Helios (HLIO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

DATE

Friday, Nov. 6, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications - Tania Almond
• President and Chief Executive Officer - Sean Bagan
• Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer - Jeremy Evans

TAKEAWAYS

• Net Sales -- $229.7 million for the third quarter, a record for the period and a 4% increase driven by higher volumes in both reporting segments.
• Pro Forma Sales Growth -- 13% year over year, adjusting for the divestiture of Custom Fluidpower, the Radio Sound acquisition, and foreign currency impacts.
• Hydraulics Segment Revenue -- $142.9 million, representing 15% pro forma growth driven by market share gains and business wins.
• Electronics Segment Revenue -- $86.8 million, a 10% increase reflecting record third quarter sales for Enovation Controls.
• Adjusted Diluted EPS -- $0.80, representing an 11% increase and exceeding the high end of management's previous guidance by $0.03.
• GAAP Diluted EPS -- $0.53, representing a 71% increase from $0.31 in the prior year period.
• Gross Profit -- $76.2 million, a 4% increase from the prior year third quarter.
• Gross Margin -- 33.2%, representing a 10 basis point expansion as higher volumes offset inflation in materials, freight, and utilities.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $46.5 million, a 3% increase over the prior year period.
• Adjusted EBITDA Margin -- 20.3%, compared with 20.5% last year, pressured by increased investments in research and development and higher incentive compensation.
• Operating Cash Flow -- $40.0 million, a third quarter record representing a 59% increase year over year.
• Free Cash Flow -- $32.5 million for the third quarter, with capital expenditures totaling $7.5 million.
• Net Debt -- $254.9 million, reflecting a reduction of $109.3 million from the prior year period.
• Leverage Ratio -- 1.4 times net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA, improved from 2.4 times a year ago.
• Share Repurchases -- $19.0 million of common stock repurchased during the third quarter, totaling $30.1 million year to date.
• Full Year 2026 Sales Guidance -- $895 million to $902 million, raised from the previous range of $880 million to $900 million.
• Full Year Adjusted Diluted EPS Guidance -- $3.08 to $3.15, tightened from the previous $3.05 to $3.25.
• Fourth Quarter Sales Outlook -- $205 million to $212 million, reflecting current order visibility and component availability.
• Fourth Quarter Adjusted EBITDA Margin Outlook -- 18.5% to 19.5%, factoring in seasonal volume and acquisition integration costs.
• Hydraulics Segment Operating Margin -- 17.3%, a 10 basis point improvement due to leverage on operating expenses.
• Electronics Segment Gross Margin -- 34.7%, a 40 basis point expansion driven by overhead leverage on higher sales.
• Estimated Pull-forward Sales -- $4 million to $5 million, resulting from customers placing orders ahead of announced price increases.
• Acquisition Spending -- $1.7 million deployed for the acquisition of select assets from Radio Sound.
• Cash Conversion Cycle -- 116 days, representing an improvement from 128 days in the third quarter of 2025.
• Inventory Balance -- $206.0 million, increased from $188.6 million at year end to support higher sales and secure electronic components.

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RISKS

• Evans noted that "Electronic component availability and pricing remain areas of attention, particularly for memory chips and circuit boards," indicating potential supply chain volatility.
• Bagan stated that "the operating environment remains challenging with ongoing cost pressures, tightening supply chains, uncertainty around interest rates and a volatile geopolitical and trade backdrop."
• Evans warned that "large ag remains challenged," noting that the large agricultural equipment market has faced multiyear compression.
• Evans stated, "we believe the benefit [of pricing actions] will start to show more in 2027," suggesting that current inflationary pressures may precede full price realization.

SUMMARY

Helios Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:HLIO) reported record third quarter sales and raised its full year revenue guidance, citing share gains and new business wins across both its Hydraulics and Electronics segments. Management reported that the company's momentum model delivered 13% pro forma sales growth, outperforming its long-term organic growth target of 5% plus. The company completed several strategic initiatives during the period, including the physical consolidation of North American hydraulic operations and the acquisition of select assets to expand its electronic audio capabilities. Despite persistent inflationary pressures in materials, freight, and utilities, the company reduced its net debt leverage to 1.4 times adjusted EBITDA and generated record third quarter operating cash flow of $40 million.

• Management announced that the Faster brand secured its first thermal management order for the data center market, marking an entry into a large unpenetrated sector.
• The company completed the physical consolidation of North American operations in Toledo, Ohio, to improve productivity and regional delivery performance.
• CEO Bagan stated, "our 5 consecutive quarters of double-digit pro forma sales and adjusted earnings per share growth provide encouraging evidence that our Helios Business System is building the right foundation."
• Management reported that the acquisition of Radio Sound assets established a new multiyear relationship with Indian Motorcycle and added platform-ready audio technology.
• The health and wellness end market, served by the Balboa Water Group, grew by double digits during the third quarter.
• Management indicated that more than 30 potential customers are currently evaluating the company's thermal management products for data center cooling applications.
• CFO Evans stated, "the second half is really playing out as we expected and we guided back in August," noting that fourth quarter comparisons will be tougher due to a prior year extra shipping week.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Sun Hydraulics: A brand within the Hydraulics segment specializing in high-performance screw-in hydraulic cartridge valves and manifolds.
• Faster: A Helios brand that manufactures quick-release couplings and multi-connection systems for hydraulic fluids.
• Enovation Controls: An Electronics segment brand providing electronic control systems, displays, and instrumentation for diverse industrial markets.
• Balboa Water Group: A brand specializing in electronic control systems and products for the global health and wellness industry.
• CFP: Custom Fluidpower, a business unit divested by the company in the prior fiscal year.
• Hyperscalers: Large cloud service providers and data center operators that require massive standardized infrastructure for computing.
• Pro Forma Sales: A financial measure adjusting reported sales to exclude the effects of acquisitions, divestitures, and foreign currency movements.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Greetings, and welcome to Helios Technologies Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Financial Results Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Tania Almond, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Tania Almond: Thank you, operator, and good day, everyone. Welcome to the Helios Technologies Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. We issued a press release announcing our results yesterday afternoon. If you do not have that release, it is available on our website at hlio.com. You will also find slides there that accompany today's discussion as well as our prepared remarks. Joining me today are Sean Bagan, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jeremy Evans, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Sean will begin with highlights from the third quarter. Jeremy will then review our financial results in more detail and provide our outlook for the rest of the year.

Sean will return with some closing comments, and then we will open the call for questions. Before we get started, please turn to Slide 2, where you will find our safe harbor statement. As you may be aware, we will make some forward-looking statements during this presentation and the Q&A session. These statements apply to future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those presented today. These risks and uncertainties and other factors can be found in our annual report on Form 10-K for 2025, along with our upcoming 10-Q to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

You can find these documents on our website or at sec.gov. I'll also point out that during today's call, we will discuss some non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful in evaluating our performance. You should not consider the presentation of this additional information in isolation or as a substitute for results presented in accordance with GAAP. We have provided reconciliations of comparable GAAP with non-GAAP measures in the tables that accompany today's slides. Please reference Slides 3 through 5, as I now turn the call over to Sean.

Sean Bagan: Thanks, Tania, and welcome, everyone. We're pleased you could join us today. During last quarter's conference call, we described Helios' transition from business stabilization to profitable broad-based growth. This quarter adds another important element to that story, consistency. Our third quarter results exceeded our outlook as we delivered higher sales, earnings and cash flow compared to the prior year. In sports, only a handful of professional teams have ever achieved a true 5 Pat. The New York Yankees won 5 consecutive World Series titles, the Montreal Canadians captured 5 straight Stanley Cups and Real Madrid claimed 5 consecutive European Cup championships. Those accomplishments were never about the streak itself.

They were the result of strong foundations, disciplined execution and organizations built to sustain success over time. That same aspiration is at the heart of the core strategy. While we are still in the relatively early stages of our journey, our 5 consecutive quarters of double-digit pro forma sales and adjusted earnings per share growth provide encouraging evidence that our Helios Business System is building the right foundation. We remain focused not on extending the street, but on creating a stronger company through disciplined execution, strategic investment and operational excellence that can deliver sustainable, profitable growth and long-term shareholder value creation for years to come.

We achieved record third quarter sales of $230 million with both of our segments contributing to our outperformance. That breadth matters. It reflects contributions from established customer relationships, recent business wins and the investments we have made in our commercial capabilities. It also reflects our sustained commitment to delivering product innovations to meet customer demands. In the most recent quarter, Sun Korea developed new common cavity valves, Enovation expanded no roads with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and partnered with SMA to enhance marine capabilities to the platform, while Balboa contributed to a luxury spa and pond scrap designed by Studio FA Porsche. These are examples of innovations today that will fuel our growth in the future.

Within Hydraulics, we saw growth from business wins and share gains. We also continue to benefit from demand across construction, industrial and smaller agricultural equipment, although large ag remains challenged. In Electronics, strength in recreation led to record third quarter sales for Enovation Controls, and we saw year-over-year growth in the marine end market for the first time in 7 quarters. The health and wellness end market was also up double digits in the third quarter. We did see some customers place orders ahead of price increases announced in the quarter that resulted in some sales being accelerated into the third quarter in both segments.

Considering the solid quarter, our September acquisition and continued order strength, we are raising our full year 2026 sales outlook and expect fiscal year 2026 sales to be the highest in Helios' history. However, the operating environment remains challenging with ongoing cost pressures, tightening supply chains, uncertainty around interest rates and a volatile geopolitical and trade backdrop. We cannot control those factors, but we can control how we execute, and that's where our focus remains. We continue to take actions to offset these dynamic macro factors. The timing of these actions, combined with when we will fully capture synergies on the Radio Sound acquisition have been factored into our updated outlook ranges.

When we introduced the core strategy, we laid out a clear road map for Helios' next phase of profitable growth, one built on stronger customer relationships, differentiated innovation, operational excellence and disciplined capital allocation. The plan draws on the deep legacies of the Helios portfolio companies, exemplified by Schultes Precision's recent 80th corporate anniversary. We set long-term financial targets anchored on organic compounded annual growth of 5% plus with an average of 100-plus basis points of margin expansion each year. We also identified new adjacent markets we are investing in and our planned approach to acquisitions. Our third quarter and year-to-date results show we are delivering on our commitments.

Beyond the numbers, we have made tangible progress in 3 areas tied to the core strategy: operational excellence through footprint optimization, disciplined capital allocation through targeted acquisitions and investments in new markets. First, we continued advancing our global manufacturing initiatives and completed Faster's North American consolidation in Toledo, Ohio. With the physical consolidation completed, the focus is on improving productivity, delivery performance and execution as the operation supports growing customer demand. Across electronics, we are progressing production transfers within our global footprint, including moving manufacturing lines from Tulsa to our Tijuana facility to better align capabilities, costs and regional customer requirements. These actions, along with others, are intended to strengthen the business beyond any individual quarter.

They support a more productive operating model, greater regional flexibility and new opportunities to be closer to the customers we serve in each region. Second, we completed our first acquisition since 2023 with a small targeted transaction. We acquired select Radio Sound assets and established a new multiyear relationship with Indian Motorcycle. The transaction adds audio and communications capabilities that complement our existing electronic solutions and can support additional customers in adjacent markets. While financially modest, it is strategically aligned with our approach to acquire technology and capabilities that can be built as a platform and leverage across the portfolio. We see a strong return on invested capital opportunity as we integrate the business and capture cost synergies.

This acquisition reflects the disciplined return-focused approach we will take as we evaluate additional targets. Third, following quarter end, Faster secured its first data center thermal management order, achieving an important milestone we expected to reach this fiscal year. Over the last 18 months, the team has moved through market research, R&D, product development, prototyping, testing and qualification to get to an initial customer order. It is a great example of how we applied our operational excellence developed throughout Baxter's 75-year corporate history to diversify into a large unpenetrated market. The significance today is not the order's near-term financial contribution, but rather the commercial achievement and potential implications for future growth.

Together, these 3 areas are building a stronger foundation for long-term value creation. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeremy to review the third quarter financial results and our updated 2026 outlook.

Jeremy Evans: Thank you, Sean, and good day, everyone. Please refer to Slide 6 through 8 as I review our third quarter results. Sales were $230 million, a third quarter record and an increase of 4% from the prior year period. Adjusting for the CFP divestiture, Radio Sound acquisition and foreign exchange impacts, sales increased 13%. As a reminder, last year's third quarter sales was an inflection point for us with year-over-year growth of 13% as well. So this is the second consecutive year with double-digit growth in the third quarter. Our results exceeded the high end of the outlook we provided in August by $8 million, with both reporting segments contributing to the outperformance.

Radio Sound contributed approximately $400,000, while foreign currency translation added close to $1 million of sales in the quarter, neither of which were included in our prior outlook. Additionally, we estimate customers pulled forward approximately $4 million to $5 million of orders from the fourth quarter into the third quarter as a result of announced price increases. Gross profit increased 4% to $76 million and gross margin expanded 10 basis points to 33.2%. Higher volume and the benefits of our operating and portfolio actions helped offset continued inflation in material and component costs, freight and utilities. Operating income was $28 million compared with $1 million in the prior year quarter, which included a goodwill impairment charge of $26 million.

Adjusted operating income grew 4% to $38 million and adjusted operating margin was 16.6%, consistent with the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA increased 3% to $47 million with adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.3% compared with 20.5% last year. Although adjusted EBITDA was up $1.4 million, adjusted EBITDA margin was pressured due to our increased investments in R&D, fast-moving inflationary costs, higher incentive compensation expense driven by our year-to-date performance and a continued high run rate for employee benefit costs. We continue to manage spending carefully while protecting the engineering, commercial and operational functions that support future growth. Diluted earnings per share increased 71% to $0.53.

The prior year third quarter was impacted by a goodwill impairment, which was partially offset by the gain realized on the CFP divestiture. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 11% to $0.80, $0.03 above the high end of our outlook. Turning to the segments. Please refer to Slide 9. Hydraulics sales were $143 million, up 1% as reported and 15% on a pro forma basis. Sales increased in the Americas and EMEA, while the reported APAC comparison was affected by the divestiture. Growth reflected continued commercial execution and share gains as well as distributor partners restocking ahead of our announced price increases. Order activity softened following those increases, but appears to have normalized.

It is important to distinguish replenishment of channel inventory from the underlying rate of end market consumption. We are monitoring distributor inventory and regional order patterns closely. Hydraulics gross profit was $46 million, essentially unchanged from last year, while gross margin declined 20 basis points to 32.3%. Gross margins were impacted by higher freight and utility costs as well as additional expenses associated with the faster North America consolidation. Segment operating income increased 2% to $25 million, and operating margin improved 10 basis points to 17.3% as leverage on operating expenses as a result of higher sales more than offset the gross margin decline. Electronics sales increased 10% to $87 million and reflected a record third quarter in Enovation Controls.

Growth in the Americas and APAC more than offset lower sales in EMEA. Our performance reflects ongoing customer program activity and new business wins even as conditions across certain core markets remain challenged. We continue to target opportunities where our controls, displays and integrated technologies can deliver greater value to customers. Electronics gross profit increased 11% to $30 million and gross margin expanded 40 basis points to 34.7%. Gross margins benefited from leverage on overhead expenses as a result of higher sales, which more than offset higher input costs. Segment operating income was $12 million with an operating margin of 14.3%. The prior year third quarter operating margin was impacted by a goodwill impairment.

Excluding the goodwill impairment, operating income was flat with the prior year, reflecting incremental investments in research and development. Electronic component availability and pricing remain areas of attention, particularly for memory chips and circuit boards. We are working with suppliers and selectively positioning inventory to support customer requirements. We also continue executing production transfers and other initiatives intended to improve our cost structure and manufacturing flexibility while routinely evaluating pricing-related actions to help offset inflationary pressures. The Radio Sound acquisition integration is underway. Our near-term priorities are supporting the Indian motorcycle relationship, integrating the operations and identifying additional applications for the acquired capabilities across our customer base. We expect it will take about 1 quarter to capture the cost synergies.

The acquisition represents a high-reward opportunity that expands our audio solutions offering and establishes a relationship with a new OEM. Turning to Slide 10. We generated cash from operations of $40 million, up 59% from the prior year period and a record for our third quarter. Free cash flow in the quarter was $32 million and capital expenditures were $8 million as we continued investing in the business. Those investments support manufacturing capabilities, productivity and future growth. Our cash conversion cycle improved to 116 days compared with 128 days in the prior year period. This reflects our continued focus on driving timely customer collections, extending terms with our partners and managing inventory held within Helios.

We maintained our days inventory on hand, although our inventory balances increased year-over-year and sequentially as we increased stock to support higher sales while selectively taking an inventory position on electronic and thermal management components to support customer requirements and manage supply availability. On Slide 11, you can see our balance sheet continues to provide flexibility. We ended the quarter with total debt of $328 million and cash of $73 million, resulting in net debt of $255 million. Net debt declined by $109 million from the prior year period, and net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA was 1.4x compared with 2.4x a year ago. Our capital allocation priorities remain in this order.

First, organic investment, followed by returns to shareholders, strategic acquisitions and then debt repayment. Our capital deployment in the quarter reflected this as we increased CapEx and R&D investments over the year ago period, repurchased our highest amount of common stock within the quarter, extended our cash dividends to 119 consecutive quarters and deployed $1.7 million on the acquisition of certain assets of Radio Sound. Slide 12 summarizes the financial priorities we established at the beginning of the year. We made consistent progress across all 4 priorities this year, executing our growth plan, improving gross margins, maintaining earnings momentum and optimizing capital allocation.

We are focused on ending the year strong, delivering a new sales record and converting the sales growth into earnings and cash. Turning to Slides 13 and 14. We now expect 2026 sales of $895 million to $902 million or 13% pro forma growth at the midpoint over the prior year period. The low end of the range eclipses our previous record of $885 million, so we are on pace for the highest annual sales in Helios' history. The top end of the range has increased as a result of anticipated sales from the completed acquisition.

For the full year, we expect Hydraulics sales of $564 million to $568 million, 15% pro forma growth at the midpoint and electronics sales of $331 million to $334 million, 12% growth at the midpoint. We expect consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.2% to 20.4% and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $3.08 to $3.15. We are tightening both the margin and earnings ranges from our prior outlook to reflect the current cost environment, along with the impact of the Radio Sound acquisition. The new adjusted diluted earnings per share midpoint reflects a 22% annual growth rate, approaching twice that of our expected midpoint top line growth of 13%.

For the fourth quarter, we expect consolidated sales of $205 million to $212 million. This includes hydraulic sales of $135 million to $139 million and electronics sales of $70 million to $73 million, reflecting current order visibility, component availability and the benefit from the acquisition. We expect fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.5% to 19.5% and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.60 to $0.67. As a reminder, the fourth quarter of 2025 included an interest expense benefit of $5.4 million related to an interest rate swap that was originally due for maturity that quarter and was terminated as a result of our debt refinancing in 2024, which favorably impacted earnings per share by approximately $0.12.

This impacts the year-over-year comparison in the fourth quarter. There are several considerations behind this outlook. First, we expect the fourth quarter growth rate to moderate from the third quarter pace as we are lapping tougher compares, combined with the fact there was a full extra week in the shipping calendar in the fourth quarter last year. Last year, in the fourth quarter, we reported 17% sales growth and 29% pro forma growth without CFP. This is part of those tougher compares mentioned. Second, we remain in an inflationary cost environment. And although we have taken targeted pricing actions, we believe the benefit will start to show more in 2027.

Third, we will incur integration costs in the fourth quarter related to the acquisition, which were not originally anticipated in our prior outlook, while expected synergies will start to be reflected in early 2027. Our outlook, therefore, balances the strength of our year-to-date performance and commercial pipeline with a measured view of the orders for the balance of the year while layering in timing of initiatives to offset cost inflation as well as the recent acquisition. With that, I will turn the call back to Sean for his closing comments.

Sean Bagan: Thank you, Jeremy. Our 2026 key focus areas shown on Slide 15 remain intact and have guided our direction as we prioritize serving our valued customers while launching and executing against the core strategy. As we close out our prepared remarks, I'd like to return to the sports analogy I referenced earlier. The New York Yankees, Montreal Canadians and Real Madrid each achieved the rare feat of winning 5 consecutive championships, yet their legacies were never defined by whether they won a 6. They were defined by the strength of the organizations they built and their ability to compete successfully year after year.

While our recent growth reflects a strong start, we remain focused on building capabilities, culture and operating discipline that can create value through market cycles. We recognize that the pace of growth may vary from quarter-to-quarter, so our focus remains on disciplined execution, strategic investment and operational excellence. With record year-to-date sales, strong order trends and a healthy pipeline of new product releases, we are confident in our ability to close out 2026 and enter 2027 well positioned for continued profitable growth. With the initial stages of 2027 planning completed, we are cognizant that comparisons are becoming tougher with component availability, inflationary costs and the geopolitical landscape remaining dynamic.

What gives us confidence and excitement that we can continue the momentum ignited this year is the work taking place inside Helios, the customer relationships we are strengthening, the business we are winning, the products we are developing and the operating capabilities we are building. We are not providing specific 2027 guidance today, but the priorities remain the same. As we committed with the core strategy, we are targeting a 5% plus organic growth CAGR through 2030. Our Helios momentum model has driven our performance this year to exceed that targeted pace, demonstrating the strength of our portfolio.

However, we are focused on delivering sustainable compounding growth over the long term and would not assume that this year's double-digit pro forma growth rate is indicative of our expected annual growth profile going forward. We look forward to providing additional perspective on 2027 when we report our fourth quarter results. I want to thank our colleagues across Helios for their commitment to our customers and to one another. Their work is what turns our strategy into results. To our customers, distributors, suppliers and shareholders, thank you for your continued partnership. We remain focused on finishing the year with momentum and building a stronger Helios for the long term. With that, operator, let's open the lines for Q&A, please.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question will be from Chris Moore with CJS Securities.

Christopher Moore: Obviously, still lots of uncertainty in many end markets. Marine, as you said, showed some improvement for the first time in 7 quarters. Just trying to find out, are there areas that you had been seeing improvement in '26, either geographically or specific vertical end markets that started to soften in Q3 or you expect might be by the end of '26.

Sean Bagan: Yes. So Chris, I would characterize that generally, no. Our markets that we're serving we didn't see necessarily a slowdown anywhere. In fact, I would say the second half for us has gotten a little better than what we would have expected entering the third quarter. And I think that's indicative of us bringing up our sales guidance. Some of the ones we're watching closely certainly are over in Asia and China, particularly on the Sun Hydraulics side, monitoring distributor inventory levels and market demand. Here in North America, the ag market, as we know, has been compressed for many years in a row.

However, for us, where we're benefiting is on some of the smaller compact equipment where we're kind of agnostic to what part of the market is going up or down. We would just want volume. And so certainly, the large combines and larger ag equipment has been challenged. But when there's a tractor sold, just a unit sold, we're still getting -- capturing the same revenue. So those would be a couple that I would point to.

But generally, the marine one was a bit of a surprise to see that go positive for the first time in 7 quarters because certainly, some of the discretionary markets and with interest rates starting a little bit of an escalation puts a little question mark on some of them. But for us, our large customers have continued to grow there and just not at the pace that we did the year-over-year from the first half.

Christopher Moore: So congrats on the data center order. Trying to maybe just better understand a little bit on the go-to-market strategy. As you learn the market, I mean, do you expect potentially significant orders from a few players? It's going to -- or will be lots of smaller customers. How do you see that kind of playing out in '27?

Sean Bagan: Yes. Well, first, we're really pleased. And as we have been indicating all year, we expected to get our first order. And obviously, that's materialized. It's insignificant to the volume this year, but is back to our identification of a market that we weren't participating in that had emerged. And it really came out of our strategic planning work that we had implemented -- and we have been methodically developing the product and building out our operations to be ready. I would say we're going to look to stack a lot of small wins together. Today, we have over 30 customers, potential customers with products that are out there that are evaluating us, testing it.

We are also under NDA with a couple of the hyperscalers, and that's more so just to get spec in on the standard product. But we're really focused on the differentiation that we can bring to that market, bringing our expertise from the ag and construction markets where we know leakage rates are always important, but even more paramount in a data center environment, given where these -- where we play with the quick release couplings that if water is leaking on chips and electronic components, that's not a good thing.

And we believe our products are better given all the R&D and testing we've done on both competitor products and ours and then also further enhancements to the existing products that are out there. So for us, it's very exciting from the perspective of a very large unpenetrated market that is purely green shoot for us. Certainly, with the midterm election results and some of the data center focus on build-out here in the United States and North America at least, there's less opportunity for us to penetrate as quickly likely, but it's all incremental. And we're just excited to have another market to pursue.

Operator: And our next question, we'll hear from Tomo Sano with JPMorgan.

Tomohiko Sano: Maybe just on Hydraulics, which is actually growing 15% pro forma, which is obviously well ahead of the underlying market. Can you help us separate how much of that growth is coming from share gains and the new business wins versus market recovery and restocking? And any -- also any color on how that is actually sustainable into 2027?

Sean Bagan: Yes. Thanks, Tom, for the question. I would characterize it as majority of share gains. When you look at the overall markets, where we rely on looking at our 2 large businesses, Sun Hydraulics and Faster. Sun Hydraulics is -- we're part of the NFPA, National Fluid Power Association, and we're clearly seeing low single-digit market improvements. And so that's the first time in multiple years that we've experienced that. So there's a little bit of market help, but we are by far outpacing that. In fact, all 4 of our businesses, including over to the electronics side of the large businesses, we expect to grow double digits over the prior year this year, which is implied in our guidance.

So clearly, the Sun Hydraulics aggressive growth that we've achieved beyond the market is tied to our go-to-market and our reengagement with our distributors and working through some of those operational challenges that had hurt our delivery times and such. And we've gained a lot of win backs, a lot of confidence back and really just how we're engaging with our customers and taking a much more data analytics approach and targeted market focus. On the Faster side, the other large business within our Hydraulics segment, as we know, the ag market has historically always been the largest for Faster. Despite that continued decline for multiple years, particularly here in North America, we've seen Faster grow.

Faster, again, will grow double digits this year. And remind you before we've recognize the data center opportunity. And really, what we point to there is our recent products that we've launched have gained great market traction. The multi-Faster is a product that our competitors try to copy but can't make it as good as ours. And we bring -- and we've been targeting other markets beyond just ag with that. So we've seen our construction business continue to grow. And we've also seen our distribution business, which historically Faster is OEM direct.

And so if you think about the go-to-market approach and leveraging our overall portfolio with our distribution expertise on the Sun business, for instance, bringing that to Faster. So clearly, the faster growth is market share gains because the end markets are not helping. Jeremy, any other color?

Jeremy Evans: Yes. I would point to the ag market where that still is not back to what it's been. It's still been down several years. But for us, that's been an area of growth. The mobile end market, which is where we have construction, material handling equipment and specialty vehicles, that's been strong and industrial as well. And as Sean mentioned, we provide data into the National Fluid Power Association. We get information back so we can compare our sales growth to what we see there on the hydraulics side. And we definitely believe we're outgrowing the market.

Tomohiko Sano: And a follow-up on M&A. So with the leverage now down to 1.4x, should we think of Radio Sound as the template for M&A going forward, like meaning like smaller technology tuck-ins? Or would you consider something larger as the balance sheet capacity continues to improve?

Jeremy Evans: Yes. Tomo, I would -- this is Jeremy. I would characterize the Radio Sound as a strategic acquisition that added capabilities to our electronics portfolio, specifically around audio solutions. And that was a gap when we think about owning the cab experience, whether that's a cab of a recreational vehicle or a boat or even into some other mobile applications. And it was obviously very small, very much a tuck-in. We expect that to add in the near term, $1 million to $2 million on the top line with margins comparable to those within the Electronics segment once we get through the integration activities that are taking place now.

I think it represents the M&A approach going forward from a -- it's a strategic fit. It adds capability. There is high potential for good returns. And that's what we're looking for. But as you mentioned, we've been able to pay down debt. Our debt leverage ratio is below our operating range that we communicated between 1.5 and 2.5. So we are looking and we'll look for bigger opportunities that wouldn't put a revenue threshold on what we're evaluating, but it's more where do we see complementary capabilities and the ability to generate a good return.

Operator: And next, we'll hear from Mig Dobre with Baird.

Mircea Dobre: Congratulations on getting the first data center. I want to talk a little bit more if we can about this topic. And I guess I'm curious, how are you selling this product? I mean is this a product that goes into a new build? Or is this something that you can sell into existing data centers as well? And related to this, what is the life cycle of this product look like once it's installed? Is this something that has a specific mandated useful life? Do you sort of have to change these couplings every so often in order to make sure that you're living within certain safety parameters?

Or is this the type of product that once it's installed, it's kind of there for the very long haul, the life of the building or the equipment?

Sean Bagan: So I'll try and address some of that, and I'll pass it to Jeremy too, to fill in any gaps that I missed here. But to start, our end customers are typically an integrator that's building the cooling racks for the data center. So our particular product is the couplings and many different variations of it. So from the perspective of winning new business, getting specs in, obviously, that's very helpful. But unlike the rest of -- generally, our entire Helios portfolio, where typically, our products are outlasting whatever they're put into, this is a different market where, yes, there is aftermarket, if you will, or refreshing of the equipment.

And it really differs by each customer in terms of what their specs are and such. So our focus has been on, first, really basically understanding the market, understanding the importance of the hyperscalers in terms of the standardized product and getting your product qualified, but also then targeting, like I said, the integrators and so stack in these small wins. Jeremy, maybe you can speak a little more on the product side as well.

Jeremy Evans: Yes. This is Jeremy. When we think about the liquid cooling, you've got a connection going into the rack unit, which is simply a larger coupling and then you've got a smaller coupling going against to the actual cold plate. We're now supplying both. And as Sean mentioned, this is really not meaningful to our Q4 expectation, but it's more of a very important milestone of something that we started 12 to 18 months ago, just investing in the capability, doing the studies, the designs, the prototyping. As Sean mentioned, we now have a sample product out with several customers.

And so it just is a representation of our operations execution and the methodical approach of the team that has been built with over 75 years in the hydraulics space. So it's a very big milestone. In terms of the refresh rate, because it is within the technology space, the underlying servers, we would estimate approximately 3-year -- 2- to 3-year refresh cycle on those. And typically, if you're going to be replacing the equipment in the rack, most likely you're going to be replacing the coupling and hose as well.

Mircea Dobre: But I guess my initial question, maybe we can come back to hopefully address it. When you guys are selling, are you sort of -- should we be thinking about just the pace of the build-out here in terms of incremental data center starts? Is that kind of like what the functional driver would be? Or are you able to go into existing data centers and try to get business that way? Because obviously, we're talking about 2 very, very different things here. And is there a way to help us understand your addressable market here?

So if you were to maybe size it as to what the content would be per megawatt in the data center, I think that would also be really helpful. Just it's a new end market. So we're trying to figure out if this has the potential to really kind of be a meaningful incremental driver into 2027 and 2028.

Jeremy Evans: Yes, Mig, from -- first, I would say we're starting at 0 as it relates to the coupling. So this is not in our run rate. So any sales we achieve will be incremental and add to our organic growth in '27 and beyond. And we had some information we outlined in our Investor Day on the addressable market within the data center, and it was roughly $1 billion from a market opportunity, and that does represent new build-outs as well as replacement within existing data centers. And our go-to-market approach, as Sean mentioned, is to work through integrators, work through distributors, the companies that are actually assembling and putting the racks together.

But to get at the big volume, you need to be qualified and approved by the big hyperscalers. And so we're working with them as well to do that. But we believe there's an opportunity both in existing data centers as that equipment gets refreshed as well as new data center build-outs.

Sean Bagan: And then the other thing I would just add is we know from the market intelligence, the market research that there is currently a supply shortage. To the extent the data center build-out isn't at the pace that was previously expected, there still is clearly the replacement or the aftermarket, but we still believe there will be data centers built, and we feel well positioned, not from a supply-demand perspective, but from a product perspective and our differentiated product and the things we're bringing to that market, just as we have in ag with the multi-Faster. And so part of our product plan is tied to the connectivity of things and others.

So we're pretty excited, as Jeremy said, given that it's an entirely green shoot incremental revenue stream for us.

Mircea Dobre: If I may, one final question on a different topic. You talked about raising prices and inflation, some of the pull forward that you noted. I'm curious if you can give us a little more color in terms of actions that -- additional action that you might have to take into 2027 with the price increase that you put through, are you where you need to be from a price cost standpoint? Or is there another round that is going to be required in '27 in order to get to your kind of normalized targeted incremental margins?

Jeremy Evans: Yes. Let me touch on the cost pressures that we're seeing first. It's primarily around 3 areas. One is input costs. That's related to metals on the hydraulic side, both for raw material, but also in some of the tooling that we use. We've seen the cost of those go up. On the electronics side, it's really on the electronic components. Biggest drivers are the memory chips, but also some of the circuit boards. We're seeing inflation as well in freight. So freight costs remain elevated. Fuel surcharges are as high as they've been since COVID. And so we're seeing that increase. We're seeing an increase in utility costs as well, primarily in Europe.

And when we look at the year-over-year impact on the quarter, that's over 100 basis points from a sequential standpoint, more than 50. And so it's a meaningful impact on the gross margin line. We have been putting in targeted pricing actions. We've had some surcharges in place looking at freight policies. We did announce within our Hydraulics segment, a broader price increase, and that did lead to some orders pulling forward. So what we saw was an increase in the order take in July that was a bit lower and August started to pick back up in September, and appears to have normalized here in October. So we don't see it as a long-term demand impact.

It was more of a pulling orders forward ahead of those announced price increases. We believe that we've covered the cost inflation with those increases. However, we have different types of pricing. We have pricing with OEMs that's contractual based that we have to work through. We've got list prices that we're able to be a little bit more flexible with certain communications. And then there are levers, like I mentioned, with the freight that is more targeted in nature. So we're definitely reacting, taking action, but it's going to take some time for some of those actions to flow through the results.

Operator: And we'll move on to Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Jeffrey Hammond: Maybe just to start, so fourth quarter, I'm just trying to understand kind of the underlying trend. I mean, it seems like you have 1 less week. I don't know if that's a 5%, 7% headwind and then you had the pull forward. Like if we kind of strip all that out, I'm just -- what's kind of the underlying organic growth rate into the fourth quarter? And then it seems like in your comments, Sean, you want to point -- you're not ready to give '27 guidance, but you want to point people more to like a normal growth year as opposed to what was certainly been a great year.

Sean Bagan: Yes. Thanks for the question, Jeff. And I'm going to allow Jeremy to give some of the specifics, but just directionally to provide a little more color on the prepared remarks and try and address the questions you asked there. So I think it's important to ground on our Investor Day and what we've communicated, we're committed to a 5% plus organic growth. And obviously, we feel really good in year 1, getting ahead of that. In fact, year-to-date, our growth is more than double that. Certainly, in our full year guide would suggest we'll grow double digits as well, acknowledging the growth rates are different by quarter. I think what's important to look at, though, is the comparables.

And if you actually look at our growth rates either on a 2-year or a 3-year basis and you look at it on halves of years rather than quarters because there's a lot of noise in the quarters that Jeremy will mention, our second half is actually double the rate of growth on a 2-year or 3-year basis than our first half. So from our perspective and our lens, we're actually feeling a lot better. We feel a lot better than we did entering this year, and hence, why we've taken up our revenue guidance every quarter because we viewed a lot of uncertainty in the back half, which hasn't materialized. In fact, we're very pleased with it.

And then for me, I'm always looking at trends, right, not just the quarter, looking at R6s, R12s and then looking at those demand indicators. And when I look at our order intake still being up double digits in the third quarter, when I look at our order book year-over-year, up double digits, we're not seeing a slowdown. In fact, we see a lot of green shoot opportunities. However, knowing that we're going to lap these comps and exactly what happened here in the second half of the year, it gets tougher to continue to put up double-digit growth rates.

And so trying to ground that as we enter next year, and now we'll have more uncertainty because it's a full year and so just 1 quarter left that we've got great visibility into because we have the orders in-house and just need to execute, yes, we would probably expect to commit to continue that 5% growth rate. Now a lot of things can play out, recessions, macroeconomic outcomes of the election, but that's our job to manage through that. And we're too small to make an excuse on what a market is doing. We're back to our targeted focus from a go-to-market perspective and going and creating our own growth.

And I'm really pleased with how we've done it this year, but acknowledging the fourth quarter on a year-over-year basis does look lighter, but there's many reasons for that. So I'll pass it to Jeremy to talk through that.

Jeremy Evans: Yes, sure. We've guided the fourth quarter to be in the range of $205 million to $212 million, and that's you compare it to the fourth quarter last year, it's down 3% to slightly up. But there are definitely some things impacting. First, I'd highlight that last year's growth as reported was 17%, but stripping out the impact of the divestiture of 29%. Now that did benefit from the extra week, which it's tough to say what was that week and how would that impact this year's compare if we had an extra week. But I'd say it's approaching $10 million benefit on the top line in the prior year.

As I mentioned, we did have some orders pulled forward that we estimate between $4 million and $5 million ahead of the price increase. That has about a 2% impact if those sales had been placed into the fourth quarter. So again, I think the down 3% to slightly up when you remove the impact of the extra week and you consider orders that advanced were definitely in growing in that low mid-single digits. And I would highlight that the second half is really playing out as we expected and we guided back in August. It's really more of a timing and with the addition of some incremental sales due to the acquisition of Radio Sound.

Sean Bagan: And then the last thing I'd just point to is, obviously, we've got October results, and it was our best October ever in our company's history from a top line perspective. And even at the guidance level, our second half will be the best ever. And that's covering for CFP that we divested, which would have contributed close to $30 million -- around $30 million. Our fourth quarter, if we get to the high end of our guidance, potentially is the best fourth quarter ever as well. So again, we're not feeling any sort of slowdown or seeing anything. And obviously, it's going to be tough to grow on record years and record quarters and record half years.

And that's a bit of the, hey, as we head into 2027, we still got a lot of planning left to do. We've got an initial read of the year, but we anticipate our growth to continue, and we're committed to delivering on what we said in our March Investor Day of 5% plus through cycle growth.

Jeffrey Hammond: That's very helpful, Sean. Can you just talk about what you're seeing in distribution? One of your peers was kind of saying, one, it's accelerating; and two, there's really no restock. But just give me your thoughts on -- are your distributors starting to restock? And are you seeing momentum building in distribution?

Jeremy Evans: Yes. As we've stated before, we do query our distributors on a regular basis to understand what inventory levels they carry. And we did see some inventory increase in the third quarter. Part of that, as we mentioned, I believe, is due to orders being pulled forward. But when you compare that to the sales increase that we've been seeing, and this is primarily related to our Sun Hydraulics business that primarily sells through distribution, they've been growing double digits. And so from more of a DIO type perspective, we don't see that the distributor inventory has stepped up. One area that we are watching is China. We did see some of that buildup in China.

And so we're staying in touch with those customers, understanding what the underlying demand is in those markets that we serve. But as I mentioned, we did see a slight drop in the orders after July, but we've seen that pick back up here as we exited September and into October.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Next, we'll hear from Nathan Jones with Stifel.

Adam Farley: This is Adam Farley on for Nathan. Maybe one more on demand trends. I appreciate the commentary around larger ag still remaining weak. But are you seeing any signs of maybe some improvement in that market? And then just a clarification, too, did you say that you have similar content between small ag and large ag?

Sean Bagan: Sorry, repeat the end of that question. Do we have a similar comp set, did you say? Content. Sorry.

Adam Farley: Small equipment and larger ag equipment.

Sean Bagan: Yes. When you just think of a coupling or a multi-Faster, there's one multi-Faster on any tractor, right? Now a smaller tractor doesn't require as many lines. And so maybe the price per unit is a little bit lower, but it's one unit versus unit of a large harvester with a multi-Faster, for instance. So -- and then couplings can vary depending upon how many attachments and such and how that particular tractor spec out. Jeremy, go ahead.

Jeremy Evans: Yes. Definitely from ag, if you look at the North American market, it's been down. If you look at the large tractors, the combines, has been down. We follow what obviously our big OEMs are reporting. It is in that small tractor space where we are seeing some growth. But again, that's a big market for our Hydraulics segment. And we've been saying it for a few years now, it feels like that ag has to rebound, has to come back. But that definitely is not a tailwind for us as of yet. Again, the mobile market remains strong for us. And even in industrial has grew for us in the third quarter as well.

Sean Bagan: Yes. So overall, the general growth that we're experiencing from faster, again, indexed more to ag is clearly more market share, more wins. And we communicated at our Investor Day that in 2025, we had $60 million of new wins. Well, we're above that pace for this year.

And so a lot of our growth is going back to our go-to-market and going and creating our growth and ignoring the noise of what's going on in end markets and really having that targeted approach of those customers and leveraging our product plan with voice of customer, and you've seen our consistent product launches over the last 18 months that are really targeted at incremental revenue and really how we're able to win more business.

Now certainly, we feel really good about the existing product portfolio, and it's still selling a lot more of that, but you're seeing the step-up in our R&D and you're seeing the product launches we're coming with that are becoming very meaningful and allowing us to win more business. And so really, it's us creating a lot of that growth. And if we can get a little bit of this market help tailwinds, it will be very exciting for us.

Adam Farley: My next question is going to be around supply chain. Can you just put a finer point on what's going on in the electronic component availability? I guess, ultimately, do you think supply chain overall is still manageable for you guys?

Jeremy Evans: Yes. The supply chain as it relates to electronics is very fluid. Memory chips have been in the news, just the rising costs and demand with the broad data center build-out. Now one of things that could help if the data center build-out does slow as a result of some of the midterm elections or just capital constraints, right? Maybe that helps the supply and the cost dynamic there. But that's still very fluid. We're starting to see some pressure as well on the circuit boards. And we have been working with suppliers for some time. We have taken a little bit of an inventory position on those. We ended the third quarter over $200 million in inventory.

Part of that is related to just building up for the higher sales, but some of that is due to taking some strategic positions on these electronic components because we are seeing some lead times get pushed out -- and it's something that we have to monitor. I think every company, electronics company is dealing with it. It's not a very, very big cost component of our bill of materials. But obviously, they are critical in our displays and in our controllers. You've got to have these components.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would now turn the floor back to Tania Almond for closing remarks.

Tania Almond: Great. Thank you, operator, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We will be on the road over the coming weeks, participating in both some in-person as well as virtual investor conferences. So we look forward to connecting with many of you at these venues. Feel free to please reach out directly to me if you have any follow-up questions. Have a great weekend.

Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

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