On Tuesday, Enpro (NYSE:NPO) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.

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Summary

Enpro reported a strong start to 2026 with sales up nearly 11% year-over-year, driven by increased demand in semiconductor markets and contributions from recent acquisitions.

The company increased its full-year guidance, expecting sales to grow between 10% and 14%, with adjusted EBITDA projected to be $315 million to $330 million.

Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was up nearly 13% to over $76 million, with an expanded margin of 25.2%, reflecting strong performance in both the advanced surface technology and sealing technology segments.

Strategic investments in capacity expansion and vertical integration are positioning the company well to capture growth opportunities in semiconductor capital equipment spending.

The company maintains a strong balance sheet with a net leverage ratio of 1.9 times, allowing for continued investment in growth initiatives and potential acquisitions.

Management expressed confidence in achieving mid to high single-digit organic growth through 2030, supported by strong order momentum and strategic pricing initiatives.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Greetings and welcome to the NPRO first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press Star0 on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to James Gentile, Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

James Gentile (Vice President, Investor Relations)

Thanks Jesse and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today as we review NPRO's first quarter 2026 earnings results and discuss our improved outlook for 2026. I'll remind you that this call is being webcast at npro.com where you can find the presentation that accompanies the call. With me today is Eric Valencourt, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Joe Bruderick, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. During this morning's call, we will reference a number of non GAAP financial measures tables. Reconciling the historical non GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures are included in the appendix to the presentation materials. Also, a friendly reminder that we will be making statements on this call including our current perspectives for full year 2026 guidance that are not historical facts and and that are considered forward looking in nature. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties including those described in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake any obligation to update these forward looking statements. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Eric Valencourt, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

Eric Valencourt (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Eric thanks James and good morning everyone. Thank you for your interest in NPRO as we discuss our first quarter results, provide an update on strategic initiatives and share our current views for the balance of 2026. Before we discuss our results for the first quarter, I would like to recognize our 4,000 colleagues across the company who are accelerating their personal and professional growth while contributing to NPRO's strategic and financial successes. Momentum and excitement is showing up throughout the organization and we are off to a strong start in the second year of NPRO 3.0. We are energized to continue providing critical products and solutions to our customers while driving significant enterprise value creation by unlocking compounding strengths of our portfolio. Our leading market positions, committed colleagues and strong balance sheet support the continued execution of our multi year value creation strategy. After my update, I will turn the call over to Joe for a more detailed discussion of our results and drivers of our increased guidance for 2026. Now onto the highlights for the first quarter. We started 2026 off on the front foot with reported sales up nearly 11% year over year, improving demand in semiconductor markets drove sales in the advanced surface technology segment up over 11%. Additionally, the contributions from the two businesses that we acquired in the fourth quarter, Alpha Measurement Solutions and Overlook Industries, drove sealing technology sales up 10.8%. Total company adjusted EBITDA increased nearly 13% to over $76 million at a margin over 25% for the first quarter. We are pleased with these results, especially as we continue to invest in growth opportunities across the company at high margin return thresholds while accelerating investments in the development and growth of our colleagues throughout our organization. Teams are excited to drive our 3.0 strategy forward. Our early progress shows the benefits we expect to unlock as we move into this phase of our strategy. We are confident that our proven excellent execution will allow us to continue to succeed in a variety of macroeconomic backdrops. In ast, positive trends across the segment's portfolio of products and solutions are translating into strong performance. The slope of the demand curve has steepened with order patterns accelerating during the first quarter ahead of our expectations at the start of the year. For us, execution is top of mind and we began building inventory during the first quarter to ensure that we can effectively deliver for our customers and proactively manage potential capacity, supply chain and labor constraints as demand increases. We are already seeing the investments we made in AST during the downturn begin to bear fruit in the early stages of the recovery cycle. We expect these investments will position us well to capture opportunities from the acceleration of semiconductor capital equipment spending for the balance of the year and beyond. We also believe that our vertical integration model is a key differentiator for NPRO in the next phase of the semiconductor industry growth as many of our new business wins are using more of our solutions to drive value for our customers, enhancing our specified position in critical in chamber tools including gas dispersion and wafer handling applications. In addition, hard work to qualify and earn processor record designations solidifies our position in Leading Edge precision cleaning solutions, a business that is currently strong and accelerating. Our capacity expansions in Taiwan, California and Arizona, both executed and ongoing position us to participate in the rapid expansion of Leading Edge chip production capacity, supporting advanced computing and artificial intelligence in sealing technologies. Segment revenue of 10.8% was primarily driven by the first full quarter contribution from the acquisitions of Alpha and Orlo completed in the fourth quarter of 2025, recovering nuclear solution sales and currency tailwinds. Commercial vehicle sales were down year over year below our expectations as demand remains slow. Although we're cautiously optimistic that we are nearing the bottom in commercial vehicle markets. Aerospace sales and ceiling were flat year over year reflecting a difficult year over year comparison in commercial aerospace, which was partially offset by continued acceleration in demand for products supporting space applications. Total ceiling segment orders were up double digits during the first quarter. Ceiling technologies marked segment profitability remains strong at 32.5% with disciplined execution to offset continued growth investments, softness in commercial vehicle sales and tepid general industrial demand. Internationally, aftermarket sales represented 60% of ceiling segment revenue in the quarter. Integration is going well at Alpha and Overlook and we are making the appropriate investments to fully integrate these businesses end to EndPro and unlock additional growth opportunities. Our new colleagues are already finding ways to leverage ENPRO network including our sourcing supply chain capabilities and operational expertise while delivering strong top line growth during the first quarter. Additionally, AMI, which we acquired in January 2024 continues to perform above planned. We expect the sealing technology segment to continue to deliver continued best in class performance. Our growth priorities underpinning the NPro 3.0 strategy remain unchanged and will guide our performance through 2030. For the long term, we are positioned to generate mid to high single digit organic top line growth with strong profitability and returns complemented by capability expanding acquisitions to meet our rigorous strategic and financial criteria, we are targeting mid single digit organic growth in sealing technologies while at AST we are targeting at least high single digit organic growth growth with both segments capable of generating 30% adjusted segment EBITDA margins plus or minus 250 basis points through 2020 through 2030. Our cash flows allow us to maintain our strong balance sheet with a net leverage ratio currently at 1.9 times. After taking into account the fourth quarter acquisitions of Alpha and Overlook, our first capital allocation priority is to reinvest in the business and our people while pursuing select strategic acquisitions that expand our leading edge capabilities to meet our stringent criteria without the use of excess leverage to drive growth in line or above NPro 3.0 goals. We are excited to deliver on our promises and continue to execute our strategic plan. Life is good at NPRO and the future is bright.

Joe Bruderick (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

Joe thank you Eric and good morning everyone. NPro started 2026 with strong results and consistent execution despite a dynamic macroeconomic environment. For the first quarter, sales of $303 million increased nearly 11% supported by strong year on year revenue growth at ast of over 11%. The contributions from the recent acquisitions and steady overall performance in the sealing technology segment. First quarter adjusted EBITDA of $76.4 million increased nearly 13% compared to the prior year period. Total company adjusted EBITDA margin of 25.2% expanded by 40 basis points year over year driven by consistent performance in the sealing technology segment and a nearly 20% increase in AST segment EBITDA, which includes expenses tied to growth investments, both executed and ongoing Corporate expenses of $13.7 million in the first quarter of 2026 increased from $11.3 million a year ago, primarily driven by higher incentive compensation accruals and $1.2 million in restructuring costs. Adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.14 increased 13%, largely driven by the factors behind adjusted EBITDA growth year over year. Moving to a discussion of segment performance, sealing technology sales increased 10.8% to $199 million. Growth was driven by the contributions from the Alpha and Overlook acquisitions, a recovery in nuclear solution sales from the choppiness experienced last year, strength in compositional analysis applications as well as strategic pricing actions. These gains more than offset soft commercial vehicle demand and slower general industrial sales internationally. Foreign currency translation was also a tailwind. North American general industrial, aerospace and food and biopharma sales were firm throughout the quarter. For the first quarter, adjusted segment EBITDA increased over 10%, driven by favorable mix strategic pricing initiatives, contributions from Alpha and Overlook, and foreign exchange tailwinds partially offset by lower commercial vehicle volumes and investment in growth initiatives. Adjusted segment EBITDA margin was 32.5% and remained above 30% for the ninth consecutive quarter. Turning now to advanced surface technologies, sales for the first quarter were up over 11% and orders during the quarter hit a clear inflection point. Demand for precision cleaning solutions tied to advanced node chip production is accelerating. In addition, our outlook for semiconductor capital equipment spending has improved and we built inventory of key products during the first quarter to prepare for the expected increase in demand. For the first quarter, adjusted segment EBITDA increased 18.5% versus the prior year period. Adjusted segment EBITDA margin expanded 140 basis points to 23.3%. Operating leverage on higher sales growth and higher production volumes as well as favorable mix were offset in part by $2 million of increased expenses tied to growth initiatives. Our number one priority is to serve our customers and remain agile as we enter this period of unprecedented demand for our semiconductor products and solutions. Moving to the Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Our balance sheet remains strong and we have ample financial flexibility to execute on our long term organic growth initiatives and consider select acquisitions that align with our strategic priorities and deliver attractive returns. We generated strong free cash flow in the first quarter more than doubling from last year to $26.5 million, while capital expenditures increased nearly 40% to $13.1 million, largely supporting growth and efficiency projects. During the first quarter we repaid $50 million in revolving debt, bringing our leverage ratio to 1.9 times trailing twelve month adjusted EBITDA. We expect to continue generating strong free cash flow in 2026 with an unchanged capital expenditure budget of around $50 million this year as we continue to invest in the company at solid margin and return thresholds. Finally, our strong balance sheet and cash generation provide us with ample liquidity to make these investments while continuing to return capital to shareholders. In the first quarter we paid a 0.32 USD per share quarterly dividend totaling $6.9 million. We also have an outstanding $50 million share repurchase authorization. Moving now to our increased guidance, we are raising Our Total Year 2026 guidance issued in mid February and now expect total NPR sales to Increase in the 10 to 14% range, up from 8 to 12%. Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $315 million to $330 million, up from $305 million to $320 million previously and adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $8.85 to $9.50, up from $8.50 to $9.20. The normalized tax rate used to calculate adjusted diluted earnings per share remains at 25% and fully diluted shares outstanding are 21.3 million. In sealing technologies, shorter cycle order patterns remain solid as we enter our seasonally strong second quarter. As Eric mentioned, we are seeing double digit order growth year on year despite a slightly softer commercial vehicle outlook than previously expected and we expect mid single digit revenue growth excluding the contributions from Alfa and Overlook in the sealing technology segment for the year. We are encouraged by positive order momentum in domestic general industrial aerospace, food and biopharma and compositional analysis as well as smaller but improving pockets of earned growth in areas such as communications and data center infrastructure. We expect these elements to support improved sequential sales performance in sealing technologies into the second quarter while not factoring in any recovery in commercial vehicle markets in our improved guidance ranges. Finally, we expect ceiling segment profitability to remain towards the high end of our long term target range of 30% plus or minus 250 basis points for the year. In the advanced service technology segment, we are seeing significant order momentum with strong acceleration in precision cleaning solutions and critical in chamber tools. New platforms and capacity expansions that we have invested in will begin to generate revenue in the second half of 2026 with ramp schedules dependent on underlying volume into 2027 and beyond. At this time, we expect AST revenue growth in the mid teens range year over year, with segment profitability improving to a run rate close to 25% by the end of 2026 as capacity and supply chains align to meet elevated demand levels. Thank you for your time today. I will now turn the call back to Eric for closing comments.

Eric Valencourt (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you Joe. We are excited to demonstrate our strength and agility as we continue to accelerate our personal and profitable growth in the second year of NPRO 3.0. Thank you all for your interest in NPRO. We'll now welcome your questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you. We will now be conducting the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad. The confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is coming from the line of Jeff Hammond with Keybanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Mitch Moron

Hey everyone, good morning. This is Mitch Moron for Jeff. Morning Mitch. Morning. Obviously just really nice margin progression sequentially for ast. Could you help us just unpack a little bit how that inventory investment helped margins in AST and then separately just could you help us understand the margin trajectory kind of through the balance of the year? Is it kind of linear progression to that 25% you talked about?

Joe Bruderick (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

Thanks. Yeah, thanks Mitch. As you noted, we did see progression from the low 20s to 23 and change for the first quarter. The inventory build, which is really important as we head into significant demand in the second quarter and more specifically for the back half of the year, contributed about 150 basis points to the margin increase in the first quarter. We also saw precision cleaning continue to be very strong tied to advanced node precision cleaning work both in Taiwan and the US which helped margins and we're also seeing a little bit of leverage on the revenue growth. We expect to continue to build inventory a little bit in the second quarter. It might be a little bit less than we had in the first quarter and then revenue increasing to offset any lower inventory build potentially in the second quarter. So margins relatively similar in the second quarter and then seeing incrementally throughout the second half pointing towards that roughly 25% run rate that we expect to exit the year at.

Mitch Moron

Great, that's helpful. And then maybe just to ceiling. I think orders were up double digits in the quarter. Could you just expand on the order activity you saw there, where you're seeing it, if it's concentrated or more broad based. And then if you could just talk a little bit about your confidence in ceiling kind of picking up through the remainder of the year with a little bit slower start here. Thanks.

Joe Bruderick (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

Very confident sealing picking up throughout the year. Our order rate is very strong exiting the first quarter and building throughout the quarter. So very positive on the year. Don't have any concerns. They're very strong in North America. Space aerospace in general. General industrial in the US is still pretty strong. Only areas of weakness really is general industrial and a little bit in Europe, a little bit in Asia. But it still doesn't have any meaningful impact to our overall results.

Mitch Moron

Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of Steve Farazani with Sidoti and company. Please proceed with your question.

Steve Farazani

Morning everyone. Appreciate the detail on the presentation, Eric. You know, I understand commercial vehicles still being weak. Obviously we've seen three or four quarter, three or four months of much stronger Class 8 truck orders obviously coming off of a significant trough. When would you start seeing that and do you. Is that built in at all that CV comes back at all in the second half?

Eric Valencourt (President and Chief Executive Officer)

It's not built into our projections at all as we said in the script. Although I am cautiously optimistic that it does start to pick up at the second half of the year. Keep in mind the reason for the acceleration in truck orders is really to avoid the extra cost of pollution enhancements in the trucks. And so right now people are prioritizing trucks versus trailers. But that demand will normalize over time to roughly, if you look over a 20 year cycle, it's about 250,000 units a year. We're somewhere 170 or 180 now. So I expect, you know, next it's end of this year, beginning of next year. Somewhere in that time frame you'll start to see some momentum build. I mean, the ratio between trucks and trailers really doesn't change much. You expect to have about 1.1 trailers per truck. So you would expect that to come back. And our aftermarket business remains very strong. Got it.

Steve Farazani

How are you feeling about the two acquisitions now with a quarter under your belt? I know that with Overlook they had made some pretty significant capacity additions prior to the acquisition. In terms of those two businesses, do they require significant investments to grow moving forward or how do you feel about them?

Eric Valencourt (President and Chief Executive Officer)

Very, very strong, very excited about them going forward. They don't require significant investments. Overlooked and made a pretty significant investment, moved into a new building or did move into a new building in the first quarter but that was already ongoing before we closed on the business. So it's really, it was just a move at this point and so most of the fitting how that was already done and their backlog and their performance is really impressive. Alpha continues to go well and so we're still excited about those businesses going forward.

Joe Bruderick (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

And I'll just add Eric, that the integrations are going well. I think the teams are joining our functional support and we're helping where we can there. We're already seeing some supply chain opportunities. In addition, we're making some smaller investments but investments in their commercial organizations to help expand growth opportunities and enter a few new markets and new customers. So we expect that's an area that we can add value can help them grow over time.

Steve Farazani

And I think you mentioned in the script that AMI since the acquisition was 2024 I believe continues to outperform in general. How are you thinking about that compositional analysis market?

Eric Valencourt (President and Chief Executive Officer)

We love the space. We just would like to do more and we continue to have a very active pipeline and continue to look for the right opportunities to meet all of our criteria that are exciting and there's several opportunities in our pipeline. Exciting and more and more opportunities seem like they're coming to market now. So there's more momentum in that space overall.

Joe Bruderick (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

If you take into consideration the compositional analysis growth perspective, we're looking for kind of minimum high single digit organic top line growth moving forward with incremental investments to expand end market positions and commercial expertise.

Steve Farazani

Got it. That's helpful. Just if I get one more in in terms of where you are with the various qualifying processes to meet advanced node production, is there a lot more to go there?

Eric Valencourt (President and Chief Executive Officer)

I don't think it ever stopped. So let me start by saying that. So no, Arizona is getting fully qualified now. I don't know how much longer. It shouldn't be long at all. But at the same time there's new investments in Taiwan that are just starting. There's new customers that are starting as well. So I don't think it ever ends. You know where 2 nanometer is going to start to ramp at some point next little bit and then trying to qualify 1.4. So it's I think of that as continued investment.

Steve Farazani

Got it. All right, thanks everyone.

OPERATOR

Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question is coming from the line of Ian Safino with Oppenheimer and Company. Please proceed with your question.

Isaac Salazan

Hey, good morning, this is Isaac Salazan on for Ian. Thanks for taking the questions. Just on the updated guidance. If you could unpack a little bit more on what has changed with regards to the outlook for the AST business. Maybe if you could parse out the demand drivers between cleaning, coating and the semi cap side. It sounds like visibility is a bit better in capital equipment.

Joe Bruderick (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah. Good morning, Isaac. Yeah, we're clearly seeing increased order moment and longer lead times and demand is inflecting significantly sooner and higher than we expected coming into the year from an AST's perspective. And it's coming from both, it's coming from precision cleaning and semiconductor capital equipment in really all geographies. So our increased guidance is pretty much all driven by ast. Our teams are rallying around, meeting the higher demand, working with our customers and the entire supply chain and all of our partners kind of meet the overall industry demand. The outlook is really bright for the rest of the year. The second half is firming up where when we had the call in February we talked about, we saw orders for the second half and really starting in the end of the second quarter. While the second quarter is filling in nicely, we're seeing some of that demand come a little sooner into the second quarter and the second half is clearly going to be significantly increased over the first half in the magnitude of double digits increase second half versus the first half and the industry is all talking about rallying to meet this higher demand and out through the end of 26 and really into 27. So there's tremendous optimism and we expect to participate and even outperform what the market expects.

Isaac Salazan

Okay, great. And then just as a follow up, you know, on the margin outlook for both businesses. Obviously sounds like you guys are managing any kind of inflationary pressures just fine. But is there anything to call out maybe on the cost side with regards to whether it's fuel or equipment? But yeah, that would be helpful.

Joe Bruderick (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

Now there really isn't anything that's going to be meaningful from the supply side or cost side. Life is good. We do a very good job of managing that in general.

Isaac Salazan

Okay, great. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. We have no further questions at this time so I would like to turn the floor back over to James Gentile for closing comments.

James Gentile (Vice President, Investor Relations)

Thank you everyone. We're seeing strong momentum across MPRO and look forward to updating all of you when we report second quarter. Results in early August. Have a great rest of your day.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.