Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE:IR) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Nigel Coe: Thanks. Thanks for the question. Just wanted to maybe just take a different crack at the second half margin question, I think you talked about 3Q looking like 2Q, which makes sense. This feels like the guide doesn’t embed much of a kick-up in 4Q and normally 4Q margins are substantially higher on volumes. So just wondering what are you expecting for 4Q. Maybe my math is wrong, that’s — please correct me. But it does feel like we don’t have much of a seasonal uplift in 4Q?

Vik Kini: Sure. Yeah. So Nigel, I think the way you’ve described Q3 is correct. If you think about ITS as Vicente earlier said, I think ITS will look fairly comparable to Q2. Now that being said, that still would embed nice margin expansion on a year-over-year basis. And we would expect on the PFT side for margins to get back to that 30% level, specifically in Q3. Now on the Q4 side of the equation, whether you’re looking from a total company perspective or the individual components, I think it’s actually going to be fairly comparable to what you’ve seen historically. Seasonally, it is the strongest quarter in the year. That’s no different. So you will see a slight seasonal uptick from Q3 to Q4. But there is incremental margin expansion included in the Q4 guide, I would say it’s not dramatically different than our prior guide in that respect.

And the one thing to probably note here as we look and we got some of the questions about it earlier in terms of the cadence, kind of, like what we said before, we’re still, I think, continue to remain prudent on the back half expectations, particularly Q4 on the volume side. And I think we would still acknowledge that’s probably the single source of potential upside to the guide as we sit here, thinking specifically about organic volume in Q4.

Nigel Coe: Okay, okay. That’s fair. And then vacuum — taking into wiz here, but the vacuum trends remain really strong, compressor. But I think Copco called out a bit of weakness in industrial vacuum, not just semi, but also a little bit of weakness in industrial. And you’re obviously not seeing that. So are you seeing any signs of weakness developing in any of your end markets? And is there a reason why vacuum and compressor would be couple? Just curious there.

Vicente Reynal: Yes. Nigel, I would say that the industrial vacuum is kind of what we call rough vacuum when you look at the total market segmentation of that. And I will say that we have a more bigger spectrum of technologies, whether it’s crew vacuum, rotary vein, liquid ring. So, we will say that we have not only great technologies, but also good brands. In terms of what we’re seeing in the market, I’d say stability from what we’re seeing. You could argue that sometimes the industrial vacuum plays slightly different where the industrial compressors will pay. So industrial vacuum many times will play in chemical processes or petrochem and things like that, things of that nature. But in our view, we’re very happy and very pleased with what the team again continues to do from my self-help initiative here on driving new technologies.

I mean we spoke about some of the technologies, again, not only on that slide five on what China team is doing. But now there’s also new technologies that the team in Europe are launching to as well to start capturing even more share. So, I’ll say that very, very pleased with the performance of the team is driving.

Nigel Coe: That’s great color. Thanks a lot.

Operator: And the next question comes from the line of Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Joe Ritchie: Hey, good morning guys.

Vicente Reynal: Good morning Joe.

Vik Kini: Hi Joe.

Joe Ritchie: Maybe just following along Nigel’s questions around just potential weakness. I know that you’re seeing really good order trends across your businesses, but there’s a real focus right now on companies that are seeing destocking across their channels. And so maybe just on your shorter cycle businesses, just maybe talk to us about whether you see any kind of risk to any piece of your business today on — from a channel perspective?

Vicente Reynal: Yes, Joe, I’ll say maybe — I’ll start with the two big buckets, obviously, the ITS and PST. On the ITS side, a lot of the product — I say the majority of the product that we have in the ITS is really customized to specific applications. So, it’s very difficult to kind of at least on our technology to really have stock of those compressors in the shelves. It’s basically high working capital for the distribution channel network that we have. So, we don’t see much of that. At the same time, we have a very loyal channel and we have access and visibility to what levels of inventory they have. On the PST side, PST will be the 1 that maybe plays a little bit more on what we call the national distribution, national industrial distribution, at least particularly in the US here.