Quanex Building Products Corporation Price & Performance (NX)

On the call with me today is George Wilson, our Chairman, President and CEO. This conference call will contain forward looking statements and some discussion of non GAAP measures. Forward looking statements and guidance discussed on this call and in our earnings release are based on current expectations. Actual results or events may differ materially from such statements and guidance and Quanex undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect new information or events.

For a more detailed description of our forward looking statement disclaimer, a reconciliation of non GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures please see our earnings release issued yesterday and posted to our website. I'll now turn the call over to George for his prepared remarks. Thanks, Scott, and good morning to everyone joining the call. Before I begin my commentary, I want to take a moment to acknowledge Curt Stevens, for his many years of dedicated service on Aquantix Board of Directors. Kurt's expertise in the building product space combined with his financial background added immense value to our Board. His leadership in chairing the Audit Committee for many years has been instrumental to our business. On behalf of the entire Quanex team, I want to thank Curt for his service and wish him all the best in his retirement. Turning to the first fiscal quarter of twenty twenty five, our results aligned with expectations despite significant macroeconomic uncertainties in challenging winter weather environment in The U. S. Year over year improvements in both revenue and earnings were largely driven by the contributions related to the acquisition of Timmins, Since the acquisition closed last August, our focus has been on integrating the two companies.

Our primary objectives are to achieve or exceed the expected financial synergies from the transaction and to establish an organizational structure that both supports our current business and provides a scalable platform for future growth. From a synergy perspective, I'm pleased with the progress our team has made and remain confident we will meet our publicly announced target of $30,000,000 in run rate synergies by the end of year two.

We are also working diligently to identify additional synergies and explore opportunities to accelerate the realization We look forward to providing a more detailed update during our second quarter call. Regarding organizational design and as outlined in our recent investor we will be resegmenting our business into three new units. Hardware Solutions, Extruded Solutions and Custom Solutions. Each of these segments will have a global scope and is designed to better serve our existing customers, support new product development, explore adjacent markets, and drive margin improvement through operational excellence and the sharing of best practices. This change will involve significant work from a public reporting perspective and our team is focused on ensuring that we can report results in these new segments as soon as practical later this year. Looking at the markets, as I mentioned earlier, our first quarter result were in line with expectations. We have returned to our typical season seasonal order cadence with a relatively softer Q1 due to holidays and weather. Outside of this normal seasonality, demand has been impacted by uncertainties surrounding future Fed interest rate movements and week to week changes regarding potential tariffs. [indiscernible] We believe both factors have negatively affected consumer confidence.

Likewise, conversations with our customers reflect a general sentiment of caution regarding new projects. However, the benefit of Quanex is that we have proven our ability to respond quickly to changes in demand both up and down.

As for tariffs, the situation remains fluid and unpredictable. However, we are confident that the efforts of our supply chain team over the past three years have positioned us to localize supply in most cases which we believe will minimize the potential impact on Quanex and our customers. Where tariffs do apply, we are actively engaging with customers on pricing mechanisms and exploring continuous operational improvements to offset their impact. These efforts combined with our synergy progress gives us confidence in reaffirming our full year earnings guidance. Operationally, I'm very pleased with our performance and the improvements we've already seen as part of the integration process. We achieved record safety performance in the first quarter along with improvements in service and quality metrics. These gains are the results of sharing best practices between legacy Quanex and Time and Teams as well as the benefit of migrating to our new operating segments. Moving forward, our operational focus will remain on safety culture, employee engagement, working capital improvements and optimizing return on net assets to maximize our cash flow generation. Regarding the use of cash flow to generate the best shareholder returns, we will focus on paying down debt an opportunistic manner.

So in summary, while short term market headwinds persist, the Quanex team continues to perform well the anticipated benefits of the Timon acquisition are coming to fruition as we expected. We look forward to continuing our integration efforts and providing updates on our progress throughout the year. I'll now turn the call over to Scott, who will discuss our financial results in more detail.

Thanks, George. On a consolidated basis, we reported net sales of $400,000,000 during the first quarter of twenty twenty five, which represents an increase of approximately 67% compared to 239,200,000.0 for the same period of 2024. The increase was primarily driven by the contribution from the Tymon acquisition that closed on 08/01/2024. Excluding the Tymon contribution, net sales would have declined by 6.2% for the first quarter of twenty twenty five. Largely due to lower volume. We reported a net loss of $14,900,000 or $0.32 per diluted share during the three months ended 01/31/2025, compared to net income of $6,200,000 or $0.19 per diluted share during the three months ended 01/31/2024. On an adjusted basis, net income was $9,000,000 or $0.19 per diluted share during the first quarter of twenty twenty five, compared to $8,400,000 or $0.25 per diluted share during the first quarter of twenty twenty four. The adjustments being made to EPS are as follows: amortization of step up for purchase price adjustments on inventory, transaction advisory fees and reorg costs, restructuring charges related to severance and disposal of software, amortization expense related to intangible assets and a pension settlement refund and other net adjustments related to foreign currency transaction gainloss and effective tax rates.

On an adjusted basis, EBITDA for the quarter essentially doubled to $38,500,000 compared to $19,300,000 during the same period of last year.

This equates to adjusted EBITDA margin expansion approximately 150 basis points year over year. [indiscernible] The increase in adjusted earnings for the three months ended 01/31/2025 was mostly attributable to the contribution from the Timon acquisition combined with the realization of cost synergies. Now for the results by operating segment. We generated net sales of $134,300,000 in our North American Fenestration segment for the first quarter of twenty twenty five, a decrease of 9.2% compared to $148,000,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four.

We estimate the volumes in this segment declined by approximately 8% year over year with pricing up approximately 1% versus Q1 of twenty twenty four. Adjusted EBITDA was $11,600,000 in this segment for the first quarter compared to $13,700,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. [indiscernible] Our European Fenestration segment generated revenue of $48,500,000 in quarter, which represents a decrease of 2% compared to $49,400,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. However, after adjusting for foreign currency, revenue was basically flat. We estimate that volumes were down approximately 1% year over year in this segment approximately 1% and the negative foreign exchange translation impact of about 2%. Adjusted EBITDA declined slightly to $9,900,000 in this segment for the quarter versus $10,000,000 during the same period of last year. This means that adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 30 basis points year over year in this segment. We reported net sales of $43,800,000 in our North American Cabinet Components segment, during the quarter, which represented growth of 1.6% compared to prior year. We estimate that volumes declined by approximately 3% and price increased by approximately 5% in this segment for the quarter. This price movement was largely related to index pricing tied to hardwood costs.

Adjusted EBITDA was negative $873,000 in the segment for the quarter, which compared to negative $732,000 for the first quarter of twenty twenty four.

Decreased operating leverage due to soft volume was the reason for the lower profitability in this segment.

Time and business reported net sales of $175,700,000 for the first quarter twenty twenty five. Since we didn't own this business in the first quarter of twenty twenty four, there is no comp in the earnings release However, revenue was down approximately 8% in this segment in the first quarter of twenty twenty five compared to the first quarter of twenty twenty four. Mostly due to soft market demand.

Which is consistent with what we saw in the legacy Quanex business. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $19,000,000 for the quarter, which yielded margin 24, driven largely by cost synergies related closing Timmins legacy home office in London. Moving on to the cash flow and the balance sheet. Cash used for operating activities was $12,500,000 for the first quarter of twenty twenty five, which compares to cash provided by operating activities of $3,800,000 for the first quarter of twenty twenty four. [indiscernible] first quarter was impacted by layering in the Timon acquisition as the legacy Timmins business very much make to stock versus legacy Quanex business is very much make to order. Free cash flow was negative for the quarter, which isn't abnormal due to seasonality of our business, combined with one time items related to integration costs and achieving the cost synergies we've targeted. As a reminder, to acquire Thymein in August 2024, we borrowed a total of $770,000,000 through a $500,000,000 term loan A and drawing $270,000,000 on our revolver. Since that time, we've been able to repay $65,000,000 in debt. As of 01/31/2025, the leverage ratio for our quarterly debt compliance was 2.2 times. The debt covenant leverage ratio is defined in Amendment one to our second amended interstated credit agreement which was filed with the SEC on 06/12/2024. [indiscernible] This debt covenant leverage ratio excludes real estate leases that are considered finance leases under U. S. GAAP and is calculated on a pro form a basis to include last twelve months adjusted EBITDA from the Timon acquisition dollars 30,000,000 of EBITDA for the synergy target related to the acquisition and cash only from domestic subsidiaries.

Debt covenant leverage ratio would be 2.1 times if calculated using the full cash and cash equivalents amount on the balance sheet as of 01/31/2025. As noted in our earnings release, based on year to date results, combined with our operational execution, conversations with our customers, recent demand trends and the latest macro data, are reaffirming net sales guidance of approximately $1,840,000,000 to $1,860,000,000 and adjusted EBITDA guidance of $270,000,000 to $280,000,000 for fiscal twenty twenty five. [indiscernible] From a cadence perspective, on a consolidated basis for the second quarter of this year, versus the first quarter of this year, expect revenue to be up 9% to 11% and we expect adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of three fifty to 400 basis points.

Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct a question and answer session. And our first question comes from the line of Ruben Garner of Bench Your line is now open. Thank you. Good morning, guys.

Good morning. Good morning.

I was hoping you could talk about the progression of margins you're expecting for the rest of the year and specifically Scott on the gross line, the last two quarters kind of in the low to mid-20s range and the guide for the year is I believe closer to 29. So it pretty big step upcoming. Is that just seasonality and timing? Can you just kind of walk us through the components to get there?

Yes, that has everything to do with the PPA step up related to the acquisition, which hit in 4Q. And ran off in 1Q.

So rest of the year, gross margin should be jumping up meaningfully to hit that full year guidance.

Improving each quarter.

Okay.

And then can you can you talk about the divergence you're seeing in the kind of growth rates between the cabinets business and the penetration business and in North America kind of went opposite directions in the quarter. Does that tell us that how big of a role weather might be playing or any other kind of factors going on?

Well, I think the weather had a big piece to play in it, especially with the window and door market. A much harsher winter in most of the country. I think, did have an impact on demand in our fiscal Q1. And that's why you saw a little better performance in terms of volumes in the cabinet side of the business I also think what we had seen is that cabinet segment had been hit harder sooner and that's kind of been a leading indicator and we always see the cabinets drop faster and sooner than the window and door market. And they tend to lead on the improvements in those segments as well. So nothing that we haven't anticipated or expected.

Okay. I'm going to sneak one more in kind of a big picture [indiscernible] your confidence level and your outlook. And I guess just maybe change in tone now versus a month ago? Or are you feeling less confident in the March kind of full year guidance type numbers because it seems like you would need an improvement in the end market at least to get to the top line outlook? Yes. I think it goes back to what we said in the fourth quarter. I think some people were surprised on our call or question maybe our conservative approach. But I think we've had a realistic view of this year from day one and nothing has changed to that. To that. So for us, yes, the back half of the year shows some improvement, but that's really based off of what we currently see and the normal seasonality of our business. So we feel really good about where we're at in terms of our projections. In addition, I feel like extremely confident about the work that we're doing with synergies. So I think we feel very comfortable with both the revenue and our earnings guide for the full year based on those items.

Great. Thanks guys. Good luck.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Steven Ramsey of Thompson Research Group. Your line is now open.

Good morning. I wanted to maybe ask a follow on question to the guidance outlook in kind of the second half improvement that's part of that. I guess first, if you need that second half improvement to get to that full year, level. Is there certain segments maybe that are greater drivers to get there? And then maybe secondly, just high level, your full year outlook maybe seems more optimistic on an order of magnitude basis, maybe than the window and cabinet producers that shared their outlook. So maybe I'm curious on those two fronts how you think about those things?

Yes. I mean, in general, what I would say is, the way we forecast the business from a low watermark in 1Q to high high in 3Q and 4Q is just typical seasonality. There's nothing different that we're expecting this year than any other normalized seasonal seasonality for this year. So that's what gives us some confidence that we will see an uptick in the second half just because of seasonality. Anything above that would be in addition to what we've already forecasted.

And I think to reiterate my answer to Reuben as well, I think we were more conservative when we came out with guidance in the December was to be very realistic about what we thought and we anticipated and we were probably a little more [indiscernible] In our view of this year and I think that that's coming to fruition So for us, it's nothing that we didn't anticipate. And to answer your other question, Stephen, I think in terms of the segments, I think we see more seasonality in the window and doors than we do in cabinets. So I think we will tend to see more of a pickup from the timing piece of our business and what we would consider our NAF segment versus the European business, which is less seasonal, and our cabinet business, which has a different seasonality.

Yes. And just one more couple of data points that we went over in the the Investor Day, but it's probably important to reiterate. If you look at the five year average for free cash flow and adjusted EBITDA, we typically generate about 10% of our free cash flow in the first half with the remaining 90% in the second half.

Then about 40% of adjusted EBITDA in the first half with 60% in the second half. Rough numbers. I mean, just shows you how seasonal our business really is.

Okay. That's great color. Thanks for sharing all that. Maybe to continue the cash flow and cash flow usage topic, your debt pay down aggressive and working nicely you repurchased some stock in the quarter as well. I'm curious how you think about putting capital to work on each of those pads through FY 2025 I get your opportunistic, but maybe share some of your nuanced perspective on how you're choosing to deploy capital into those two areas?

Yes, we obviously analyze it every every day, every week as we go on. Just being very direct here that I would think where we're trading at today, we feel like directing a large portion of our cash flow to repurchasing our stock at these levels absolutely becomes priority. So I think a lot of it depends on the market. We do not have any sort of 10b program we have limited time to be in the market. But at these levels, I would say the priority will probably be share buyback versus [indiscernible] depending on cash flow, we'll evaluate that each and every week.

All right. And then last quick one for me. Good to hear that the synergy target in timeline is intact and you said that you would have more details on the next call. But maybe just high level thinking about the three new segments that you will have is any one of those maybe an outsized beneficiary of the synergies you execute on or another way of asking, do any of the three segments new segments have better margin expansion potential over the next couple of years? We broke down our our synergies really into three buckets. You had the core costs, which really don't benefit any sort of segment. That will be applied equally over all the segments on an allocated basis. You had the headcounts in that will that was primarily North America and the overlap between our North American businesses between Thymeen and Quanex. Were very similar. So that will be probably a little more weighted towards hardware versus and some to the And then finally sourcing, which will be equally applied. So maybe a little heavily heavier weighted towards hardware and then to extruded, probably a pretty good summary would be broken down by how our revenue will be split, which was identified in that investor deck.

Excellent.

Thanks for all the color.

Thank you.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Adam Thalhimer of Thompson Davis. Your line is now open.

Hey, good morning guys. Nice quarter.

Good morning. Good morning. Thank you. If you did see an impact from tariffs, which segment would that impact mostly?

As we look at the commodity breakdown, what I would say in our new segments, it will probably impact the hardware business and a little a little more direct because of their metal buys. In the aluminum But again, we're protected with some of the index pricing mechanisms that we have here in The U. S. And surcharges.

The wood again, hardwood index. So I think it will be balanced across all three but maybe a little more heavily weighted to hardware.

Okay. And then George, I was hoping you could give a little more color just on the conversation with customers and kind of their macro outlook?

Yes.

All the conversations tend to focus around consumer confidence. And it goes back to the macro question. There's a lot of noise in the media. The tariff and that changes on an everyday basis. And so there's unknowns on what the future costs to the end consumers are going to be in both repair and remodel and new build. Type of projects. So I think our customers are are apprehensive because there's not a lot of good visibility in what going on and there's really no good visibility on what the Fed is going to do. Nor is there a strong visibility on where the tariffs will shake out customers are cautious and kind of on hold mode on in terms of where they're going [indiscernible] again, as we said in our script and with it's been proven over the last few years, From Quanex perspective, our model is built to ramp up or ramp down fairly quick. So each we feel good about where we're at and that we'll be able to adjust well. But until some of the tariff items and consumer confidence rebounds a little bit, I think again, it's going to be a bumpy year as we originally anticipated and built into our guidance back in December.

So again, we're not seeing anything that we didn't anticipate. But it's coming to fruition.

Got it. And then when does the buyback window open?

Two days after three days after earnings, so I think Thursday this week. Thank you. Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Justin Machete of Sidoti and Company. Your line is now open.

Good morning. This is Justin on for Julio.

Sure.

Good morning. In the first quarter, the time and adjusted EBITDA margin of 10.8% when compared to the strong European segment margin seems a bit low. Anything notable to help us understand the difference between the two? And can you give us a refresher on Timmins historical seasonality?

Yes, very similar to our historical seasonality. You have to keep in mind that about 60% to 70% of timing is North American focused. Which was one of the appeals of when we acquired them. So it's not a direct read through to our European Fenestration Segment.

Thanks. And Then The Jackson, Georgia facility was highlighted during your Investor Day. Beyond increasing regional capacity, how does this facility strengthen your competitive And what unique advantages do you expect it to bring?

So, the decision to open the Jackson facility was Phase one on being able to serve our regional customers. It absolutely capitalizes and protects our customers from freight costs to be able to serve that region. Two, it gives us an opportunity to add some additional capacity for our mixing and our compounding type of business, which will allow us to continue to grow in adjacent markets, such flashing tapes and solar products So it was a forward to forward to being able to deliver that It was a long term look for that project and we're excited about what it can potentially deliver.

Great. Thanks for the color there. That's all for me.

Thanks.

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this this time. I would now like to turn it back to George Wilson for closing remarks.

I'd like to thank everyone for joining today and we look forward to providing you with another update when we report our Q2 earnings in June.

You for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. [indiscernible]