Applied Industrial Technologies Q1 2027 Earnings Results & Report

Applied Industrial Technologies EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $2.97
• Consensus EPS: $2.89
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.08
• One Year Ago EPS: $2.63
• EPS Beat Rate: 8 of last 8 quarters

Applied Industrial Technologies Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.29 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.29 billion
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$21.00 thousand
• YoY Revenue Growth: +7.60%

Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) distributes industrial products and provides engineering and related services to manufacturers and other industrial customers. Its offerings include bearings, power-transmission components, fluid-power products, automation equipment and general maintenance, repair and operations supplies.

The company also provides technical support, engineering, systems integration, repair and inventory-management services. These capabilities help customers maintain equipment, improve production processes and manage the supply of industrial components.

Founded in 1923, Applied Industrial Technologies is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and serves customers across North America and in international markets. Its business includes both product distribution and specialized solutions for industrial and fluid-power applications.

Applied Industrial Technologies Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Strong start to fiscal 2027: First-quarter organic sales rose 7.1%, while EBITDA increased 9.6% and EPS grew 12.7% to $2.97. EBITDA margins expanded despite inflation and higher LIFO costs.
• Positive Sentiment: Engineered Solutions was a key growth driver, with organic sales up 14.1%, EBITDA up 24.7%, and orders increasing more than 30% year over year. Automation and fluid power posted particularly strong demand, while the segment’s book-to-bill reached its highest level in more than four years.
• Positive Sentiment: Management cited improving demand trends, including October organic sales growth of approximately 10%, stronger U.S. Service Center bookings, and favorable technical MRO and capital-spending activity. The company also expects Service Center profitability to improve as LIFO, healthcare, and prior-year comparison headwinds normalize.
• Positive Sentiment: Full-year EPS guidance was modestly raised to $11.70–$12.20 from $11.65–$12.15, while sales growth and EBITDA margin guidance were maintained. The company also repurchased approximately $80 million of stock and retains significant balance-sheet capacity for M&A and other shareholder returns.
• Negative Sentiment: Management continues to take a cautious stance because of geopolitical, interest-rate, tariff, and trade-policy uncertainty, as well as tougher November and December comparisons. Softer demand in Canada and Mexico and ongoing inflationary pressures remain near-term risks.

Presentation

[Operator]

Welcome to the fiscal 2027 first quarter earnings call for Applied Industrial Technologies. My name is Al, and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question at that time, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. Prior to asking questions, lift your handset to ensure the best audio quality. If at any time during the conference call you need to reach an operator, please press star zero. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Ryan Cieslak, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasury. Ryan, please go ahead.

[Ryan Cieslak, VP of Investor Relations and Treasury at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Okay. Thanks, Al, and good morning to everyone on the call. This morning, we issued our earnings release and supplemental investor deck detailing our first quarter results. Both of these documents are available in the investor relations section of applied.com. Before we begin, just a reminder, we will discuss our business outlook and make forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in our SEC filings.

[Ryan Cieslak, VP of Investor Relations and Treasury at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement. In addition, we will use non-GAAP financial measures during the conference call, which are subject to the qualifications referenced in our SEC filings. Our speakers today include Neil Schrimsher, Applied's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Dave Wells, our Chief Financial Officer.

[Ryan Cieslak, VP of Investor Relations and Treasury at Applied Industrial Technologies]

With that, I will turn it over to Neil.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Thanks, Ryan, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us. I will begin today with perspective and highlights on our results, including an update on industry conditions and expectations going forward. Dave will follow with more financial detail on the quarter's performance and provide additional color on our updated fiscal 2027 guidance. I will then close with some final thoughts. Overall, we had a nice start to fiscal 2027.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We delivered strong earnings performance in the first quarter with EBITDA and EPS growing 10% and 13% respectively over the prior year. Customer activity was directionally positive throughout the quarter, with organic sales growth of 7% in line with our outlook provided in mid-August. On a two-year stack basis, organic growth of 10% was up modestly compared to the seasonally strong trend we had in the fourth quarter.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We also drove solid margin performance in the quarter against ongoing inflationary headwinds, with EBITDA margins expanding year-over-year and achieving the high end of our guidance. Favorable mix, ongoing internal margin initiatives, and cost leverage are supporting our margin trajectory. Of particular note, our Engineered Solutions segment delivered a strong quarter on both the top and bottom line, with orders continuing to strengthen.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Underlying demand across our Service Center segment also remains positive, with sales growth strengthening as the quarter progressed and into October. Overall, we're executing well with a productive growth environment and on track to deliver solid performance for the year. Digging more into the sales trends, underlying demand remained favorable throughout the quarter. Market conditions were strongest across our U.S. operations, where organic sales increased 8% year-over-year.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Company-wide volumes were up 5% from the prior year, reflecting greater technical MRO and capital spending activity, combined with ongoing benefits from our internal sales initiatives and industry position. From an end market perspective, 18 of our top 30 market verticals generated positive sales growth, which is down from 20 last quarter, but up from the prior year quarter. On a two-year stack basis, 18 were positive compared to 17 last quarter, highlighting a sustained positive underlying trend.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Growth was strongest across metals, technology, machinery, utilities and energy, mining, and oil and gas. This was partially offset by declines primarily in lumber and wood, aggregates, and rubber and plastics, and food and beverage. Sales growth during the quarter was led by our Engineered Solutions segment, which delivered 14% organic sales growth year-over-year, up slightly from 13% last quarter.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Segment order trends also remained positive during the quarter, increasing by more than 30% year-over-year, with backlog continuing to strengthen and book-to-bill at its highest level in more than four years. Sales growth in the quarter was strongest in automation, where organic sales increased by more than 20% year-over-year for the second straight quarter.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Demand for our automation solutions focused on robotics, machine vision, and digital technologies remained solid as customers address structural labor constraints, safety and quality requirements, and supply chain resiliency initiatives with a favorable production environment. It is increasingly evident customers are investing in automation to meet lasting operational requirements and strengthen their competitive position long term.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Our scaling footprint across the U.S. and Mexico, combined with the leading engineering and application expertise and strategic relationships with premier automation suppliers, is providing a clear competitive advantage as we connect these solutions across our legacy customer base. With our automation backlog growing more than 30% sequentially and year-over-year during the quarter, we see sustained solid growth momentum moving forward.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Fluid power also remains a bright spot, with organic sales increasing by a high teens percent over the prior year, reflecting strength within semiconductor and data center markets, as well as positive demand across industrial and mobile OEM customers. The growth outlook across fluid power remains strong as well, with related backlog ending the quarter at its highest level in four years. Secular tailwinds within both legacy and emerging customer verticals are driving durable demand for fluid conveyance, industrial power, pneumatic automation, and next-generation hydraulic systems.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We're in a great spot to leverage these growth catalysts as the largest fluid power distributor and solutions provider in the U.S., with premier system engineering and assembly capabilities. I'm also encouraged by the stronger demand developing within our flow control operations, where organic sales increased more than 6% year-over-year, a solid pickup from last quarter.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We're seeing stronger flow control demand across metals, utility and energy, and technology end markets, while customer activity across process-heavy chemicals and refinery verticals is starting to firm. Overall, all three areas of our Engineered Solutions segment are trending nicely to start the year, a positive sign for the segment's growth durability, as well as earnings contribution potential. This was evident in the quarter where the segment's inherent operating leverage read through nicely, with 14% sales growth translating to 25% EBITDA growth, representing incremental margins of 24%.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Demand signals across our Service Center segment also remain positive. Organic sales growth of 3.5% moderated from 8% last quarter, though primarily reflecting a more difficult comparison, with a two-year stack of 8% up modestly from the seasonally strong trend last quarter. Year-over-year growth improved every month in the quarter, with the positive trend continuing into October, where segment organic sales are up a high single-digit percent month to date.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Demand conditions were strongest across the U.S. Service Center operations during the quarter, where organic sales increased approximately 6% over the prior year, with break fix and technical MRO activity remaining firm throughout the quarter. We also continue to see stronger demand across local accounts, providing another positive signal on the durability of the cycle. In addition, customer sentiment and demand indications remain constructive, reflecting elevated technical MRO requirements and a positive U.S. manufacturing backdrop.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Of note, U.S. Service Center bookings increased 7% sequentially from the fourth quarter, which was nicely ahead of normal seasonality. Segment growth was partially offset by muted end market demand in Canada and Mexico, which is consistent with more subdued manufacturing and industrial indicators within those regions over the past several quarters and partially reflects the evolving trade backdrop. Canada and Mexico represent approximately 12% of our Service Center segment sales.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

While near-term trade dynamics remain uncertain, we expect improving trends within these regions as the year progresses based on current business pipelines, easy comparisons, and internal actions. Overall, our core Service Center business is tracking directionally in line with our expectations year to date, with demand indicators remaining supportive moving forward.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

In addition to an overall positive demand backdrop, we're in a great position to continue to translate the current trajectory of sales growth into greater earnings growth and ongoing EBITDA margin expansion through cost leverage and internal initiatives, as well as benefits from favorable mix. Our first quarter performance is a good reflection of this. Of note, gross margins expanded 25 basis points over the prior year, or nearly 50 basis points excluding the impact of LIFO.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

This was ahead of our first quarter guidance with underlying gross margin performance favorable across both segments during the quarter. We benefited from positive mix during the quarter, reflecting stronger growth across Engineered Solutions segment and local accounts. We're also executing well across various margin initiatives, which are helping offset higher employee-related costs, freight and fleet expense inflation, and ongoing growth investments.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

As a result, we achieved 15% incremental margins on EBITDA during the quarter, or 19% when excluding LIFO, which was at the high end of our first quarter outlook and against a difficult prior year comparison. Our underlying business model, combined with ongoing operational initiatives and structural mix tailwinds, provide solid support levers to continue to expand EBITDA margins and drive solid earnings growth in the current demand backdrop.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Lastly, we remain on track to have another active year of capital deployment to further supplement our growth potential and shareholder returns. M&A remains a top capital allocation priority for fiscal 2027. Our pipeline is active with varying size targets across both segments. This includes several mid-size targets at various stages of due diligence that could enhance our technical differentiation and value-added service capabilities.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Our balance sheet and cash generation provide meaningful capacity to further compound our growth through M&A. As always, we remain disciplined with our approach, with a primary focus on generating appropriate returns while enhancing our competitive position and long-term growth opportunity. At this time, I'll turn it over to Dave for additional detail on our results and outlook.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Thanks, Neil, and good morning to everyone joining today. Just another reminder before I begin, as in prior quarters, we have posted a supplemental investor presentation to our investor site for your additional reference. We hope that you will find this useful as we recap our most recent quarter performance. Turning now to details of our financial performance in the quarter, consolidated sales increased 7.6% over the prior year quarter.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Acquisitions and foreign currency were a modest tailwind in the period, adding 30 and 20 basis points, respectively, of growth. The number of selling days in the quarter was unchanged year over year. Netting these factors, sales increased 7.1% on an organic basis. As it relates to pricing, we anticipate the contribution of product pricing to year over year sales growth was approximately 200 basis points in the quarter.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Moving to consolidated gross margin performance, as highlighted on page seven of the deck, gross margin of 30.4% was up 25 basis points compared to the prior year level. During the quarter, we recognized LIFO expense of $5.6 million compared to $2.6 million in the prior year quarter and $6.4 million last quarter. On a net basis, this resulted in an unfavorable 23 basis point year over year impact on gross margins.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Excluding LIFO expense, gross margins were up nearly 50 basis points year over year, reflecting ongoing progress with our internal margin initiatives, solid channel execution, and favorable mix. As it relates to operating costs, selling, distribution, and administrative expenses increased 7% compared to prior year levels. On an organic constant currency basis, SD&A expense was up 6.5% year over year. As a percentage of sales, SD&A expense improved 12 basis points year over year to 19.3%.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

I would note the prior year period included a favorable AR provision recovery, which negatively impacted the fiscal 2027 first quarter year-over-year SD&A trend by 1.2 percentage points. We also experienced higher than expected employee health benefit costs in the quarter from claims activity, which we self-insure and expect to return to more normalized levels moving forward. Our team remains disciplined on spend while also focusing on various efficiency initiatives tied to technology investments, shared services, and sales productivity tools.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

This is helping to balance inflationary headwinds and growth investment in the business. Overall, organic sales growth, combined with solid gross margin performance and cost leverage, resulted in reported EBITDA increasing 9.6% over the prior year. This is inclusive of greater LIFO expense, which negatively impacted year-over-year EBITDA growth by 2.1 percentage points in the quarter.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Reported EBITDA margin of 12.4% was up 22 basis points from the prior year level, with year-over-year LIFO headwinds negatively impacting EBITDA margin by 23 basis points. Earnings per share of $2.97 increased 12.7% from prior year EPS of $2.63. On a year-over-year basis, EPS was favorably impacted by a lower diluted share count, partially offset by higher interest expense. Turning now to our performance by segment, as highlighted on slides eight and nine of the presentation, sales in our Service Center segment increased 3.5% year-over-year on an organic basis.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

This excludes 40 basis points of contribution from acquisitions and a positive 30 basis point impact from foreign currency translation. Growth was primarily driven by volume growth across our U.S. Service Center operations, reflecting favorable end market demand and benefits from our internal sales initiatives, partially offset by softer end market demand in Canada and Mexico. Segment EBITDA increased 1.6% over the prior year, while segment EBITDA margin of 13.6% declined 35 basis points year-over-year.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

The year-over-year trend in segment EBITDA and EBITDA margins was negatively impacted by higher LIFO expense and the tough comparison against favorable prior year AR provisioning, which combined represented a 3.3 percentage point headwind to year-over-year EBITDA growth, as well as more than 40 basis point year-over-year headwind to EBITDA margin. Within our Engineered Solutions segment, organic sales increased 14.1% over the prior year quarter.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by double digit growth across our automation and fluid power operations, reflecting solid end market demand, including positive technology vertical contribution, as well as improving demand across our flow control operations. Segment EBITDA increased 24.7% over the prior year, and segment EBITDA margin of 15.1% expanded 129 basis points year-over-year, inclusive of higher LIFO expense compared to the prior year period.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Moving to our cash flow performance, cash generated from operating activities during the first quarter was $86.4 million, while free cash flow totaled $73.4 million, representing conversion of approximately 67% relative to net income. Compared to the prior year first quarter, free cash was down as a result of working capital investment tied to stronger demand and higher capital expenditures, partially offset by ongoing progress with internal working capital management initiatives.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

From a balance sheet perspective, we ended September with approximately $112 million of cash on hand and net leverage at approximately 0.3 times EBITDA, which was unchanged from the prior year period. Our current revolving credit agreement has available capacity of approximately $806 million and an additional $800 million accordion option. Combined with availability under our AR securitization facility, we have significant financial capacity to support our capital deployment initiatives moving forward, including accretive M&A, dividend growth, and share buybacks.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

During the first quarter, we repurchased more than 245,000 shares for approximately $80 million. Turning now to our outlook, as indicated in today's press release and detailed on page 12 of our presentation, we are modestly raising full year fiscal 2027 EPS guidance to reflect an updated diluted share count following first quarter buyback activity.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We now project EPS in the range of $11.70-$12.20, compared to prior guidance of $11.65-$12.15. That said, we are maintaining our sales guidance of up 4%-6.5%, as well as EBITDA margins up 12.5%-12.8%. Guidance continues to assume 150 to 200 basis points of year-over-year sales contribution from pricing. Our sales outlook remains largely unchanged from the views we provided in mid-August. End market demand indicators remain favorable, and we are encouraged by positive order and business funnel momentum that continues to develop.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

However, guidance continues to take into consideration ongoing economic uncertainty tied to current geopolitical, interest rate, and trade policy dynamics, as well as more difficult comparisons in the back half of the year. Combined with sales trends month to date in October, we currently project fiscal second quarter organic sales to increase by 6%-8% over the prior year. We would also note prior year comparisons are slightly more difficult in the November and December periods relative to October.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

In addition, while holiday timing is more favorable this year, we remain balanced with our near term sales expectation, given variability that can occur in a seasonally slower fall and winter months as customers adjust production schedules, project phasing, and capital investments within a still dynamic macro backdrop. Lastly, from a margin standpoint, we are encouraged by our first quarter performance and reiterate the outlook provided in mid-August.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We continue to assume ongoing inflationary pressures and growth investments. For the second quarter, we expect gross margins to be stable to up slightly on a sequential basis and EBITDA margins up 12.3%-12.5%. We are assuming a more normalized level of margin performance in the second quarter following solid execution in the first quarter, which we believe is prudent considering the inflationary backdrop, potential variability in LIFO expense, and ongoing growth investments. That said, we remain focused on a number of ongoing margin and productivity initiatives that should continue to provide support moving forward. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Neil Schrimsher for some final comments.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

To wrap up, we are encouraged by our first quarter performance, including double-digit earnings growth, solid margin execution, and sustained positive order momentum. Organic sales growth month to date in October of approximately 10% highlights positive momentum entering our fiscal second quarter. We continue to take a prudent approach with our outlook given limited visibility in how current trade policy, geopolitical, and interest rate dynamics might impact end market demand as the year progresses.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

That said, we remain positively biased considering the current growth backdrop, our market position, and internal initiatives. Customer demand is showing solid durability year to date with support from both structural and secular tailwinds that are more meaningful than prior cycles. Broader industrial macro indicators all continue to signal a positive U.S. manufacturing environment with the ISM PMI above 50 for nine straight months following three years of sub 50 readings.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

In addition, U.S. industrial capacity utilization remains well below its pre-COVID highs. While several of our core industrial markets have yet to fully participate in the current upcycle and could begin to inflect moving forward, including chemicals, petrochem, refining, transportation, and lumber and wood. Considering these dynamics and the fact our positive volume growth trajectory is only three quarters into the current recovery within a potentially structural, stronger technical MRO, and capital investment backdrop, we believe we remain particularly early in our growth cycle.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Further, our market position is driving new and meaningful company-specific opportunities as we support elevated technical MRO requirements in many of our core legacy end markets, as well as increased exposure across areas of automation and the technology vertical. Within our core Service Center business, our overall share of the addressable market continues to progress nicely across a still highly fragmented market.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We see significant opportunity to continue to expand our presence in this technical aftermarket as customers partner with more capable providers with breadth and scale. In addition, our deep capabilities and strategic supplier relationships across areas of fluid conveyance, pneumatics, industrial power, process flow control, and robotics are opening up new addressable markets supporting the build-out of advanced industrial systems and related energy infrastructure as AI proliferates.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Within this, we see a potential meaningful aftermarket opportunities in the future on this essentially new industrial installed base. We are well-positioned to capitalize on these trends given our domain knowledge, engineering expertise, service facility density, and scale. In addition, our team's collaboration and alignment on selling one Applied value proposition is gaining nice momentum, supporting greater cross-selling contribution to our growth profile as the demand cycle continues to move forward.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Lastly, our balance sheet and liquidity provide strong support to opportunistically pursue ongoing organic investment and strategic M&A in the current environment. As well as other capital deployment that could augment returns for all stakeholders going forward. So overall, a great start to fiscal 2027, with a significant opportunity still ahead for the Applied team. With that, we'll open up the lines for your questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please pick up your handset and press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question from the queue, press star one again. As a reminder, if at any time you need to reach an Operator, please press star zero. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Chris Dankert with D.A. Davidson. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Chris Dankert, Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Hey, morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess to jump in, the thing that stood out most to me, ES orders up 30% plus. I guess, can you give us a little bit more color there? Anything you can share in terms of just average delivery timeline there? Is this kind of pointing us towards double-digit growth in the segment for 2027? Any additional color would be really helpful.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Sure. I think, hey, overall, pleased with the continued order development. Double digit for the fourth straight quarter. So nice, really good participation across automation fluid power and a high single digit pickup in flow control. So encouraging there as well. I think timing, as we have talked about before, can vary. It can be a 90 to 180-day turn. That said, I know some of the projects based on engineering or the phasing of the overall project could extend slightly longer than that. But hey, good signals on the order and the development.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We are pleased with the backlog progress and as we shared, book-to-bill highest in over four years, all positive signals for us. We did. I think you see a little bit more in terms, Chris, of some of the blanket orders that did positively impact the most recent quarter as well. You do have some of that mix. So continue to solidify, to your point, our view on the back half of the year for Engineered Solutions. Continue to be pleased with that order development. But not all of that is going to follow that 90 to 180 day type of time frame for delivery. But nonetheless, very encouraged by the continued momentum we see there.

[Chris Dankert, Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

No, that's really helpful, guys. Thank you. And nice to see the progress in Flow Control in particular. I guess as my follow-up here to focus more on the second quarter signposts you laid out. With October up at least so far, 10%, and some of the timing comps around holidays being a little bit easier, I guess, maybe what's kind of implied in the low end of the guide here? What are we sort of assuming would go wrong to get us near the bottom end there?

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yeah, I think on the low end, Chris, nothing that we're seeing today for the low end of the guide on that. I think at midpoint and high, just working to be prudent on things that we talked about that as they develop, whether pricing tariff or some of the geopolitical on that side. There is a comparable step up for November and December of a couple hundred basis points in the comparable of that.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

As we talked about and last year as well, each holiday season can kind of take some of their own nuances. We're connected with customers well right now. I think it's early to know their firm plans, so clearly we're serving the production and project requirements well in October. We'll be there for them in the November and December. I do think the holiday set up post-Christmas with four days together is positive, but obviously we'll see how that plays out and develops.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We don't talk a lot about Service Center backlog because it is such book and churn, but it was encouraging there as well, where we saw backlog up about 20% year over year on the Service Center segment, up 7% sequentially. So, you get some further confidence in both the upcoming quarter and you're seeing some of the back half activity to the extent that that phases out.

[Chris Dankert, Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Got it. Makes sense. I will hop back in queue. Thanks so much, guys.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Thanks, Chris.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Obin with Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Andrew Obin, Analyst at Bank of America]

Yes, good morning. Can you hear me?

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yes, we can.

[Andrew Obin, Analyst at Bank of America]

Excellent. Just maybe a question on Service Center profitability, and maybe this was a function of how we modeled it, but I think the margin came in a tad weaker than we thought. You highlighted some headwinds outside of North America. Could we just talk a tad more about what were the key moving pieces up and down in Service Centers, and also maybe if there were any unusual things in the corporate lineup. I apologize if I missed it. Thank you.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

No worries, Andrew. I can start. I would say overall, we expected a somewhat muted year-over-year Service Center segment margin trends in the first quarter, given the more difficult comparison. There was a negative impact that we touched on with the higher LIFO expense, and also prior year of favorable AR provisioning. If you combine those, that was a 3.3 percentage point headwind to year-over-year EBITDA growth, as well as 40 basis points headwind to the EBITDA margins.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

As you pointed out, that trend was also impacted by softer volumes outside of the U.S., as well as some of the higher medical on the employee-related cost in the period. We do expect year-over-year margin trends in the second quarter for the Service Center segment as LIFO and the AR provision impact normalizes to combine with stronger top-line trends that we have to be at an improved higher level.

[Andrew Obin, Analyst at Bank of America]

Any positives on the corporate line?

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

I mean, corporate was pretty much in line with expectations. Nothing unusual there, Andrew.

[Andrew Obin, Analyst at Bank of America]

Okay. Got you. Thank you. Maybe a question, you sort of highlighted strength in automation. Was that sort of as expected or is automation coming in better than expected? We are sort of hearing similar commentaries from OEMs, ABB, Schneider, both highlighted pretty strong automation trend. I am a bit surprised by that we are seeing as much strength as we are so early. I do not know, maybe just expand on that if you can.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yeah. We are seeing high interest I think as customers look to operate and see the demand requirements that they have, deal with labor scarcity and other market drivers. We see high interest and activity in collaborative robots and mobile robots on the side from a growth standpoint in the 20s for two straight quarters. Orders have been strong in that, so we are carrying good productive backlog and add to it.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Really helping customers across our legacy base as I think about food and beverage, technology segments, others, bring automation into their operating plans. So, hey, we are encouraged, got a very good position, team is clearly focused. We are making some investments in Additional capacity for throughput to serve some of that demand that will go this quarter. We are pleased about automation as well as the rest of Engineered Solutions.

[Andrew Obin, Analyst at Bank of America]

Yeah, everybody calls it physical AI these days, but thank you so much for the color. I appreciate it.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Okay. Thank you.

[Operator]

Your next call comes from the line of Ken Newman with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Hey, good morning, guys.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Morning.

[Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Morning. For my first question, I will ask Andrew's question on incremental margins for Service Center a little bit differently. Dave, is there a way to help us quantify just how much the margins in Service Center were impacted by lower Canada and Mexico demand in the quarter? I hear you that you are expecting that to kind of normalize here 1Q to 2Q. Are you already seeing evidence of that in the 10% October growth?

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yeah, we are seeing recovery out of both areas. I would say it was down the list in terms of factors. Obviously, we had some natural buffers as business levels slowed down in terms of incentives, things variable of that nature, pullbacks in the temp and overtime, things of that nature. Really less of a contributing factor. As I look at it, the year-over-year comparison on the AR provisioning was a significant impact. LIFO, like I said, you combine those two, as Neil said, a 3.3 percentage point headwind to EBITDA growth, 40 basis points impact on EBITDA margin. Much different scenario if you just roll those two back. Like I said, the employee healthcare costs, a lot of those were more focused in the Service Center segment as you read through that. Those are really the top three contributing factors of the four.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

The last on the list would be the softer volumes in Mexico and Canada. Like I said, encouraged that we are seeing some of that recovery as we move through this quarter. I would expect, like I said, to see the continued progress as both the LIFO, some of the medical, and obviously do not have the AR provisioning issue to deal with in the quarters going forward, more normalized comparatives would expect to see that nice trend we have been seeing in terms of EBITDA profitability growth out of both segments.

[Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Got it. Okay. If we just the incremental margin lines of questioning here. Obviously, you've got some visibility here in operating margins improving quarter-over-quarter. How do we think about the setup for incremental margins for the full year? Is the back half potentially able to do high teens, low 20% type of incremental margins, or is that still too early of a call at this point?

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

I'd say overall in the setup, at the midpoint on incremental margins would be the mid to high teens. With the midpoint on the guide assuming 16%-17% incrementals, then at the high end, assuming 18% incrementals. With the goalpost that we shared for the second quarter at the midpoint, that would have incrementals at 17% versus 15% in Q1. That's got some normalizing level of gross margins. So that'd be the view on the incrementals. Clearly, we've demonstrated opportunities to be better in those fronts, but we think those are the right expectations now.

[Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Got it.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

I was very encouraged by the gross margin performance, even inclusive of the 23 basis point LIFO headwind, kind of being up to the order magnitude it was in terms of the 25 basis points year-over-year, even with LIFO headwinds. So you get that favorable mix impact, as we've talked about with some of the ES segment contribution, and that's going to continue to be a contributor here as we move through the balance of the year. You there, Ken?

[Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

I'm good. Thanks.

[Dave Wells, CFO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Okay. Thanks.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Brett Linzey with Mizuho. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Brett Linzey, Analyst at Mizuho]

Hey, good morning, all.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Morning.

[Brett Linzey, Analyst at Mizuho]

My first question is just on ticket size and breadth. As you drill down on the order book and backlog, are you seeing the average ticket sizes or any evidence that customers are moving forward with larger, more comprehensive project scope? Is the ticket size going up, or do you think that some of this acceleration is just simply pent-up projects that have been delayed and they are finally converting?

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

I think the interest in the aspects of the area of the plants or the facilities that are going to get included are expanding, and so there can be an increase in size. These on the Engineered Solutions side are still often a few hundreds of thousands of dollars and not these multimillion-dollar investments. I do not think it is just pent-up and deferral. Interest is higher, activity, new applications into the front. Given that Engineered Solutions has been positive seven quarters now, double digit four into the front, I take that as all positives and really led thus far by automation and fluid power, both encouraging, but we are starting to see that pick up in process flow control as they move up into that area, which will be very good as well.

[Brett Linzey, Analyst at Mizuho]

Yeah, that is great. Then maybe just to follow up on ES and the margin uptick you saw there up 130 basis points. As you look at the contribution and the attribution to the performance, is it higher valued engineered content just becoming a bigger part and share of ES? Where are the normalized margins ultimately going to land? Should this be the building off point, I guess is the question.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yeah. It may be early to fully call all of that for the rest of the year, but, hey, we are encouraged by the solutions that we're providing, appropriately positioning to the value that they create and impact into that. We feel like we're in a very good position across the automation and the fluid power side. Increased service work plus projects that we're seeing on flow control will be good as well. So, maybe we'll stop short of saying, this is the jump-off total on the jump-off point. Clearly, we have demonstrated that in the capability. We're not so far off mid-August when we established guidance, so we're probably wanting to work through a little bit more of this quarter as well.

[Ryan Cieslak, VP of Investor Relations and Treasury at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yeah, Brett, I just would add, I think there's nothing in the current quarter that was unusual and it really reflects the positive trends we're seeing in the business to your point on selling our Engineered Solutions as well as the inherent operating leverage in the segment when you're able to grow at double digit rates. So good sign moving forward. Then I just would reiterate as well that, again, now that flow control is starting to grow year-over-year, that is one of the higher margin businesses within the segment, so it's helping the mix, which we think can continue as the year progresses.

[Brett Linzey, Analyst at Mizuho]

Got it. Thanks for the color.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of David Manthey with Baird. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[David Manthey, Analyst at Baird]

Thanks. Good morning, guys. My question is on the progression as we're thinking sequentially. You had a couple of strong sequential quarters. I guess it's normally maybe moderate a bit after a couple of really strong sequentials, but the 5% quarter-over-quarter that you had this quarter seems lower than what would be a normal low single digit kind of progression. I just wondered if you had a comment on that. When you're looking at 7% midpoint growth and the 10% in October, I'm just trying to understand what you said about November and December comps. Should we think that November and December are each 200 basis points more difficult? Or was there a rising influence or moderating one? I'm just trying to understand if it's a straight line or if it's moving up or down.

[Ryan Cieslak, VP of Investor Relations and Treasury at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yes. Dave, this is Ryan. I would say that from a comp perspective to your last part of that question, the November and December period on average is about 200 basis points more difficult than October. I think November, probably a little bit more difficult than December. It does step up over that period relative to October. I think the 10% month to date in October, great to see off to a nice strong start. We're seeing nice improvement across both segments. Engineered Solutions would be up double digits. The Service Center segment up high single digits. The 6%-8% guide that we gave really is consistent with how we thought the quarter would play out back when we established guidance in mid-August.

[Ryan Cieslak, VP of Investor Relations and Treasury at Applied Industrial Technologies]

We're not changing it, which is sort of how we progress through the year, this early part of the year, but very nice to see how October started off and then just being prudent in the context of, hey, as you know, as you get into the softer seasonal months of November and December, you could always have some nuances there, but very encouraged by what we've seen so far. Your point, I think you were maybe talking about the sequentials, Dave, as it relates to in the first quarter. Is that what your first part of the question was focused on?

[David Manthey, Analyst at Baird]

It was, yeah.

[Ryan Cieslak, VP of Investor Relations and Treasury at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yeah. I think, one, I'd say, coming off of a really strong fourth quarter, where we had, I think seasonality was well above normal seasonality in the fourth quarter, had very strong backlog conversion in the fourth quarter. So we knew going into this quarter, probably have some normalization there. I'd say nothing that we saw as the quarter played out that concerned us. We saw improving year-over-year trends through the Service Center as the quarter played out. Local account growth, very nice in the high single digits. And then obviously the order and backlog trends continuing to move in the right direction. Just more a function of coming off a pretty strong fourth quarter trend.

[David Manthey, Analyst at Baird]

Got it. All right, Ryan. Yep. Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Schuchard with Oppenheimer. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

[Patrick Schuchard, Analyst at Oppenheimer]

Hey, guys. Neil, could you give us a refresher on the main technology areas within automation beyond robotics and vision? You talked about linear motion in the past. I'm wondering where that sits today and which other capabilities are becoming more meaningful growth opportunities.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Yeah, I think, linear motion is continued in the offering, as well as IoT connectivity-type devices and products. We're helping customers extract data off their operating equipment and knowing or establishing with them the key performance indicators to continue to watch, monitor, and track. That's an area. Vision, to your point on quality control and inspection, and then robotics on both sides. Greater use and adoption of mobile robots, and I think the prediction and the outlook on growth on the collaborative robot side continues to be very strong.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

I've seen outlooks there for the next five years, perhaps the CAGR is 15% a year to 2030. There's clearly going to be more collaboratives, there's more autonomous mobile. But there's more, to Andrew's point, on the physical AI. You want to be connecting to the data on that equipment to drive informed actions and behavior, and that's a growth area for us as well in automation.

[Patrick Schuchard, Analyst at Oppenheimer]

Okay, thanks. Maybe just to follow up on linear motion specifically, is the opportunity there primarily supplying components into OEM equipment, or are you increasingly combining it with controls, vision, and robotics in broader Engineered Solutions?

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Depending on the application, there is more because linear motion allows for very fine precision movement that can be required into the area. That's where we're going to be called in and be working with. So for very precise precision movements that are required, that's where linear motion has clear advantages in use and application. Those are the ones that we would be involved with, and we would be helping those providers how to think about the rest of that solution. Not simply just reselling a component or a product offering.

[Patrick Schuchard, Analyst at Oppenheimer]

All right. Appreciate it. I will pass it along.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

Thank you.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Schrimsher for any closing remarks.

[Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO at Applied Industrial Technologies]

I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to join us today, and we look forward to talking with you throughout this quarter.

[Operator]

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Ryan Cieslak, VP of Investor Relations and Treasury
• Neil Schrimsher, President and CEO
• Dave Wells, CFO

Analysts

• Chris Dankert, Analyst at D.A. Davidson
• Andrew Obin, Analyst at Bank of America
• Ken Newman, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets
• Brett Linzey, Analyst at Mizuho
• David Manthey, Analyst at Baird
• Patrick Schuchard, Analyst at Oppenheimer