decline in sales also unfavorably impacted adjusted EBITDA margin. Turning to Page 9. UBS sales were down 5% in the quarter on an organic and reported basis. Sales in utility were down low single digits versus growth of more than 20% in the prior year. We continue to benefit from the secular trends of electrification, green energy, and grid modernization. We saw a decline versus the prior year in our stock and flow sales with customers more tightly managing inventory. Although we divested the Integrated Supply business on April 1, sales from the business are included in our first quarter results and were up low single digits versus the prior year, consistent with the strength we experienced with other industrial customers within our portfolio. Broadband sales were down over 20%, which reflected continued demand weakness as customers continue to work through inventory and delayed purchases until government funding is released. Backlog was down 7% from the prior year and down 1% on a sequential basis. Backlog remains near historically high levels. Adjusted EBITDA was down approximately 60 basis points versus the prior year, driven by lower supplier volume rebates, a mix impact, and slightly higher SG&A as a percentage of sales. Turning to Page 10. On this slide, we have highlighted a recent win by each of our business units that, in aggregate, represent more than $200 million of future project sales. These wins are consistent with the trend of our bidding and winning increasingly large complex projects. Also worth noting are the end markets that these projects serve, a project that is expected to be the world's first zero-carbon emission ethylene cracker, enterprise data center project, and a large renewable energy project. Turning to Page 11. Historically, strong free cash flow has been a key feature of WESCO and our distribution model. We are pleased to see a return to robust free cash flow as most global supply chains have stabilized over the past few quarters. Free cash flow for the quarter was $731 million, driven by improvements in working capital on a days basis, both sequentially and compared to the prior year. On a trailing 12-month basis, free cash flow exceeded $1.4 billion, with enhancements in all three components of working capital. It's important to note that the free cash flow in the first quarter was positively impacted by a temporary rise in accounts payable due to our transition to a new accounts payable system, which caused delays in payment processing. This temporary benefit is expected to reverse in the second quarter. Additionally, we did not utilize early pay discounts at our usual rate, contributing to a higher accounts payable balance. Last year's second, third, and fourth quarters saw receivables and inventory as a combined source of about $340 million, which was partially offset by a $233 million use for payables. Given this notable quarter-to-quarter variability, we believe it's best to assess free cash flow on a trailing 12-month basis. We were encouraged to see a resurgence in cash flow generation beginning in the latter half of 2023. Following the significant sales growth we achieved in 2021 and 2022, we invested heavily in net working capital and are currently below our typical free cash flow conversion expectations. With this first quarter result, we are raising the midpoint of our free cash flow forecast for 2024 from $700 million to $900 million, which is over 100% of our implied outlook for adjusted net income at the midpoint, now projected to range from $800 million to $1 billion. Moving to Slide 12. On this slide, we have outlined our return of capital to shareholders over the past three years, along with our capital allocation priorities for 2024. You can see that we intend to fully utilize the net proceeds of the Integrated Supply divestiture for share repurchases in the second quarter. In addition, the significant increase in our 2024 free cash flow outlook to $900 million at the midpoint provides optionality for us to opportunistically repurchase additional shares, further reduce debt, and/or pursue M&A in the second half of the year. Recall that we provided a long-term outlook for operating cash flow generation of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion at our Investor Day in 2022. We remain on track to achieve this target and expect to return about 40% of our operating cash flow to shareholders through dividends, including our common dividend, which we increased 10% in 2024, and executing our $1 billion share repurchase authorization. The upside cash generation also allows us to continue to invest for organic growth and operational efficiency via our digital transformation. Now moving to Page 13 for the key sales drivers of our strategic business units. We first provided this outlook by SBU last quarter with our initial 2024 outlook. Excluding the impact of the WIS divestiture, our outlook for sales at the SBU level is unchanged from our prior view. Within EES, we faced headwinds in both construction and OEM in 2023 that more than offset significant growth in Industrial. In 2024, we expect EES reported sales growth to be flat to up low single digits as construction end markets remain pressured despite an increase in large project activity. The industrial business is expected to again benefit from continued growth from customers in many of the end market verticals we support. OEM is expected to be roughly flat. Looking at our CSS segment, we generated strong double-digit growth in WESCO data center solutions last year and significant share gains in security that allowed us to outgrow the market. However, enterprise network infrastructure, which is focused on service providers and data communication applications, including structured cabling products, experienced softness due to the slowing of 5G build-outs in the nonresidential construction market, including renovations. Enterprise network infrastructure is the largest business for CSS and makes up approximately 40% of segment revenues. For CSS in 2024, we again expect double-digit growth in data center solutions and share gains in security, but some of the weakness that we saw in enterprise network infrastructure is expected to continue. That said, we expect volume growth driving CSS sales up low to mid-single digits. Lastly, looking at UBS. In 2023, we generated double-digit growth in utility. This was partially offset by an approximately 20% decline in broadband due to customer destocking and delays of purchases until government dollars are released. In 2024, we expect growth in utility but at a more moderate pace as we lap strong comparisons, significant price increases in 2023, and as utility customers more tightly manage inventory. In addition, based on customer and supplier input, we don't expect to see a recovery in broadband until late 2024 before turning to growth in 2025. Despite these factors, we expect growth for UBS in 2024 with sales up mid-single digits. Please note these growth rates exclude the Integrated Supply business that we divested last month. Moving to Slide 14 for our 2024 outlook. We are reaffirming our outlook for organic sales growth, adjusted EBITDA margin, and adjusted EPS. The divestiture of our Integrated Supply business will represent a 3% headwind to sales, which reduces our reported sales outlook to a range of down 2% to up 1% or approximately $21.9 billion to $22.6 billion. At the midpoint of the range, prices are expected to contribute about 1 point to the top line, with volumes relatively flat. From a quarterly sales perspective, we expect to see normal sequential patterns as we move throughout 2024. At the midpoint of our revenue outlook, reported sales would be roughly flat, including the Q2 through Q4 divestiture impact of approximately $700 million. On adjusted EBITDA margin, while we do not provide an outlook for gross margin, we expect to see improvement in 2024. The Integrated Supply divestiture will be accretive to gross margin. Our billing margin was stable in 2023 and up slightly sequentially in the first quarter. We expect improved mix and flat supplier volume rebates as a percentage of sales, along with the benefit of our margin improvement program, to drive higher results in 2024. On SG&A, there are headwinds related to our annual merit increase, along with a return to target payouts for incentive compensation. Combined, these items represent an approximately $100 million cost headwind in 2024 and are expected to be only partially offset by the cost actions we took in 2023 and $20 million of annualized cost actions we took at the end of the first quarter. From a P&L perspective, we continue to expect adjusted EBITDA margin to be in the range of 7.5% to 7.9% or approximately $1.7 billion of EBITDA at the midpoint. The revision to adjusted EBITDA at the midpoint reflects the impact of the Integrated Supply divestiture of approximately $45 million relative to our initial outlook. You can see that we are maintaining our outlook range for adjusted EPS of $13.75 to $15.75. The dilutive impact of the Integrated Supply divestiture will be partially offset by the $300 million of share repurchases we expect to initiate during the second quarter. As I discussed a moment ago, we are increasing our outlook for free cash flow from a range of $600 million to $800 million to a range of $800 million to $1 billion. This free cash flow outlook represents the highest free cash flow in our history and more than 100% of adjusted net income. We have assumed in our free cash flow outlook that net working capital days improve, including a 3-day improvement to inventory days outstanding. Before turning to Slide 15, I want to draw your attention to some updates we have made to our underlying assumptions for 2024. We have increased our outlook for other expense to the upper end of our range or approximately $25 million based on first quarter results. This expense is a combination of our pension costs and the impact of changes in foreign exchange rates on the balance sheet. On shares, we reduced our expected average share count to 50.5 million shares based on the buyback activity of $50 million completed in the first quarter and our expectation to buy back $300 million of shares in the second quarter. And lastly, while we continue to expect an effective tax rate of approximately 27% for the remaining three quarters, the lower rate in Q1 reduces our outlook for the full year to approximately 26%. Turning to Page 15. This slide shows the 2023 year-over-year monthly sales growth comparisons with monthly growth rates for the first quarter and our expectations for the second quarter. Like the rest of 2024, we expect to see normal seasonality in the second quarter, including a sequential increase in sales. On a year-over-year basis, we expect organic sales to be flat to up low single digits and down low single digits on a reported basis. We expect our gross margin rate to improve sequentially, primarily reflecting the benefit from the Integrated Supply divestiture, and for SG&A to increase sequentially due to the annual merit increase. Preliminary April sales per work day were down 2%, in line with typical sequential patterns. Now moving to Page 16. Our long-term secular trends are intact. This slide shows the uniquely strong position of our company to drive growth and profitability in the years ahead. The end-to-end solutions that we provide to our global customer base are directly aligned with the six secular growth trends shown on the left side of this page. Our participation in these trends, coupled with increasing public sector investments in infrastructure, broadband, and partnership with the private sector, position WESCO exceptionally well. Our long-term financial framework is for WESCO to grow 2% to 4% above the market due to the combined benefit of secular growth trends and increasing share.

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

Turning to Page 17. We've covered a lot of material this morning, so let me briefly recap the key points before we open the call to your questions. Sales in the first quarter were in line with typical seasonality and our full year outlook. Backlog remains at very high levels in each of our business units. Free cash flow was more than $700 million in the quarter and more than $1.4 billion over the past 12 months, including an accounts payable balance that will normalize going forward. We utilized our cash flow to opportunistically repurchase $50 million of shares in the first quarter. We are reaffirming our 2024 outlook for organic growth, adjusted EBITDA margin, and adjusted EPS, and increasing the midpoint of our free cash flow outlook by $200 million. We intend to use the proceeds from the Integrated Supply divestiture to repurchase $300 million of our shares in addition to the $50 million bought back in the first quarter. With the remaining free cash flow generated this year, we will balance additional share repurchases with reducing leverage while continuing to pursue accretive M&A.

Operator, Operator

And our first question today comes from Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research.

Nigel Coe, Analyst

Appreciate all the details, especially Slide 6, which I think is quite clear, although you better be careful with those bad guys. The data there is pretty suspect. Just kidding.

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

I thought we might get a comment like that, Nigel.

Nigel Coe, Analyst

On the SG&A, you mentioned the pickup sequentially on comp. But are we still in the kind of framework where SG&A growth for the full year will be sort of below revenue growth? We still get a little bit of SG&A productivity? And maybe just talk about some of the kind of measures to that inflation...

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes, Nigel, let me start with the expectations for our SG&A. As we mentioned, we do have a $100 million headwind related to not only the merit increase, which is effective in the second quarter, that will be a low single-digit increase to our people costs, but we also do have the restoration of the incentive compensation. And we called out that, combined, that's about a $100 million headwind. So when you think about how we're looking at the cost actions, we do have some carryover benefit of the cost actions that we had taken in 2023. We did $20 million of additional structural cost takeout as part of the first quarter actions. So from our perspective, if you take a look at those breadcrumbs, part of our issue that we have is, we mentioned with the Integrated Supply divestiture, we will see the gross margin benefit. There's not a lot of SG&A benefit with that business coming out. So from that perspective, we are expecting to have efficiency on SG&A. But given the sales growth, it will be more difficult.

Nigel Coe, Analyst

Okay. Okay, great. And then on the free cash flow, obviously, a strong performance on accounts payable. I'm assuming that's more of a timing issue, that you might have some headwinds from accounts payable over the remainder of the year. So we should think about offsets from accounts receivable and inventory to offset maybe some of that over the balance of the year. Any help there, David? And then, obviously, the 5-year framework is putting to operating cash flow of $1 billion for the next couple of years, 2025 and 2026. Just want to confirm that's the case.

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

That is the case. So yes, just going back to the cash flow expectations for 2024, we did have that temporary benefit of accounts payable. That will normalize over the course of the next couple of quarters. While we do still expect that the accounts payable balance will be a source of cash for 2024, we are laser-focused also on reducing our inventory days. So again, we would expect our accounts receivable will grow sequentially with our sales, and then we will continue to stay focused on reducing our inventory levels.

Operator, Operator

And the next question comes from Sam Darkatsh with Raymond James.

Sam Darkatsh, Analyst

So first, a couple of clarification and quick questions, and then most of my thrust of my questions have to do with your inventory management. So the $200 million bump in free cash flow guidance, Dave, is that entirely coming from payables? Since I think you originally were thinking about taking 3 days out of inventory and sales organically doesn't change much. Is that the way to read that?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

It is a combination of the net working capital. So it is benefits on inventory and the accounts payable source of cash, offset by the accounts receivable.

Sam Darkatsh, Analyst

Got you. And then can you remind us the seasonality of EBITDA for the second quarter as a percent of the year, and whether you expect to be in that general range?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes. Generally, we see about a 45-55 split between our EBITDA based on the front half, back half of the year. We are still anticipating to see that level of seasonality in the business. So again, as we see sequential sales growth, we've got moderation to our SG&A based on the cost actions. So from that perspective, we do have a back half-loaded EBITDA plan, supported by the sequential sales growth.

Sam Darkatsh, Analyst

Got you. And then my real question, though, has to do with inventory management. Obviously, you've got really high carrying costs. Your cost of debt is similar to your EBITDA margin. I think, a couple of things. First off, I think you had some issues with branches needing better visibility into other branch inventory. What's the timing of when you might see improvements there and how much might that help? And then secondly, with inventory tied up with projects, are you able to, like, de-kit? I don't know what the technical term is, but break apart kits and maybe bleed that into stock and flow? Or are you reticent to do that maybe because it risks future price cost? Just tactically, how do you handle the inventory as long as certain lead times remain extended?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Certainly. Let me address the inventory management at the location level. We are still in the middle of our digital transformation, so we are operating a number of different platforms in which we manage our inventory. We have provided our team with some digital applications that help them see the total level of inventory at the business unit level and at the location level. We also have a specific tool that helps us monitor the amount of inventory that is allocated to a project. So in that case, we win a big job. We negotiate back with the suppliers on what the cost of goods will be to support that project. We'll work the lead times. We'll bring that inventory into our location to service the job site or the project site. So we do have better visibility to that. In the environment that we're operating in, there are some projects that are delayed. That means we're holding on to inventory longer than we had initially expected. We experienced that throughout the pandemic and the recovery coming out of the pandemic. But we do have the tools that our team has that they can monitor that inventory per project. In some cases, we're able to de-allocate that inventory and move it to a different project, all depending on the lead times and when that project is expected to ship. So we do have that visibility. It's something that we initiated in the latter part of 2023. We are beginning to see some benefit from that. So one of the early indicators of our inventory management is the amount of on-order that we are reducing. So go back two years when lead times were extended, we had to order material much earlier in order to ensure that we could deliver it to the customer. As lead times have come down, we're better managing that allocated project inventory, and we're also providing better visibility to order timing so that we've reduced the on-order. We're seeing that primarily in our CSS business first, their supply chain yield first. They also have the majority of their projects on one platform. We're now starting to see the benefits of that in our other two strategic business units. We're confident we're going to be able to reduce the inventory days.

Scott Gaffner, SVP, Investor Relations

Sam, it's Scott. Just one clarifying point. You mentioned the DIO. We had not given a 3-day reduction in DIO on the fourth quarter earnings call, so that's a new item this quarter.

Operator, Operator

And the next question comes from Deane Dray with RBC Capital.

Deane Dray, Analyst

Maybe we can start with some color, John, on the kind of tone of business. You mentioned bidding activity, but anything specifically around stock and flow, quote activity, any kind of context there for starters?

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

Yes. The overall levels of bid activity and quoting, particularly for larger and more complex solutions, and sometimes megaprojects, are very strong. Our backlogs are maintaining historically high levels. When comparing supplier lead times now with those from 6, 12, and 18 months ago, we see even greater strength in the backlog, as most SKUs across our supplier partner base have returned to pre-pandemic lead time levels. We still face extended lead times on switchgear, transformers, some breakers, and older products, but there are early signs that these may start to improve. This offers some positive news regarding these lead times. Our backlog in relation to bid activity levels is encouraging. We continue to focus on cross-selling, although we no longer report on it every quarter since it was a significant value creation factor in our combination, which we covered until the end of last year. We have exceeded our targets multiple times. I can tell you that the momentum around cross-selling is building, reflected in the RFPs we receive and our approach to opportunities. Regardless of the bid, we aim to present additional parts of our portfolio to maximize cross-selling potential, irrespective of the RFP requirements. In summary, the front end of the business, which is a leading indicator, remains very healthy and strong, indicating a positive future demand profile.

Deane Dray, Analyst

That's all very helpful. The follow-up question is whether there have been any structural changes within electrical distribution, particularly regarding disintermediation. Specifically, is there any structural change in the role electrical distribution will play in large megaprojects? There have been questions about whether suppliers will primarily do direct sales and bypass traditional distribution. Can you address that? Additionally, there was a question from one of your major suppliers about data centers: do they go direct or use distribution? The supplier mentioned that some data centers prefer direct purchasing and are less inclined to utilize distributors. So, I'd like to hear your thoughts on these two topics, megaprojects and data centers.

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

In response to the macro question regarding any fundamental shift from distribution to direct channels, I can say that we are not observing this trend, particularly concerning megaprojects. Our major competitors are experiencing the same situation. Let’s delve into data centers since it's crucial to discuss the value chain and its historical, current, and future dynamics. AI and Gen AI are expected to significantly ramp up power consumption for new data centers, leading to larger and more complex projects. A data center project typically encompasses three components: a power solution, the infrastructure required for the build-out (which I refer to as gray space), and what we call white space solutions. All new data centers need these elements. Now, how do we align this with WESCO? Our utility power solutions business addresses the power needs, the EES business covers the gray space, and our CSS business handles the white space. We are collaborating across these sectors with our customers. A key point regarding your question is the construction timing of gray space, which includes switchgear and occurs considerably earlier in the build schedule than white space, the climate-controlled area of the data center. The complexity and size of the data center often result in longer project cycles, meaning orders and sales for gray space will precede those of white space. Historically, in this market vertical, switchgear and gray space solutions have gone direct. Looking at our electrical sales and those of our main competitors, there's been relatively little gear sales for data centers. This reflects how the electrical segment operates differently, with separate procurement processes for gray and white spaces. A strategic benefit of merging Anixter and WESCO is our ability to provide a comprehensive solution encompassing power, gray space, and white space for data center projects and beyond. We are actively pursuing cross-sell opportunities with direct end-user customers in the data center sector. Recently, we have identified specific bidding opportunities that incorporate both white and gray space solutions, demonstrating our enhanced capabilities post-acquisition of Rahi, whose early successes underline this point. To summarize, we have a solid understanding of the data center value chain, encompassing historical trends, the current state, and future positioning. With a robust global presence and valuable relationships with hyperscalers, as well as multi-tenant and colocation data centers, we're well-positioned for substantial sales growth driven by data centers. I'm increasingly optimistic about this market, particularly leveraging our CSS business amidst the heightened demand driven by AI and Gen AI, which we anticipate will significantly boost our future sales growth.

Operator, Operator

And the next question comes from Tommy Moll with Stephens.

Thomas Moll, Analyst

I want to make sure I heard correctly on the sales trajectory and then unpack some of the assumptions there. But I think I heard you say, Dave, from a sequential standpoint, sales improved from 1Q to 4Q. So maybe you could just clarify if I heard that correctly. And if so, are you assuming the typical sequential improvements there just through the months? Or is there some haircut you're applying at some point along the way?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes, Tommy. So we do have the expectation, more sequential increases in our sales. So when you take a look at the typical seasonality by quarter, on a sequential basis, we typically see our first quarter down that low to mid-single digits, which we just delivered. For the second quarter, we anticipate a mid-single-digit increase sequentially. That ties out with about the last five years of the history. Q3, we see a low single-digit increase versus the second quarter. The fourth quarter is where it's generally flat to up low single digits versus the third quarter. One of the other things to keep in mind is we had two extra work days in the second half of 2024 versus the front half of 2024, so that will also provide a benefit on a reported sales basis.

Thomas Moll, Analyst

That's very clear and helpful, Dave. Associated with that revenue trajectory, it's clear that you should start to see some volume leverage on the OpEx line as the year progresses. And so if you look at what's implied by your guidance for the EBITDA margin, I think it's up a couple of hundred basis points second half versus first half. Is all of that substantially all of it volume? or are there other dynamics you would call out?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

There's a combination of things. First and foremost, it is volume, so we're getting the operating leverage in the back half of the year. The other thing to keep in mind is that we will be seeing a sequential benefit from Q1 to Q2 on the gross margin line relative to the Integrated Supply divestiture. Now that doesn't have a huge impact on total SG&A dollars because of what was sold as part of that divestiture. But again, we do have the restoration of incentive compensation and a merit increase effective from Q2. And we are laser-focused on continuing to drive those cost reduction actions that we took in the first quarter.

Operator, Operator

And the next question comes from Christopher Glynn with Oppenheimer.

Christopher Glynn, Analyst

Just picking up on Tommy's question. Within the second quarter, relative to the down 2% April versus flattish 2Q guide, what's the visibility confidence? Any particular nuances with May and June that we should be aware of?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

There's no particular nuances with May and June off of what we saw in the month of April. The one thing that I'll just remind you is that, that divestiture occurred on April 1, so you've got to pull out the $700 million of sales on a reported basis in Q2 through Q4. But we are essentially anticipating that the second quarter shapes up in line with typical seasonality versus Q1. In the months within the second quarter, we're expecting that typical seasonality as well. We typically see April down versus March. That is what we just delivered in line with typical seasonality with the decline in March. Then we see a rebound in May and June, particularly as you're tying that back to the outlook that we provided for each of our business units. We're still very busy with project activity. We do have some expectations for some of the end markets like broadband, which we'll see some recovery in the latter part of 2024. The comps get easier as well versus the prior year.

Christopher Glynn, Analyst

Right. And I'm curious about OEM down high single digit in the first quarter, flattish for the year. I understand that that's probably significant destocking impact. Do you see that resolving in the near term and well within the first half? Or does that take kind of the full first half and second quarter to kind of get back to matching end demand and consumption? An EES-focused question, I guess.

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

Yes. So specifically on that EES OEM, it's stabilizing. That's a current-state comment. It's been stabilizing. We're seeing signs of that through the first quarter, continues in the second quarter. And I think we're positioned for some improvement as we get into the second half. So that remains to be seen, but we're well positioned for that, and that could be an upside driver. We'll see.

Christopher Glynn, Analyst

Okay. And the last one for me. The size of the inventory adjustment, maybe both absolute and the incremental or outsized portion?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes. The inventory adjustment versus the prior year in the first quarter was 15 to 20 basis points.

Operator, Operator

And the next question comes from David Manthey with Baird.

David Manthey, Analyst

First question is, could you just tell us what approximately the first quarter revenues were related to Bruckner, so we can conceptualize what normal pro forma sequentials might look like?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

There's approximately $200 million of revenue from the Integrated Supply business that we recorded in the first quarter.

David Manthey, Analyst

Got it.

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

Okay. And Dave, that had very nice growth, too. It's important to understand. Because if you take the $200 million-plus, what we've outlined as the bridge for the full year, the $700 million, we've had several quarters in a row of nice growth. And then that supported an operating plan that had meaningful growth in 2024.

David Manthey, Analyst

I see. Okay. As we look ahead at SG&A, there are many factors to consider, and I want to ensure I understand them fully. Could you clarify which factors were included in the first quarter and which are new as we transition from the first to the second? The items I'm considering that I believe were in the first quarter include reinstated incentive compensation, annual merit increases, and carryover from the 2023 cost-saving benefits. In the second quarter, new items that were not present in the first quarter would entail the $20 million annualized cost actions implemented at the quarter's end, variable expenses corresponding to the quarter-to-quarter sales fluctuations, and the Integrated Supply cost, which you mentioned had a minor SG&A impact. Could you provide any insights on this for us to better understand the transition?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Certainly. I'll begin with the fourth quarter. The adjusted SG&A was approximately $800 million, and we reported around $810 million. The $10 million increase from the fourth quarter was mainly due to the restoration of incentive compensation. Moving from Q1 to Q2, we will continue with the restoration of incentive compensation for the remainder of the year, and we will also implement merit increases. This will result in a low single-digit increase in personnel costs effective April 1. This increase will be somewhat balanced by cost-saving actions from the previous year and the $20 million in cost reduction efforts, primarily related to staffing, that took effect at the end of the first quarter.

Operator, Operator

And the next question comes from Chris Dankert with Loop Capital.

Christopher Dankert, Analyst

Forgive me if I missed it, but just focusing on that down 2% in April. Are we already seeing a rebound in the CSS business, just kind of given what the outlook is for the year here? Or is it more of a back half kind of dynamic when we're thinking about the volume rebound in CSS, specifically?

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

So year-over-year, CSS and EES for April, these are preliminary sales results, are down low single digits. But UBS, which is now without WIS, so it's utility and broadband, was flattish. So compared to Q1, we're seeing UBS is kind of a little better year-over-year.

Christopher Dankert, Analyst

Understood. And then just when we're thinking about the technology spending and the digital transformation there, can you just maybe flag what some of the next modules are that go live in the near term or kind of key focuses on spending for that digital transformation into the back half here?

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes, certainly. So on digital transformation, I also want to clarify that we had expenses that were in our reported results in the prior year: mergers, integration, including the digital transformation. For 2024, we no longer had the pure integration costs, but we are continuing with our digital transformation. So we did record some expenses that were one-time in nature, but that we pulled out of our adjusted results. So on a go-forward basis, we would continue to spend dollars associated with that digital transformation. Keep in mind that this is things like the financial package that we had initiated back in 2022 and into 2023. There are some digital applications associated with our global business services, so think about accounts payable, accounts receivable. We will be providing more details about that digital transformation when we do our Investor Day in the second half of the year. But these are consistent with the initiatives that we had outlined back in late 2022 that are part of how do we continue to transform the company, how do we continue to get better use of our data and then also get much more efficient from an SG&A perspective going forward.

Operator, Operator

And the next question comes from Ken Newman with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Kenneth Newman, Analyst

It's great to see the improvement in the free cash flow guidance. You mentioned being more active with share repurchases this quarter. I'm interested in how you plan to prioritize capital allocation between paying down debt and pursuing mergers and acquisitions in the near term. I understand that your preferred stock becomes callable in the middle of next year. Should we expect you to take actions on the balance sheet before that call date?

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

Let me share a few thoughts. Dave, you can add afterward. We have been clear about our plan to redeem the preferred shares when we have the opportunity, which will be in June of next year. This is a top priority for us. We also aim to balance our cash flow, debt reduction, and share buybacks. M&A activities are more sporadic, so we must be prepared for when opportunities arise. We are actively managing our M&A pipeline, which is very strong. I've mentioned before that we have a new Senior VP of Corporate Business Development who has done an outstanding job since joining us in 2023. We have a wealth of opportunities to evaluate, and our standards are high, requiring substantial justification to meet our criteria. Regarding the use of the approximately $300 million after-tax proceeds from the WIS divestiture for share buybacks, we believe that reflects our confidence in our business plans and execution, as well as our outlook. We strongly feel that we are undervalued in the market, so utilizing the entire $300 million for buybacks offers the best return on investment given our current trading conditions. With that said, Dave, I believe I've covered most of the key points, but you might want to chime in.

David Schulz, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes, certainly. So in terms of how we think about capital allocation between buying back shares, which John mentioned, is usually around intrinsic value versus continuing to delever, particularly given the interest rate environment, versus M&A. We have a very high bar on M&A. And if we believe that we can make the right deal, we want to stay very actively engaged in both the process but then also being able to close out acquisitions that will allow us to continue to drive competitive advantage, provide more products and services to our customers. So it's really coming back down to the economics behind each of those choices. Clearly, we feel that the stock is undervalued, so we're going to take the proceeds from the Integrated Supply divestiture, apply that to buying back shares. That also helps us partially offset the dilution of the profit that's coming out from an EPS perspective. Now we have been very active with our capital structure. So in the first quarter, we made some additional moves to basically go ahead and issue the bonds to retire the $1.5 billion of notes that we have coming due in 2025. We avoided the breakage cost on that by warehousing those funds against our current facility. So those are the types of ways that we've been thinking about this. We want to make sure that we stay balanced between additional share repurchases, delevering, but then making sure that we have enough dry powder for M&A.

Kenneth Newman, Analyst

That's really helpful color. Maybe just for my last one here. John, it was really great color on the data center commentary earlier. But I just wanted to see if you could help us size that opportunity or how you think about sizing that opportunity going forward. I think in the CSS business, data centers maybe around 8% to 10% of sales on a total sales perspective. But just any help on sizing that opportunity on the power and white space buckets you mentioned earlier?

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

Yes, we haven't disclosed that yet, Ken, so let me clarify. It's also a changing scenario because there are no new data centers being designed that do not aim to effectively utilize Gen AI applications. The essential design requirements for data centers have significantly evolved over the past six to twelve months, which has increased the demand for power solutions in our UBS business, more complex electrical solutions in our EES business, and of course, greater throughput, which benefits our CSS business. I don't want to quantify that on this call, but we have plans for our Investor Day this year to outline details for all our end market verticals, along with the exceptional growth trends we see. You can expect a deeper dive into the data centers and our leading position in the market due to our unique global portfolio that supports our end-user customers. So stay tuned for that, as it will directly address your question.

Operator, Operator

And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Engel for any closing comments.

John Engel, Chairman, President and CEO

I believe we've answered all your questions. Mike, thank you once again for your support today. It is greatly appreciated. We look forward to connecting with many of you over the next two months. We have a busy schedule ahead, just as we've had this year, as we've been actively engaging with investors. We will be participating in four conferences in the coming months: the Oppenheimer Industrial Growth Conference on May 7, the Wolfe Research Global Transportation and Industrial Conference on May 21, the Barclays Leveraged Finance Conference on May 21, and the KeyBanc Industrials and Basic Materials Conference on May 29. Lastly, we anticipate announcing our second quarter earnings on Thursday, August 1. Thank you, and have a great day.

Operator, Operator

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