RBC Bearings Incorporated

Greetings and welcome to the RBC Barron's Fiscal 2024 Third Quarter Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. The 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. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Josh Carroll, with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for RBC Behring's Fiscal 2024 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. With me on the call today are Dr. Michael Hartnett, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Bergeron, Director, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Robert Sullivan, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Before beginning today's call, let me remind you that some of the statements made today will be forward-looking and are made under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied due to a variety of factors. We refer you to RBC Barron's recent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact the company's future operating results and financial condition. These factors are also described in greater detail in the press release and on the company's website. In addition, reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial information is included as part of the release and is available on the company's website. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Dr. Hartnett.

Thank you, Josh, and good morning and welcome. Net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2024 were $373.9 million. This represents an increase of 6.3% from last year, and I'm happy to report this is within our guidance range on revenues. The third quarter of 2024, sales of industrial products represented 65% of net sales with aerospace products at 35%. As a footnote, over the past five years, revenue growth at RBC has been compounded rate of 16.8%. Margin for the quarter was $158 million, or 42.3% of net sales, again within our range. This compares to $146 million, or 41.5% for the same period last year, an 80 basis point improvement. We continue to see year-on-year improvement in gross margin as we continue to strengthen operational performance and improve both absorption and methods in our plants. This quarter, because of fewer production days leading to lower overhead absorption, margin is normally the lowest of the year. It's historically bounced back in Q4. There's no surprises here. We see this effect every year. Overall, profitability continues ahead of plan year to date, and to reconfirm, we expect to finish the year in the low to mid 40% range on gross margins. Again, our hats are off to the RBC team for this performance. We all understand that we are in business to service our customers to the full extent of our abilities with high quality and service levels is always our first priority. More than 70% of our revenues are from products where we are sole or primary source. Our customers have learned over the years they can trust us. When they come to us at the last minute in crisis, we perform for them. Adjusted operating income for the period was $75.5 million, 20.2% of net sales compared to last year, $71.6 million, and 20.4% respectively, a 5.3% improvement. Free cash flow was a strong $70.9 million. Debt reduction continues to be a priority and is progressing as planned. We achieved $550 million decrease in debt since the acquisition of Dodge in November of 2021, 27 months ago. A net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.5 over trailing 12 months down from 5.65 in fiscal 22. RBC's record of EBITDA growth over the last five years now stands at 19.4%. Adjusted EPS included was $1.85 a share. Adjusted EBITDA was 109.5 million, or 29.3% of net sales, compared to 103.3 million, or 29.4% of net sales, the same period last year, a 6.1% increase. We continue to make continual improvements in the execution of our business and are excited to see a robust acceleration in demand for our products from industry leaders in the aircraft, marine, and space industries. We look forward to a March year end with revenues finishing in the $1.55 billion range. On the industrial business, during the quarter, the industrial growth was minus 0.6% overall against some strong comps last year. Last year, improved supply chain performance allowed us to ship orders which were late to customers. creating a bulge in sales and distorting year-on-year comps by a few percentage points. We now have a well-performing supply chain on the industrial side, so the environment has changed and orders late to customers' requests are back to normal. Dodge revenues are up 1.4% year-to-date, down in Q3 minus 0.3%, and we expect to be up again in Q4 a few percentage points. RBC classic industrial sales were down 1.4% during the last period, driven solely by softness and semiconductor machine makers. Normalizing for semiconductor sales, RBC classic industrial revenues would have been up 3.6%. In a word, our industrial business is performing well and is in the steady as she goes mode. On aerospace and defense, Commercial aerospace was up 16.5%. The aerospace and defense sector was up 22.5% overall. The constraint here is not demand, it's production. We are working to expand manufacturing assets as well as increased inbound materials to fuel the continued 20 plus percent per year on year expansion across many facilities that service these markets. As explained in prior calls, OEM defense includes components and assemblies for jets, missiles, helicopters, marine valves, satellites, rockets, and it's up 32.7% year over year. Bookings overall in this sector have been very strong. We now have over 60 contracts negotiated and signed with a value of approximately $1 billion. Additionally, we are in a position to grow this metric substantially again by mid-year. Finally, the aftermarket was up 26.1% main drivers, jets, helicopters, engines, and marine. As you can see, the aerospace market is strongly accelerating with increased volumes quarterly. Demand drivers here are defense and, of course, large plane builders. the submarine and weapons OEMs, and their supply chains. Despite the news otherwise, we are building 737 materials at the 42 per month rate, and new orders to RBC are inbound at about the 47 per month rate. We don't expect this situation to change materially at this time. On the 787, our current build rates are approximately five per month now and seven per month by April. That's an important ship to us. As you know, Airbus is pushing the 320 ship build to exceed the monthly rate of 70 in 2024. So in summary, just to go over the highlight reel, Q4 sales were up 6.3% for the period. EBITDA, 109.5 million of 6.1% from last year. EBITDA, 29.3% of sales up from 26.7% in Q3 of 22. Adjusted net income of $60 million up 12.4%. Debt pay down since November of 2021, $550 million. Trailing EBITDA net debt 2.5 versus 5.65 in fiscal 22. And well over half of our revenues are to replace products consumed in use. Full year gardens revenue range FY24 in the 1.55 million range. And gross margins will be in the low to mid 40s. Regarding the fourth quarter of 2024, we are expecting sales to be somewhere between $405 and $415 million range. And I'll now turn the call over to Rob, our Chief Financial Officer, for more financial details.

Thank you, Mike. SG&A for the third quarter of fiscal 24 was $63.9 million compared to $56.8 million for the same period last year. As a percentage of net sales, SG&A was 17.1% for the third quarter of fiscal 24 compared to 16.1% for the same period last year. Other operating expenses for the third quarter of fiscal 24 totaled $18.9 million compared to $18.8 million in peers. For the third quarter, other operating expenses included $17.7 million of amortization of intangible assets, $0.1 million of restructuring costs, and $1.1 million of other items. For the same period last year, other operating expenses consisted primarily of $17.4 million of amortization of intangible assets, $1.2 million of Dodge TSA costs and other costs associated with that acquisition, and $0.2 million of other items. Operating income was $75.2 million for the third quarter of fiscal 24 compared to operating income of $70.4 million for the same period last year. Excluding approximately $0.2 million of restructuring costs, and 0.1 million of transaction-related costs. Adjusted operating income was 75.5 million for 20.2 million percent of sales for the same, for the third quarter of fiscal 24. Excluding approximately 1.2 million of acquisition costs, adjusted operating income for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 was 71.6 million for 20.4 percent of sales. Interest expense for the third quarter was 19.3 million compared to 20.9 million for the same period last year. For the third quarter of fiscal 24, the company reported net income of $46.6 million compared to $36.3 million for the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, net income was $60 million for the third quarter compared to $53.3 million for the same period last year. Net income attributable to common stockholders for the third quarter was $40.8 million compared to $30.6 million for the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, net income to common stockholders attributable to common stockholders for the third quarter was $54.2 million compared to $47.7 million for the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share attributable to common stockholders was $1.39 per share for the third quarter compared to $1.05 for the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, diluted EPS attributable to common stockholders for the third quarter was $1.85 per share compared to $1.64 per share for the same period last year. Turning to cash flow, the company generated $80.5 million in cash from operating activities in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, compared to $60.9 million for the same period last year. Capital expenditures were $9.5 million in the third quarter, compared to $6.5 million last year. Free cash flow conversion this quarter was 152% and 116% for the full nine-month period. We paid down $60 million on the term loan during this quarter, leaving total debt of $1.26 billion as of December 30th, 2023, and cash on hand was $71.6 million. I would now like to turn the call back to the operator for the question and answer session.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad, and the confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for your question. Our first questions come from the line of Christine LeWag with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your questions.

Hey, good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

You know, industrials was flattish in the quarter, and then also you're looking at your fourth quarter outlook for revenue. It just seems a little bit lighter versus what you've seen so far through the year. Can you give us any color regarding what's driving these pieces, how much visibility you have, and if there's any downside risks to your updated 4Q revenue outlook?

Well, I think in terms of the aircraft and defense side, Christine, the visibility is really good. It's really a matter of making it, and we usually do a pretty good job there. So we don't see a lot of risk there. And, you know, on the industrial side, the visibility and mainly the visibility And the driver there is largely Dodge. And Dodge is a company that really doesn't have the kind of backlog or contract relationship with its customer base because of its customer base, as we do. And so we're always extrapolating based upon economic demand and economic forecasts and what exactly Dodge's sales are going to be. If there's any risk to the upside or to the downside, it's probably coming mostly from Dodge.

Great. I know we're already here in February. Based on what you're seeing out of Dodge, what's the pace of ordering? I know it's more of a break and fix type business. What's the pace that's driving that? I guess You know, in terms of industrial revenue, PMI now is trending higher. Is your outlook then for this quarter more conservative, Mike?

Yeah, I hope it is. You know, I would say that, you know, here we are in February and Dodge's business is performing, you know, very well. So we only have about six weeks to go. So what could possibly happen?

I guess on that, sorry, I'll sneak one more in. The first two years of the deal with Dodge, you've always talked about the years of the factory, and with the margins where they are, you've clearly done your job there. So can you give us an update where you are in terms of revenue synergies between Legacy RBC and Dodge?

Sure, Christine. Hi, it's Dan. On the revenue side, as we talked about in the past, We just don't have a lot of overlap on our OEMs. So we're starting to see some nice traction there. We've been training the Dodge sales team on RBC product, and we've been training the RBC team on Dodge products. And we've been doing that both domestically and globally. And we're starting to see some traction from those events. And I think that will just continue to be accretive to the top line over the next three to four years. as the sales engineers get up to speed on these different products and these different OEMs that they're visiting. So from that standpoint, we're feeling good on the margin side. I think you already kind of addressed that. Our gross margins for the nine months were up 220 BIPs and 160 BIPs fell down to EBITDA. So we're definitely getting leverage off the investments we're making on SG&A and would definitely gain the benefit from the synergies on the cost side and the SG&A side with Dodge. On the cost side, I think we still have some nice synergies still coming through for 25, 26, and 27 on our insourcing efforts that were kind of long-term goals for us, and those are moving along nicely. We're actually building out manufacturing facility space in mexico to give us more capacity for u.s products in the united states for dodge so that's going to be hopefully accretive to the top line and to gross margins and we continue to work on consolidation in our sjna to see what other costs we can continue to drive out between the two divisions great thanks guys thanks for the color

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Pete Skavitsky with Alembic Global. Please proceed with your questions.

Hey, good morning, guys. Nice free cash quarter again. Thanks. So maybe just to start there, I had a question on inventory. You guys built a lot of inventory back in 23, I think because of supply chain issues, both a little bit more slowly in the first half of this year. but it looks like working capital was really, you know, kind of de minimis growth here in the third quarter. So should we expect, you know, your inventory needs to slow going forward? Maybe your supply chain is becoming more predictable maybe, but just was wondering if that growth should slow going forward, even as your revenue grows, particularly in aerospace.

Well, you know, I think the – The inventory growth that you saw previously was mainly driven by Dodge and their supply chain. And so we've kind of dialed that back. And it hasn't responded as well as we wanted to see it respond. So we're going to continue to dial it back and sort of get Dodge more into the steady state turns that they demonstrated in 2019. But those dollars into the aircraft business because the demand there and the lead time on materials, lead time on materials now is, you know, for our types of materials is, you know, typically average 50 weeks and then, but it actually doesn't get delivered for 60 weeks so you have to be really you have to be long on your planning for for materials for these businesses and uh i'd expect you know i'd expect the dollars just to stay reasonably constant but shift ownership yeah okay makes sense um appreciate that let me just move into revenue um

I want to make sure I understand. Mike, did you say you expect industrial revenue up about 3% in the fourth quarter? I just want to clarify, I feel like that would presume aerospace is sort of flat sequentially if industrial is up about 3%.

Yeah, I think I said aerospace or industrial would be up a few percent. And yeah, I Where's the aerospace? What is the aerospace in the fourth quarter?

Aerospace is anticipated to continue to escalate as we move forward sequentially. So I think industrials, you know, will be up a couple points maybe, but the aerospace will continue to grow as we continue to deliver. Okay.

Okay. We're talking industrial up year over year or sequentially?

Sequentially.

Okay. Okay. Okay. One more question for me. I'll get back in queue. I think, Mike, last quarter you talked about going through your planning process for aerospace and defense, and you were talking about 20% type growth, as I recall. I'm just wondering if anything changed there. We are under, you know, kind of an extended continuing resolution on the defense side, so I'm not sure how the visibility is going there. And we've obviously had the some max issues, although it sounds like for you guys it hasn't impacted anything. So just was wondering if you're still feeling good about 20% type growth in 25 for A&D.

I'm trying to think why I wouldn't feel good. I think it's going to be in that neighborhood. It'll be between 15 and 20. I don't have the 25 plan in front of me, and I don't remember all the details of it. But I think it certainly is – Nothing is backing off. I mean, it's a matter of, you know, getting the materials and training the labor. For the most part, we have the capital equipment, although some of it's being augmented, and then executing. And so, you know, I think we'll be in that 15% to 20% neighborhood for... several quarters.

Okay. Okay. And have you guys seen any big labor challenges in terms of getting, you know, the people you anticipate needing?

Uh, yeah, we're always being challenged there. It depends upon, it depends upon what, you know, what part of the country you're, you're, you're talking about, but certainly in the Northeast here, that's, that's not an easy, um, solution. Uh, you know, we've, we've brought some innovative solutions. We've planned, uh, with the growth in our population by plant has to be in order to meet our plans. And we're out recruiting people and doing interesting things in order to attract people to our plant. It's pretty dry here. We're being successful, but it comes at great labor investment. Southern California, it depends upon exactly where in Southern California your plants are. And I think for the most part, we're OK there. We're fine in Mexico, in all the plants in Mexico. And we're pretty good in the South Carolinas also. So I think that the major pressure is pretty much in the Northeast. And we have people working on that.

Got it. Okay. Appreciate it, guys. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Andre Madrid with Bank of America. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi. How are you guys? Good. So I know you said material on 737 is at 42 with new orders inbound at 47. But with the recent announcement of the production freeze, the FAA and post-production freeze. How are you guys thinking? Could a more prolonged freeze impact what moves out on your end? How can we think about that? And is that something you guys are kind of factoring in at the moment, or is it really not of concern?

Well, right now, you know, we're listening to Calhoun's conference call and trying to understand exactly you know, what his direction was. And we've concluded that his direction was to maintain their rates, their planning rates on the MAX. And that's kind of what we came away with. So we're doing the same. And I think Boeing's in a tough place. I mean, they have customers who need the planes, who are screaming for the planes. They have a long backlog. They have just now getting their supply chain to perform for them. And I don't think they want to tie a knot in it at this point and slow everybody down. So I think they're going to be using some working capital in order to bank some of these components. And if it's a year, it's, what, 150 planes Well, didn't they have 500 planes on the tarmac at one point in time and have all that working capital tied up there? It seems like 150, which when you're only buying, you're only stocking the components, would be small change for them. They certainly can afford it. So I think their options are limited, and I think they have to maintain rates.

Understood. Gotcha. And then pivoting again to industrial, I know it was touched on a little bit already, but maybe to get back in and just really clarify, how much of the softness do you think could just be attributed to diminished and marked demand versus actual issues? Because it really doesn't seem like there's anything on your front, but I might have that wrong. I mean, how much can you maybe just talk broadly about the demand drivers long term on that side of the business?

Yeah, well, you know, on the industrial side, we see markets of mining and metals performing pretty well for us even during this period. Food and beverage areas, these are important areas for us. That's doing pretty well. Oil and natural gas is doing real well for us. you know, that's being offset by what we consider aggregate and general industrial and semi-con. So, you know, I think aggregate's a big one. It's an important one to us. It's very dependent upon this, you know, this infrastructure bill could be a big aid to the aggregate business. And so, you know, we would expect we'd expect a little pickup in the overall industrial demand through our FY25, and that's kind of what our budgets are based on. And so that's how we're making the call.

Fair, fair. I see. I'll leave it there. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Steve Barger with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks. Good morning. Good morning, Steve. For 3Q, if I assume your EBIT margin and arrow and your corporate expenses were pretty similar sequentially, it suggests the industrial margin was down maybe 300 basis points versus 2Q. First of all, is that right? And second, is that just from revenue being down or is there a mix in there? And, you know, how are you thinking about 4Q industrial margin?

Well, I think the industrial margins were down and I think it's mix driven. And, you know, based upon the way we forecast It's mainly a Dodge issue, and basically the way we forecast Dodge going forward, it's hard to tell exactly what that mix is going to be. So I suspect it will be no more deterioration than it was in the third quarter, and so worst case, we have some pickups.

Yeah, Steve, I'll give them to you right now. So you'll see it in the queue later. But the aerospace margins, we had a really strong quarter. The margins were 41.2. So they continue to escalate, as I've talked about in the last few calls. Industrial margins were 42.8 this quarter. But I kind of want to go back to what Dan said earlier in the call, that for the nine months, gross margins are up 220 basis points for the full year consolidated. So we're well ahead of what we had said earlier in the year and feeling really good about it.

Got it. Thank you for that, Rob. Some other industrial companies have been guiding to a softer organic growth environment for the first half of 24 calendar and stronger in the back half. And I know Dodge isn't a backlog basis business, but how are you thinking about general cadence of industrial revenue through calendar 24? Is there anything different from what you'd expect from your own normal seasonality?

We're not seeing it. Since the 1st of January, the industrial bookings have been very encouraging. The economists predict one thing and it seems like the economy does something else. So I don't think anybody expected the GDP growth that we saw in the third quarter or were projecting it earlier. And so I think we're just steady as she goes, as I said earlier. We're taking it one month at a time.

And so if there is weakness in industrial that you're seeing right now, it is on the Dodge side, whereas legacy, I think you said, is more stable or was up year over year while Dodge was down?

Well, the legacy business is more like the RBC aircraft business in that it's servicing OEMs principally on an 80-20 basis. And so there's long-term POs and there's contracts and there's all that sort of thing that ties it together. And so it's much easier to forecast it.

Got it. And just one last one. As you look across the M&A landscape, are you seeing more industrial deals than Arrow? And what are the relative sizes of deals that you see across the two segments?

Yeah. I'd say the industrial sizes are in the $100 to $200 million kind of range is what we've been seeing coming by. And some of the aerospace businesses are larger than that. And they sort of come and go. We're a little picky about exactly what we want in our space. And so, you know, I think during the third quarter, we worked very hard on one and sort of missed the grade. So we're all recovering from disappointment this quarter and looking at other potentials.

And just to clarify, those are deal sizes or revenue?

Revenue.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Seth Weber with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your questions.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Sorry to just go back to the guidance question again for the fourth quarter. I guess to have industrial revenue up a few, you know, 100 basis points sequentially. That implies, you know, on a year-over-year down kind of mid to high single digits. I'm just trying to tie that together with your commentary about the January bookings being better. So would you expect, you know, 2025 industrial to be, you know, less negative than the down kind of mid to high single digits that it It's kind of implied by your fourth quarter industrial revenue, if that makes sense. Or is that how you start the year anyway?

Yeah, I think the fourth quarter industrial revenue, as we said, will be up a few percentage points based on what we're seeing so far in the quarter. There doesn't seem to be much difference about that. I think the – is the issue the aerospace project?

I'm sorry, I'm trying to just discern. I think you're talking sequential improvement, but I'm just trying to think of that on a year-over-year basis. I think sequentially up a few percent translates down, I don't know, 7% or 8% year-to-year, or is that not the right math?

That seems very high. I don't suspect that it's going to be down 7% to 8% year-over-year.

Okay. All right. I'm a year-over-year guy, too, Seth. And yeah, I think the industrial revenue year-over-year is going to be up a few percent in the fourth quarter.

Okay. All right. That's super helpful clarification. Thank you. And I just wanted to go back to the comment around the Mexico capacity ad. Can you just – I apologize if you've talked about this more in the past, but Is that replacing, you know, are you moving capacity from high-cost markets to Mexico, or is that just incremental capacity, and what will that be serving? Thank you.

Yeah, well, we just completed, we expect to complete this quarter a plant in Tecate that's about 100,000 square feet, and that will be pretty much earmarked for the Dodge business And so we will move manufacturing from the U.S. to Mexico for Dodge for the purpose of opening floor space in one of the Dodge plants where we have new manufacturing equipment arriving and no floor space to accommodate it. So we're sort of playing musical chairs there with one of the Dodge plants. And so the new equipment that's arriving in the plant will be for increased volume on product lines that are very successful but constrained by production. So that's the first phase of Tecate. That's our first phase. Our second phase will probably be for lower-cost manufacturing of some of the Dodge products and maybe some insuring, reshoring some of the supply chain.

That makes super helpful. That makes total sense. Thank you for clarifying that stuff for me.

Yep.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Pete Osterlund with Truist Securities. Please proceed with your questions.

Hey, good morning. I'm on for a much more this morning. Thanks for taking our questions. First, just had a question on raw materials. We've heard about some tightness in the bearings market stemming from lack of material availability and just wondering if you are seeing anything like that, whether any challenges procuring materials or any additional cost inflation, just any color there would be helpful.

Yeah, well, I mean, in aerospace and defense, materials are more exotic than not and difficult to get. If your planning horizon is short, you're going to be buying it from third parties at extremely higher prices. So your planning horizon needs to be long, and long is probably 60 weeks. And, you know, the special grades of stainless steel are, and that's really the only way to acquire them. And overall, I think in the aerospace business, from what we hear from customers that keep coming to us, is that bearings are really hard to get. And so that's kind of music to our ears. And that's part of the reason why we're generating so many contracts with people to supply them over a longer term. Unfortunately, it takes us a long time to get that material. So to turn that into revenues, isn't the most immediate thing, but it turns into revenues over time. And very often customers are willing to pay a premium if you have to buy steel at a, you know, from a third party at a high price and are more than willing to absorb the price difference. So I would say there's a lot going on in our business right now with regard to supply chain.

Very helpful. Thank you. And then just turning to industrial, what are you seeing within your distribution sales channels in terms of customer inventories? Are they generally right-sized, or have you seen any signs of destocking activity there?

Yeah, I mean, we haven't seen much destocking. You know, as far as I can tell, they're right-sized to a little bit heavy, but not You know, they're not overwhelmingly heavy.

Great. I'll leave it there. Thanks for taking the questions. Yep.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi. Good morning. This is Vivek Srivastava on for Joe. Thank you for the question. My first question is on the industrial market. Just if you can provide some color on how the trends are diverging between original equipment versus aftermarket sales growth and potentially how is January trending, that would be helpful. On the industrial side or? On the industrial side, correct.

Yeah, let us refer to our charts here for a minute.

Yeah, I don't think we would have that on how we're trending right now, right, because we'd have to break that information down, how much is coming in through distribution, how much is coming in through OEM. But, Rob, I think you have the industrial OEM and the industrial distribution.

Yeah, so the industrial OEM for Q3 was $79.4 million. effectively flat year over year. And the industrial distribution was 165.3 million. So again, very close to last year. So it's not as if one was diverging, if that's your question.

Yeah, no, that's definitely helpful. Thank you. and then uh i noticed on on the food and beverage market you say you said it's going on well for you guys and we are hearing uh from from your peers that it was actually one of the softer markets for them so just maybe wanted to zoom in on this end market and uh why you are seeing uh better trends than some of your peers is it more market share driven or is it a product offering

Yeah, I mean, I don't think we can speak for our peers, but I would say that we spend a, it's a priority for us, so we direct a lot of attention to that market, both in terms of calling on customers, identifying problems, problem solving, product development, new product introduction. So, you know, it's It's active for us. It performs well for us, but we have to work at it. It's not on autopilot. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Pete Skibitsky with Alembic Global. Please proceed with your questions.

Yeah, thanks, guys. A couple of questions on margins. One of them, gross margin, it sounds like if you kind of hit your mark for the fourth quarter gross margin, it sounds like, you know, for the full year fiscal 24, you'd be up, you know, at least, you know, maybe one and a half points, call it, you know, roughly. So I'm just wondering for fiscal 25, you know, do you see the ability to move it up another point or so on the gross margin line?

Well, you know, I think it's very encouraging. I don't think that the margins on the industrial side are going to do much better. Maybe they will, but there's not a major mechanism there that's going to drive that that I can see. On the aircraft side, there is a major mechanism in that as volume increases, we still haven't gotten to the 2019 level of absorption yet. in our aircraft plants. So our aircraft margins are still trailing what we measured in 2019. So as the volume increases in most of the aircraft plants, the volume is increasing. And it's increasing at a rate that, as we talked about, getting the labor and getting the materials and getting the planning straight is challenging. So that is leading to better absorptions, and better absorptions obviously lead to better margins. So we'll see that mechanism improve our performance next year and this quarter.

Okay, got it. And that just, Rob, I just want to understand one thing. I think when you talk about industrial in the third quarter, I think you were talking about EBIT of around 42 million. And so I'm just trying to understand.

Yeah, I was talking gross margin. I was talking gross margin percentage. So 42.8%.

Yeah. Got it. Got it. Okay. Not a problem. Thanks, guys. Sure.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. And I would like to turn the call back over to Dr. Hartnett for closing remarks.

Okay. Well, I think that completes our conference call for the third quarter. Appreciate everybody's questions and participation. And we look forward to talking to you again in May. Good day.

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.