Resideo Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:REZI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Resideo Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:REZI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript February 15, 2023

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, at this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Resideo Technologies Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Today’s call is being recorded. All participants will be in a listen-only mode until the formal question-and-answer portion of the call. It is now my pleasure to turn today’s call over to Mr. Jason Willey, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Willey, please go ahead, sir.

Jason Willey: Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for joining us for Resideo’s fourth quarter 2022 earnings call. On today’s call will be Jay Geldmacher, Resideo’s Chief Executive Officer; and Tony Trunzo, our Chief Financial Officer. A copy of our earnings release and related presentation materials are available on the Investor Relations page of our website at investors.resideo.com. We would like to remind you that this afternoon’s presentation contains forward-looking statements. Statements other than historical facts made during the call may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time-to-time in Resideo’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. We identify the principal risks and uncertainties that affect our performance on our annual report on Form 10-K and other SEC filings. With that, I will now turn the call over to Jay.

Jay Geldmacher: Thank you, Jason, and good afternoon, everyone. 2022 was a year of historic market, geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions. We navigate these challenges to deliver record full-year revenue and operating income. However, business conditions around our residential end markets softened as 2022 progressed. Given this, we’ve taken actions to reduce cost and ensure we are both protecting near-term profitability and positioning the business for long-term success. While the macro conditions remain dynamic, we believe our OEM and distribution customers have made substantial progress in rightsizing their inventories. We expect Q1 will mark the low point in terms of destocking impacts and we expect to build from that base as 2023 progresses.

We expect that cost actions and improving customer inventory situation, coupled with growing momentum in new product activity and products and solutions, will position us for improved financial performance as 2023 progresses. Late in the year, we respond to the evolving market conditions by taking action to reduce costs and initiate manufacturing optimization work. This includes action that are expected to result in an approximate 5% decrease in Resideo’s global workforce. These measures will further focus resources on advancing strategic initiatives and better positioning Resideo to scale with future growth. We are working aggressively to ensure the business is sized and focused appropriately to deliver strong profitability and cash flow. For 2022, Products and Solutions delivered record revenue up 13% year-over-year as we added First Alert and drove strong price realization across the portfolio.

We grew our position in the connected thermostat market in both the distribution and retail channels, expanded content with builders in the new construction channel and grew our presence at a number of key OEMs, all positioning the business for future growth. We saw significant returns from investments in pricing and sales force tools and training. This is visible in our strong price realization activities throughout 2022 and a meaningful increase in average revenue generated per salesperson. These investments are further enhanced by the increased customer engagement driven by our brand ambassador program and business development efforts. We significantly advanced the ball on our software platforming efforts, our critical building block as we look to accelerate partnerships, leverage our hardware leadership to support value-added services and reduce development time and support costs.

This work is reducing the number of internal back -end platforms our products run on top of and providing simpler ways to interface with our products. We acquired First Alert, a leading smoke and carbon monoxide sensing provider at the end of Q1 2022. And we are pleased with the financial performance and integration of the business. We have already driven new commercial opportunities around cross-selling into our distribution channel, achieve deeper builder penetration and improve positioning with key retailers. Over time, we will add more connectivity into the First Alert portfolio and see significant opportunity from further integrating First Alert with our traditional security business. In late December, we acquired (ph) adding a new sealant-based team of engineers with significant capabilities in sensors, optics and AI-enabled video solutions.

The team brings a track record of innovations in sensors, optics and processors along with deep relationships with silicon and original design manufacturer partners. These capabilities will help advance our security video strategy and help accelerate our focus on providing actionable intelligence for end users. ADI had another great year in 2022 with revenue growing over 6%, gross margin up 130 basis points and operating income up 17%. 2022 marked the 12th consecutive year that ADI has grown its revenue year-over-year a testament to the execution of the entire ADI organization and the attractiveness of the markets they serve. ADI saw continued strength in its commercial categories and has worked hard to deliver for customers in a challenging supply chain environment.

At the same time, ADI continues to execute on expanding its e-commerce and digital capabilities, enhancing its exclusive brands offerings, and investing in tools to drive sales force efficiency. ADI reached total touchless sales of 37% for 2022, and crossed the 20% of total sales threshold for e-commerce revenue in the fourth quarter. We are also leveraging these digital investments to offer customers and suppliers cloud-based AI-driven data analytic tools. These tools provide contractors and suppliers better understanding of their sales and inventory through customized reporting and access to granular data. This creates a new subscription revenue opportunity for ADI and provides differentiation as we look to drive share of wallet with customer.

Exclusive brands revenue grew 25% in 2022 and remains a significant long-term revenue and margin enhancement opportunity. We launched over 250 new SKUs and three new brands during 2022. Capture Advance, which includes NDAA compliant video of wire for AV and datacom equipment and ADI Pro for wire access control and accessories. We will continue to build upon these offerings in 2023 and see meaningful revenue expansion opportunity for new SKUs and sales initiatives. ADI continues to execute on the strategy to expand into adjacent AV and Datacom markets. These categories accounted for over $500 million of revenue in 2022, up 20% year-over-year. Building on this momentum, in mid-January of this year, ADI added new capabilities with the acquisition of BTX Technologies.

BTX is a specialist professional AV distributor with datacom capabilities in sourcing custom fiber assemblies, filling a hole in our value proposition to customers in the datacom and AV market. With that, I will turn the call over to Tony to discuss fourth quarter performance and 2023 outlook in more detail.

Tony Trunzo: Thank you, Jay, and good afternoon, everyone. Fourth quarter revenue of $1.56 billion, was up 7%, compared to Q4 last year. Excluding $139 million from acquisitions and approximately $46 million of negative foreign exchange impact. Fourth quarter revenue grew by approximately 1%. Gross margin for the quarter was 27.6% flat with last year’s fourth quarter, while operating income of $98 million, compared to $141 million last year. Included in our fourth quarter operating expenses was a $35 million charge for restructuring and related asset impairment. These restructuring actions, which include headcount reductions, initial factory optimization work, corporate functional rationalization, reduced third-party spend and general G&A cost reductions are expected to generate in year savings of $16 million in 2023.

Associated cash costs in 2023 are expected to be approximately $25 million spread throughout the year. Products and Solutions fourth quarter revenue of $693 million was up 9%. Excluding $116 million from First Alert, and approximately $35 million of unfavorable foreign exchange impact revenue declined approximately 5%, compared to last Q4. Price realization added approximately $35 million to revenue year-over-year, while aggregate volumes declined approximately 10%. Volumes were impacted by distribution and OEM customers continuing to adjust inventory levels. Our security revenue in Europe was down in Q4 and lower year-over-year 3G radio migration affected U.S. Security revenue. After the first quarter of this year, radio sales comparables will begin to normalize and we expect to be in market with new security products in key European countries in the second quarter of this year.

Products and Solutions gross margin in Q4 was 38.4% relatively flat, compared to last year. Total operating expenses for Products and Solutions were up $44 million year-over-year, due to $18 million in First Alert cost and $29 million of restructuring costs. Products and Solutions operating profit was $96 million or 13.9% of sales, compared with $125 million or 19.7% of sales last year. Excluding restructuring costs, Products and Solutions operating profit was flat year-over-year. First Alert contributed revenue of $116 million and operating income of $12 million in Q4. First Alert exceeded our expectations for both revenue and operating profit in 2022. We achieved in year synergies of $7 million and remain on track to achieve run rate annual cost synergies of at least $30 million by the end of this year.

ADI delivered another solid quarter in Q4 with revenue up 6% to $867 million, acquisitions added $23 million of revenue, which was largely offset by approximately $20 million of unfavorable foreign exchange impact. Key commercial categories including fire, video surveillance and access control remained strong in the quarter more than offsetting slower activity in residential security and residential AZ categories. ADI gross margin in the fourth quarter was 19.1%, compared with 19.2% last year. ADI operating profit of $69 million was essentially flat with the prior year. Corporate costs were $67 million, up from $54 million in the prior year fourth quarter. This increase reflects $4 million of restructuring, as well as higher IT and finance costs.

Our full-year 2022 corporate spend of $229 million was down 8% year-over-year and over the past three years, corporate costs have declined by 18% from 5.6% of revenue to 3.6% of revenue. Operating cash flow for the full-year was $152 million, compared with $315 million for 2021. Working capital dollars and days rose in 2022. With the addition of First Alert, inflationary impacts in inventory, incremental safety stock and unfavorable changes to some supplier terms, all contributing to the increase. Before turning to our outlook for 2023, I wanted to discuss the decision we made to begin providing selected non-GAAP measures beginning with our first quarter 2023 earnings report. This will allow us to discuss EBITDA, a very common measure of financial performance and manner consistent with many other public companies, as well as provide better clarity on unusual items that may affect our financial results.

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Our non-GAAP disclosure will include EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA to the extent relevant in any given period, adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share. Adjustments will be limited in scope and include such items as depreciation, amortization, share-based compensation, significant acquisition related costs and other material unusual items. Turning to our outlook for the full-year 2023, we expect revenue to be in the range of $6.2 billion to $6.55 billion, implied flat revenue at the midpoint. Consolidated gross margin is expected to be in the range of 26.8% to 27.8% and operating profit is expected to be in the range of $625 million to $675 million, an increase of 6% at the midpoint. We expect GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of $1.85 to $2.15.

We expect our cash conversion and days of working capital improved in 2023 over 2022. The magnitude and in-year timing of this improvement will be dependent on market and supply chain factors that are still difficult to predict. As is typical, Q1 will be our softest cash flow quarter, due to annual rebate and incentive compensation payments that were accrued in 2022. For the first quarter, we expect revenue to be in the range of $1.52 billion to $1.56 billion. dollars Consolidated gross margin to be in the range of 26.3% to 27.3%. GAAP operating profit in the range of $120 million to $140 million and GAAP earnings per share of between $0.29 and $0.39. Our outlook incorporates further customer inventory destocking in Q1, as well as uncertain demand for residential new construction and renovation activity.

We do expect Q1 will mark the low points in terms of destocking impacts on our financial results. Our full-year 2023 revenue outlook assumes mid-single-digit volume declines in products and solutions, partially offset by carryover price impacts and targeted new pricing actions. Products and solutions gross margin is expected to be impacted by lower volumes and continued material cost pressures offset by price realization and restructuring and efficiency actions. For ADI, our 2023 outlook incorporates low-single-digit revenue growth as stability in commercial focused categories is partially offset by continued slower activity in residential categories, including AV and intrusion. ADI gross margin is expected to be roughly flat with 2022 as reduced inflationary benefits are offset by continued progress on pricing optimization, and growth in higher margin exclusive brands.

Full-year 2023 consolidated operating expense is expected to be down by approximately $60 million year-over-year. Corporate expenses are expected to be approximately $210 million down from $229 million for 2022. We are continuing to evaluate further cost actions and manufacturing optimization opportunities that would yield further savings and likely result in additional restructuring costs that are not included in this initial outlook. Regarding our 2024 financial targets, as we indicated with our second quarter 2022 earnings, despite significant underlying progress, the impact of supply chain and inflationary pressures have limited near-term Products & Solutions gross margin progress. Given the expected continuation of some of these factors, as well as near-term macroeconomic uncertainty, achieving our 2024 profitability and cash generation targets on our original timeframe is unlikely.

We remain committed to substantially improving Products & Solutions gross margins and believe the business is still positioned to deliver mid-single-digit top line growth and low teens operating margin over a longer timeframe. I’ll now turn the call back to Jay for a few concluding remarks before we take questions.

Jay Geldmacher: Thanks Tony. As we look to 2023, we are focused on delivering to our financial targets, improving cash generation and accelerating the momentum on key initiatives across the business. We are well positioned to be a meaningful player in attractive market trends around home energy management, energy transitions and the increased focus on physical security and video analytics. Our newly expanded business development organization will enhance these opportunities and is focused on growing share of wallet with major accounts, while opening new partnership avenues and strategic growth opportunities. We’re also very excited about an increasing cadence of new product introductions within Products & Solutions as we enter 2023.

This includes several connected water leak detection and shut off products, T10 thermostat enhancements, additions to our gas valve portfolio, including entry into the pool heater category, underfloor heating controller and the pro-series security product for EMEA. These launches reflects initial returns from increased investment in our innovation and engineering organizations. As we move through the year and we expect to build momentum in this key area. As we drive growth opportunities, we are committed to managing costs and delivering ongoing margin and cash flow expansion and earnings growth. We are moving forward with manufacturing facility optimization work and product portfolio pruning, which will help us improve margins, focus on core growth areas and maintain supply chain and manufacturing resiliency.

At the same time, we remain focused on leveraging our channel strength, product breadth, relationship with the professional and exposure to attractive long-term structural trends to drive revenue expansion and deliver long-term shareholder value. I want to again thank the entire Resideo employee base for their efforts in the quarter and a continued focus on delivering for our customers. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready for questions.

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Q&A Session

Operator: Thank you, Mr. Geldmacher. We’ll go first this afternoon from Erik Woodring at Morgan Stanley.

Erik Woodring: Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my questions, I have two. Maybe the first one just on the last comments you made about P&S thinking about it as mid-single-digit growth is still achievable. I guess, I look outside of the 2021 and say P&S has been, kind of, flat to down organically in most years since 2019, and I realize it’s been a very unusual, kind of, three to four years with COVID and supply chain and macro. But I guess my question is what actions do you believe need to be taken to get this business back into that more sustainable, again kind of low-to mid-single digit growth range? And then I have a follow-up. Thanks.

Jay Geldmacher: Hey, Eric. This is Jay. How are you? I made a comment towards the latter part of our call about the introduction of new products. And I’m really excited about that because that is one of the pieces of the puzzle that you did — to answer your question. The velocity and cadence of new products for P&S is very important. And that’s why I wanted to highlight that in today’s call and that will continue. As we move forward and that is one of the big areas of focus between the introduction of the cadence and velocity of new products, as well as opportunity there along with it for margin expansion.

Tony Trunzo: Yes Erik, it’s Tony. Good question, and I guess I’d add that when you look across our portfolio, we see pockets of really strong growth and pockets of real opportunity where we’re adding market share. Our OEM business, we’re growing market share pretty clearly in our air products, thermostats and filters and zoning equipment, we’re adding market share. We have real momentum in a number of places. And over the last few quarters, we have had some headwinds particularly in the security business associated with the rise and then decline of the 3G radio migration that I think probably distorts what is the underlying inherent growth rate that we’ve seen across the business over the last two or three years. So I think the underlying growth rate is probably a little stronger maybe than what you’re seeing just looking at trailing four quarters trends, which is one of the things that I look at.

But clearly in order for us to grow faster than the market across the entirety of our portfolio, NPI’s going to be a crucial component of that.