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Q1 2025 Dover Corp Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Jack Dickens; Senior Director of Investor Relations; Dover Corp

Richard Tobin; Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer; Dover Corp

Chris Woenker; Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Dover Corp

Jeff Sprague; Analyst; Vertical Research

Andrew Obin; Analyst; Bank of America

Scott Davis; Analyst; Melius Research

Steve Tusa; Analyst; JPMorgan

Julian Mitchell; Analyst; Barclays

Michael Halloran; Analyst; Baird

Nigel Coe; Analyst; Wolfe Research

Joe O'Dea; Analyst; Wells Fargo

Joe Ritchie; Analyst; Goldman Sachs

Andy Kaplowitz; Analyst; Citigroup

Brett Linzey; Analyst; Mizuho

Presentation

Operator

Good morning and welcome to Dover’s First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Speaking today are Richard J. Tobin, President and Chief Executive Officer; Chris Woenker, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Jack Dickens, Vice President, Investor Relations. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference call is being recorded and your participation implies consent to our recording of this call. If you do not agree with these terms, please disconnect at this time. Please go ahead, sir.

Jack Dickens

Thank you, Margo. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining our call. An audio version of this call will be available on our website through May 15th, and a replay link of the webcast will be archived for 90 days. Our comments today will include forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results and events could differ from those statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, which are discussed in our SEC filings. We assume no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. With that, I will turn the call over to Rich.

Richard Tobin

Thanks Jack. Good morning, everybody. Let's go to Slide 3. Q1 was a good quarter. Adjusted EPS was up 19% over the prior year on excellent incremental margin conversion, driven by a healthy mix of our growth platforms, prior period structural cost actions, and positive price cost dynamics. Adjusted EBITDA margin was up 240 basis points to 24%, a record result for Q1 with four or five segments posting over 100 basis points of comparative margin expansion. Importantly, organic bookings were up for the sixth consecutive quarter with book-to-bill north of 1 across all five segments, resulting in a sizable portion of Q2 revenue already in backlog. Overall, we are very encouraged by the start of the year. All of our efforts on portfolio construction, new product introductions, and methodical cost and productivity actions are driving meaningful improvement in segment profitability and durable long-term top line resilience. Let's go to Slide 5. Engineered Products was down in the quarter on lower volumes in vehicle services and program timing in aerospace and defense. We intervened on the cost structure of vehicle service to support its margin performance going forward. Engineered Products, and specifically vehicle services, the most exposed to tariffs, so Chinese imported subcomponents in our case, structural steel. We are out with pricing mitigation actions, but we'll keep a close eye on volume. The segment will be bolstered as the year progresses by calendarization of our aerospace and defense business. With the divestitures of De-Sta-Co Environmental Services Group in 2024, our Engineered Products segment now accounts for 15% of our total portfolio, down from 25% in the prior year. Clean Energy & Fueling is up 2% organically in the quarter, led by strong shipments in clean energy components, fluid transport, and below-ground retail fueling equipment. Robust order activity and below-ground retail fueling signals a recovery after two years of lower volumes, a welcome outcome. We are also encouraged by the increasing quoting activity in clean energy components, particularly in recent wins in space launch and LNG infrastructure in the U.S. and Europe. Margin performance was robust in the quarter, up 180 basis points on a higher mix of below-ground fueling equipment and tight cost controls. We expect this segment to be the leaders in margin accretion in 2025 when volume leverage, pricing and SKU management and positive product mix. Imaging and ID posted another solid quarter with organic growth, 4% on strong wins in serialization software and broad-based growth in core marking and coding across all geographies and product lines. Margin performance was robust as management actions on cost to serve and structural cost controls continue to drive incremental margins higher. Pumps and Process Solutions was up 7% organically on double-digit growth in single-use biopharma components and triple-digit growth in thermal connectors for liquid cooling of data centers. Precision Components and Industrial pumps also had solid results. As forecasted, the long-cycle polymer processing equipment was down year-over-year in the quarter. Segment revenue mix and volume leverage drove margin improvement on excellent production performance and volume growth in biopharma and thermal. The outlook for the rest of the year is favorable in Pumps and Process Solutions, biopharma components and thermal connectors should continue their robust growth trajectories on secular themes in single-use biological drug production and liquid cooling of data centers. Our Precision Components business has a healthy exposure to the gas and steam turbine markets, which are performing well. Revenue was down in the quarter in climate and sustainability technologies and comparative declines of food, retail, door cases and engineering services, which more than offset the record quarterly volumes in CO2 systems. We are encouraged to see year-over-year growth in our heat exchanger business for the first time since the fall of 2023, shipments of heat exchanges for installation and European heat pump still faced poor comp in Q1, but were up sequentially from Q4. Despite the lower top line, the segment posted 120 basis points of margin improvement and year-over-year growth in absolute earnings on productivity actions and a higher mix of CO2 systems. We expect improvement of segment performance over the balance of the year on the strength of CO2 refrigeration systems, robust growth at heat exchanges for liquid cooling of data centers and a continued recovery in heat exchanges for European heat pumps on improving end customer sentiment and normalized channel stocking level I'll pass it to Chris.