EnerSys

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to EnterSys fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2025 results. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that these conferences are being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today. Lisa Harbin, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss EnterSys fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2025 results. On the call with me today are David Schaeffer, EnterSys Chief Executive Officer, Sean O'Connell, EnterSys President and Chief Operating Officer and incoming CEO, and Andrea Funk, EnterSys Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Last evening, we published our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 results under our 10K with the SEC, which are available on our website. We also posted slides that we will be referencing during this call. The slides are available on the presentations page within the Investor Relations section of our website. As a reminder, we will be presenting certain forward-looking statements on this call that are subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Our actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements for a number of reasons. These statements are made only as of today. For a list of forward-looking statements and factors which could affect our future results, please refer to our recent form 8K and 10K filed with the SEC. In addition, we will be presenting certain non-GAAP financial measures, particularly concerning our adjusted consolidated operating earnings performance, free cash flow, adjusted diluted earnings per share, and adjusted EBITDA, which excludes certain items. For an explanation of the difference between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial metrics, please see our company's form 8K, which includes our press release dated May 21st, 2025. Now I'll turn the call over to Entersys CEO, Dave Schaeffer.

Thank you, Lisa, and good morning. Please turn to slide four for a review of our fourth quarter in four-year performance. Entersys delivered a very strong fourth quarter demonstrating the earnings power of our balanced business. We grew revenue 7%, our second highest revenue quarter ever, and delivered record adjusted diluted EPS of $1.86, excluding 45X benefits. Highlights included record motive power margins, significant margin expansion in energy systems and specialty, and strong contributions from the Brentronics acquisition. In energy systems, we saw growth in data centers and continued moderate recovery and communications. Motive power generated 15% earnings growth on similar volumes to prior year fourth quarter, with increased maintenance-free products reaching a record 29% of segment sales. Specialty benefited from sustained strengths in A&D markets and outperformance from Brentronics. Full year, revenue was 3.6 billion, with meaningful gains in adjusted gross margin, adjusted operating earnings, and adjusted earnings per share, even before 45X benefits. We made meaningful progress in fiscal year 2025. We executed our strategy in a challenging environment. We expanded our share in the attractive and growing defense market, through our higher margin maintenance-free offerings, reduced cost, optimized our manufacturing footprint, invested in high-speed, lower-cost, flexible domestic production capacity, and developed new product offerings, strengthening our foundation for future growth. As announced in November, today marks my final day as CEO. Sean O'Connell takes the helm as CEO tomorrow. With deep industry experience and proven leadership across Antersys, I am confident he will lead the company to continued success. It has been an honor to serve as Antersys' CEO. I would like to thank our employees for their consistent hard work and dedication in supporting each other and our customers every day. Our board of directors for their support and our shareholders for your trust. I will now turn it over to Sean to take you through more detail on our results in business drivers. Sean?

Thank you, Dave, for your leadership and for positioning Antersys for future success. I know I speak for the entire Antersys family and wishing you the very best in your next chapter. Please turn to slide six. As I begin my remarks today, I would like to start with my perspective on our business. Antersys enjoys deep customer relationships and leading market share positions in diverse end markets. The key to our future growth is that our solutions help our valued customers address their shared mounting concerns in two main areas, energy security and labor scarcity. Our products help our customers manage their energy costs and consumption while also making it possible for them to perform the same missions with fewer people through maintenance-free products and automation, enabled by intelligent stored energy solutions. Over the past six months, we have taken my strategic hypotheses, tested them with external advisors and are finalizing a focused roadmap to go deeper in helping our customers address these challenges while resetting our operations and reinforcing intense discipline on ROIC. There are opportunities for us to narrow our focus on select growth verticals, expand our service capabilities and achieve further operational efficiencies, which I will share more with you on our August call in upcoming quarters. In the near term, our focus is on discipline execution as we move through a transitional period shaped by evolving macro and policy dynamics. Before I get into the quarter, I'd like to take a step back to address the broader macroeconomic environment, our tariff exposure and our approach to mitigating associated risks. Please turn to slide seven. In March, we established a dedicated cross-functional tariff task force dedicated solely on analyzing, coordinating and mitigating tariff impacts, considering both supply chain and pricing actions. This team is also monitoring both the tertiary impact of tariffs on inflationary pressures as well as, and perhaps most importantly, market dynamics, both positive and negative, from suppressed demand to opportunities where our global footprint offers competitive advantages. Thanks to our longstanding practices of producing in-region, for-region, on-shoring from China, dual sourcing and footprint rationalization, we already have structural buffers in place. We are committed to fully mitigating any financial impact to our shareholders and see op-ex reductions as an effective lever for what cannot be offset by supply or pricing actions. To put our tariff exposure in perspective, about two-thirds of our global revenue comes from the US, in which 80% of our US supply is either domestic or USMCA trade compliant. Only 5% of this is sourced from China, where the highest tariff rate still exists. At current tariff levels, our direct tariff exposure is approximately 92 million, down from 160 million prior to the May 12th US administration updates. We intend to fully offset this impact, but expect some near-term friction in Q1 due to stranded tariffs that can't be passed on to customers and shifting customer order patterns. The biggest unknown to us is timing and the scope of broader inflation and or slowdown effects across the industrial sector. That said, we are prepared for a range of outcomes guided by our proven and refined playbook. We will remain well-positioned to weather both tariffs and a potential downturn if one materializes. Please turn to slide eight. In addition to our resilient balance sheet and conservative capital structure, Entersys has a number of structural advantages to help us mitigate economic downturns. First, a large portion, about 60% of our business, follows GDP independent cycles with limited sensitivity to general economic conditions as they follow their own investment timelines. This includes A&D and data centers, which are currently enjoying robust market momentum as well as network communications, which is poised for further recovery and expansion. Second, our global manufacturing footprint provides flexibility in our production and distribution capabilities, which enable us to respond and leverage varying geopolitical dynamics by market better than many of our competitors. Third, our primary operating capital investments have historically been a cash generator during recessionary periods. And finally, we maintain consistent OPEX discipline, enabling us to respond quickly when needed. While shifting conditions may temporarily affect market rhythm, we remain well-positioned to expediently protect both earnings and cash flow. Please turn to slide nine. I'd now like to turn your attention to current business performance. Our overall book to bill in the fourth quarter was just over one, with energy systems and specialty above one, offset by mode of power below one. Energy systems had positive order rates for the third consecutive quarter, driven both by data centers and communications. In specialty, A&D projects and orders have been robust. It's worth noting that we did see some order moderation early in the first quarter as customers adjusted to tariff-related developments, but activity rebounded quickly when tariff actions were paused. To provide more visibility in what we are seeing today versus prior year, our first quarter -to-date order rates for mode of power are up to 16%. Energy systems are up 10%, and specialty are up 33% with the Brentronics ad. While we anticipate demand signals to be variable in the coming months, we view this as temporary recalibration phase and not a structural change in market trajectory. Now I'll provide some more detail on the business drivers behind our strong fiscal Q4 performance. In our energy systems business, I am pleased with the team's execution, nearly doubling adjusted operating earnings. These improved results highlight the benefits of structural improvement actions, along with 22% -on-year increase in quarterly data center revenue and continued signs of recovery in U.S. communications spending. While we are encouraged by early project work and network expansion planning in U.S. communications, particularly driven by AI-related data demand, many customers are selectively managing capital expenditures. As such, we expect the pace of network expansion to remain gradual and potentially uneven in the upcoming quarters. Order rates were sequentially higher with particular strength in the Americas. Continued sequential order rate growth in EMEA is encouraging as a sign that the regional spend is increasing and off prior lows. It's important to note that while we are seeing strong order rates, lead times can extend the revenue conversion timeline in this business. Further, although this segment is one most exposed to tariffs and supply chain disruptions, we have significantly improved our monitoring and ability to respond more quickly than in the past. Finally, as an additional future tailwind, our services revenues continue to be challenging for us as an increasing area of focus for Keef. We see this as a tremendous opportunity to add value to our customers and grow profitably in the future. In mode of power, our very strong AOE performance was driven by another quarter of favorable price mix on increasing TPPL with charger mix, despite relatively flat sales year over year on lower volumes than EMEA and APAC. In Q4, sales of maintenance-free products were up 16% year over year, representing a record 29% of total mode of power revenue with customer enthusiasm over how our products help them address their labor challenges, as I had mentioned at the beginning of my remarks. Industry estimates for lip trucks indicate calendar year 25 may be down slightly over prior year with continued expectations for a better recovery in calendar year 26. We are receiving mixed signals on the near-term outlook for mode of power. Our April-May order book has been stable to promising, and April ITA truck orders were up over 19% over last year's historical lows. Conversely, we have a lower starting backlog than both a year ago and last quarter, slower book and ship activity in the current quarter, and anticipate disruption will continue to be impacted in the near term, with major ports reporting dramatic fluctuations in container volumes over the past three months, as importers drastically adjust shipments week by week in response to ongoing tariff updates. As a reminder, this business is largely correlated with GDP, but also has unique upside opportunities driven by macro trends of electrification and automation, as well as increasing market demand for our higher-performing, higher-value maintenance-free products. We believe the market pulled in some shipments into our fiscal Q4 in anticipation of announced tariffs, which will reverse out in the first quarter, creating a temporary drag. That said, we also see potential upside opportunities as lithium pricing pressure from Chinese suppliers may drive increased customer interest in TPPL going forward, but it's difficult to predict how and when these market dynamics will play out. In specialty, we delivered significant -over-year and -over-quarter improvements in both revenue and adjusted operating earnings, driven by solid performance in aerospace and defense, supported by the continuing outperformance of our Brentronics acquisition. Growth in Brentronics was fueled by robust demand for chargers, soldier power, and expeditionary power systems, as well as increased demand from the European defense market. The impressive A&D results were partially offset by slower Class VIII truck OEM volume recovery that we had initially anticipated. Tariff and macro uncertainty have paused the Class VIII truck recovery we were expecting for early fiscal 26, and we are seeing slower and choppy order rates as major OEMs continue to revise forecasts. A&D markets remain robust and will be strengthened by the macro, although we have seen some near-term delays that we believe to be timing related with personnel reductions in the administration temporary clogging the flow of orders. With strong momentum in Brentronics and broader A&D amid opportunities for improvement in transportation when markets come back and our Missouri plant investments come online, our specialty business remains well positioned for continued growth and profit expansion. Please turn to slide 10. Our recent performance reflects a business not only built for resilience, but ready to adapt. As we transition leadership, we are sharpening our focus, executing with discipline, building operational momentum, and listening closely to customers as their challenges evolve. We've made meaningful strides bringing new technologies to market, introducing cutting edge products such as software driven energy management systems, which will help our customers address their energy scarcity challenges that I had mentioned earlier. These advancements equip our customers with adaptable and efficient solutions that evolve alongside their needs. The preview of our Sonova Sync Charger and Battery Energy Storage System or BESS for warehouse and distribution center customers generated a lot of excitement at recent trade shows. Sonova Sync, our new generation battery charger delivers high efficiency, IoT compatibility for remote monitoring and over the air firmware updates advancing our IoT ecosystem. While in the development phase, our BESS resonated with our customers looking for a solution to tackle power continuity challenges, costly infrastructure upgrades, long lead times and limited flexibility, barriers that often slow electrification efforts. Engineered for rapid deployment and semi-portability, customers were enthused by the enhanced flexibility and efficiency of our BESS and what they will offer their operations. Operationally, we're building on progress from fiscal 25 with a heightened focus on execution. The first new high speed line in our Missouri Springfield 1 factory began production this quarter and is performing the expectations with the second high speed line on track to become operational in the fall. At the same time, we are actively reshaping our manufacturing footprint. As previously announced, we are closing our flooded lead acid battery manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico and transitioning production to our existing plant in Richmond, Kentucky. This move will enable us to optimize our cost structure as market demand continues to shift to our higher performing TPPL batteries. The transition will also allow us to maximize near term IRC 45X tax benefits and aligns with our philosophy of producing in market. The restructuring is expected to deliver an estimated pre-tax benefit of 19 million annually beginning fiscal year 2027 while ensuring continued product availability and customer support. To further strengthen our focus on high impact technology execution as previously announced in March, Mark Matthews, president of our specialty global line of business has been appointed acting chief technology officer. Mark brings more than three decades of engineering and operational leadership including deep technical expertise in lithium ion chemistry. He currently leads our aerospace and defense business which utilizes multiple distinct lithium chemistries across mission critical applications. This experience combined with his deep relationships across the department of defense and department of energy positions him well to guide the next phase of our lithium strategy and align it with national priorities. Mark is actively reviewing our lithium technology roadmap and investment plans to ensure they reflect evolving market demands and long-term supply needs. His dual role ensures commercial alignment with R&D and capacity planning as we position enters us for future growth in domestic lithium battery manufacturing. While the funding of the DOE award for our domestic lithium plant remains pending, we are encouraged by recent engagement with the DOE and remain optimistic given the project's alignment with defense readiness, domestic supply assurance and American manufacturing. In the meantime, we are taking a disciplined risk aware approach, adjusting our plans, maintaining flexibility and closely managing cost dynamics as we update our financial model for evolving costs and benefit assumptions to ensure our future path delivers an attractive return on investment for our shareholders. We remain well positioned to move with speed and confidence once greater policy clarity emerges. In closing, I want to express my deep confidence in the strength of our business, the relevance of our solutions and the dedication of the enters us team. We are energized by the critical role we play in supporting the industries that keep data and products across the world moving. I look forward to sharing more about our evolving strategy and growth roadmap during our fiscal Q1 earnings call in August. Now I'll turn it over to Andy to discuss our financial results and outlook in greater detail. Andy.

Thank you, Sean. Please turn to slide 12. Fourth quarter net sales of $975 million were up 7% from prior year, the second highest revenue quarter for the company, driven by a 4% increase in organic volume, largely on energy systems, communications, continuing recovery and strength in data centers, as well as 1% positive price mix across motive power and energy systems and a 4% positive impact from the Brentronics acquisition. Partially offset by 2% FX headwind. We achieved adjusted gross profit of $304 million, up $49 million year on year and up $41 million if you exclude 45X benefits. Q4-25 adjusted gross margin of .2% was up 320 basis points versus prior year and excluding 45X adjusted gross margin was up 260 basis points despite the FX headwinds. Our adjusted operating earnings were $152 million in the quarter, up $43 million versus prior year with an adjusted operating margin of 15.6%. Excluding 45X benefits, adjusted operating earnings increased $35 million or 48% with an adjusted operating margin of .1% on 7% revenue growth, driving a 360 basis point margin improvement year on year. Adjusted EBITDA was $167 million, an increase of $42 million versus prior year while adjusted EBITDA margin was .1% up 340 basis points versus prior year. Adjusted EPS for the fourth quarter came in above the high end of our guidance range at 297 per share, an increase of 43% over prior year. Excluding 45X, adjusted EPS was a record $1.86 per share, up 66 cents per share versus prior year, demonstrating the strong earnings power of a diversified business and more than 40 cents per share higher than our previous record. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 25, our effective tax rate was .9% on an as reported basis and .9% on an as adjusted basis before the benefit of 45X compared to .2% in Q4 of 24 and .3% in the prior quarter. Full year net sales of $3.6 billion were up 1% year over year. We generated adjusted operating profit of $528 million, including $185 million benefit from IRC 45X tax credits. Excluding the 45X benefits, we generated record adjusted profit of $343 million. Adjusted diluted EPS was $10.15 per share, an increase of 22% and adjusted diluted EPS before 45X benefits was a record $5.58 per share, an increase of 53 cents from our prior record. Let me now provide some details by segment. Please turn to slide 13. In the fourth quarter, energy systems revenue increased 8% from prior year to $399 million, primarily driven by increased volumes, as well as price mix and partially offset by FX. Revenue was up over $10 million sequentially, the third consecutive increase as we continue to see steady improvement in these end markets. Adjusted operating earnings of $35 million grew for the fifth consecutive quarter, reflecting higher operating leverage through our optimized cost structure and were $17 million higher than prior year. Adjusted operating margin of .7% increased an impressive 400 basis points versus prior year. We exited the quarter with encouraging order trends in this business and expect to deliver year over year margin expansion as revenue grows and we continue with our structural improvement efforts. While we remain fully confident in our ability to proactively mitigate tariffs and supply chain disruption when the macro environment stabilizes, we expect to absorb some short term headwinds from stranded tariffs in the upcoming quarter. As Sean mentioned, although this segment is our most sensitive to tariff and supply chain volatility, we have enhanced our visibility and responsiveness, allowing us to act with greater speed and precision than in prior cycles. Please turn to slide 14. Modus Power revenue was in line with the prior year at $392 million as FX headwinds and flat volumes were offset by positive price mix. Modus Power again reported robust adjusted operating earnings this quarter, contributing $67 million, up 15% versus prior year on the flat revenue, largely on favorable price mix, as well as some lower commodity and manufacturing costs. Maintenance free conversion continued its impressive trend at a record 29% of Modus Power revenue in Q4. Adjusted operating margins were .1% up 240 basis points versus the prior year. Since the implementation of tariffs, a leading industry report indicates a significant decline in market sentiment, reflecting a more than 50% drop in confidence for both current and future business, as the broader market is digesting this evolving market dynamic. While our products play a critical role in global supply chains, we expect a temporary short term negative impact on new list truck orders as companies reassess their investment strategies in response to the evolving trade landscape. We see meaningful upside to this business once conditions settle, supported by long-term tailwinds from electrification and automation, along with growing customer preference for our higher performing maintenance free solutions. Please turn to slide 15. Specialty revenue increased 21% from prior year to $178 million, driven by a 22% positive impact from the Brentronics acquisition and a 1% increase in organic volumes, partially offset by a 2% decrease in price mix. Q425 adjusted operating earnings of $15 million were nearly double prior year, with an adjusted operating margin of .5% up 270 basis points. Specialty's performance reflects focused execution with A&D and Brentronics driving the current results, with additional leverage expected from our Missouri investments and longer term transportation improvement, we anticipate further gains ahead. Please turn to slide 16. Positive operating cash flow of $135 million, offset by capex of 30 million, resulted in free cash flow of $105 million in the quarter. I would like to note that we have not yet received a $137 million US tax refund, which we had expected in the fourth quarter. We fully attribute this delay to IRS staffing issues and anticipate receiving the refund with interest any day. We had strong primary operating capital management, ending the year with $932 million on hand, up 79 million versus prior year as we build the business for future growth. As of March 31st, 2025, we had $343 million of cash and cash equivalents on hand. Net debt of $781 million represents an increase of approximately $270 million since the end of fiscal 24, as we made our acquisition of Brentronics, returned $192 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends, and continue to invest in our business. Our credit agreement leverage ratio was 1.3 times EBITDA. Our balance sheet remains strong and positions us to invest in growth and navigate the current economic environment. We anticipate maintaining our net leverage at or below the low end of our two to three times target range, providing us with ample dry powder for our capital allocation decisions and to absorb any macroeconomic dynamics that may impact us. Please turn to slide 17. During the fourth quarter, we paid $9.5 million in dividends and repurchased $40 million in shares. We currently have approximately $200 million remaining on our board buyback authorization. We continue to evaluate promising bolt-on acquisition opportunities like Brentronics that align with their discipline, strategic and financial criteria, and are focused on strengthening customer intimacy, expanding share of wallet with their leading positions and exciting end markets, and making progress on our transformation journey. Given the strong cashflow generation of our business, we have the opportunity to be more aggressive and our opportunistic share buyback activity, particularly during these volatile market conditions. Please turn to slide 18. As Sean mentioned, we remain very confident in our ability to effectively manage our business in the evolving macro environment and deliver strong earnings performance. We are committed to fully shielding our investors from the ongoing impact of tariffs although we may have some short-term headwinds when uncertainty creates pockets of volume disruption and stranded costs. Our fiscal first quarter, 2026 guidance reflects typical seasonal volume softness and motive power and transportation exacerbated by the short-term macro dynamics. For the first quarter of fiscal 2026, we expect net sales in the range of $830 million to $870 million with adjusted diluted EPS of $2.03 to $2.13 per share, which includes $35 to $40 million of 45X benefits to gross profit. The largest driver of our anticipated Q1 sequential decline in revenue and EPS can be attributed to motive power volumes, which are expected to be pressured on seasonality and tariff disruptions with motive power America's Q4 orders down 14% year on year, as well as to a lesser extent, approximately $5 million of stranded tariff costs. Sean and I are working on scenario plans to effectively respond to any and all outcomes as it relates to further tariff policy dynamics. Given the evolving policy environment and pacing of demand normalization, we are temporarily pausing quantified four-year guidance. That said, we believe Q1 will be the low point of our fiscal year. We anticipate four-year adjusted operating earnings growth, excluding 45X benefits to outpace revenue growth for the fiscal year. With improvement in our order book during Q1 year to date, we expect revenue will be bolstered by our customers' enthusiasm for our maintenance-free offering, robust A&D and data center markets, and ongoing improvements in our communication and transportation businesses, as well as ongoing improvements in our manufacturing costs, disciplined OPEX, and reductions in our capital expenditures year on year, all of which will be tempered by macro dynamics. To proactively mitigate these market dynamics, we've implemented direct and indirect cost controls and also are currently reviewing additional reductions in both OPEX and CAPEX as part of Sean's strategic business improvement roadmap. Please turn to slide 19. Before we move to Q&A, with the completion of our fiscal year 25 results, I would like to provide an update on our progress towards the fiscal year 2027 financial targets we set at Investor Day in June of 2023. In aggregate, we are on track towards our earnings targets with strong performance on adjusted operating margin, EBITDA and EPS, and future upside potential from the reinvestment of our excess cashflow. As with any multi-year plan, there are puts and takes. We are very pleased with our maintenance reconversions, realizing a richer mix of product sales across the business, our TPPL capacity investments, energy systems business optimization actions, the expanded 45X benefits, and the accretive impact of our Brentronics acquisition. On the flip side, our sales cagers have been below where we still believe our longer term potential resides, largely on unforeseen market-wide disruptions. These outcomes have informed Sean's strategy, which we will be updating you on in August. As Sean steps into the CEO role, he is advancing our strategic work aimed at deepening customer intimacy, accelerating our most high impact new product initiatives that help our customers address their energy and labor challenges, and enhancing our operational efficiencies, execution, and return on invested capital. These efforts, combined with our strong foundation, position us to pursue the growth and margin expansion we know our business is capable of. We look forward to sharing further updates as the fiscal year progresses. In closing, global demand for our energy storage solutions continues to build as our products and services remain essential to the industries that drive the global economy, from resilient grids and communications networks to secure data centers and national security, as well as global material distribution warehousing. Coming off of record-shattering Q4, we are confident in the earnings power of our business and are optimistic about our ability to continue to expand margins, grow revenue, and create long-term value for our shareholders. With this, let's open it up for questions. Operator?

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. If you have a question or a comment at this time, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. If your question has been answered, you wish to move yourself from the queue, please press star 1-1 again. We'll pause for a moment while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Noah Kay with Oppenheimer. Your line is open. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question, Noah. Thanks.

Hi, Noah.

So, I guess, just wanted to start first with understanding the 1Q guide, the revenue range. I think you gave some color on where we would see weakness and motive, maybe a little bit of growth in energy systems and specialty, you can talk through that. But the EPS guide, about 20 cents higher year over year on kind of flat revenues at the midpoint. Can you help sort of bridge to that EPS growth with your expectations around operating margins and tax rate?

Yeah, good morning, Noah. It's Sean, good to hear your voice and thank you for the question. I'll provide a little color here on what we're seeing for Q1 and then I'll let Andy handle the EPS portion of it. But just to give you a little idea of what went on, in anticipation of liberation day, our motive customers just largely took a wait and see approach, which affected, had some near term effect on orders, but then, we probably saw a little bit of pull into to get ahead of that. And then we saw some pickup with improving news from the administration. And now overall, as we mentioned in the remarks, year to date orders are relatively flat with the current order rates broadly in line with normal cycles. So where we would expect to see, in comparison to the last several cycles. So it's, while we have this noise, it feels like we are trending back to normal. What we don't know is the effect of reciprocal tariffs. We have a, some of these are still pauses and not subtle science, but it feels like a strengthening for us. And, so we anticipate that this blip that we saw was totally tariff shock related, and that the markets are largely getting back to business. And then, as you mentioned, energy systems, we just continue to see activity coming in for network build out. The carriers realize they have a deficit when it comes to passing AI traffic through their networks. And they're beginning to get active about solving those technical issues. So we feel very good about continued trajectory in ES and a rise in comfort level of motive, if you will. And then we didn't see, you know, the, you didn't ask about transportation, but we're kind of following the same trajectory there where we were on pace for a nice recovery. And then just like in the Forkless, the transportation customers sort of hit pause to sort through this tariff noise. With that, I'll turn it over to Andy.

Yeah, thanks, Sean. So I think you covered the markets well. No, what might help is if we level set to last year. So largely within Q126, it's really gonna look a lot like Q125. Revenues in line, if you look at our guide, but we're seeing lower volume, mostly in mode of power and some in transportation, as Sean mentioned, offset by the accretive benefit that we're having from Brentronics and the really strong favorable price mix we've been able to achieve. So if I'm looking at EPS, EPS, our guide is up about, in midpoint, up about 10 cents year in year. But first, normalize it. So pull out maybe 25 to 30 cents per share that we should have had of an uplift from Brentronics and the 45X expanded EAM impact. But then add back, we probably are seeing about 15 cents per share from pressure from FX. And that gets you to really a flat EPS year on year. So why flat? We've lower volume, as Sean mentioned, and that's really related mostly to mode of power driving that and then a little bit of stranded tariff costs. And those items offset this really robust favorable price mix gain that we've been able to achieve over the course of fiscal year 25. So we are seeing our Q4 orders down on the tariff of disruptions, but if you look full year, the orders are pretty much flat year on year. So we'd expect without a doubt that Q1 is gonna be the low point and we should see recovery going on from there absent additional tariff shocks.

Okay, thanks, Sandy. Yeah, sorry, I meant to say 10 cents higher year over year, but thank you for bridging that. I guess just maybe explain the decision process around kind of pausing guidance, because I wanna make sure we get that number again, because there's a lot of numbers that you guys gave out. But the one queue to date order book is year over year up how much? And then just help us understand why pause full year guidance. If kind of to your point, we seem to be kind of experiencing some recovery in orders off of the early April uncertainty.

Yeah, so if we look at our Q4 orders, and I think what we were referring to was within mode of power Americas, we had that 14% pressure. If you look at orders overall, different energy systems was up year on year, obviously we're during the recovery, trams, basically flat, A and D, choppy, but what we really saw is this big pause and then kind of a resurgence. So if we look at full year to date within mode of power, calendar year, our calendar year is flat year on year. So we saw a big decline during Q4, which we're gonna feel the effects of that coming out into Q1 and then a resurgence in Q1 so far of what we're seeing as far as orders go.

No, this is Dave. Just for a little bit more clarification, if you look at mode of power orders, calendar year to date, they're very consistent with last year. So there was the normal cycles been very disruptive as Sean said, people took a wait and see attitude. And the main reason we're just not in a position to provide annual guidance right now is just awaiting the final outcome of the reciprocal tariff negotiations and how that's all gonna shake out. That could have both positive and negative impacts for us. And we wanna make sure we have that clarification and clarity before we go and provide a full annual guidance. As the situation rests today, it's all very manageable. We just wanna make sure that, especially with Sean coming on board, that we provide the best information we have going forward and that's gonna include fully understanding how these, when these holds on the temporary and the reciprocal tariffs kind of wind down. So that's what we're waiting to see.

Thanks, Dave, that's helpful. I just, I need to maybe get some clarification. Apologies for not understanding around

what

you were actually saying around order recovery in this quarter to date, the current quarter. I thought you gave some color on that and some numbers overall. So can we just have it one more time? Like what rebound you've seen since April?

Again, what we talked about was some, we don't provide necessarily the full order book for Q1. Obviously it's evolving as we speak right now. But what we were giving you, Noah, was when we talked about the decline in Q4, we saw it bounce back in Q1. So year to date, it's flat. So I think we gave a couple stats on what we're seeing throughout the course of the year. But what we're looking at is just the bounce backs that we're seeing in Q1, if that helps.

Got it, okay, very helpful. Thank you, I'll turn it over. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Brian Drab with William Blair, your line is open.

Good morning, Brian. Good morning. Hey, good morning, thanks for taking my questions. I'm always hesitant to use people's time to say things like thanks, Dave, for everything. And it's been great working with you and good luck in the next chapter. And I'll leave it at that. So I first just wanted to ask, Andy, I mean, now you gave out a new number here in the Q&A, the calendar year to date orders for motive. Could I ask you if you could give that same year to date order growth or decline for energy storage and for specialty excluding rentronics for specialty?

Yeah, the only thing, Brian, this quarter is unfolding, obviously. We're halfway through, there's a lot of actions that are going. The main message that we were trying to convey is Q4 orders were pressured and we saw them rebound in Q1. And that's what's driving kind of that pressure that we're seeing in Q1. I think that's similar to the question that Noah was asking. If I look at my Q4 orders in general, though, just so you know, versus prior year, I'm seeing a significant pickup in energy systems. That's coming up the last year's pressure. Last year was when it started that U-shaped recovery. So that recovery is continuing, although we do see some pull-ins from energy systems into Q4. Our Q1 volumes into energy systems might be more or less flat, but additional ongoing opportunity from there. Transportation, year on year, the orders have been mostly flat to a little up off the last year. But again, what we had talked about is on the Q3 call, you probably remember, we had seen a 40% increase in sequential transportation orders. Then, as Sean mentioned, was a big decline. The main story we're trying to get here is, it's week by week, it's a little bit all over the place. The market is responding, especially things like Class 8 OEM trucks and forklifts as our capital purchases. Our products are essential to moving products and information globally. So a lot of this kind of one week it pauses, next week it's up, one week it's not sustainable. Things have to level out. We know that our products provide a critical benefit in the global economy, but we're seeing just a lot of volatility as everyone's trying to digest what's happening in the landscape as a result of these tariffs calls.

Okay, thanks. I'll follow up more later on that. But can you talk a little bit more about the Section 45X? I guess specifically, I'm wondering, have you seen anyone else in the industry, because I know a lot of people are looking for these checks. Have you seen anyone else in the industry get that check cut to them? And are you in an active dialogue with the IRS regarding getting the cash?

Yeah, Brian, happy to take that one. Other companies or other lead-acid battery companies have received their check, with us being a 331 year end, we're at a slight delay. There's been a lot of administrative changes in the IRS, and we have individuals, just with our regular ongoing tax filings, we have contacts at the IRS who have said, there's no holdup in particular on your refund, we're just short staffed. We've received no indication from both political connections we have, as well as from agents at the IRS themselves, that there is anything other than just staffing delays. And we expect, I mean, any day, I thought maybe we'd even get it yesterday, and have an update to this Q&A. We expect to get it any day, and interest accrues as well. So we'll get an additional benefit from them also.

Yeah, Brian, it's Sean. I don't know if you're watching the -to-date news on all the happenings on the Hill, but as we have been socializing, there's just broad bipartisan support of 45X, and the package that was passed, and it has to go to the Senate, and it's still open to final tweaks, but the package that was passed was largely in line with what we thought it would be, and nearly all of the tenants of 45X that were important to us are intact, if not all. There's a little bit of an increased sunset past 2031, and they removed some wind stuff that didn't apply to us anyway, but broadly 45X appears to be moving the direction we thought it would be, and will continue.

Yeah, I think everyone that's following Entersys is following that closely. So yeah, thanks for that update. And I guess the last thing, if I could sneak in one more, is just, sorry if I missed this, but are you making any comments today regarding your latest thinking on the lithium plant?

Sure, I'll take that one, Brian. So we continue to have direct conversations with the administration, and we haven't seen, in our talks with the DOE, any wavering at all of their support of the lithium plant, and to remind you, the impetus for the funding was rooted in largely our defense programs. And just for a bit of color, there's over 40 programs today for the Department of Defense that are sourced in Asia, and many of them from China for our national defense. And they're trying to consolidate those programs and bring them back home. So again, the support has been very strong. And then we have Mark Matthews, who we mentioned on the call, who's been involved in the program since day one, who maintains these direct relationships. And we have Mark going through, and just making sure that, along with our finance team, we keep our model updated. We make sure we understand all of the, you know, the change in cost inputs, if any. And then now with the 45X news, you know, we'll add that into our thinking. I will tell you also that we have never slowed down our cell development program, so that while we've been waiting to see what's happening with funding, we've been working with our development partner to advance our A samples and be ready to go when we get the right news. So again, at this time, we feel very positive about that. But as we update the model and what that looks like, we'll keep you updated.

Hey, perfect. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Brian.

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Greg Lewis with BTIG. Your line is open.

Yeah, thank you and good morning, everybody. And thanks for taking my questions. And Dave, I know I thanked you last quarter, but thanks again for all the help over the last few years and good luck. Andy and Sean, I guess this question is for you guys as we think about going forward, probably a couple of questions inside this question. But as we look at the leverage target, you alluded to the tax refund you're gonna get. That pushes it down even lower. So clearly we're in a good position to kind of, you mentioned the buyback or organic growth. As we look around the landscape over the next few quarters, how are you thinking about the potential for inorganic growth and just as a point of clarification in the prepared comments where we talked about sequential or EPS growth, just to clarify, there's no expectation of bolt-ons in that number, correct?

No, no bolt-ons at all in our number at all.

Okay, and then to my... I

know it sounds like you have a bunch of other questions in there, Greg. So just wanna make sure that we can be succinct in getting to those.

Great. And so as we look at today, what is the opportunities on the M&A front, just given your balance sheet, as we look at previous cycles, is uncertainty that we're in right now, is that kind of gonna keep people on the sidelines in terms of your ability to acquire additional companies or is it kind of, from your side, is it still business as usual?

Yeah, Greg, let me take that, Andy. Greg, this is Sean, and thank you for your question. Let me just say, we have a fantastic business. All of our macros are good. You have this whole situation happening in the world and particularly in the US where the grid margin, that is the gap between the grid capacity and the load growth is shrinking everywhere. And our customers are really looking for us to step in and help them manage that. And as you mentioned, we have this fantastic balance sheet with a lot of dry powder. And I think the inverse is true. We're not gonna wait on the sidelines. I think probably some of this uncertainty will pressure some of the smaller players and probably actually increase our ability to go out and find good targets. With that said, we still see a very long runway in A and D. And along with a lot of synergies with our domestic lithium manufacturing, you saw the lift we're getting from Brentronics. They're not the only target for us. So we're gonna be very opportunistic with that dry powder and stay acquisitive. And as long as those targets fit our ROIC model, and we're really going to be putting a lot of rigor around what that should look like for our shareholders.

Yeah, and if I can add a little bit more to that, Greg, early in Q4, we're wrapping up our budget. And this is before a lot of these terrorist disruptions occurred. We had double digit revenue growth built into our budget, low double digit revenue growth, no acquisition based business. We just had an outstanding Q4. That was not an anomaly. That outstanding Q4 was even with comms and trends being slow, the opportunity for those to improve from there. That's the base that we're building the strategy off of. And the business will improve from there. We've got growth verticals that Sean's looking at, efficiencies and execution. And all of that is before looking at any mergers and acquisitions. Although with our deep rich balance sheet that we have, we have the ability to move fast. And we look at that on an ongoing basis. We do think Q1 is gonna be the low point with the results trending back to this record Q4 and upside from there, as we had done in our original budget before all of these tariff issues started to arise. But all of the, it's gonna be tempered by the macro. So are we gonna get back there this year? We could get back there earlier in this year. Or is it gonna be later? It's gonna depend. Are the tariffs gonna get negotiated and tax rate cuts hold? Will tariffs be expanded? Will they be expanded? Will there be another liberation day kind of shock? That's all. What we don't wanna do is make promises for things that we don't have full visibility of and are able to commit to fully. Our Q1 order book is improving. We mentioned that mode of power was pressured in Q4, but year on year it's flat. Sean mentioned we expect revenue lift from our maintenance free offerings, the A&D and data center robustness, ongoing comps and trans recovery. And we know the strength of our balance sheet offers optionality for us to proactively mitigate whatever comes at us. We know we're all over and ahead of tariffs. We can talk about that later. We've got a great playbook. We're committed to fully offsetting the impact. We've got a proven and effective refined playbook. And we know our products serve a critical role in these global markets. The real question is volatility. In a three month span, our stock lost and regained $900 million in the marketplace. But the truth is nothing really changed. Our business potential is still there. Wherever tariff ends up, we got it. Whatever happens to the macro, we've got a playbook. It's just the timing that we're struggling with.

Okay, and then you mentioned mode of and the orders, the order intake. I guess, and I think it might have been Dave that mentioned depending on how the, realizing hey, it's a house bill that needs to get through the Senate and there's a lot of work that needs to be done around that. To change really anything. But there was a comment from somebody about it potentially being good. Is that related to all competition for TPPL from other, whether it's electric, battery electric or hydrogen or, just if you could talk a little bit more about why changes to the IRA could be good. And does that also, is that gonna be an impact from tariffs as well, just given where some of your competition and motive is sourced? Is that kind of a fair way to think about it?

I can start, Greg, and then Sean can add a little color. The comments I made were about the fundamentals of the business and the orders are very stable. In terms of the IRA, in terms of changing the competitive landscape, that's not really on the radar screen as much as the tariff issues and how that's gonna shake out. And depending on what the plant of origin is for various competitors and us. So that's really kind of what we're waiting to see is how all the tariffs land, see what that does with the competitive landscape. But in terms of 45 acts or any, that's really, if that's what you heard from my comments, that wasn't meant to have any impact on that. And again, just to reiterate, I know there's some hesitancy for us to give out order data because we don't normally do that. But the orders in Q1 year to date have been on very solid footing across all the businesses. The order softness was in a Q4, as Andy said, but things that really, if you look at it over a longer time period, things have normalized and all indications from our order book, our business as usual, pending what we see with these reciprocal tariffs. Sean, you wanna add any color to that?

Yeah, I do. I think the other part of your question, Greg, was how we see the market and are there opportunities? And certainly, if you heard in the prepared remarks, we're now at 29% maintenance-free and motive power, and there's just so much meat on that bone to continue that conversion. If we talk about that energy scarcity and then the other side of that coin, or energy security, the other side of that coin is labor scarcity. And our customers, not only do they not wanna spend the money on the labor element to manage these systems, they can't get the people. And so the people that they do get, they wanna dedicate towards revenue-facing opportunities in the warehouse or revenue-facing activities. So that maintenance-free conversion is gonna continue. I'll tell you, we don't publish our quote rates, but our quote rates are far above that 29%. And so we know that that's resonating with customers. And at the same time, we're being added into more and more of the large OEM and customer programs. So we continue to see ourselves with share pickup opportunities. And then the one thing that may be influenced by tariff activity that relatives your question about competitive positioning, should tariffs continue to remain high for Asia-based lithium or incoming lithium cells? TPPL gets you most of the way of lithium without some of the downside risks and safety considerations. So we could actually see an uptick in our TPPL offering should that tariff environment stay robust on lithium. So to your point, the macros that are giving us lift and allowing us on flat volumes to have the revenue and margin conversion that we've enjoyed, we fully expect to continue. And to Dave's point, we just need the market to settle down a bit on this tariff activity, which we believe we're beginning to see.

I'll add one other item, Greg, just to make sure there's no confusion there. As Sean mentioned, and I think this is important to keep in mind, we do not allocate 45-stacks into our LOBs at all. So no impact on pricing. The only thing that we do, which has always been part of our strategy, is to produce in-region, so increase our domestic capacity. Our margins and mode of power, .1% in the quarter, up 240 basis points, I mean, just a phenomenal quarter for mode of power. And going forward, other than this tariff disruption that we saw in our Q4 books, it's gonna play out in Q1. The higher conversion of maintenance free, Sean mentioned, managing OPEX tightly. But the NPIs that he's looking at, we're talking about the mode of power VESS, helping our customers manage their energy. There's a lot of enthusiasm on that, that we should be launching that at the end of this year. We also announced the closure of our Monterey plant, transitioning production to Richmond. That also aligns with this strategy, because as maintenance free adoption grows, right size is our footprint. We estimate that'll save about $19 million a year, beginning in fiscal year 27. So while we know, and we're as unhappy with the pressure that we're seeing temporarily in Q1, as I'm sure all of you are, I'm not worried about mode of power at all going forward.

Thank you very much. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Chip Moore with Roth Capital Partners, your line is open.

Good morning, Chip. Hey, good morning. Thanks for

taking the

question. Hey, I wanted to maybe dive deeper on energy systems, I guess, any more color on sort of the green shoots you're seeing on potential network expansion, and particularly anything around sort of this last mile communications. I think OpenAI is now talking about mobile hardware, these type of things. Are you seeing some of those discussions underway?

Yeah, hi, Chip. Good morning, it's Sean. Thank you for your question. Listen, I think what we're really seeing is, we saw that pause as just as I was coming into the energy systems business and a little over a year and a half ago, we saw that pause happening and coming out of that, there was a couple of issues that occurred. One, these things, these pauses are always, particularly in these systems that we support, they always just create technical debt. It's one of those things that the operators can put off, but they can't forestall forever. So you're seeing part of the recovery is just solving for the technical debt issues that they created and keeping the network back up and running and handling the break fix and that part of it. The second part of it that we're seeing directly from users relates to what we're talking about, energy scarcity, but then also what I mentioned about processing AI center traffic. So a lot of the investment we're seeing, early investment as you might imagine, are in upgrading macro sites. They're also upgrading, years ago, central offices were being decommissioned or even sold off because the landlines are being decommissioned. Now operators are seeing that brick and mortar as small AI data centers, if you will. So you note the Verizon and Frontier, I would call it re-marriage. And so we're seeing some of those upgrades, but it's not, it isn't yet, and I just wanna stress, it's not the, one of the, we're not getting the lift of one of the G build-outs of years past, but to your point in green shoots, we are starting to see the backbone enhanced and some of that investment going in.

Thanks, that's helpful. And maybe on sort of that more near term break fix and that's in that segment, it just help us think about inventory dynamics and service utilization and some of those things.

Yeah, most of, I think most of the inventory pain that we saw with inventory oversupply, we've largely moved through that. We're seeing a lot of new equipment orders and that's a lot of the, you know, you bring up the service utilization piece. We always see equipment orders proceed and uptick in service and it's intuitive, right? Because materials being provisioned, site acquisitions are being done and site permitting and then the service tends to follow. So I would tell you that our product performance has been robust over the past couple of quarters and service is gradually catching up to it, but we expect more upside in services as that materializes.

Appreciate it. Maybe I could sneak one last one in, you know, maybe on the outlook. You know, any thoughts to what might give you comfort to resume full your guidance at some point? Would that be sort of working through some of these temporary headwinds and see what happens on reciprocal tariffs? Just how are you thinking about that? Thanks.

Yeah, I'll take that, Chip, and thanks for the question. We absolutely are committed to resuming full year guidance as soon as there's a little more clarity in what's happening with the overall landscape. You know, a lot of news even happening today, as you know. Hopefully we'll be able to resume guidance next quarter, but it's gonna depend on what happens in the macro and I think we're just committed to making sure that what we give in our guide, we've got visibility into.

Thank you, appreciate it. I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Dave for any closing remarks.

Thank you, Kevin. In closing, I want to again express my deep appreciation to our investors for their continued confidence and emphasis. It's been a privilege to help guide this company through its transformation into a global leader in energy solutions. With a strong team in place and clear momentum heading into fiscal year 26, I'm excited to see what Enersys will accomplish next under Sean's leadership. Thank you all.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That's the end of today's presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.