8/5/2026

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Please continue to hold ladies and gentlemen. Your conference will begin in one minute. Please continue to hold. Your conference will begin momentarily. Thank you for your patience. Greetings. Welcome to the Materian Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Kyle Kelleher, Director, Investor Relations and Corporate FP&A.

speaker
Kyle Kelleher
Director, Investor Relations and Corporate FP&A

You may begin. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. This is Kyle Kelleher, Director, Investor Relations and Corporate FP&A. Before we begin our remarks this morning, I would like to point out that we have posted materials on the company's website that we will reference as part of today's review of the quarterly results. You can also access the materials through the download feature on the Earnings Called webcast link. With me today is Jugal Vijayvargiya, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shelly Chadwick, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our format for today's conference call is as follows. Jugal will provide opening comments of the quarter. Following Jugal, Shelly will review the detailed financial results in addition to discussing expectations for 2026. We will then open up the call for questions. Let me remind investors that any forward-looking statements made in the presentation, including those in the outlook section and during the question and answer portion, are based on current expectations. The company's actual performance may materially differ from that contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. Those factors are listed in the earnings press release we issued this morning. Additionally, comments regarding earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, depletion, and amortization, net income, and earnings per share reflect the adjusted gap numbers shown in attachments 4 through 9 in this morning's press release. The adjustments are made in the prior year period for comparative purposes and remove special items, non-cash charges, and certain discrete income tax adjustments. And now, I'll turn over the call to Jugal for his comments.

speaker
Jugal Vijayvargiya
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Kyle, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to be with you today to discuss our second quarter performance and to highlight the momentum we're seeing across our markets as we continue to accelerate into the back half of the year. Q2 was truly a milestone quarter for Materion. Our diverse portfolio of critical materials continues to enable the technologies shaping the future, and our results clearly reflect the role that we play. Strong end market trends combined with meaningful new business wins are driving double-digit growth across the company. Amid unprecedented levels of demand, our teams delivered exceptional performance. supplying the advanced materials our customers depend on and doing so with unwavering commitment and precision. We delivered the highest quarterly sales and earnings in our company's history. All three businesses achieved double-digit sales and EBITDA growth. Performance materials grew value-added sales by 13%, electronic materials increased by 15%, and precision optics delivered an impressive 26% sales growth. Profitability was even stronger, reflecting outstanding operational leverage and disciplined execution. For the first time, we exceeded 23% adjusted EBITDA margin, a milestone achievement for the company. Electronic Materials delivered 32% adjusted EBITDA margin, marking its fifth consecutive quarter of expansion and the highest margin on record. Precision Optics surpassed 20% margin, delivering its best profit in more than five years and continuing its strong trajectory of transformational performance. Across all our businesses, higher volumes, strong price mix, and outstanding operational execution came together to produce record earnings of $1.90 per share, up nearly 40% from a year ago. We generated solid free cash flow in the quarter, driven by strong earnings performance, improvements in working capital, and Discipline Capital Investments. Let me provide some color on our sales growth from an end market perspective. Sales to the semiconductor market were up 23% year over year as AI continues to drive growth across leading edge logic and memory. And we continue to see outsized growth across power and communication markets. We delivered our highest quarterly sales to the aerospace and defense market fueled by continued strong demand and new business in space and defense applications, along with market recovery in commercial aerospace. Industrial markets posted strong results across all three segments, led by performance materials as data center buildouts are positively impacting non-residential construction and increasing demand for our beryllium nickel spring material. Energy shipments were up more than 20% driven by our new business wins and next generation energy applications. Finally, telecom and data center grew almost 50% propelled by the AI infrastructure build out and significant wireless network expansion outside the US. As we look to the back half of the year, we're excited about the broad based strength we're seeing. The demand signals across our key markets remain robust. and our order patterns give us confidence that this momentum will continue to build. What's even more encouraging is that the strength is not isolated, it's accelerating. We exited the quarter with record backlog, up roughly 30% from last year and 20% since the start of the year. Incoming orders in the first half reached a new high, growing nearly 30% year over year. Defense continues to stand out, We secured $90 million of incoming orders in the first half alone and now have more than $500 million in open RFQs across major programs. Space orders have doubled year over year. Commercial aerospace backlog continues to build and semiconductor orders are up 20% with a meaningful uptake in demand for high performance memory applications. These are important data points and they tell a clear story. Demand for our material solutions continues to strengthen, and the trends driving our markets remain firmly positive. Given the results we've achieved and what we are seeing across our order book, we are increasing our full year growth outlook for the second consecutive quarter. We now expect mid-teens year-over-year sales growth, reflecting the strengthening demand across our end markets and the applications we serve. and as a result, we are raising our full year adjusted EPS guidance to a range of 680 to 720, a roughly 30% increase versus last year at the midpoint and 12% from the midpoint of our prior guidance. Before I turn the call over to Shelly, I'd like to take a deeper dive into one of the most exciting and rapidly expanding markets we serve, the space market. Space has become a major growth engine for Materion, and our materials support an exceptionally wide range of mission critical applications. What distinguishes Materion is not just the range of applications we serve, but the vital role our materials play in ensuring mission success in the most demanding environments, whether it's satellites, telescopes, launch systems, planetary exploration vehicles, or emerging in space power systems. Across satellite platforms, our technologies are integral to systems that collect, transmit, and process mission-critical data. We supply filter arrays for Earth observation satellites, optical filters and mirrors for laser communication systems, thermal management materials that support precision optics assemblies, and semiconductor materials that enable high-performance computing and next-generation communications at orbit. In orbital and deep space systems, including telescopes and probes, our beryllium mirrors, optical filters, and beam splitters provide the stability and clarity required for advanced scientific missions. We also support propulsion and imaging systems with engineered alloys and semiconductor sensor materials designed for efficiency and durability in extreme environments. Our capabilities extend from orbit back to the ground. For ground to space systems, we provide brilliant components, advanced optical coatings, and high performance filters used in observatories, laser communication ground stations, and next generation infrastructure that supports the movement of critical data around the world. We also play an essential role in launch systems, supplying materials for engine components, structural assemblies, and advanced heat shielding systems. Our precious metal and chemical materials enhance engine efficiency and support thermal barrier coatings that are critical to mission reliability. And once spacecraft reach their destination, our materials remain central. In rovers and exploration vehicles, our lightweight structural materials and advanced optical coatings help ensure reliable performance in harsh and unpredictable environments. Looking ahead, Our beryllium and alloyed materials are increasingly being designed into advanced micro-reactive concepts that will power future in-space propulsion and surface power systems. Across all these applications, the message is clear. Materion is embedded across the full space value chain, from launch to orbit, from exploration to communication, from ground systems to emerging in-space power. Our materials are enabling the technologies that are expanding human capability and accelerating scientific discovery. And this quarter, we strengthened our position even further. We secured a new $15 million program to deliver advanced materials critical to engine performance for a major commercial space customer. This is a meaningful win and a clear signal of the trust customers place in Materion to support their most demanding missions. Q2 was an exceptional quarter. I'm incredibly proud of what our people have accomplished. Their commitment and hard work were evident across the board and were instrumental in delivering our outstanding results. I'm excited about the trajectory that we're on and look forward to what's next. With that, I'll turn the call over to Shelly to walk through the financial details.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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