nVent Electric plc (NYSE:NVT) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sara Zawoyski: Yes. So Jeff, let me take that one. I would say, first, we expect again, another quarter of margin expansion in Q3 from a year-over-year perspective. And that really is reflective of continued good price cost management as well as productivity. A couple of things maybe to point out from an overall ROS perspective. I’ll start from a segment standpoint. We expect Enclosures to again be the largest driver of that year-over-year margin improvement on price cost and productivity. And we do expect in Q3 underlying margin expansion in Electrical & Fastening. And you’re right to point out that ECM, while it’s accretive to overall nVent, as expected, it is dilutive to that EFS margin. So that’s in part what you’re seeing.

Thermal, we expect that margin performance to be a bit more flattish from a Q3 perspective. Bit more reflective of what’s going on in the top line versus anything else but they continue to work good price cost actions as well as just overall cost actions to work that to margin expansion for the full year. Maybe 2 other things I would just point out from a sequential standpoint, Jeff, is one, we are investing incrementally in Data Solutions in Q3 and Q4. So overall, you’re seeing that kind of fold in, if you will, to that Enclosures margins as well as to the overall nVent margins when you look at Q2 to Q3. And I think the other thing I would just point out is that price cost narrowing. This is nothing new. This is something that we expected coming into the year.

So we’re seeing that play out in the back half versus first half. And we do expect a bit of a sequential uptick in metals, specifically in Q3 from where we’re at in those favorable first-half positions just based on our lock strategy.

Jeff Hammond: Okay. Very helpful, Sara, thanks. Just back on liquid cooling, we’ve been getting a ton of questions, as I’m sure you are. Just wondering if you could put a finer point on kind of the size of the business today within that Data Solutions. What that business has been growing at relative to the 30% growth in Data Solutions overall. And then how it impacts margin mix. And then maybe just speak to the specific investments you’re looking at in terms of capacity.

Beth Wozniak: Well, back at our Investor Day, we talked about our Data Solutions business being $375 million in sales and 40% of that being cooling and power. And certainly, our liquid cooling business is 1 of the fastest-growing parts of that business. And so this is why the takeaway on that 1 chart is we expect to be over a $500 million business. We’re well on our way. And we’ve had strong double-digit growth. So I think as we continue to invest in expansion and we see the acceleration of orders, it’s going to become a more significant piece overall of what we do in Data Solutions.

Sara Zawoyski: And maybe just to add. I think you asked a question, Jeff, on margin. We see it generally in line with our overall Enclosures margin. It’s something that we can be — improve that going forward. I think just here in the back half, as we significantly invest around the OpEx as well as what’s going on in terms of the CapEx side of the equation, that’s what’s impacting kind of here in the back half. But we see that as great returns in terms of the investments we’re going to make to deliver on the top line as well as the margin and the drop-through.

Jeff Hammond: And then just the CapEx investments, I think you were moving some stuff around and creating some capacity. Can you just speak to that?