AMETEK, Inc. (AME) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Next up, we have AMETEK. AMETEK is a leading manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices. The company's product portfolio includes test and measurement, metrology and precision motion control equipment, in addition to aftermarket services. Joining us today from AMETEK is Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations, Kevin Coleman. Kevin was named Treasurer in November 2021. He has also previously held the role of Director of Corporate Strategy and Development at AMETEK during his more than 20-year career with the company. AMETEK has 230 million shares outstanding. Stock trades around $142, $33 billion market cap, $2 billion of net debt, $35 billion total enterprise value. Kevin, thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. I don't know if there's any introductory remarks, or we can launch right into the fireside chat.

Yes. Brett, great to be here, and thanks for hosting me. And yes, happy to chat. I mean, I have some slides, but I'm happy to jump into Q&A as well, if that's more relevant.

Yes, We can run through a handful of slides and then proceed.

Okay. All right. Great. So yes, thanks for the introduction. I will progress through here as -- so who is AMETEK? As Brett noted, we're a global high-tech industrial solutions provider, about $6 billion of revenue, serve a very diverse set of niche markets and applications. So you hear us talk a lot about niches, right? We find that there's riches and niches. We are leaders in these niche markets. We have high levels of technology, which we invest in and have leading market share positions in these niches. And there's plenty of opportunities for us to continue to grow and expand in these. So it's a really proven model. Very experienced management team as well, the operating structure of AMETEK, our operating model and a growth model, which we show on the right, is very -- again, very proven, very successful and allows us to navigate through challenging economic cycles. And certainly, we're experiencing one now more on the supply chain inflation side than growth. But nonetheless, we're able to manage that very, very efficiently. Two, we have 2 reportable segments. This gives you a visual of the size in the markets that these reportable segments serve. The one point to note here, which stands out, hopefully, is the levels of operating profitability in both segments, a very high level for, again, a multi-industry company, 26%. So we feel very proud of that. Again, niches in high-growth markets. This is a visual of the diversity we have across our businesses. We serve essentially all markets. The one area or maybe a couple we don't serve is auto. We don't have content on automobiles, and same thing with commercial or residential construction, aren't markets we really serve. And one really -- Brett, you've known us for a long time and others at Gabelli as well. And what's really happened in the last 6, 7 years is a migration of the portfolio into higher growth, less cyclical markets. And this slide just shows some of those transitions and migrations. And we're doing it incrementally, right? One of the big things we talk about is we don't need to take a pause for 2 years, 3 years and divest 1/3 of the company and then figure it out, right? We're making these incremental improvements in the portfolio while we're generating mid-teens earnings per share growth and high levels of free cash flow. And that's the way the AMETEK model has worked over many, many decades, and we want to continue to migrate into these attractive market areas and niches. And the model has been successful, right? I think the stock chart certainly speaks for itself, but underlying that is high levels of talent, management team, consistency there, high levels of cash flow, niche business leaders. So we feel really good about how we're positioned. And despite a lot of the macro challenges, which I'm sure we'll talk about, we feel pretty good as we enter this year. And I won't touch much here. Last year's performance was tremendous across essentially all metrics, 15% growth in EBITDA, 17% growth in EPS, low double-digit organic sales growth, high levels of backlog. So we feel good as we flip the calendar to '23. And then I'll just leave this slide up here, just again, feel very, very well positioned for long-term growth. So with that, Brett, I'll turn it to you.

Excellent. Thank you, Kevin.

And yes, I wanted to start with the AMETEK operating model. You all, as you noted, navigated very well through the external market challenges last year, supply constraints, input cost inflation. What is the operating structure that enables your teams and business units to rapidly adapt to changing market conditions?

Sure. Yes. It's one of -- it's a decentralized operating structure or distributed is kind of the term we use internally, and that we put the P&L leadership at that niche business level. And just to give it some context, we have 42 business units today. In each of those 42 business units, has a General Manager, and that individual is responsible for the global P&L for that particular business. And it's a niche. It's got a number of core technologies, and it often serves many different end markets. So those general managers and their teams are, again, very, very strong operators, very knowledgeable, typically engineers by background, so they have a technical expertise as well. And so that model, and then when you roll that up through a divisional structure and then ultimately, up to our executive office, provides the ability to be nimble to adjust real-time and to react at the business level as opposed to saying at a higher level, "Hey, Europe is getting weaker. We all should do something." It allows the businesses to very custom-develop the right playbook for their business, given the current conditions. That being said, right, we do have a lot of executive office oversight of the businesses. Our executive offices have all been P&L leaders, and they're very experienced in navigating challenging environments. So there is a continuous information flow and a stream to allow information to flow up from the business units and then information to flow top-down as well. And we get involved, right? The business leaders, our group presidents get involved where there's an issue. And supply chain last year was a really good example. We have a global supply chain team of 35 to 40 individuals that work closely with those 42 business units. And they help them navigate real-time the supply chain challenges, and we leverage AMETEK's scale and geographic reach to help us navigate through those types of challenges. So it's a combination of a really good operating infrastructure that's been built up over decades, combined with the nimbleness of a decentralized business unit-led P&L model.

Terrific. In line with historical practice, you had a number of internal promotions last year, the VP of Operational Excellence, GM of Power Instruments division, VP Commercial Excellence. I guess, in general, Kevin, can you elaborate on AMETEK's approach to developing that next generation of leaders internally?

Yes. Yes. It's a really critical part of tying into the prior question, right? To run successfully a model like we have requires a significant focus on talent development because you have to continue. And plus, right, the levels of growth we generate, right? We grow high single digits top line growth and mid-teens earnings per share growth, right? There's a continuous level of growth that you need to invest in the next level of talent. And our CEO, Dave Zapico, who often get asked the question, where does he spend his time, right? What are the things he's focused on? And one of the areas he says he spends most -- a good portion of his time on is talent development, in all aspects of talent development. So that does speak to the importance of it. So yes, the hope is we promote from within. We have very specific programs that are tailored to individuals around their development opportunities. As people move up through the company and take on different functional levels of expertise, we hope to move them into P&L leadership roles. Now what we've determined is to make a move from a functional leader to run one of the 42 P&Ls is often a big step. So what we have now are what we call mini P&Ls. So these are smaller, maybe it's an engineering and operations P&L that's carved out of the larger business unit P&L. And it gives individuals a chance to manage a profit and loss statement week-to-week, month-to-month, year-to-year to really get a feel for how that's done, right, and learn how to fly. So that's something we've evolved over the last 6, 7 years under Dave Zapico's watch. And it's really provided opportunities to people earlier in their career. So that's one level of talent development. And then we have another really, I think, a fairly unique or interesting approach. We have something called the AMETEK University. In fact, we just -- today is the last day of the university. We do these every 9 to 12 months. We bring in 75 to 80, I'll say, newer employees or high potential employees into a 3-day all-immersive kind of university setting, where they hear from AMETEK leaders across the company about all elements of AMETEK, our growth model, our culture, the tools we have on the operating side, the financial systems, the IT systems. And it's evolved again in the last 6 to 7 years. Each year, we add something, an element to it, but it's a tremendous way for people to get integrated into AMETEK, into our model. And the feedback we've gotten has been tremendous. So that's just one sliver of many different things we do to help on the talent side.

Terrific. Moving the discussions to portfolio. One area I want to talk about was your automation platform. You mentioned some in your introductory comments. That's continued to grow nicely, even as it comes up against some more difficult comparisons. Can you help us think about how large that portion of the portfolio is for AMETEK today and the runway for growth, I guess, both in North America and internationally there?

Yes, of course. So yes, automation is about 10% of our total sales, pretty balanced between U.S. and rest of world. What we provide in automation, think of it as more discrete automation. And we're providing components, subassemblies and really motion control solutions that are utilized again at a discrete application level. And automation is "the market", if you will, or the technology. But the end markets it serves is equally diverse. It's medical applications like medical instruments. If you can imagine, the footprints in the medical instrument is very small. It has to be very low noise, generate low levels of heat. So there's a lot of customization. Semiconductor equipment, we saw automation components and solutions into semiconductor equipment to help position and move different elements of the equipment. Food and beverage, transportation, logistics, very, very diverse set of end markets. And we're -- again, we're a niche provider. What we provide is custom. We work with the customers and their engineering teams to develop a solution for them, good high-margin business. And the ability for them to grow and scale is both organic and inorganic. They have some number of good acquisition targets. But also, they can continue to add capabilities to their motion control portfolio through internal development. And they're seeing that, that's opening up new applications for them. So growth there in the last -- even through the worst of COVID, that was one of the better growers. Leading up to COVID, again, that was one of our better growers and probably going to be a point, 2 points above broader AMETEK for a period of time. There's a lot of powerful themes attached to automation, as we all know. And I think we're seeing some benefits from that.

Excellent. Maybe on those themes, are there other parts of the portfolio beyond automation that are benefiting from general industrial plant reshoring, particularly in North America?

There are, yes. So I think the direct benefit to AMETEK probably isn't that specific, right? And we're not involved in the build-out and the reshoring specifically. But indirectly, yes. So if you build out a factory and you need to have high-end quality control and metrology instruments to measure the QC under components or parts, we play in that space. We have a lot in the way of power instrumentation that's utilized within the distribution and the use of the power within an operation. So there's elements there. Depending on the application, we have different types of vision systems that are used in production environments to help scan objects during production. So there are different elements we benefit from, maybe second level versus first. So I think that's happening. And I think there's a lot of things, right? We may get to other ones. I think the whole energy transition and some of the renewable investments. We have businesses that have capability of providing components specifically into those applications, and that's seen high levels of growth. A lot of our businesses internally are developing and expanding their technology capability to serve that market. So it's part of the reason we think there's continued strong economic demand, despite a lot of the macro uncertainties, because I think some of these trends are pretty important.

Terrific. Yes. Could we talk a little bit more about some of those new energy applications and the work you're doing in internal product development, plus the capabilities you've added through M&A for that as well as carbon reduction?

Sure, sure. Yes. So we do view it through both lenses, right, organic and inorganic. And I mean, I'll speak because it's fairly recent, but one of the acquisitions we did late last year called RTDS, provides simulation solutions that are utilized by utility providers and other energy providers as they develop and build out their renewable energy capacity and production capacity. There is a lot of testing that's required in simulation as to how that energy is being developed, transmitted and how it all works together in the broader ecosystem. And some of it's regulatory driven. Some of it's efficiency driven. But that business has seen tremendous growth in the last 4 to 5 years. And as we did our diligence, we got very comfortable that there is a long tail to their growth, given the unique position they provide. So yes, we feel really good, and that's one, I'll say, inorganic type initiative. Organically, I noted automation. They have a lot of expanding opportunities to serve some of the renewable space. And just a simple example, but one that speaks to the importance, is think about solar panels and the need to generate higher levels of output from these solar panels. The need for them to be able to pivot with the sun requires pretty precise automation capabilities to allow those to happen at scale. And so that business provides motion control solutions into that market, as an example. Things like natural gas is an area we have historically had investments. And products in that continues to expand, and there's new opportunities that are opening up. And even the fossil fuel transition, I think the traditional oil and gas companies and energy companies are all investing in that transition. And as they're doing that, we're seeing incremental opportunities. They're building out new capacity. They're trying to better measure the output and the emissions from that. So we're going to benefit from that transition away from fossil fuels in the need to be better environmental stewards, but also to the renewable space as well.

Excellent. And we've heard -- we've had some questions from the audience today on next-generation nuclear technology. Can you remind us of the role that your Zygo business plays in that market?

Yes. Yes, exactly. So Zygo is a really good business, probably acquired it 7, 8 years ago, high-end, very high-end optics, optical lenses. So they manufacture these lenses. I would say, their end markets are much broader than nuclear. That's just one small element of it. There are a lot of research applications, space, aerospace, semiconductor applications. So yes, they're really well positioned. And another business we acquired prior to RTDS was called Navitar. And Navitar is an excellent fit for Zygo. It's a very complementary set of optical technologies that really rounds up their portfolio. So yes, I'd say, nuclear is relatively small for Zygo, but it's one of many markets they serve.

Terrific. We talked about how AMETEK navigated through some of the challenges in the past [ 3 ] years. You were still able to complete 8 acquisitions in the past 24 months.

Right.

As you look forward, how does the M&A landscape look today? Are sellers still willing to bring assets to market? I know you're seeing less competition from private equity competitors.

We are. Yes. You noted the prior 24 months was very, very active. The level of deal flow, especially last year, it was very solid, very good. I think it's much the same right now. I don't think there's been major changes in the deal flow, whether it's the quantity of deals or the quality pricing and competitive dynamics, I'll speak to that. I'd say, competition is largely the same. I think the one change that's happened with the rising interest rate environment is private equity is much more challenged right now to be as competitive as they were or as aggressive may be is the word on pricing. The economic models for them don't work when you're paying 7%-, 8%-plus interest rates. So they had a period of time there where they significantly benefited from the free money dynamics. So they're a little bit more limited, still active, but not to the same extent. Other than that, I'd say, competitive -- competition is similar. And as a result, pricing is moderately better than it was 12 months ago. So maybe a turn less than it was. So it's very -- it's a good environment to get deals done in. Sellers are still engaged and, in many cases, eager to sell. AMETEK is a good buyer for them. AMETEK has a strategic company, provides them the best of both worlds and that we allow their business and their brand to continue on, right? We want to help them grow. But we then provide AMETEK's oversight infrastructure to help them accelerate growth, so that we've often find private sellers find that combination very attractive to them. And so we end up being a very good home for a lot of these businesses.

Great. And both from an acquisition and internal development standpoint, can you discuss the increasing intelligence you've been incorporating into AMETEK's hardware offerings?

Sure. Yes. I mean, one thing we get the question around is software, right, shift to software, who want to become more of a SaaS provider. And the one thing we try to make sure people understand is, if you look at AMETEK's businesses and our products, especially within our Electronic Instruments Group, which I -- when I showed the slide earlier, it's about 2/3 of our revenue, think about those businesses. What they do is provide tests, measurement, analytical instrumentation. So they measure a variable within some form of process. And the measurement is really based on an optical device, camera, some sort of vision system. But really, the value is often the analytics, right? It's the algorithms. It's the back end. It's the software that's embedded and developed, embedded in these products. So most of our products within EIG have software as kind of the key differentiator embedded in it. So we do invest quite a bit. We have a significant number of software engineers across the company. So that is something we're looking to continue to build out. Embedded within the products more recently is kind of the broader IoT space. And I know it's often an overused term, but there's an ability to utilize IoT themes across many of these businesses to help better monetize the asset, long-term recurring revenue stream. So a number of our businesses are seeing very good success as they kind of start to pivot to that model. And then more broadly, when it comes to software, we're not opposed to acquiring software companies. We would be very happy to do it. I don't think we're -- we're not going to pivot ourselves to become a SaaS provider, right? That's just not right. We want to find businesses where there's value we can add, where there's a synergy with what we're doing. But there's opportunities on the software side. We've acquired a few over the years, typically small-ish, and we'll look to continue to do that. But ideally, if we can find really good technology businesses that have elements of software embedded in them, that's the best of both worlds for us.

Great. Maybe on the organic investment and CapEx front, Kevin, can you discuss some of the investments you're making to add incremental capacity to support AMETEK's in-region manufacturing strategy?

Sure. Yes. So we don't need much. I mean, I think there's plenty of capacity across AMETEK and our infrastructure today. So there's really no plans to add incremental capacity. What I would say is if you look at places where, over the last 5 years, we've added some capacity, have been in what we kind of call our shared manufacturing campuses, and these shared campuses allow any of our businesses, if they desire, to shift a production line or set up a production capacity in a region. In these facilities, we have 2 in Eastern Europe, 2 in Mexico and then 2 -- I'm sorry, 3 in Asia, broader Asia. And these are -- think of them as AMETEK production facilities, but there's a few businesses that tend to have the biggest footprint. But there's plenty of capacity in those facilities if we wanted to scale production. And within any of our factories, we're not a heavy, vertically integrated manufacturing environment, for those who have seen any of our sites. We do a lot in the way of research, technology, build out demo centers and then do final assembly and test where we add our value to the product. So we're not vertically integrated. So it's not a large production footprint needed. Even as we scale, we don't need to add a lot.

Great. And can you remind us of maybe the rough portion of the portfolio exposed to the aerospace and defense markets, some of the major programs you're on there and your outlook going forward?

Yes. Aerospace & Defense combined is our largest end market. It's about 19 -- 18% of sales; Defense is 10% to 11%; and then 7% to 8%, I'll say, Commercial Aero, including bizjet. So a nice healthy balance. Within that 18%, it's roughly half OEM products and half aftermarket. So again, an attractive and healthy mix. This year, we expect it to be our fastest-growing market. We're thinking something in the mid, maybe more high single-digit range, probably led by Commercial, with Defense just a little bit lighter than Commercial, but both pretty good. Our products, again, think of instrumentation that measures a process variable within an aircraft or defense application. Think thermal management systems, so things to help cool electronics or key electronics as needed. Power distribution units is another element of what we do. So those are -- and some also avionics products. So those are kind of the broad buckets. There's a few others. And we're fairly agnostic when it comes to platforms, and that's by design. So if you look at the Commercial side, we have content on essentially all platforms, legacy platforms as well as all the new or the next-gen platforms now being built out. Same thing on the Defense side. We're very agnostic. We have content on most fighter jets, ground vehicles, naval fleet. So we play in a lot of spaces, don't have outsized reliance on any specific platform where, if you heard in the news, something changed with that platform, we would see an outsized impact. It's really nothing outsized.

Great. And your outlook for your exposure to the semiconductor market remains fairly positive. Can you help us understand the specific verticals within that market that AMETEK plays in, that's enabling you to maneuver around some of the broader challenges and portions of that?

Of course. Right. So for us, we try to describe semiconductor because it's slightly different maybe than others in that. About half of our -- we have 6% of sales. So again, pretty diverse. 6% of sales is in the semiconductor space. About half of that is tied to, I'll say, front-end or early-stage semiconductor research, next-generation capabilities or chip designs, let's say. So we have very high-end businesses like CAMECA as one business that provides these high-end, multimillion dollar instruments into universities, laboratories, large corporates. So that's about half. And that tends to move somewhat countercyclical to the other part, which sells components, measurement instruments into the semiconductor OEM market. So the fabrication equipment market. And I'd say, both markets, we feel, are going to be okay. We don't have any major exposures into one platform. On the front-end research side, again, that tends to be a long-cycle business. The nature of what they do, the products are in high demand. There's a long lead time attached to them. So they have a very, very strong backlog that provides us good visibility. And then on the OEM equipment side, it's generally okay. There's some noise certainly around the growth rates and maybe what's happening with China. But one area that we're seeing nice growth is in the broader EUV space, extreme ultraviolet. And for those of you who know that space, there's only a small number of providers. The demand is very strong. So we have some pretty good content there that's going to also help drive some good growth this year.

Excellent. With that, I think we're bumping up against time. So Kevin, thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. We really appreciate it.

Great. Thanks, everybody, for your time. And Brett, always great catching up.

Thank you.

All the best. Bye.