Atkore Inc. (NYSE:ATKR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Johnson: Exactly. And I would add that the global mega projects are also part of that. And on Slide 10, Andy, you can go through, I think we did a couple other things here I just wanted to mention. We did outline kind of FY ’23 solar credits, so we can isolate that. And then, we gave you what we think the solar credit will add to our bottom-line for FY ’24. So, we would look at that as more of like a normal year-over-year as the solar credits around. So, you can model that in FY ’25 or so on. But we do still have quite a bit of investment this year. And again, that’s highlighted in digital and there are additional two regional service centers, so on and so forth.

Andy Kaplowitz: Appreciate all the color, guys.

David Johnson: Thank you, Andy.

Bill Waltz: Thank you, Andy.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Chris Dankert from Loop Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Chris Dankert: Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions.

Bill Waltz: Good morning, Chris.

David Johnson: Good morning, Chris.

Chris Dankert: Just to pull the thread on pricing a little bit more perhaps, thanks for the color and again, just on what the expectation is on ’24 and kind of the lingering impact on ’25. Just when we’re thinking about the actions taken to kind of fully reset price cost to that the $585 million you’ve talked about in the past, should we assume that those actions are fully complete this year and just kind of the rollover impact that ripples into ’25?

David Johnson: Probably — I would say no. So, of our midpoint of our guide for price cost this year, we said $250 million, essentially, and we did the calculation that about $175 million of that was already baked in whenever you figured that you’d exit the year lower than we began FY ’23. So that would suggest there’s still a little bit more normalization. There’s really no action. It’s just the amount — the way that the market over time goes between volume and price and opportunities and what have you. We’ve seen a general decline down. Probably a lot slower than we probably would have said three years ago, but…

Bill Waltz: Yeah, which is a good thing from extra capital that would be deployed or stock buyback. And then also Chris, if your question was more ’25 versus ’24, our current thought process is this would mostly normalize in ’24. Now, if you think about it, if we gave slightly more price, let’s say, in April of ’24, from a comp perspective at the beginning of ’25, you’re still going to have some discussion about it. And that’s where I would just go back and say, we’ve been, in my personal opinion, amazing to be able to look out three years, plug in $18 EPS, explain pricing going down, explain what we’re driving, and basically then on every forecast and/or exceed most things. So, right now, everything looks to be playing out as we expect it to be. But there will be a little bit of price discussion even in next fiscal year.

Chris Dankert: No, thanks for the color. And again, thank you for just the level of candidness you’ve kind of approached that whole price cost conversation with. And when I think about growth into ’24 here, how do we think about the impact of the large mega projects and kind of what’s assumed in the guides? Should we be kind of assuming a stronger than seasonal back half just given the timing of some of these projects?

Bill Waltz: Yeah, I’ll jump right into that. Yes, there’s a lot of projects without getting too specific on what customer, but we have, I mean, to compliment our team here, just an amazing job on relationships, seeing the value that we bring to them, brand names that are global, and in this case, they want global providers. So, whether it’s Europe, the United States, Middle East, wherever it is, we’re hooked in. But at this stage, it’s really with some of these large projects that we’re real close on is getting the [PO] (ph), not that we don’t have pick a number, don’t lock in on this number, but $100 million of ongoing global mega projects to earlier questions, the data centers and chip manufacturers are, in my opinion, exporting, or at least for us they are. But you will see a much larger impact in the second half of this upcoming fiscal year from a year-over-year perspective.

Chris Dankert: Got it. Makes sense. Well, thanks so much for the color and best of luck on ’24 here, fellows.

Bill Waltz: Thanks for that, Chris.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Chris Moore from CJS Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Chris Moore: Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking a couple of questions. Maybe…

Bill Waltz: Good morning.

Chris Moore: …if we just get a little deeper — good morning, into the CapEx, going to be elevated again in fiscal ’24, talking about in the $200 million range. Can you maybe talk a little bit further in terms of what you’ll be focusing there?

Bill Waltz: Yeah, David…

David Johnson: Yeah, go ahead. I mean, essentially, we still have some digital investments we’re making. I think that they’re adding, and you can see some of our customers are pretty excited for some of our new capabilities. Our two new warehouses or regional service centers will be another piece of the CapEx. And then there is a little bit obviously the support to growth of mega projects and what have you, you do need to add some capacity in those areas. So I think generally speaking, Chris, it would be [indiscernible].