ITT Inc. (NYSE:ITT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Emmanuel Caprais: Yes. No. So I think that if you think about industrial components, industrial connectors, we think that they’re going to decelerate in the second half. We also think that industrial and chemical pumps are going to decelerate in the second half. And energy also. Keep in mind, energy has been really going on all cylinders. And I think that I think the second half, we’re bound to see something a lot weaker.

Luca Savi: Is the deceleration across the board — it’s not just auto, it’s across the board.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Joe Ritchie of Goldman Sachs.

Joe Ritchie : Not to pile on to the guidance questions, but maybe I’ll just tackle this a little bit differently. In taking a look at the range, right, I don’t think that we were surprised at all by the high end of the range, but the low end of the range came in a little lower than expected. And so maybe one way to address this is what percentage of your business do you expect to see declines, not just decelerate but actually decline in the back half of the year? And are you already seeing that in your kind of like leading indicators? Are you seeing it in your business today? Or is it more around just an expectation on the broader economy?

Luca Savi: Okay. Let me say, is definitely an expectation on the broader economy, Joe, that’s number one. But as you know, we have some short-cycle businesses in the portfolio. That means the industrial connectors, it means also the short cycle in IP. So when you look at the short cycle in IP, even though we see still good numbers. When you look at OSAT Q4 is still good for service and good for parts but we saw baseline actually declining. Now service is growing, both because of price but also volume. Part is growing mainly because of price in Q4. So we start seeing some weaknesses there. And then when you look at the industrial connectors business, this, I would say, even though they are still growing year-over-year, which is good. I would say that if you look at the distribution in detail, you see that sequentially, the distribution orders have declined Q4 over Q3. So you start seeing these signs. Did I answer your question, Joe?

Joe Ritchie : Yes, you did. I guess maybe just to kind of contextualize it and we were talking about maybe about 1/4 of your business that you’re seeing this potential weakness.

Emmanuel Caprais: So let me take you through the breakdown. So in IP, we’re probably talking about something like 40% of the business. It’s probably around 30% of the business. This is industrial connectors. This is industrial components. And MT is mostly driven by auto.

Joe Ritchie : Okay. All right. That’s super helpful. And then my follow-on question is just around the IP margins, clearly a great story over the last several years. I mean, even adjusting for the onetime items above 20% is pretty incredible. As the business starts to shift more into projects, what’s your expectation for the margin trajectory of this business moving forward?