Regal Beloit (RBC) Q2 Earnings And Revenues Miss Estimates

Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE:RBC) reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter 2019 results, missing earnings estimates by 6.8%. Also, the company’s sales lagged estimates by 3.9%.

Regal Beloit’s adjusted earnings were $1.52 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.63. Further, the bottom line declined from $1.60 per share reported a year ago.

Core Sales, Divestments and Forex Woes Affect Revenues

In the reported quarter, Regal Beloit’s net sales were $873.7 million, decreasing 9% year over year. Adverse impact of 2.2% from organic sales, 5.3% from divestments and 1.5% from forex woes hurt results.

The top line lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $909 million.

Excluding the impact of divested business, the company’s adjusted net sales were $868.1 million, down 3.7% year over year.

The company reports results under three segments — Climate Solutions, Commercial and Industrial Systems and Power Transmission Solutions. The quarterly segmental results are briefly discussed below:

Revenues from Climate Solutions totaled $267.9 million, decreasing 3.4% year over year. Organic sales jumped 2.3% on account of positive impact from the FER pre-buy and residential HVAC growth. Forex woes and divestments had an adverse impact of 0.7% and 5%, respectively.

Commercial and Industrial Systems’ revenues were $401.8 million, down 14.3% year over year. Organic sales in the reported quarter decreased 5.5% while divestments resulted in adverse impact of 6.6%. Also, forex woes hurt sales by 2.2%.

Power Transmission Solutions’ revenues were $204 million, down 4.4% year over year. Organic sales declined 0.8% on account of softness in North American industrial end markets and de-stocking of inventory. Forex woes and divestments had an adverse impact of 1% and 2.6%, respectively.

Margins

In the reported quarter, Regal Beloit’s cost of sales decreased 10.2% year over year to $639.7 million. It represented 73.2% of net sales compared with 74.2% in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin increased 100 basis points (bps) to 26.8%. Operating expenses of $138 million decreased 6.6% and represented 15.8% of net sales.

Adjusted operating profit was $95.4 million, down 5.4% year over year, while margin dropped 20 bps to 11%. Adjusted effective tax rate in the quarter was 20.4% compared with 21.4% in the year-ago quarter.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

Exiting the second quarter of 2019, Regal Beloit had cash and cash equivalents of $291.3 million, reflecting 17.2% growth from the figure reported on Dec 29, 2018. Long-term debt decreased 6.4%, to $1,222.7 million.

Notably, the company repaid $0.1 million of debt during the quarter.

In the second quarter, Regal Beloit generated net cash of $112.3 million from operating activities, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 10.3%. The company raised capital investment for purchasing property, plant and equipment by 69.8% over the year-ago figure to $36 million. Free cash flow was $76.3 million compared with cash flow of $80.6 million in the year-ago quarter.

During the quarter, the company paid dividends totaling $12 million to shareholders and repurchased shares worth $55.9 million.

Outlook

For 2019, adjusted earnings per share are expected to be $5.50-$5.80, lower from $6.15-$6.55 guided earlier.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Regal Beloit currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks from the Zacks Industrial Products sector are Roper Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:ROP) , Dover Corporation (NYSE:DOV) and Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) . All these companies carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Roper delivered average positive earnings surprise of 6.92% in the trailing four quarters.

Dover pulled off average positive earnings surprise of 6.91% in the trailing four quarters.

Tetra Tech delivered average positive earnings surprise of 8.72% in the trailing four quarters.

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