NYSE:KAI Kadant Q1 2026 Earnings Report $319.44 +12.54 (+4.08%) Closing price 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$319.32 -0.11 (-0.03%) As of 04:10 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Massive. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Kadant EPS ResultsActual EPS$2.84Consensus EPS $2.11Beat/MissBeat by +$0.73One Year Ago EPS$2.10Kadant Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$281.51 millionExpected Revenue$274.95 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$6.56 millionYoY Revenue Growth+17.90%Kadant Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2026Date5/5/2026TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateWednesday, May 6, 2026Conference Call Time11:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsKadant's Q2 2026 earnings is estimated for Tuesday, August 4, 2026, based on past reporting schedules, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 11:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Kadant Q1 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 6, 2026 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Positive Sentiment: Kadant delivered a strong Q1 — bookings +25% YoY, revenue +18%, record aftermarket parts revenue of $209M (74% of revenue), adjusted EBITDA +19%, and adjusted EPS of $2.84 that beat guidance by $0.43. Positive Sentiment: Recent acquisitions (including Clyde Industries and Babbini) materially boosted Industrial Processing results (Q1 revenue +37%) and management says integration is progressing well. Negative Sentiment: The April acquisition of Kadant Profil will be temporarily dilutive (estimated ~ $0.20 to 2026 adjusted EPS) because ~45% of its sales are intercompany and existing on-hand inventory must be sold to third parties before related profit is recognized. Negative Sentiment: Timing of capital projects remains uncertain amid geopolitical and energy-price risks (Europe most affected), which could slow conversion of the strong bookings/backlog into capital revenue despite a healthy book-to-bill (1.14) and backlog growth. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallKadant Q1 202600:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2026 Kadant Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. You'll hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Michael McKenney, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:00:48Thank you, Therese. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Kadant's first quarter 2026 earnings call. With me on the call today is Jeff Powell, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Before we begin, let me read our safe harbor statement. Various remarks that we may make today about Kadant's future plans and expectations, financial and operating results and prospects are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:01:19These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those outlined at the beginning of our slide presentation and those discussed under the heading Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 3rd, 2026, and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements we make during this webcast represent our views and estimates only as of today. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so even if our views or estimates change. During this webcast, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:02:15A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is contained in our first quarter earnings press release and the slides presented on the webcast and discussed in the conference call, which are available in the investor section of our website at kadant.com. Finally, I wanted to note that when we refer to GAAP earnings per share or EPS and adjusted EPS on this call, we are referring to each of these measures as calculated on a diluted basis. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff Powell, who will give you an update on Kadant's business and future prospects. Following Jeff's remarks, I'll give an overview of our financial results for the quarter. We will then have our Q&A session. Jeff? Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:03:01Thanks, Mike. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning to review our first quarter results and discuss our business outlook for 2026. The first quarter was a strong start to the year, highlighted by robust demand and solid earnings growth. We delivered strong profitability while continuing to see healthy demand in our aftermarket business and improving capital business. Despite the high level of uncertainty fueled by global trade challenges and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, our first quarter exceeded expectations across most financial metrics. Record bookings and record aftermarket parts revenue, along with solid execution in our operations, drove healthy gross margin performance across our businesses. This, combined with lower than expected operating costs, led to exceeding our earnings expectations in the first quarter. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:03:51We continue to refine our 80/20 performance system, which also contributed to our results despite economic headwinds and tough competition in our core markets. Turning now to our first quarter financial performance on slide six, I'd like to highlight a few metrics that I believe are central to our growth story. Double-digit organic growth combined with our recent acquisitions delivered exceptional bookings growth of 25% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. New order activity was strongest in North America and Asia, with all regions seeing healthy demand growth compared to last year. Revenue was up 18%, with aftermarket parts revenue a record $209 million, representing 74% of our total revenue. The first quarter of the year is often a strong quarter in terms of parts bookings and revenue as our customers prepare for annual maintenance shutdowns. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:04:43This strong demand is supported by our large installed base. Adjusted EBITDA increased 19% to $57 million, representing 20.2% of revenue. Our adjusted EPS at $2.84 benefited from better than expected gross margin performance, lower than expected operating expenses, and excellent execution discipline. The quarter reflected a balanced picture of increasing commercial momentum in bookings, solid profitability and cash flow, and a revenue mix that strongly favored aftermarket parts. I'd like to discuss the performance of each of our three operating segments, beginning with our Flow Control segment. Flow Control segment experienced strong demand in the first quarter led by our North American businesses. Bookings increased 12% to a record $112 million, led by robust capital order activity and record aftermarket parts demand. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:05:40Q1 revenue increased 7% to $99 million, with aftermarket parts revenue making up 77% of total Q1 revenue. This revenue performance is expected to remain stable as the year progresses and benefit from increased capital shipments in the second half of the year. Adjusted EBITDA increased 5% compared to the same period last year, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 27.8%. While EBITDA margin was down modestly compared to last year, we expect to gain some operating leverage as the year progresses. Next, I'll discuss our Industrial Processing segment on slide eight. Strong demand for aftermarket parts and improved capital project order activity, combined with contributions from our recent acquisitions, led to record bookings of $145 million in the first quarter. Importantly, organic bookings were up 23%, reflecting improving underlying demand for our products and technologies as we started the year. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:06:38Revenue increased 37% to a record $123 million due to contributions from our recent acquisitions, which included Clyde Industries and Babbini. The integration of these companies into our Industrial Processing segment is progressing well, and we are pleased with the results delivered by both of these companies during the short time they have been part of Kadant. Adjusted EBITDA margin remained healthy at 24% of revenue. Overall, our first quarter performance of this segment was solid, with second half of the year looking to be stronger than the first. In our Material Handling segment, we achieved steady year-over-year growth in both revenue and bookings, consistent with our expectations. Revenue increased 5% to $60 million, while new order activity was up modestly to $65 million. While business activity remains stable, we are seeing an environment defined by capital equipment timing volatility. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:07:32An unfavorable product mix led to downward pressure on gross margin, which contributed in part to a lower EBITDA margin. As we move into the second quarter, our backlog is strong, and we're encouraged by the fundamentals of our end markets, which include aggregate mining, waste management, and recycling. We've entered 2026 with good start to the year in terms of record bookings and solid revenue performance, further supporting our confidence in the periods ahead. We are seeing an improving capital equipment market, although the timing of these projects is more uncertain than normal due to the ongoing geopolitical conflicts. We will continue to focus on strengthening our operations using our 80/20 business performance system and other internal initiatives, including increasing investments in automation to provide increased value for our customers. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:08:22Finally, last week, we closed on the previously announced acquisition of voestalpine BÖHLER Profil, now called Kadant Profil, a manufacturer of customized rolled products, rolled profiles, and industrial knives. In the short term, due to a portion of the sales of Kadant Profil being intercompany, this acquisition will have a dilutive effect on our adjusted EPS until the products currently held in inventory by other Kadant businesses are sold to a third-party customer. Mike will discuss this in more details in his remarks. Looking forward, we expect the newest addition to Kadant to be accretive to our earnings growth, and we are looking forward to integrating this business into the Kadant family. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:09:06Thank you, Jeff. I'll start with some key financial metrics from our first quarter. Revenue increased 18% to $281.5 million in the first quarter of 2026, driven by record parts and consumables revenue, representing 74% of total revenue. Gross margin was 45% in the first quarter of 2026, down 110 basis points compared to 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025. About half of this decrease relates to the negative effect of acquired profit in inventory amortization, which lowered gross margin in the first quarter of 2026 by 50 basis points. The remaining decrease was due to the lower gross margin profile associated with the product mix in the quarter. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:09:57SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased to 29.3% in the first quarter of 2026, compared to 29.8% in the prior year period. SG&A expenses increased $11.3 million or 16% to $82.5 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $71.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. This included an increase of $7.9 million from our acquisitions and a $2.8 million unfavorable foreign currency translation effect. Our effective tax rate in the first quarter was 28.2%, compared to 24.3% in the prior year period. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:10:43The comparatively higher tax rate was due to discrete tax benefits related to the release of tax reserves and vesting of equity awards in the first quarter of 2025, which lowered the effective tax rate by 320 basis points. Our GAAP EPS increased 6% to $2.16 in the first quarter, and our adjusted EPS increased 14% to $2.84, which exceeded the high end of our guidance range by $0.43. As a reminder, we announced on our last earnings call that our adjusted EPS now excludes non-cash intangible amortization expense. The $0.43 guidance beat was due to higher gross margins and lower operating expenses than anticipated. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:11:36Adjusted EBITDA increased 19% to $56.8 million, compared to $47.9 million in the first quarter of 2025, principally due to strong contributions from our 2025 acquisitions. As a percentage of revenue, adjusted EBITDA was 20.2% compared to 20% in the first quarter of 2025. Operating cash flow was $21.9 million, and free cash flow was $18.7 million in the first quarter of 2026. Both were down slightly compared to the first quarter of 2025. Our first quarter tends to be the weakest cash flow quarter, as was the case in 2025. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:12:20Other non-operating uses of cash in the first quarter of 2026 included $9.8 million of repayments on our debt, $3.3 million for capital expenditures, $4 million for dividends on our common stock, and $4.9 million for tax withholding payments related to the vesting of stock awards. Let me turn next to our EPS results for the quarter. Our adjusted EPS increased $0.34 from $2.50 in the first quarter of 2025 to $2.84 in the first quarter of 2026. This included increases of $0.58 from our acquisitions and $0.25 due to higher revenue. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:13:05These increases were offset by decreases of $0.24 due to higher operating expenses, $0.12 due to a higher tax rate, $0.07 due to a lower gross margin percentage, $0.05 due to higher interest expense, and $0.01 due to higher non-controlling interest expense. Let me provide some further details on these fluctuations. The $0.58 increase from our acquisitions represents the operating results of our 2025 acquisitions, excluding associated borrowing costs and acquisition-related costs, as well as recurring intangible amortization expense of $0.13. The majority of the $0.24 impact from higher operating expenses is due to an unfavorable foreign currency translation effect. Collectively, including all the categories I just mentioned, was a favorable foreign currency translation effect of $0.08 in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of last year. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:14:11Looking at our liquidity metrics on slide 15, our cash conversion cycle increased to 147 at the end of the first quarter of 2026 compared to 130 at the end of 2025, principally due to a higher number of days in inventory as our operations work to fulfill orders and backlog. Working capital as a percentage of revenue increased to 20% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to 16.8% in the first quarter of 2025 due to the lack of a full year of revenue from our 2025 acquisitions. If you exclude the impact of our 2025 acquisitions from this calculation, it would be 17.4%, which is slightly above the first quarter of 2025. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:14:58Our net debt, that is debt less cash, decreased $8 million sequentially to $244 million at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Our leverage ratio, calculated in accordance with our credit agreement, decreased to 1.27x at the end of the first quarter of 2026 compared to 1.33x at the end of 2025. At the end of April, we borrowed EUR 155 million to fund our acquisition, as a result, we anticipate that our leverage ratio will increase to just below 2x next quarter. After deducting our acquisition borrowing, we have approximately $210 million of borrowing capacity available under our revolving credit facility and an additional $200 million of uncommitted borrowing capacity. As we anticipated, we had an increase in capital bookings in the first quarter. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:15:52Our book-to-bill ratio increased to 1.14x, a three-year high, due to record aftermarket parts and a strong uptick in capital bookings. Our ending backlog was up 13% sequentially to $326 million. That being said, we remain cautious with our outlook for capital project activity in 2026. While some pending capital projects have moved forward, given some easing of earlier tariff-related uncertainty, the timing for other capital projects may be impacted by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical tensions. This environment has made it extremely difficult for our operations to forecast the timing of capital orders, requiring significant judgment on order timing and future material costs. As Jeff mentioned in his remarks, we completed our acquisition of voestalpine BÖHLER Profil, which we now call Kadant Profil, on April 30th. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:16:56We have now incorporated the operating results for this business into our updated 2026 guidance. I want to outline how the financial results of this acquisition will be reflected in Kadant's financial statements. This company has been a long-time supplier to several Kadant businesses. As a result, a significant portion of its revenue, which was 45% for the last fiscal year, will be intercompany revenue and therefore not included in Kadant's reported revenue. The associated profit generated on this intercompany activity will be reflected in Kadant's results. The timing will depend on when the underlying product is sold to a third-party customer. In addition, our Kadant businesses currently have on-hand inventory that will need to be consumed. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:17:47For now, we have taken a conservative approach and have not included any profit for the intercompany sales, as we estimate it may take the remainder of the year to work through the current on-hand inventory. Therefore, the only change to our guidance is the inclusion of Kadant Profil's external revenue and its operating results, as well as the associated borrowing costs. We estimate Kadant Profil, including the associated borrowing costs, will be dilutive to our adjusted EPS results by $0.20 in 2026. If current on-hand inventory turns faster than expected, there could be some upside potential for 2026. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:18:33We are raising our revenue guidance for 2026 to $1.178 billion-$1.203 billion, revised from our previous guidance of $1.160 billion-$1.185 billion. We now expect adjusted EPS of $12.33-$12.68 in 2026, which excludes $2.20 of intangible amortization expense and $0.33 of acquisition-related costs. This is revised from our previous guidance of $12.53-$12.88, which excluded $2.13 of intangible amortization expense and $0.13 of acquisition-related costs. Looking at our quarterly revenue and EPS performance in 2026, we expect that the first quarter will be the weakest quarter of the year. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:19:30Again, I want to stress the only guidance change is related to adding the forecasted results for Kadant Profil and the associated borrowing costs. Our revenue guidance for the second quarter of 2026 is $296 million-$306 million, and our adjusted EPS guidance for the second quarter is $2.88-$2.98, which excludes $0.55 of intangible amortization expense and $0.07 of acquisition-related costs. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:20:02Our revised 2026 guidance includes the following assumptions: Gross margins of 44.5%-45%, SG&A as a percent of revenue of 27.6%-28.1%, net interest expense of $20 million-$21 million, a tax rate of 27.5%-28%, depreciation expense of $27 million-$27.5 million, and intangible amortization expense, which we now add back to our adjusted EPS calculation of $34.5 million. That concludes my review of the financials. I will now turn the call back over to the operator for our Q&A session. Therese? Operator00:20:49Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the Q&A session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Gary Prestopino with Barrington. Your line is open. Gary PrestopinoAnalyst at Barrington00:21:21Good morning, Jeff and Mike. Hey, looking back on what you said at the end of Q4, you said there were you know, several capital projects that you thought would come to the market, but you weren't really including them in any guidance or anything like that just because of the uncertainty. I mean, is I know you said it's still an uncertain environment, but has anything happened there in terms of the amount of projects that you still think will be coming to the market? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:21:57Great question, Gary. Yeah. So, you know, we had several, handful, I'd say seven to eight projects that we were monitoring of varying size, that did not come in, that we thought may come in in 2025 that didn't come in, but they're still alive and well here in 2026. In the first quarter, one of those projects came in, and I'm happy to tell you here that in the second quarter, an additional two of those projects have come in. As, you know, Jeff and I have said in our, you know, little notes here, we see the capital activity warming up a little bit here now, which is nice to see. Gary PrestopinoAnalyst at Barrington00:22:45Okay. That's very good news. Just for purposes with the acquisition, I'm gonna call it VBP because I can't pronounce this, the name here. It looks like as of the last numbers you gave of EUR 51.5 million, EUR 16.6 million of adjusted EBITDA works out to about EUR 60 million of annualized revenues, EUR 18 million of EBITDA. Is that holding in terms of the profitability of the business? Do we see any growth from the time that, you know, you gave us that trailing twelve-month September number for 2025? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:23:31The profitability is holding, but when we did the forecast, we really looked at where they were so far in FY 2026 and what they thought would happen for the remainder of FY 2026. It has stepped down a little bit, so that $60 million run rate that you quoted, I now have as $55 million. I would say, you know, of that incremental decrease, we're a component of that. We are a component of it because what we're trying to do is, quite frankly, get through our on-hand inventory so that we can get to current inventory being purchased that is now intercompany and, you know, we can recognize the profit on it. We were a component of the reduction. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:24:19Some is also external sales, but we stepped down our purchases because of our current inventory levels. Gary PrestopinoAnalyst at Barrington00:24:27Okay, that's fine. This thing has 100% of aftermarket parts revenue, so it's basically recurring, right? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:24:35Correct. Gary PrestopinoAnalyst at Barrington00:24:37Okay. Thank you. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:24:39You're welcome. Operator00:24:41Thank you very much. Our next question is from Ross Sparenblek from William Blair. Your line is open. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:24:53Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:24:55Morning, Ross. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:24:58You know, somewhat of a cautious tone this quarter from your European peers. It would be great to just kind of get a sense of, you know, what you're seeing by geography and also anything around just factory utilization rates globally as well. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:25:13Yeah, I would say, of course, North America as it has been really for the last few years, is continuing to be the strongest market. Asia was strong, I would say, in the first quarter. As you pointed out, Europe, of course, is the most sensitive to what's going on in the Middle East and, you know, and energy prices, in addition to all the other challenges they frankly have right now. I think that we expect that'll probably be the case probably for most of the year, that North America will be the strongest. You know, last year, I would say Europe, you know, Asia was quite weak to begin with, and Europe was in the middle. I think Asia and Europe have flipped a little bit now. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:25:53It really will depend on how quickly this conflict is resolved and what the ultimate terms are, you know, when it is resolved. If energy prices return back to normal, I think Asia or Europe was positioned to try to start to make some investments. Of course, this has really impacted them because they're so dependent on an external, you know, supply chains for their, for their energy production. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:26:18Okay. I saw you've seen, you know, factory utilizations start to tail off, in Europe to start the year. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:26:26You know, I don't know that we've seen data. You know, this conflict's been going on now for several weeks. I'm not sure that we've seen hard data yet as to what that's doing, but it's definitely slower. You know, our European partners, you know, some of our European divisions are talking about customers talking about, you know, delaying things again until they get a better picture on, you know, where energy prices are going to go. You know, a lot of our products, of course, the, you know, the payback calculation is very much driven by energy cost. Some spikes in energy sometimes can help our products. You know, of course, when you have significant spikes where it really crushes overall demand, then we get impacted by that like everybody else. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:27:08I think we're gonna keep a close eye on what happens to energy prices in this conflict in the Middle East. Europe is definitely the most sensitive to it. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:27:16Okay. Well, if we, you know, take out the large project in the first quarter, it looks like, you know, capital bookings were still up 20% year-over-year, and they've been, you know, accelerating here. Your parts have been outperforming utilization rates for, you know, last couple of years now. Just trying to get a sense of where you think kind of the run rate demand is, and if we're starting to see, you know, the deferred maintenance start to flow, at least in the U.S. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:27:46Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've been saying for some time that, you know, our history would tell us that it's hard for our customers to go more than, you know, two or three years under investing before it really starts to impact their operations. I think we're, you know, we've been tracking the, you know, the age of our installed base, and some of it's quite old. You know, as you pointed out, the parts are really outperforming because of that. You know, we have expected that there will start to be an investment cycle. You know, a little bit of the issue we have, it seems like beginning of every year, there's some black swan event that just creates uncertainty in the market. You know, it's last year it was the, you know, the big tariff war. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:28:23This year now it's a Middle East conflict. You know, it just creates uncertainty, and it slows things down. They can only delay investing for so long before it starts to really impact their competitiveness. You know, we're encouraged by the orders we've gotten. I would say when Mike mentioned a lot of those large capital projects, most of them were outside of Europe. They weren't in Europe. I mean, there are a few that are in Europe, and we've gotten some actually from in Europe, you know, even this quarter. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:28:51A lot of the big ones are, you know, are in North America or, you know, I would say, you know, North Africa, places like that, certainly outside of Western Europe, 'cause they've been, you know, they've been quite cautious for some time. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:29:05Yeah. Well, I mean, just also given all the M&A you guys have done in the last two years, can you help us maybe frame what this deferred maintenance spend should look like in the bookings? I mean, is it like, is it kind of a $100 million quarterly run rate? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:29:23Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, Ross, if you look at the midpoint of our guidance on revenue- Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:29:34If we had the essentially the same split on parts capital, so 71%, 29%, we'd need about $340 million of capital revenue. You know, if you did that right out of the gate, you'd say $85 million a quarter. Capital revenue in the first quarter, of course, was softer, but we had good capital bookings. The first quarter capital revenue was just $72 million. That would say, okay, now that $85 million of revenue needs to be about $90 million. When we're looking forward, you know, the divisions are saying that they foresee capital bookings that will be, you know, above the $90 million mark. I would add, I would kind of stitch in here, you know. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:30:31The reason for our continued caution, hopefully the geopolitical stuff will be settled here shortly, and that won't create any further disruptions. We did have some of these capital projects that we were tracking, we thought would come in at 2025, now some have come in. Projects that we had slated for 2026, a couple projects already have been moved to 2027, specifically, those movements were related to the war. That's why we're being a little cautious here on the guidance front. I'm hopeful that we'll continue on the track we're on, we'll get to the end of the second quarter, we'll have confidence to enough confidence to raise guidance. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:31:20I mean, it looks like we're trending in the right direction, you know, after some headaches. Just on the capital backlog, on the equipment side, I have like $193. Is that ballpark? I know that, you know, substitutes change with FX. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:31:33Yeah. Hang in there. Actually, sorry, Ross. One second. I do have that right here. Yeah. Backlog was $321, you're spot on. It's $193 capital. Nice work there. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:31:52Fantastic. Good quarter, guys. I'll pass it along. Thank you. Operator00:31:57Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question is from Aditya Madan from D.A. Davidson. Your line is open. Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:32:16Hey, thanks for taking my questions, guys. Just a couple of quick ones from me. Looking at your FY 2026 sales outlook, does it still contemplate roughly like 1%-3% organic sales growth? Can you remind us how that splits up between capital equipment and P&C? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:32:37Yep. Hang in there, Adi. I'll flip to that. On the sales side, yeah, you're right in the ballpark there. At our midpoint, I have us at 2%. You know, right in the middle of the 1%-3%. What was the second part of the question, Adi, on the split? Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:32:59Yeah. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:32:59I ha- Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:32:59Yeah. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:33:02I have it being, you know, 71% parts and consumables, 29% capital. Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:33:10Awesome. Okay. Looking at like P&C, obviously like slightly lower year-over-year, was there any like one or two big factors that were like contributed to this? Is there anything that would lead you to be concerned around this maybe the lower contribution? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:33:35Well, Adi, I'm not sure. I tried to read through your pre-call report this morning, which I thought was relatively on track except for one item. I can tell you on the parts and consumables front, either Now are you looking revenue or bookings there? Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:33:58Mainly revenue, but yeah, if you talk about bookings too. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:34:01Okay. 'Cause they're up. It's up all in, and it's up organically for both revenue and bookings. I'm not sure. You know, there might have been just a little misstep. I think the only place you might get to organic being negative or, excuse me, either being negative is on organic. You wouldn't, of course, come anywhere near that on the all-in. It's, you know, there are huge upticks. When I go to the organic, you know, we're in good shape on that also. Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:34:38Got it. I think our report mainly talks about like the 74% versus 75% last year. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:34:45Yeah. Yeah, you know, I would grant you organic on the parts and consumables front for revenue is, you know, is only up modestly, you know, on that revenue front. On the bookings front, it's up 4%. Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:35:00Okay. Got it. Yeah, thank you for the color. Appreciate it. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:35:05You're welcome. Operator00:35:08Thank you. If you have any questions, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. One moment. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Jeff Powell for closing remarks. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:35:39Thank you, Therese. Before wrapping up the call today, I just wanted to leave you with a couple takeaways. Our record-setting newer activity and strong demand for aftermarket parts provides a solid start to 2026. While there are a lot of discussions around new capital projects, the timing of these projects is more uncertain than normal due to the issues that we've noted today. Our employees around the globe continue to focus on meeting our customers' needs and finding new ways to deliver long-term value to our stockholders. I wanna thank you for joining the call today, and we look forward to updating you at the end of next quarter. Thank you. Operator00:36:18Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesJeff PowellPresident and CEOMichael McKenneyEVP and CFOAnalystsAditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. DavidsonGary PrestopinoAnalyst at BarringtonRoss SparenblekAnalyst at William BlairPowered by Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Kadant Earnings HeadlinesKadant declares $0.36 dividendMay 22 at 8:30 AM | seekingalpha.comKadant Authorizes Share RepurchaseMay 21 at 4:32 PM | globenewswire.comHey, it's Jon Najarian. The SpaceX IPO is right around the corner. But I discovered Elon may have something BIGGER planned. Check this out before June 9th...After being invited to the SpaceX launch headquarters in Cape Canaveral from one of Elon's top lobbyists… Hall of Fame Trader Jon Najarian now says EVERYONE is missing an even bigger story about the SpaceX IPO… That it's just the start of an Elon Musk $44 trillion "Superconvergence…" An event that could kick off as soon as June 12th.May 22 at 1:00 AM | Banyan Hill Publishing (Ad)Kadant Declares Cash DividendMay 21 at 4:31 PM | globenewswire.comKadant Inc. (KAI) Shareholder/Analyst Call TranscriptMay 20 at 4:04 PM | seekingalpha.comAnalysts Offer Insights on Industrial Goods Companies: Kadant (KAI) and Vertical Aerospace (EVTL)May 16, 2026 | theglobeandmail.comSee More Kadant Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Kadant? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Kadant and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About KadantKadant (NYSE:KAI)., headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, is a global supplier of high‐value, critical components and engineered systems for the pulp and paper industry and other process industries. The company’s product portfolio spans stock preparation technologies, refiners and pulpers, fluid handling systems, and web‐handling equipment designed to optimize the efficiency and quality of paper production. In addition to capital equipment, Kadant offers aftermarket services, including spare parts, maintenance programs and process optimization consulting, which together support long‐term customer productivity and reliability. Originally part of a larger industrial conglomerate, Kadant was established as an independent public company in 1991. Over the ensuing decades, it has grown both organically and through targeted acquisitions, expanding its technology base and geographic reach. Today, Kadant serves customers across North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, addressing applications in traditional paper and board mills, as well as in emerging markets such as fiber-based packaging, renewable energy generation and specialty composites. Under the leadership of President and Chief Executive Officer William P. Kreuser Jr., Kadant continues to emphasize innovation and engineered solutions that reduce waste, lower energy consumption and enhance operational uptime. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2026 Kadant Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. You'll hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Michael McKenney, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:00:48Thank you, Therese. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Kadant's first quarter 2026 earnings call. With me on the call today is Jeff Powell, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Before we begin, let me read our safe harbor statement. Various remarks that we may make today about Kadant's future plans and expectations, financial and operating results and prospects are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:01:19These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those outlined at the beginning of our slide presentation and those discussed under the heading Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 3rd, 2026, and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements we make during this webcast represent our views and estimates only as of today. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so even if our views or estimates change. During this webcast, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:02:15A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is contained in our first quarter earnings press release and the slides presented on the webcast and discussed in the conference call, which are available in the investor section of our website at kadant.com. Finally, I wanted to note that when we refer to GAAP earnings per share or EPS and adjusted EPS on this call, we are referring to each of these measures as calculated on a diluted basis. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff Powell, who will give you an update on Kadant's business and future prospects. Following Jeff's remarks, I'll give an overview of our financial results for the quarter. We will then have our Q&A session. Jeff? Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:03:01Thanks, Mike. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning to review our first quarter results and discuss our business outlook for 2026. The first quarter was a strong start to the year, highlighted by robust demand and solid earnings growth. We delivered strong profitability while continuing to see healthy demand in our aftermarket business and improving capital business. Despite the high level of uncertainty fueled by global trade challenges and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, our first quarter exceeded expectations across most financial metrics. Record bookings and record aftermarket parts revenue, along with solid execution in our operations, drove healthy gross margin performance across our businesses. This, combined with lower than expected operating costs, led to exceeding our earnings expectations in the first quarter. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:03:51We continue to refine our 80/20 performance system, which also contributed to our results despite economic headwinds and tough competition in our core markets. Turning now to our first quarter financial performance on slide six, I'd like to highlight a few metrics that I believe are central to our growth story. Double-digit organic growth combined with our recent acquisitions delivered exceptional bookings growth of 25% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. New order activity was strongest in North America and Asia, with all regions seeing healthy demand growth compared to last year. Revenue was up 18%, with aftermarket parts revenue a record $209 million, representing 74% of our total revenue. The first quarter of the year is often a strong quarter in terms of parts bookings and revenue as our customers prepare for annual maintenance shutdowns. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:04:43This strong demand is supported by our large installed base. Adjusted EBITDA increased 19% to $57 million, representing 20.2% of revenue. Our adjusted EPS at $2.84 benefited from better than expected gross margin performance, lower than expected operating expenses, and excellent execution discipline. The quarter reflected a balanced picture of increasing commercial momentum in bookings, solid profitability and cash flow, and a revenue mix that strongly favored aftermarket parts. I'd like to discuss the performance of each of our three operating segments, beginning with our Flow Control segment. Flow Control segment experienced strong demand in the first quarter led by our North American businesses. Bookings increased 12% to a record $112 million, led by robust capital order activity and record aftermarket parts demand. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:05:40Q1 revenue increased 7% to $99 million, with aftermarket parts revenue making up 77% of total Q1 revenue. This revenue performance is expected to remain stable as the year progresses and benefit from increased capital shipments in the second half of the year. Adjusted EBITDA increased 5% compared to the same period last year, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 27.8%. While EBITDA margin was down modestly compared to last year, we expect to gain some operating leverage as the year progresses. Next, I'll discuss our Industrial Processing segment on slide eight. Strong demand for aftermarket parts and improved capital project order activity, combined with contributions from our recent acquisitions, led to record bookings of $145 million in the first quarter. Importantly, organic bookings were up 23%, reflecting improving underlying demand for our products and technologies as we started the year. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:06:38Revenue increased 37% to a record $123 million due to contributions from our recent acquisitions, which included Clyde Industries and Babbini. The integration of these companies into our Industrial Processing segment is progressing well, and we are pleased with the results delivered by both of these companies during the short time they have been part of Kadant. Adjusted EBITDA margin remained healthy at 24% of revenue. Overall, our first quarter performance of this segment was solid, with second half of the year looking to be stronger than the first. In our Material Handling segment, we achieved steady year-over-year growth in both revenue and bookings, consistent with our expectations. Revenue increased 5% to $60 million, while new order activity was up modestly to $65 million. While business activity remains stable, we are seeing an environment defined by capital equipment timing volatility. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:07:32An unfavorable product mix led to downward pressure on gross margin, which contributed in part to a lower EBITDA margin. As we move into the second quarter, our backlog is strong, and we're encouraged by the fundamentals of our end markets, which include aggregate mining, waste management, and recycling. We've entered 2026 with good start to the year in terms of record bookings and solid revenue performance, further supporting our confidence in the periods ahead. We are seeing an improving capital equipment market, although the timing of these projects is more uncertain than normal due to the ongoing geopolitical conflicts. We will continue to focus on strengthening our operations using our 80/20 business performance system and other internal initiatives, including increasing investments in automation to provide increased value for our customers. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:08:22Finally, last week, we closed on the previously announced acquisition of voestalpine BÖHLER Profil, now called Kadant Profil, a manufacturer of customized rolled products, rolled profiles, and industrial knives. In the short term, due to a portion of the sales of Kadant Profil being intercompany, this acquisition will have a dilutive effect on our adjusted EPS until the products currently held in inventory by other Kadant businesses are sold to a third-party customer. Mike will discuss this in more details in his remarks. Looking forward, we expect the newest addition to Kadant to be accretive to our earnings growth, and we are looking forward to integrating this business into the Kadant family. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:09:06Thank you, Jeff. I'll start with some key financial metrics from our first quarter. Revenue increased 18% to $281.5 million in the first quarter of 2026, driven by record parts and consumables revenue, representing 74% of total revenue. Gross margin was 45% in the first quarter of 2026, down 110 basis points compared to 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025. About half of this decrease relates to the negative effect of acquired profit in inventory amortization, which lowered gross margin in the first quarter of 2026 by 50 basis points. The remaining decrease was due to the lower gross margin profile associated with the product mix in the quarter. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:09:57SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased to 29.3% in the first quarter of 2026, compared to 29.8% in the prior year period. SG&A expenses increased $11.3 million or 16% to $82.5 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $71.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. This included an increase of $7.9 million from our acquisitions and a $2.8 million unfavorable foreign currency translation effect. Our effective tax rate in the first quarter was 28.2%, compared to 24.3% in the prior year period. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:10:43The comparatively higher tax rate was due to discrete tax benefits related to the release of tax reserves and vesting of equity awards in the first quarter of 2025, which lowered the effective tax rate by 320 basis points. Our GAAP EPS increased 6% to $2.16 in the first quarter, and our adjusted EPS increased 14% to $2.84, which exceeded the high end of our guidance range by $0.43. As a reminder, we announced on our last earnings call that our adjusted EPS now excludes non-cash intangible amortization expense. The $0.43 guidance beat was due to higher gross margins and lower operating expenses than anticipated. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:11:36Adjusted EBITDA increased 19% to $56.8 million, compared to $47.9 million in the first quarter of 2025, principally due to strong contributions from our 2025 acquisitions. As a percentage of revenue, adjusted EBITDA was 20.2% compared to 20% in the first quarter of 2025. Operating cash flow was $21.9 million, and free cash flow was $18.7 million in the first quarter of 2026. Both were down slightly compared to the first quarter of 2025. Our first quarter tends to be the weakest cash flow quarter, as was the case in 2025. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:12:20Other non-operating uses of cash in the first quarter of 2026 included $9.8 million of repayments on our debt, $3.3 million for capital expenditures, $4 million for dividends on our common stock, and $4.9 million for tax withholding payments related to the vesting of stock awards. Let me turn next to our EPS results for the quarter. Our adjusted EPS increased $0.34 from $2.50 in the first quarter of 2025 to $2.84 in the first quarter of 2026. This included increases of $0.58 from our acquisitions and $0.25 due to higher revenue. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:13:05These increases were offset by decreases of $0.24 due to higher operating expenses, $0.12 due to a higher tax rate, $0.07 due to a lower gross margin percentage, $0.05 due to higher interest expense, and $0.01 due to higher non-controlling interest expense. Let me provide some further details on these fluctuations. The $0.58 increase from our acquisitions represents the operating results of our 2025 acquisitions, excluding associated borrowing costs and acquisition-related costs, as well as recurring intangible amortization expense of $0.13. The majority of the $0.24 impact from higher operating expenses is due to an unfavorable foreign currency translation effect. Collectively, including all the categories I just mentioned, was a favorable foreign currency translation effect of $0.08 in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of last year. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:14:11Looking at our liquidity metrics on slide 15, our cash conversion cycle increased to 147 at the end of the first quarter of 2026 compared to 130 at the end of 2025, principally due to a higher number of days in inventory as our operations work to fulfill orders and backlog. Working capital as a percentage of revenue increased to 20% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to 16.8% in the first quarter of 2025 due to the lack of a full year of revenue from our 2025 acquisitions. If you exclude the impact of our 2025 acquisitions from this calculation, it would be 17.4%, which is slightly above the first quarter of 2025. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:14:58Our net debt, that is debt less cash, decreased $8 million sequentially to $244 million at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Our leverage ratio, calculated in accordance with our credit agreement, decreased to 1.27x at the end of the first quarter of 2026 compared to 1.33x at the end of 2025. At the end of April, we borrowed EUR 155 million to fund our acquisition, as a result, we anticipate that our leverage ratio will increase to just below 2x next quarter. After deducting our acquisition borrowing, we have approximately $210 million of borrowing capacity available under our revolving credit facility and an additional $200 million of uncommitted borrowing capacity. As we anticipated, we had an increase in capital bookings in the first quarter. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:15:52Our book-to-bill ratio increased to 1.14x, a three-year high, due to record aftermarket parts and a strong uptick in capital bookings. Our ending backlog was up 13% sequentially to $326 million. That being said, we remain cautious with our outlook for capital project activity in 2026. While some pending capital projects have moved forward, given some easing of earlier tariff-related uncertainty, the timing for other capital projects may be impacted by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical tensions. This environment has made it extremely difficult for our operations to forecast the timing of capital orders, requiring significant judgment on order timing and future material costs. As Jeff mentioned in his remarks, we completed our acquisition of voestalpine BÖHLER Profil, which we now call Kadant Profil, on April 30th. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:16:56We have now incorporated the operating results for this business into our updated 2026 guidance. I want to outline how the financial results of this acquisition will be reflected in Kadant's financial statements. This company has been a long-time supplier to several Kadant businesses. As a result, a significant portion of its revenue, which was 45% for the last fiscal year, will be intercompany revenue and therefore not included in Kadant's reported revenue. The associated profit generated on this intercompany activity will be reflected in Kadant's results. The timing will depend on when the underlying product is sold to a third-party customer. In addition, our Kadant businesses currently have on-hand inventory that will need to be consumed. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:17:47For now, we have taken a conservative approach and have not included any profit for the intercompany sales, as we estimate it may take the remainder of the year to work through the current on-hand inventory. Therefore, the only change to our guidance is the inclusion of Kadant Profil's external revenue and its operating results, as well as the associated borrowing costs. We estimate Kadant Profil, including the associated borrowing costs, will be dilutive to our adjusted EPS results by $0.20 in 2026. If current on-hand inventory turns faster than expected, there could be some upside potential for 2026. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:18:33We are raising our revenue guidance for 2026 to $1.178 billion-$1.203 billion, revised from our previous guidance of $1.160 billion-$1.185 billion. We now expect adjusted EPS of $12.33-$12.68 in 2026, which excludes $2.20 of intangible amortization expense and $0.33 of acquisition-related costs. This is revised from our previous guidance of $12.53-$12.88, which excluded $2.13 of intangible amortization expense and $0.13 of acquisition-related costs. Looking at our quarterly revenue and EPS performance in 2026, we expect that the first quarter will be the weakest quarter of the year. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:19:30Again, I want to stress the only guidance change is related to adding the forecasted results for Kadant Profil and the associated borrowing costs. Our revenue guidance for the second quarter of 2026 is $296 million-$306 million, and our adjusted EPS guidance for the second quarter is $2.88-$2.98, which excludes $0.55 of intangible amortization expense and $0.07 of acquisition-related costs. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:20:02Our revised 2026 guidance includes the following assumptions: Gross margins of 44.5%-45%, SG&A as a percent of revenue of 27.6%-28.1%, net interest expense of $20 million-$21 million, a tax rate of 27.5%-28%, depreciation expense of $27 million-$27.5 million, and intangible amortization expense, which we now add back to our adjusted EPS calculation of $34.5 million. That concludes my review of the financials. I will now turn the call back over to the operator for our Q&A session. Therese? Operator00:20:49Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the Q&A session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Gary Prestopino with Barrington. Your line is open. Gary PrestopinoAnalyst at Barrington00:21:21Good morning, Jeff and Mike. Hey, looking back on what you said at the end of Q4, you said there were you know, several capital projects that you thought would come to the market, but you weren't really including them in any guidance or anything like that just because of the uncertainty. I mean, is I know you said it's still an uncertain environment, but has anything happened there in terms of the amount of projects that you still think will be coming to the market? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:21:57Great question, Gary. Yeah. So, you know, we had several, handful, I'd say seven to eight projects that we were monitoring of varying size, that did not come in, that we thought may come in in 2025 that didn't come in, but they're still alive and well here in 2026. In the first quarter, one of those projects came in, and I'm happy to tell you here that in the second quarter, an additional two of those projects have come in. As, you know, Jeff and I have said in our, you know, little notes here, we see the capital activity warming up a little bit here now, which is nice to see. Gary PrestopinoAnalyst at Barrington00:22:45Okay. That's very good news. Just for purposes with the acquisition, I'm gonna call it VBP because I can't pronounce this, the name here. It looks like as of the last numbers you gave of EUR 51.5 million, EUR 16.6 million of adjusted EBITDA works out to about EUR 60 million of annualized revenues, EUR 18 million of EBITDA. Is that holding in terms of the profitability of the business? Do we see any growth from the time that, you know, you gave us that trailing twelve-month September number for 2025? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:23:31The profitability is holding, but when we did the forecast, we really looked at where they were so far in FY 2026 and what they thought would happen for the remainder of FY 2026. It has stepped down a little bit, so that $60 million run rate that you quoted, I now have as $55 million. I would say, you know, of that incremental decrease, we're a component of that. We are a component of it because what we're trying to do is, quite frankly, get through our on-hand inventory so that we can get to current inventory being purchased that is now intercompany and, you know, we can recognize the profit on it. We were a component of the reduction. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:24:19Some is also external sales, but we stepped down our purchases because of our current inventory levels. Gary PrestopinoAnalyst at Barrington00:24:27Okay, that's fine. This thing has 100% of aftermarket parts revenue, so it's basically recurring, right? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:24:35Correct. Gary PrestopinoAnalyst at Barrington00:24:37Okay. Thank you. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:24:39You're welcome. Operator00:24:41Thank you very much. Our next question is from Ross Sparenblek from William Blair. Your line is open. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:24:53Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:24:55Morning, Ross. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:24:58You know, somewhat of a cautious tone this quarter from your European peers. It would be great to just kind of get a sense of, you know, what you're seeing by geography and also anything around just factory utilization rates globally as well. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:25:13Yeah, I would say, of course, North America as it has been really for the last few years, is continuing to be the strongest market. Asia was strong, I would say, in the first quarter. As you pointed out, Europe, of course, is the most sensitive to what's going on in the Middle East and, you know, and energy prices, in addition to all the other challenges they frankly have right now. I think that we expect that'll probably be the case probably for most of the year, that North America will be the strongest. You know, last year, I would say Europe, you know, Asia was quite weak to begin with, and Europe was in the middle. I think Asia and Europe have flipped a little bit now. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:25:53It really will depend on how quickly this conflict is resolved and what the ultimate terms are, you know, when it is resolved. If energy prices return back to normal, I think Asia or Europe was positioned to try to start to make some investments. Of course, this has really impacted them because they're so dependent on an external, you know, supply chains for their, for their energy production. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:26:18Okay. I saw you've seen, you know, factory utilizations start to tail off, in Europe to start the year. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:26:26You know, I don't know that we've seen data. You know, this conflict's been going on now for several weeks. I'm not sure that we've seen hard data yet as to what that's doing, but it's definitely slower. You know, our European partners, you know, some of our European divisions are talking about customers talking about, you know, delaying things again until they get a better picture on, you know, where energy prices are going to go. You know, a lot of our products, of course, the, you know, the payback calculation is very much driven by energy cost. Some spikes in energy sometimes can help our products. You know, of course, when you have significant spikes where it really crushes overall demand, then we get impacted by that like everybody else. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:27:08I think we're gonna keep a close eye on what happens to energy prices in this conflict in the Middle East. Europe is definitely the most sensitive to it. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:27:16Okay. Well, if we, you know, take out the large project in the first quarter, it looks like, you know, capital bookings were still up 20% year-over-year, and they've been, you know, accelerating here. Your parts have been outperforming utilization rates for, you know, last couple of years now. Just trying to get a sense of where you think kind of the run rate demand is, and if we're starting to see, you know, the deferred maintenance start to flow, at least in the U.S. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:27:46Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've been saying for some time that, you know, our history would tell us that it's hard for our customers to go more than, you know, two or three years under investing before it really starts to impact their operations. I think we're, you know, we've been tracking the, you know, the age of our installed base, and some of it's quite old. You know, as you pointed out, the parts are really outperforming because of that. You know, we have expected that there will start to be an investment cycle. You know, a little bit of the issue we have, it seems like beginning of every year, there's some black swan event that just creates uncertainty in the market. You know, it's last year it was the, you know, the big tariff war. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:28:23This year now it's a Middle East conflict. You know, it just creates uncertainty, and it slows things down. They can only delay investing for so long before it starts to really impact their competitiveness. You know, we're encouraged by the orders we've gotten. I would say when Mike mentioned a lot of those large capital projects, most of them were outside of Europe. They weren't in Europe. I mean, there are a few that are in Europe, and we've gotten some actually from in Europe, you know, even this quarter. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:28:51A lot of the big ones are, you know, are in North America or, you know, I would say, you know, North Africa, places like that, certainly outside of Western Europe, 'cause they've been, you know, they've been quite cautious for some time. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:29:05Yeah. Well, I mean, just also given all the M&A you guys have done in the last two years, can you help us maybe frame what this deferred maintenance spend should look like in the bookings? I mean, is it like, is it kind of a $100 million quarterly run rate? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:29:23Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, Ross, if you look at the midpoint of our guidance on revenue- Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:29:34If we had the essentially the same split on parts capital, so 71%, 29%, we'd need about $340 million of capital revenue. You know, if you did that right out of the gate, you'd say $85 million a quarter. Capital revenue in the first quarter, of course, was softer, but we had good capital bookings. The first quarter capital revenue was just $72 million. That would say, okay, now that $85 million of revenue needs to be about $90 million. When we're looking forward, you know, the divisions are saying that they foresee capital bookings that will be, you know, above the $90 million mark. I would add, I would kind of stitch in here, you know. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:30:31The reason for our continued caution, hopefully the geopolitical stuff will be settled here shortly, and that won't create any further disruptions. We did have some of these capital projects that we were tracking, we thought would come in at 2025, now some have come in. Projects that we had slated for 2026, a couple projects already have been moved to 2027, specifically, those movements were related to the war. That's why we're being a little cautious here on the guidance front. I'm hopeful that we'll continue on the track we're on, we'll get to the end of the second quarter, we'll have confidence to enough confidence to raise guidance. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:31:20I mean, it looks like we're trending in the right direction, you know, after some headaches. Just on the capital backlog, on the equipment side, I have like $193. Is that ballpark? I know that, you know, substitutes change with FX. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:31:33Yeah. Hang in there. Actually, sorry, Ross. One second. I do have that right here. Yeah. Backlog was $321, you're spot on. It's $193 capital. Nice work there. Ross SparenblekAnalyst at William Blair00:31:52Fantastic. Good quarter, guys. I'll pass it along. Thank you. Operator00:31:57Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question is from Aditya Madan from D.A. Davidson. Your line is open. Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:32:16Hey, thanks for taking my questions, guys. Just a couple of quick ones from me. Looking at your FY 2026 sales outlook, does it still contemplate roughly like 1%-3% organic sales growth? Can you remind us how that splits up between capital equipment and P&C? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:32:37Yep. Hang in there, Adi. I'll flip to that. On the sales side, yeah, you're right in the ballpark there. At our midpoint, I have us at 2%. You know, right in the middle of the 1%-3%. What was the second part of the question, Adi, on the split? Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:32:59Yeah. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:32:59I ha- Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:32:59Yeah. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:33:02I have it being, you know, 71% parts and consumables, 29% capital. Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:33:10Awesome. Okay. Looking at like P&C, obviously like slightly lower year-over-year, was there any like one or two big factors that were like contributed to this? Is there anything that would lead you to be concerned around this maybe the lower contribution? Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:33:35Well, Adi, I'm not sure. I tried to read through your pre-call report this morning, which I thought was relatively on track except for one item. I can tell you on the parts and consumables front, either Now are you looking revenue or bookings there? Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:33:58Mainly revenue, but yeah, if you talk about bookings too. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:34:01Okay. 'Cause they're up. It's up all in, and it's up organically for both revenue and bookings. I'm not sure. You know, there might have been just a little misstep. I think the only place you might get to organic being negative or, excuse me, either being negative is on organic. You wouldn't, of course, come anywhere near that on the all-in. It's, you know, there are huge upticks. When I go to the organic, you know, we're in good shape on that also. Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:34:38Got it. I think our report mainly talks about like the 74% versus 75% last year. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:34:45Yeah. Yeah, you know, I would grant you organic on the parts and consumables front for revenue is, you know, is only up modestly, you know, on that revenue front. On the bookings front, it's up 4%. Aditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. Davidson00:35:00Okay. Got it. Yeah, thank you for the color. Appreciate it. Michael McKenneyEVP and CFO at Kadant00:35:05You're welcome. Operator00:35:08Thank you. If you have any questions, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. One moment. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Jeff Powell for closing remarks. Jeff PowellPresident and CEO at Kadant00:35:39Thank you, Therese. Before wrapping up the call today, I just wanted to leave you with a couple takeaways. Our record-setting newer activity and strong demand for aftermarket parts provides a solid start to 2026. While there are a lot of discussions around new capital projects, the timing of these projects is more uncertain than normal due to the issues that we've noted today. Our employees around the globe continue to focus on meeting our customers' needs and finding new ways to deliver long-term value to our stockholders. I wanna thank you for joining the call today, and we look forward to updating you at the end of next quarter. Thank you. Operator00:36:18Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesJeff PowellPresident and CEOMichael McKenneyEVP and CFOAnalystsAditya MadanAnalyst at D.A. DavidsonGary PrestopinoAnalyst at BarringtonRoss SparenblekAnalyst at William BlairPowered by