Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript February 28, 2024
Astec Industries, Inc. beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.9, expectations were $0.62. Astec Industries, Inc. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Hello and welcome to the Astec Industries Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. It is my pleasure to introduce your host, Steve Anderson, Senior Vice President of Administration and Investor Relations. Mr. Anderson, you may begin.
Steve Anderson: Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Joining me on today's call are Jaco van der Merwe, Chief Executive Officer; and Becky Weyenberg, Chief Financial Officer. In just a moment, I'll turn the call over to Jaco to provide comments, and then Becky will summarize our financial results. Before we begin, I'll remind you that our discussion this morning may contain forward-looking statements that relate to the future performance of the Company, and these statements are intended to qualify for the Safe Harbor liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Factors that can influence our results are highlighted in today's financial news release, and others are contained in our filings with the SEC.
As usual, we ask that you familiarize yourself with those factors. In an effort to provide investors with additional information regarding the Company's results, the Company refers to various U.S. GAAP, which are generally accepted accounting principles, and non-GAAP financial measures, which management believes provides useful information to investors. These non-GAAP financial measures have no standardized meaning prescribed by U.S. GAAP, and therefore, are unlikely to be comparable to the calculation of similar measures for other companies. Management of the Company does not intend these items to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related GAAP measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is included in our news release and the appendix of our slide deck.
All related earnings materials are posted on our website at www.astecindustries.com, including our presentation which is under the Investor Relations and Presentations' tabs. And now, I'll turn the call over to Jaco.
Jaco Merwe: Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I will begin on Slide 4 with a review of our full-year highlights. 2023 was an important year for Astec, as we advanced key strategic initiatives such as operational excellence, growing our parts' business, new product development, and Oracle ERP execution. These efforts enabled us to achieve great results in 2023 and will help us deliver more consistent, profitable growth in the future. I am very proud of what the team has been able to accomplish this year. In 2023, we had record full-year sales as end-market demand remained solid in both segments. We were particularly encouraged by the steady momentum we saw across the business at the end of the year, with Q4 implied orders growing 27.6% sequentially.
I met with many customers at the recent World of Concrete and National Asphalt Paving Association events and was encouraged by their positive sentiment. They remain busy and are using our equipment to complete their projects. Their optimism, combined with a positive turn in implied orders during Q4, increased funding from the Federal Highway Bill, and new product introductions give us confidence in the long-term demand outlook for our business. During Q4 2023, our team delivered improved profitability and expanded margins. This is a testament to the team's ability to execute efficiently and apply operational excellence practices. We expanded gross margins 400 basis points and adjusted EPS more than doubled for the full year. A priority for us in 2023 was to build a performance culture that consistently delivers financial results.
Our full-year results demonstrated that we have made great progress towards this objective. These achievements have laid the foundation for an even higher level of profitability as our business continues to grow. Our Oracle ERP implementation continues to move forward as indicated by the 2023 milestones we achieved. We will continue to harness the capabilities of the enhanced new systems to drive efficient and effective operations. Lastly, we published our first Corporate Sustainability Report in December. It was a tremendous team effort to get this project across the finish line and I would like to acknowledge the hard work done by many individuals to complete this report. Guided by our core values of safety, devotion, integrity, respect, and innovation, this report describes how we strive to do what is right for our customers, employees, and the communities in which we operate.
Our vision is to build industry-changing solutions that create life-changing opportunities. This inaugural report provides a foundation from which we can move forward with the goal of long-term sustainable growth. Turning to Slide 5, as demonstrated over the past few years, we have taken steps to simplify our business by eliminating waste and enhancing processes to improve productivity. We are focused on areas where we add the greatest value, bringing innovation to our customers and working with our dealers to develop best-in-class aftermarket practices. We plan to continue to grow organically and explore opportunities through a disciplined acquisition roadmap. Moving to Slide 6, after taking on the CEO role last year, one of the key priorities I established was for us to create and embrace a performance culture built on consistent execution.
Reflecting on the last 12 months, I am pleased to see that we have made progress on this journey as evidenced by our 2023 results and achievements. At the same time, we have identified significant additional opportunities to strengthen our business further and build those into our long-term target goals. I would like to take a few minutes to highlight some notable achievements from the past year. We expanded gross margins by 400 basis points in 2023. We continued to invest to improve processes and deliver innovation, creating positive margin. We will continue these efforts in 2024. Additional investments will help us better serve growing markets, and a slate of new products will enable us to provide solutions to customer needs. A second area we prioritized in 2023 was our dedication to our customers, dealers, and shareholders.
Accomplishments here included the expansion of our distribution network and the launch of new products that enable dealers and customers to better serve our growing global market. We want to continue prioritizing these elements in 2024 through greater collaboration and increased availability of parts to better serve our customer. These actions to drive an enhanced product offering out to a broader customer audience will enable us to create consistent, profitable growth. Promoting the OneASTEC operating model drives continuous improvement. The implementation of the Oracle ERP system is a great example, as we have launched modules at corporate and one major manufacturing site in 2023. We have implementation plans for additional sites in 2024 and 2025.
Operationally, we have made improvements in areas such as parts fill rates, which improved 20% in the past two years. We will make additional investments to further improve throughput velocity this year. One constant in our business is our steadfast focus on our core value of safety. This is very important to me and our team. I want our team to go home healthy and injury-free every day. Through continuous improvement, we have reduced our recordable injury rate to 1.27, the best in the Company's recent history and very favorable when compared to the industry average. Our goal is zero harm and we will continue to work to eliminate injuries across our sites. And finally, the Astec team will continue to unite around our long-term objectives and new vision statement, which is to build industry-changing solutions that create life-changing opportunities.
We will work together to make Astec an even greater organization. Turning to Slide 7, I would like to offer some observations on the current business dynamics. While the macro environment remains uncertain, there are an increasing number of indicators that point to a stable demand environment with opportunities for growth. In our Infrastructure Solutions' end markets, demand for asphalt road building and concrete production is strong. Dealers need additional inventory and we are working closely with our dealers to support a growing aftermarket opportunity by further improving the delivery of parts and service for our mobile equipment. For Materials Solutions, we saw signals from our annual dealer order writing event that heightened interest rates' concerns may weigh on mobile crushing and screening equipment outlook in the near-term.
For the long-term however, demand trends looks favorable due to domestic infrastructure spending and opportunities in international markets. In both groups, we are releasing new products to deliver innovation to our customer needs. Customers are busy and they rely on us to help keep their projects moving forward efficiently. In addition to new product introductions, we are increasing our sales coverage by expanding our dealer network and deploying additions to our direct sales force to further penetrate markets. Funding from the Federal Highway Bill continues to be deployed at a growing rate. Contract awards increased 8.6% in 2023, which is a positive leading indicator for future construction. Funding from federal legislation provides stability for our customer, driving future product and aftermarket demand.
Next, I would like to update you on two of our new products show on Slide 8. Both products were launched in 2023 and both have been met with positive reception from our customer. The Peterson 5710E Horizontal Grinder was launched in March. The number of units sold and incremental margins for this product are in line with expectations and we are on track with our unit forecast in 2024. The Roadtec RX405 Cold Planer was launched in October and is off to a great start. New product launches are complex and require teamwork and dedication. I am pleased with the success of these and look forward to presenting more new products at the World of Asphalt trade show in Nashville on March 25th through 27th. Slide 9 shows that backlog continues to normalize from the peak levels experienced in 2022 that were primarily caused by customer reactions to supply chain and logistics constraints.
Over the past year, orders have returned to more historic patterns and we have made progress in converting backlog to sales through investments in throughput and operational excellence initiatives. Implied orders shown on Slide 10 increased 27.6% sequentially in Q4 after holding steady through the first three quarters of 2023. While one data point does not make a trend, we were encouraged with the increase in order. Customer sentiment for Infrastructure Solutions' products is positive. While higher interest rates may temper demand for Materials Solutions' products in the near-term, industry data point to double-digit growth in federal and state road construction, which bode well for our industry in 2024. Combined with our new products and healthy backlog, I am becoming increasingly confident that 2024 will be a solid year for Astec.
With that, I will now turn the call over to Becky to discuss our detailed fourth-quarter and full-year financial results.
Becky Weyenberg: Thank you, Jaco, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with a review of our fourth-quarter 2023 results on Slide 12. Sales were $337.2 million, down 3.6%, as a slight increase in Infrastructure Solutions was more than offset by Material Solutions decline. By region, domestic sales growth of $4.1 million was more than offset by softer international sales, which were down $16.8 million, with particular weakness this quarter in Europe, Australia, and Canada. Parts' sales grew 2%, which was offset by a decline of 6.9% in equipment sales. Adjusted EBITDA increased 46.8%, increasing adjusted EBITDA margins by 340 basis points. The biggest driver was pricing realization and tailwinds for manufacturing efficiencies.
We expanded gross margins by 610 basis points to 26.4%. Full-year gross margins were 24.7%. Increased SG&A costs were driven by higher planned personnel-related costs and increased consulting and project costs. Overall, we are pleased with the progress and improvements we're making on margins. Adjusted earnings per share increased to $0.90 from $0.34 the prior year, an increase of 164.7%. This figure excludes the transformation program and other costs. The adjusted net effective tax rate for the quarter was 17.3%, a significant decrease from last year. The lower effective tax rate for the current period included an income tax benefit from the utilization of existing net operating losses and corresponding release of valuation allowances in Brazil and India.
Our normalized net effective tax rate for the full year was 22.1%, which was slightly below the 23% to 24% range we had estimated. On Slide 13, fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA increased 46.8% to $32.6 million, with margin expansion of 340 basis points to 9.7%. The positive contribution from volume, pricing, and mix, plus manufacturing efficiencies, more than offset the impact from inflation and higher SG&A expenses. Moving on to Slide 14, Infrastructure Solutions' net sales increased slightly to $240 million, with domestic growth of 5% offset by soft international demand. Parts' sales were strong this quarter, up 7.2%, as we were able to fulfill parts' orders for aftermarket demand. Adjusted EBITDA margin for Infrastructure Solutions increased 500 basis points to 14.7%.
Favorable net volume, price, and mix outpaced inflation, driving higher gross margins. Net positive manufacturing efficiencies were partially offset by higher SG&A personnel costs. Turning to Slide 15, Materials Solutions' net sales decreased 13.1% to $95.4 million, as there were decreases in both international and domestic demand. International sales decreased 28.7% and domestic sales declined 7%. Equipment sales declined 15.7% and parts were down 7.8%. Adjusted EBITDA margins for Material Solutions increased 50 basis points to 9.3%. This was largely due to the positive impact from pricing and manufacturing efficiencies, partially offset by lower volume and mix, and an increase in SG&A personnel costs. On Slide 16, I'll review our full-year results.
Sales were $1.3382 billion, up 5%, with increases in both Infrastructure and Material Solutions due to price cost alignment and stable demand. By region, domestic sales growth of 6.8% was slightly offset by softer international sales which were down 2.1%. Adjusted EBITDA grew 55.4%, and adjusted EBITDA margins increased 260 basis points due to our ability to drive gross margin expansion through pricing initiatives. Adjusted earnings per share also had strong growth at 117.1%, even when factoring in the litigation loss reserve we incurred in the second half of the year. Moving to Slide 17, we highlight the key drivers of our year-over-year adjusted EBITDA bridge. As previously mentioned, adjusted EBITDA increased 55.4% to $110 million, with an EBITDA expansion of 260 basis points to 8.2%.
As seen in the chart, the positive impact of net volume, pricing, and mix more than offset headwinds from inflation and higher SG&A costs. We are proud of the strong expanded margin as our factory investments and pricing realization has come to fruition, and we expect to drive increased EBITDA to deliver long-term shareholder value. Turning to Slide 18, our cash and cash equivalents stood at $59.8 million. We generated operating cash flow of $27.8 million compared with the use of cash of $73.9 million in the prior year, a difference of $101.7 million. This turnaround was due to improved earnings and steps we took to improve our working capital. Our liquidity is up slightly from the end of 2022, positioning us to continue investing in profitable growth initiatives while still maintaining a strong balance sheet.
Turning to Slide 19, we maintain a disciplined capital deployment framework, balancing investments in growth with returning cash to shareholders. We spent $9.1 million on CapEx in the fourth quarter, bringing our full-year CapEx to $34.1 million. This is within the range previously communicated. We were pleased to return $11.8 million to shareholders in the form of dividends during 2023, as we continue to direct capital to create the best returns. With that, I will now turn it back over to Jaco.
Jaco Merwe: Thank you, Becky. In closing, on Slide 20, we closed 2023 by delivering strong results in the fourth quarter. I am confident our teams can deliver even better results during 2024. We have work yet to do, but we are well on our way to delivering enhanced performance for our customer and shareholder. I am grateful to our employees for their dedication and hard work and to our customers for their loyalty and support. With that, operator, we are now ready to open the call for questions.
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