ATMU Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc.

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$50.60

Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Piercy
Conference Operator
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the Atmos Filtration Technologies third quarter 2026 earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Todd Chirillo, Executive Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Todd Chirillo
Executive Director of Investor Relations
Thank you, Piercy. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Atmos Filtration Technologies third quarter 2026 earnings call. On the call today, we have Steph Disher, Chief Executive Officer, and Jack Kienzler, Chief Financial Officer. Certain information presented today will be forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties that could materially affect expected results. Please refer to the slides on our website for the disclosure of the risks that could affect our results and for reconciliation of any non-GAP measures referred to on this call. For additional information, please see our SEC filings and the investor relations pages available on our website at ATMIS.com. Now, I'll turn the call over to Steph.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Todd, and good morning, everyone. Today, I will review our third quarter results and share details of our progress executing our four-pillar growth strategy. I will also provide updates to our outlook for 2026. Jack will then speak to our financial results and segment performance.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
We have consistently delivered strong performance this year amidst mixed market conditions.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Our team has delivered year-to-date revenue growth of 15%.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
This is a reflection of our disciplined delivery of our growth strategy.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Our expansion into industrial filtration markets has contributed 9% and our consistent focus on building a strong growth engine within our power solutions segment has resulted in organic growth of 3%. The balance is related to foreign exchange . I am pleased to see organic growth momentum building in power solutions through the year and into the third quarter.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
where we delivered our strongest volume growth year over year.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
We have continued to deliver strong profitability and the cash generation capability of our business is now being realized. We have generated 189 million of adjusted free cash flow through September 30, an increase of 61 million from the same period last year. This strong free cash flow generation enables us to take a balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation. Our first priority is to invest in growth, both organically and inorganically. Next, we focus on strong liquidity to protect against volatility and uncertainty, maintaining investment-grade debt levels through the cycle. Lastly, we provide returns to shareholders through our dividend program and further utilize share repurchases variably relative to M&A activity. We have been actively executing this strategy. During the third quarter, we returned $25 million of cash to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. We have paid down $100 million of debt since our last earnings call and have achieved our stated objective of reducing leverage following a significant acquisition. Additionally, our board of directors recently approved a new $300 million share repurchase program, which replaces our previous authorization. Given the strength of our balance sheet and strong cash generation capability of the business, moving forward, we expect to increase share repurchases. We continue to seek M&A opportunities and will balance share repurchases against these opportunities as appropriate. Now, let me highlight our third quarter financial results. Sales were 510 million compared to 448 million during the same period last year, an increase of 14%, driven by the acquisition of Cook Filter and organic sales performance of 3% in Power Solutions, excluding foreign exchange. Sales were reduced by 9 million related to IEPA tariff refunds that we expect to return to customers. Excluding these refunds and foreign exchange benefits, organic sales grew 5%. Adjusted EBITDA was $104 million or 20.4% compared to $92 million or 20.4% last year. Adjusted Earnings Per Share was $0.77 in the third quarter of 2026, and Adjusted Free Cash Flow was $88 million. Now, let's turn to our four-pillar growth strategy. Our first pillar is to grow share in first bid. With a strong upturn in the US first bid market and long-standing partnership with market leaders, we are growing our installed customer base. This provides us with both near and long-term growth opportunities. As the market expands, we continue to grow our long-term partnerships along with pursuing new opportunities with leading global and regional OEMs across a broad range of applications. Our second pillar is focused on accelerating profitable growth in the aftermarket. We are prioritizing investments in faster growth regions and Marcus to broaden the availability of our industry-leading Fleet Guard and Cook filter brands. Our customers recognize the value and advanced filtration capabilities the Fleet Guard brand delivers. A recent independent survey ranked Fleet Guard as the number one preferred brand across all filter types, including fuel, air and lube in the United States and Canada. We are proud of this recognition and the faith our customers have in us to protect what is important.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
Our third pillar is focused on transforming our supply chain.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
We have built a resilient and flexible supply chain that allows us to navigate challenges in an ever changing operating environment. We control our distribution network and have consistently achieved top quartile performance in delivery. This capability enables global availability of our products when and where our customers need us. Furthermore, we continue to prioritize investments for capacity and automation to expand our capabilities and position the business for growth. Our fourth pillar is to expand into industrial filtration markets. We have completed the integration of Cook Filter and are now focused on investing for growth. We recently opened a new HEPA filter clean room with test capabilities at the Louisville manufacturing site. This investment allows us to unlock growth in the high-efficiency product category with applications in fast-growing markets such as healthcare. Additionally, we are investing to expand Cookfilter's capabilities and expect to open a new facility in Florida next year to accelerate growth. In addition to organic growth, we continue to review a robust pipeline of inorganic opportunities with a focus on industrial air to build a platform of scale by leveraging cook filter and creating value through targeted bolt-on acquisition. While our primary focus is industrial air, We remain opportunistic in evaluating industrial water and liquid filtration assets with the goal of identifying and anchoring investments that can serve as the foundation as we build out our industrial platform over time. Now let's turn to our outlook for 2026, starting with the power solution segment. In the aftermarket, we continue to see strength in freight rates, indicating improved economics for freight carriers. However, the overall level of freight activity has yet to reach an inflection point, and we expect the market to remain relatively flat year over year. In contrast, the US first-fit heavy and medium-duty markets are experiencing a strong cyclical recovery. We saw the benefits of the recovery begin in the second quarter. This momentum has continued through the third quarter and we expect these markets to remain strong. We now expect some pressure on diesel pickup truck demand, which will impact volumes for the remainder of the year. This is more than offset by the strength in the heavy and medium duty markets. Our investment for growth is expected to deliver market share gains in both aftermarket and first fit as we expand distribution capabilities, maintain world-class on-shelf availability, and win with new and existing customers. For power solutions, overall, we expect volume growth to range of 2% to 3%. Additionally, net pricing is expected to add approximately 1% growth with 1.5% of base pricing action to be partially offset by 0.5% of lower tariff pricing and refunds.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
Foreign exchange is expected to be a tailwind of approximately 2%.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
In total, we are raising our expectations for Power Solutions revenue to be in a range of 1.85 to 1.87 billion, which represents growth of approximately 5.5% at the midpoint. In our industrial solutions segment, we expect favorable market conditions and strong performance to continue and are raising total revenue to be in a range of 160 to 165 million. Taken together, we are raising total company revenue expectations to be in a range of 2.01 to 2.035 billion, an increase of 15% from 2025 at the midpoint.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
We are maintaining our full-year adjusted EBITDA margin guidance, which is expected to be in the range of 19.75 to 20.25%.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Lastly, we are raising adjusted EPS expectations to be in a range of $2.90 to $3.05. I want to thank Amazonians around the world for focusing on delivering for our customers and protecting what is important. Our disciplined execution and strong cash flow generation enables us to continue investing for growth through the execution of our four pillar growth strategies. Now, I will turn the call over to Jack.
Jack Kienzler
Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Seth, and good morning, everyone. The Atmos team delivered strong financial performance by supporting our customers through the upturn in the U.S. first-bit markets while also navigating variable market conditions in the rest of the world. Sales in the third quarter were $510 million compared to $448 million during the same period last year, an increase of 14%. Our solution delivered sales of $468 million compared to $448 million in the prior year, an increase of 5%. The increase was primarily due to higher volumes of 5%, pricing of 1%, and favorable foreign exchange of 1%. This was partially offset by 2% of pricing due to IEPA tariff refunds that we received and expect to refund to customers in the fourth quarter. Returning refunded tariffs to customers We do not expect to receive any additional material refunds. Industrial solution sales were $42 million resulting from the acquisition of Koch Filter. Gross margin for the third quarter was $154 million or 30.3% compared to $129 million or 28.9% in the third quarter of 2025. The increase was due to incremental margin from the acquisition of Koch Filter Higher volume and favorable manufacturing costs, partially offset by higher material costs. Selling, administrative, and research expenses for the third quarter were $64 million compared to $56 million in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to incremental costs associated with the acquisition of Cook Filter, higher incentive compensation, and other people-related costs. Joint venture income was $7 million in the third quarter compared to $8 million in the prior year. Strong performance in China offset weaker profitability in India, which has been impacted by rising input costs driven by the Middle East conflict. Other expense was $3 million compared to $2 million in the third quarter of 2025. The increase in other expense was primarily due to a non-recurring $3 million settlement with a supplier. Partially offset by higher interest income and lower foreign exchange losses. Excluded from adjusted results are one-time costs related to the integration of Koch Filter, which for the full year is expected to be approximately $3 million. We also exclude intangible asset amortization resulting from the Koch Filter acquisition, which is expected to be approximately $12 million for 2026. Total enterprise adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was $104 million, or 20.4%, compared to $92 million, or 20.4% in the prior period. Segment adjusted EBITDA for power solutions was $96 million, or 20.5%, compared to $92 million, or 20.4% last year. Industrial solutions segment adjusted EBITDA was $8 million, or 19.6%. Adjusted earnings per share was $0.77 compared to $0.69 last year. Adjusted free cash flow was $88 million this quarter compared to $72 million in the prior year. Now let's turn to capital deployment. The combination of continued strong cash flow and adjusted EBITDA performance has resulted in an estimated net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.7 times for the trailing 12 months and September 30th. During the quarter, we returned $25 million to shareholders, consisting of $20 million in share repurchases and $5 million of dividends. Furthermore, we have retained $50 million of gross debt in the third quarter and another $50 million in early October. As Seth highlighted, we have achieved our stated objective of reducing leverage and enhancing flexibility for growth following a significant acquisition. In closing, I want to thank our global team for their relentless focus on our customers, and I am confident the team will successfully deliver a strong finish to 2026. Now we will take your questions.
Piercy
Conference Operator
We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Tammy Zakaria with JP Morgan India. Your line is now open.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
Hi, good morning. Thank you so much. Very nice quarter. A question for you on FirstFit. The back half of this year is turning out to be quite strong. How are you thinking about FirstFit demand into next year? Are you preparing for some sort of a slowdown after a very strong finish? Or how are you thinking about or planning for at least the first couple of quarters of next year?
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Tammy, and thank you for your question. Look, really pleased with the performance this quarter. And as you highlight, we're starting to see momentum through the year. We saw FirstFit start to improve through the second quarter and we've also seen that here in the third quarter and expecting that to continue in a strong way through the end of the year of 2026. There is a lot of uncertainty around the FirstFit markets, particularly with the upcoming 2027 regulations, which is still open and finalization of that expected inside this year. So many of our customers are working through that landscape. I would say we are well-placed. While there has been some discussion about some supply constraints on the top end of first-fit demand, we don't have any supply constraints. We're able to support our customers through this upturn. And right now, we expect it to continue through the first half of 2027, obviously watching this closely as we see the demand response to and all of our other partners. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
Should we expect all of the free cash flow minus the dividend, all of it goes to our repo if there's no M&A, or are you going to still try to pay down some debt and then use the rest for repo?
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks, Temi. I would really highlight the strong cash performance of the business. If you look at it, we've seen about 61 million improvement in free cash flow year to date. over last year. And we're really starting to see the capability of the business in terms of cash flow generation, particularly given we don't have the extra costs associated with separation that we were incurring last year in 2025. We also have managed to move our debt levels to a good level and we've got a strong balance sheet. Jack talked to it being 1.7 times at the end of the third quarter. And we believe our debt level is at or around the right level. Doesn't mean we won't repay some debt going forward. But it does free up for the majority of our cash flow to be directed towards share repurchases. That, of course, is contingent on us continuing to pursue our M&A opportunities. We are very clear that investing for growth is our first priority. and we continue to review a robust pipeline of M&A and if and when we have something to communicate there, we will.
Piercy
Conference Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Obin with Bank of America. Your line is now open.
David Ridley-Lane
Analyst, Bank of America
Hi, good morning. This is David Ridley-Lane on for Andrew Obin. Tremendous gross margin performance this quarter. Congratulations. Wanted to check in on how you're thinking about price cost. It is a more inflationary market. And maybe any early thoughts on sort of your future price actions that you're looking at ahead. Thank you.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, David. I'll ask Jack to take that one.
Jack Kienzler
Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, David. Thanks for the question. A few moving pieces in there. So I might just highlight a few in peace so that we can decouple those moving pieces. So the first one, let me maybe talk to tariffs and kind of isolate the impact of that so that you can understand what's going on beyond the tariffs. So as we noted in our prepared remarks, we did receive the tariffs that we had, the and we've correspondingly booked the impact into our financial statements of the receipts of those refunds. As you can see, we are expecting to pass those refunds on to our customers. The impact to the top line of that was about $9 million. So that's a reduction in revenue. And then we booked a corresponding reduction in cost of sales. It's worth noting there's an immaterial amount of and many more. Thank you. We believe the treatment of that is consistent with our strategy of being price-cost neutral, and that will continue to be our principle as it relates to tariffs moving forward. If you exclude the impact of tariffs, overall we will be price-cost positive for the year. Certainly we have seen a rising input cost environment as we've moved through the year, and that's beginning to step up and so we are monitoring that closely. We did take some modest pricing in the middle of the year, although some of that washed out when you think about the lapping of tariffs from the prior year and so relatively muted impact there as you think about the quarter itself. Overall pricing for the full year as we highlighted in our comments will be about 1%. and again, we will be price-cost positive. As we look into next year, we'll see what happens in terms of the input cost environment and if those continue to increase and obviously we'll take corresponding pricing actions to make sure that we're price-cost positive and preserve our margins as we navigate that environment.
David Ridley-Lane
Analyst, Bank of America
Thank you very much.
Piercy
Conference Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Quinn Fredrickson with Baird. Your line is now open.
Quinn Fredrickson
Analyst, Baird
Hey, good morning. Steph, I was wondering if you could expand on your comments on how you're seeing the market shaping up for the aftermarket, perhaps looking out beyond the fourth quarter into 27. Obviously, a lot going on with higher diesel prices, perhaps some capacity coming out at the smaller end of the market. would just like to hear your thoughts on the underlying market as well as your share gain performance.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Thanks. Good morning, Quinn. Thanks for the question. You know, aftermarket is the majority of our business, and we've been talking about it being pretty flat for the last few years. Actually, since we IPO'd, it's been those conditions, and arguably we've been in a freight recession. and we're looking forward to a brighter market is what I would say. We still haven't seen that inflection point arrive. If we think about sort of the breakdown of our aftermarket, the big market is really first and foremost North America and then we come into Latin America and then Europe and Asia Pacific after that. And so if I just kind of paint those in order and talk about what we're seeing, In North America, we've still seen robust aftermarket. We've seen us continuing to gain share and output on the market, but it's relatively flat year over year is how we're viewing it. We're not seeing green shoots or an inflection in North America at this point. I do think, as I said, we've seen some improvement in freight rates. but still not seeing that turn into great activity or a significant upturn. I would say throughout the rest of the world, it's more challenging conditions. The impact of the Middle East conflict, you know, flowing onto Europe and even into India, I would say we have seen that. And we're seeing some bright spots in Latin America. Both our performance, we are outperforming there. and we're also seeing stronger market conditions in a market that's growing faster. So a mixed landscape is the best way to describe it. North America being our biggest market, relatively flat from a market perspective and we are outperforming. And then the rest of the world is somewhat challenged, impacted in part by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Quinn Fredrickson
Analyst, Baird
That's helpful. Thanks, Steph. Jack, just wanted to ask about the fourth quarter margin guidance. Just based on your full year EBITDA margin guide, it seems like there's a fairly wide spread for the fourth quarter implied. I'm just wondering if you could talk about any puts and takes for 4Q margin and what factors could push you to the high end versus the low end.
Jack Kienzler
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, absolutely. So first of all, I would just say our year-to-date margin performance has been quite strong. Year-to-date, sitting at 20.3, so the high end of our guide on a cumulative basis. So really proud of the team for what they've been able to deliver there and navigate various puts and takes from a macroeconomic perspective. If you look at then the implied Q4, as you noted, about what, 19.1? Thank you so much for joining us. You just look at kind of seasonal trends, you know, in our business. Generally, we do see lower hours in the fourth quarter. And so that leads to lower absorption benefits, obviously, in the manufacturing environment. And so that's been a pretty consistent trend. You know, if you look at 2025, 2024, 2023, usually see a bit of a step down in margin in the fourth quarter. And really all that's driven by is that kind of seasonal dynamic as we Your next question comes from the line of Bobby Brooks with Northland Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Keaton Chokian
Analyst, Northland Capital Markets
Hi, good morning. This is Keaton Chokian for Bobby. It seems like you've done a good job navigating the rise in raw material costs. I was just kind of curious if that's a fair assumption and maybe if you could discuss a little bit on how you've been able to achieve that.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Keaton. I'll ask Jack to take that one.
Jack Kienzler
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. Thanks, Keaton. So yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I think absolutely we'll be price-cost positive It is always a difficult needle to thread, right? Obviously, we can't price necessarily ahead of of when input costs impact the business, but we do our best to make sure that we're consistently pushing price into the market to meet the technology offerings that we can bring to the market overall. So we did increase prices at the beginning of the year in line with normal market practices and then took a modest mid-year price increase. In addition to that, Our third pillar is supply chain transformation, and we continue to do a really good job of finding efficiencies in the business, working with the supplier base to really get more suppliers under contract and find ways to take costs out of our products. So it's kind of a combination of all of the above, and we'll continue to stay vigilant on that as we move into 2027.
Keaton Chokian
Analyst, Northland Capital Markets
Okay, thank you. And then on the new Kosh facility that you're opening up in Florida next year, can you give us a sense of investment size and capacity add to that? And then also second question on Kosh, the new clean room testing is, will that be a higher margin product line? And what is the opportunity there over the next few years?
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, we're excited about the growth investments. You know, we've got through the integration at Cook Filter, very pleased with the way the business is continuing to perform and now focused on growing. And we've identified a number of growth investments. We've highlighted two today. One is the HEPA Cleanline investment that you talk about, the HEPA Cleanroom investment that you talk about. It does allow us to move more into high efficiencies and we do expect them to be stronger margin products. That's part of our strategy to move into higher technology products that support our customers. And that will be able to support markets like healthcare in particular. So in addition, those markets are faster growing than some of our exposure to other markets. So we see that as a great growth opportunity for the Cook filter business. It's early days. We've just made the investment. We've got our first order. So we're really starting to turn that and we'll start to see the benefits of that coming through here in fourth quarter and beyond. In terms of the investment in Florida, we haven't made it yet. It will be into next year. We've approved the investment and we'll be moving forward with that. Florida is the third largest HVAC market in the United States. We see great opportunities to further expand the cook filtration business where we already have great capabilities here in the United States. Beyond that, we'll continue to look for growth opportunities in the industrial air filtration segment, very much in line with our stated growth strategy of expanding into industrial filtration.
Piercy
Conference Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Urich with Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.
Kevin Urich
Analyst, Wells Fargo
Good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Yeah, just had a question on EPA 2027, just given all the uncertainty around that. You know, what are your expectations for it kind of going into the quarter pre-buy and what are you hearing from customers?
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Morning, Kevin, and thanks for the question. A lot of uncertainty as you say around EPA 2027 and the associated actions of engine manufacturers and truck OEMs in response to that as we get into 2027 here. I think as we've communicated before the transitionary approach that has been outlined in EPA 2027 should be good overall in terms of really allowing the industry to make a transition to regulatory standards, new regulatory standards in an effective manner. So I think that's playing out. We're still awaiting guidance and outcomes. I think many are saying that's expected in December in terms of the 2027 regulations and the final outcomes there. So waiting to see that here inside 2026.
Tammy Zakaria
Analyst, J.P. Morgan India
We are working closely with all of our customers to support them through this transition, and we feel well equipped to do that.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
In some cases, some of our customers are running multiple engine platforms, providing customers with choice of previous platforms and the new, and we are on both those platforms and are working with our customers to support them. and in other cases, customers are moving to the new standards and providing only one option. So we feel like we're in good shape to support our customers through all of those outcomes and we'll all know more here as we get into the final quarter.
Kevin Urich
Analyst, Wells Fargo
Got it. And then just as a follow-up, when we think about 4Q and kind of the implied volume bridge, is there anything that you'd call out for 4Q? Like in 3Q, you know, Topper Com from Stellantis. How should we think about that?
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
There's a couple of things I would call out. We're expecting continued strong performance through the fourth quarter and to finish the year strong. Year-over-year growth is very strong. We are expecting the first-bit markets, heavy-duty and medium-duty markets, to continue to show growth year on year and aftermarket to be relatively flat. I did note in my script that there is a pressure on pickup demand. Our first bit business is about 15% of our overall revenues in power solutions and a small part of that is associated with pickup demand. and we are expecting some downwards pressure in the fourth quarter, but that is more than offset, I would say, by the upturn we're seeing in heavy and medium duty markets.
Piercy
Conference Operator
There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Steph Disher for closing remarks.
Steph Disher
Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Patsy. So in closing, I want to leave you with three key takeaways. First, we are building momentum in our business as we execute our four pillar growth strategies. Secondly, we have demonstrated disciplined execution throughout the year and we expect strong full-year performance. And thirdly, our business generates strong and consistent cash flow, enabling us to invest for growth and return value to shareholders. I want to thank you all for joining us today and for your continued interest. Have a great day.
Piercy
Conference Operator
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.