MSA Safety Incorporated

Good day and welcome to the MSA Safety Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tyler Herzing. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to MSA Safety's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. This is Tyler Herzing, senior manager of investor relations. I'm joined by Steve Blanco, president and CEO, Julie Beck, senior vice president and CFO, and Stephanie Sciullo, president of our America segment. During today's call, we will discuss MSA Safety's second quarter 2026 financial results and provide an update on our full year 2026 outlook. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that the matters discussed during this call may include forward-looking statements within the meeting of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include but are not limited to all projections and anticipated levels of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors are detailed in our SEC filings. MSA Safety undertakes no duty to publicly update any forward-looking statement made on this call except as required by law. We have included certain non-GAAP financial measures as part of our discussion this morning. The non-GAAP reconciliations are available in the appendix of today's presentation. The presentation and press release are available on our investor relations website at investors.msasafety.com. Moving on to today's agenda. Steve will first provide an update on the business. Julie will then review our second quarter 2026 financial performance and 2026 outlook. Steve will then provide closing remarks. He will then open the call for your questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve Blanco.

Steve. Thanks, Tyler, and good morning, everyone. Again, we appreciate your continued interest in MSA safety. I'm on slide six. The team performed well in the second quarter as we continue to serve our singular mission of protecting workers around the world While advancing the commitments outlined in our accelerate strategy. For the second quarter, we achieved 6% reported sales growth and delivered robust margin expansion with adjusted earnings per share of $2.40, up 24% from last year. We also generated strong free cash flow, which enabled 47 million of returns to shareholders via buybacks and dividends. In addition, we completed the acquisition of Atronica Fire and Security in early July. Looking at sales by product category, organic detection sales were consistent with the prior year as mid-single digit growth in portable gas detection was offset by a low single digit decline in fixed monitoring, where demand and shipment activity were impacted by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. In the Americas, we saw strong growth in fixed and portable gas detection Delivering high single-digit growth on top of a double-digit growth comparison from the prior year. In fire service, organic sales decreased 2% year-over-year primarily due to lower SCBA sales as 2025 AFG grant-related orders in the Americas have materialized slower than initially expected in the first half. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security remained closed until late May and created order choppiness in the quarters. Moving forward, we remain very encouraged by order momentum that accelerated through the end of June. An international SCBA growth in EMEA was offset by softness in APAC. Organic sales and industrial PPE were up 16%, reflecting healthy demand across our core industrial markets and the broad underlying strength of industrial activity. In America, strength was driven by demand tied to the ongoing market adoption of our Type 2 safety helmets. The H2. In international, growth in protective ballistic helmets remained robust, benefiting from the ongoing shift toward defense-related spending in Europe. Our organic orders were strong with a book-to-bill of approximately one time, which is above second quarter seasonal patterns. Year-over-year order growth was broad-based across our segments and product categories. Sequentially, we saw similar growth trends. Moving to slide seven, The progress we're making across the business reflects the strategic actions we've taken to strengthen our portfolio, expand our technology capabilities, and position MSA for long-term growth. Let me highlight a few examples from the quarter demonstrating that execution in action. First, growth in our H2 safety helmet, which protects workers against vertical and lateral impacts, reflects our commitment to continued leadership in the premium safety markets we serve. Combining the most comprehensive head protection product line in the industry, unmatched brand recognition, and our ability to support large, customized orders at scale, we continue to differentiate ourselves in the market and strengthen our competitive positioning with customers. We also continue to make progress with MSA Plus, where connected solutions represented more than half of portable gas detection growth in the quarter and now account for 14% of total portable sales versus 10% last year. We're encouraged by the ongoing adoption of MSA Plus and early performance indicators of our newly launched Altair IO6 solution as well as the growth we're seeing in the traditional portable gas detection business. Additionally, the advancement of the MSA business system continues to improve the way we execute across the company by creating greater discipline and consistency across the enterprise Our teams are finding better ways to serve our customers and enhance productivity. As expected, positive price cost was a contributor to performance in the first half, reflecting the benefits of strategic pricing actions and improved productivity enabled by MBS. While our continuous improvement journey is ongoing, the benefits of those efforts are increasingly evident in the strength of our operating performance and the financial results we delivered in the first half of the year. Our strong balance sheet and disciplined approach to capital allocation continue to provide meaningful strategic flexibility. In the first half, we returned $118 million to shareholders, a 45% increase from the prior year, and increased our dividend for the 56th consecutive year. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Julie to walk through the financial results for the second quarter in more detail and our 26th outlook.

Thank you, Steve, and good day, everyone. We appreciate you joining the call. Starting on slide 9 with the quarterly financial highlights. Second quarter sales were $503 million, an increase of 6% on a reported basis over the prior year. Sales were up 3% on an organic basis, while currency translation was a 2% tailwind and MNC added 1% to overall growth. Gap gross margin was 49.5%. An increase of 210 basis points sequentially and 290 basis points over the prior year. Year-over-year gross margin reflects the strength of our MSA business system, including strategic pricing, productivity, value-added engineering efforts, as well as favorable transactional foreign exchange. Also included in the quarter was approximately $4 million of tariff refunds which favorably impacted gross margin by approximately 100 basis points. Adjusted gross margin, excluding tariff refunds, trended at approximately 49% for the first half. Gap operating margin was 22.2% of 410 basis point increase driven by the gross margin expansion. Adjusted operating margin was 24.1% of 230 basis points sequentially and 270 basis points over last year. Excluding the tariff refund, adjusted incremental operating margin was 52%. We continue to invest in our innovative safety products and solutions with research and development expenses of $19 million in the quarter. And we continue to effectively manage SG&A with a year-over-year increase primarily due to MNC SG&A Higher variable compensation and merit inflation, partially offset by cost discipline. Quarterly gap net income increased 37% year-over-year to $86 million, while diluted earnings per share increased 40% to $2.23 per share. Increased sales and margin expansion were primary drivers of earnings per share growth, with benefits from MNC, lower tariffs, Share repurchases and a lower effective tax rate. On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share were $2.40, up 24% from last year. Now I'd like to review our segment performance. In our Americas segment, sales increased 7% year-over-year on a reported basis. 5% of that was organic. We delivered double-digit organic growth in industrial PPE and high single-digit growth in detection. Currency translation added a 2% tailwind to reported growth. The adjusted operating margin was 32%, a 290 basis point increase compared to the previous year. The margin improvement was primarily due to strong execution, including strategic pricing, productivity, favorable transactional foreign exchange, and lower tariffs, partially offset by inflation. Excluding the tariff refund, adjusted incremental operating margin was 53%. As expected, sales in our international segment increased sequentially, growing 17%. Sales increased 5% year-over-year on a reported basis with a 3% contribution from MNC and a 2% tailwind from foreign exchange. Organic sales were consistent with the prior year as strong growth in industrial PPE offset a double-digit decline in detection primarily due to the Middle East conflict. Sales and fire service were consistent with the prior year. Adjusted operating margin was 15.5%, 240 basis points above last year and 500 basis points higher than the first quarter on stronger volume. Margin expansion from a year ago was driven by the inclusion of M&C, productivity, and favorable transactional foreign exchange partially offset by inflation. Adjusted incremental operating margin was 62%. Now turning to slide 10, we generated free cash flow of $83 million which was 96% of earnings marking a 118% increase in free cash flow generation compared to a year ago on higher operating earnings and lower capital expenditures. First half free cash flow conversion was 94%. In the second quarter of last year, we made the strategic investment to strengthen our manufacturing footprint at our Detection Center of Excellence in Cranberry Township. Our weighted average interest rate for the quarter was 3.8%. We returned $47 million to shareholders via $26 million of share repurchases and $21 million of dividends. First half capital returns to shareholders totaled $118 million, 45% above first half 2025 levels driven by increased share repurchases. Now that the Atronica acquisition has closed and consistent with prior messaging, we expect to continue to repurchase shares in the second half, but at a lower rate as we prioritize debt repayment. Liquidity at quarter end was $1.2 billion, and our pro forma liquidity post-Autronica is a healthy $600 million. Our M&A pipeline remains robust. Net debt decreased by $33 million sequentially and our adjusted net leverage at quarter end was 0.8 times. Including the debt for the acquisition of Autronica, which was financed using a combination of cash on hand and our revolver, pro forma net leverage as of June 30th, 2026 is 1.8 times, 0.2 times lower than we discussed for post-acquisition leverage in our last earnings call. Let's turn to our 2026 outlook on slide 11. Our outlook reflects low double-digit total revenue growth in 2026 supported by our expectations of mid-single digit organic growth, a mid-single digit contribution from acquisitions, and one to two points of favorable translational foreign exchange based on current rates. We maintain our mid single digit organic growth outlook, which is supported by our second quarter performance and the overall health of our order book. We have a solid pipeline of opportunities in the U.S. fire business and the global detection market for the second half of the year. We continue to monitor and strategically manage the challenges presented by the geopolitical and macroeconomic environment, most notably in the Middle East. As a reminder, sales in the Middle East represent a mid-single digit percentage of overall sales. We expect a moderate tempering and gross margin in the second half, which reflects the delayed impact of inflation caused by the Middle East conflict as this higher cost inventory is reflected in our income statement. Excluding the impact of any new tariffs, we expect full year adjusted gross margin to be in the 47.5% to 48.5% range. For modeling purposes, our interest expense range has increased to $40 to $43 million. Full year tax rate and pension income remain unchanged. Starting in May and moving forward, Our sales growth contributions from M&C will be included in our organic sales number. As we look ahead, we remain focused on executing our accelerate strategy and are confident in our ability to deliver mid-single digit organic sales growth in 2026. With that, I'd like to pass it back to Steve.

Thank you, Julie. I am on slide 13. Before I close, I do want to take a moment and recognize Dave Howells who retired on July 1st after nearly 45 years with MSA. His career is a testament to the connection so many of our employees feel to our mission and the important work we do every day. Throughout his career, he played an important role in strengthening customer and channel partner relationships around the world. In his role as President, MSA International, and throughout his years of service, Dave has made a lasting impact on our company. So on behalf of all of us at MSA, I want to thank Dave for his leadership, partnership, friendship, and many contributions over the course of his career. We're also excited to officially welcome the Altronica team to the MSA family, following the completion of the previously announced transaction in early July. It's been great to see the energy and excitement across both organizations, and we're thrilled to have them join the MSA team. I look forward to working together as we begin this next phase of growth. Finally, I'm proud of our team's performance and continued progression of our Accelerate strategy in the second quarter. Thank you to all of our associates for their continued commitment to serving our customers. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator for Q&A.

Thank you. We'll now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And our first question comes from Tomo Sano from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Good morning. This is Ethan Onfertomo. Thanks for taking my question.

Hi, Ethan. Hi, Ethan. Good morning.

Good morning. If I recall correctly, you said last quarter that roughly two-thirds of the AFG-related orders were still outstanding and expected to come. Do you expect the bulk of these to kind of come into the second half? And then when looking at more 4Q, Do you expect funding to kind of go back to a normalcy or do you anticipate a little bit of slippage into 2027? Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for the question. So if we look at the fire service, certainly as we parse out the AFG orders from the 25 grants, they've come slower than we anticipated. You know, our pipelines got the orders in there, but they really just haven't come through as fast as we thought. I would say as you look at June and July, and I talked about this in the prepared remarks, we did see really nice uptick in acceleration of the order pace. You know, as I said in June, but also we've seen the same thing in July. So that's a good indicator for us that that should continue. And as far as 26, you know, the signals on AFG are very positive. FEMA's really indicating a strong desire to accelerate the deliveries versus last year. and they've done a nice job thus far working with fire departments really on the application process, even though it started later because the government was shut down through mid-May. So the indicators are really strong for them to action on the 26 grants at a better pace, which I think enables the firefighters and fire departments to do that. So when we look at the demand signals we have and we think about the pipeline for the second half, we're pretty optimistic about where the fire service is going to go. Now it might lean a little farther into the second half, but anybody that's followed us for a while understands how this business is lumpy, but we have good confidence there.

Thank you. And then now that Altair IO has kind of been in the field, what has been the initial customer feedback that you've seen? Have you seen any early upticks tracking against your expectations? And it's good to see MSA Plus adoption rate of 14% of sales. Do you see this trend kind of continuing the second half and in the future?

We do. We do. You know, the short answer is the MSA Plus platform, which includes the IO4 and the recently launched IO6, continues to be very well received by the customer base, as well as our other solutions within the portable gas detection market. We talked again about that growth. We still saw growth in that portable gas detection legacy business, but as I noted, we're at 14% of total portables with the MSA Plus Platform. IO6 early indicator performance is really good, and I expect you're going to see that continue to accelerate. Again, this is the first year, as we noted, I think I mentioned this in the call earlier this year, that's a longer cycle product, so it takes a little bit of time for it to build into orders, but we've seen the order pace has been better than we expected so far, frankly. So as we continue to see that play out, That's going to have an even bigger impact on that number. So overall, it's going very well. Customer feedback continues to be super positive. And I think that's going to be just a growing piece of our business in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Quinn Fredrickson from Baird. Please go ahead.

Hi, Steven, Julie.

Morning, Quinn.

Hi. Good morning. Within industrial PPE and other, could you discuss maybe how much of the strength there was short cycle versus ballistic helmet orders and maybe any color on what specific end markets are driving the strength in Americas?

Sure. So if we start with, you know, you're asking about the international piece on the industrial PPE. We did see some really nice strength in the protective ballistic helmet side of the business which we expect to continue as we've seen activity increase there with a lot of the European governments spending more money in the defense sector and environment but we also continue to see nice performance in fall protection and I think that that will be something you see continue in the second half as we think about just looking at international industrial really strong quarter overall We're expecting it to be some solid performance in the second half. There's the indicators we have in the pipeline of business continue to be really solid across that platform. Certainly the protective ballistics will be part of that story, but we expect the others to do well as well. And then in the Americas, the underlying theme really is strong. It's nice to see the industrial strength. You think about infrastructure, really the core industrial Investments we're seeing, certainly including some benefits from data centers. But I would have to say you're seeing a nice build-out start to occur as that capital investment on the industrial side is playing out. That coupled with what we talked about with the Type 2 H2 helmet that we've introduced in the last year, it's really looking pretty positive. You know, the nice thing is we aren't seeing that slowdown. We expect that to continue into the second half. and the indicators in July are just that. We're seeing the same strength we saw in the second quarter.

And any update on electronic supply and cost? I know some other companies have recently flagged that. Is that becoming more of an issue for you and is that part of the second half moderation and gross margin that you mentioned or are you still able to manage through that pretty well?

It is. We are managing through that. We've certainly seen and are managing some of those cost inputs on the electronic side. I'd say the cost is part of the story, which we have certainly accounted for. The second part of the story is just ensuring we have the right inventory in place. So we have certainly taken an additional inventory and will do so as we go forward to make sure that we have continuity of supply. So those two things are, you know, right on our radar screen of making sure we don't lose sight of that. And I think we're in a good place for that right now. We'd certainly, depending on what happens with that, but as we see and forecast that, you know, that supply and demand story, I think we've got a good handle on what that looks like in our forecast. Thank you. You bet. Thank you.

The next question comes from Jeff Van Cenderen from E. Reilly. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everyone. We're just kind of focusing a little bit on the fire service. Can you remind us where does the new NFPA standard stand? And then when do you see the replacement cycle really inflecting there?

The NFPA standard, of course, we launched our product some time ago and got approval for that. Now all competitors have approval for the NFPA standard update. So that is something that's in the rearview mirror and I don't think anybody's really concerned about that going forward. It did certainly slow down as we saw late last year a bit, but not as much as the government challenges. I think you put those two together, it paused a lot of the ordering that we'd hoped to see and it still continues to take a little bit longer than we'd like. But again, sometimes that's a fire service. As we look at the cycle, I would say that when we think of our pipeline of business, we're seeing strengthening pipeline numbers start to show up. So that's something I would anticipate. It's just going to start playing out in the future years. You're going to see a little bit of that maybe in late 26, but certainly as you get into 27, a little bit more and then a little bit more. It wasn't that we had a big drop. I just would note that too. So we have seen some moderation over the last few years, but we anticipate that you're going to see an inflection point next year that really reverses itself.

Okay, good to hear. And then turning to gross margin for a moment, you had some pretty good expansion there. As we're looking toward kind of the year, I can't believe we're already getting into August, but what gross margin rate should we carry as sort of sustainable exiting 2026. How are you thinking about that?

Yeah, so, you know, Jeff, we talked about that, you know, we were running in the first half, you know, 49%, and we're saying, you know, 47.5% to 48.5% for the year, which I would, you know, the decline is a little bit of some of those costs that we've talked about. and some of it related to the Middle East conflict, whether it's transportation and resins and metallics and some things like that that are sitting in our balance sheet. And as you know, that it takes 90 to 120 days before those flow through to the margin. So we're forecasting 47 to 48.5% for the full year. and that does include the latest tariff impacts that were announced. It's all incorporated so we should come out with a run rate of approximately that for the year.

Okay. And then with your pro forma or I guess your net debt leverage now, I think it's at 1.8. How are you thinking about the M&A pipeline? I know you said it's still robust but Obviously, you don't want leverage to get out of control. What are you looking at size-wise? How aggressive might you be? How are you thinking about that?

Well, as we've said, the leverage point that we think is the sweet spot for us is 1.5 to 2.5 times. The fact that we're 1.8, we're active in the market to this day. We want to continue to put our capital to work. We've done that. We did that in the first half. Pretty effectively through M&A as we closed on this Atronica deal in July, but also through some of the buybacks and certainly the dividend. So what we anticipate happening is we're going to continue to be active. We've got a great pipeline. We've really accelerated how we look at those pipeline items or those opportunities, and we're active in that. We would go over two and a half, as we've mentioned before, if it's the right deal But certainly we would de-lever very quickly to make sure we stay within that sweet spot for us, which is that one and a half to two and a half points or times of leverage.

Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions.

You bet. Thank you.

Again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. And our next question comes from Ross Barenbleck from William Blair. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys.

Good morning, Ross. Good morning.

Maybe just start on the fixed side. Can you help parse out the growth there and size the delay in the Middle East order?

I'm sorry, Ross?

The Middle East order timing? Yeah, fixed S. Sorry.

Yeah, thanks for that question. So the Middle East remains challenged, and it's affected really Europe and Asia Pacific as well, Asia Pacific to a lesser degree. But when you think about fixed instrumentation, and the early build outs, you know, the EPCs, those engineering procurement and construction firms. There's a number of those that are in the Middle East and in Europe. So those are impacted as well as the Middle East has kind of slowed down. And, you know, certainly our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to our colleagues in the Middle East and our customers. You know, that's cost us north of a point and a half of revenue in the first half of the year, frankly. I mean, it's mid single digit, but Just on a year over year, even if we didn't get the growth we hoped for, it's been something that is disappointing for sure. I think the nice thing we are seeing is we're starting to see some activity where there are orders coming in for rebuild and restoration work. But until that's done, I really can't, you know, I don't, it's hard for me to put a really nice level of confidence on what that business is going to do because those customers have to deal with the ongoing activity and and that is something we think is going to mute the Middle East until this, you know, we get on the other side of this.

Okay, so you get the sense that the, you know, kind of project pipeline is expanding. If we take out, you know, the disruption, any other things we can point to demand-wise on project activity, maybe North America outside of the affected regions?

North America's is fine. I mean, even order pace has increased. If you look at our Fixed monitoring order pace or detection overall. Order pace has certainly accelerated. We saw some really nice growth in the second quarter on order pace. Just trying to make sure we action those, and I don't want to give you a false sense until that Middle Eastern conflict is in the rearview mirror, or at least for the most part, until they're able to get the activity up that they want.

And then can you maybe clarify what the tariff impact was in the quarter? I mean, it sounds like it was probably 50 basis points of the guidance lift, so maybe 200 in the second quarter. That's not going to repeat.

So, you know, we received, you know, the tariff refund we talked about was $4 million, you know, so that had about, you know, almost close to 100 basis point, 80 to 90 basis point impact on the quarter's margin. And yes, and any new tariffs are are reflected in our margin outlook for the remainder of the year.

Okay, yeah, that's very helpful. And then just quickly on price, are you seeing any stabilization in resin prices or transportation? Are you guys making any pre-buy decisions on whether you can hedge the offset if this persists and an ability to continue to pass through price as you look into your first half 27?

I would say we're, Julie can talk about the numbers specifically, but I would say, Ross, that we certainly have seen some increases, and we're accounting for that for the second half based on, and part of it's transportation, quite frankly. But, Julie?

Yeah, we do. We have, you know, we have, you know, agreements, you know, with our customers and with our suppliers, excuse me, so that, you know, helps us as we go through. We do have some Thank you, Ross.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tyler Hertzling for any closing remarks.

Thank you. We appreciate you joining the call this morning and for your continued interest in MSA safety. If you missed a portion of today's call, an audio replay will be made available later today on our investor relations website and will be available for the next 90 days. We look forward to updating you on our continued progress again next quarter.